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1/81   News Photos Slideshows PEOPLE TOPIC NEWS News Photos Slideshows - Hot Trends - Click on the image to view in augmented reality or in stereo 3D Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. Press Review Chris Paul   Chance   Team LeBron   National Anthem   Common   Ciampa   Kyle Lowry   Rudy Gobert   Ultralight Beam   Hot Shower   Kawhi Leonard   Tania   Rhea   Leafs   Ice Trae   Nick Nurse   Oh Canada   Acid Rap   pj walker   Coleman    2/81   Viola Davis’s message to white women: ‘Get to know me’ PEOPLE TOPIC NEWS But Davis does see a path forward: empathy and becoming educated on one another’s experiences. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 3/81   Swizz Beatz, Alicia Keys’s husband, says hip-hop industry lacks compassion PEOPLE TOPIC NEWS Iconic hip-hop producer and Alicia Keys’s husband, Swizz Beatz, isn’t afraid to tell his guy friends he loves them. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 4/81   Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino Is 'Having the Time of His Life' in Prison, Snooki Says PEOPLE TOPIC NEWS Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino Is 'Having the Time of His Life' in Prison Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 5/81   'Avengers: Endgame' tops 'Star Wars,' breaks previous pre-sale record PEOPLE TOPIC NEWS 'Avengers: Endgame' tops 'Star Wars,' breaks previous pre-sale record originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com"Avengers: Endgame" tickets went on sale Tuesday and just like Thanos' famous snap, they were gone just like that. But way more than half.Fandango is reporting that "Endgame" has broken its pre-sale records, topping the previous holder, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."(MORE: New 'Avengers: Endgame' trailer features Captain Marvel, the battle to beat Thanos)Guess the force is strong with Earth's mightiest heroes. ... Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 6/81   Selma Blair reveals she cried with relief at MS diagnosis after being 'not taken seriously' by doctors PEOPLE TOPIC NEWS The 46-year-old actress is now revealing the agony she went through before receiving a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) last August.'Ever since my son was born, I was in an MS flare-up and didn't know, and I was giving it everything to seem normal,' Blair told Robin Roberts in an interview that aired Tuesday on 'Good Morning America.' 'And I was self-medicating when he wasn't with me. Blair recalled that she would get so fatigued prior to her diagnosis that she would need to pull over to take a nap after dropping her son, now 7, off at his school one mile away from their home. During her interview with 'GMA' at her Los Angeles home, Blair was in an 'exacerbation' of MS, or an attack that causes new symptoms or the worsening of existing symptoms. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 7/81   They won't be loved: Maroon 5 play it safe with dullest halftime show of all time PEOPLE TOPIC NEWS Maroon 5 could have silenced their many haters with a spectacular performance. But they didn’t do that. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 8/81   Do star athletes make too much money? SPORTS TOPIC NEWS With athletes in America's biggest sports leagues raking in salaries worth $300 million and more, is it time to reign in the big spending or do superstars deserve the big bucks they make? Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 9/81   Live animal mascots: Cute or exploitative? SPORTS TOPIC NEWS Animal rights activists have repeatedly called for college sports teams to stop using real animals as their mascots. Are these complaints fair or an overreaction? Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 10/81   Does U.S. women's soccer deserve equal pay? SPORTS TOPIC NEWS Has the U.S. women's soccer team done enough to warrant salaries that match their male counterparts? The 360 gives you all the angles on heavily-debated topics in the news. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 11/81   After fighting for 9/11 victims, Jon Stewart turns to Warrior Games SPORTS TOPIC NEWS The former “Daily Show” host is serving as the host and emcee of this week’s 2019 Department of Defense Warrior Games in Tampa, where about 300 wounded, ill or injured active-duty and veteran military athletes are competing in 14 adaptive sports. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 12/81   Kevin Love talks anxiety, depression and the time he thought he was going to die mid-game SPORTS TOPIC NEWS “Dear Men” explores how men are navigating the evolution of manhood. NBA All-Star Kevin Love’s mental health journey began in a moment of anxiety on the basketball court during a November 2017 game against the Atlanta Hawks. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 13/81   Is there a crisis with our boys? Expert says they need love, not discipline SPORTS TOPIC NEWS “Dear Men” explores how men are navigating the evolution of manhood. You can watch the current week's full episode of “Dear Men” every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on Roku. So why are young men struggling? So I don’t never hold back my tears when I'm feeling an emotional overload,” he said. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 14/81   Aly Raisman on Larry Nassar assault: Sometimes people forget I'm still coping with it SPORTS TOPIC NEWS It has been a year since former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for abusing more than 150 girls. But Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman is still coming to terms with the sexual abuse she experienced as a teenager. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 15/81   Aly Raisman on Larry Nassar assault: Sometimes people forget I’m still coping with it SPORTS TOPIC NEWS Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman tells the Yahoo News show “Through Her Eyes” that she sometimes finds it difficult to hear the graphic details in the sexual assault stories of others, as she is still coping with her own traumatic experience. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 16/81   For the love of the brain: One mother's fight for CTE awareness SPORTS TOPIC NEWS Karen Kinzle Zegel spends her days working on the Patrick Risha CTE Awareness Foundation website, fielding questions and giving out information on a disease she barely knew existed five years ago – until it took the life of her son, for whom the foundation is named. Karen remembers, “We were a football family, his dad was a coach, I would cheer and yell and you know, do all the things the football mom does. At the time, she was unaware of CTE – chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head – and the role it was playing in Patrick’s life. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 17/81   PHOTOS: Fluorescent turtle embryo wins forty-fifth annual Nikon Small World Competition The winners of the 45th annual competition showcase a spectacular blend of science and artistry under the microscope. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 18/81   7 tax scams to watch out for this year In case wringing your hands over the tax man weren’t enough, criminals are out there trying to swipe your hard-earned cash and personal information from right under your nose. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 19/81   Mother Angry After School's Robocall Keeps Mispronouncing Daughter's Name As A Racial Slur The daughter's name is Nicarri. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 20/81   What the CIA thinks of your anti-virus program PARIS (AP) — Peppering the 8,000 pages of purported Central Intelligence Agency hacking data released Tuesday by WikiLeaks are reviews of some of the world's most popular anti-virus products. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 21/81   Avowed Apple Fan Jeb Bush Realizes His Apple Watch Can Take Phone Calls Jeb Bush's love of Apple products has been widely documented, and the Republican presidential candidate continues to wear his Apple Watch on the campaign trail. Yesterday, in a meeting with The Des Moines Register editorial board documented by USA Today, Bush stumbled upon a feature he didn’t realize his smartwatch was capable of: taking phone calls. Somehow Bush managed to take a call without picking up his iPhone, and the sound of a person’s voice saying hello breaks through the meeting noise, to which Bush responds, “My watch can’t be talking.” Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 22/81   Social media welcomes Pope Francis to the United States Pope Francis gets the social media treatment upon arriving in the U.S. Tuesday. As Pope Francis’s flight touched down in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Twitter unveiled a new batch of emojis created for the highly anticipated papal visit. Until his departure from the United States on Sunday, Twitter users chronicling the Catholic leader’s East Coast journey will be able to include a cartoon image of the Pope’s face in front of the American flag on all Pope-related tweets by using the hashtag #PopeinUS. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 23/81   China Cases Top 70,000; Japan’s Abe Loses Support: Virus Update TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS (Bloomberg) -- China said the number of coronavirus cases climbed above 70,000 as the province at the epicenter of the outbreak reported 1,933 new infections, slightly higher than a day earlier.The head of a Wuhan hospital said a turning point has been reached as new cases fell over the weekend, but the outlook was more cautionary outside of China. The head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said the outbreak is on the verge of a global pandemic if containment steps fail to show more success.Deaths emerged in France and Taiwan over the weekend, bringing to five the number of fatalities outside mainland China. The U.S. evacuated some passengers from a cruise ship in Japan, where 355 people have the coronavirus.New DevelopmentsChina death toll at 1,770, up 105; mainland cases rise to 70,548; 10,844 dischargedHubei adds 1,933 new cases, up from 1,843 a day earlierChina stocks rebound from selloff China, Asia Bulk Up Economy Defenses Against Virus Ahead of G-20Virus Fears Grow as Travelers on Stricken Ships Return HomeClick VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the novel coronavirus and here for maps and charts. For analysis of the impact from Bloomberg Economics, click here.Abe’s Support Slides Amid Doubts Over Virus Handling (11:35 a.m. HK)Voter support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fell in three polls, with two showing public dissatisfaction over his government’s handling of the new coronavirus outbreak as new domestic cases continue to be discovered daily.Approval for Abe’s cabinet fell 5 percentage points from the previous month to 47% in a survey carried out by the Yomiuri newspaper Feb. 14-16. The survey found 52% of respondents were dissatisfied with the government’s handling of the virus outbreak.Unlike other places that have issued blanket bans on visitors from China due to the virus, Abe’s government has adopted a softer approach with Japan’s biggest trading partner by limiting the restrictions to foreigners who have been in virus epicenters, such as Wuhan. Critics have called for a bar on all visitors from China.Japan has found more than 400 cases of the virus, 355 of them among the passengers and crew from a cruise ship held in quarantine in the port of Yokohama.See full story here.Chinese Airlines See Impact from Coronavirus (11:32 a.m. HK)China’s three largest airlines reported declines in January passenger traffic because of the coronavirus outbreak, with the shortfalls likely to deepen this month as the epidemic continues to disrupt travel for millions of people.Air China Ltd.’s numbers slipped 2.9% from a year earlier, while China Southern Airlines Co.’s fell 4.6% and China Eastern Airlines Corp.’s dropped 5.4%, according to statements filed to Hong Kong’s stock exchange late last week. Airlines began suspending flights from about Jan. 23 after the government began locking down Wuhan and other Chinese cities.China Stocks Rebound From Sell-off (10:13 a.m. HK)China’s stock benchmark recouped all its losses from a record $720 billion sell-off earlier this month, a sign that investor confidence is improving after policy makers acted to ease the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.The CSI 300 Index added as much as 1.2% early Monday, surpassing its 4,003.9-point close from Jan. 23, the last trading day before a Lunar New Year break. The index plunged 7.9% on Feb. 3 as Chinese markets reopened to the health crisis.To cushion the blow, China’s government has pumped cash into the financial system, trimmed money-market rates and offered targeted tax cuts. Beijing will also allow local governments to sell another 848 billion yuan ($121 billion) of debt before March, as authorities seek to offset the economic shock of the coronavirus. China said Sunday it will enact more-efficient stimulus measures despite a widening fiscal gap, including lower corporate taxes.China Home Price Growth Slows Amid Virus Spread (10:10 a.m. HK)China home prices rose at the slowest pace in almost two years in January, as sales plunged late in the month when the coronavirus outbreak worsened dramatically.Home sales “fell off a