Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. have submitted more than 70 recommendations to federal regulators as to how they plan to protect people on their ships amid the Covid-19 pandemic should they get the go-ahead to resume operations in the U.S.

Recommendations from a panel assembled by the companies include tighter controls to keep infected people from boarding ships, reducing transmission through air management and enhanced sanitation practices, and detailed plans for addressing positive infections...

Companies reopening their workplaces are wrestling with a thorny problem: who should come back soonest.

International Business Machines Corp. prioritized scientists working in quantum computer labs when it reopened a New York research hub earlier this summer, figuring they had the hardest time doing their jobs from home. Payroll processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. has relied upon a dashboard that offers a regularly updated view of who’s willing to come in and who’d prefer to stay home.

Nearly a decade ago, Toyota Motor Corp. dethroned General Motors Co. as the world’s largest car company, leaving some GM executives wringing their hands.

Mary Barra wasn’t among them. When she took the CEO job in early 2014, she inherited a company that for decades was so large and unwieldy executives sometimes didn’t know whether parts of the business were making or losing money.

On...

The sharp advertising downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic brought the internet’s two largest content-recommendation companies back to the negotiating table nearly a year after they had agreed to combine.

In the end, Taboola Ltd. and Outbrain Inc. couldn’t agree on revised terms, calling off a cash-and-stock deal that had already been blessed by the Justice Department.

Taboola and Outbrain said their advertising rates plummeted in the early months of the pandemic. That prompted them to seek to renegotiate payments with publishers who carry their content feeds—the “promoted stories” or “around the web” sections that appear at the bottom of news stories on various websites. All the while, both companies kept pitching other publishers aggressively in an effort to win new clients.

“The agreement had an expiration date after 12 months, giving each party the opportunity to walk away,” Taboola Chief Executive Adam Singolda said in an interview Sunday....

Facebook Inc. will prohibit new political advertisements in the week before the U.S. presidential election in November and seek to flag any candidates’ premature claims of victory, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday.

The steps are meant to head off last-minute misinformation campaigns and limit the potential for civil unrest, Mr. Zuckerberg said.

“This election is not going to be business as usual,” he said, noting both the difficulties of voting during a pandemic and likely attacks on the credibility of the results.

“I’m worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or even weeks to be finalized, there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country,” he said in the statement, adding that “our democracy is strong enough to withstand this challenge and deliver a free and fair election.”

The U.S. intelligence community has warned of attempts at foreign interference and President...

SONGDO, South Korea—Samsung’s drug-manufacturing arm is betting that the already-booming market for biologic drug ingredients will only get hotter, thanks to industry shifts sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Key to that bet is a nearly $2 billion drugmaking plant that, when completed in 2022, will be the largest of its kind in the world. Dubbed the “Super Plant,” Samsung Biologics Co.’s fourth factory will have around 230,000 square meters of floor space, making it bigger than the company’s three existing plants combined...

Political campaigns looking to reach voters during an election year disrupted by the coronavirus are increasingly turning to digital-video ads, which are cheaper than traditional TV spots and more efficient at targeting specific voter groups.

The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said it rolled out a new ad last week on Walt Disney Co.-controlled Hulu and other digital platforms including ViacomCBS Inc.’s Pluto TV that aired in swing states including Arizona and Wisconsin.

“In the midst of this pandemic we’ve seen unprecedented levels of media consumption,” said Patrick Bonsignore, the Biden campaign’s director of paid media. “That’s why we are focused on meeting voters where they are now—across devices and in their homes on connected TV and digital streaming channels.”

Both the Biden and Trump campaigns say they have spent millions on digital TV ads. The Trump campaign said it began reserving such ads and secured volume discounts...

Macy’s reported a loss of $431 million for the latest quarter, even as sales continued to recover from temporary store closures spurred by the coronavirus pandemic.

The retailer reported $3.6 billion in sales, up from $3 billion in the previous quarter, but nearly $2 billion less than the company recorded in the second quarter of 2019.

Macy’s...

Online M.B.A.s are gaining traction during the coronavirus era as more U.S. business schools seek new students and some wonder if their traditional full-time and on-site M.B.A. programs will survive.

Many universities said this year that they would roll out online M.B.A. degree programs, including the business schools of Howard University, Wake Forest University and John Carroll University. They join the ranks of some big state schools, including the University of Illinois’s Gies College of Business and Indiana University’s...

DUBAI—Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant is reviewing plans to expand at home and abroad in the face of sharply lower oil prices and a heavy dividend burden it assumed as part of its recent initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.

Saudi Aramco is now slowing down and reviewing a $6.6 billion plan to add petrochemical output at its Motiva refinery in Texas, these people said. It is also reviewing a big natural-gas project with Sempra Energy in the same state, and pausing investments in refineries in...

Ford Motor Co. is offering buyouts to salaried employees in the U.S., a move that comes as the car maker works to rebound from coronavirus-related factory closures earlier in the year and prepares for new executive leadership.

Ford will offer the buyouts to certain salaried employees who are eligible for retirement as of Dec. 31, according to a memo the company distributed Wednesday that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Ford hopes to trim about 1,400 workers through the buyouts, a company spokesman said. It has about 30,000 salaried U.S. workers total.

Eligible employees can accept offers to leave the company up to Oct. 23, with those approved to leave departing by the end of the year, Kumar Galhotra, president of the Americas and international markets, said in the memo. The company could terminate workers if the buyouts don’t meet company goals, Mr. Galhotra said.

The cuts are on top of about 7,000 salaried workers let go globally last...