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Target is temporarily closing 105 stores in 10 states after several were broken into during protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week.

The company is closing 46 stores in California and 33 in Minnesota, where the company is based and where the protests over Floyd's death began. Target is also closing some stores in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, Georgia, Oregon, Michigan and Texas.

Floyd, who was black and handcuffed, died while being arrested by Minneapolis police for suspicion of passing a counterfeit bill on May 25. Cellphone video showed that a white officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for several minutes while Floyd pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving. Chauvin now faces murder and manslaughter charges. The other three officers who took part in the arrest were fired, but they haven't been charged.

Minneapolis-based Target didn't say how it chose which stores to shutter or how long they will remain closed.

"We are heartbroken by the death of George Floyd and the pain it is causing communities across the country," Target said in a statement. "Our focus will remain on our team members' safety and helping our community heal."

Target said employees at stores that are closed will be paid for up to 14 days, including premiums they are earning due to the coronavirus pandemic. They will also be able to work at Target locations that remain open.

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(Miss this week's The Leadership Brief? This interview below was delivered to the inbox of Leadership Brief subscribers on Sunday morning, May 31; to receive weekly emails of conversations with the world's top CEO's and business decision makers, click here.)

As CEO of Accenture, Julie Sweet is plugged into how the world's CEOs are responding to the current moment. Accenture is one of the world's largest consulting and professional services firms, and its clients include 91 of the Fortune Global 100. Sweet, 52, spends her days as something of a CEO whisperer, talking to chief executives around the world, both downloading and sharing key insights into how companies are adapting to the new reality. And much of what she is hearing (and advising) is surprising.

For one, she warns that companies planning to save money on office space by permanently having some portion of their employees to remote work may be making a big mistake. "Personal engagement remains essential for long-term success," says Sweet. "Don't fall in love with the savings on real estate."

And despite anti-China national political rhetoric and Beijing's tightening grip on Hong Kong, Sweet says there is a rush to invest in China and Asia, where the crisis hit earlier. "China is being very resilient," says Sweet. (Accenture has 15,000 employees there and most are back to work.) "We have a lot of companies who are stopping investment here and trying to do more investment there. You see countries like South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan address the crisis much better. This could be a real boon to the Asia markets."

Also, she worries about the economy and how much the stimulus spending is masking the extent of the pain. "There's this thing that's coming around the corner where unless you believe the economic recovery is going to be fast enough, the stimulus money is going to end before there's been a recovery, and we cannot predict how that is then going to affect things."

Sweet grew up in Orange County, Calif. As a student, Sweet was a star debater and went on to Columbia Law School and became one of the early female partners in a New York law firm's corporate law department. She worked on deals and advising boards, until joining Accenture in 2010 as general counsel. Lawyers are trained to be learners, she says, and each quarter Sweet sets herself a learning goal. Please read on to find what she is teaching herself now.

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(This interview with Accenture CEO Julie Sweet has been condensed and edited for clarity).

You talk to a lot of CEOs. What is the one thing you are consistently hearing from them about the path forward?

It's how do you outmaneuver uncertainty. Every CEO would tell you right now that what is driving them crazy is real uncertainty that we can't control.

So that's the hardest thing for you right now?

The uncertainty. I was just talking to a CEO this morning in Europe. Right now, people are lulled a little bit because of the stimulus. A lot of it really smoothed things both in Europe and in the U.S. because the unemployment has been very generous. He was like, "Look, Julie, soon this is going to end. And people are going to start being laid off."

Pivoting comes up a lot now, with companies rightly proud of how quickly they have pivoted. Is there a danger in moving too quickly or is this an overdue correction?

On balance, this is good because there are many companies and industries where their survival long-term really required them to be moving faster than they were. So I think that's great.

So fewer meetings and layers of approval will be one aspect of the new normal?

[CEOs] are saying 'Wait a minute—my organization, when we were all together, they'd do five prep meetings before they came to talk to me. Now we're not doing that anymore.' So the organization is taking out layers and hierarchies. In a distributed workforce, it's not as easy to say I'm going to have all these different meetings.

Any worries about the current speed of business?

Every CEO would tell you right now that what is driving them crazy is real uncertainty that we can't control.Here's my concern. We weren't ready pre-crisis globally to address the re-skilling need that automation is going to bring. As a reaction to what's happening, you're going to have hyper-automation because you have to. If you have to bring your supply chain, your manufacturing, home because you're now at risk, or for regulation, you're going to do so in a way that's highly automated. We are at 15 to 20% of what could be automated. We're going to see the speed of that rapidly ramp up, and the worry I have is that we weren't ready beforehand for re-skilling, and we now need to pivot. How are we going to bring government, companies, and not-for-profits together to address that, with equal speed? We're not seeing that.

Reskilling is hard.

It's really hard. And no one's talking about that yet. We have to globally get real focused on this very fast.

Will the consulting model change? When will your teams start working for weeks on end in client offices again?