cliff” as efforts to combat the virus ramped up, said Yang Kewei, an analyst at China Real Estate Information Corp. Entire cities, including Wuhan where the virus originated, were locked down, and people restricted from returning home from Lunar New Year travels.The slowdown has probably worsened this month as the New Year holiday was extended, developers closed showrooms and more cities went into lockdown.Coronavirus Cases Top 70,000 (9:13 a.m. HK)China reported 2,048 additional coronavirus cases by the end of Feb. 16, bringing the total case count to 70,548, according to a statement from National Health Commission.China’s Hubei province reported 1,933 additional confirmed cases. While that’s slightly higher than a day earlier, it’s in line with a lower trend over the past several days. The province announced a stunning 15,000 new cases on Thursday after revising its method for counting infections.The death toll in China increased by 105 to 1,770. More than 10,000 patients have been discharged so far.There are now five fatalities outside of mainland China, after France and Taiwan reported deaths over the weekend.U.S. in Contact With Malaysia Over Westerdam Case (7:42 a.m. HK)The U.S. State Department said Sunday it’s in “close contact” with Malaysian authorities after an 83-year-old American woman fell ill with the coronavirus a day after leaving a cruise ship that showed no signs of the illness.The woman was aboard the Westerdam, which over two weeks at sea was turned away by five different ports before docking late last week in Cambodia. Passengers were screened during the trip and all results were negative. A spokesperson for the State Department said because the ship was at sea for the required 14-day quarantine, passengers were free to travel after they left.The woman, who hasn’t been identified, flew to Malaysia then showed symptoms of the virus. Malaysian authorities confirmed a positive test and the woman was taken to a hospital.The U.S. doesn’t have “sufficient evidence” to determine when she may have been exposed or where, said the spokesperson.U.S. officials are paying close attention to several cruise ships at sea during the onset and spread the virus, the spokesperson said.Hubei Province Reports 100 New Fatalities (6:54 a.m. HK)China’s Hubei reported 1,933 additional confirmed cases for Feb. 16, taking the total case count in the province to 58,182, Hubei’s health commission said in a statement.The death toll in the province rose by 100 to 1,696, while 6,639 patients have been discharged.U.S. Evacuates Cruise Passengers From Japan (6:42 a.m. HK)A pair of aircraft chartered by the State Department have taken off from Tokyo to bring back home Americans evacuated from a cruise ship in Japan, according the U.S. embassy’s website.The passengers will be kept in quarantine for 14 days, separate from other travelers who, because they visited China, are isolated at the U.S. bases.More than 40 U.S. citizens infected by the virus aboard the Diamond Princess were expected to stay behind in hospitals. A total of 355 people on the Carnival Corp. cruise have tested positive for the coronavirus.Canada is using a chartered plane to repatriate Canadians from the ship. Hong Kong also plans to send a plane for its nationals.Virus to Cause ‘Demand Shock’ for Copper (4:30 p.m. NY)Disruptions from the coronavirus and other “significant” knock-on effects will lead to a full-year demand loss for copper of 300,000 metric tons, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in an analysis that assumes the outbreak is contained to the first quarter.Disruptions at smelters could reduce production, partially offsetting the impact of declining demand.Read the full story here.Briton on Ship Feels ‘Forgotten’ (4:15 p.m. NY)The U.K. is ignoring British citizens trapped on the quarantined Diamond Princess in Japan as other nations charter aircraft for evacuation flights, one passenger said in a video posting.David Abel, traveling with his wife, Sally, said passengers on the ship docked in Yokohama are aware that the U.S., Canada and Italy are flying their citizens home. Passengers are getting despondent, he said.“Every country, except the U.K., has become involved and that is really wonderful,” he said in a video message on YouTube. “Can I just tell you, U.K., how this makes me really feel? It feels that we have been forgotten, that you don’t really care about us and that you’re actually not wanting us to come home.”Abel said the couple is confined to the cabin and wear a mask when they open the door. They’ve been interviewed by British TV during the ordeal. He said fewer than 80 Britons are on the ship.Separately, Australia is considering plans to bring back its citizens this week, and a decision could be made as soon as Monday, Australian Associated Press said.The ship, with 355 ill passengers, is the largest infection cluster outside China.China, Asia Bulk Up Against Virus (3 p.m. NY)China, Hong Kong and Singapore are pledging extra fiscal stimulus to counter the economic hit from the coronavirus.China will enact more-efficient stimulus measures, including lower corporate taxes. Hong Kong faces “tsunami-like” shocks that may lead to a record budget deficit. Singapore, which is losing as many as 20,000 tourists a day to travel curbs, will get a “strong” package of budget measures this week.Malaysia Says Westerdam Passengers Negative for Virus (9:42 a.m. NY)Six passengers who were quarantined after arriving in Malaysia from the Westerdam cruise ship in Cambodia have tested negative for the virus, Malaysia’s health ministry said. The two Americans and four Dutch nationals arrived on a flight with an 83-year-old woman who tested positive for the coronavirus twice after arrival.Taiwan Victim Worked as Taxi Driver (9:23 a.m. NY)The deceased was a taxi driver, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control said in a statement late Sunday. He carried three passengers returning to Taiwan from China, Hong Kong and Macau, who later visited doctors for respiratory symptoms. CDC is tracking the three people and all close contacts of the man who died.Hospital Head Says Coronavirus Turning Point Reached (8:45 a.m. NY)The turning point for the novel coronavirus epidemic has been reached and the number of new outbreaks is declining, the state-run China Central Television reports, citing Wang Xinghuan, head of Wuhan Leishenshan Hospital.The number of people with a fever has been sliding steadily and has never rebounded, Wang was cited as saying.Some Positive Economic Signs From Epidemic, Xinhua Says (8:05 a.m. NY)The novel coronavirus epidemic had some temporary impact on China’s economy but won’t overwhelm it, the official Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary on its website. The Chinese economy is a sea, not a small pond, it said.Taiwan Confirms First Death From Coronavirus (6:13 a.m. NY)Taiwan reported the first death from coronavirus on Sunday, and added two more confirmed cases, bringing the total to 20, according to a statement from the country’s Centers for Disease Control via text message. The man in his 60s had a history of hepatitis B and diabetes, the CDC said in a statement on its website. He went to the hospital on Feb. 3 with shortness of breath and died from pneumonia and sepsis on Feb. 15.\--With assistance from Abeer Abu Omar, Ryan Beene, Dong Lyu, Jing Jin, Cindy Wang, K. Oanh Ha, Isabel Reynolds, Tony Czuczka and April Ma.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Steve Geimann in Washington at sgeimann@bloomberg.net;Karen Leigh in Hong Kong at kleigh4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Rachel Chang at wchang98@bloomberg.net, Jeff SutherlandFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 24/81   China Lunar New Year Travel Plunges on Virus Outbreak TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS (Bloomberg) -- China’s air, rail and road travel market got slammed during the peak Lunar New Year season as fears about the spreading coronavirus prompted people to abandon trips.Passenger travel would likely fall 45% on-year during the 40-day travel season that ends Feb. 18, Liu Xiaoming, a vice minister at the transport ministry, said at a briefing in Beijing Saturday. Between Jan 25. and Feb. 14, airlines carried an average of 470,000 people a day, only a quarter of last year’s volume. Passenger numbers from Feb. 15-23 are estimated to be one 10th of the peak period, said Li Jian, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.The epidemic has roiled the nation’s transportation industry after authorities locked down large areas of the country and more than 50 countries imposed travel restrictions involving China.The epidemic overlapped with a particularly busy time as it occurred during the Lunar New Year season, when hundreds of millions of Chinese were expected to go on 3 billion trips. But the number of trips made in China over the break plunged 73% to about 190 million, the transport ministry said on Feb. 3. Broken down, those traveling by train dropped 67%, air passenger numbers slumped 57%, while trips via road and water fell more than 70%.Local airlines have been struggling. China Southern Airlines Co. scrapped about 45% of flights in late January and early February, the highest rate among the nation’s top carriers, followed by Air China Ltd. and China Eastern Airlines Corp., according to Citigroup Inc. research.The trucking industry has also been paralyzed, with some cargo volumes shrinking to 1% of last year’s peak levels, according to G7 Network, a provider of systems that help fleet operators track their vehicles.(Corrects second paragraph to say travel between Feb. 15-23 is an estimate in story originally published Feb. 15.)To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Tian Ying in Beijing at ytian@bloomberg.net;Niu Shuping in Beijing at nshuping@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net, Anand KrishnamoorthyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 25/81   China Stocks Climb With Yuan; Japan Sinks With GDP: Markets Wrap TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS (Bloomberg) -- Asia’s markets saw a mixed start to the week, with China’s stocks and the yuan taking encouragement from pledges to support the nation’s economy, and Japanese equities declining after a deep contraction in GDP.China’s CSI 300 Index recouped all of its losses since trading resumed after the Lunar New Year break, with the central bank lowering one of its interest rates and saying it would support firms that can restart production as soon as possible. U.S. futures also climbed, and the strong China open helped limit losses in Japan. Treasuries aren’t trading due to a U.S. holiday. The yuan rose, as did the Aussie.China also over the weekend unveiled plans for reducing corporate taxes and fees, and letting banks run up more non-performing loans. Bloomberg Economics estimated China’s economy has been running at just 40% to 50% capacity in the last week, underscoring the short-term damage done by the coronavirus-linked shutdowns of large swathes of the country.Hubei, the province at the epicenter of the outbreak, Monday reported 1,933 new cases, slightly higher than a day earlier. Deaths were reported in France and Taiwan over the weekend, bringing to five the number of fatalities outside mainland China.“If the Chinese economy does recover and you’ve added all this fiscal and monetary stimulus into it as well, the situation could be that you have much stronger emerging-markets into the second half” of 2020, Sunny Bangia, a fund manager at Antipodes Partners Ltd., said on Bloomberg TV in Sydney. “A lot depends on how this virus gets contained and if it can morph into something more minor.”Japan’s Topix Index slid as much as 1.5% after the worst nominal GDP performance since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office. In Singapore, the government Monday cut its growth forecasts, citing uncertainty over the length and severity of the virus outbreak. The country is expected to unveil a large stimulus package to mitigate the hit from the epidemic.Here are some key events coming up:Earnings season rolls on with results from companies including: BHP Group, Glencore Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Walmart Inc. and Deere & Co.U.S. celebrates Presidents’ Day on Monday, with financial markets shut.Minutes of the most recent Federal Reserve meeting are published on Wednesday.Indonesia is expected to cut interest rates on Thursday, following emerging-market peers from Brazil to South Africa which have lowered borrowing costs already this year.Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs are scheduled to meet Feb. 22-23 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and are expected to discuss efforts to support growth amid the coronavirus threat.These are the main moves in markets:StocksJapan’s Topix index lost 1% as of 12:35 p.m. in Tokyo.Futures on the S&P 500 added 0.2%. The index rose 0.2% on Friday.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.5%.The Shanghai Composite added 1.3%.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index slipped 0.2%.South Korea’s Kospi index was flat.CurrenciesThe yen was flat at 109.83 per dollar.The offshore yuan added 0.2% to 6.9766 per dollar.The Australian dollar rose 0.2% to 67.24 U.S. cents.The euro bought $1.0838.