fortune--2020-03-06--CVS will waive out-of-pocket costs related to coronavirus testing and telemedicine visits

This is the web version of Brainstorm Health Daily, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top health care news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
Happy Friday, readers.
CVS Health is leveraging its ownership of health insurer Aetna (you may recall that the company celebrated the one-year anniversary of the deal’s close in December) to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.
On Friday, the retail pharmacy and onsite medical clinic giant announced that any Aetna plan members will be able to get COVID-19 related diagnostic testing without having to shell out a copay or out-of-pocket costs.
Furthermore, the company will also provide those with Aetna health insurance plans free telemedicine visits via services like the CVS MinuteClinic’s virtual doctor visit feature for the next three months—no matter the reason.
“[W]e’re providing COVID-19 diagnostic testing and telemedicine visits with no out-of-pocket costs or cost sharing for Aetna members, along with a number of other programs and offerings that reinforce our commitment to delivering timely and seamless access to care,” said Aetna president Karen Lynch in a statement.
The telemedicine provision is intriguing. Public health officials have been pushing patients to use telehealth if possible in order to prevent bottle necks at medical facilities and reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus to people who are already sick.
I suspect that an increasing number of insurers will employ this tact in the coming weeks and months amid mounting public pressure. But there’s still plenty of people who could fall through the cracks and face massive medical bills even if the trend continues.
For instance, what if you just don’t have insurance—or have a short-term insurance plan which isn’t required to cover pre-existing conditions and can offer skimpy benefits? And what of potential hospital stays?
Furthermore, there’s still a backlog of testing to be done given the initial manufacturing issues with the CDC’s coronavirus tests. On Thursday, the agency said six states don’t even have public health labs that can test for coronavirus set up yet.
Still, it seems like a big step in the right direction. Oh and, by the way, check out our new coronavirus pop-up newsletter, Outbreak, for a daily roundup of the news.
Read on for the day’s news, and have a wonderful weekend.
Sy Mukherjee
sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com
@the_sy_guy
DIGITAL HEALTH
HIMSS gets canceled. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference—the largest health IT conference in America—was canceled for the first time in 58 years over (what else?) coronavirus fears. The conference was supposed to begin next week in Orlando. “We recognize all the hard work that so many have put into preparing for their presentations and panels that accompany every HIMSS conference,” said Hal Wolf, president and CEO of HIMSS, in a statement. “Based on evaluation of evolving circumstances and coordination with an external advisory panel of medical professionals to support evidence-based decision making, it is clear that it would be an unacceptable risk to bring so many thousands of people together in Orlando next week.”
INDICATIONS
How much does it actually cost to develop a drug? A new study published in the journal JAMA finds that, while drug development is quite expensive, biopharma companies significantly inflate the average cost of bringing a molecule to market. The industry tends to point to high-end figures approaching $3 billion, but the study authors found that the median R&D cost was actually about $985 million. (JAMA)
The cell and gene therapy market keeps growing. The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine has released its latest review of the global gene and cell therapy market—and the money keeps rolling in. Companies in the space raised $10 billion in 2019, making it the second-most lucrative year on record, including $4 billion in VC cash. Furthermore, the organization notes that there were nearly 1,100 gene, cell, and regenerative therapy clinical trials being conducted by the end of last year.
THE BIG PICTURE
Coronavirus cases top 100,000 worldwide as Trump signs funding bill. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the globe has now exceeded 100,000 on Friday. (For an explainer on what we know about the coronavirus death rate, check out my piece from last night.) On the same day that grim milestone was reached, President Donald Trump signed an $8.3 billion funding bill to fuel anti-COVID-19 efforts in the U.S., which is three times as much as the Trump administration was originally proposing to allocate. (Fortune)
REQUIRED READING
Why are patients who recover from coronavirus testing positive again, by Naomi Xu Elegant
Facebook advises Bay Area employees to stay home, by Danielle Abril
Why plunging Treasury yields are so alarming, by Erik Sherman
Sign up for other Fortune newsletters.


fortune--2020-03-06--‘First Cow’ director Kelly Reichardt on 19th-century Oregon and bovine headshots

Stocks tumble again as Wall Street gets used to the new norm : volatility

Patiently, and without an ounce of pretension, the films of Kelly Reichardt illuminate what it might feel like to get lost chasing the American dream, broken down along its open roads without a sign for miles.
Set mostly in Oregon and populated by drifters in search of destinations both existential and literal, her films are resolutely still and impressively minimalist—so much so that the extent to which they interrogate broader notions of quest and camaraderie, temporality, and dislocation doesn’t easily reveal itself.
That’s par for the course with Reichardt, increasingly recognized after seven films as one of the American independent cinema’s greatest living auteurs. Her camera holds on landscapes as they undergo the most minute of transformations, cutting only once audiences become sensitive to the quiet beauty of such natural processes. Her characters are outsiders at the edges of society, bearing witness to time’s passage but often bowled over in their efforts to keep pace with it. And her films, in marrying the two, are precise about capturing small moments that speak volumes.
First Cow, out March 6, is rich with such moments—milk splashing at the sides of a pail, a man pausing to pick wildflowers, sunlight rippling past tree branches—while also serving as Reichardt’s most warm and accessible film to date.
Magaro as Cookie in “First Cow.” Reichardt extensively studied 1820s Oregon territory, cobbling together information via researchers spread out between Portland and London, to capture an accurate sense of the period. Allyson Riggs—A24 Films
Set in 1820s Oregon Territory, it charts the unexpected friendship between two men, Cookie (John Magaro) and King Lu (Orion Lee), living on the outskirts of a Pacific Northwest trading post. The pair are bonded by their shared sense of empathy, as well as a certain craving for domesticity no hardened fur trapper could appreciate. Together they hatch a precarious get-rich-quick scheme, selling delicious “oily cakes” made with milk stolen from a cow belonging to the local land baron (Toby Jones).
It’s a “low-impact business,” jokes Reichardt, speaking to Fortune by phone. “There’s an urgency for both of them in that they want to stop traveling, which is how they’ve been able to exist up until this point, and it seems they need a little nest egg in order to do that.”
Of course, milking a cow they don’t own isn’t exactly a sustainable business model—it’s also most assuredly the kind of trespass that could get them shot—but King Lu assures Cookie no reward was ever won without risk. “History isn’t here yet,” he says at one point in the film. “It’s coming, but maybe this time we can take it on our own terms.”
First Cow, in its gently bittersweet way, explores what happens when the market forces of capitalism arrive to exert a powerful pull over the two friends, though it doesn’t judge them for pursuing a sliver of economic success. It’s based on Jonathan Raymond’s 2004 book The Half-Life, which explores that concept differently, across two parallel timelines and a side plot that brings some of its characters to China. By containing First Cow to 1820s Oregon, Reichardt sought to evoke the sense of a society in flux.
Lee and Reichardt pose for the “First Cow” premiere during the 70th Berlinale International Film Festival Berlin at Berlinale Palace on Feb. 22. Franziska Krug—Getty Images for AUDI AG
“There’s this feeling of progress, that it’s all going to move,” says Reichardt. “You better move with it, or else you’ll somehow be left behind.”
It’s not just the oily cakes. By the 1820s, when First Cow is set, the North American fur trade was already on the verge of wiping out Oregon’s beaver population. For the Chinook people and other indigenous groups living in the Pacific Northwest at the time, the arrival of such industry spelled disaster, sapping the area of resources and ultimately decimating their way of life.
“I always had this idea of how corporations came later and ruined everything, that corporations really won in America and took it over,” says Reichardt. “But it all really started with corporations. They were there depleting resources from the moment a white toe hit the shores of what would become America.”
First Cow brings Reichardt back to her beloved Oregon, where she’s set all her films except 1994 debut River of Grass (set in the grotty Florida suburbs she grew up in) and 2016’s Certain Women (staged in Montana after Reichardt decided she wanted a change of pace). Old Joy (2006), Wendy and Lucy (2008), and Night Moves (2013) were all set in the modern day, while Meek’s Cutoff (2010) was a period piece, following lost travelers along the Oregon Trail in 1845.
But turning back the clock an additional quarter-century represented a complication for the filmmaker in at least one respect. The first photograph wasn’t taken until 1826, six years after First Cow is set, leaving Reichardt with sparse visual records of the time period.
Extensively studying the 1820s in conjunction with Raymond (who cowrote the script), Reichardt relied on researchers spread between Portland and London, the latter of whom poured over findings brought back by surveyors that were at times more comprehensive than information available in Oregon. She also visited the Chachalu Museum, opened by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and listened as some of its members recounted tales passed down through their families.
“It felt like a relay of information, sometimes,” says Reichardt. “I was getting as much from props, costume, and production design people all doing their own research. You’re all in a van together at some point, exchanging everything you’ve read and learned. Jon Raymond kept reading even while we were making the film. This was probably all to relearn a lot of stuff we all learned in second grade, to some degree. Jon’s kid would be like, ‘Yeah, I know.’”
In filming First Cow, Reichardt strove for accuracy in terms of period details but, true to form, set her sights even higher when it came to actual filmmaking technique. The director describes her shooting style as something of “a jigsaw puzzle,” composed of individually striking shots and sequences that flow together into a larger, more meaningful narrative picture.
“You’re rolling the dice that the pacing you’re feeling while you’re shooting is going to work out later,” she admits. But taking a particularly staid, deliberate approach to filming First Cow also felt instinctively right for the time period.
“It’s a consideration of how one experienced time in 1820,” explains Reichardt. “With the days rolling out, it had to feel different in terms of cutting and pacing than how we experience time now, with all our technology. Everything to them was a process and this seek-and-find journey.”
“She just seemed like the perfect cow for the job,” says Reichardt of Evie, who plays the role of the cow in the film. Allyson Riggs—A24 Films
For Reichardt, one essential element of First Cow was Evie, the cow who plays her. The director sounds amused to recount that she found the titular heifer through a traditional casting call. She knew upfront she wanted a Jersey, owing to that breed’s naturally expressive eyes, and leafed through dozens of cow headshots in search of the perfect animal. When Reichardt saw Evie’s photograph, she was beguiled by her serene features and went to meet the cow in Washington, where the animal’s tranquil demeanor soon won her over.
“She just seemed like the perfect cow for the job,” she says. (Since First Cow wrapped, the director has kept tabs on Evie, she notes. She recently had a calf, named Cookie.)
Working with animals—also including dogs, cats, and a raven—was nothing new to Reichardt, who cast her own dog in Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. But it was unusual for her to work with trained animals, which became necessary on First Cow due to a scene in which Evie floats across a river on a wooden ferry.
“Moving at a fast pace and being loud doesn’t really jibe with cows,” she says. “We had to get out of our usual speedy mentality and slow down, move a little more stealthily, so she could feel comfortable.”
Reichardt doesn’t disagree this sounds more like training her crew than the cattle. “What’s great about having animals is you don’t know what they’re going to do, and the actor has to respond to it,” she adds. “They build a bond with each other.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Alex Garland’s Devs aims to mix quantum mechanics with “elegance”
—Pamela Adlon wants you to know she has your back
—How the Beach Boys became two separate, warring factions
—Emma. star and director on updating Jane Austen’s text through blood and tears
—Contagion writer, scientific adviser reflect on film’s newfound relevance amid coronavirus crisis
Follow Fortune on Flipboard to stay up-to-date on the latest news and analysis.


