fortune--2020-02-05--The Gates Foundation is pledging up to $100 million for the fight against coronavirus

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is ramping up its efforts to fight the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak with a substantial pledge—up to $100 million to assist detection, containment, and treatments as the so-called 2019-nCoV virus wreaks havoc across multiple nations in Asia and Africa.
“Our hope is that these resources will help catalyze a rapid and effective international response. This response should be guided by science, not fear, and it should build on the steps that the World Health Organization has taken to date,” said Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman in a statement.
The $100 million total includes $10 million that the philanthropic organization already dedicated to coronavirus containment efforts in January.
The money, according to the organization, will come in stages—including an immediate $20 million commitment for a number of public health organizations such as the WHO, the CDC, and health workers on the front lines of fighting the virus in China.
Another $60 million will be funneled to global partners such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations in order to fuel vaccine and anti-viral drug development.
It’s a curated strategy, homing in on the nations and organizations which may need—and will be able to respond—to the outbreak in an efficient manner.
Public health agencies are balancing the art of caution with the nature of the viral threat. Factors such as population density and the strength a region’s health care infrastructure play a large part in how a pathogen spreads. Furthermore, transmissibility and mortality are two separate issues: Just because you can contract something doesn’t necessarily mean it will kill you.
However, the quarantines, travel restrictions, and economic repercussions across certain countries grappling with this outbreak underscore the concerns that global health officials have given the virus’ unpredictability.
“Multilateral organizations, national governments, the private sector and philanthropies must work together to slow the pace of the outbreak, help countries protect their most vulnerable citizens and accelerate the development of the tools to bring this epidemic under control,” said the Gates Foundation’s CEO Suzma.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—The first coronavirus drug candidate is set for testing in China
—2020 candidates on the issues that matter to working women
—What you need to know about new IBM CEO Arvind Krishna
—HBO’s “McMillion$” shows how cheaters scammed McDonald’s Monopoly
—WATCH: Why CEOs are pessimistic about 2020 business outlook
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fortune--2020-02-05--The rich own stocks, the middle class own homes. How betting it all on real estate is a wealth gap p

The rich own stocks, the middle class own homes. How betting it all on real estate is a wealth gap problem

Tesla shares plunge 17 % , their worst one day drop in eight years

Since bottoming on March 9, 2009, the S&P 500 is up more than 500% in total. The stock market eclipsed the pre-crisis all-time highs in 2013 and hasn’t looked back since. Not only have stocks risen 10 out of the past 11 years, but we’re also in the midst of the longest economic expansion in U.S. history with an unemployment rate at its lowest level since 1969.
And yet, despite a decade of good fortune economically the gains have not been handed out uniformly. The gap between the rich and everyone else has only widened during this recovery.
The top 1% have seen the biggest wealth gains by far since Great Recession began in 2007 but this trend has been in place for decades now. The top 1% continues to increase their stranglehold on wealth in this country while the middle and lower class are losing ground.
One of the biggest differences between the wealthy class and everyone else is their ownership of financial assets. Data from Edward Wolff shows the top 10% in terms of wealth own roughly 84% of the stock market in the United States. And that number is rising, up from 77% in 2001.
Not only do the top 10% own more financial assets, such as stocks and bonds, but they don’t have their entire fortune tied up in their home like many in the middle and lower classes.
The rich own financial assets while the rest of the population has the majority of their net worth tied up in their home. There are a number of reasons why this disparity has made things difficult on the middle class.
Real estate took longer to bottom
The Great Recession was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression because falling home prices impacted so many consumers. And the housing market took much longer to recover from its losses than the stock market.
While the S&P 500 bottomed in the spring of 2009, it wasn’t until 2012 that real estate hit its nadir. And while housing has recovered nicely since that time, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index didn’t break even until the end of 2016. It’s only in the last few years that many long-term homeowners have experienced meaningful gains in their real estate assets.
The majority of our debt burden comes from housing
U.S. household debt is roughly $14 trillion as of the latest reading. Nearly $9.5 trillion of that number comes in the form of mortgages (with the rest made up of auto loans, credit card debt and student loans). That means close to 70% of household debt comes from borrowing to buy a house.
The bottom 50% of households by wealth are in debt to the tune of $5.6 trillion. Only around 50% of all Americans have a direct ownership stake in the stock market. This means the bottom 50% has basically nothing invested in financial assets outside of a primary residence but holds around 40% of the total debt load.
While housing can appreciate over the long-term, it’s also an enormous liability on the balance sheet for many Americans.
Housing is a form of consumption
The great myth of the American dream is that buying a home will be the best investment you’ll ever make. Could that be the case? Certainly for those in the right markets at the right time, especially when you consider the leverage involved in owning a home.
But owning a home is not only a liability that slowly turns into an asset but also a form of consumption. You have to pay property taxes. Maintenance and upkeep are required. Designs can go out of style which could require renovations over time. There are also transaction costs involved with the purchase and sale of a home, along with the interest being paid on the loan.
When you take all of the costs into consideration the investment outlook on a home may not be as great as many have led you to believe. Then there’s the fact that you can’t spend your house as it’s an illiquid asset.
I’m not saying homeownership is a bad thing. I own a home myself and it’s been a wonderful decision for my family. But a home is also the most emotional asset you can own. It’s literally the roof over your head, the neighborhood you reside in, and part of the community you live in.
So while becoming a homeowner can provide a certain level of psychic income, it can also be your downfall when things go wrong because it offers little in the way of diversification if you lose your job or run into financial difficulty during a downturn.
The broader implications
Wealth inequality is a problem that has slowly gotten worse over recent decades. Reversing course will take some time as well. Policy prescriptions will likely come in the form of a wealth tax or higher rates on the rich in the future. The rich can afford the best tax consultants to shield all those financial assets they own so I’m not sure how much damage a wealth tax would do to put a dent in this gap.
I would prefer a more dynamic retirement system that makes it easier for more people to take part in equity ownership through the stock market. But short of a forced program, I’m not holding my breath on this one. This is a problem without an easy solution.
Perversely, under the current wealth distribution scenario only a nasty stock market crash would succeed in narrowing the gap between the haves and the have-nots, seeing as the rich own the majority of the stock market. But whichever way the market turns, many lower and middle-class households are going to remain highly dependent on their homes and social security when it comes to funding their retirement.
Ben Carlson, CFA is the Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He may own securities or assets discussed in this piece.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—All of your questions on filing taxes in 2020, answered
—The health of the economy in nine charts
—Why investors are cooling on “direct-to-consumer” brands
—The coronavirus is already disrupting the global supply chain
—WATCH: Biggest investing opportunities and risks for 2020
Subscribe to Fortune’s Bull Sheet for no-nonsense finance news and analysis daily.


fortune--2020-02-05--The Iowa caucus debacle is great for America’s disinformation-peddling adversaries