With density in offices going down, it's very unclear how fast clients are going to want to be co-creating with their outside partners versus needing the space for their own people in a world where they can't have as much density.

Will that be a lasting change?

I do think it will be permanently changed. In our mental model, we believe that for a prolonged period of time, what we've managed to do quite successfully, which is remote innovation and collaborating with our clients remotely, will continue, with the ability at times to get together. Our business is being changed because patterns of travel amount will be changed.

So remote work and a smaller real estate footprint is the future?

I say this to anyone who will listen, personal engagement face-to-face remains a critical part of success. And we should all be careful to not tilt too much: Don't fall in love with the savings on real estate. While it was an incredible insight that you can innovate remotely, it is not a long-term answer. Personal engagement remains essential for long-term success.

So you are not ripping up your leases?

No, in fact, we went too far [cutting back on office space] in the '90s in certain countries like the U.S., and over the last 5 years, we have steadily added to our real estate footprint in order to create innovation spaces with our clients.

Let's talk about the new sexiest topic in business: supply chains. Do you think we took just-in-time, keeping inventories at low levels, too far? And how do you see that changing?

I don't think we were wrong in just-in-time. What you now have is you're going to have much more automation.

What changes are businesses going to make to ensure that they can get the parts and materials they need to make their products?

You basically are going to have four things happening. You're going to have regulation that forces companies to bring certain things back. The second thing is you're going to have a different relationship with the smaller suppliers, where you see more financing and more help with security because by definition, if you have to move to suppliers who are near your factories, and they're not the scaled ones, they have security issues, they have financing issues. The third thing that's going to happen is you are going to see an acceleration of what were kind of emerging technologies to address different ways of manufacturing, and change those supply chains. 3D printing is a different way of doing just-in-time, right? And the fourth thing that you're going to see, I believe, is a revisiting of the trade alliances. Mexico became a very important place to manufacture. All the U.S. companies—it's been there for years but they were using China. Now the conversation is, "We need to go to Mexico. Not move from China."

What is your CEO network saying about the future of globalization and global trade? Is this a setback for globalization?

The pandemic just emphasized the critical interconnection of our economies, which no one believes is going to truly be unwound.

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Where does China fit in?

China is being very resilient. We have a lot of companies who are stopping investment here and trying to do more investment there. You see countries like South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan address the crisis much better.

This could be a real boon to the Asia markets and people having to pivot to growth and do more investment there. To take advantage of the consumer base there. And so a lot of CEOs—we're having discussions on what might be some underlying competitiveness changes, and how do we make sure that Europe remains a viable market, right? That the U.S. stays on top of innovation.

You speak Mandarin. You've done a lot of business in China: What are you hearing from your sources on the ground there?

We have 15,000 people there. Our operations there are almost completely back to normal. That being said, there's been a big shock to the system and China manufacturing is heavily dependent still on demand outside of China.

It's certainly been resilient, and we are seeing demand to access that market.

How do you manage in this stressful, anxious environment?

Calmness is absolutely critical. At the end of the day, we can't control a lot, and so I'm very direct: "Here's where I need you to do this because it is within our control." And then I respond to the other things as "You've got to be calm when you get the bad news that you can't control because it doesn't help to add more stress."

Do you get discouraged at being the only woman in meetings? Are you in the room a lot where you're the only woman in a meeting?

It very much depends on the country. It's just vastly different in Japan versus the U.S. versus various countries in Europe. Right? So, in the U.S. I'm often not the only woman. The only time I get discouraged is if in fact no one's talking about it.

How are you doing on gender balance at Accenture?

China is being very resilient. We have a lot of companies who are stopping investment here and trying to do more investment there.We set a goal for 50-50 (of the total work force) by 2025, and we're on track. We set a goal for 25% of our managing directors to be women by 2025, which is industry leading, and we're on track. And remember, we're tech. This is not a walk in the park.

You were a champion debater as a student. Did you like arguing for or against a proposition?

I did like negative more than affirmative. It was more fun. When you're doing the negative, you have to respond on your feet because the affirmative lays out the case and I just loved the challenge of having to quickly digest and respond. And it's probably a bit of my DNA, and why I became a lawyer and why I've thrived in a world of so much change because I like that challenge.

Speaking of learning, I understand that you assign yourself a learning goal each quarter. What have you focused on previously and what is your current focus?

My first quarter was all about digital manufacturing. The second quarter was 5G, which is a very important technology that just got more important. And right now, I'm going deeper on Cloud because the crisis has so accelerated the journey to the Cloud. I'm learning about hybrid Cloud.

What was your life like growing up and what lessons from your parents do you still find yourself relying on today as you lead a big organization?