fortune--2020-03-06--SoftBank Vision Fund Chief Rajeev Misra says time will disprove his critics

To say SoftBank’s Vision Fund has had a tumultuous six months would be an understatement. There was WeWork’s failed IPO. Then the venture behemoth decided to cut ties with struggling portfolio company Wag. Then, there was the story alleging that SoftBank Vision Fund chief Rajeev Misra got his position by “striking at two of his main rivals inside SoftBank with a dark-arts campaign of personal sabotage.”
Now, Misra is breaking his silence to address some of those unflattering stories. In an interview with CNBC, he says time will prove his slew of critics wrong. He made the bold prediction that of the 90-plus companies in the Vision Fund portfolio, there will be dozens of IPOs in the next 18 months, and adds that over the next 24 months, “I guarantee you will see the outcome of our investments will change.”
The markets have been wobbly, and people’s fear of a looming recession may materialize. But SoftBank has a plan for that too: Jeff Housenbold, who has invested in DoorDash, Wag, Opendoor, and Brandless on behalf of the Vision Fund, told CNBC that “if the markets go into a prolonged slump of 12 to 24 months and there’s not access to public markets, we’ll have to look at raising additional capital at the company level.”
But despite the endless negative press and the accusations against Misra, he says he’s not stepping down and he’s not going anywhere. “I’m a key man,” he told CNBC. “I owe it to my stakeholders, my LPs, my employees to be here for the journey.”
The story also addresses how Misra plans to improve the culture, overcome the reputational hit from WeWork, and prove the critics wrong. It’s worth a read.
Read more.
CUSTOMERS WANT PAYBACK: Well, Robinhood found itself in quite the pickle after the no-fee stock brokerage startup experienced an outage that spanned two days. My colleague Lucinda Shen reports on the mounting pressure Robinhood is facing to assuage customers’ outrage.
“I had no idea what was going on, I thought the stock market crashed and the Robinhood app couldn’t handle it. I just didn’t know,” said Brandon Browne, a 27-year-old Robinhood user for the last year or so. Robinhood did not officially reach out to Browne via email until 3:16 p.m. about the outage that began at 9:33 a.m., leaving him to piece together the issue via Google or Twitter. Robinhood adds that it was updating users via Twitter as well as the website’s status page earlier in the day.
One Twitter user has started an account calling for a potential class action lawsuit or arbitration from FINRA—a non-government entity that regulates brokers and exchanges. “We have been in touch with the firm and have been closely monitoring the situation,” a FINRA spokesperson said in an email. Read more at Fortune.
THE BLACK SWAN OF 2020: Sequoia Capital issued a note to founders and CEOs about the potential business consequences of the fast-spreading coronavirus. It warns that they might see a drop in business activity, supply chain disruptions, and cancelled meetings.
From the post:
Having weathered every business downturn for nearly fifty years, we’ve learned an important lesson — nobody ever regrets making fast and decisive adjustments to changing circumstances. In downturns, revenue and cash levels always fall faster than expenses. In some ways, business mirrors biology. As Darwin surmised, those who survive “are not the strongest or the most intelligent, but the most adaptable to change.”
As Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky wrote in Data Sheet this morning, “This crisis, a public-health scare first and an economic calamity second, is quickly become something no one alive has ever seen.”
Read the full post here.
Polina Marinova
Twitter: @polina_marinova
Email: polina.marinova@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- Pager, a New York-based virtual care platform that provides a personalized care experience, raised $33 million in equity and debt funding. Health Catalyst Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Horizon BlueCross BlueShield of New Jersey, Goodwater Capital, Three Fields Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Lux Capital and Silicon Valley Bank.
- Airbase, a San Francisco-based platform for spend management, raised $23.5 million in Series A extension funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including First Round Capital, BoxGroup and Webb Investment Network.
- Sparta Science, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based company technology company that uses data and machine learning software to optimize health and performance for athletes, raised $16 million in Series B funding. GSR Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Arsenal Growth.
- SiLC Technologies, Inc., a developer of integrated single-chip FMCW LiDAR solutions, raised $12 million in seed funding. Dell Technologies Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Decent Capital and ITIC Ventures.
- Arweave, a Berlin-based data storage blockchain protocol, raised $8.3 million in funding. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, and Union Square Ventures.
- GrainChain, a McAllen, Texas-based software platform that creates blockchain and internet-of-things innovations for the agricultural industry, raised $8.2 million in funding. Medici Ventures led the round.
- X Shore, a Sweden-based startup behind a generation of fully-electric, silent boats, raised €5 million ($5.6 million). Led by Peter Dahlberg, founder and former Group CEO of AniCura, this brings X Shore’s total funding to-date to €9.5 million.
- Microverse, a San Francisco-based online school for software developers, raised $3.2 million in seed funding. General Catalyst led the round.
PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS
- LUX Global Label, a portfolio company of Resilience Capital Partners, acquired Labelworx, a Levittown, Penn.-based company focused on label and packaging. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Marlin Equity Partners acquired Heimdal, a Copenhagen-based provider of cloud-based cybersecurity solutions. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Anacacia Capital invested in Sureway Employment and Training, an Australia-based unemployment and disability services businesses focused on regional and rural areas. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHER DEALS
- SymphonyAI Group acquired TeraRecon, a Foster City, Calif.-based visualization and AI solution provider for medical imaging. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
IPOs
- WeDoctor, a Hangzhou-based medical health tech platform, plans to invite pitches from investment banks next week to lead a Hong Kong-based IPO that would value the company at $10 billion, Reuters reports citing sources. Tencent and Goldman Sachs back the firm. Read more.
- Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, a Brazil steelmaker, is considering an IPO of its mining unit, per Reuters. Read more.
PEOPLE
- HarbourVest Partners promoted Monique Austin, Simon Lund, and Nhora Otalora to managing director.


fortune--2020-03-06--Trump signs $8.3B bill to combat coronavirus outbreak in U.S.