This is the web version of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
The Democratic Party of Iowa had years to prepare for its presidential caucus. Instead, the party bungled the 2020 election season’s kickoff event and created a situation for chaos and conspiracy theories to run rampant, undermining pretty much everyone’s trust in the process.
What went wrong? Faulty software design, poor engineering, and a heap of hubris apparently caused the fracas. Iowa’s Democratic Party hired a contractor that rushed out a malfunctioning app intended to help tally votes. Only a quarter of the state’s 1,700 precinct chairs were able to download and install the monstrosity, the New York Times reported.
For those that did manage, somehow, to get the pitiful exercise in techno-solutionism up and running, the tool failed to report accurate results. Party officials have officially blamed a “coding error“; its chairs fell back on manual tallying, phone calls, photos sent via text message, and hand-delivered papers.
The defective app’s vendor, Shadow, whose name had initially been kept quiet in a doomed attempt at security through obscurity, tried to quell people’s worries over the tallying delays:
And Gerard Niemira, CEO of Shadow, recently gave his first post-catastrophe interview. “I’m really disappointed that some of our technology created an issue that made the caucus difficult,” he told Bloomberg. “We feel really terrible about that.”
(Because the cosmos has a sense of humor, the company’s name, of course, signifies the exact opposite of transparency.)
Gregory Miller, cofounder of the Open Source Election Technology Institute, has the best summary of the whole debacle. He had earlier advised Iowa’s Democrats against using the app, and vented his frustration to Motherboard:
“Everyone from bots to Republicans literally devoured this scene and sowed a lot of seeds of confusion and chaos. You don’t deliver an app days before the event and call it good … In a system, in a world where we are questioning every aspect of elections and whether they can be trusted, why would you do anything to fuel a disinformation attack, and that’s exactly what the Democrats have done. They’ve opened a can of whupass on themselves.”
In fact, Iowa’s Democrats opened a can of whupass on all of America. The party tried to be innovative, to adopt newfangled tech and take the “minimum viable product” mentality of Silicon Valley to the ballot box, and now everyone is paying the price.
Make no mistake: This election is and will be, just like 2016, under attack by foreign governments, bots, and other peddlers of disinformation. Kicking off the election cycle with such a disaster plays right into the hands of America’s adversaries who stand to benefit from the turmoil.
Robert Hackett
Twitter: @rhhackett
Email: robert.hackett@fortune.com
THREATS
Doing it for the 'gram. People are using group accounts on Instagram to overload the photo app with random data and thereby overwhelm its personalization and ad-targeting abilities. Given that Facebook can tell from where and what device you're logging in, it's hard to imagine this trick will work for long, but it seems to confuse the algorithms for now. By the way, Instagram is said to have brought in a quarter of Facebook's sales last year: roughly $20 billion, sources told Bloomberg.
Fake it till you make it. An Alphabet subsidiary called Jigsaw developed an app to help journalists tell doctored photos from real ones. More than a dozen news agencies are testing the A.I.-based tool, called Assembler. Twitter, meanwhile, has broadened its "deepfake" policy. The site will disallow people from deceptively sharing "synthetic or manipulated media that are likely to cause harm."
Locked in the vault. Joshua Shulte, an ex-CIA engineer who is alleged to have leaked a cache of sensitive documents relating to the agency's hacking capabilities to WikiLeaks, is now standing trial. His legal team is trying to argue that he is a whistleblower, which seems like a problematic strategy, given that there is no history of him having expressed moral concerns about the agency's work.
Lifestyles of the rich and famous. Lawyers for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are asking a California judge to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by the brother of Bezos's girlfriend Lauren Sanchez. The brother, Michael Sanchez, filed suit last week accusing Bezos of spreading false rumors about him having leaked nude photographs of Bezos to a tabloid. Bezos denies spreading such rumors. In other news, Bezos just sold $1.8 billion worth of Amazon stock.
Subs with frickin' laser beams attached.
ACCESS GRANTED
Chinese spies love intellectual property theft. In a recent sting operation, a Chinese national allegedly got caught trying to obtain radiation-hardened computer chips on behalf of a Chinese buyer. (Laws restrict sales of such national security-sensitive technology from reaching countries such as China and Russia.) As Quartz relates, general sloppiness caused the suspect's cover story to blow up.
Nicholas Eftimiades, a veteran intelligence officer who held positions with the CIA, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and the Defense Intelligence Agency during his 34-year career, said the technology in radiation-hardened microchips is “very, very closely guarded.” He said [Jian Fun] Tso’s explanation of how his clients would use them was nothing short of “ridiculous.” ...
“The Chinese have been eating our lunch since the eighties,” former CIA officer Robert Baer told Quartz. “Nearly every single scientific and technological breakthrough they’ve made is thanks to what they’ve ripped off from us. And it’s only getting worse. Chinese theft of our technology is up there with our worst national security threats.”
FORTUNE RECON
Twitter will label, remove ‘deepfake’ videos under new policy by Kurt Wagner
Nevada Democrats dump app that caused Iowa’s caucus meltdown by Kevin Collier
Artificial Intelligence comes to Slurpees and Big Macs by Jonathan Vanian
The U.S. may soon have the world’s oldest nuclear power plants by Ari Natter
Is there still appetite for direct-to-consumer businesses? By Polina Marinova
ONE MORE THING
What is the longest possible URL? It's 255 characters, apparently. The blog BoingBoing highlights the maximized web address:
http://a.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i.j.k.l.m.n.oo.pp.qqq.rrrr.ssssss.tttttttt.uuuuuuuuuuu.vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv.wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.me/
If you're bold enough to visit the site, I hope you will enjoy the strangely entrancing rainbow theme as much as I did.


fortune--2020-02-05--The latest landfill problem comes from the renewable energy industry

A wind turbine’s blades can be longer than a Boeing 747 wing, so at the end of their lifespan they can’t just be hauled away. First, you need to saw through the lissome fiberglass using a diamond-encrusted industrial saw to create three pieces small enough to be strapped to a tractor-trailer.
The municipal landfill in Casper, Wyoming, is the final resting place of 870 blades whose days making renewable energy have come to end. The severed fragments look like bleached whale bones nestled against one another.
“That’s the end of it for this winter,” said waste technician Michael Bratvold, watching a bulldozer bury them forever in sand. “We’ll get the rest when the weather breaks this spring.”
Tens of thousands of aging blades are coming down from steel towers around the world and most have nowhere to go but landfills. In the U.S. alone, about 8,000 will be removed in each of the next four years. Europe, which has been dealing with the problem longer, has about 3,800 coming down annually through at least 2022, according to BloombergNEF. It’s going to get worse: Most were built more than a decade ago, when installations were less than a fifth of what they are now.
Built to withstand hurricane-force winds, the blades can’t easily be crushed, recycled or repurposed. That’s created an urgent search for alternatives in places that lack wide-open prairies. In the U.S., they go to the handful of landfills that accept them, in Lake Mills, Iowa; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Casper, where they will be interred in stacks that reach 30 feet under.
“The wind turbine blade will be there, ultimately, forever,” said Bob Cappadona, chief operating officer for the North American unit of Paris-based Veolia Environnement SA, which is searching for better ways to deal with the massive waste. “Most landfills are considered a dry tomb.”
“The last thing we want to do is create even more environmental challenges.”
A special truck transports the blade of a wind turbine near the small village of Beltejar, in the north of Spain, on Dec. 5, 2019. John Milner—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
To prevent catastrophic climate change caused by burning fossil fuels, many governments and corporations have pledged to use only clean energy by 2050. Wind energy is one of the cheapest ways to reach that goal.
The electricity comes from turbines that spin generators. Modern models emerged after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, when shortages compelled western governments to find alternatives to fossil fuels. The first wind farm in the U.S. was installed in New Hampshire in 1980, and California deployed thousands of turbines east of San Francisco across the Altamont Pass.
The first models were expensive and inefficient, spinning fast and low. After 1992, when Congress passed a tax credit, manufacturers invested in taller and more powerful designs. Their steel tubes rose 260 feet and sported swooping fiberglass blades. A decade later, General Electric Co. made its 1.5 megawatt model—enough to supply 1,200 homes in a stiff breeze—an industry standard.
Wind power is carbon-free and about 85% of turbine components, including steel, copper wire, electronics and gearing can be recycled or reused. But the fiberglass blades remain difficult to dispose of. With some as long as a football field, big rigs can only carry one at a time, making transportation costs prohibitive for long-distance hauls. Scientists are trying to find better ways to separate resins from fibers or to give small chunks new life as pellets or boards.
In the European Union, which strictly regulates material that can go into landfills, some blades are burned in kilns that create cement or in power plants. But their energy content is weak and uneven and the burning fiberglass emits pollutants.
In a pilot project last year, Veolia tried grinding them to dust, looking for chemicals to extract. “We came up with some crazy ideas,” Cappadona said. “We want to make it a sustainable business. There’s a lot of interest in this.”
One start-up, Global Fiberglass Solutions, developed a method to break down blades and press them into pellets and fiber boards to be used for flooring and walls. The company started producing samples at a plant in Sweetwater, Texas, near the continent’s largest concentration of wind farms. It plans another operation in Iowa.
“We can process 99.9% of a blade and handle about 6,000 to 7,000 blades a year per plant,” said Chief Executive Officer Don Lilly. The company has accumulated an inventory of about one year’s worth of blades ready to be chopped up and recycled as demand increases, he said. “When we start to sell to more builders, we can take in a lot more of them. We’re just gearing up.”
Until then, municipal and commercial dumps will take most of the waste, which the American Wind Energy Association in Washington says is safest and cheapest.
“Wind turbine blades at the end of their operational life are landfill-safe, unlike the waste from some other energy sources, and represent a small fraction of overall U.S. municipal solid waste,” according to an emailed statement from the group. It pointed to an Electric Power Research Institute study that estimates all blade waste through 2050 would equal roughly .015% of all the municipal solid waste going to landfills in 2015 alone.
In Iowa, Waste Management Inc. “worked closely with renewable energy companies to come up with a solution for wind mill blade processing, recycling and disposal,” said Julie Ketchum, a spokeswoman. The largest U.S. trash hauler gets as many as 10 trucks per day at its Lake Mills landfill.
Back in Wyoming, in the shadow of a snow-capped mountain, lies Casper, where wind farms represent both the possibilities and pitfalls of the shift from fossil fuels. The boom-bust oil town was founded at the turn of the 19th century. On the south side, bars that double as liquor stores welcome cigarette smokers and day drinkers. Up a gentle northern slope, a shooting club boasts of cowboy-action pistol ranges. Down the road, the sprawling landfill bustles and a dozen wind turbines spin gently on the horizon. They tower over pumpjacks known as nodding donkeys that pull oil from wells.
“People around here don’t like change,” said Morgan Morsett, a bartender at Frosty’s Bar & Grill. “They see these wind turbines as something that’s hurting coal and oil.”
But the city gets $675,000 to house turbine blades indefinitely, which can help pay for playground improvements and other services. Landfill manager Cynthia Langston said the blades are much cleaner to store than discarded oil equipment and Casper is happy to take the thousand blades from three in-state wind farms owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s PacifiCorp. Warren Buffett’s utility has been replacing the original blades and turbines with larger, more powerful models after a decade of operation.
While acknowledging that burying blades in perpetuity isn’t ideal, Bratvold, the special waste technician, was surprised by some of the negative reactions when a photo of some early deliveries went viral last summer. On social media, posters derided the inability to recycle something advertised as good for the planet, and offered suggestions of reusing them as links in a border wall or roofing for a homeless shelter.
“The backlash was instant and uninformed,” Bratvold said. “Critics said they thought wind turbines were supposed to be good for the environment and how can it be sustainable if it ends up in a landfill?”
“I think we’re doing the right thing.”
In the meantime, Bratvold and his co-workers have set aside about a half dozen blades and in coming months, they’ll experiment with methods to squeeze them into smaller footprints. They’ve tried bunkers, berms and even crushing them with the bulldozer, but the tracks kept slipping off the smooth blades. There’s little time to waste. Spring is coming, and when it does, the inexorable march of blades will resume.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Coronavirus forces China’s neighbors to make tough choices
—Asia worries about big events like the Olympics amid coronavirus spread
—China will struggle to spend its way out of the coronavirus economic slowdown
—On facial recognition, Berlin and London choose different paths
—Fortune Explains: Tariffs and trade wars
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-02-05--How the menopause taboo hurts working women