I grew up very modestly. My dad did not graduate from high school. My mom graduated from college my freshman year in college. My dad painted cars for a living. But they had an amazing optimism and belief that if you worked hard, you could do anything. And I think that sense of optimism, with a work ethic, has been a really big part of my life. I once coined the phrase, "fearless but prepared." You don't just take risks for risk-taking. I'd say that though as a leader today, one of the most important lessons was the one my father gave me when I left school to go to college. I grew up in a very different environment and my dad said, "Don't be afraid you're leaving us behind and you're going to go experience these things. That's what I want from you. But never forget where you came from."

And the way I translate that today as a business leader is that we all have to go into these new places: We've got to digitize. It's going to have tough effects on our workforce, on our communities. But we have to do that. But the equivalent of "don't forget where you came from" is "you cannot forget our people."

SWEET'S FAVORITES

BUSINESS BOOK: Colin Powell's It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership. It's one of my favorite leadership books.

AUTHOR: Martin Gilbert.

APP: Waze. I am terrible at directions.

[newsletter-leadership]

(DETROIT) — The U.S. auto industry's coronavirus comeback plan was pretty simple: restart factories gradually and push out trucks and other vehicles for waiting buyers in states left largely untouched by the virus outbreak.

Yet the return from a two-month production shutdown hasn't gone quite according to plan. For some automakers, full production has been delayed, or it's been herky-herky, with production lines stopping and starting due to infected workers or parts shortages from Mexico and elsewhere.

"There's a lot that can go wrong in bringing people back into the plants to try to build very complicated assemblies," said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry and labor at the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank.

Most automakers closed factories in mid-to-late March when workers began to get sick as the novel coronavirus spread. The factories started to reopen on one or two shifts in mid-May as state stay-home restrictions eased, with automakers touting safety precautions that include checking workers' temperatures, certification by workers that they don't have symptoms, social distancing, time between shifts and plastic barriers where possible to keep workers apart.

Still, some workers got COVID-19, although it's not known where they were infected. In some cases they still came to work, forcing companies to close plants temporarily for cleaning. In at least one case, a worker at a seat-making plant near Chicago got the virus, forcing a shutdown and cutting off parts. General Motors had to delay adding shifts at truck plants because the Mexican government wouldn't allow full parts factory restarts until June 1.

Ford seemed to be hit the hardest, pausing production a half-dozen times in Dearborn, Michigan; Chicago and Kansas City, Missouri; to disinfect equipment and isolate workers who may have come in contact with those who tested positive.

Honda and Toyota each reported brief production pauses to disinfect equipment when a small number of workers became infected. GM and Fiat Chrysler said they have not shut down production lines due to infected workers.

None of the automakers would give exact numbers of workers who have become ill since plants were restarted. The United Auto Workers union said Ford and GM have had at least a half-dozen cases, while Fiat Chrysler has had five. At least 25 UAW members employed by the Detroit Three have died from the virus this year, but it's not clear where they caught it.

Dziczek says the on-and-off work stoppages will make it difficult for automakers to meet any increased demand.

"I think this is the way this is going to be for a while," she said. "You need to have the confluence of healthy workers, a healthy supply chain and healthy demand all at the same time."

U.S. auto sales have tanked since the virus began spreading in March, with sales in April down 46% from a year ago. Analysts are forecasting an improvement in May, but still a year-over-year decline of more than 30%. Cox Automotive predicts that May pickup truck sales will be down 18% from a year ago.

Despite those declines, automakers are reporting depleted supplies at some dealers, especially for pickup trucks in the Midwest.

Assembly lines at Ford's 4,000-worker pickup factory in Dearborn, Michigan, have been closed twice due to workers with the virus or union fears that the shutdowns weren't long enough.

The UAW local at the plant filed a grievance against the company seeking a full shutdown and testing of every worker, said Gary Walkowicz, a local bargaining committeeman. The local also wants a 24-hour waiting period after equipment is disinfected to restart the plant.

GM spokesman Brian Rothenberg said it's being vigilant about making sure companies follow safety protocols.

"We have advocated for as much testing as possible and full testing when it's available," he said.

Ford procedures, following newer recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and epidemiologists, say equipment is safe within minutes of being disinfected. In some instances the company has waited several hours before bringing workers back.

"We are requiring our workforce to follow these protocols in our facilities – and encouraging them to do the same outside of work," Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker said.

GM announced that production will get closer to normal starting Monday as it adds shifts "to meet strengthening customer demand and strong dealer demand." A company statement said three pickup truck assembly plants will go from one to three shifts, while three SUV plants in the U.S. and Canada will go from one shift to two.

At GM's pickup truck factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana, worker Andrea Repasky was waiting for the call to return to work on the third shift.

"I'm ready to go back, as long as everyone is cautious and stays safe," she said. "We have to go back sometime, right?"

Fellow workers have told her that GM is doing all it can to protect workers from the virus as they return to work, Repasky said. Yet she knows infected people might unintentionally spread the virus if they don't have symptoms.

"I don't know that anyone anywhere can really make it so we don't catch it," she said.