Stay in the know on how the coronavirus outbreak is impacting the global business economy with our new daily newsletter Outbreak.
President Donald Trump on Friday signed an $8.3 billion measure to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak that has killed 12 people in the U.S. and infected more than 200.
The legislation provides federal public health agencies with money for vaccines, tests and potential treatments and helps state and local governments prepare and respond to the threat. The rapid spread of the virus has rocked financial markets, interrupted travel and threatens to affect everyday life in the United States.
Trump had planned to sign the bill during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. But he told reporters Friday that concerns were raised about “one person who was potentially infected” who worked at the CDC. Trump said the person has since tested negative for the new virus and that he still hopes to visit the agency at some point.
The Senate passed the $8.3 billion measure Thursday to help tackle the outbreak in hopes of reassuring a fearful public and accelerating the government’s response to the virus. Its rapid spread is threatening to upend everyday life in the U.S. and across the globe.
The money would pay for a multifaceted attack on a virus that is spreading more widely every day, sending financial markets spiraling again Thursday, disrupting travel and potentially threatening the U.S. economy’s decade-long expansion.
Thursday’s sweeping 96-1 vote sends the bill to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., cast the sole “no” vote. The House passed the bill Wednesday by a 415-2 vote.
The plan would more than triple the $2.5 billion amount outlined by the White House 10 days ago. The Trump proposal was immediately discarded by members of Congress from both parties. Instead, the bipartisan leadership of the House and Senate Appropriations committees negotiated the increased figure and other provisions of the legislation in a burst of bipartisan cooperation that’s common on the panel but increasingly rare elsewhere in Washington.
“In situations like this, I believe no expense should be spared to protect the American people, and in crafting this package none was,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala. “It’s an aggressive plan, a vigorous plan that has received an overwhelming positive reaction.”
Trump was sure to sign the measure, which has almost universal support. It is intended to project confidence and calm as anxiety builds over the impact of the virus, which has claimed 12 lives in the U.S.
“The American people are looking for leadership and want assurance that their government is up to the task of protecting their health and safety,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
The impact of the outbreak continues to mount. The British government is considering suspending Parliament for five months in hope of limiting the spread of the virus in the United Kingdom.
The legislation would provide federal public health agencies money for vaccines, tests and potential treatments, including $300 million to deliver such drugs to those who need it. More than $2 billion would go to help federal, state and local governments prepare for and respond to the coronavirus threat. An additional $1.3 billion would be used to help fight the virus overseas. There’s also funding to subsidize $7 billion in small business loans.
Other dollars would be directed to help local officials prepare for the potential worsening of the outbreak and subsidize treatment by community health centers. Medicare rules would be loosened to enable remote “telehealth” consultations whereby sick people could to get treatment without visiting a doctor.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., whose state is at the center of the crisis, praised the bill because it “will increase access for public lab testing, help pay for isolation and quarantine, help pay for sanitizing in public areas, better track the virus and those who might come into contact with it, help labs who are trying to identify hot spots, and limit exposure.”
The legislation contains a hard-won compromise that aims to protect against potential price gouging by drug manufacturers for vaccines and other medicines developed with taxpayer funds. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar would have the power to make sure commercial prices are reasonable. Azar is a former drug industry lobbyist.
Democrats said other steps may be needed if the outbreak continues to worsen.
“This may be a first step because we have issues that relate to unemployment insurance for people who are put out of work.” Pelosi said as she signed the bill to send it to Trump.
“We have only about 27% of people in this country who have paid sick days. So if they have to go home what is going to happen to them and their families?” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.
DeLauro said Pence responded that he would raise the issue with the president.
The bill seeks to restore $136 million that the Department of Health and Human Services cut from other accounts such as heating subsidies for the poor to battle the virus.
The legislation comes as carping over the administration’s response to the outbreak is quieting down. Lawmakers in both parties had faulted a shortage of tests for the virus and contrasting messages from Trump and his subordinates. In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News on Wednesday, Trump downplayed the lethality of the virus, saying the World Health Organization’s updated estimate of a 3.4% death rate in coronavirus cases is “a false number.”
“Now you’re starting to see rapid deployment of tests, which makes me feel better, quite honestly,” said Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., a doctor. “I think their communications are a little better. As long as the president doesn’t contradict the experts and the scientists who know what they’re doing, things will get better.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Are we undergoing an industrial revolution or a phase change?
—Twitter’s testing new ways to fight misinformation. Is open-source the answer?
—Meet Trump’s Giuliani-approved power broker—and Melania’s new senior adviser
—How the 2020 election could influence your personal finances
—WATCH: What happens to leftover campaign funds once a candidate drops out?
Get up to speed on your morning commute with Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter.


fortune--2020-03-06--The coronavirus requires startups to conserve cash, a VC firm says

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.
People of a certain age in Silicon Valley all remember the Sequoia Capital “R.I.P. Good Times” presentation from 2008. It was a common-sense PowerPoint presentation—or it may have been Keynote, but no matter—that advised the venture-capital firm’s portfolio companies to prepare for the worst.
Sequoia published the 2020 version of a general-purpose warning message Thursday. (It used Medium to disseminate its words of wisdom this time.) The document, “Coronavirus: The Black Swan of 2020,” is a must-read not only for tech types but for businesspeople everywhere.
Most of this document is of a greatest-hits-for-crises variety, which doesn’t make it any less useful. It advises business leaders to conserve cash, to consider raising more, to challenge internal forecasts, and to consider laying off employees sooner rather than later. (“This might be a time to evaluate critically whether you can do more with less and raise productivity” is its unsentimental language.)
Sequoia knows this global health situation is a human tragedy, but it confines its advice to business matters. It reminds readers that Sequoia itself has weathered many crises in its almost half a century of business. Adaptability, it says, quoting Darwin, is more important than strength or intelligence.
The business world has lived through and led the world through exceedingly interesting times just in the last quarter century. The dot-com bubble was an epic up and a dramatic down. The financial crisis of 2008-2009 was a generational collapse that, though less severe, was no less traumatic than the Great Depression. This crisis, a public-health scare first and an economic calamity second, is quickly become something no one alive has ever seen.
Sequoia ends its treatise by asking its readers to “Stay healthy, keep your company healthy, and put a dent in the world.” I’ll add to that: Keep your loved ones close, be kind to your neighbors, and think positive thoughts.
Adam Lashinsky
@adamlashinsky
adam.lashinsky@fortune.com
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.
NEWSWORTHY
Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you. With an activist hedge fund banging on Twitter's gates, CEO Jack Dorsey is re-considering his planned sojourn to Africa. Elliott Management, which owns 4% of Twitter shares, wants Dorsey fired. Last year, Dorsey said he planned to spend several months in Africa studying digital currencies. On Thursday, he called that declaration "a mistake" and cited the coronavirus outbreak as a concern that could force a change in his plans.
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you. Under criticism for allowing political ads with false claims, Facebook removed ads from President Trump's re-election campaign that told viewers to click on a link to the “Official 2020 Congressional District Census” but was actually a link to the campaign's web site. “There are policies in place to prevent confusion around the official U.S. Census and this is an example of those being enforced,” the company said.
The wild dogs cry out in the night. When is a security hole not a security hole? Weeks after researchers found six vulnerabilities in PayPal's systems, the company has not fixed the problems. "There are multiple additional compensating controls for users whose accounts are compromised," PayPal claims. Meanwhile, another group of security researchers say they've found an "impossible to fix" flaw in all Intel chips produced in the past five years. The flaw "destroys the chain of trust for the platform as a whole," Mark Ermolov of Positive Technologies, who helped uncover the issue, says.
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do. Here's one you don't hear every day–a startup raised new money at a lower private valuation. Quantum computing company Rigetti Computing raised $71 million recently but had to take "a significant cut" to its value, TechCrunch reports, without citing the exact figures.
I bless the rains down in Africa. Food in space, if you have ever looked into the subject, is not that great. But current and future astronauts can look forward to somewhat tastier pre-dinner courses in the future. A new study out on Friday found lettuce grown in space can be safely consumed by humans. Now they just have to get to work on a good Italian dressing for zero-G.
(Headline reference explainer video. Alternate headline reference explainer video for fans of Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard.)
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
For some years, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service has used an algorithm to decide whether or not to lock up people arrested for immigration violations. In New York until mid-2017, the algo recommended that about half of those detained be locked up long term. But after June 2017, the algo started calling for 97% to be jailed. The changes to the formula and its outputs are now the subject of a lawsuit from the New York Civil Liberties Union. Hannah Bloch-Wehba, a law professor at Drexel University, explores the issues in the case in an essay for the Washington Post.
When the government turns to automated decision-making, transparency all too often falls by the wayside. Critics have frequently pointed out that algorithms can be biased and faulty — but so can human decision-makers. However, the opacity of decisions made by software presents a unique set of difficulties. It is not just that algorithms can, as appears to be the case here, systematically lead to unjustified outcomes. It is also that victims of the system and watchdog groups often have no way of knowing why and how the decisions are made, which forecloses accountability.
FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE
A few long reads that I came across this week:
Hideo Kojima’s Strange, Unforgettable Video-Game Worlds (New York Times Magazine)
He’s an auteur whose bizarre creations — the Metal Gear Solid series and, most recently, Death Stranding — have become huge blockbusters. Why do gamers find them so captivating?
Build a Rover, Send It to the Moon, Sell the Movie Rights: 30 Years of iRobot (IEEE Spectrum)
Colin Angle on iRobot's 14 failed business models and the lessons the company learned from those failures.
Personal Essay: Coronavirus Lockdown Is A 'Living Hell' (NPR)
The city has been locked down for more than a month. Every night before falling asleep I have been confronted by an unreal feeling and many questions.
The Man Behind Trump’s Facebook Juggernaut (The New Yorker)
Brad Parscale used social media to sway the 2016 election. He’s poised to do it again.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Facebook advises Bay Area employees to stay home amid coronavirus concerns By Danielle Abril
A mobile, online voting effort doubled turnout last month outside Seattle, independent audit says By Alyssa Newcomb
A rare Nintendo Play Station prototype console could be the biggest of video game auction item ever By Chris Morris
Accenture’s Julie Sweet on evolving in real time By Ellen McGirt
AT&T nabs Google Cloud for 5G services partnership By Aaron Pressman
Why are patients who recover from coronavirus testing positive again? By Naomi Xu Elegant
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. There is a 50% discount for our loyal readers if you use this link to sign up. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
After NASA put out a call for students to propose names for the newest Mars rover, about 28,000 kids sent in essays with their ideas. On Thursday, the space agency announced the winner, seventh grader Alexander Mather, and brought him out to read his essay. Mather started by noting that the names of past rovers, Curiosity, Insight, Spirit, Opportunity, reflected human qualities. He went on:
“But if rovers are to be the qualities of us as a race, we miss the most important thing: Perseverance. We as humans evolved as creatures who could learn to adapt to any situation, no matter how harsh. We are a species of explorers, and we will meet many setbacks on the way to Mars. However, we can persevere. We, not as a nation, but as humans will not give up. The human race will always persevere into the future.”
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com


fortune--2020-03-06--How to combine entrepreneurial innovation and state power to solve major social problems

