| We’re covering the latest in the coronavirus outbreak, Elizabeth Warren’s withdrawal from the presidential race, and a federal judge’s rebuke of Attorney General William Barr. | |  By Chris Stanford | | | In Seoul, South Korea, today. The country is second only to China in the number of cases of the coronavirus. Lee Jin-Man/Associated Press | | | As the global number of coronavirus cases neared 100,000, the director general of the World Health Organization urged international action to confront the outbreak, saying: “This is not a time for excuses. This is a time for pulling out all the stops.” | | | Some recent developments: | | | ■ Test results are expected today from about 100 people on a cruise ship that has been held off San Francisco, after two former passengers were found to be infected. | | | ■ The number of confirmed cases in New York has doubled to 22, and more than 2,700 people are isolated at home. | | | Related: “Don’t touch your face” has become a common piece of advice, but it’s not an easy habit to break. Keeping tissues handy and keeping your hands busy are among the tricks to help you stop. | | | “Just as the disease poses a particular threat to older patients, it could be especially dangerous for more mature economies,” writes Austan Goolsbee, an economics professor and a former adviser to President Barack Obama. | | | That’s because economies like the U.S. are dominated by face-to-face service industries, which are damaged when people stay home. | | | Related: Global markets fell today before what looked to be another tough opening for Wall Street. Stocks have had a tumultuous week as the outbreak tested investor confidence. Here are the latest updates. | | | Senator Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday. Before her exit, she accumulated the second-largest number of Democratic delegates of any woman to run for president, behind only Hillary Clinton. Ruth Fremson/The New York Times | | | The senator’s exit essentially winnows what had been a diverse Democratic field to two white men, and the debate over an enduring question — can a woman win the presidency? — remains unresolved, our politics reporter Lisa Lerer writes in a news analysis. | | | Go deeper: Documents uncovered by The Times reveal details about Mr. Sanders’s efforts to establish ties with the Soviet Union when he was the mayor of Burlington, Vt., in the 1980s. The documents also show how the Kremlin hoped to use the relationship to its advantage. In a statement, his campaign said Mr. Sanders was “proud” of his grass-roots diplomatic efforts. | | | Annie Flanagan for The New York Times | | | Green Bank, W.Va., population 143, is home to the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope. To protect the sensitive equipment from interference, Wi-Fi is banned, and cellphone signals are nonexistent. | | | The restrictions have created a unique kind of modern childhood. Above, Jenna Baxter, 13, recently moved to the area from Connecticut: “I’m happier because now I don’t have social media to give me high expectations of not only myself but everybody else around me,” she said. | | | PAID POST: A Message From XBrand | | Renewable Energy in Today's Age | | Look around you...All of the things that you love about this planet can be used to power it. the sun, rain, wind, tides and waves. We are creating renewable enery that benefits you and our planet, more efficiently and inexpensively. Recharge today with something different. | | | | Learn More | | | | Challenge to attorney general: A federal judge said Attorney General William Barr had put forward a “distorted” account of the findings of the report by the special counsel Robert Mueller. Judge Reggie Walton ordered the Justice Department to show him the portions of the report that were censored in the public version so that he could verify the justifications for those redactions. | | | New name for a rover: The next robotic explorer headed to Mars will be named Perseverance. NASA selected the name from more than 28,000 entries submitted by children; the winning entry was proposed by a seventh grader in Virginia. | | | Kasia Strek for The New York Times | | | Snapshot: Above, a Jewish cemetery in the village of Westhoffen, in the Alsace region of France. Such cemeteries have become easy targets for vandals in a region with an uneasy relationship to its wartime past and a tendency to vote far right. The local authorities have organized volunteers to patrol the plots. | | | News quiz: Did you follow the headlines this week? Test yourself. | | | Modern Love: In this week’s column, company policy forbade a woman who taught English from getting personal with her online students. Whoops. | | | Late-night comedy: Elizabeth Warren was “incredibly competent, pragmatic, intelligent and well-spoken — in other words, she never had a chance,” Seth Meyers said. | | | What we’re listening to: This episode of the “Reply All” podcast, about a man searching for a song that seemed to vanish from the world. “You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you will not be able to get the song out of your head,” says Tim Herrera, our Smarter Living editor. | | | Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich. | | | Listen: BTS’s “Map of the Soul: 7” demonstrates how the superstar K-pop group has grown into a musical monolith — and what it might have to leave behind. | | | Smarter Living: If you’re worried about the coronavirus while flying, there are steps you can take. | | | Max Fisher, who writes our Interpreter newsletter, got pneumonia in December — an illness that bears many similarities to the disease caused by the new coronavirus. In his latest column, he used the experience to reflect on how a wider outbreak could affect society. | | | “It was super unpleasant,” he said. “I was confined to my couch for weeks and, for some stretches, had trouble breathing. But I was basically fine.” | | | While he was ill, relatives and friends helped him with personal obligations, and Times colleagues did the same for his work. He could see doctors and get prescriptions. All told, he said, the net toll of his illness was negligible. | | | “That toll was negligible because I’m just one person,” he said. “Society was prepared to absorb the consequences of my illness.” | | | “If a big fraction of my neighborhood in West London had all fallen sick at once, it would’ve been a different story,” he added. His local health office might not have been able to see him as quickly. Friends and relatives might have had other sick people to help, or been sick themselves. | | | “The risk from the virus’s impact on you individually is probably low,” he concluded. But its impact on society — particularly on low-wage workers who can’t afford child care or time off — could be profound. | | | That’s it for this briefing. See you next time. | | Thank you
Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com. | | | Were you sent this briefing by a friend? Sign up here to get the Morning Briefing. | | |
