China seeks to boost economy as first virus death reported outside its borders

The first death from the coronavirus outside of China was reported on Sunday and the Beijing government took steps to shore up an economy hit by travel curbs and business shut-downs because of the epidemic.

A 44-year-old Chinese man from the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, the epicenter of the epidemic, traveled to the Philippines and died there on Saturday, the Philippines’ Department of Health said.
The vice governor of China’s Hubei province, Xiao Juhua, said the virus outbreak was still “severe and complicated”.

A total of 304 people have died in China, the National Health Commission said on Sunday. Infections in China jumped to 14,380 as of Saturday, it said.

Beijing is facing mounting isolation as countries introduce travel restrictions, airlines suspend flights and governments evacuate their citizens, risking worsening a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. China’s central bank said it would inject a hefty 1.2 trillion yuan ($173.8 billion) worth of liquidity into the markets via reverse repo operations on Monday as the country prepares to reopen its stock markets after an extended Lunar New Year holiday. [REUTERS]

Iraq protesters unconvinced after Mohammed Allawi named PMIraq’s president has named former communications minister Mohammed Allawi as the country’s new prime minister after an 11th-hour consensus among political blocs, but the streets were ambivalent about his nomination.

Baghdad and the mainly Shia south have been gripped by four months of anti-government rallies demanding snap elections, a politically independent prime minister and accountability for corruption and protest-related violence. Prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi resigned in December but political factions had been unable to agree on a replacement.

Frustrated by the delays and worried about further instability, president Barham Saleh gave political blocs until Saturday to nominate a new prime minister, sending them into crisis talks that produced a consensus on Allawi.

On Saturday evening, Allawi addressed Iraqis on state television, pledging to form a representative government, hold early parliamentary elections and ensure justice for protest-related violence – all key demands of protesters. [AFP]

'Terrorist-related' stabbing incident in London leaves 3 injured

A man has been shot and killed by armed officers after an alleged stabbing incident that has been declared "terrorist-related," London police said.

The male victim suffered life-threatening injuries, Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D'Orsi said in a statement. The second victim's injuries weren't life-threatening, but she was hospitalized, according to the D'Orsi.

The assistant commissioner said armed officers who were "part of a proactive counter terrorism operation," were in immediate attendance and shot the unidentified suspect, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Scotland Yard later said it was "confident" the suspect was 20-year-old Sudesh Amman. He had recently been released from prison for Islamist-terror related offenses, authorities said.

A woman received minor injuries from glass that was believed to have come following the police gunshots. She was treated at the scene and taken to the hospital, according to the police. [ABCNEWS]


Abbas says Palestinians cutting all ties with Israel, USPalestinian leader Mahmud Abbas announced Saturday a cut of all ties with Israel and the United States, including security cooperation, after Washington unveiled a controversial Middle East plan seen as favouring Israel.

Abbas has made similar declarations multiple times before and it was not immediately clear what it would mean in practice.

His comments came as the Arab League rejected US President Donald Trump's plan, which infuriated the Palestinians. "We are informing you that there will be no relations with you (Israel) and the United States, including on security cooperation," Abbas said at an extraordinary meeting of the pan-Arab bloc in Cairo.

The Palestinian leader said the move followed the "disavowal of signed agreements and international legitimacy" by the US and Israel. Israel will have to "bear responsibility as an occupying power" for the Palestinian territories and Palestinians will press ahead with resistance using peaceful means, he said.

It is not the first such declaration by Abbas. In July 2017 he announced the suspension of security coordination with Israel during a major dispute over the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem. [AFP]

A federal judge in Virginia has refused to vacate the life sentence handed down to a Somali man convicted in a 2010 attack on a U.S. Navy vessel off the coast of Africa.

A judge in Norfolk issued a ruling Friday rejecting Mohamed Abdi Jama’s claim that his sentence should be overturned because his lawyer was ineffective.

Jama was sentenced to life in prison in 2016 for piracy. He filed a motion last year claiming ineffective assistance of counsel. Jama claimed his lawyer failed to understand the laws and fact needed to prove piracy and failed to argue jurisdictional and other law regarding piracy offenses and territory. He also argued that his lawyer failed to advise him of plea deals and failed to negotiate or explain any plea offers.