This is the web version of the Broadsheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Dick’s Sporting Goods wants to appeal to more women, British media mixes up three black MPs, and menopausal women are suffering in silence at work. Have a wonderful Wednesday.
– A hot topic. Here’s something you probably weren’t expecting to think about this morning: menopause!
Let me amend that. If you are among the 61 million women in the U.S. workforce who are over 50, you may indeed spend plenty of time thinking about menopause and its impact on your work life—though there’s a very high likelihood you keep most of those thoughts to yourself.
This Harvard Business Review piece, written by a trio of researchers, points out that not only does menopause affect a significant number of employees, but it can make it harder for them to succeed at work. Symptoms like poor concentration, memory lapses, and vocal cord distress can impact women’s day-to-day. Indeed, one survey found that about a third of menopausal women ended up taking some sick leave to cope.
But here’s the really tricky part: Only a quarter of those women told their manager the real reason for the time off. Not surprisingly, research shows that many women are hesitant to talk about menopause at work, for fear that they’ll be ridiculed, discriminated against, or marked as targets for layoffs. As long as the corporate world avoids the topic, women will suffer in silence—or perhaps even drop out of the workforce all together.
The HBR authors have some ideas about how we might chip away at this taboo; read them all here. And if you have some personal experience on this front that you’d like to share, drop me a note. We may use your response in a future Broadsheet.
Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee
Today’s Broadsheet was produced by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- On a tear. A year after her infamous clap back at President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had another State of the Union moment last night, when she tore a paper version of Trump's speech in half after he'd finished his address. The chill between the two was obvious; Trump rebuffed a handshake from Pelosi and she omitted laudatory language as she introduced him. Pelosi said ripping up the speech was "the courteous thing to do considering the alternative.” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) delivered different SOTU responses for the Dems and, in Pressley's case, the Working Families Party. New York Times
- Better boards. Moving down the org chart and away from reliance on CEOs is helping boards of directors diversify. Marriott is one company to push its lower-level execs to join outside boards. Bloomberg
- What women want. Dick's Sporting Goods wants to capitalize on the increased popularity of women's pro sports—and the likelihood that women, more than men, support its decision to no longer sell firearms—by revamping its stores and marketing to appeal to female customers. The $8.7 billion chain spent in the "low eight figures" to sponsor USA Softball, provide a grant to U.S. Soccer Foundation for girls' programs, and sell more products for women and girls. Bloomberg
- Best bet? The Best Buy board of directors has decided to stand by CEO Corie Barry, who was investigated for having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. After the investigation, the board said it supports Barry's "continued leadership" of the company. CNBC
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Exos named former Flywheel CEO Sarah Robb O’Hagan its new chief executive. SoftBank chief people officer Michelle Horn left the firm. OWN hired as head of marketing Jennifer Giddens, formerly head of global creative marketing of the kids and family division of Netflix. Juliette Kayyem, a former official in the Obama Administration, stepped down as senior adviser to NSO Group following criticism from press freedom groups; NSO's technology has reportedly been used to target journalists. Samar Younes, formerly of Coach, joins Showfields as creative director.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Revenue report. For the first time, Alphabet this week broke out revenue for YouTube, led by CEO Susan Wojcicki, from the rest of the Google parent's earnings. YouTube made more than $15 billion in revenue in 2019—on the lower end of analysts' projections. Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat says the company decided to disclose the information "to provide further insight into our business and the opportunities ahead." Wall Street Journal
- Media mix-up. Three media outlets—BBC, Evening Standard, and Getty Images—mixed up photos of three black female members of Parliament. The BBC first mislabeled a photo of Labour MP Marsha de Cordova as Labour's Dawn Butler. Then, the Evening Standard wrote about BBC's error but used a photo of Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy instead of de Cordova; the paper blamed a Getty Images caption. Whew! Butler used the multiple mix-ups to point out that "diversity in the workplace matters [and] helps to avoid making simple mistakes like this." Guardian
- The Finnish Dream. Is the American Dream thriving ... in Finland? Prime Minister Sanna Marin says she thinks the by-the-bootstraps goal is now easier to achieve in her country and its neighbors. "I feel that the American Dream can be achieved best in the Nordic countries, where every child, no matter their background or the background of their families, can become anything," she said in an interview, citing the region's social welfare and education programs. Washington Post
- Leading ladies. Movies are catching up to TV when it comes to representing women onscreen. Of the top 100 box-office movies in 2019, 43 had female leads or co-leads, 16 of whom were women of color, according to the University of Southern California's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. The results, coupled with the recent lack of diversity in Oscar and BAFTA nominations, shed light on the "very obvious disconnect between what sells tickets and what garners awards," the report says. Variety
ON MY RADAR
Lesotho’s first lady charged with murder of PM's former wife Guardian
After Oprah’s departure, film about Russell Simmons accusers finds new home New York Times
New emotions: That feeling when another woman hypes you up The Cut
What if Hillary Clinton hadn't married Bill? A new novel will explore that possibility People
PARTING WORDS
"They were ambitious, good at their jobs, and may never work in broadcast again."
-Charlize Theron on empathizing with the Fox News employees depicted in Bombshell


fortune--2020-02-05--Can Hollywood residuals help local restaurants pay the rent?

As Mayor Bill de Blasio poured a foamy beer out of a tap at Neir’s Tavern, a crowd of New Yorkers celebrated an unfamiliar sensation: the taste of small-business victory. When Neir’s owner Loycent Gordon announced his bar would end its 190-year run because of a lease dispute, the shuttering of a historic establishment that dates back to 1829 was enough to rile up an entire city. The fact that Neir’s served as the headquarters for Lufthansa heist planning and Johnny Roastbeef’s honeymoon celebration in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas only made matters worse.
Yet through a mix of public shaming, particularly the failure of a city’s landmark preservation program, Neir’s was able to attract New York’s most seasoned politicians in helping negotiate a new deal, which will at least mean five more years of people performing subpar Robert De Niro impressions.
Royalties vs. cash
Though the producers of Goodfellas certainly compensated Neir’s and other filming locations in their production budget—which was estimated to be $25 million—do venues deserve additional compensation once filming has ended, other than revenue generated from the occasional wayward tour group and themed burger menu?
The general consensus from industry insiders is that while the idea of consistent payments over time sounds great in principle, there’s too much temptation for a business—especially one based in hospitality—to refuse straight cash.
“I’ve booked plenty of shoots that have hit TV and film for venues. I’d take cash over royalty any day though. There’s no guarantee on the brick-and-mortar lifespan, and there’s no guarantee the media will perform, explains Joey Rubin, creative director at Parade Agency. “If it does, you’ll likely see the royalty in covers anyways.”
For a majority of venues, that notion has turned out to be true. “Of course, royalties would be great, but even without, we often have guests who come to our venues and mention that they came because they saw it on their favorite show,” noted Paul Goldstein, partner at Tao Group Hospitality. Rental fees often provide revenue during nonrevenue-generating or off-peak hours, and for the right type of venue, an endorsement by way of a fictional storyline is more than enough to build a legitimate audience with money to burn.
However, different hospitality businesses have different needs, and sometimes no amount of exposure is worth handing over your place of business to someone else for a day of chaos.
Even when they’re not serving as the actual site of a film shoot, brick-and-mortar venues are still making guests feel like they’re part of their favorite shows that filmed there. Courtesy of Birch Coffee
New York City–based Birch Coffee has seen a steady flow of requests from location scouts and producers representing networks, including Bravo, Lifetime, and Amazon. Even when they’re not serving as the actual site of a film shoot, brick-and-mortar venues are still making guests feel like they’re part of some show.
“Moving espresso machines, cash registers, and ceiling fans for one day and getting them running for the next business day is complicated and time-consuming,” notes Jeremy Lyman, cofounder of Birch Coffee, which made an appearance in the Netflix production Set It Up.
Studio contracts
In Los Angeles, one savvy hospitality group turned the opportunity to serve as a featured location for the film Yes Man into an interior design session. “One of the best productions deals we did in particular was for our first flagship bar, Bigfoot Lodge, located in Los Feliz Atwater Village,” recalls Bobby Green, co-owner and lead designer of the 1933 Group, a Los Angeles–based hospitality group that includes 11 bars within its portfolio. “The way we structured the deal for a major feature film not only allowed us to get the best possible compensation, but we also secured the interior decor that allowed us to expand and design a new location for the Bigfoot concept.”
During discussions, Green and co-owner Dimitri Komarov requested to review Yes Man’s script to better understand how their bar would be represented in the movie. The parties involved decided it would be more cost effective to license Bigfoot Lodge’s name and interior design instead of shutting down the business for compensation. “We looked at the percentage of time that Bigfoot Lodge was in the movie compared to the overall script to inform a licensing fee we thought was fair,” Green explains.
Inside the Bigfoot Lodge. William Bradford
Once filming finished, the hospitality group purchased the set and used those materials to open a second location, Bigfoot West. “They sold us the props and design materials—flooring, wall decor, and dozens of wood logs—for a fraction of what it would have been for us to do it ourselves,” Green recalls.
The spaces that need a dose of Hollywood magic the most are likely the ones that have never agreed to a production deal before. Although every business will have different needs, there are a few tips experienced business owners suggest to avoid 15 hours of shame. “Say no to a flat rate, and make sure to build in the potential for overtime hours as an hourly rate,” says Komarov.
He also suggests looking into the studio that’s organizing the production and finding out the crew size, since that’s an indication of overall budget. “Truth be told, Hollywood makes enough money that they could probably find a way to give some royalties on what they know is going to be a memorable scene,” Komarov says. “But as a bar owner, I can’t expect to license every little aspect; otherwise productions would just go back to building on sound stages.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—The most anticipated books of 2020, according to Goodreads
—Cabo’s newest luxury resort favors tranquility over nightlife
—The magic of the wedding industry’s most exclusive conference
—High-tech fitness offerings are the newest luxury hotel must-have
—The best travel destinations for every season of 2020
Follow Fortune on Flipboard to stay up-to-date on the latest news and analysis.