While equal opportunity has been a foundational American value, profound stubborn inequities make it more myth than reality. Consider these facts. Only 3% of children who spend at least half their childhoods in poverty will go on to graduate from college by age 25. About 45% of Americans who spend more than half of their childhoods in poverty are still poor at 35. At the same time, less than 1% of Americans who were never poor as children will be poor at the same age.
Today, where you start largely determines where you will finish economically. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Across America, social entrepreneurs are marrying social justice goals with data-driven practices to change the equation for people trapped in poverty. We need to combine these efforts with the power and funding of the state to achieve results on a national scale.
Consider Year Up, which provides training and skills-building work experience to young adults who are highly motivated, but lack opportunities to enter the mainstream economy. Nine out of 10 Year Up graduates are employed, enrolled in postsecondary education, or both four months after they complete the program, and their earnings are 53% higher than those in a control group.
Or College Possible, founded by first-generation college graduate Jim McCorkell to enable low-income students to graduate from college. As a result of the organization’s coaching, 98% of its students are admitted to universities.
Sadly these innovative programs and others like them operate on too small a scale to counter powerful barriers that keep people poor. While many government programs have made important differences in the lives of low-income Americans, too many emphasize compliance over results, offer simplistic solutions to multifaceted problems, and shut effective programs out of funding because they buck business-as-usual practices.
The good news? In spite of this, some forward-looking policymakers have found ways to partner with social entrepreneurs to tackle specific challenges using new strategies. For example, Social Finance (not to be confused with personal finance company SoFi) works on issues ranging from veterans employment to successful reentry for formerly incarcerated individuals. For example, the nonprofit helped secure financial and counseling support for community college students in Ohio by leveraging a new state-level funding stream tied to improved graduation rates.
Third Sector Capital has similarly broken new ground helping states and municipalities across the country build a stronger social safety net for Americans facing poverty and other challenges. In California, for example, Third Sector worked with local providers to fund mental health support, while the county committed to make payments to providers if an evaluation found those served are ultimately healthier and make fewer trips to emergency rooms, psychiatric facilities, or jails over a six-year period.
America Forward, a national venture philanthropy organization where I currently serve as a volunteer, invests in breakthrough social entrepreneurs. It has put forward a set of policy strategies that would be game-changers in Washington, state capitals, cities, and counties around the country.
For example, we should be steering top talent to tackle our biggest challenges through government, nonprofits, and cross-sector partnerships. Toward this end, America Forward calls for large-scale national service programs, mid-career programs to enable more skilled professionals to do short-term stints in government, and subsidized college for students who agree to enter government or nonprofit fields experiencing shortages.
Or consider how government dollars would flow if results mattered in funding decisions. America Forward suggests incorporating into every major grant program performance-based payments contingent on achieving measurable outcomes, not complying with rules or counting the number of people served. Improving outdated public data systems and increasing the share of public funding that supports social innovation and evaluation would help, as would special funds or tax credits aimed at supporting nonprofit organizations with proven results.
We also should pilot more promising strategies in struggling communities. While many local initiatives have already been tried, they typically focus on a single strategy, such as economic development, or a single population, such as children and youth, rather than creating the conditions for whole regions to thrive. America Forward proposes a new social innovation zone program to provide funding for governor-designated areas of high and persistent poverty, combined with expert technical assistance and waivers that enable communities to pool federal funding with fewer restrictions.
The next president and Congress—as well as governors, mayors, and philanthropists—can take America forward by uniting around these lessons and partnering with the social entrepreneurs to improve the odds for low-income Americans.
Shirley Sagawa is a former senior policy adviser at America Forward and a current member of the organization’s advisory board.
More opinion in Fortune:
—Coronavirus shows why we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak
—How Democrats’ impeachment campaign helped Trump
—Being a CEO is more tenuous than ever. How I survived 30 years at Aflac
—How Warren Buffett built Berkshire Hathaway
—Are the Houston Astros irredeemable cheaters? Or are they all of us?
Listen to our audio briefing, Fortune 500 Daily


fortune--2020-03-06--Facebook advises Bay Area employees to stay home amid coronavirus concerns

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Facebook is asking its Bay Area employees to work from home starting Friday and cancel all upcoming trips over the rising concern about the coronavirus. The company is also canceling all Bay Area events.
Facebook, headquartered in Menlo Park, announced the new policy on Thursday night, following the news that two more cases of coronavirus had spread to San Francisco residents and 20 cases had been confirmed in Santa Clara County. The county’s public health department advised companies to suspend nonessential employee travel as well as minimize in-person gatherings. It also suggested offering telecommuting options for employees, if possible.
“Based on guidance from Santa Clara County today, we are strongly recommending that all Bay Area employees and contingent staff work from home starting tomorrow,” Anthony Harrison, Facebook company spokesperson, said in a released statement. “The health and safety of our teams, their loved ones and our neighbors remain a top priority.”
Facebook’s decision comes three days after Twitter and Square, both run by CEO Jack Dorsey, similarly “strongly” encouraged its 9,000 employees to work from home over fear of spreading the virus. It also coincides with multiple cancellations of major tech events including Facebook’s most publicized conference, F8. Meanwhile, Google has converted several of its conferences including its premiere annual event Google I/O into a live streaming event.
Facebook had already shut down its Seattle office on Thursday after one of its contractors tested positive for the coronavirus. Under the new policy, Facebook said “thousands” of its Bay Area employees, many of whom are involved in the safety and security of its services, will not be able to work from home. Offices will remain open for those employees. The company will continue to do daily deep cleanings of its offices, which it says it has been doing over the last couple of months.
Facebook said it will continue to evaluate the situation on a weekly basis to determine when Bay Area employees should return to their offices.
On Thursday, Lyft had also sent its San Francisco employees home after a staff member came into contact with someone exposed to the coronavirus. The company said the action was done out of an abundance of caution and that none of its employees had tested positive for the virus. Employees were advised to work from home for the remainder of the week while the offices were being deep cleaned.
Google has recommended its employees in Washington to work from home and is also giving Bay Area employees that option if their roles allow, according to a company spokesperson.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
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—Why the U.S. is so far behind other countries in coronavirus testing
—Travel insurance is booming, even though it doesn’t help flight changes and cancellations
—Six states are still not testing for coronavirus
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-06--Suffering from International Women’s Day branding fatigue