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries slid three basis points to 1.58% on Friday. Futures were down slightly Monday.Australia’s 10-year yield ticked up a basis point, to 1.06%.CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude was flat at $52.02 a barrel.Gold was little changed at $1,582.31 an ounce.To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in Sydney at ahaigh1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 26/81   OPEC+ Dithering on Early Meeting Sees Oil Ease After Weekly Gain TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS (Bloomberg) -- Oil eased after the biggest weekly gain since September as hopes for an OPEC+ emergency meeting on the virus faded, while investors assessed Chinese stimulus measures to soften the outbreak’s economic impact.While Saudi Arabia hasn’t given up on its push for the gathering this month, OPEC and its allies are likely to stick with a scheduled meeting in March after Russia balked at the idea. China, Hong Kong and Singapore have pledged extra fiscal stimulus to counter the economic hit from the deadly coronavirus, with Beijing considering measures such as lowering corporate taxes.While Brent oil rallied by more than 5% last week amid speculation that the worst economic impacts of the virus may have been accounted for, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. slashed its 2020 crude-demand forecast almost in half and lowered its first-quarter price estimate by 16%. Sentiment remains cautious with Hubei, the Chinese province at the epicenter of the outbreak, reporting new cases and additional deaths.“What we saw last week was cautious optimism that the coronavirus spread could no longer be worsening, or could be contained within China,” said Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights. “But that cautious optimism is not enough for crude to recover all the ground it has lost.”Brent for April settlement dropped 13 cents, or 0.2%, to $57.19 a barrel as of 11:31 a.m. in Singapore on the ICE Futures Europe exchange after falling as much as 0.9% earlier. The contract advanced 5.2% last week. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $4.92 to West Texas Intermediate.WTI for March delivery was little changed at $52.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 3.4% last week, the biggest weekly gain since December.See also: Seized Oil Cargo Is Latest Twist in Venezuela’s Political FightRussia has resisted Saudi Arabia’s efforts for a swift response to the virus, even after an OPEC+ committee recommended additional collective cutbacks of 600,000 barrels a day — on top of the 2.1 million already being made. Global oil demand is expected to decline this quarter for the first time in more than a decade, according to the International Energy Agency.China on Monday offered more funding to banks and cut the interest rate it charges for the money to cushion its economy. Singapore has also promised a “strong” package of budget measures and central banks in the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia have cut interest rates as Asian economies grapple with the virus-induced slowdown.\--With assistance from James Thornhill and Serene Cheong.To contact the reporter on this story: Saket Sundria in Singapore at ssundria@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Serene Cheong at scheong20@bloomberg.net, Ben Sharples, Andrew JanesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 27/81   Tata Elxsi IoT Software Powers Tata Motors Connected Vehicle Platform TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS Tata Elxsi, a global design and technology services company, partnered with Tata Motors in developing their unified Connected Vehicle Platform that powers the Nexon EV range of electric cars. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 28/81   In Two Weeks, Indian Debt Turns From Loser to Favorite for Funds TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS (Bloomberg) -- Just a month ago, global funds couldn’t wait to dump India’s sovereign bonds. Now, they’re rushing back at the fastest pace in more than two years.Foreigners bought 136.7 billion rupees ($1.9 billion) of the debt in the first two weeks of February, set for the highest monthly inflow since June 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They sold 106.6 billion rupees last month.The sudden switch is a testimony to the unprecedented changes introduced by policy makers. In an attempt to fund record borrowings, Prime Minister Modi Narendra is lifting foreign investment limits on some bonds, while the central bank has introduced long-term reverse repurchases to lower borrowing costs.“The Reserve Bank of India’s policy bias has supported inflows and contributed to the strong rally in the shorter tenors,” said Stuart Ritson, a fund manager for emerging-market debt at Aviva Investors in Singapore. “The fiscal and inflation backdrop is challenging, but RBI policy should help support the market.”After five interest-rate cuts in 2019 failed to jump-start a slowing economy, the RBI has taken to unconventional policies. It first used a Federal Reserve style-like Operation Twist, and then on Feb. 6 added a measure similar to the European Central Bank’s Long-Term Refinancing Operation as surging inflation restricts more rate cuts.Shorter-tenor bonds have been the biggest beneficiaries of RBI’s plan to inject as much as $14 billion through one- and three-year funding operationsForeign holdings of sovereign debt due in 2024, with a coupon of 7.32%, rose to about 11% on Feb. 14 from 7% on Feb. 5. The yields fell 31 basis points in that period, compared with an 11 basis points drop in the benchmark 10-year bond.India is attracting inflows just as Indonesia, Asia’s other major high-yielding bond market, sees outflows. Foreign funds sold $835.3 million of Indonesian debt so far in February on concern the coronavirus outbreak may impact Chinese demand for the nation’s exports.“Indian bonds are very attractive in the context of Asian bonds, given their high yields and lower volatility that increase risk-adjusted returns,” said Lin Jing Leong, a Singapore-based investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd. Bond markets “will certainly be supported” due to RBI’s long-term repo operations and more policy easing, he said.To contact the reporter on this story: Kartik Goyal in Mumbai at kgoyal@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tan Hwee Ann at hatan@bloomberg.net, Neha D'silvaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 29/81   Clock's ticking for Nissan boss Uchida to show he has a plan - sources TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS Nissan's new CEO Makoto Uchida doesn't have time to work his way into the job. The pressure intensified on Thursday when Nissan, which has had a year of turmoil since the arrest and sacking of long-time leader Carlos Ghosn, posted its first quarterly net loss in nearly a decade and slashed its annual profit forecast. One of the people familiar with the intentions of some on Nissan's 10-member board said an assessment of Uchida's efforts and a decision on his future would likely be made toward the middle of the year. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 30/81   Japanese economy sinks amid fears about virus impact TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS The Japanese economy shrank at an annual pace of 6.3% last quarter as growth was battered by typhoons and crimped consumer spending. The seasonally adjusted economic data released Monday by the Cabinet Office comes amid looming fears about the economic damage expected from the new viral illness COVID-19 that began in China late last year. Japan's gross domestic product, or GDP, the sum of the value of a nation's products and services, slipped 1.6% in the last three months of 2019 quarter-on-quarter. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 31/81   Trump, Turkey call for Russia to stop backing Syrian 'atrocities' TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS President Donald Trump has called for Russia to end its support for the Syrian regime's 'atrocities' as he expressed US concern over violence in the Idlib region, the White House said Sunday. Turkey's foreign minister also pressed his Russian counterpart over the attacks by Damascus on the last rebel-held bastion in the country. Backed by Russian air power, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made fresh gains Sunday as he intensified his assault on the holdout northwestern province of Idlib. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 32/81   Fast-food companies in China step up ‘contactless’ pickup, delivery as coronavirus rages TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS NEW YORK/BEIJING (Reuters) - With the coronavirus outbreak in China continuing to spread, McDonald's Corp , Starbucks Corp and other fast-food companies are ramping up 'contactless' pickup and delivery services to keep their workers and customers safe, the companies said. McDonald's has implemented contactless pickup and delivery of Big Macs, fries and other menu items across the China as the outbreak has unfolded. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 33/81   Gold Diggers Resist the Rally’s Lure TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Bullion prices are at their highest in seven years, closing in on $1,600 an ounce. Gold held by exchange-traded funds is at all-time records and rising, thanks to worries over the economic damage inflicted by the coronavirus outbreak. Reserves, meanwhile, are depleting. It’s a heady mixture for miners, but perhaps not yet an intoxicating one.Take Polyus PJSC, Russia’s largest gold digger. The $17 billion company said last week that it would pay down debt before beginning to spend seriously on its $2.5 billion Sukhoi Log project, set to add 1.6 million ounces a year to supply. That’s quite a statement. This is one of the world’s lowest-cost producers, generating plenty of cash, holding one of most impressive untapped resources globally, at a time of rising prices. The mine promises significant extra output for a company that aims to produce 2.8 million ounces this year.  Even so, Polyus is resisting the urge to fast-track, with a roughly two-year  “transitional period” of planning before it begins in 2023.Granted, there are circumstances peculiar to Polyus that suggest conservative timing and financing is necessary. The miner is controlled by the son of Suleiman Kerimov, one of a handful of tycoons included in Washington’s 2018 sanctions list. A planned $900 million equity sale to Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group fell apart earlier that year, too. The project itself, meanwhile, is vast, and deep inside Russia, hardly a popular jurisdiction with foreign mining investors.Polyus’s conservative approach is noteworthy, nonetheless. This is an industry that has in general become far more cautious with big-bang projects after a string of boom-time efforts a decade ago, begun in haste and regretted at leisure. Barrick Gold Corp.’s Pascua Lama in South America started in 2000 as a $1.2 billion project; by the time it was shelved in 2013, the estimated cost had soared to $8.5 billion. Polyus learned its own lessons at its Natalka mine. It was trapped by falling prices in 2013 and construction eventually paused, before resuming in 2016. Certainly Sukhoi Log, first studied by Soviet geologists in the 1970s, comes with history and plenty of challenges. The size, at some 63 million ounces and as much of a quarter of Russia’s gold reserves, means it is the largest project on the industry’s horizon, by some way. For Polyus, it adds the equivalent of the annual output of its nearest rival, Polymetal International Plc. That gargantuan scale that leaves plenty of room for costs to spill over. There is processing to resolve, all on site, and transport logistics will be complex given the mine’s location. When I visited in 2012, the airport in the nearest settlement closed if it rained.But the geology isn’t unfamiliar to Polyus, already operating nearby. It will use conventional processing. And the miner’s overall expenses are low by global standards. Its all-in sustaining cost was $594 per ounce in 2019, against Barrick’s $894. That’s a substantial margin even if bullion prices sink to the $1,050 used in Polyus’s Sukhoi Log calculations. It’s all a far cry from the mood of the 2000s bull run, when gold shot up to $1,900 an ounce from $300 in just over a decade, and miners raced behind. The resulting value destruction was immense: Billions were spent on terrible projects and worse companies. A full 80% of the transaction value of the eight largest deals between 2001 and 2011 was impaired, according to a McKinsey & Co. study published last year. The industry’s return on capital between 2010 and 2016 was a pathetic 2.6%.With the gold price trending higher after a couple of years around $1,200 to $1,300, deals have come back, and cashflows are helping exploration budgets rise. It’s notable that M&A discussions are beginning to build in prices closer to $1,500 than the $1,200 or so of recent years. It’s exuberance that hasn’t quite fed through to mega projects.Polyus’s muddy knoll in bleak eastern Siberia has enough gold beneath it to rival behemoths like Grasberg, in Indonesia. As prices climb and buccaneering projects like Newcrest Mining Ltd. and Harmony Gold Mining Co.’s Wafi-Golpu in Papua New Guinea are  back in discussion, the question is whether Polyus sets a trend, or becomes the judicious exception. To contact the author of this story: Clara Ferreira Marques at cferreirama@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker at mbrooker1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 34/81   Accelerated Strategies Group Launches Research Study Into Coronavirus' Impact On IT Industry With 'Health Emergency IT Preparedness' Survey TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS Accelerated Strategies Group, the analyst company whose mission is to democratize access to industry expert knowledge, MediaOps' IT as Code community platform, DevOps Institute and JumpCloud, have launched a research study and survey to better understand the IT community's preparedness and response to the current coronavirus threat and future health emergencies. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 35/81   UK shoppers face pain without comprehensive post-Brexit trade deal - BRC TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS British consumers face higher prices and reduced availability of goods if the government fails to agree pragmatic solutions with the European Union on regulatory checks at ports in any post-Brexit deal, the retail industry's lobby group warned on Monday. Next month will see the formal launch of negotiations on a new relationship after Britain left the EU at the end of January. Britain was able to import and export goods seamlessly during its membership of the EU's Customs Union and Single Market. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 36/81   Singapore January exports up 4.6 percent, beat forecasts TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS Singapore's exports rose 4.6% in January on a month-on-month basis, versus analysts' forecasts for a contraction, as both electronic and non-electronic shipments increased, official data showed on Monday. Economists had forecast a 4.5% drop in exports on a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, after a revised rise of 1.0% in December. Non-oil domestic exports from the city-state contracted 3.3% year-on-year in January, data from trade agency Enterprise Singapore showed, following a 2.4% expansion in December. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 37/81   GM plans to pull out of Australia, New Zealand and Thailand TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS General Motors says it's pulling out of Australia, New Zealand and Thailand as part of a strategy to exit markets that don't produce adequate returns on investments. The company said in a statement Sunday that it will wind down sales, engineering and design operations for its historic Holden brand in Australia and New Zealand in 2021. It also plans to sell its Rayong factory in Thailand to China's Great Wall Motors and withdraw the Chevrolet brand from Thailand by the end of this year. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 38/81   There’s Zero Chance Bloomberg Would Pick Hillary TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS There’s no better evidence that Mike Bloomberg’s chances of getting the Democratic nomination are on the rise than the fact that the opportunistic Hillary Clinton is already trying to grab a piece of the action.The Drudge Report startled the political world on Saturday by noting that “sources close to Bloomberg campaign” are “considering Hillary as running mate, after their polling found the Bloomberg-Clinton combination would be a formidable force.”I have no doubt that Hillary wants back in, and her minions are pushing such rumors. I have no doubt that some of Bloomberg’s hundreds of staffers used to work on Hillary’s campaign and are pushing the idea internally. I also have no doubt that Mike Bloomberg is smart enough to never go for such a crazy and risky idea.First, Mike Bloomberg needs “woke” progressives behind him and enthused enough to actually voted if he is to win a general election campaign. The last thing he should do is infuriate Bernie Sanders voters by sharing his ticket with the woman they blame for “rigging” the 2016 primaries against him. Recall that 12 percent of Sanders’s primary supporters voted for President Trump in the 2016 general election. That is according to the Cooperative Congressional Election Study — a massive election survey of around 50,000 people.Second, the Democratic ticket would be on the old side with a Bloomberg-Clinton ticket. The former New York mayor will be 78 years old at the time of the election this year, and he looks it. Hillary will be 73 years old, and she has a record of not being candid with her health issues. Should something happen to both of them, the next person in line for the presidency, should she remain House speaker, would be 80-year-old Nancy Pelosi.While they would be running against a 74-year-old incumbent president, few would question that Trump projects a vigorous persona. The Democratic Party needs an injection of youth and vitality, not a ticket with two people who barely brush the Baby Boom generation.Third, Hillary Clinton’s last job in government was an ethical disaster. Her email scandal, which clearly involved a coverup of just how much she compromised classified information, would have led to her indictment absent an extraordinary amount of political pull in her favor.Then there is the Clinton Foundation. There is extensive evidence that special-interest donors to the foundation sought favors from a responsive State Department. We know from Peter Schweitzer’s book Clinton Cash that the State Department helped move along an infamous deal that granted the Russians control of more than 20 percent of the uranium production here in the United States. The company involved in acquiring the American uranium was a very large donor to — you guessed it — the Clinton Foundation.President Obama had actually taken steps to ensure that none of this would happen. Hillary Clinton pledged that she would “avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest” in her work as secretary.”How did she do? The Associated Press reported that more than half of the nongovernmental figures who met with Secretary Clinton were Clinton Foundation donors. Huma Abedin, Clinton’s closest aide, agreed to help a Clinton Foundation aide get a diplomatic passport. Several key donations went unreported. Many of the emails stored on a private server that could have revealed more errant behavior were permanently destroyed using a program called “bleach bit.”In December 2008, the Clinton Foundation and the office of President-elect Obama signed an agreement. In it, the Foundation promised to disclose all of its donors and that foreign governments would not be allowed to contribute to it; Bill Clinton also agreed that he would not personally solicit funds for the Foundation.Many ethics experts scoff at the suggestion that Hillary followed either the letter or spirit of that agreement. Even the New York Times editorial board concluded in 2016 that “the emails and previous reporting suggest Mr. Trump has reason to say that while Mrs. Clinton was secretary, it was hard to tell where the foundation ended and the State Department began.”Forget jokes that Mike Bloomberg, if president, would need a food taster if Hillary were his vice president. But could a President Bloomberg be confident that Hillary wouldn’t be scarf-deep in scandal and intrigue every day she was his vice president? Could he rely on her word that she would avoid conflicts of interest and other ethical wrongs?Let’s not forget that Clinton’s shifty record led to a general perception that she was dishonest. A New York Times poll in August 2016, found that 67 percent of registered voters had doubts about her trustworthiness. “It wasn’t just emails and the Clinton Foundation,” Michael Barone, co-author of the Almanac of American Politics, told me. “When she was First Lady, there was Health-Care Gate, FBI File-Gate, Travel Gate, and Billing Records Gate.”Mike Bloomberg has been pressing the notion that scandals have plagued Donald Trump’s administration. Why would he want to surrender his claim to the moral high ground by making Hillary his running mate and exposing himself to accurate counterattacks over that by Trump?Michael Bloomberg built his business career and reputation as New York’s mayor by sizing up situations dispassionately and coldly. There is no way he is going to look at the prospect of Hillary Clinton joining his ticket as anything other than “risky business.” Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 39/81   China Stocks Rebound From Sell-off That Erased $720 Billion TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS (Bloomberg) -- China’s stock benchmark recouped all its losses from a record $720 billion sell-off earlier this month, a sign that investor confidence is improving after policy makers acted to ease the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.The CSI 300 Index added as much as 0.9% Monday, surpassing its 4,003.9-point close from Jan. 23, the last trading day before a Lunar New Year break that saw a surge in virus infections. The index plunged 7.9% on Feb. 3 as Chinese markets reopened to a health crisis that paralyzed most of the world’s second-largest economy. The measure remains well below its high close for the year of 4,203.99 reached on Jan. 13.To cushion the blow, China’s government has pumped cash into the financial system, trimmed money-market rates and offered targeted tax cuts. Beijing will also allow local governments to sell another 848 billion yuan ($121 billion) of debt before March, as authorities seek to offset the economic shock of the coronavirus. China said Sunday it will enact more-efficient stimulus measures despite a widening fiscal gap, including lower corporate taxes.“More stimulus policies are highly expected and an excess of capital that cannot be immediately absorbed by the real economy is expected to flow into the equity market, further lifting risk appetite,” said Yang Wei, a fund manager at Longwin Investment Management Co.While the full scope of the epidemic and its economic impact remain unclear, some investors are starting to look past worst-case scenarios.The smaller-cap ChiNext Index reversed its post-holiday slide in just over a day and has continued to power higher from there. It topped the 2,100-point level Friday for the first time since December 2016.The stocks regulator said Friday that it would ease some rules for firms seeking to raise extra capital through share placements, including shortening lockup periods. The rules would benefit small caps, helping the ChiNext add 2% on Monday.\--With assistance from Michael Patterson.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: April Ma in Beijing at ama112@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sofia Horta e Costa at shortaecosta@bloomberg.net, Philip GlamannFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 40/81   Oil prices slip ahead of data pointers on impact of coronavirus on demand TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS Oil prices edged lower on Monday as investors brace for economic data in Asia due this week that should give a reading on how China's coronavirus epidemic has affected oil demand. The weekly gains, the first since early January, were spurred by hopes that stimulus measures taken by China to support its economy amid the coronavirus outbreak could lead to a recovery in oil demand in the world's largest importing country. Analysts at Capital Economics said over the weekend that it is too soon to start assessing the longer-term economic fallout from the epidemic. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 41/81   China Cuts Rates, Adds Medium-Term Funds to Counter Virus TECHNOLOGY TOPIC NEWS (Bloomberg) -- China provided medium-term funding to banks and cut the interest rate it charges for the money as officials seek to cushion the economy from the virus epidemic.The People’s Bank of China offered 200 billion yuan ($29 billion) of one-year medium-term loans on Monday. The rate was lowered by 10 basis points to 3.15%. The central bank also added 100 billion yuan of funds with 7-day reverse repurchase agreements. Some 1 trillion yuan of reverse repos come due Monday, resulting in a net 700 billion yuan withdrawal.“The injection is relatively small,” said Becky Liu, head of China macro strategy at Standard Chartered Bank (HK) Ltd., adding the operation will reduce incentives to chase Chinese government and policy bank bonds. “It means the PBOC does not intend to further lower front-end rates from here. I think rates will stay range bound until further catalysts are there.”Futures on China’s 10-year government bonds reversed gains after the operation, falling as much as 0.11%. The CSI 300 Index of shares rose as much as 0.9% surpassing its 4,003.9-point close from Jan. 23, the last trading day before a Lunar New Year break. Last week, China vowed it would meet its 2020 economic targets and allowed local governments to issue more debt in the near term to aid growth.“I don’t think investors are overly worried about a lack of liquidity as it’s a clear trend that the PBOC would ease,” said Zhou Hao, an economist at Commerzbank AG. “Any declines in bonds resulted from today’s operation will create an opportunity for investors to buy more debt. The 10-year sovereign yield may fall to 2.8% in the coming weeks.”