Headlines 

Amazon sales of ‘non-essentials’ hit by French court ruling

Online supplier to appeal against staff virus safety plan in France which sought to limit orders to food and medicine Amazon must stop selling non-essential items or face a fine of 1m a day until it can come up with a safety plan to protect the health of its employees, a French court has ruled. The ruling, which has already been suspended pending appeal, required the company to only accept orders for groceries, toiletries and medical products as part of the wider lockdown imposed in France. The company was sued…

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Odds and Ends 

Pre-school edtech startup Lingumi raises 4m, adds some free services during COVID-19

At these difficult times, parents are concerned for their children’s education, especially given so much of it has had to go online during the COVID-19 pandemic. But what about pre-schoolers who are missing out? Pre-school children are sponges for information but don’t get formal training on reading and writing until they enter the classroom when they are less sponge-like and surrounded by 30 other children. Things are tougher for non-English speaking children who’s parents want them to learn English. Lingumi, a platform aimed at toddlers learning critical skills, has now…

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Odds and Ends 

European Parliament moves to majority teleworking in response to COVID-19

The European Parliament is instructing managers to prepare for all but a minority of staff to work remotely for 70% of the week as of next Monday — dialling up its response to Covid-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Full-time remote working may follow, it has also said. In an email sent today European Parliament staff have been instructed that teleworking will be introduced on March 16 — for “all colleagues whose physical presences in Parliament is not absolutely indispensable”. “At this stage it will be 70% teleworking.…

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