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! Elizabeth Warren ends her campaign for president, the Fortune 500 gets another female CEO, and we have IWD branding fatigue. Have a wonderful weekend and International Women’s Day!
– Say no to IWD stunts. Happy International Women’s Day Eve Eve. You’ll be forgiven for not having it marked on your calendars.
Sunday, March 8, is the 45th annual International Women’s Day. The United Nations formalized its observance in 1975. The day is intended to honor women’s achievements worldwide and to recall past protest movements that pushed for women’s working rights and universal suffrage.
In recent years, though, brands have hijacked the occasion, latching onto it as a marketing opportunity as they look to capitalize on the feel-good, girl-power spirit that the day evokes.
And I’ve about had it.
Maybe it’s the timing of this year’s IWD—coming as the world’s most powerful nation decides yet again that a woman can’t be president; as women’s reproductive rights hang in the balance; as leaders continue to ignore gruesome instances of femicide. Regardless, I’m not the only person who feels this way. A new survey from brand agency Berlin Cameron and market research firm Perksy found that 30% of women see brands’ advocacy for women as an excuse to drive sales.
We were already approaching this point of fatigue two years ago, when McDonald’s flipped its golden arches to resemble a W—for women, duh—as a way to mark the day. The burger chain faced backlash for the stunt, but the lesson has not taken hold. This year oil and gas company Shell says it is “becoming She’ll for International Women’s Day,” with a logo at a station in San Dimas, Calif., getting the teeny tiny apostrophe. The campaign is supposed to show that “small gestures can motivate and deliver big messages,” but it feels like a gesture that’s as empty as an upside-down M.
Besides brands’ logo contortions, IWD has in recent years seen the introduction of pink beer, a Claudia Sanders mascot at KFC, “Jane Walker” scotch whisky, and “role model” Barbies with the doll’s trademark physique.
Brands will tell you that their IWD campaigns are intended to celebrate the contributions of women in their workforces and in society at large; of course, they mostly overlook the more radical history of IWD that at times saw female workers take to the streets. Truth is, the goal of any marketing effort is to sell more stuff. And as we consider what women still need on Sunday, it certainly isn’t more stuff—especially stuff that’s specifically aimed at women since those products cost on average 7% more than comparable items for men.
That’s not to say companies should vacate this space entirely; certainly they hold sway, but they should use it to provide or advocate for what women truly need: universal paid leave, uninfringed health care, equal representation in politics, career ladders that don’t systematically marginalize us, tampons that aren’t taxed.
On Sunday, what’s needed is an IWD that isn’t one giant money-grab for women’s wallets—after all, they’re already 13% lighter than they should be.
Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
@clairezillman
Today’s Broadsheet was produced by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Filling the Gap. Old Navy chief executive Sonia Syngal is the new CEO of Old Navy parent Gap Inc. Syngal will assume the job on March 23, two months after Gap pulled the plug on a spin-off of the Old Navy brand that would have seen Syngal become CEO of a stand-alone $8 billion-a-year business. The appointment will make Syngal the 37th female CEO in the Fortune 500, though that total will fall to 35 later in the spring with the previously announced departures of the CEOs of IBM and KeyCorp. Fortune
- Last woman standing. It's official: Sen. Elizabeth Warren is out of the race for president. That leaves a once historically diverse field, including six women, with effectively two white men in their late 70s competing for the nomination. (Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is still technically in the race.) Warren addressed the sexism that played a part in the end of her candidacy in a speech yesterday. "If you say, ‘Yeah, there was sexism in this race,’ everyone says, ‘Whiner!’” she said. “If you say, ‘No, there was no sexism, about a bazillion women think, ‘What planet do you live on?’” Fortune
- History do-over. Time magazine has named a Person of the Year since 1999, and for 72 years before that it named a Man of the Year. Now, the magazine has rectified that historical imbalance with 100 Women of the Year—one for each year from 1920 to 2020. Click through to see what women would have looked like on these magazine covers throughout history and to learn about influential—and under-appreciated—women of the past century. Time
- Listen up. Today's Fortune 500 Daily podcast features outgoing IBM CEO Ginni Rometty and her best leadership lessons. Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: DePauw University has appointed Lori White, vice chancellor for student affairs at Washington University in St. Louis, as its 21st president. She'll be the first woman and person of color to lead the university. Sarah Flint has hired Mary Beech,former EVP and CMO at Kate Spade, as CEO.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Wait for Waitrose. Sharon White has started implementing her turnaround strategy at John Lewis, the U.K. retail giant. With profits down £75 million last year, White has cut bonuses and prepared to potentially eliminate the company's famous "never knowingly undersold" price pledge at stores like Waitrose. Financial Times
- Working mom. Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman is on the cover of Working Mother magazine, where she talks about her long-term plan to take the clothing rental service public, her desire to have more children (she has a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old) and WeWork (Rent the Runway has a partnership allowing subscribers to drop off returns the beleaguered co-working company's locations). Working Mother
- Bringing it back. The European Union is considering implementing mandatory quotas for women's representation on company boards—a proposal that was first introduced in 2012 but scrapped amid member state objections. Some EU countries have similar requirements on their own, but this would apply to all European-listed companies. Guardian
- One in ten. A stunning nine out of 10 people—including women—around the globe are biased against women, according to new research from the UN Development Program. A gender social norm index analyzed people's perspectives on gender in 75 countries. Almost half feel that men are "superior political leaders;" more than 40% believe men are better executives. Guardian
ON MY RADAR
Pamela Adlon wants you to know she has your back Fortune
There's nothing effortless about being a woman Elle
We're in the middle of a sports bra revolution Outside
PARTING WORDS
"I am tired of being the only, the first. I’m working to try to change that."
-Tonya Hicks, president and CEO of Power Solutions, an electrical contracting firm in Atlanta


fortune--2020-03-06--To tackle coronavirus, Brits are appealing to an age-old rallying cry: ‘Blitz Spirit’

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It’s been used to describe the response to everything from snow storms to terrorist attacks to, of course, Brexit. So it’s no surprise that as coronavirus cases mount in the U.K., the country is appealing to an 80-year-old historical event to calm panic: the Blitz.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned of a “national challenge” to fight the outbreak of the virus, as the U.K. government released a paper on its plans to manage the spread. It was a speech the Sun tabloid newspaper quickly cast as “evoking Blitz spirit”—referring to the legendary tale of national resolve, calm, and unity displayed by the British people during the bombing by German forces during World War II.
Of course, the U.K. is not at war. But as cases mounted—by Friday, there were 163 cases reported in the country, with one fatality, a wave of event cancellations, including the London Book Fair, and closures of entire offices in the business centre of Canary Wharf—there were both appeals to a British sense of “keep calm and carry on” (another wartime slogan) and jibes at it.
“People go on about the blitz spirit, but in 1940 they did not have videos beamed into their homes of people panic buying toilet roll,” tweeted one user.
“Blitz spirit innit,” tweeted another. “Nothing says 1940 like arms full of alcohol gel.”
The Blitz myth?
The idea behind ‘blitz spirit’, as a particularly British responses to crisis, emerged far before World War II, says Holger Nehring, a professor of contemporary European history at University of Stirling in Scotland.
It was a kind of appeal to a “bottoms-up, community spirit” approach that advocates doing it yourself, and not waiting for the state to step in. It was an ideology that solidified and gained a name during the intensive bombing of British cities during World War II, particularly the period between September 1940 and May 1941 officially known as the Blitz, which killed over 43,500 people across the country.
But in recent years, the concept of ‘blitz spirit’ has often been used in much more mundane ways.
“‘Blitz spirit’ is always brought up when something doesn’t quite work in the way it should work,” said Nehring. “Like when it snows, and people can’t get out, and then you’ve got all these stories about ‘blitz spirit'”, with people being forced to clear their own roads, he said.
The coronavirus spread is slightly more applicable to the blitz than a snowstorm—”that’s a real leap,” Nehring quipped—but the idea is really about tapping into a larger narrative that during the Blitz, at least for a while, class differences and other divides were wiped away.
“In Britain, it’s seen as a positive thing that can be mobilized over and over again,” said Nehring. “There’s a huge debate among historians about whether it’s a myth or not a myth. But I would personally say it is a myth, because all these differences—class, religion, culture, north versus south, Scotland versus England—all that remained in place. It didn’t go away.”
The divides in the idea of ‘blitz spirit’ have only been widened in the years leading up to Brexit, as it has become a popular wartime metaphor for both sides of the divide. The phrase has been repeatedly used by pro-Brexit campaigners as an appeal to British greatness—and the British ability to handle any food shortages that were predicted to result from a “no deal” Brexit. In turn, that use has been mocked by Remain supporters weary of paeans to the past.
‘Life has to go on’
If there is such a thing as ‘blitz spirit’ remaining in British public life, it probably comes from people who actually survived it.
Janet Hepperle was a toddler when Manchester was bombed during the Second World War.
Now 81 and living in Darlington, in County Durham, she still has memories of visiting the family’s air raid shelter, including the time a bomb fell in the back garden. The force blew out all the downstairs windows, she said, even though the bomb itself didn’t explode.
Between bombing raids, the neighborhood grew much of its own food, bonding together to provide whatever anyone needed, she says.
“It was a good community,” Hepperle said.
At the time, and even in the years after the war, she says there was an attitude that “you just sort of accepted it. These things just happened and you just picked yourself up and got on with your life.”
When it comes to coronavirus, she’s also unfazed: “I think once you’ve survived something like that, you think, nothing could be that bad again.”
To that end, Hepperle has some particularly low-key coronavirus advice for Britons who are stockpiling toilet paper and hand sanitizer: wash your hands, avoid crowded places if you can, and practice “general hygiene.”
“Be careful what you do,” she said, “but life has to go on.”
This story has been corrected to reflect the correct spelling of Janet Hepperle’s name.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Testing for coronavirus should be free, but it’s not always that simple
—Coronavirus is mutating: Chinese scientists find second strain
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
—The coronavirus is officially claiming its first corporate casualties
—Why the U.S. is so far behind other countries in coronavirus testing
—Travel insurance is booming, even though it doesn’t help flight changes and cancellations
—Six states are still not testing for coronavirus
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-06--This chef’s move to South Carolina inspired him to reinvent the classic Italian restaurant in New Yo

This chef’s move to South Carolina inspired him to reinvent the classic Italian restaurant in New York

