While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Nov 5
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UK Parliament elects Labour lawmaker Lindsay Hoyle as Speaker
British lawmakers elected Labour's Lindsay Hoyle as Speaker on Monday to take on the role of refereeing the next parliamentary instalment of the protracted struggle over Brexit.
In the three years since Britain voted to leave the European Union, the Speaker has played an increasingly influential role in the process of parliamentarians debating the rights and wrongs of Brexit and passing the laws needed to implement it.
The Speaker is the arbiter of procedural disputes in the House of Commons, parliament's lower chamber, and has the power to decide which challenges to the Conservative government's plans are allowed to proceed.
Former Speaker John Bercow, who stood down last week after 10 years, was accused of breaking convention and favouring those who wanted to stop the government's exit plans. But he was feted by others who saw him as empowering them to challenge and scrutinise the executive.
Ousted McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook to keep $50 million of stock awards
Former McDonald's Corp Chief Executive Officer Stephen Easterbrook, who was fired for having a relationship with an employee, was allowed to keep stock awards worth more than US$37 million (S$50 million) as well as US$675,000 severance and health insurance benefits.
Easterbrook, 52, will get to keep unvested stock options worth about US$23.5 million and possibly benefit from grants of restricted shares tied to the company's performance that are worth roughly US$13.8 million at their target payouts, according to calculations by Bloomberg.
He is also eligible for a pro-rated bonus for his work in fiscal 2019.
Xi reiterates support for Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam in Shanghai meeting
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday told embattled Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam the central government has a high degree of confidence in her and fully recognises the work by her and her team, state media Xinhua News Agency reported.
Stopping violence and chaos, and restoring order continue to be the top priorities for Hong Kong, Xi told Lam in Shanghai, where she was attending the second China International Import Expo.
The Chinese president said the Hong Kong government had done a lot of hard work to control the situation and improve sentiment in society, the state news agency reported. China has repeatedly said it supports Lam and her government.
Microsoft Japan says four-day work week boosted staff productivity by 40 per cent
After spending August experimenting with a four-day work week in a country notorious for overwork, Microsoft Japan said sales per employee rose 40 per cent compared with the same month last year.
The "Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019" saw full-time employees take off five consecutive Fridays in August with pay, as well as shortening meetings to a maximum of 30 minutes and encouraging online chats over face-to-face ones.
Among workers responding to a survey about the programme, 92 per cent said they were pleased with the four-day week, the software maker's Japan affiliate said in a report on its website on Oct 31.
Facebook unveils new company logo
Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp, and wants everybody to know it.
The social media giant has created new corporate branding and a new logo for Facebook to distinguish Facebook the corporation from the company's popular social network with the same name.
The new logo - which is the word "Facebook" spelled out versus the white or blue "f" Facebook has used for years - will appear in places like the login screen and the settings page of Instagram and WhatsApp.