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(Bloomberg) — Coty Inc. tumbled Friday after Forbes reported that Kylie Jenner allegedly provided the magazine with misleading financial information about her cosmetics brand.

Shares of Coty, which acquired a majority stake in Kylie Cosmetics last year, dropped 13% to close at $3.63, extending its 2020 decline to 68%.

The news report raises questions about one of Coty's most visible brands as it seeks to overcome stagnating sales, changing consumer tastes and retail challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The company, which took billions of dollars in writedowns last year, agreed this month to sell the Wella and Clairol brands to buyout firm KKR & Co. as part of a $4.3 billion deal, allowing it to focus on mass beauty and the Jenner brand. Last week, it launched the Kylie Skin beauty line in Europe.

Representatives at management company Jenner Communications and her publicist, Christy Welder, didn't immediately reply to messages seeking comment, nor did Lisa Kessler, a spokeswoman for New York-based Coty.

"All I see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions," Jenner said Friday in one of several tweets responding to the Forbes report. "I can name a list of 100 things more important right now than fixating on how much money I have."

Forbes spokesman Matthew Hutchison defended the report.

"Today's extensively-reported investigation was triggered by newly filed documents that revealed glaring discrepancies between information privately supplied to journalists and information publicly supplied to shareholders," he said in an email. "Our reporters spotted the inaccuracies and spent months uncovering the facts."

Jenner, 22, a scion of the Kardashian family, became the world's youngest self-made billionaire in March 2019 and agreed to sell a 51% stake in her cosmetics line to Coty in November. The $600 million deal valued her business at roughly $1.2 billion.

Some analysts questioned the price tag at the time and, on top of the recent writedowns, "any renewed suggestion they overpaid for Kylie Cosmetics will shake investors," said Deborah Aitken at Bloomberg Intelligence.

The pandemic has diminished her net worth, leaving her with a fortune of less than $1 billion. Forbes said the social media star spent years inflating the size and success of her business to the magazine in order to boost its estimate of her wealth.

Jenner, in one of the tweets, said: "I've never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. Period."

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that Hong Kong was no longer sufficiently autonomous from mainland China — an assessment that could threaten the city's trading relationship with the U.S. and deal a blow to both American and Chinese companies operating there.

The news comes following Beijing's decision late last week to draw up a national security law for Hong Kong. The move came after Hong Kong's Legislative Council failed in its obligations to enact such a law since the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997. Critics say, however, that the Chinese government's bypassing of the local legislature undermines the "high degree" of autonomy promised to Hong Kong when China resumed sovereignty over the territory of 7.4 million.

"No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground," Pompeo said in a statement.

That autonomy matters because Hong Kong's trading privileges with Washington depend on it. It's up to the White House to decide what action it will take following Pompeo's assessment, but options include tariffs, visa restrictions, export controls and freezing the U.S. assets of Hong Kong and Chinese officials deemed to be aiding Beijing in its encroachment on Hong Kong's freedoms.

Officials made clear that the move is not intended to target Hong Kong citizens. The U.S. will try "to ensure the people of Hong Kong are not adversely affected to the best we can," David R. Stilwell, assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said during a media teleconference on May 27.

Businesses, however, are nervous. Almost 300 U.S. companies base their regional headquarters in Hong Kong and more than 1,300 have operations in the city — from 3M to Goldman Sachs to the insurer AIG. There are also an estimated 85,000 U.S. citizens living in Hong Kong.

An American Chamber of Commerce spokesperson spoke last week of a "fear factor developing in the business community." Business confidence was already shaken by the six months of often violent protests sparked last year by a contentious extradition bill, in the wake of which some companies started making plans to shift their operations. Now experts say that Beijing's growing control over Hong Kong, and potential trade restrictions by Washington, could further diminish business confidence and compromise Hong Kong's importance as an international business center.

"Businesses will inevitably change their perceptions of Hong Kong as a gateway to China that is protected by rule of law," says Benjamin Quinlan, CEO and managing partner of strategy consultancy Quinlan and Associates, who also sits on the board of a fintech association.

"If you remove [Hong Kong's special status], there will be foreign companies that say 'we'll just enter China directly, I've got no one-up going via Hong Kong,' or they'll just exit China completely," he tells TIME. "It doesn't bode well for Hong Kong's position as a global financial hub."

What is Hong Kong's 'special status'?

Although Hong Kong is a part of China, under the terms of the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 the U.S. treats Hong Kong as distinct from the mainland when it comes to economic relations, applying a different set of rules from the rest of China on things like export controls, customs and immigration.

The continuance of this special status is predicated on Hong Kong remaining distinct from mainland China. The "one country, two systems," framework, a political formula that has been in place since the 1997 handover, affords the city plenty of leeway to run its own affairs, including an independent judiciary and freedoms of assembly, the press and speech. The enclave has its own currency, Olympics team and seat at the World Trade Organization.