fortune--2020-02-05--Beijing bans birthday parties and other get-togethers to curb coronavirus spread

China’s capital barred people from gathering for meals, celebrating birthdays and holding banquets in an attempt to curb the spread of the deadly new coronavirus.
Restaurants and caterers are not allowed to serve groups of people and should cancel or postpone any such events immediately, local authorities said at a briefing on Wednesday. The order also includes any holiday celebrations or graduation parties, it said.
The city is the latest to stop people from sharing meals with each other, which is one way the virus that has killed almost 500 people can spread. China has gone to extreme measures to contain the epidemic, including quarantining more than 50 million people and extending the annual Lunar New Year holiday.
Sichuan province — known internationally for its hotpot made with peppercorns from the region — banned dinner gatherings from Jan. 25. Shaanxi, which borders the Hubei province where the virus originated, did the same on Jan. 27.
The number of total confirmed cases of coronavirus in mainland China rose to 24,324 as of Feb. 4, according to the National Health Commission. The death toll is at 490, it said in a statement.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Coronavirus forces China’s neighbors to make tough choices
—Asia worries about big events like the Olympics amid coronavirus spread
—China will struggle to spend its way out of the coronavirus economic slowdown
—On facial recognition, Berlin and London choose different paths
—Fortune Explains: Tariffs and trade wars
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-02-05--Patient or prisoner? Governments deploy surveillance tech to track coronavirus victims

The Hong Kong government has issued 30 families recently returned from Hubei province—the epicenter of the ongoing coronavirus epidemic—with location trackers, walking a fine line between quarantine and house arrest as the suspected patients are confined to their homes for 14 days.
“These are people who have to be quarantined at home, they are not criminals, so we agree we have to respect their privacy,” the Hong Kong government’s chief information officer Victor Lam said during a press conference on Monday, where he modeled the wristbands that the quarantined people will have to wear at all times.
The chunky wristbands connect wirelessly to a battery-less smartphone, provided by the government, that has to be plugged in at all times. If the wristband moves more than 30 meters from the phone, or if either device breaks, the Department of Health will be notified.
Because the tracking devices don’t have GPS and can’t monitor a wearer’s exact location should they leave the house, Lam said the wristbands are mindful of privacy. People who violate quarantine, however, are considered criminals and are liable for a prison sentence of up to six months and a fine of $640.
Trailed by tech
Hong Kong has 500 trackers ready to slap on the wrists of the quarantined and, according to Lam, it can acquire another 1,000 in two weeks if necessary. The use of electronic trackers in the case of quarantine seems novel but has happened before.
Two women in Hong Kong wear protective masks amid the coronavirus scare. Hong Kong is deploying surveillance tech to track residents thought to be susceptible to the disease. Geovien So—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Singapore used trackers and webcams to monitor home quarantine patients during the SARS pandemic of 2003, which infected 238 people and killed 33 in the city of 4 million. Reportedly, the city state ultimately placed close to 8,000 people under quarantine during the SARS epidemic under threat of a roughly $7,000 fine and six months jail time should they violate the lockdown.
Today, amid the Wuhan virus, other regions are deploying tech to monitor suspected victims, too. In Taiwan, health officials have issued patients under house quarantine with location-tracking smartphones, which notify the user and police if they have ventured too far from home. The head of Taiwan’s Center for Disease Control said violating quarantine is punishable by a fine up to $9,000.
In mainland China, the center of the epidemic, the state’s various surveillance systems—including big data analysis—are being put to work to track thousands of suspected carriers of the virus. Officials in Chongqing claim to have used unspecified data to track over 5,000 individuals traveling from Hubei during Chinese New Year. Half of them were quarantined.
Private enterprises are contributing too. Baidu says its remote thermal monitoring system—which reportedly uses A.I. to direct an infrared sensor at the foreheads of moving passengers—has been deployed in railway stations and airports.
Online security firm Qihoo 360 has launched a program that allows users to check whether they recently travelled on the same train or plane as someone who was later diagnosed with the coronavirus.
Leaking data
Not all of the data used to track suspected patients remains in the hands of government officials. The Associated Press reports that residents in a Shanghai neighborhood are circulating a list containing the personal data of close to 200 people who in live in the area who have allegedly travelled to Wuhan. Similar reports of doxing are reverberating around China with victims reporting cases of being harassed by strangers.
“Quarantined people can feel like criminals, so I think pre-quarantine counseling is very important to make sure people understand the rationale behind the action, because basically you’re depriving them of their freedom of movement,” says Wong Tzewai, adjunct professor in the school of public health and primary care at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong, the Department of Health has published a list of the 24 housing estates where the quarantined residents live, as well as dates for when each unit’s quarantine is up.
At the press conference Monday, Director of Health Dr. Constance Chan urged residents living in the same block as the detainees to not panic—but Hong Kong citizens, like most others, are fearful of quarantine zones and distrustful of the government. In January, an empty public housing building was fire bombed after the block, which is in the heart of a residential zone, was designated a quarantine zone.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Coronavirus forces China’s neighbors to make tough choices
—Asia worries about big events like the Olympics amid coronavirus spread
—China will struggle to spend its way out of the coronavirus economic slowdown
—On facial recognition, Berlin and London choose different paths
—Fortune Explains: Tariffs and trade wars
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-02-06--These countries have imposed China travel restrictions over the coronavirus