The judge said the court record provides no support for Jama’s claims and shows that his lawyer shared a plea offer by prosecutors of 25 years in prison. Jama’s lawyer said in an affidavit that his client refused to cooperate. Jama claimed that he was never told about a 25-year plea offer, and that his attorney advised him to reject a 30-year plea offer. [AP]

A U.S. Coast Guard officer accused of stockpiling weapons and compiling a hit list of government and media figures was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors said Lt. Christopher Hasson was inspired by racist murder cases and "intended to exact retribution on minorities and those he considered traitors." If not for the actions of law enforcement, said U.S. Attorney Robert Hur, "we now would be counting bodies of the defendant's victims instead of years of the defendant's prison time."

Investigators said they considered Hasson a domestic terrorist, but there are no such charges in the federal system. For that reason, the case was an example of the difficulty prosecutors face when law enforcement action may have prevented potential attacks. His lawyers, however, said the government vastly overstated the threat.

"There is little if any doubt he was planning a mass casualty assault to further his white nationalist views," said US District Court Judge George Hazel. But Hazel said Hasson "is not being sentenced for his views. He's been sentenced for the actions he was planning."

Hasson, 50, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty last October to charges of illegally buying prescription painkillers and amassing an arsenal of 15 firearms and two illegal gun silencers. As a drug abuser, he was not legally entitled to possess the guns. The FBI said he also had over 1,000 rounds of ammunition for those weapons. [NBCNEWS]

Officials Await Test Results Of Possible Coronavirus Patient In New York City

So far, the deadly coronavirus virus has killed 305 people, with the Philippines reporting the only death outside of China. Around the world, there are more than 14,000 possible cases.

Strict new travel restrictions took effect across the country Sunday, requiring anyone arriving from mainland China to undergo additional screening. The threat of the deadly virus spreading across the Tri-State Area has many worried. Lawmakers are doing what they can to ease concerns, CBS2’s Christina Fan reported.

The streets seemed lively in Chinatown on Sunday, as lion dancers and drummers prepared for the annual Chinese New Year Parade. But in reality, the community is already battling the effects of the coronavirus, even though the disease hasn’t officially arrived.

“We have heard reports that many business in Chinatown, Flushing, Sunset Park and other parts of the city have seen a downturn in business,” City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said.

Officials tried assuaging the public on Sunday, saying there is absolutely no reason to be fearful. Of the 12 suspected New York cases of coronavirus sent to the Centers for Disease Control for testing, 11 have come back negative. The 12th is still pending. Health officials said results should be known within 24 hours. [CBS2]

 
Increased Truck Enforcement, New Repairs on Brooklyn-Queens ExpresswayWith the structural integrity of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway at risk, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the City will take steps to protect this vital artery from further deterioration. The proposals, made by a panel of experts convened by the Mayor in 2019 to evaluate the best options to preserve the structural integrity of the BQE, will include increasing truck enforcement and performing urgent, structural repairs on the BQE.

The new measures are included in an Executive Order signed by the Mayor to create the new NYPD BQE Truck Enforcement Task Force. This new unit will increase enforcement against illegal, overweight trucks that are exacerbating the BQE’s structural issues.

Also included in this proposal is the repair of the Hicks Street Wall and sections of the cantilever, which will commence in the spring, and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2020. The design process to rebuild the most deteriorated portions of the cantilever will start this summer, with work to be complete by the end of 2022.

“The BQE is one of the main arteries of our City, which is why we are immediately increasing enforcement against overweight trucks and addressing the highway’s most pressing structural issues,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “I applaud the expert panel for putting forward several solutions to preserve the BQE, and we will continue to explore the next steps necessary to keep New Yorkers safe and moving.” [HAMODIA]

NYPD pushes back against facial recognition banA state lawmaker’s call for the ban of police’s use of facial recognition is facing unsurprising public push back from New York City law enforcement — with one former NYPD top cop calling the proposed ban “asinine” on Sunday.

“That proposal up in Albany is insane,” former police commissioner Bill Bratton told John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on AM 970 in New York. “Being quite frank with you, I don’t think they know much about facial recognition or the current state of it.”

Bratton claimed the tech helps prevent innocent people from being jailed based on unreliable eyewitness testimony — but said that law enforcement was open to regulations with the “exploding” industry in the private sector. “Let’s talk about it, let’s discuss it, debate it,” Bratton said. “Facial recognition is exploding in the private sector, whether or not the Senate wants to ban it for police, which is asinine in my perspective, the private sector is going to develop and use it. It’s here and it’s going to expand and that’s the reality of it.”
S
en. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) introduced the extensive prohibition on the technology for police officers Monday, citing The Post’s article on the NYPD’s unofficial connection to controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI. Only three states in the US — California, New Hampshire and Oregon — have banned the tech for law enforcement use.