(Adds quotes from third paragraph.)To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Tian Chen in Hong Kong at tchen259@bloomberg.net;Qingqi She in Shanghai at qshe@bloomberg.net;Heng Xie in Beijing at hxie34@bloomberg.net;Jing Zhao in Beijing at jzhao231@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sofia Horta e Costa at shortaecosta@bloomberg.net, Kevin Kingsbury, David WatkinsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 42/81   Topless dairy industry protesters crashed the stage at a Bernie Sanders rally POLITICS TOPIC NEWS One protester grabbed a microphone to say she was Sanders' "biggest supporter" but pleaded that he "stop pumping up the dairy industry." Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 43/81   China sees rise in new virus cases, death toll rises by 105 POLITICS TOPIC NEWS The update followed the publication late Saturday in China's official media of a recent speech by President Xi Jinping in which he indicated for the first time that he had led the response to the outbreak from early in the crisis. Last Thursday, Hubei changed how it recognized COVID-19 cases, accepting a doctor's diagnosis rather than waiting for confirmed laboratory test results, in order to treat patients faster. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 44/81   Wisconsin mother, two daughters found dead after Amber Alert issued; boyfriend arrested POLITICS TOPIC NEWS A mother and two daughters were found dead after an Amber Alert was issued Saturday. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 45/81   American Passenger’s Coronavirus Diagnosis Raises New Fears POLITICS TOPIC NEWS Officials are scrambling to track down passengers who came into contact with an American woman who tested positive for coronavirus after leaving a cruise ship that was supposedly free of the bug.The nightmare scenario linked to the MS Westerdam, which is docked in Cambodia, came as the U.S. evacuated Americans from another cruise liner, the Diamond Princess. More than 300 passengers, including 44 Americans, were infected on that voyage.The MS Westerdam was stranded at sea for two weeks after Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Guam refused to let it dock because it had made a stop in Hong Kong.It was finally allowed to dock in Cambodia and began disembarking passengers on Friday. An 83-year-old U.S. woman who got off with her husband flew to Malaysia with 145 other cruise passengers.She later felt ill at the Kuala Lumpur airport and sought medical help. The Holland America cruise company confirmed Sunday that she had tested positive for COVID-19, as the new coronavirus originating from Wuhan, China, has been named.Now health officials must track down other travelers, who have since dispersed, to make sure they get screened for the contagious illness.Beijing’s Deadly Mistakes on Coronavirus“We are in close coordination with some of the leading health experts from around the world,” Dr. Grant Tarling, chief medical officer for Holland America Line, said in a statement.“These experts are working with the appropriate national health authorities to investigate and follow-up with individuals who may have come in contact with the guest.”Holland America said it screened 1,445 passengers on board Feb. 10 and did not find any elevated temperatures. “During the voyage there was no indication of COVID-19 on the ship,” it said.But the cruise line said it had tested just 20 patients for the virus—all of whom visited the on-ship medical clinic—and all were negative. But the 83-year-old American never visited the clinic and was never tested.If she was sick while on board the Westerdam and did not develop symptoms until later, it raises the question of whether other cruise passengers, who have gone on to final destinations, could fall into the same category.The diagnosis underscores the continuing uncertainty about whether, and to what degree, the average patient can spread coronavirus before they show symptoms.As the Westerdam situation unfolded, the U.S. evacuated about 300 Americans who had been quarantined on another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, where 355 people were infected with coronavirus.At least some of them will need to be quarantined for another two weeks once they arrive back in the U.S. Matthew Smith, who has been chronicling the on-board quarantine on Twitter, said he and his wife decided to stay behind.COVID-19 has killed 1,770 people in China, 1o5 of them on Monday, the government announced. On Sunday, Chinese officials had been quick to point out that the number of new cases had declined the three previous day and credited their infection control measures—but the number crept up again on Monday.The head of the World Health Organization cautioned that it was “impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take,” and that unpredictability could be seen in Taiwan, where officials revealed the first person to die of coronavirus was a cab driver, who got sick after picking up passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macau. One of the man’s family members has also tested positive. Officials there are now trying to figure out who was in the man’s cab.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 46/81   Judge sets Tuesday phone hearing in Roger Stone case POLITICS TOPIC NEWS The court session would be the first since prosecutors abruptly quit last week Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 47/81   Australian soldiers caring for rescued koalas POLITICS TOPIC NEWS The soldiers fed 28 rescued koalas and helped build climbing structures for them in their new home. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 48/81   Man who left puppy to drown in cage sentenced to 1 year for animal cruelty POLITICS TOPIC NEWS The 36-year-old New Jersey man left the puppy in a cage along the rising tide of Sandy Hook Bay after a fight with his ex-girlfriend. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 49/81   Remember When Iran Took Out Saddam Hussein's Navy In One Day—With American-Made Jets? POLITICS TOPIC NEWS One of the most intense air battles since World War II. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 50/81   Clinton 'wants back in' as Bloomberg campaign VP pick POLITICS TOPIC NEWS Michael Bloomberg's campaign attempted to stop rumors that he was considering failed presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for his running mate in the 2020 election. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 51/81   Israeli army: Hamas hackers tried to 'seduce' soldiers POLITICS TOPIC NEWS The Israeli military on Sunday said it has thwarted an attempt by the Hamas militant group to hack soldiers' phones by posing as young, attractive women on social media, striking up friendships and persuading them into downloading malware. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters that the phones of dozens of soldiers had been infected in recent months, although he said the army detected the scam early on and prevented any major secrets from reaching the Islamic militant group. Conricus said this was the third attempt by Hamas to target male soldiers through fake social media accounts, most recently in July 2018. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 52/81   They Wanted Research Funding, So They Entered the Lottery SCIENCE TOPIC NEWS A few years ago, Anna Ponnampalam did something out of the box: She entered a lottery. But she wasn't buying scratch-off tickets promising cash for life. She was trying to win funding for her medical research.Her application wasn't successful. All proposals go through an initial quality and eligibility check, which hers did not pass; those that get to enter the pool then get selected at random for funding. But Ponnampalam, a reproductive biologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, didn't give up. She went on to win 150,000 New Zealand dollars ($96,000) from the Health Research Council of New Zealand in 2017 to study infertility, and the same amount in 2019 to study endometriosis."At first, I was in two minds about whether I should submit an application," she said. "But now I think it's quite a good idea to give out funding in this way to attract novel proposals, which often lead to big scientific discoveries."Since 2013, the New Zealand council has dedicated around 2% of its annual funding expenditure to what it calls explorer grants, asking applicants to submit proposals they think are "transformative, innovative, exploratory or unconventional, and have potential for major impact." Such lotteries have been used in other countries, and some have the goal of increasing the diversity of grant recipients, as well as assisting researchers in earlier stages of their career who might struggle to find funding.Like Ponnampalam, researchers who have applied for funding from the New Zealand lottery see the benefits of its approach. That was the finding of a survey, published this month in the journal Research Integrity and Peer Review, of researchers who have applied for the explorer grants.The study authors contacted the 325 researchers who have applied for the New Zealand explorer grants and heard back from 126 applicants. Of those respondents, 63% said they were in favor of random allocation of funds through such grants, while a quarter were against it.But survey respondents were less supportive of using lotteries to fund drug trials and other traditional grant recipients: Only 4 in 10 favored a partial lottery for such funding and 37% were against it. The rest were unsure of their stance on the matter.Support for a lottery was strongest among researchers who were themselves successful in their explorer grant applications, with 78% giving the process the green light. Paradoxically, many of those who approved of such a system emphasized the importance of the initial scan to weed out subpar and ineligible applications.Adrian Barnett, a statistician and meta-science researcher at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and an author of the analysis, said that applicants reported spending the same amount of time on explorer grant proposals as they did on grants that underwent traditional peer review. He speculates that researchers might be unsure of the effort required to pass the lottery's initial quality check, and so they give it their all.But will applicants continue to work so hard on lottery applications? Barnett suspects that as researchers become more familiar with the process, the time spent on such proposals may drop.Other funders trying out lotteries include the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation in Germany. The U.S. National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health say they have not tested lotteries and don't currently plan to do so."There is no strong evidence base to support the current dominant model of peer review, but we have until recently accepted that it's possibly the best among a number of imperfect approaches," said Sunny Collings, chief executive of New Zealand's Health Research Council, who was not an author of the study. "Applications often have statistically indistinguishable scores, and there is a degree of randomness in peer review selection anyway. So why not formalize that and try to get the best of both approaches?"Ponnampalam thinks money distributed using lotteries is a good opportunity for early and midcareer researchers, who often have a hard time attracting funding. The whole process is conducted anonymously, which hopefully means that ideas, not people, are funded, she said.Barnett agrees: "Too often, we focus on what a researcher has done in the past than what they are proposing for the future."He also stresses that lotteries may help address biases against underrepresented groups in science.However, Johan Bollen, a computer scientist at Indiana University, Bloomington, is not convinced by the use of lotteries and is concerned that researchers would still bear the brunt of churning out endless grant applications, which can take up a lot of researchers' time."Replacing final funding decisions with a lottery, while keeping most of the costly grant proposal machinery intact, seems profoundly misguided," Bollen said.In the last couple of years, Bollen has suggested a fix for the research funding system: All researchers would be guaranteed some funding without writing any applications, provided they share part of the grant with other researchers of their choosing.This "resolves some of the inequities of the present system, reduces inefficiencies and costs and takes into account the decisions of the entire community, not just a small review panel," Bollen said.For Barnett, "the biggest obstacle to change is the fact that we've been using peer review for decades." But, he said, "It's time we start funding science scientifically."