The markets roll into record territory—but this one group is missing out

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Feb. 11 at 7 a.m. ET.
More than 50 countries or territories have imposed travel restrictions and tightened visa requirements to contain the novel coronavirus, according to the International Air Transport Association.
Antigua and Barbuda (As of Feb. 6)
Foreign passengers and airline crew who’ve been to mainland China in the past 28 days aren’t allowed to enter.
Armenai (As of Feb. 6)
Holders of normal mainland China passports are no longer visa exempt and are required to obtain a visa or an e-visa prior to arrival in Armenia.
Australia (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers who’ve transited through or have been in mainland China on or after Feb. 1 won’t be allowed to transit or enter Australia, though this doesn’t apply to airline crew. Australian nationals and residents who’ve transited through or have been in mainland China on or after Feb. 1 will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days from their arrival into Australia.
Azerbaijan (As of Feb. 6)
Mainland China nationals are not allowed to enter Azerbaijan if they do not have a visa obtained before departure.
Bahamas (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers who have been in mainland China in the past 20 days are not allowed to enter. Residents of the Bahamas who have been in mainland China will be subject to immediate quarantine for a maximum of 14 days.
Bangladesh (As of Feb. 8)
Holders of passports from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau can no longer obtain a visa on arrival. They must fill a Health Clearance Form provided by cabin crew.
Belize (As of Feb. 10)
Foreigners and non-residents who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter Belize.
Cook Islands (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter.
El Salvador (As of Feb. 6)
Holders of normal passports from mainland China arriving from mainland China are not allowed to enter unless they are residents of El Salvador.
Fiji (As of Feb. 7)
Foreign passengers and airline crew who have been in in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter Fiji.
Grenada (As of Feb. 10)
Foreigners and non-residents who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter.
Guatemala (As of Feb. 6)
Foreigners who have been in mainland China in the past 15 days are not allowed to enter Guatemala. Guatemalan nationals will be interviewed to comply with clinical evaluation and will be transferred to a Health Service for due isolation and treatment by the Ministry of Public Health, if required.
Hong Kong (As of Feb. 8)
Non-residents who have been in the Hubei Province in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter. Passengers who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter if their permitted stay in Hong Kong is less than 14 days. Passengers who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days or arriving from mainland China are subject to compulsory quarantine for 14 days.
India (As of Feb. 9)
Any visa or e-visa issued to mainland China nationals before Feb. 5 are invalidated, excluding passengers with an OCI card or airline crew. Passengers who have been in mainland China on or after Jan. 15 are not allowed to enter, with any visa or e-visa issued before Feb. 5 invalidated — excluding passengers with an OCI card or airline crew.
Indonesia (As of Feb. 8)
Foreigners or non-residents, including the airline crew, who have been in mainland China the past 14 days are not allowed to enter or transit Indonesia.
Iran (As of Feb. 10)
Passport holders from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau are no longer visa exempt but they can obtain a visa on arrival. They are required to clear medical checks upon arrival and get a certificate.
Iraq (As of Feb. 11)
Nationals from mainland China or foreigners who have been there in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter. Iraqi nationals or residents who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days will be quarantined for 14 days.
Israel (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter. This does not apply to Israelis, their spouses and their children. This also does not apply to residents of Israel.
Jamazica (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers who have been in mainland China will be subject to immediate quarantine for at least 14 days. Those returning from mainland China who have been granted landing privileges and who show any symptom of the novel Coronavirus will be put in immediate isolation.
Japan (As of Feb. 6)
Foreigners who have been in the Hubei Province in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter Japan. Chinese with passports issued in Hubei are not allowed to enter.
Jordan (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter Jordan. This does not apply to Jordanians, their spouses and children.
Kazakhstan (As of Feb. 6)
Mainland Chinese nationals with a normal passport arriving at Almaty (ALA), Aktau (SCO), Astana (TSE), Karaganda (KGF), Shymkent (CIT) or Taraz (DMB) are no longer visa exempt.
Kiribati (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers who have been in a country with any confirmed cases of novel Coronavirus (2019-nCov) are not allowed to enter. They must have stayed in a country with no confirmed cases for a period of at least 14 days before entering Kiribati.
South Korea (As of Feb. 7)
Foreigners or non-residents who have been in the Hubei Province in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter. Korean visas issued by the Wuhan Consulate in the Hubei Province are invalidated. Mainland Chinese with a passport issued in Hubei are not allowed to enter. Mainland Chinese nationals are also required to have a visa, even those only transiting through
North Korea (As of Feb. 6)
Tourists are not allowed to enter. Passengers traveling on business or duty must spend 14 days in quarantine upon arrival.
Kosovo (As of Feb. 7)
Mainland Chinese are not allowed to enter unless they travel with a medical certificate proving they are free from the novel coronavirus. Airline crew are exempted.
Kuwait (As of Feb. 6)
Mainland Chinese or Hong Kong passport holders are not allowed to enter. Those with residence permit or visa issued by mainland China who have been in mainland China in the past 2 weeks are not allowed to enter. Passengers with a residence permit or visa issued by Hong Kong who have been in Hong Kong in the past 2 weeks are not allowed to enter.
Macau (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers who reside or have been in the Hubei Province in the past 14 days must present a certificate issued by a legal medical institution proving they are not infected with the novel coronavirus. This doesn’t apply to Macau passport holders or residents.
Malaysia (As of Feb. 10)
Foreigners and non-residents who have been in the Hubei, Zhejiang or Jiangsu Provinces in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter. Non-resident mainland Chinese with a passport issued in Hubei are not allowed to enter.
Maldives (As of Feb. 6)
Foreigners who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter.
Marshall Islands (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau are not allowed to enter.
Mauritius (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers who have been in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter. Nationals or residents of Mauritius who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days will be placed in quarantine.
Micronesia (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers who have been in mainland China on or after Jan. 6, are not allowed to enter. Only passengers who have been in countries with no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus for at least 14 days are allowed to enter. This does not apply to airline crew.
Mongolia (As of Feb. 10)
Non-resident passengers who reside or have been in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau since Jan. 1 are not allowed to transit or enter Mongolia.
Myanmar (As of Feb. 6)
Mainland Chinese nationals or any passengers arriving from mainland China on any Chinese airline can no longer obtain a visa on arrival.
New Zealand (As of Feb. 7)
Passengers who have transited through or have been in mainland China on or after Feb. 2 won’t be allowed to transit or enter New Zealand. New Zealand nationals, residents and their immediate families will be allowed entry but will be required to self-isolate for a period of 14 days from their arrival.
Niue (As of Feb. 7)
Passengers who have been in mainland China in the past 30 days are not allowed to enter. They must have stayed in a country with no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus for at least 14 days before entering Niue and have an official medical clearance undertaken within 3 days prior to arrival.
Palau (As of Feb. 6)
Passengers who have transited through or have been in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter.
Paraguay (As of Feb. 6)
Visas issued to nationals of mainland China are invalidated.
Philippines (As of Feb. 11)
Passengers who have been in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter. Filipinos and residents will be allowed entry but will be required to self-isolate for a period of 14 days from their arrival into the Philippines.
Russia (As of Feb. 6)
Mainland Chinese nationals traveling to Kaliningrad (KGD), St. Petersburg (LED) or Vladivostok (VVO) can no longer obtain an e-visa.
Samoa (As of Feb. 11)
Passengers who have transited through or have been in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Singapore or Thailand must have spent a period of 14 days in quarantine before arrival. Travelers who have been in or transited through countries with confirmed coronavirus cases must have medical clearance issued 3 days before arrival.
Seychelles (As of Feb. 6)
Non-nationals and non-residents who have been in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau in the past 14 days are not allowed to transit or enter Seychelles. Residents of mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau are not allowed to transit or enter Seychelles.
Singapore (As of Feb. 8)
Non-Singaporeans or non-residents who have been in mainland China in the last 14 days are not allowed to transit or enter Singapore. Residents who have been in Hubei Province in the last 14 days will be quarantined upon entry in Singapore. Work pass holders with travel history to mainland China in the last 14 days are allowed to enter Singapore subject to prior approval from the Ministry of Manpower, which will need to be shown to airline staff upon check-in and before boarding. Mainland Chinese with passports issued in Hubei are not allowed to transit or enter Singapore, though those holding permanent residency or long-term passes will be quarantined upon entry in Singapore. Passengers with an Approved Letter for Entry from the Singapore Immigration & Checkpoints Authority will not be subject to the above restrictions but will still be subject to health screenings upon arriving at Singapore airport. Short or multiple-term visas issued to mainland Chinese nationals have been suspended and invalidated.
Solomon Islands (As of Feb. 6)
Non-nationals or non-residents who have transited through or have been in mainland China in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter. Non-nationals or non-residents arriving from certain countries who have transited through Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru or Papua New Guinea are not allowed to enter.
Somalia (As of Feb. 10)
Passengers who have been in mainland China in the past 20 days are not allowed to enter. Residents who have been in mainland China are subject to immediate quarantine for a maximum of 14 days.
Sri Lanka (As of Feb. 6)
Mainland Chinese can no longer obtain a visa on arrival.
Taiwan (As of Feb. 7)
Mainland China nationals are not allowed to transit or enter unless their spouse is from Taiwan. Passengers who’ve been in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter unless they are Taiwan residents or holders of passports from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau.
Tonga (As of Feb. 7)
Passengers and airline crew arriving from or transiting through mainland China are not allowed to enter. They must have stayed in a country with no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus for at least 14 days before entering Tonga and have an official medical clearance undertaken within 3 days prior to arrival. This doesn’t apply to Tonga nationals, permanent residents, their immediate families or airline crew on direct flights from mainland China who have been using appropriate personal protective equipment.
Trinidad and Tobago (As of Feb. 7)
Non-nationals, non-residents or crew members who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter Trinidad and Tobago. Nationals of Trinidad and Tobago, as well permanent residents who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days will be allowed entry but put in immediate isolation.
USA (As of Feb. 6)
Non-nationals or non-residents who have been in mainland China in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter. For those allowed entry that have been in mainland China in the past 14 days must arrive at one of the following airports: Atlanta (ATL), Chicago (ORD), Dallas, (DFW), Detroit (DTW), Honolulu (HNL), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK or EWR), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle (SEA) and Washington (IAD).
Vanuatu (As of Feb. 10)
Passengers who have been in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter. Passengers must complete an Incoming Passenger Health Declaration Form before boarding. Passengers who have been in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau since Dec. 31 but who have spent the previous 14 days outside of mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau must supply a copy of Medical Clearance Form 1, completed by a registered medical practitioner certifying that they are free from any respiratory illness. Passengers showing symptoms of respiratory illness (flu, running nose, fever, headache, chest pain, or difficulty in breathing) must be tested by a registered medical practitioner for the novel coronavirus and supply a copy of Medical Clearance Form 2 completed by a registered medical practitioner certifying that they have been tested for 2019-nCoV at a WHO appointed 2019-nCoV referral laboratory, and that the test returned a negative result for 2019-nCoV.
Vietnam (As of Feb. 6)
Foreigners or non-residents who have been in or transited through mainland China in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Coronavirus forces China’s neighbors to make tough choices
—Asia worries about big events like the Olympics amid coronavirus spread
—China will struggle to spend its way out of the coronavirus economic slowdown
—On facial recognition, Berlin and London choose different paths
—Fortune Explains: Tariffs and trade wars
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-02-06--Why Jeff Bezos cashed out