Chef Michael Toscano and his wife, Caitlin, are no strangers to New York City’s high-stakes dining scene, having time spent at Babbo and Craft among other notable fine dining destinations.
However, after leaving New York City to raise a family and open Le Farfalle in Charleston, S.C., the offer to return to the exact same space where they previously ran the lauded and now-closed Perla was too appealing to pass up. And the influence of Charleston’s passionate food community, along with the success of Le Farfalle’s menu, has brought unmistakable Southern flair to the Italian cuisine at their newly opened Manhattan restaurant, Da Toscano.
“Leaving the big city and going down to Charleston and experiencing these kinds of people and the care that they take for their clients, it’s really fun,” says Toscano.
Chef Michael Toscano Courtesy of Da Toscano
Tank Jackson of Charleston-based Holy City Hogs, who offers famed Ossabaw Island hogs, among other heritage breeds, to several restaurants across the country, drives up to New York City every week to deliver one whole hog to Da Toscano, which is then used in dishes like the porchetta chop.
Other Charleston-area–made products, like High Wire Distilling’s Southern Amaro Liqueur, fit in perfectly with the latest Italian food and drink trends. The distillery’s amaro, made from South Carolina’s famed black tea, is one of many examples of Italian and Southern food cultures’ increasing convergence.
A look inside Da Toscano’s dining room in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. Evan Sung
Family meal
Before he began to cook for himself, Toscano remembers special occasions when his mother would roast a beef head in the oven overnight before turning it into tamales the next day. It was that dish that served as inspiration for Da Toscano’s veal head parmigiana. Made with tongue, cheek, and the prized meat found under the eye socket, the terrine is then seasoned with spices and parmigiano before being breaded and fried.
“That’s an exciting dish for me because it’s taking the familiar and taking my background and putting it together in a very subtle way,” Toscano says.
Asking for seconds
The ability to open a restaurant is challenging enough. But doing so in downtown New York, particularly when your résumé includes a James Beard Award nomination and a two-star review from the New York Times (as Toscano’s does), elevates expectations among critics and diners. Add in the fact you’re cooking Italian food in New York, and you’re going to get just as many opinions to match the diversity of offerings.
Octopus carpaccio Evan Sung
“There’s New York Italian, which we love so much, and then there’s regional Italian cuisine. What I do is kind of a cross between the two,” Toscano says. The chef leans on what products are available in the regions where he has networks, aiming to turn those into what he hopes can become new New York Italian classics.
Roasted oysters—a hallmark of Southern cooking—are served at Da Toscano with crab fat and chili vinegar. And variations of dishes that originated at Le Farfalle, including octopus carpaccio and fideos pasta, have made their way to Manhattan.
Coming home again has been much easier to digest, though having a Southern amaro around doesn’t hurt either. Courtesy of Da Toscano
Toscano admits he was ready to launch a second restaurant in Charleston, and moving back to New York wasn’t originally planned. But he says the return to New York has been easier than expected. “To be back here in New York with all that I’ve learned and experienced, I feel more prepared than ever,” Toscano says. “We love being in Charleston, but we cut our teeth in New York City, and it’s hard to completely just step away from that.”
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—Inside the most influential fashion show in menswear
—Millennials are passing on wine when dining out
—WATCH: Can San Francisco Be Saved?
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fortune--2020-03-06--100,000 coronavirus cases: How COVID-19 defied borders to reach this new milestone

Stay in the know on how the coronavirus outbreak is impacting the global business economy with our new daily newsletter Outbreak.
It started as a mysterious, pneumonia-like illness. Cases of it appeared before Christmas in the Chinese commercial center of Wuhan, population 11 million, traced to a wet market there. It presented in infected patients as a fever, shortness of breath, and body aches. Wuhan officials said early on there was no clear evidence it could be transmitted from human to human.
They were wrong.
Such transmission did occur—at an alarming rate. Five days after it got its coronavirus name, Thailand confirmed the first case outside of mainland China. Within weeks, infections dotted nearly every country in Asia.
Now the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, has reached the new, ominous milestone of 100,000 global infections, according to Johns Hopkins data.
Wuhan’s Hubei Province remains the most affected with 67,600 cases and over 2,900 deaths in total. But the outbreak’s ongoing march across the globe has revealed new hotbeds of contagion—first in some of Asia’s biggest economies and then in concentrated pockets in Europe and the Middle East. It has exposed borders as flimsy human constructs, underscored the world’s vast connectedness, and left a trail of lessons to be learned.
As the coronavirus counter ticks to 100,001, here’s a look back at some of the ways it’s spread.
Japan and the Diamond Princess
Japan confirmed its first case of coronavirus on Jan. 16. The patient was a man from China who had traveled to Japan from Wuhan. Over the next week, Japan confirmed two more cases, both Chinese nationals who had travelled from Wuhan. But soon there were signs of community transmission, as a case confirmed on Jan. 28 was recorded in a man who had never visited China.
Despite the evidence of community transmission and the high number of Chinese tourists that visit Japan each year, the Japanese government was slow to develop a response plan to the viral outbreak. Tokyo only adopted a “basic policy” to prevent community spread on Feb. 25—nearly a month after the World Health Organization had declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and three weeks after the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in the city of Yokohama, issuing Japan its biggest coronavirus challenge.
A former passenger of the Diamond Princess, who had disembarked in Hong Kong on Jan. 25, tested positive for COVID-19 a week later. By this time, the cruise ship was back in Yokohama but due to depart on Feb. 4. That sailing was cancelled so Japanese authorities could screen passengers for the virus; they found ten cases. The cruise liner was put under quarantine, with all 3,700 passengers and crew locked on board.
Passengers stand on the deck of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, in quarantine due to coronavirus, in Yokohama, Japan on Feb. 20, 2020. PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images
During the month-long quarantine, the number of infected people on the ship swelled to 706 as Japanese authorities faced criticism for bungling the situation. There were no effective quarantine measures on board the ship to separate infected passengers from the others, rendering the quarantine exercise ineffective.
Most foreign passengers repatriated from the ship were subjected to a further 14-day quarantine after arriving home. In Japan, however, Tokyo allowed Japanese citizens who had not yet tested positive for coronavirus to leave the boat and return home after the minimum 14-days on board.
A number of disembarked passengers later tested positive for coronavirus, having already travelled hundreds of kilometers across the country, risking infection to others along the way. Japan now has 360 cases of coronavirus and, unlike in city states such as Singapore, the route of transmission has become virtually impossible to track.
Singapore
Singapore reported its first case on Jan. 23—a Chinese woman who had flown from Wuhan, the center of the outbreak. Since then, cases have risen to 117; 78 have recovered with no deaths, making the city-state a prime example of how to contain the coronavirus. However, Singapore’s success is not easy to replicate.
The key to tackling the outbreak has been the government’s iron grip on power over its 6 million residents. The strong party rule has allowed authorities to act resolutely with little resistance from the public. Officials have put more than 2,000 people in quarantine, with the government placing them under close surveillance and punishing those who break protocol. A couple was fined for lying about their travel history, and an expat worker was expelled after breaking quarantine.
In a way, Singapore has benefitted from its experience with SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, in 2003 when the city suffered 33 deaths from 238 cases. The tragedy prompted the government to install quarantine facilities in its hospitals and build a dedicated center for infectious diseases.
A man, wearing a protective facemask amid fears about the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, walks past a temperature screening check at Changi International airport in Singapore on February 27, 2020. ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images
But despite its swift response and advanced preparation, Singapore still became ground zero for a coronavirus “super spreader” event in late January. An attendee at a business conference hosted by U.K. gas analytics firm Servomex at the Grand Hyatt in Singapore contracted the disease and unwittingly transmitted it to 11 others as he returned to the U.K. via France. Five of the 11 were confirmed infected in France while one traveled back to Mallorca, Spain, before testing positive.