Business groups say that these characteristics are an important driver of the city's commercial success. "It would be a serious mistake on many levels to jeopardize Hong Kong's special status, which is fundamental to its role as an attractive investment destination and international financial hub," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act—passed in November 2019 following months of protests in Hong Kong—requires the State Department to complete an annual assessment to determine if Hong Kong remains sufficiently different from China. That assessment is needed to justify Hong Kong's unique treatment under U.S. law.

What happens next?

Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) tells TIME that while President Trump "has a menu of things he could choose to do" it was "an a la carte menu as opposed to on or off."

According to Kennedy, it's likely that things like export controls on sensitive technologies would be adopted first, with more punitive measures like tariffs coming later on.

In his May 27 teleconference, Stilwell said actions would be "as targeted as possible to change behavior."

Sanctions on Chinese officials or entities could damage the ability of Chinese companies to transact in the city, which in turn impacts China's ability to do international business in U.S. dollars. But the Hong Kong government warned in a May 28 statement that, "any sanctions are a double-edged sword that will not only harm the interests of Hong Kong but also significantly those of the U.S."

Eswar Prasad, a professor of economics and trade policy at Cornell University and the former head of the IMF's China Division tells TIME that the revocation of Hong Kong's special status will have a significant negative impact on trade and financial flows between the U.S. and Hong Kong. In 2018, U.S. foreign direct investment in the territory was $82.5 billion and U.S. goods and services traded with Hong Kong totaled an estimated $66.9 billion. Hong Kong is one of the few jurisdictions to maintain a trade surplus with the U.S., to the tune of $26.4 billion in 2019.

Key to Hong Kong's success is the rule of law, but its longevity is doubted many businesspeople say. "If the Chinese legislature can start doing things like this and overriding Hong Kong legislature, can they start doing similar things on issues other than national security?" asks Kevin Yam, a financial regulatory lawyer based in Hong Kong.

A lawyer at one global law firm tells TIME that she has received inquiries from nervous clients over the last few days who want to move commercial contracts away from Hong Kong law.

"For U.S. businesses and financial institutions operating in Hong Kong this would herald a period of great uncertainty," says Prasad, "especially as they can no longer count on Hong Kong's much-touted rule of law and at least modest independence from China."

Kennedy believes that companies with operations in Hong Kong will likely leave if the situation continues to deteriorate.

"If Hong Kong loses its independent judiciary, freedom of the press, and all those things it has treasured, then Hong Kong is not going to be seen as a safe harbor within China and the region for American companies to base their regional headquarters, have most of their capital and large staff, and base their contracts there," he says.

One Hong Kong hedge fund executive tells TIME that he is "definitely concerned" about the news. His firm started considering alternative office locations in Asia because of events in Hong Kong last year, but hadn't made any meaningful decisions. Depending on how the situation pans out, it may "speed up," the process of getting a contingency plan in place.

Better for business?

Hong Kong officials have attempted to allay the concerns of international investors, saying that national security legislation is needed to ensure there is no repeat of the mass demonstrations that paralyzed Hong Kong for the second half of 2019. The protests plunged Hong Kong into its first recession in a decade. Protests raged in the financial district for several weeks late last year.

During lunchtime on Wednesday, riot police fired pepper balls to dispel a crowd that had gathered to protest the national security law in the Central area, which is home to the headquarters of several international banks and law firms.

"As the implications of China's recent direction on Hong Kong start to sink in, there is a growing possibility that investors will lose confidence in Hong Kong's unique legal construct, of British law operating on Chinese soil," says Kurt Tong, the former U.S. Consul General in the territory, who is now a partner at consultancy the Asia Group. "As that happens, the movement of people and money out of Hong Kong could start to snowball."

Others say that it may take a while to see the consequences the national security law has on business in the city. Some are even guardedly optimistic.

"If the process is purely confined to addressing mass protests and what not," Quinlan says, "then you could argue the opposite point, that businesses will see this as a better place to do business, particularly ones that will be more impacted by protest movements like retail or restaurants."

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(Tokyo) — Japanese automaker Nissan plans to close auto plants in Spain and Indonesia after sinking into the red for the first time in 11 years as the pandemic squashed global demand and disrupted production.

Yokohama-based Nissan's chief executive, Makoto Uchida, said Thursday that its European production will be centered at its British plant in Sunderland.

Manufacturing now based in Indonesia will move to Thailand, as the Japanese automaker cuts global production by 20%.

Nissan Motor Co. reported a 671.2 billion yen, or $6.2 billion, loss for the fiscal year that ended in March, its first annual loss since 2009, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

The company reported a 319.1 billion yen profit in the fiscal year that ended in March.

It said its global vehicle production dropped 62% in April from a year earlier to 150,388 vehicles. Global vehicle sales slipped nearly 42% last month.

Nissan's sales for the fiscal year that ended in March sank nearly 15%, to 9.9 trillion yen ($91.6 billion).

