Technology

Y Combinator said that it may make its Summer 2020 accelerator program entirely virtual, proving that even the worldpremiere accelerator isn&t immune to having its business reshaped by the novel coronavirus spreading across the world.

YC has already made its Demo Day for its Winter 2020 cohort an online only affair. The accelerator also accelerated the timeline for the Demo Day, which will be held tomorrow — a week early.

Beyond that, the accelerator said it wanted entrepreneurs to know that the summer batch will take place, and that its online application is open now.

&Additionally, depending on the circumstances this summer, some or all of the batch may take place remotely over video,& Y Combinator said in a statement.

&This is a unique worldwide crisis, but it will not lessen the extraordinary opportunities for terrific founders to start and build epic companies,& the accelerator wrote. &We look forward to reading all your applications and wish good luck and good health to everyone.&

In the past, Y Combinator had required that all participating startups relocate to the Bay Area — something that many entrepreneurs considered to be a strain on their business. And while the accelerator hasn&t had problems finding strong companies willing to take the leap, the virtual option may enable even more entrepreneurs to reap the benefits of the acceleratornetwork of experts and mentorship.

The Federal Reserveannounced today that it has slashed interest rates as part of an effort to stabilize the economy following a rocky week on the financial markets.

The bankBoard of Governors cut interest rates to near-zero, the second time that the central bank has cut interest rates in as many weeks. The Federal Reserve also launched a $700 billion quantitative easing (QE) program to help prevent a further economic downturn sparked by the spread of coronavirus.

A statement said the bank will maintain its interest rates &until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals.&The combination of interest rate cut and extensive QE will all but exhaust the Fedstimulus options going forward.

Stock futures for the major market indices are currently down about 5% Sunday evening.

It comes after a painful week across U.S. financial markets. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped by just shy of 10% in the worst day of trading since 1987. A day later, the markets sharply rebounded.

President Trump also said on Sunday from the White House that Americans should &relax& and stop hoarding goods from stores, which are facing shortages as supply chains react to massively increased demand. Major online retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target have reportedly run out of basic household goods, like toilet paper.

There are more than 142,000 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus strain globally, according to the World Health Organizationlatest situation report on Saturday, with some 3,300 confirmed cases in the United States.

The global pandemic has resulted in several countries, including Denmark and Poland, to shut their borders, and entire countries, like Italy and Spain, to go on lockdown, restricting the movements of its citizens in an effort to limit the spread of the virus.

Earlier on Sunday, U.K. authorities advised all British nationals and residents against all but essential travel to the United States.

News of the travel advisory came shortly before new U.S. travel restrictions are set to take effect on Monday night, effectively banning all travelers from Europe for 30 days — sparing only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. The Trump administration later extended the ban to the U.K. and Ireland following a spike in confirmed infections.

Beginning today, Starbucks is instituting a temporary move to a &to go& model for all of its locations in the U.S. and Canada. One of the more sweeping actions taken by a major food chain, the coffee giant is looking to adhere to advice about social distancing among an exponential uptick in cases of COVID-19.

The model, which find the company closing down seating in its cafe and patio areas, will be in place for at least two weeks, according to the company. Instead, Starbucks will rely on its app for ordering ahead, drive thru in certain locations, walk up counter and delivery.

Locations in &high-social gathering locations& like schools and malls will temporarily be closed. Same goes for communities that have been hit with large clusters of COVID-19 cases.

&As we all know, the situation with COVID-19 is extremely dynamic and we will continue to review the facts and science and make the proactive decisions necessary to protect our partners, customers and communities,& EVP Rossann Williams said in a statement. &Every communityneeds are incredibly different. We want to make sure we play a constructive role by taking responsible actions, in partnership with the CDC and local public health authorities, so we can continue to do whatright for our partners and customers.&

Earlier in the week CEO Kevin Johnson laid out some preemptive plans aimed at prioritizing &the health and well-being of our customers and partners while also playing a constructive role in supporting local health officials and government leaders as they work to contain the virus.&

American Airlines said it will suspend 75% of its long-haul international flights from the U.S., beginning March 16 in response to decreased demand and government travel restrictions put in place to lessen the spread of COVID-19.

American Airlines had already reduced its capacity. This latest move, which was announced Saturday evening, will slash international capacity 75% year-over-year. The suspended service will last through May 6, the airline said, adding that it will cut back on flights gradually over the next seven days to re-accommodate passengers and crew.

American Airlines said it will continue to operate one flight daily from Dallas-Fort Worth to London, one flight daily from Miami to London. It will also continue to fly three times a week from Dallas to Tokyo . American Airlines will also continue short-haul international flying, which includes flights to Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Central America and certain markets in the northern part of South America. American Airlines said itanticipates its domestic capacity in April will be reduced by 20% compared to last year and Maydomestic capacity will be reduced by 30% on a year-over-year basis.

Other airlines have reduced capacity, including Delta, Lufthansa and United. However, American Airlines& actions surpass other reductions in service.

The reductions follow an executive order by President Donald Trump last week to ban non-U.S. citizens who are from or have recently been in China, Iran or 26 European countries from traveling to the United States for the next 30 days. The ban was extended on Friday to Ireland and the UK.

