The daily business briefing: March 10, 2016

(Image credit: Miguel Medina/Getty Images)

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1. ECB announces new stimulus measures
2. Amazon rents planes to boost Prime growth
3. Royal family denies report Queen Elizabeth backs Brexit
4. United cramming another seat into economy rows on some big jets
5. Google computer program beats Go master in coup for artificial intelligence

published 10 March 2016

1. ECB announces new stimulus measures

The European Central Bank on Thursday announced a series of new measures to stimulate the region's sagging economy. The ECB unexpectedly cut its refinancing rate to 0 percent, from 0.05 percent. It cut its deposit rate to negative 0.4 percent, while also announcing it was expanding its monthly asset purchases from 60 billion euros to 80 billion euros in April. The unexpectedly aggressive moves sent the euro sliding, but gave U.S. stock futures a boost.

Online retail giant Amazon announced Wednesday that it had signed a five- to seven-year lease for 20 cargo planes, making a long-anticipated entry into the air freight business. The move will give Amazon greater control over its logistics chain, which the company says is critical to support the growth of its lucrative Prime subscriptions, which give customers free two-day delivery on many items along with other services, such as streaming video and music, for an annual fee.

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Buckingham Palace on Wednesday made a rare official complaint to Britain's press watchdog over an article in The Sun tabloid newspaper that said Queen Elizabeth II was in favor of exiting the European Union. "The queen remains politically neutral, as she has for 63 years," a royal family spokeswoman said. The Sun, the U.K.'s biggest tabloid, stood by the story, saying it came from two "impeccably placed sources." A referendum on the so-called Brexit will be held in June.

United Airlines is adding another seat in economy rows in some of its Boeing 777s, in the airline industry's latest effort to add capacity. Nineteen of United's 74 Boeing 777-200s will get the extra seats, going from nine economy seats per row to 10. The retrofitting will start in May and last into 2017. Some good news for passengers who will fly in the more crowded rows: The retrofitting will include the addition of power outlets and WiFi capability.

Google DeepMind's AlphaGo beat a champion player in one of the world's oldest and most complex board games, Go. The victory marked a major milestone for artificial intelligence research. The contest was the first in a five-game series with Go master Lee Se-dol of South Korea, who had said he had the edge because the 3,000-year-old Chinese game requires "human intuition." "I have never thought I would lose," he said. Even some AI experts had agreed.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.