"The future remains unclear and it is extremely hard to predict," said Uchida, who acknowledged Nissan could not yet give a financial projection for the current fiscal year. He said it would be released as soon as possible.

But Uchida said Nissan has secured needed financing and is cutting costs and reshaping its operations to restore profitability, stressing that Nissan's potential remained solid.

The automaker, creator of the Leaf electric car, X-Trail sport utility vehicle and Infiniti luxury models, intends to build on its core strengths, Uchida said.

It is reducing the number of its models and focusing on certain geographic areas, such as Japan, China and the U.S., to enhance its efficiency and profitability, rather than chasing sales size.

"We will admit our errors of the past and steer into the future in the correct way, without hesitation," Uchida said.

Earlier Thursday, Spain's government urged Nissan to reconsider its plan to close manufacturing in Barcelona, saying it would result in the direct loss of some 3,000 jobs.

Workers' unions have warned 20,000 more jobs in Nissan's supply chain in Spain are also at risk if Nissan closes its factory in Barcelona and two smaller ones in nearby towns.

Nissan only mentioned the closure of the Barcelona plant and did not immediately reply to a query about the other two plants.

Angry workers burned tires at the gates of the Barcelona plant and prepared for more protests.

"They are letting us die," Juan Carlos Vicente, head of the plant workers' committee, told hundreds of his colleagues gathered at the factory.

On Wednesday, Nissan's alliance partners Renault of France and Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced plans to share purchasing, development and technology to slash costs and improve their competitiveness.

Management at Renault was meeting Thursday with unions about its 2 billion euro ($2.2 billion) cost-cutting plan.

Nissan has spent much of the past year seeking to recover from the November 2018 arrest of its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, over financial misconduct allegations, including under-reporting future compensation and misusing Nissan money.

The company's management appeared to be in disarray after the sudden departure of Ghosn, who was sent by Renault to help Nissan recover from near-bankruptcy in 1999.

Ghosn's successor, Hiroto Saikawa, also ended up resigning amid allegations about dubious income.

Ghosn says he is innocent. He fled to Lebanon late last year, skipping bail while awaiting trial. Ghosn said he escaped because he believed he would not get a fair trial in Japan.

Uchida promised a revival for Nissan.

"We will carry out our responsibilities with determination," he said. "The path ahead is not easy, but we have fantastic workers at Nissan."

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President Trump started off his Tuesday as he does most days, with a series of tweets, the content of which many often find counterfactual. And for the first time, the social media company responded in a new way.

On Tuesday morning, the President declared in a pair of tweets that supplying voters with mail-in ballots, a move rising in popularity amid the coronavirus outbreak and one several states already employ, would be "substantially fraudulent." Later on Tuesday evening, Twitter added a label to the posts with a blue exclamation point symbol and a warning that Trump was making an "unsubstantiated claim."

"Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to 'a Rigged Election.' However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud," a statement from the company read once users clicked on the alert.

The platform noted that only registered voters will receive ballots, and that mail-in ballots are already in use in several states. Twitter confirmed to TIME that it was the first time the company had put the warning on one of the President's tweets.

The warning appears to be a significant change for the social media company, which has previously deflected calls to address several of the President's tweets that critics said violate the company's policies. After the President apparently made a violent threat against North Korea on the platform in 2017, the company implied that Trump's tweet had not been deleted because it is newsworthy.

The new warnings on Trump's tweets are aligned with the company's updated policy on misinformation. On May 11, the company announced that it would add "new labels and warning messages that will provide additional context and information on some tweets containing disputed or misleading information related to COVID-19."

On Tuesday evening, President Trump returned to Twitter to criticize the platform, accusing the company of "interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election."

"Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!" Trump said.

The President's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, also released a statement criticizing Twitter's policy.

"We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message through to voters," the statement said. "Partnering with the biased fake news media 'fact checkers' is only a smoke screen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility. There are many reasons the Trump campaign pulled all our advertising from Twitter months ago, and their clear political bias is one of them."

The warnings materialized the same day a letter criticizing Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey went viral over conspiratorial tweets Trump sent, suggesting former GOP Rep. Joe Scarborough was responsible for a young woman's death. In the widely-circulated letter, widower Timothy Klausutis asked Dorsey to remove tweets by the President and Donald Trump Jr. that he said promoted a conspiracy theory that his deceased wife, was murdered. Klausutis cited that the statements are a violation of the company's community rules and terms of service.

A Twitter spokesperson said to TIME that the company is "not taking action on the tweets at this time," although the company is "working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly."

As of this writing, Twitter did had not yet removed the three tweets cited by Klausutis.

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(NEW YORK) — The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange reopened for the first time in two months Tuesday, but its controlled chaos is more subdued.

The floor, known worldwide for an anarchic atmosphere with traders shouting orders over one another, has been closed since mid-March due to the coronavirus outbreak. The NYSE says fewer traders will be on the floor at a given time for now in order to support six-feet social distancing requirements. They also must wear masks.