Why Jeff Bezos cashed out

This is the web version of CEO Daily. To get it delivered to your inbox, sign up here.
Good morning.
Here is your fun fact for the day: In the past week, Jeff Bezos has sold shares of Amazon worth $1.8 billion.
Does that mean he thinks his company, which closed with a valuation above $1 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, is in a bubble? Does it mean his new lifestyle with Lauren Sanchez is putting pressure on his capacious wallet? Or does it mean that when you are as rich as Bezos—the latest estimates are over $120 billion—cashing out $1.8 billion is like visiting an ATM?
I don’t know the answer. But my guess is it’s a bit of all three.
Here are the specifics. Bezos offloaded 905,456 shares on Friday and Monday as part of a prearranged trading plan, according to filings. That brought his lifetime share sales to $12 billion, of which two-thirds occurred in the last four years, according to calculations by Bloomberg (the news service, not the presidential candidate). At current value, his remaining 11% of shares is worth $116 billion.
There is certainly no question that Bezos’ lifestyle has become more publicly extravagant since leaving his wife, with red carpet appearances and a recent party at his Washington, D.C. mansion for the political and financial elite. Fox Business News reported yesterday that Bezos and Sanchez are looking for a new house in the LA area, and have been touring properties listed at over $100 million.
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
BlackRock censure
BlackRock has staged its first environmental intervention since issuing its new sustainability policy last month. The target was Germany's Siemens, which is providing rail-signaling systems for a contentious Australian coal-mining project. The asset manager, which is Siemens' biggest external shareholder, said the company needed to engage in "a more thorough review of the potential risks, including ESG risks, presented by future projects." Financial Times
China tariffs
The Chinese government has decided to halve tariffs on hundreds of U.S. imports, as of Valentine's Day. These include some retaliatory tariffs from the trade war; the U.S. is also halving tariffs on Feb. 14. The news sent Chinese stocks upwards by almost 3%—helped by unconfirmed reports that a coronavirus vaccine might be on its way. CNBC
European stocks
European equities hit a record high this morning on a mix of optimism about the coronavirus impact, and solid earnings from the likes of Total. Colombo Wealth Management's Alberto Tocchio: "The market prefers to put off the virus issue, probably because it’s all a bit uncertain. 2020 is going to be very interesting and with much more volatility than previous years, but for the moment let’s enjoy the rally." Bloomberg
Huawei vs Verizon
Adding patent-flavored spice to a political stew, Huawei has sued Verizon for its alleged use of Huawei intellectual property without payment. The blacklisted Chinese telecoms behemoth has not specified a monetary value for the patents at stake, leaving it up to the court to determine the amount of compensation. Wall Street Journal
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Trump acquittal
President Trump was, as expected, acquitted in the Senate yesterday following a nominal trial that allowed no new evidence nor witnesses. The only Republican to break ranks, on one of the two articles, was Mitt Romney—apart from that, it was a straight partisan affair. On to the election, then. New York Times
EU enforcer
If you thought EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager was too tough on foreign firms, well, it seems she may not be tough enough for her colleagues. Politico reports that other Commission officials want Vestager—now also the EU's digital policy chief—to "be more assertive in intervening on behalf of local firms, including tipping the scales in favor of national champions in strategically important industries like cloud computing and autonomous vehicles." She's more of a free-markets fan, though. Politico
Coronavirus surveillance
Hong Kong families returning from the coronavirus epicenter of China's Hubei province are being forced to stay at home while wearing location-tracking wristbands—a bit like house arrest, though the subjects aren't criminals. Taiwan and mainland China are also using surveillance technology to track infected people. Fortune
Kirk Douglas
Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas has died at the age of 103. Apart from being an iconic actor, Douglas was also instrumental in ending the Hollywood blacklist by crediting a blacklisted screenwriter under his own name for Spartacus, which Douglas executive-produced. Los Angeles Times
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.


fortune--2020-02-06--Hong Kong has a coronavirus face mask shortage. Now rumors have sparked toilet paper panic buying

Hong Kong has been struggling with a shortage of face masks to protect against the coronavirus outbreak. Now it could be facing a run on toilet paper.
Toilet rolls were unavailable in supermarkets in parts of the city as posts circulated on social media showing empty shelves and shoppers lining up to snag rolls, fueling the latest shortage in a city that’s increasingly trying to isolate itself from China to keep the virus from spreading. Products from rice to hand sanitizer and condoms were also vanishing from stores.
Hong Kong’s leader has said the city will quarantine people arriving from mainland China, including city residents and visitors entering via its international airport.
The cause of the toilet paper shortage wasn’t immediately clear, but speculation was rife on social media about possible holdups involving the supply chain in mainland China. The city’s government said late Wednesday that it regretted the “malicious act of spreading rumours” caused shortages of products like rice and toilet paper. It added that steps to contain the coronavirus would not affect the movement of freight across the border.
Vinda International Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed toilet paper producer, said some of its mainland factories will resume production this week or next according to government guidelines, adding it had no plans for closures. The group said in an emailed statement that “tight supply” of toilet paper in Hong Kong supermarkets may have been due to leave taken by logistics workers over the Lunar New Year holiday, but that those people are returning to work. Vinda shares rose as much as 8% Thursday before closing little changed.
“Supermarkets and other retail outlets are now restocking with our products to ensure a sufficient supply,” the company said.
Supermarket chains scrambled to fill shelves. Wellcome’s owner said the firm is “working closely with our suppliers to provide sufficient and diversified choices of products to our customers.” A spokesperson for ParkNShop said it is in close contact with suppliers, and stocks will improve as mainland workers return from holiday. ParkNShop said deliveries across the border have not been affected.
One young man carrying a sack of toilet paper rolls on the street on Wednesday evening said a friend had lined up to get them. Visits to eight supermarkets near the main business district by a Bloomberg reporter turned up no rolls Wednesday evening, and empty shelves persisted at many stores on Thursday.
Two men stood outside a U Select supermarket in the Sheung Wan neighborhood Wednesday night, trying to figure out how to plan their lives around having no rolls in the bathroom.
“We went to five stores and no toilet paper,” said Lok Gork, 30, a designer living in Hong Kong. “We got some wet wipes. You never know. You’re better safe than sorry.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Coronavirus forces China’s neighbors to make tough choices
—Asia worries about big events like the Olympics amid coronavirus spread
—China will struggle to spend its way out of the coronavirus economic slowdown
—On facial recognition, Berlin and London choose different paths
—Fortune Explains: Tariffs and trade wars
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-02-06--UN cancels biodiversity meeting in China over coronavirus fears

This is the web version of The Loop, Fortune’s weekly newsletter on the revolutions in sustainability. To get it delivered daily to your inbox, sign up here.
Good morning.
In October this year, China will play host to the UN’s fifteenth global summit on biodiversity, or the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD). However, a preparatory meeting due to convene in Yunnan province later this month has been relocated to Rome as the novel coronavirus epidemic grips China.
“The CBD Secretariat recognizes the enormous efforts being taken by the Government of the People’s Republic of China to control the outbreak and the need to avoid any disruption of these efforts,” said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, CBD acting executive secretary.
There’s something ironic in the coronavirus derailing a talk on biodiversity. The new virus—much like its sister diseases, SARS and MERS—is suspected of originating in animals and crossing over to humans as we encroach further on wild ecosystems.
“We are coming into contact with species of wildlife and their habitats that we were not with before,” Dr. Ben Embarek of the WHO’s department of nutrition and food safety told the BBC.
The as-of-yet unnamed coronavirus that has infected nearly 30,000 people is suspected of originating in a food market in Hubei province, where live wild animals were sold. SARS is thought to have leapt to humans from civet cats—also sold in Chinese markets.
After the current viral outbreak gained media attention in late January, Beijing temporarily banned the trade of wildlife. Campaigners argue the ban should be permanent, but Beijing has tried and failed to enforce similar measures before.
Fortune’s Grady McGregor has an excellent article out today that details how China’s food sourcing practices have increased the country’s susceptibility to outbreaks of zoonotic diseases. When China attempted to modernize its food markets in the past, McGregor says, the action led a black market boom—which was even more dangerous.
“The pattern (of disease outbreaks) will keep repeating itself until we ban, not only in China, but in other countries, the sale of wildlife, specifically for food and in food markets,” Christian Walzer, chief global veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society, told McGregor.
Some zoonotic disease development appears more down to timing than contact, and not at all due to meat consumption. The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) spread from camels to humans in 2012, but camels are thought to have carried the disease since the 1990s and humans have been in close proximity to the animals for centuries.
Nevertheless, when the CBD returns to Yunnan in October for its global summit, hopefully the coronavirus outbreak will be over but the implications of its origin won’t be forgotten.
More below.
Eamon Barret
eamon.barrett@fortune.com
CARBON COPY
Fire ‘em up
Japan plans to build 22 coal-burning power plants across 17 different sites over the next five years as the nation, in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, turns its back on the cleaner energy source. Japan relies on coal for a third of its energy. That figure is expected to drop to a quarter, despite the investment in new plants, as old ones retire. New York Times
Greenbacked
European funds dedicated to sustainable investing received a record $132 billion from clients in 2019. Meanwhile ESG assets under management in the EU increased 56% to $734 billion while the total number of sustainable investment funds on the continent rose to 2,405, according to Morningstar. Bloomberg
Finding a home
Rockford, Illinois, aims to become the first U.S. community to end homelessness. The city 90 miles outside of Chicago has worked with non-profit organization Community Solutions to create an approach that treats cases of homelessness individually, rather than adopting blanket measures to tackle the issue. There are 85 other cities in the U.S. deploying the same scheme to get to zero homelessness. Fast Company
At risk
MSCI has launched a new product to help investors measure their expose to climate change-related risk. The tool, Climate Value-at-Risk, provides insight on exposure to physical risks, such as flooding. According to the firm, 7% of facilities owned by constituents on the MSCI flagship equities index are threatened by coastal flooding. Asia is the most at risk, with the E.U. second and the U.S. third. MSCI
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Why insurers should cover mental health care to lower costs by Liat Jarkon
Why you shouldn’t feel guilty about paper packaging when you shop online by Mark S. Sutton
The rich own stocks, the middle class own homes. How betting it all on real estate is a wealth gap problem by Ben Carlson
The Gates Foundation is pledging up to $100 million for the fight against coronavirus by Sy Mukherjee
SCRAPBOOK
Michelin—the French tyre manufacturer that also dishes out coveted restaurant honors—has added a new symbol to its guide that honors sustainability. The so-called Green Clover is a Michelin honor that “promotes the chefs who have taken responsibility by preserving resources and embracing biodiversity, reducing food waste and reducing the consumption of non-renewable energy,” Michelin says. The award, which is represented by a five-leaf clover, debuted in the France guide last week and was awarded to 50 locations.
CLOSING NUMBER
20%
The novel coronavirus that began in Hubei, China, and has infected close to 30,000 people has caused all manner of disruption to global business. One fallout: China’s demand for crude oil has dropped 20%. The country normally consumers 14 million barrels a day—equivalent to the needs of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K., Japan, and South Korea combined. OPEC called an emergency meeting to tackle the problem.