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 53/81   Photographers gather in Yosemite for "once in a lifetime" firefall SCIENCE TOPIC NEWS Yosemite National Park in California is world-renowned for its dramatic landscape, sheer granite cliffs and cascading waterfalls, the most famous of which being aptly named Yosemite Falls. But this week, people visiting the park will be looking for a smaller, little-known waterfall that may briefly appear as if it were made of fire.Of the millions of people that visit the park every year, a select few chose to travel to Yosemite around the third week of February to try and catch a glimpse of a rare event known as the ‘firefall.'The firefall phenomenon only occurs a few days every year when light hits Horsetail Fall at just the right angle shortly before sunset, to make the waterfall appear like it is on fire."It's a once in a lifetime thing, but it's really iffy becasuse you never know [if it will happen]," Reno DiTullio, a photographer visiting Yosemite, told AccuWeather. The firefall in Yosemite National Park in 2019. (Photo/Rodney Chai) "This unique lighting effect happens only on evenings with a clear sky when the waterfall is flowing," the National Park Service (NPS) explained on their website. "Even some haze or minor cloudiness can greatly diminish or eliminate the effect."In 2019, the firefall put on an incredible display for those in the park as all of the ingredients came together perfectly.This year, the setting sun is expected to be at the best angle for the firefall between Friday, Feb. 21 and Sunday, Feb. 23. However, visitors in the right place at the right time may end up missing the show due to the lack of one key ingredient: water."The problem is you can't have a firefall without a spark or in this case the water, and it just hasn't rained or snowed enough so far this year here in Yosemite," AccuWeather News Reporter Jonathan Petramala said. Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park in February 2019 compared to February 2020. (Photo/NPS) As of Friday, Feb. 14, Horsetail Fall was dry following a stretch of dry weather across the region, according to the NPS.With no rain or snow in the forecast between through Feb. 23, people in the park may end up missing the show due to a lack of water.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP Although Horsetail Fall may not be flowing, there is still a silver lining to the dry conditions.Instead of the sun illuminating the waterfall to make it look like lava flowing off a mountain, it will instead transform the eastern edge of El Capitan to a colorful cliffside right around sunset. The dry rock face in Yosemite National Park where Horsetail Fall should be flowing on Feb. 13, 2019. (AccuWeather Photo/Jonathan Petramala) The firefall that has become a sensation to photographers in recent years is the second such event to take on this name in Yosemite's history."Although entirely natural, the phenonemon is reminiscent of the human-caused Firefall that historically occurred from Glacier Point," the NPS said.Every afternoon, a fire would be lit atop Glacier Point that would eventually burn down to a large pile of coals. Around 9 p.m., after the sun had set, these glowing red ashes would be pushed off the cliffside, cascading thousands of feet into the valley below, resulting in an incredibly beautiful firefall for visitors in the park. Footage of the man-made firefall in Glacier Falls in the 1960s. (Video/Yosmite National Park ARCHIVES) This man-made firefall took place on-and-off between 1872 and 1968, but was discontinued in 1968 as it was deemed to be an unnatural spectacle by the director of the National Park Service. Additionally, the large crowds that would gather on a nightly basis would cause traffic jams in the park before trampling through and damaging meadows to watch the light show from a unique perspective.With the first firefall a thing of the past, photographers and visitors in Yosemite can only look on to the road ahead."Pictures from the past are all anyone will have of the famous firefall until at least next year," Petramala said. The firefall in Yosemite National Park in 2019. (Photo/Miguel Vega) Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 54/81   A 21-year-old Canadian woman in Wuhan says she won't evacuate because she can't abandon her cat. Here's what her life is like under lockdown. SCIENCE TOPIC NEWS Canadian citizen Kristina Shramko has been filming YouTube videos insider her Wuhan loft. The quarantine has taken a mental toll on her, she said. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 55/81   Another blast of cold air to infiltrate US this week SCIENCE TOPIC NEWS Cold air will dive down from Canada and greet much of the central and eastern United States by the end of the week.Following a swath of snow pushing through the northern tier early in the week, colder air will move in behind and move even farther south into parts of the south.While the temperatures expected during the middle of the week will not be as brutal as the last cold spell, it will still be a drastic change."Before the storm that moves through the eastern half of the country, places from Chicago to Philadelphia will experience temperatures that are on the order of 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for mid-February," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Max Gawryla.On Monday, a high of 40 is forecast in Chicago, while Philadelphia may top out at 52 on Tuesday.Once the colder air sweeps in, the springlike temperatures will be erased and replaced with conditions more similar to January."Cold will send temperatures tumbling on Tuesday night across the Midwest, with lows in the single digits," added Gawryla.Temperatures will be well below zero across parts of northern Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota by Wednesday night. By Thursday morning, temperatures will be as low as 10 to 20 degrees below zero across parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.Without much wind to accompany the cold, AccuWeather RealFeel® temperatures will not be too far below the actual mercury reading. During the day, when the sun is shining, RealFeel® temperatures may actually be a little higher than the normal temperature.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPThe coldest air, and the lowest temperatures, will wait to reach the Northeast until Friday morning.During the morning on Friday, temperatures are expected in the single digits and teens across interior parts of the Northeast, from 14 degrees in Pittsburgh to 0 degrees in Syracuse, New York. All of these sub-freezing temperatures will help to retain the recent snowpack across the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and northern New England.Although temperatures won't be subzero, the colder air will not halt in the northern tier of the country, but rather dive down into the Tennessee Valley."On Tuesday night, lows will remain quite mild, only falling into the mid-50s across much of the area. Just 24 hours later, low temperatures will easily drop by 20 degrees or more," said Gawryla.Nashville's typical high in the lower 50s will be replaced by a high in the mid-40s Thursday, and will dive down into the lower 20s Thursday night. Such temperatures are about 10 degrees below normal for mid-February.Similar drops in temperature are expected cities like Little Rock, Arkansas; Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina.Any wet spots or standing water on the ground following the rain from the early week storm may freeze up, causing slick spots on roads and sidewalks.The colder-than-normal air that moves in through Friday will only remain for a brief time.Warmth will build in the center of the country at the end of the week, helping to moderate the air in the East going into the weekend.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 56/81   Fresh blanket of snow forecast for snow-weary northern tier of the US SCIENCE TOPIC NEWS Another wave of snow will target the northern tier of the United States, bringing nuisance snow for the start of the week.The same storm will first take aim at the Rockies, whitening the ground from Salt Lake City to Denver into Monday and producing upwards of a foot of snow in the highest elevations of central Colorado. Then the storm will shift north, aiming for the northern Plains."As many storms have done so far this winter, the snow will spread from northern Minnesota through northern New England," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.A blanket of fresh snow will sweep across the region from early Monday through Tuesday. Wisconsin and Michigan can expect the steadiest, heaviest snow of the storm Monday afternoon and night, although some lake-effect snow could linger into Tuesday.Farther east, the steadiest snow in places like Ottawa and Montreal will wait for Tuesday.The storm will intensify as it stretches over the northern Great Lakes and moves into southern Ontario and Quebec, leading to higher snowfall totals.A swath of 3-6 inches of snow is expected from northern Wisconsin to northern Maine, with a zone of more than half a foot (15 cm) in southern Canada. An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 16 inches (40 centimeters) is projected somewhere in that region. This is more than enough snow to cause slippery road conditions, and perhaps even lead to school delays or early dismissals.Snow-related travel disruptions will be most likely in cities like Minneapolis; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Burlington, Vermont, both on the roads and in the air.Locations in this season's worn winter storm path, like Minneapolis and Burlington, Vermont, have recorded 40.9 inches and 58.8 inches of snow, respectively, since Nov. 1, which right around normal. The moon rises over a beautiful field around sunset in rural Ottawa, Canada on February 8, 2020 (Photo/@averagerunnerk). Meanwhile, those hopeful for snow across the Interstate-80 corridor from New Jersey to Iowa, will once again miss out on the snow, like they have so far this season.Cities like Indianapolis, Columbus, Ohio, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, are running well below their average snowfall, totaling 11 inches or less since Dec. 1.Instead, these areas will be receiving another dose of rain showers which will extend southward to the flood-ravaged Deep South.Behind both the snow and the rain farther south, cold air is expected to sweep into this region by the middle of the week. The rapid drop in temperature could lead to areas of black ice in lingering wet areas and help to keep any snow that falls around longer.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 57/81   'Wholly inappropriate' quarantine practices may have helped spread coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, experts say SCIENCE TOPIC NEWS "They've basically trapped a bunch of people in a large container with [the] virus," one epidemiologist said. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 58/81   Beijing has instituted a 14-day quarantine for anyone returning to the city, in an attempt to contain the coronavirus outbreak SCIENCE TOPIC NEWS Virus prevention officials from China's capital said the city would hold non-compliant people "accountable under law." Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 59/81   Deeper snowpack expected for Rocky Mountain ski resorts in time for Presidents Day SCIENCE TOPIC NEWS The same storm bringing a dose of rain and high-elevation snow to the Northwest into Sunday will push into Wyoming, Utah and Colorado just in time for the Presidents Day holiday.Those utilizing Presidents Day on Monday to get out and enjoy the slopes will be welcomed by some fresh snow at many of the nearby resorts.While 1-3 inches of snow is expected for the majority of the region that will receive snow, the higher elevations could have as much as half a foot by the time the storm winds down on Monday night. An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 16 inches is possible in the highest peaks of the Colorado Rockies.Travel across parts of Interstates 70 and 80 will be difficult as snow is expected to pile up on these roadways. Even secondary roadways could be slippery for the morning commute on Monday.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPThe majority of the higher accumulations will be confined to the higher elevations and welcomed by those wanting to get out and ski on Presidents Day.This fresh snow will add to the already near- to above-normal snowpack across much of the region, according to the NRCS.> A question often asked during this time of year is how the mountain snow pack compares to average. The answer for most of the west is above average. Additional snow this weekend in our forecast area will bump up those percentages. wawx orwx pic.twitter.com/pI7D0TKvjx> > -- NWS Pendleton (@NWSPendleton) February 15, 2020This storm will continue to spread snow eastward across the northern Plains, Great Lakes and northern New England through the middle of the week.As the storm retreats from the Rockies, milder air will return for the latter half of the week. The quick flip in temperatures may increase the avalanche risk in the Rocky Mountains following the storm.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 60/81   NOT A FAIRYTALE: How Americans can survive and thrive after a divorce SCIENCE TOPIC NEWS Many Americans face a bad relationship in their lives. Here are some tips when divorce becomes a reality. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 61/81   Diamond Princess cruise ship has 67 passengers who have tested positive for coronavirus onboard, Japan's Health Minister announced SCIENCE TOPIC NEWS This new number, announced by Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato's on Saturday, has brought the total amount of diagnosed passengers up to 286. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 62/81   Rival Democrats accuse Bloomberg of trying to 'buy' election WORLD TOPIC NEWS With the Nevada caucuses less than a week away, Democratic presidential candidates campaigning Sunday were fixated on a rival who wasn't contesting the state. Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg all targeted billionaire Mike Bloomberg, accusing him of buying his way into the election and making clear they were eager to take him on in a debate. “He thinks he can buy this election,” Sanders said of the former New York mayor at a rally in Carson City, Nevada. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 63/81   In sign of thaw, Israeli PM says flight crosses Sudan skies WORLD TOPIC NEWS Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that an Israeli aircraft made a historic first flight over Sudan just two weeks after he met with the Arab state's leader in Uganda. The Israeli premier met with the head of Sudan's transitional government, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, in a major step toward improving ties with an Arab state that has long been hostile to Israel. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 64/81   California to apologize for internment of Japanese Americans WORLD TOPIC NEWS Les Ouchida was born an American just outside California's capital city, but his citizenship mattered little after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States declared war. Based solely on their Japanese ancestry, the 5-year-old and his family were taken from their home in 1942 and imprisoned far away in Arkansas. On Thursday, California's Legislature is expected to approve a resolution offering an apology to Ouchida and other internment victims for the state's role in aiding the U.S. government's policy and condemning actions that helped fan anti-Japanese discrimination. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 65/81   Democratic hopefuls now test strength among minority voters WORLD TOPIC NEWS For I.S. Leevy Johnson, the Democrats’ search for a challenger to take on President Donald Trump is personal. “There is what I call an ‘ABT mood’ in the black community: Anybody but Trump,” said the 77-year-old who was the first black graduate of the University of South Carolina’s law school. Now, as the election calendar turns to Nevada and South Carolina, states with substantial minority populations, that 'anybody” moves closer to being identified. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 66/81   Assad's forces make advances, further securing Aleppo region WORLD TOPIC NEWS Syrian troops have made significant advances against the last rebel held enclaves in the country's northwest, state media said on Sunday, consolidating the government's hold over the key Aleppo province. The Syrian government advance also appeared to put the provincial capital of Aleppo out of the firing range of opposition groups for the first time in years, another sign of Syrian President Bashar Assad's growing control of the area. The armed opposition had been driven out of Aleppo city's eastern quarters in late 2016, which they controlled for years while battling government forces who were in charge in the western part. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 67/81   A Presidency Increasingly Guided by Suspicion and Distrust WORLD TOPIC NEWS WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump suggested in recent days that he had, in fact, learned a lesson from his now-famous telephone call with Ukraine's president that ultimately led to his impeachment: Too many people are listening to his phone calls."When you call a foreign leader, people listen," he observed on Geraldo Rivera's radio show. "I may end the practice entirely. I may end it entirely."Trump has always been convinced that he is surrounded by people who cannot be trusted. But in the 10 days since he was acquitted by the Senate, he has grown more vocal about it and turned paranoia into policy, purging his White House of more career officials, bringing back loyalists and tightening the circle around him to a smaller and more faithful coterie of confidants.The impeachment case against Trump, built largely on the testimony of officials who actually worked for him, reinforced his view that the government is full of leakers, plotters, whistleblowers and traitors. Career professionals who worked in government before he arrived are viewed as "Obama holdovers" even if they were there long before President Barack Obama. Testifying under subpoena was, Trump has made clear, "insubordinate."The president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said on Twitter after the acquittal that the investigation was useful, in its own way, because it made it easier "unearthing who all needed to be fired." The president and his staff have increasingly equated disloyalty to him with disloyalty to the nation. All of which makes for a volatile eight months ahead as Trump fights a rear-guard battle with his own government while facing off against Democrats on the campaign trail to win a second term."I think he feels like the people are out to get him, going overboard. I mean just put yourself in his shoes," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and a staunch ally, told reporters this past week as the president railed on Twitter against Justice Department prosecutors. "There's just a general frustration that the system is -- there's a double standard in the media and actually in the law."In the last week and a half, Trump has pushed out two witnesses who testified in the House inquiry, stripped a nomination from an official he blamed for being insufficiently loyal and assailed prosecutors, a judge and even the jury forewoman in the case of his friend Roger Stone.His national security adviser has just finished transferring more than 50 career professionals out of the White House and back to their home agencies. The president has brought back two of his earliest and most trusted aides, Hope Hicks and Johnny McEntee, as he retreats into a cocoon of his original 2016 campaign team. And more personnel moves are likely in the days to come.Trump's personal loyalty test now extends not to whether someone has worked in his White House since his inauguration, but to whether someone was part of his 2016 campaign and there from the beginning, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen administration officials and advisers to the president. His decision to turn the Office of Presidential Personnel over to McEntee, a 29-year-old aide who was once ordered marched out of the White House by John Kelly, the White House chief of staff at the time, was born out of concern about who is surrounding him, people familiar with the move said.While some officials cited a lack of responsiveness from officials working in the personnel office, others said that Trump had taken to blaming them for appointments that he made, on the advice of other advisers. That included Gordon Sondland, a Republican donor he appointed ambassador to the European Union who became a key witness in the impeachment inquiry and has now been dismissed. It also included John Bolton, his former national security adviser, who plans to publish a book next month revealing Trump's machinations about Ukraine.In private conversations, Trump has complained bitterly that none of his enemies have been criminally charged, citing James Comey, the former FBI director, and his onetime deputy, Andrew McCabe. Bolton in particular has been a source of his anger in several conversations, according to people familiar with what the president has said. He has accused Bolton of betraying him, and made clear his anger extends to anyone he believes helped Bolton.Trump's suggestion that he may bar government officials from listening into his phone calls with foreign leaders would reverse decades of practice in the White House. Presidents traditionally have multiple aides from the National Security Council and State Department monitor foreign leader calls to help interpret their meaning, record any agreements and inform relevant parts of government.Trump, however, felt burned early on when transcripts of his calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia were leaked to The Washington Post. During subsequent conversations with foreign leaders, he sometimes kicked out aides for more private talks and in the case of President Vladimir Putin of Russia even demanded that his own interpreter turn over notes of the discussion."He knows that anything even reasonably controversial out of his mouth, on the phone or off, will be reported out and construed in the most evil way possible," said Rivera, a friend of the president's who interviewed him for his Cleveland radio show, said Saturday. "As a result, he indicated to me that he's dramatically scaling back" the number of people "looped into a state call."Going back to his days in the real estate business, Trump has long considered suspicion a key to success. "Be paranoid," he advised in a motivational seminar in 2000. "Now that sounds terrible. But you have to realize that people, sadly, sadly, are very vicious. You think we're so different from the lions in the jungle? I don't know."Nor is presidential paranoia a new phenomenon even as Trump seems to have elevated it to a guiding philosophy of his White House. From Thomas Jefferson to Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy, other presidents turned at times to unseemly and even ruthless methods against their enemies like illegal wiretapping. Probably no previous presidents were as paranoid as Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon and in the latter case it helped bring down his presidency."The paranoid style is an old and recurrent phenomenon in our public life which has been frequently linked with movements of suspicious discontent," as Richard Hofstadter, the famed midcentury American historian, wrote in his landmark 1964 essay, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics." In Trump's case, it connects with supporters suspicious of the elite.John A. Farrell, a Nixon biographer, said most other presidents managed to contain or disguise their paranoid elements, but it drove Johnson and Nixon to extremes that were ultimately self-destructive. Trump, he said, sees no need to hide it."He has responded to criticism, opposition and other curbs on his power with a vulgar energy and the vile Nixonian strategy that making Americans hate each other is a potent way to seize and secure power," Farrell said. "It is no accident that a president acting this way comes from a chain of influences that includes Roy Cohn and Roger Stone."Trump's advisers and defenders turn to the old nostrum -- just because he may be paranoid does not mean people are not out to get him. The relentless investigations against him, the Trump-bashing text messages by FBI officials, the excesses of the surveillance warrant on a former campaign adviser, the longtime lawyer-fixer who turned against him, the whistleblower who took his concerns to House Democrats, all of it, they said, has contributed to an understandable defensiveness."Trump came to office with an almost pathological distrust of others and an irresistible impulse to attack any perceived threat," said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University who testified against impeachment last year before the House Judiciary Committee. "The well-documented bias in the FBI and Justice Department against Trump fuels his suspicions and tendency to counterpunch. Both his perceptions and his responses became more exaggerated."However," Turley added, "his suspicions were validated to some degree in these investigations -- something that many refuse to acknowledge. He came to Washington with an agenda that was highly antagonistic and threatening to the status quo. It was immediately clear that he faced deep opposition to his agenda."As with so many aspects of his personality, the seeds of Trump's reaction may lie in his biography. Michael D'Antonio, the author of "The Truth About Trump," recalled that the future president was raised by a father who taught him that all of life is a battle for power and that he should be a "killer." Trump, D'Antonio said, came to see others as useful for his own purposes or obstacles to be crushed."In this way, he's forcing us all to live in the world that once existed only in Trump's mind and in his close circle," D'Antonio said. "Here, in Trump's America, we're to believe that all institutions are corrupt. No one is to be trusted. Those who would speak against him hesitate. Words of protest and revelations that might be made by whistleblowers are stifled by fear. This is the world Trump has always inhabited and he wants us to live there, too."