Anyone entering the Exchange at 11 Wall Street is also being asked to avoid public transportation and they will have their temperature taken before entry, said Stacey Cunningham, president of the NYSE.

"We will respect the sacrifices of frontline workers and the city at large by proceeding cautiously, limiting the strain on the health-care system and the risk to those who work beneath our roof," Cunningham wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Cunningham said most of the areas outside of the trading floor will remain empty and the majority of employees will continue to work remotely.

Designated market makers, which oversee the trading of the NYSE's 2,200 listed companies, will continue to do so remotely and electronically as they have been since March 23.

The reopening comes at a time when many areas of the U.S. are starting to lift shelter-in-place orders and allowing businesses to open their doors again even as other areas of the country are seeing no drop-off in confirmed coronavirus cases.

On Tuesday, however, the World Health Organization said that the world remains mired in only the first stage of the pandemic, putting a damper on hopes for a speedy global economic rebound.

Worldwide, the virus has infected nearly 5.5 million people, killing over 346,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Europe has had about 170,000 deaths and the U.S. has seen nearly 100,000. Experts say the tally understates the real effects of the pandemic due to counting issues in many nations.

There was some optimism about the race for a vaccine. The Dow surged more than 600 points at the opening bell.

The NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange, based in Atlanta, Georgia.

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A large sign sits in the front window of Kam Fung Cafe, a tiny local diner on a narrow side street in Hong Kong's bustling Wan Chai district: "Please take your temperature and put on your mask before entering this restaurant."

Tall clear plexiglass sheets have been installed atop the small booths lining two walls of the restaurant. The front table, one of only three or four in the compact cafe, has been sacrificed to create a temperature-taking station. Ms. Ho, one of the restaurant's workers, tells TIME that since the coronavirus pandemic, they no longer seat strangers together at a booth, a common practice at space-constrained local Hong Kong restaurants.

In Hong Kong, a city known for its vibrant culinary scene, restaurants are once again buzzing with diners now that coronavirus appears to be under control here. But nearly every eatery—from the smallest cafes to Michelin-star restaurants—have implemented safety measures to protect diners from the coronavirus.

The measures appear to be working. Hong Kong hasn't recorded a cluster of coronavirus cases related to restaurants since the safety measures were put in place in late March. That may provide a model of how to operate under a new normal for restaurants in places like the U.S. and Europe, where many businesses are just starting to open up again.

The trajectory of the coronavirus in Hong Kong demonstrates the need for precautions when it comes to dining. One of the first large clusters in the city was linked to a late January family gathering at a hot pot restaurant—where diners share a communal cauldron in the center of a round table, fishing meat and vegetable morsels out of broth with chopsticks or spoons. At least 13 cases in the city were linked to that hotpot meal.

Hong Kong has avoided the strict lockdowns seen in the U.S. and Europe, but it has had various social distancing measures in place since January when the first cases of COVID-19 were reported. Restaurants have remained open throughout the pandemic—albeit with reduced capacity and restrictions on group size. COVID-19 case numbers in the city have dwindled, and restaurants are now allowed to operate at full capacity with groups of up to eight people allowed to dine together. Restaurants are required to space tables about five feet apart, or to place a partition between them. Customers, who are asked to wear masks except when eating or drinking, are provided with hand sanitizer. And restaurant staff are required to take patrons' temperatures before they're allowed to dine.

Some restaurants are getting creative with the rules. A restaurant in K11 mall in the city's bustling Tsim Sha Tsui district is using large images of artwork by famous artists like Monet to separate tables.

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Some restaurants are implementing more stringent precautions. At Associazione Chianti, a Tuscan steakhouse in Wan Chai, restaurant staff have lined the narrow sidewalk outside with large red dots, spaced about 5 feet apart, to indicate where guests should stand as they wait to be seated. Customers must sign health declaration forms saying that they haven't traveled outside of the city in the last 14 days—anyone who returns to the city is required to quarantine for that length of time. Atop the red and white checked table-cloth of every table sits hand sanitizer, alcohol wipes and an envelope for holding diners' face masks while they eat.

Tony Ferreira, director of culinary operations for Black Sheep Restaurants, which runs Associazione Chianti, tells TIME that they've taken some less obvious precautions too, like training front of house staff to escort people to their tables as quickly as safely possible to avoid crowd congestion in the small reception area.

Black Sheep, a restaurant group with 25 restaurants across the city, has published a "COVID-19 playbook" that makes public its strategy for protecting its guests and staff from the coronavirus. According to the guide, physical contact like high fives and handshakes have been banned in the group's restaurants and staff are required to wear masks and wash their hands every 30 minutes.