As rumors of the “super spreader” emerged, media outlets raced to identify the individual who’d carried the virus across the globe and back to the U.K., eventually unmasking him as a man from Hove, in South England, where the five remaining secondary infections took place. One doctor from the area has since been diagnosed with the virus, and 30 other doctors have isolated themselves as a precaution.
In a statement, the Hove man asked the media to respect his privacy, an individual right that’s been called into question as governments struggle to limit contagion. In Singapore, the government’s ability to track cases and identify points of transmission has been integral to interrupting the disease’s spread—but the state also makes a lot of that data publicly available, including the home and business addresses of patients.
South Korea
Whereas Singapore has deployed mass surveillance to combat the coronavirus, South Korea has turned to mass testing.
South Korea reported its first confirmed case of coronavirus on Jan. 20, but the disease remained mostly contained in the country until Feb. 18, when an outbreak tied to a branch of Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive extreme Christian sect, popped up in the southern city of Daegu.
A South Korean soldier, in protective gear, takes a break after disinfecting an alley in the Eunpyeong district against the coronavirus on March 04, 2020 in Seoul, South Korea. Woohae Cho/Getty Images
A 61-year-old woman became known as patient zero of the Shincheonji cluster; she’d attended church services regularly and was known for fostering close physical contact with fellow worshippers. As of March 1, South Korean health officials had traced at least 3,736 confirmed cases to her. In total, South Korea has reported more than 6,500 infections and at least 40 deaths as of Friday.
While the woman had not recently traveled to China, her case exposes how intertwined China and South Korea’s populations are in official and under-the-radar ways. An estimated 1 million Chinese nationals live in South Korea, and there are at least 120,000 South Koreans living in China, according to China’s 2010 census. While religion is officially banned in China, the Shincheonji Church has a branch with hundreds of followers in Wuhan, which at least some Daegu-based parishioners had visited recently.
Rather than impose lock-down style measures as China did, South Korean authorities and biotech companies mobilized an expansive testing operation in response to the crisis, testing hundreds of thousands of people, some via drive-thru style clinics.
Medical professionals wearing protective gear guide drivers through a “drive-through” virus test facility in Goyang, north of Seoul, on February 29, 2020. JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images
South Korea has also cracked down on the Shincheonji church itself. Church leader Lee Man-hee bowed on the ground begging for forgiveness during a press conference on Monday, but authorities are reportedly still pursuing homicide charges against him due to the church hiding information about the outbreak.
Italy
In Italy, the coronavirus has revealed the deep ties between two regions—Lombardy in the country’s north, and Zhejiang in China’s south, separated by 9,000 kilometers.
In late January, Italian authorities confirmed the first two cases of coronavirus from two Chinese tourists in Rome, but authorities now believe that the two Chinese nationals did not infect anyone else. For weeks, new infections remained low and at the time the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said it was because Italy employed the “most rigorous” prevention measures in Europe.
But on Feb. 21, Italy reported that a 38-year-old man identified as Mattia had coronavirus in Codogno, a small town in Italy’s northern Lombardy region. How Mattia became infected remains unclear as he had not recently traveled to China, but he became known as patient zero for triggering a surge in cases across the region. In the week after Italy confirmed Mattia’s case, 888 people were diagnosed with the disease across northern Italy. In response, authorities quarantined towns across northern Italy, banned large gatherings like sporting events, and temporarily closed all schools and universities nationwide.
Italy’s outbreak has also marked some of the first reported cases of coronavirus being imported back to China. Qingtian, a small county in China’s southeastern Zhejiang province, confirmed eight new cases of coronavirus on March 2 from Chinese nationals living in Italy’s Lombardy region. There are more than 300,000 Chinese nationals living in Italy, and roughly 90% of them in the Zhejiang Province; the garment industry there has attracted Chinese workers.
These imported cases prompted Chinese authorities to begin quarantining foreign travelers and urging overseas Chinese populations to stay away in fears of they might lead to new outbreaks.
Tourists wear protective face masks as they walk in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. Andrea Merola/Bloomberg via Getty Images
At nearly 4%, Italy has one of the highest death rates of coronavirus in the world, as 148 of 3,858 infected people have died. Italy has the world’s second-oldest population, and experts suspect that the country’s elderly citizens are particularly vulnerable to fatal infections.
Iran
Just as Italy had touted its low caseload early in the outbreak, officials in Iran also spoke too soon. Just two weeks ago, officials in Iran, praising the country’s health system, predicted the country would not be affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Iran has since become one of the biggest hotbeds of the disease, logging nearly 3,000 cases and 92 deaths.
On Feb. 19, Iran confirmed its first two cases in the city of Qom—and later that day said both people had died. The health minister said the virus arrived in Iran via a merchant who frequently traveled between Qom and China and who was one of the two deaths.
The virus has since spread to at least three more cities, including Tehran, the capital, after officials said they would not put towns under quarantine or close religious pilgrimage sites; they encouraged citizens to go to the polls for parliamentary elections.
Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi wipes sweat from his face during a press conference on Feb. 24, 2020. Harirchi confirmed the next day that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. MEHDI BOLOURIAN/FARS NEWS/AFP via Getty Images
By Feb. 24, cases had jumped to 61, according to deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi. At the press conference to announce the figures, Harirchi’s own condition became a focus. As he downplayed the virus’s spread, Harirchi coughed into his hand and removed his glasses to wipe sweat from his brow so often that at one point someone stepped onto the podium to hand him a new box of tissues.
The next day, Harirchi tested positive for COVID-19.
Around 8% of Iran’s members of parliament have contracted the virus, and a senior advisor to Iran’s supreme leader died of the disease on March 2. The nation now has more than 3,500 cases; at least 107 people have died.
Some schools and universities are closed, but major religious sites remain open, a move one doctor described as “criminal.” (Iran has halted Friday prayers in all provincial capitals this week to control the spread of the outbreak.) Medical staff say they have been told to keep quiet about the outbreak. One lawmaker called official numbers “a joke” and said in reality the infection and death counts are much higher.
Iran’s health ministry said on Thursday the government had approved several bills aiming to contain the outbreak, and said the WHO approved of the ministry’s plans, which include setting up checkpoints to limit travel between major cities and encouraging the public to limit the use of paper money.
Some see Iran’s early opposition to restricting travel from China as government reluctance to jeopardize its relationship with its largest trading partner; U.S. sanctions may be contributing to a medical equipment shortage as well. Iran has become a sort of ground zero of the virus in the Middle Ease, with most of the new cases in the region linking back to Iran.
A ‘democratic’ virus
That the coronavirus has reached so far—to least 84 countries—so fast is alarming. “This is literally like trying to stop air,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday, as the state confirmed five new cases.
Governments have tried to tame the outbreak, in part, by limiting who can cross what border. And while some of those measures have proven wise in hindsight, the coronavirus has repeatedly defied city lockdowns and countries’ flight restrictions.
In a selfie video posted after his COVID-19 diagnosis, Harirchi, the deputy health minister in Iran, said the coronavirus is “democratic.”
“It does not distinguish between poor and rich,” he said.
Nor it distinguish between geographies. And in that sense, its nature confounds the current political climate. In an era of deepening isolation and nationalist sentiment—of walls being built and blocs being broken—it is truly a global problem, still desperately awaiting a global solution.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—How to think about COVID-19
—Coronavirus spreads to a previously healthy sector: corporate earnings
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
—Coronavirus shows why we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak
—Before coronavirus, there were SARS and MERS. Do epidemics ever really end?
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fortune--2020-03-06--Where you should eat, visit, and stay in Marrakech

