News Headlines - 15 March 2018

▽Amazon's internal numbers on Prime Video, revealed

Amazon.com Inc’s top television shows drew more than 5 million people worldwide to its Prime shopping club by early 2017, according to company documents, revealing for the first time how the retailer’s bet on original video is paying off.
The documents also show that Amazon’s U.S. audience for all video programming on Prime, including films and TV shows it licenses from other companies, was about 26 million customers. Amazon has never released figures for its total audience.

▽Toys ‘R’ Us Tells Workers It Will Likely Close All U.S. Stores - WSJ

Toys “R” Us Inc. told employees Wednesday the struggling big-box retailer will sell or close all its U.S. stores, a collapse that threatens up to 33,000 American jobs in the coming months.
The 70-year-old chain, which filed for bankruptcy protection in September, has more than 700 remaining U.S. locations, including Babies “R” Us stores. It would be one of the biggest retail liquidations since Sports Authority filed for bankruptcy in 2016 with 14,500 workers and closed more than 460 stores.

▽Bitcoin Is Worthless, Bubble May Pop Soon, Allianz Global Says - Bloomberg

It’s a matter of when, not if, the Bitcoin bubble will pop, according to Allianz Global Investors.
The cryptocurrency is worthless, even if blockchain technology could bring significant benefits to investors, said the investment arm of Europe’s biggest insurer, which manages almost 500 billion euro.

▽Russian aeroplane loses gold-silver bars on take-off - BBC News

A plane laden with tonnes of gold-silver alloy was taking off from Yakutsk airport in Siberia when a loading hatch broke off.
Some 200 bars, each weighing about 20kg (44 pounds), were then scattered across the runway.
All of the bars have now been recovered, a spokesman for the Canadian mine owner told news agency Interfax.

▽Dog mistakenly shipped to Japan via United Airlines - CNN

United Airlines wrongly shipped a Kansas-bound pet dog to Japan, the second embarrassment this week for the airline and a "nightmare" for the Swindle family -- who are moving from Oregon to Wichita with their beloved pet, a 10-year-old German shepherd named Irgo... On Monday, a French bulldog died on a Houston-to-New York flight after a United flight attendant told its owners to put the dog, in its carrier, in an overhead bin. The airline said it was investigating the French bulldog's death "to prevent this from ever happening again."