fortune--2020-02-06--The markets roll into record territory—but this one group is missing out

What it took for Stockholm ’ s popular photography museum to make it in New York City

This is the web version of the Bull Sheet, Fortune’s no-BS daily newsletter on the markets. Sign up to receive it in your inbox here.
Buongiorno, Bull Sheeters. And, yes, it is a good start to the day. We have a bunch of new highs to tell you about. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 opened in record territory, catching up with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, which hit new records of their own at the close on Wednesday.
Yesterday was one of those rare trading days in which the major equities indexes, gold, crude and the dollar all climbed. (In the “You-can’t-have-it-all” category: Tesla fell 17% on Wednesday, returning, if not to earth, at least to a neighboring galaxy). The stellar ADP jobs numbers gave the U.S. markets a jolt yesterday. Today, investors are cheering China’s announcement to chop by half its tariffs on U.S. goods.
To more depressing news now… The coronavirus situation is showing no signs of improving. The death toll has now topped 560 and infections are above 28,000. Companies continue to warn about potential Q1-and-beyond impacts. (Get used to that.)
And yet the markets continue to roll. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up for a third straight day on Thursday and has now recovered about half the losses it incurred over the past two-plus weeks.
Missing out
Since the 2009 lows of the Great Recession, the S&P 500 is up more than 500%. Sadly, this means nothing to an enormous swath of America.
As Ben Carlson, a regular Fortune contributor, pointed out yesterday, much of America’s middle class is missing out on this historic decade-long equities rally. One big reason is that they have much of their wealth tied up in real estate—in the homes they live in, in other words. Not the most liquid of asset classes. More to the point, the real estate market, while improving recently, is not nearly having the same kind of bull run as stocks.
This phenomenon, Carlson notes, is exacerbating the wealth gap in America. We dig it into it further in today’s chart.
***
As you see here, the top 20% of wealthy Americans have far more of their wealth invested in stocks, bonds and other financial assets. It’s the opposite for the bottom 80%, which leaves them more vulnerable to another housing crash.
Of course, bubbles can arise in any asset class. It is those who are more diversified who fare better when they do pop.
I suggest you take a moment to read Carlson’s analysis of this issue. He’s a CFA, and so he comes at these pieces with you, the investor, in mind.
See you tomorrow.
Bernhard Warner
@BernhardWarner
Bernhard.Warner@Fortune.com
Today's reads
Tariff-ic news. As noted above, China has pledged to slash tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. imports. There's a big but, however. The near-standstill in China’s economy caused by the coronavirus outbreak has intensified doubts over Beijing’s ability to follow through on its previous commitment to buy $200 billion more U.S. goods over the next two years, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Counting unicorns. Bed-in-a-box seller Casper Sleep Inc. raised $100 million in an initial public offering on Wednesday, pricing its shares at the bottom of a reduced range, Bloomberg reports. Casper, which boasted a valuation of $1.1 billion in a private funding round last year, was valued in Wednesday’s IPO at less than half that. Another sign investors have grown skeptical of money-losing unicorns.
Hard pedaling. Speaking of unicorns...Peloton Interactive, the maker of internet-connected exercise equipment, said sales in the current quarter would be lower than analysts’ forecasts, sending its shares down by as much as 17%. The weak forecast from New York-based Peloton overshadowed strong growth in revenues in the holiday quarter and a more optimistic forecast for sales this year.
Market candy
A 17% share-price drop = justified? "Investors who like the sensation of their stomach dropping away don't need to board a roller coaster. They can just buy Tesla shares," writes Erik Sherman in Fortune. By Tuesday’s close, the stock was trading at $968.99, or up 114% through the first five-plus weeks of 2020. Then on Wednesday, the shares plunged more than 17% to $734.70, their worst one-day drop in eight years. But don't feel bad for shareholders. Tesla's market cap is still bigger than that of Volkswagen, Daimler and all but Toyota in the automotive world. And, even after yesterday's sell-off, shares are still up roughly 97% YTD.


fortune--2020-02-06--China will halve tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. imports

China will halve tariffs on some $75 billion of imports from the U.S. later this month, reciprocating a U.S. action and likely satisfying part of the interim trade deal.
The cut will be effective from 1:01 p.m. on Feb. 14, Beijing time, according to a Ministry of Finance statement on Thursday, the same time as when the U.S. will implement reductions in tariffs on Chinese products. Punitive Chinese tariffs on American goods that were adopted from Sept. 1 last year will be lowered, with the rate on some dropping to 5% from 10%, and the others to 2.5% from 5%.
Both nations agreed to cut tariffs on each others’ goods as part of the phase-one deal signed last month. Even with the world’s two biggest economies pausing their trade war, tariffs remain on large parts of their bilateral trade with numerous other points of friction in the relationship. The ongoing coronavirus that has claimed more than 500 lives in China and sickened thousands is raising concerns that the Asian nation might have to declare force majeure if the situation worsens.
The Jan. 15 deal has a clause that states the U.S. and China will consult “in the event that a natural disaster or other unforeseeable event” delays either from complying. Chinese officials are hoping the U.S. will agree to some flexibility on pledges in their phase-one trade deal, people familiar with the situation said, though it is unclear if such a request has been formally raised.
Other retaliatory tariffs China has imposed on U.S. goods will remain, according to the statement. In the meantime, China will continue processing applications for tariff exemptions, it said.
“We don’t see any impact from this tariff cut — the measures are in line with what the U.S. side is doing,” said Li Qiang, head of Shanghai JC Intelligence Co. While China will continue to process waivers on farm product imports, it won’t remove its punitive tariffs if the U.S. maintains its duties, he said.
The yuan extended gains after news of the tariff reduction, with the offshore rate advancing as much as 0.26% to 6.9573 per dollar. Soybean futures traded in Chicago hardly moved following the news, trading 0.6% higher. Brent futures in London inched up, rising as much as 2.4%.
In the deal, China agreed to increase its imports from the U.S., including agricultural products and services, from 2017 levels by no less than $200 billion over the next two years. China is set to release January trade data on Friday, providing a first glimpse of this year’s imports from the U.S.
Economists estimate overall trade in January likely contracted due to the Lunar New Year holiday, while the outbreak of the coronavirus casts a cloud over the outlook for the coming months.
After the reduction, retaliatory tariffs on American crude oil will be lowered to 2.5% from 5%. Punitive tariffs on soybeans will go down to 27.5% from 30%, and to 30% from 35% for pork, beef, and chicken. These rates are higher as these goods were also hit with tariffs in 2018, which will remain in place.
“China hopes that both sides can comply with and implement the agreement to enhance market confidence, promote development of bilateral economic ties and facilitate global economic growth,” according to the statement.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Coronavirus forces China’s neighbors to make tough choices
—Asia worries about big events like the Olympics amid coronavirus spread
—China will struggle to spend its way out of the coronavirus economic slowdown
—On facial recognition, Berlin and London choose different paths
—Fortune Explains: Tariffs and trade wars
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-02-06--Coronavirus, bird flu, swine fever: Why China is still so susceptible to disease outbreaks