When you set out on your first day in Marrakech, you might observe that the Moroccan city has a diverse cross-section of tourists. You won’t be able to keep up with the number of different languages being spoken while traipsing through the 700 back alleys of the medina or even the would-be influencers staging personal photo shoots with each other in the Majorelle Garden.
Marrakech is a welcoming city, with a deeply rooted culture of respect and hospitality. Arabic and French are the primary languages spoken in Morocco and displayed on signage. But in tourist-haven Marrakech, English is also widely spoken and understood at the airport and main train station as well as numerous hotels and restaurants. Cabdrivers—stick to official yellow or green cabs with clear licenses—also speak English, but many of them don’t use a meter, so be sure to set a price with your driver before departure.
The city’s high season is coming up in a few months, roughly from the end of March through June. But February and March are prime times to visit as temperatures hover between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit on average, with clear blue skies after some occasional morning mist. (That said, when the sun does hit its peak temperature in the mid to late afternoon, make sure you have sunscreen and a hat. The sun can be punishing when it wants to be.)
And better than the weather (especially for those traveling from North America, Europe, and East Asia in winter), airfares and hotel rates are better now than at any other time of year, and you’ll run into far fewer tourists at the major attractions.
One of Marrakech’s many cool cats. Rachel King
Where to go
Musée Yves Saint Laurent and the Jardin Majorelle: The first rule of traveling to museums anywhere is universal: Check the open hours and days before you go. The Majorelle Garden is open every day, but the hours vary between the summer and winter months. And while it’s just next door—making it ideal for visiting on the same day—the Yves Saint Laurent Museum is closed on Wednesdays.
A second rule—although not as critical as the first—is more of a recommendation: Book tickets well in advance. Wait times to buy tickets for either (sold in the same booth) can take up to an hour. The garden is simultaneously mesmerizing and overwhelming, packed to the brim with a myriad of flora, fauna, and tall trees that offer merciful shade on hot afternoons.
A tourist posing outside the Musée Berbère within the Majorelle Garden. Rachel King
Amid it all is the Musée Berbère, a sight to behold as the Art Deco–style, two-story house is impossible to miss with its cobalt blue exterior and flashes of electric yellow and sea-foam green. Also hard to miss are all the Instagrammers trying to get the perfect shot, scattered all around the house in varying poses, sometimes with a photographer and others settling for selfies.
About 100 meters up the road, fashion lovers will likely brave the crowds and 100 Moroccan dirham (roughly $10) ticket prices for the Yves Saint Laurent Museum. One of two museums dedicated to the Algerian-born French fashion designer (the other being in Paris), the Marrakech location has fewer exhibits than its European counterpart, but it makes up for this with its stunning modern structure as well as a permanent collection of YSL gowns showcasing African fashion.
A view of the souk in the medina of Marrakech, as seen from a rooftop café. Rachel King
The Medina: There are two cities within Marrakech: the old city and the new. The latter dates back roughly a century, with wider streets and sidewalks, modern design studios, cafés with baristas, and clothing boutiques dedicated to both local designers and top international brands. Then there is the old city, known as the medina of Marrakech, dating back to the 10th century. At first glance, the medina can be daunting—especially the souk inside, with its alleyways winding in every possible direction. The maze-like layout could induce anxiety even in someone who’s not claustrophobic. (Carrying a smartphone with a reliable mapping app and GPS would be a good idea. You should be able to get reliable service, and there is Wi-Fi available in countless cafés as well as surrounding museums and gardens.)
But on a weekday, traversing the Medina is manageable—and even breathable—with fewer tourists compared with the weekends in high season. Here you can buy artisan leather goods, traditional clothing, and slippers, Moroccan sweets, handcrafted pottery, and much, much more. Be sure to bring cash. (And on that note, a Visa or Mastercard elsewhere, as almost no one accepts American Express in Marrakech.) Also be prepared to haggle. A wise starting point is to ask for the price—then make your starting offer at least half that. If you can’t get the vendor to lower the price, start to walk away, and you might discover him or her suddenly offering a better deal.
The main courtyard at Le Jardin Secret. Rachel King
Le Jardin Secret (The Secret Garden): While it might not actually be a secret garden anymore, Le Jardin Secret, in the medina, certainly feels like more of a secret destination compared with the swarms at the Majorelle Garden. It’s estimated that the estate’s first “palace” was built during the second half of the 16th century by the Saadian sultan of Morocco in a part of the medina that was then home to a small Jewish community.
The focal points of the Secret Garden are the green spaces, divided between the “exotic garden” (dedicated to plants rare in northern Africa) and the Islamic garden. At the heart of the latter is a marble shell water fountain, intended to inspire serenity and contemplation. Visitors can easily experience both, with plenty of seating in and around the garden, both in sunlight and shade. There is also a terrace café on the second story of the back tower, providing a rare bird’s-eye view in a city with few structures taller than one or two stories.
The central courtyard of Dar el Bacha. Rachel King
Dar el Bacha: If the Secret Garden is the secret alternative to the Majorelle Garden, then Dar el Bacha (also known as Musée des Confluences, or the Museum of Confluences) is the comparable alternative to Musée YSL. Located in the middle of the old medina, Dar el Bacha was once a private palace, built by the Pasha of Marrakech in the 1910s. It’s a picture-perfect example of a riad, and it’s considered an archetype of Moroccan architecture. The majestic building—composed of six main rooms on four sides (including a traditional hammam and a harem) surrounding a rectangular courtyard—was established as a museum open to the public in 2015, with the primary purpose of exhibiting Morocco’s cultural heritage.
The museum hosts seasonal exhibits, but the ornate structure is the real draw for architecture and design lovers as well as photo-bugs looking for a perfect background with few other visitors to compete.
A comté croissant with a side of coffee and cream at Bacha Coffee. Rachel King
Where to eat
Bacha Coffee: Tucked away in Dar el Bacha is what seems like a textbook example of a “hidden gem” for travelers. That would be the Bacha Coffee Room and Boutique. Even if you’re not a coffee lover, it might take wild horses to drag someone away from the alluring scent wafting out of the boutique, selling dozens upon dozens of African coffees in Hermès-orange square tins.
But you should make time (around an hour) to have a pot of coffee (decaf options available, too) from the extensive coffee list, showcasing single bean and bean blends from around the world (including roughly a dozen from the highly recommended list of African coffees from six countries on the continent). Then treat yourself to one of the sweet or savory stuffed croissants, such as the comté cheese croissant, date and goat cheese, or the almond with orange peel. Walk-ins are welcome, but it’s worth calling in for a reservation if you’re on a tight schedule. Additional amenities: Air conditioning, free Wi-Fi, and the café accepts credit cards.
Inside the Bacha Coffee dining room. Rachel King
Sesamo: You can now get some of the world’s best Italian food in Marrakech. That might not be the most obvious choice—and you definitely should be making the most of tasting local delicacies and cuisine first. But as Fortune contributor Sara Lieberman reported last month, chef Massimiliano “Max” Alajmo (of Le Calandre in Rubano, Italy, which has been on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for 13 consecutive years now) recently set up shop in Marrakech in the illustrious Royal Mansour hotel.
The Venetian-inspired restaurant replaces Yannick Alléno’s French eatery La Grande Table Française, now serving traditional but elevated Italian dishes, including a 14-course tasting menu, as well as a substantial and specially curated list of Italian wines. (Although if you can, don’t miss out on trying Moroccan wines, most of which are sourced from vineyards in the northwestern part of the country near Fez and Tangier. Expect very dry Chardonnays and rosés, which pair perfectly with Moroccan dishes.)
A Moroccan salad at Hotel Dar Rhizlane. Rachel King
Riads: A riad is a type of traditional Moroccan house (or even a former palace) with an interior garden or courtyard. And there are hundreds of them in Marrakech, with most located in the old medina. You could even opt to stay overnight, as many riads also operate as small hotels. A riad’s design not only encourages privacy and inward reflection—it also keeps the air cool as the windows of each room face into the courtyard.
Most riads (and the true beauty and even amenities like a hammam) are hidden from view, and you can only spot them from the tiny streets based on the sign outside the door. But you don’t need to stay overnight in a riad to experience one, as many take reservations for lunch and dinner. You’ll need to do your research to find one right for your interests and appetites. But you could not ask for a more authentic or enriching culinary experience while on a trip to any of Morocco’s major cities.
Hotel Dar Rhizlane Rachel King
Where to stay
Hotel Dar Rhizlane: If you are financially able to do so, Marrakech is not a city where you should skimp on lodging—especially for women traveling alone. The city itself is quite safe, but the quality (and security) among hotels varies greatly.
Located within walking distance of both the old and new cities of Marrakech, Hotel Dar Rhizlane offers a bit of calm and quiet in the midst of the bustle of the city center, made possible by lush gardens with white bougainvillea creepers and large trees surrounding the palatial property. Reflecting a Moorish-Islamic style of architecture with a touch of Yemeni and Egyptian influences, each suite and villa is individually designed with its own palette of colors, also offering a private patio or terrace, in the same vein as a Moroccan palace. Rates start at $175 per night for a double room.
Guests can also take a dip in the semi-Olympic-size swimming pool, read a book on a deck chair or in one of the other enclosed gardens on the property, take a meal (or a cooking class) at one of the restaurants and cocktail bars within the grounds, or visit the Turkish bath and saunas for wellness treatments. There are a few modern touches as well, including free Wi-Fi, flat-screen TVs with satellite cable, and iPhone docking stations in each suite.
No detail is overlooked at the Hotel Dar Rhizlane. Rachel King
The Oberoi: One truly doesn’t understand the phrase “oasis in the desert”—until you stumble upon one. It took nearly a decade to build this oasis: a five-star hotel, the latest opening from the global luxury resort brand. Facing the Atlas Mountains, the heart of the estate is the Grand Canal, inspired by the long waterway of the Alhambra in Spain. And even when you first walk into the main lobby of the Oberoi Marrakech, previous visitors to the Alhambra might experience a bout of déjà vu when staring up at the intricately carved cedarwood ceiling. It’s hard to believe that the main building isn’t actually a former palace hundreds of years old, but entirely new to this century. That’s partially because building the hotel—owned 50% by Oberoi and 50% by a prominent local family—involved more than 600 skilled artisans working on the wooden and marble carvings outlining walls, ceilings, and archways throughout the main building.
The grand staircase at the Oberoi Marrakech. Rachel King
There are 84 keys at the Oberoi Marrakech, starting with six deluxe suites (as well as the Royal suite) in the main building. (Rates start at $600 per night.) Surrounding the perimeter are 78 villas, most of which are one-bedroom villas featuring heated private pools and terraces. At the end of the Grand Canal, there is a single two-bedroom villa, also designated as a Royal villa. But there is a grand pool as well, open to all guests, surrounded by poolside deck chairs, lawn umbrellas, four canopy beds, and one of the hotel’s three restaurants, Azur—also the only one that serves lunch. Upstairs, guests can take breakfast or dinner at Tamimt, which boasts three menus: Moroccan, Indian, and international.
Guests will want to enjoy at least one dinner at Siniman, the hotel’s dedicated Moroccan restaurant, where guests are invited to wash their hands tableside with rosewater before the meal begins. Then they can dine on traditional fare such as tagines, couscous, and Moroccan salad (which is nothing like the leafy green bowls you’d probably imagine). After dinner, guests can get a cocktail at Vue, a cozy library bar with live piano music and a roaring fireplace as well as a terrace (equipped with heat lamps for cool nights in the desert).
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fortune--2020-03-07--Trump names Rep. Mark Meadows his new chief of staff, replacing Mick Mulvaney

President Donald Trump on Friday named Rep. Mark Meadows as his new chief of staff, replacing Mick Mulvaney, who been acting in the role for more than a year.
Trump announced the staff reshuffle in Friday night tweets, saying Mulvaney would become the U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland.
The long-rumored move makes Meadows, who announced he was not seeking reelection for his House seat from North Carolina, effectively Trump’s fourth chief of staff since taking office in 2017.
The decision comes as the Trump administration has faced criticism for its handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Mulvaney had been leading the interagency response to the virus until Trump designated Vice President Mike Pence to lead the whole-of-government effort more than a week ago.
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—Are we undergoing an industrial revolution or a phase change?
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—Meet Trump’s Giuliani-approved power broker—and Melania’s new senior adviser
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