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 68/81   'The West is Winning,' Pompeo Said. The West Wasn't Buying It. WORLD TOPIC NEWS MUNICH -- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared at an annual gathering of Western diplomats and business leaders to declare Saturday that "the West is winning,'' something that would be obvious to Trump administration critics, he said, if they were only willing to accept "reality."The Trump administration was hardly retreating from the world or its alliances, he insisted at the meeting, the Munich Security Conference, but leading it. The problem is that many American allies are reluctant to follow as the administration confronts Iran and insists on more contributions to collective defense.Pompeo was followed by the secretary of defense, Mark Esper, who described a bleak future if the U.S. and Europe did not work to contain China on all fronts. Countries thinking of letting Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, build next-generation communications networks, he warned, should be prepared to see American intelligence cooperation reduced.His remarks were met with silence by British and German officials, who are looking for ways to avoid offending the Chinese.This year's conference reflected the division and unease that have plagued the alliance in the era of Donald Trump and Brexit. The stated theme was "Westlessness,'' a sense that close allies were unmoored and uncompetitive in a world both more diverse and more autocratic.Emmanuel Macron, the French president, arrived to declare that allies were wrongheaded about Russia, and that Europeans needed to deal with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, on their own, not just through the lens of a growing cold war with America.Still, there were fears of coming Russian interference in elections, including in the U.S., despite an upbeat talk from Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, who was given more time on stage than most of the world leaders.His company -- with powers that exceed most of the nations represented in Munich -- is now spending more annually on security issues than it generated in revenue in 2012, he told the assemblage of presidents and foreign ministers.Hand-wringing is hardly new for this meeting of Atlantic allies, where Europeans expressed doubts about the depth of American commitment even during the Obama era. But that uncertainty has soared since Trump has hesitated to commit the U.S. to coming to the defense of American allies -- he would first measure their contributions to the alliance, he has often said -- and has withdrawn from the Paris climate accord and the Iranian nuclear deal.So it was striking that Pompeo felt it necessary to take on those who say the post-World War order is ending, telling the assembled leaders: "I'm here this morning to tell you the facts."Pompeo made the case that governments that "respect basic human rights" and "foster economic prosperity" are magnets for migrants."You don't see the world's vulnerable people risking their lives to skip illegally en masse to countries like Iran or to Cuba.''The Europeans in the room later noted that Pompeo did not mention the new restrictions in the U.S. that drastically limit the number of refugees who can enter the country.Pompeo tried to be upbeat, talking about the joint work the U.S. and Europe were doing to confront Russia. He announced $1 billion to bolster an energy project for Central European countries on the Baltic, Adriatic and Black seas, an effort to blunt Russian energy projects like Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.It was left to Esper to lower the boom on European nations so dependent on exports to China that they are trying to find a balance between Washington's demands to shun Chinese technology and Beijing's warnings against being excluded from Europeans markets.Esper argued that the presence of Huawei in commercial networks risked undermining the NATO alliance, dismissing China's argument that it has no capability to use its equipment to intercept messages or shut down networks in times of conflict."The Chinese Communist Party is heading even faster and further in the wrong direction -- more internal repression, more predatory economic practices, more heavy-handedness, and most concerning for me, a more aggressive military posture," he said. That has become a bipartisan view: His assessment was echoed by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi later responded, telling the forum that Esper and Pompeo "say the same thing wherever they go about China" and dismissed their remarks as "lies.""The root cause of all these problems and issues is that the U.S. does not want to see the rapid development and rejuvenation of China, and still less would they want to accept the success of a socialist country," Wang said."The most important task for China and the U.S. is to sit down together to have a serious dialogue and find a way for two major countries with different social systems to live in harmony and interact in peace," he added. "China's ready, and we hope the U.S. will work with us."Esper later told reporters that he was cautiously optimistic about a seven-day "reduction in violence" in Afghanistan that could lead to a peace accord with the Taliban, saying that "we are going to suspend a significant part of our operations" in the country when the Taliban fulfill their part. But while U.S. forces could come down to 8,600, from about 13,000, he said there was not yet an agreed-upon timeline for further reductions.Many eyes were also on Macron, whose relations with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany have been somewhat rocky. Macron made a plea for better European integration and more unity in defining European interests, urging the Germans to help develop "a European security culture" and not to see every security issue "through American eyes.''On Russia, he said: "We need a European policy, not just a trans-Atlantic policy.''He insisted that he was not frustrated with the apparent paralysis of the current German government, but conceded that he is "impatient.''France and Germany "need to take risks together,'' he said. "That means our relationship has to change and adapt.''He argued that the Europeans needed to define their own interests to preserve their sovereignty in a world dominated by an increasingly nationalist U.S. and an ambitious Russia. But he insisted that a stronger European defense pillar would complement NATO, not weaken or replace it, as Washington and some European countries closer to Russia, like Poland and the Baltic nations, fear is his intention.Macron also tried to explain his outreach to Moscow, viewing it as a difficult neighbor but one that Europe cannot ignore. The current policy of harsh economic sanctions, in place since the Russian annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine, has not changed Russian behavior, he argued. The sanctions "have changed absolutely nothing in Russia -- I am not proposing at all to lift them, I am just stating this," he added."We need in the long term to reengage with Russia but also emphasize its responsibility in its role" as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, he said. "It cannot constantly be a member that blocks advances by this council."There is "a second choice,'' Macron argued, "which is to be demanding and restart a strategic dialogue because today we talk less and less, conflicts multiply and we aren't able to resolve them."He said that he expected Russia will continue playing a destabilizing role in matters such as other countries' election campaigns, either directly or indirectly."I don't believe in miracles -- I believe in politics, in the fact that human will can change things when we give ourselves the means," Macron said.Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was Merkel's hand-picked successor as leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, threw Germany into political uncertainty this past week when said she would not seek the chancellorship when the country votes next year. Her decision has raised concerns that Germany will again be occupied with domestic affairs at a time when it is needed as a leader in Europe and on the international stage.Still defense minister, Kramp-Karrenbauer appeared here and admitted that her country had not fully delivered on a promise made at the conference in 2014 to become more engaged in, and spend more on, security and defense."From the Munich 'consensus of words' must come a 'consensus of action,'" she said. "The impact of German and European security and defense policy must be larger, our international actions must be better coordinated and more visible."But Kramp-Karrenbauer insisted that Germany would not join an American "maximum pressure" mission aimed at Iran in the Gulf of Hormuz. Instead, Germany would seek to coordinate "a mission dedicated to free and secure navigation" with its European partners.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 69/81   Ivanka Trump lauds Saudi, UAE on women's rights reforms WORLD TOPIC NEWS Ivanka Trump lauded Sunday a handful of Mideast countries, including close U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for embarking on “significant reforms” to advance women's rights, while speaking at a gathering of women entrepreneurs and regional leaders in Dubai. The daughter of U.S. President Donald Trump was delivering the keynote address at the two-day Global Women’s Forum held in an opulent resort overlooking the city's Persian Gulf coastline. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 70/81   Iran's president: Trump doesn't want war ahead of 2020 vote WORLD TOPIC NEWS Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that he doesn't believe the U.S. will pursue war with his country, because it will harm President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection bid. Rouhani said that Trump knows that war with Iran will “ruin' his chances of winning the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The Iranian leader added that war would be harmful to U.S. interests and those of its regional allies, as well as Iran. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 71/81   The Latest: Nevada's lieutenant governor endorses Biden WORLD TOPIC NEWS Joe Biden has picked up another endorsement from a top Nevada politician, with Lt. Gov. Kate Marshall announcing that she will back the former vice president’s White House bid. Marshall joins two of the state’s four U.S. House members, Reps. Dina Titus and Steven Horsford, in backing Biden. Marshall plans to campaign with Biden on Monday in Reno. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 72/81   What You Need to Know About COVID-19, the New Coronavirus Disease HEALTH TOPIC NEWS There are 15 cases in the U.S. Thirteen of those people had traveled to China. The State Department says travelers should not go to China. The World Health Organization has declared an internatio... Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 73/81   The US has confirmed 15 coronavirus cases across 7 states. Here's what we know about all the US patients. HEALTH TOPIC NEWS The US has confirmed 15 cases of the virus: eight in California, two in Illinois, and one in Arizona, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 74/81   The outbreaks of both the Wuhan coronavirus and SARS likely started in Chinese wet markets. Photos show what the markets look like. HEALTH TOPIC NEWS The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak likely started in a Chinese wet market, where meat and poultry are sold alongside live animals. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 75/81   Chinese doctor punished for warning people about coronavirus now has the illness HEALTH TOPIC NEWS Li Wenliang, a doctor from Wuhan, China, was one of the first to recognize the public health threat of coronavirus. He now has the disease himself. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 76/81   China put 46 million people on lockdown to contain the Wuhan coronavirus, and now the US is prepared to quarantine people, too. But quarantines throughout history have been riddled with mishaps. HEALTH TOPIC NEWS Quarantines have been used to contain diseases for hundreds of years. The first formal system was established in Venice during the 14th Century. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 77/81   7th and 8th U.S. coronavirus cases confirmed in Massachusetts and California HEALTH TOPIC NEWS The confirmed cases in California and Massachusetts conclude eight in the country so far. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 78/81   75,000 in Wuhan infected with coronavirus: study estimates HEALTH TOPIC NEWS More than 75,000 people -- ten times the official tally of confirmed cases -- have been infected with the coronavirus in Wuhan, ground zero of a global health emergency, according to research published Friday. "We estimate that 75,815 individuals have been infected in Wuhan as of January 25, 2020," a team led by Gabriel Leung from the University of Hong Kong reported in The Lancet. As of January 31, the Chinese government said the number of confirmed cases had risen above 9,700 for all of China, including 213 deaths. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 79/81   Don't Forget These Vaccines When You Travel HEALTH TOPIC NEWS If you're planning a winter trip to another country, you may be preoccupied with booking airfare and finding lodging, but certain destinations require an extra step of planning: travel vaccines. ... Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 80/81   Trump turns 'very routine' physical into attack on media HEALTH TOPIC NEWS President Trump lashed out at the media Tuesday over reporting about his sudden trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last weekend. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description. 81/81   5 Turkey Cooking Tips Will Guarantee You Have the Perfect Bird This Holidays HEALTH TOPIC NEWS There's no need to wing it at Thanksgiving this year. Click on the image for the web page. Click here for more description.         > Voice Sythesis The Microsoft SAPI 5 ActiveX object is needed. In the security option of your browser, you must not disable the initialization of non signed ActiveX controls. You can install and use any English voice compatible with SAPI 5. No Voice Title Title and Description Voice and Output Rate     Volume     Slideshow Speed (Quick to Slow) Zero One Two Three Four Five Slideshow - News Photos - From Yahoo! News