Bratton’s comments Sunday echoed much of what current Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Tuesday at the State of The NYPD address at the annual Police Foundation breakfast. "If we lost [facial recognition] it would be a significant blow to how we fight crime in New York City,” Shea said when asked about the proposed ban. [NYP]

Hundreds mourn Eric Goldberg, 17-year-old who died in Thursday's wrong-way crash on I-287Family and friends gathered on Sunday to mourn the loss of Eric Goldberg, the 17-year-old whose life was cut short Thursday night when a wrong-way driver struck the car he was a passenger in on Interstate 287. 

Hundreds of mourners packed into Weinstein Memorial Chapel in Yonkers, with at least one-hundred and fifty people huddled in the parking lot, listening to the service over a loudspeaker. Before it began, the line of those attending the service wrapped several blocks back into the neighborhood.   Several speakers at the funeral service described the 17-year-old student-athlete as someone ceaselessly devoted to his family, friends and loved ones. The sheer number of people in attendance attests to how deeply he was loved in return. 

Mourners, including many students from the Ardsley school district, wiped away tears and held each other close as they said their final goodbyes. 

Goldberg's life came to a tragic halt on Thursday night when he and several other student-athletes were heading back from a basketball game at a synagogue when their car was struck by a wrong-way driver.  The driver, Jordan H. Wachtell, a 57-year-old Ardsley parent, was pronounced dead at the scene. Goldberg died in an ambulance on its way to Westchester Medical Center. [LOHUD]

Trump, Democrats Press Their Case as Impeachment Nears Its End

An emboldened President Trump turned his focus Sunday to his re-election bid, arguing a growing economy would help him in November, as Democrats’ lead impeachment manager vowed to press for the president’s removal even as the Senate is virtually certain to acquit him.

“It was all nonsense,” Mr. Trump said of impeachment during a Fox News interview. “It’s a very serious thing. It should never happen to another president.”

In a separate television appearance, Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) said that in closing arguments in the impeachment trial Monday, Democrats would continue pressing to remove Mr. Trump from office over his Ukraine pressure campaign. “It’s enormously important that the country understand exactly what this president did,” said Mr. Schiff. He said the Senate should remove Mr. Trump from office “because he is threatening to still cheat in the next election by soliciting foreign interference.”

On Friday, the Senate voted 51-49 to reject Democrats demands to call new witnesses in the impeachment trial. That effectively ended the impeachment effort, even though the trial will resume for four hours of closing arguments Monday, followed by a vote on the articles of impeachment Wednesday.


Mr. Schiff, when pressed on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on what Democrats would do after Mr. Trump’s likely acquittal, said he wasn’t looking beyond the trial. “I’m not letting the senators off the hook,” Mr. Schiff said. “We’re still going to go into the Senate this week and make the case why this president needs to be removed.”

In a separate television appearance on Sunday, one of the president’s attorneys in the Senate trial, Alan Dershowitz, argued that there is no need to seek out new information. [WSJ]

Bannon says Democrats won't stop effort to impeach TrumpFormer White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said Sunday that Democrats won’t stop their effort to impeach President Trump. 

Bannon told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “from day one” has aimed to “destroy Trump” in order to take back the White House.

“This is not going to stop,” he said. “They're going to subpoena more people. They're going to leak more information. And this is why I don't mind getting John Bolton as a witness.”

The former chief strategist said the Democrats’ impeachment efforts stem from the Democratic primary process and the Iowa caucuses. [THEHILL]

Joe Biden Could Be Impeached by GOP Over Ukraine if He Wins, Iowa Senator SaysIowa Senator Joni Ernst warned Sunday that Republicans could immediately push to impeach Joe Biden over his work in Ukraine as vice president if he win the White House.

“I think this door of impeachable whatever has been opened,” Ernst said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “Joe Biden should be very careful what he’s asking for because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, ‘Well, we’re going to impeach him.’”

The grounds for impeachment, the first-term Republican said, would be “for being assigned to take on Ukrainian corruption yet turning a blind eye to Burisma because his son was on the board making over a million dollars a year.”

Earlier this week, Ernst tied the Senate’s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump to Biden’s chances in Monday’s Iowa Democratic caucus, suggesting that the trial could hurt his case with caucus goers. [BLOOMBERG]

NBC/WSJ poll: Country remains divided over Trump's impeachment trialMajorities of American voters believe that President Donald Trump abused his power and obstructed Congress in the Ukraine scandal, but the public remains split — largely along party lines — over whether those actions justify his removal from office.