As in Hong Kong, restaurants across the Asia-Pacific are reopening cautiously. In Australia, several states are allowing restaurants and cafes to open for in-house dining, but only 10 diners are allowed inside at a time. One restaurant in the Australian state of New South Wales, has put cardboard cutouts of human diners where real humans aren't allowed to sit. Frank Angilletta, one of the restaurant's owners tells TIME that it started out as a joke, but it helps to separate people. "It adds a little atmosphere, some normality," he says. "[Customers] say they didn't feel like they were the only table in there."

In some cities in mainland China, customers can only enter if a health-tracking app many Chinese are required to use shows that their health status is "green." In Taiwan, restaurants are required to maintain a distance of about five feet between diners. A cafe in Bangkok, Thailand is serving coffee in a box on wheels via a pulley system to limit contact between its baristas and customers.

How have restaurant customers reacted?

Restaurateurs say the reaction to the safety measures has been mixed. In Hong Kong—where emotional scars from the 2002 to 2003 SARS outbreak have ingrained hygiene precautions as habit—people adopted some safety measures quickly. Mask wearing in all public places became de rigeur by late January.

Ferreira of Associazione Chianti says that when a guest calls for a reservation he or she is walked through the procedures the restaurant has in place. "So there are no surprises for them, no stress," he says.

Syed Asim Hussain, co-founder of the Black Sheep Restaurants, tells TIME that at first, there was some pushback—especially against the customer health declaration form and temperature checks. (His restaurant group implemented many protections before they were mandated by the government.) On one night earlier this year, the group's restaurants turned away more than 50 potential customers who didn't want to comply.

"We had a zero compromise policy," he says. "It was tough because we are in the business of looking after our guests. We are in the hospitality business."

He says that customer attitudes have shifted, and many are now appreciative of the measures. But he adds, with plexiglass dividers and hand sanitizer bottles visible across his restaurants, it's been more difficult to create the ambiance that Black Sheep restaurants are known for.

"I'm very romantic about our restaurants," says Hussain. "I'm very careful about what our places aesthetically look like, but all of that has gone out the window."

Deborah To, who is from Australia but has lived in Hong Kong for 10 years, tells TIME that she's now used to the safety precautions that restaurants across the city have in place, but some things don't feel quite the same. She says it was "super weird" when she and a group of friends went out to dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday and had to sit at separate tables due to restrictions on the number of guests at one table.

Do guests feel safer?

Black Sheep says that the precautions they put in place have helped build trust with their customers and given them confidence to visit the group's restaurants."Seeing our team members wash their hands in front of them, using our sanitizer bottles to sanitize tables when we're setting tables, these things really put peoples' minds at ease," says Ferreira.

And Hussain says the measures have guarded them against the disaster of having a cluster linked to their restaurants—none of Black Sheep's staff or guests have been infected while working or dining at the restaurants, though two restaurants closed temporarily when patrons who later tested positive were found to have dined there. "I think these protocols have somehow, some way, protected us," he says.

To, 32, who often eats at Black Sheep restaurants, says being forced to use hand sanitizer before a meal and seeing staff wearing masks makes her feel a lot safer.

Food blogger Kelvin Ho—whose Instagram account EpicurusHongKong has more than 46,000 followers—says he has become really picky about where he eats in recent weeks. He says if a restaurant doesn't appear to be following the safety measures strictly, he won't go—he'll no longer eat at one chain he saw people entering without masks.

"I nitpick. If [the tables are] still relatively close together…I wont eat there. I tend to find places with higher ceilings," he says. "I have walked away."

Is it a viable model?

COVID-19 has hit the restaurant industry hard everywhere—including Hong Kong. Restaurant visits across the world were down more than 92% year-over-year from on May 19, according to data published by OpenTable.com, based on a sample of 20,000 restaurants it hosts on the platform.

Hussain says that there were a few nights earlier this year when not one customer came to one of the group's restaurants in Hong Kong.

The new measures are hard on the bottom lines for Hong Kong's restaurants—many of which were already reeling from six months of anti-government protests in 2019 that kept residents home and scared away tourists. Table spacing requirements can be particularly tough in Hong Kong where spaces are often small, and rents are some of the highest in the world.

"Physical distancing especially is difficult, that means you can't run your restaurant at optimum revenue," says Hussain.

But he says, given that coronavirus is likely going to be around until a vaccine can be developed and deployed, they're making the best of a bad situation: "I think the choice is very clear, either we try to exist within this new framework, or we don't exist. We're trying to make the best of it. It's going to be a tough year."

Are restaurants forever changed?

Hussain says that he's preparing to run his restaurants with at least some of the new measures for the long term.

"This notion of things returning to normal, that's not going to happen," he says.

Hong Kong food blogger Andrew Tang, 31, hopes some of the changes will be permanent. "I think hand sanitizer is a must, now we're kind of used to it," he says.

Ferreira of Associazione Chianti says that many of the changes are likely to stick: "Social distancing, sanitizing, alcohol wipes, it's here to stay, I think it's going to be part of the new norm."

— With reporting by Aria Chen in Hong Kong