The Department of Homeland Security has also issued a Notice of Arrival Restrictions that requires American citizens, legal permanent residents and their immediate families who are returning home to the U.S. to travel through one of 13 airports upon arrival to the U.S., and then submit to an enhanced entry screening. They must then self-quarantine for 14 days once they reach their final destination, according to Homeland Security.

The 30-day travel ban does not apply to U.S. citizens or cargo.

At what is now a daily coronavirus press briefing at the White House, President Trump today said that Google CEO Sundar Pichai called him to apologize. What Pichai apologized for wasn&t immediately clear, but Trump then went on to praise Googlecommunications team for supposedly substantiating Trumpcomments about Googlecoronavirus screening site.

&I want to thank the people at Google and Google Communications because as you know, they substantiated what I said on Friday,& said Trump. &The head of Google, who is a great gentleman — said — called us — and apologized. I don&t know where the press got their fake news, but they got it someplace. As you know, this is from Google [holds up printout of Google Communicationstatement on Twitter]. They put out a release [drops the paper on the ground] and you guys can figure it out yourselves and how that got out and I&m sure you&ll apologize. But it would be great if we could really give the news correctly. It would be so, so wonderful.&

We reached out to both Google and the White House for further clarification about this call. Update (4:20pm PT): Google says it doesn&t have anything to share about this call.

What is clear, though, is that Google and Alphabet CEO Pichai today posted an update to Googleblog that outlines Googleefforts. In it, Pichai clears up some of the confusion and describes the work the company is doing to get more information about the virus and COVID-19 to its users, as well as the work AlphabetVerily life sciences unit is doing to build a screening site for the Bay Area (and potentially for a nationwide rollout).

On Friday, Trump said 1,700 Google engineers were working on this screening site — though it is a Verily project that, as best we can tell, was never meant for a consumer rollout. Google never clarified how many people were working on its efforts, but it doesn&t take 1,700 engineers to build the site Trump described.

Here is what Trump said on Friday:

&I want to thank Google. Google is helping to develop a website. Itgonna be very quickly done — unlike websites of the past — to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location. We have many, many locations behind us, by the way. We cover this country and large parts of the world, by the way. We&re not gonna be talking about the world right now, but we cover very, very strongly our country. Stores in virtually every location. Google has 1,700 engineers working on this right now. They have made tremendous progress.&

Google was clearly not ready for this public statement at the time. On Friday, we contacted them a few minutes after Trump made these comments. (Trump today said the media never called Google, which was flat-out wrong). It took GoogleVerily unit almost two hours to respond and note that Verily was working on a far more limited project than the one Trump described.

On Saturday, VP Pence clarified the situation a bit by saying that Google (or Verily & because who knows at this point) would have a pilot version of the screening site ready for a test in the Bay Area by tomorrow, Monday the 16th.

&I know Google issued a statement that they are planning to launch a website,& Pence said. &I think they gave a date of Monday, March 16th and we&re working literally around the clock and I know that our whole team is working on the public and private partnership. Couldn&t be more grateful to all at the hard-working people at Google who are helping to put this website together.&

But what Google later clarified is that there are at least two different efforts here. Googlework around bringing more information about COVID-19 to its users across its various services — and Verilyefforts to launch a pilot website &that will enable individuals to do a risk assessment and be scheduled for testing at sites in the Bay Area.&

Today, to add a bit more confusion to this story, VP Pence said the government is working with &Google and many other tech companies,& including Google, Facebook and Amazon. At some point early in the week, there will be a website that will go up where people can fill out a questionnaire to see if they need a test. That is very much the site Trump described on Friday, but Pence didn&t clarify how much of a role Google is playing in this.

On Friday, Trump promised a nationwide website, developed by Google, that would be at the core of the governmentscreening process. Google wasn&t ready for that announcement. The site didn&t exist yet. Even the limited version of that site, which wasn&t developed by Google, was ready and for the most part, a lot of us in the media probably now regret ever taking the president at his word. As of now, this is one of the most bizarre Google stories I&ve covered in recent years.

Now, it&d be great to hear more about what Pichai apologized for.

The U.K. government is advising citizens and residents against all travel to the U.S. in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a brief statement, the U.K. Foreign Office said it is &advising against all but essential travel to the USA,& a day after the U.S. government expanded its list of countries whose nationals are effectively banned from entering the U.S. to include the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The announcement by the U.K. authorities follows a move by the Trump administration to impose restrictions on foreign travelers entering the U.S. in an effort to help stem the number of infections of the coronavirus strain, COVID-19, which last week was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

The Trump administration initially initially spared the U.K. and Ireland from its 30-day European travel ban, which included France, Spain, and Italy — all of which this week saw massive increases in the number of citizens infected with the virus. But a day later, the U.K. and Ireland was also added to the list, with an effective ban on all U.K. and Irish travelers entering the U.S. beginning Monday night.

The Foreign Office said the restrictions go into effect immediately as of Sunday.

U.S. citizens — including dual citizens — and lawful permanent residents are exempt from the ban, but may be asked to self-isolate upon arrival for 14 days out of caution.

A Foreign Office spokesperson told TechCrunch by phone that despite one report, U.S. travelers will not be banned from entering the U.K. in response to the coronavirus outbreak.