Those are the findings of a new national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released as the U.S. Senate continues its impeachment trial of Trump, with Republicans on the verge of acquitting the president in the GOP-controlled chamber after voting against allowing witnesses.

The survey also finds Trump trailing the major Democratic presidential candidates in hypothetical matchups for the general election, and it shows how stable the president’s standing has been during the entire impeachment episode.

In the poll, 46 percent of registered voters say Trump should be removed from office as a result of the impeachment trial, versus 49 percent who say he should remain — essentially unchanged from the 48 percent-to-48 percent split in December. [NBCNEWS]


John Kerry overheard discussing possible 2020 bid amid concern of 'Sanders taking down the Democratic Party'Former Secretary of State John Kerry — one of Joe Biden's highest-profile endorsers — was overheard Sunday on the phone at a Des Moines hotel explaining what he would have to do to enter the presidential race amid "the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party — down whole."

Sitting in the lobby restaurant of the Renaissance Savery hotel, Kerry was overheard by an NBC News analyst saying "maybe I'm f---ing deluding myself here" and explaining that in order to run, he'd have to step down from the board of Bank of America and give up his ability to make paid speeches. Kerry said donors like venture capitalist Doug Hickey would have to "raise a couple of million," adding that such donors "now have the reality of Bernie."

Asked about the call later on Sunday, Kerry said that he was "absolutely not" contemplating joining the Democratic primary race. He reiterated this sentiment in a tweet later, saying that "any report otherwise is categorically false." 

He told NBC News later on Sunday that, "This is a complete and total misinterpretation based on overhearing only one side of a phone conversation. A friend who watches too much cable called me wondering whether I’d ever jump into the race late in the game if Democrats were choosing an unelectable nominee. I listed all the reasons I could not possibly do that and would not — and will not under any circumstances — do that."

It’s not clear how serious Kerry was on the call about jumping into the race. But that he would even discuss the possibility suggests that prominent members of the Democratic Party remain deeply unsettled by the current field, Sanders' strength in the polls, and the ability of any candidate to defeat President Donald Trump. It also suggests that Kerry, who has campaigned with Biden in Iowa and New Hampshire, may be nervous about the former vice president's chances ahead of Monday's first-in-the-nation primary caucuses. [NBCNEWS]

Jewish couple sues American Airlines alleging they were kicked off a flight because of their religion. 

A Michigan couple is suing American Airlines for discrimination, alleging in a lawsuit that an airline agent kicked them off a flight for what the employee said was "extremely offensive body odor" and told them he knew that "Orthodox Jews take baths once a week."

Yehuda Yosef Adler and Jennie Adler say in the lawsuit they do not have offensive body odor. They are accusing the airline of discriminating against them because of their religion and defaming them, and say that they experienced embarrassment and humiliation and defamation because of the incident last year.

In January 2019, the couple, along with their 19-month-old daughter, boarded an American Airlines flight from Miami to Detroit. Within five minutes of taking their seats, the couple was approached by an agent who told them that they needed to deplane because there was an emergency, according to a lawsuit filed January 28 with the District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Once the couple stepped off the plane, the agent told them that the pilot had booted them because they had "extremely offensive body odor," the lawsuit said. The couple said they were shocked because they had never received complaints about their body odor on flights, and that they had showered that morning, the lawsuit said. The agent responded by saying he knew that Orthodox Jews take baths once a week, according to the lawsuit.

The Adlers said they were distraught and that despite their embarrassment, they approached more than 20 people in the boarding area to ask if they could detect an unpleasant body odor from the family, the lawsuit said. "Each and every person ... answered in the negative," according to the lawsuit.

"At that point the Adlers were confused, deeply humiliated, disrespected, lost, perplexed, and at a complete loss. They were utterly puzzled," the lawsuit reads. "The Adlers were being discriminated against because of their race, religion and nationality."

American Airlines denies the incident had anything to do with the couple's religion. "The Adler family was asked to deplane after multiple passengers and our crew members complained about Mr. Adler's body odor," the company said Friday in a statement to CNN. [CNN]

Coronavirus Closes China to the World, Straining Global EconomySHANGHAI — China’s isolation amid the coronavirus outbreak, a rare freeze out for such a vital economic center, is rippling across the world.

Uncertainty over the virus—which has infected more than 14,500 people— has disrupted worldwide trade and supply chains, depressed asset prices, and forced multinational businesses to make hard decisions with limited information.