China has become an epicenter for disease outbreaks, and the problem lies in its food supply.
There have now been over 28,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in at least 25 countries, with 563 deaths, including ones in Hong Kong and the Philippines. And all indications point to the virus breaking out in a seafood wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
In 2019, China ranked 51st out of 195 countries on the Global Health Security Index for its ability to prevent and respond to disease outbreaks. While this may signal that the country is more apt to deal with outbreaks than much of the rest of the world, China—as the world’s most populous country and an economic superpower—still has significant strides to make in improving public health and safety.
While the coronavirus is the first novel disease outbreak in China in years to infect humans, in the recent past China has suffered disease outbreaks among its livestock. African Swine Fever, for instance, has devastated China’s pig population since 2018, reducing the number of pigs there by 40% and straining the country’s food supply. And just last week, China reportedly culled 18,000 chickens after finding cases of bird flu.
To be clear, the diseases share little in common genetically, according to Linda Saif, a professor in food animal health at Ohio State University, and coronavirus is the only one of these currently known to spread between and infect humans. Yet the outbreaks all point to a similar culprit: persisting problems in China’s food supply.
Amid the coronavirus crisis, China’s wet markets—featuring produce and meats and sometimes live animals—have received significant attention. Yet a seismic shift such as closing down these markets altogether might not be the answer to better controlling disease in the long term, experts say. Rather, what’s required is more regulatory enforcement on a local level, a tricky prospect for a country where power is increasingly centralized.
China’s food market
As China has transformed into a major world power in the last several decades, feeding the country of 1.4 billion has proved a challenge of outsize proportions.
The country long depended on a network of small farmers for its food; land was redistributed to individual households under Chairman Mao Zedong in the 1970s. More recently, particularly in the last few years, China has aimed to industrialize its food system.
Protestors in Hong Kong gather in February to oppose government plans to convert a local heritage site into a quarantine camp amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus which began in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. PHILIP FONG—AFP/Getty Images
“The government in China has been making long-term pushes toward agriculture modernization including large scale farms for many years now,” said Darin Friedrichs, senior Asia commodity analyst at INTL FCStone in Shanghai.
Beijing promoted buying food from supermarkets after the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged from an animal market in Guangzhou. After an avian influenza outbreak in 2013, the government tried unsuccessfully to ban wet markets altogether, but was forced to reopen many of them when more dangerous black markets popped up in their place.
But scandals involving deadly infant milk powder, fake seaweed, and fraudulent shrimp have undermined the modernization efforts by compromising consumers’ confidence in mass food production. Chinese consumers continue to go to wet markets in cities across China to access fresher, cheaper meat and produce, according to Si Zhenzhong, an expert in food security and safety in China at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
Wet markets remain a viable resource for small farmers who aren’t able to sell to large supermarket chains, said Friedrichs, “and plenty of consumers have a preference towards buying at their local wet market.” In fact, the markets account for up to half of all of China’s food goods. The day-to-day commodities that are the markets’ biggest sellers don’t necessarily pose a “disease risk.” The biggest danger comes from the live animals sometimes sold in the markets, Friedrichs said. Diseases can spread between animals during transport, and then to humans at the markets themselves, which makes the whole trade a breeding ground for disease.
A Chinese man wears a protective mask as he walks in an empty commercial street in Beijing, China, in February. Much of the country has been on lockdown as a virus, believed to have started in a Wuhan wet market, sweeps the country. Kevin Frayer—Getty Images
China has temporarily banned the sale of wild animals. Christian Walzer, chief global veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society, says sales should be stopped permanently.
“The pattern (of disease outbreaks) will keep repeating itself until we ban, not only in China, but in other countries, the sale of wildlife, specifically for food and in food markets,” said Walzer.
Wild animals can carry diseases that do not ordinarily come into contact with humans, according to Walzer. Another expert, Jeroen Dewulf, a veterinarian at Ghent University in Belgium, told the Guardian that “live animals are the largest source of infection (in spreading diseases),” because it’s the most efficient way to introduce novel diseases to humans.
It seems that China might be taking these calls more seriously. On Monday, President Xi Jinping released a statement vowing to “resolutely ban and severely crack down on illegal wildlife markets and trade.”
But simply banning wildlife sales and policing wet markets might pose new problems, such as black markets for such goods. According to some experts, China needs to better enforce its existing regulations, like more regular health and safety inspections from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to more effectively control disease spread.
“What ‘wet markets’ in China require is more scientific and evidence-based regulation, rather than being abolished and driven underground,” anthropologists Christos Lynteris and Lyle Fearnley, who have studied disease outbreaks in China, argued in a recent piece for The Conversation.
Local challenges
But enforcing regulations on a local level is complicated by the growing influence of China’s central government. Local leaders are incentivized to appease Beijing, rather than raise red flags. Local officials in Wuhan have come under fire for not communicating the disease’s severity early enough, and senior party officials admitted to “shortcomings and deficiencies” in the city’s early response to the outbreak.
China’s entire state apparatus now appears fully mobilized behind containing the disease: an area with a population equal to California and New York State combined is under complete lockdown, new hospitals are being built in a matter of days, and much of the country is paralyzed by travel restrictions.
For those following African Swine Fever in the last few years, this might be a familiar story. The central government announced sweeping measures to cull hundreds of millions of pigs (and even worked with tech firms to roll out pig facial recognition technology to track sick animals) after the disease broke out in August 2018, yet today the problem remains as acute as ever. It is a worldwide epidemic that’s wiped out up to a quarter of the world’s pigs.
Edgar Wayne Johnson of Enable Ag-Tech Consulting in Beijing argues that the government “sat on [its] hands in the early stages” of the swine fever, and is still struggling to enforce local regulations.
The central government ends up exerting every ounce of its power to stop disease outbreaks like the coronavirus, yet the best solutions might be found at the bottom of China’s food chain.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Startup uses A.I. to identify molecules that could fight coronavirus
—Coronavirus forces China’s neighbors to make tough choices
—Asia worries about big events like the Olympics amid coronavirus spread
—China will struggle to spend its way out of the coronavirus economic slowdown
—On facial recognition, Berlin and London choose different paths
—Fortune Explains: Tariffs and trade wars
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-02-06--Buttigieg, Sanders nearly tied as Iowa caucus results narrow

These countries have imposed China travel restrictions over the coronavirus

Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are nearly tied in the Iowa Democratic caucuses, with nearly all results counted in a contest marred by technical issues and reporting delays.
The race remained too early to call early Thursday with 97% of precincts reporting. Party officials were scrambling to verify the remaining results three days after Iowans gathered at caucus sites across the state to begin choosing which Democrat will take on President Donald Trump in November.
A new batch of results released just after midnight narrowed the margin between Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Sanders, the progressive senator from Vermont. Buttigieg has a lead of three state delegate equivalents out of 2,098 counted.
The deadlocked contest gives both Buttigieg and Sanders a burst of momentum as they seek to pull away from the crowded field. The nearly complete results show them leading Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, with former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar trailing behind.
But the results in Iowa were muddied by the stunning breakdown of the caucus reporting process in a state that traditionally kicks off presidential nominating contests. Iowa officials initially attributed a delay in reporting results to technical problems with an app that precinct chairs were supposed to use to record votes, then to backlogs as those volunteers tried to call the party to submit their totals.
Even as the total number of results ticked up throughout the day Wednesday, obstacles remained. Some tally sheets were making their way to party headquarters in Des Moines through the mail, which contributed to the delay.
Much of the political world has already shifted its attention to next-up New Hampshire, which holds the first primary election in the Democrats’ 2020 nomination fight on Tuesday. Both Buttigieg and Sanders are leading contenders there, as well.
The two men are separated by 40 years in age and conflicting ideology.
Sanders, a 78-year-old self-described democratic socialist, has been a progressive powerhouse for decades. Buttigieg, a 38-year-old former municipal official, represents the more moderate wing of the Democratic Party. Buttigieg is also the first openly gay candidate to earn presidential primary delegates.
Their strength in Iowa put them in the crosshairs of rivals as the race shifted to New Hampshire. Biden, who fell far short of expectations in Iowa, cast both Buttigieg and Sanders as risky choices for Democrats, given the former mayor’s relative inexperience and the senator’s descriptions of himself as a socialist.
Sanders is making his second run for the White House. He surprised many Democrats in 2016 with his strong challenge to Hillary Clinton, but entered the 2020 contest as a front-runner. He’s topped the field in fundraising, despite eschewing high-dollar donors.
Sanders and his supporters raised issues with the primary process after the 2016 election, prompting the Democratic National Committee to make changes that affected the Iowa reporting regulations.
As a result, Iowa released three sets of data from the caucuses: the tally of voter preferences at the start of the caucus; their preferences after supporters of candidates who reached less than 15% made a second choice; and the results of state delegate equivalents.
The final alignment results are used to determine state delegate equivalents, which is the metric the AP has long used to call the winner of the caucus. Democrats pick their nominee based on delegate totals.
With 97% of precincts reporting, Sanders is leading in the first alignment results and has a narrower edge in the final alignment.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—2020 candidates’ positions, and records, on economic issues that affect women
—Coronavirus forces China’s neighbors to make tough choices
—Europe’s refugee crisis is getting worse—for these children
—Fortune Explains: The debt ceiling
—Millions have been purged from voter rolls—and may not even realize it
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