News Headlines - 20 March 2019

▽Billionaire Has New Goal for His 17,000 Workers: Learn to Code - Bloomberg

Rakuten Inc. may soon expect its more than 17,000 employees to know how a computer compiles a program and understand the difference between a CPU and GPU (one is the brains of a PC, the other runs the graphics). Underpinning that is a mandatory, entry-level ability to code.
Hiroshi MikitaniPhotographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Mikitani, a trailblazer in Japan’s internet economy, is considering this dramatic step as his e-commerce empire faces increasing pressure from the likes of Amazon.com Inc. It’s an attempt to keep the skills of employees up to date and answer the question -- do you need to know programming to work in tech?
“If you’re working for Toyota, for example, you know how the automobile works -- basic structure of the engine, suspension and so forth,” Mikitani told Emily Chang of Bloomberg Television. “So if you work for an IT services company, you need to have the basic knowledge of what’s in the computer.”

▽Japan to develop habitation unit for Gateway lunar station：The Asahi Shimbun

Japan’s space agency plans to take charge of development of a habitation module and an unmanned logistics vehicle for the Gateway cislunar space station as part of an international project.
The project, led by NASA, has set a goal of landing a manned spacecraft on the moon’s surface in 2028, the first of its kind since the end of the U.S. Apollo project in the early 1970s... JAXA plans to work with its European counterpart to develop the habitation module by drawing on technologies it cultivated during the development and operation of the International Space Station’s Kibo experiment module, including one for recycling air and water aboard a spacecraft.

▽Toyota teams up with Suzuki to build hybrid cars in UK | The Guardian

Toyota is to build a new hybrid electric vehicle in the UK for Suzuki, in a boost to British car industry workers amid continued Brexit uncertainty.
The hybrid will be based on Toyota’s Corolla model and made at its Burnaston plant in Derbyshire, with engines supplied by the company’s Deeside factory in north Wales.
It is not thought this development will lead to the creation of new jobs as it will be within Toyota’s existing production capacity. However, it will help secure the future of the UK workforce of more than 3,000.

▽Theresa May asks EU for Brexit delay until 30 June | The Guardian

Theresa May has written to the EU seeking a brief delay to Brexit until the end of June, telling MPs that a longer delay would mean “a failure to deliver” on the result of the 2016 referendum.
Speaking at the start of prime minister’s questions, May said “I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than 30 June”, implying the possibility that she could step down rather than allow a long delay to article 50.
The prime minister said she would present her Brexit plan to the Commons for a third time, and if it was passed the delay would allow time to implement it. If it was again defeated, parliament would have to decide how to proceed, May said.

▽Google will give Android users a choice of browser and search engine in Europe - The Verge

Google has announced that it will start asking European Android users which browser and search engine they would prefer to use on their devices, following regulatory action against the company for the way it bundles software in its mobile operating system. Last year Google was fined a record $5 billion by EU regulators for violating antitrust laws and was ordered to stop “illegally tying” Chrome and its search app to Android.