The U.S., and governments in Europe and Asia are enforcing new regulations to block visitors from China and screen returning U.S. citizens, while major airlines suspended flights to the country and companies pulled out expatriate executives.

“The calls that I get are: ‘We don’t know what to do. Our employees are panicking,’” says Rachel Conn, an employment attorney in San Francisco at Nixon Peabody LLP. “They’ve never dealt with a situation like this.

Apple Inc. said this weekend it will close all of its stores and corporate offices in China through Feb. 9. The company, which employs 10,000 people in China, is also contending with work stoppages by factories that produce components for the products it sells around the world.

China’s health crisis is testing the entire global economic system, and placing unexpected and additional strain on the fragility of an extended boom. It’s also a test of China’s strength as a consumer—and the U.S.’s ability to step up as China lags.

Levi Strauss & Co., which in October opened its biggest China store in the city of Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, is among the international brands that together have closed thousands of outlets around the country, including McDonald’s Corp. and Starbucks Inc., in part to comply with government requests for people to remain off the streets.

Chinese factories that were supposed to be quiet for a few days to celebrate Lunar New Year are looking at possible closures and staff disruptions of weeks if not more, threatening production plans at Apple, as well as Tesla Inc. and Anheuser-Busch InBev SA . [WSJ]

Dow futures bounce following Friday’s 600-point routU.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Monday as Wall Street looks set to shrug off fears over the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Around 6:20 a.m. ET, Dow futures implied a positive open of more than 100 points, while futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were also higher.

The death toll in China from the coronavirus reached 361 on Sunday, surpassing that of the SARS virus which lasted from 2002 to 2003, while a first death outside of China was reported in the Philippines.

U.S. investors are seemingly looking to buy the dip after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq recorded their worst start to a trading year since 2016, with global markets reeling from concerns over the economic fallout from the outbreak. The Dow plunged 600 points on Friday to post its worst day since August. [CNBC]

UPS doubling down on weekend deliveries as e-commerce booms and Amazon looms

(Reuters) - United Parcel Service Inc said it aims to more than double weekend deliveries in 2020 as package carriers look for ways to satisfy the always-on demands of e-commerce customers, including rising rival Amazon.com Inc. The world’s biggest online retailer pioneered seven-day delivery in 2013, in partnership with the U.S. Postal Service , and is now spending billions of dollars to speed up its free shipping.

UPS added Sunday to its weekend services at the start of this year, following FedEx Corp, which did the same late last year.

“E-commerce spikes on the weekends, and retailers want those orders delivered sooner,” UPS Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Warren said in a statement ahead of UPS and Amazon’s quarterly reports on Thursday.

UPS said it aimed to expand its year-round Saturday service, which started in 2017, to 40 million more U.S. customers. The company declined to disclose its current weekend volume.

The average volume of overall U.S. weekend deliveries doubled to 13.5 million units between 2013 to 2019, consultancy ShipMatrix said. That was fueled by online retail sales, which surged 127% to almost $591 billion in 2019, according to research firm eMarketer. [REUTERS]

A cyberattack known as e-skimming is getting more common with the rise of online shoppingDuring the busy holiday shopping season late last year, firearms maker American Outdoor Brands noticed a problem with one of its websites, which sells mostly hats, shirts and accessories.

The site, it turned out, was subject to an e-skimming attack over Thanksgiving, where a type of malware infected its checkout pages to steal payment and personal information of shoppers. The company, formerly known as Smith & Wesson, says the incident affected about 780 people.

“Our first action upon learning of the attack was to disable the checkout function on the site to reduce the amount of individuals impacted,” Elizabeth Sharp, vice president of investor relations, said in a statement to CNBC. “During the investigation we found the malware and identified when the malicious code was placed on the site.”

Skimmers, or hidden devices designed to steal credit card information, have long been a threat for consumers at the gas pump or ATM. Now, skimming has gone high-tech and hackers can steal your information in a more insidious and lucrative manner. The attacks come from Magecart groups, a reference to the loosely affiliated syndicate that created the malware.

Just this week, the first arrests were announced for e-skimming. Interpol, which helps coordinate police agencies in 194 countries, said Monday it arrested three people from Indonesia who allegedly compromised hundreds of online shopping websites. It said the suspects stole payment card details and personal data such as names, addresses and phone numbers.

Companies large and small have been hit by e-skimming attacks in the past two years, including Macy’s in October, Puma’s Australian website in April and Ticketmaster’s United Kingdom website in June 2018. [CNBC]