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Tuesday’s primaries reveal it’s not just black voters whom Sanders is struggling with

TPF — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 20:35:02 +0000

In 2016, Sanders won white voters over Clinton by nine percentage points in Missouri and 14 points in Michigan. This year, Biden won whites by 23 points over Sanders in Missouri and by 10 points in Michigan, according to preliminary exit poll data. Sanders underperformed his 2016 showing among both white college graduates and those without four-year college degrees after winning both groups four years ago. Biden won whites without college degrees by a 18-point margin in Missouri and by seven points in Michigan; he won white college grads by 28 points in Missouri and 14 points in Michigan.

Tuesday’s primaries reveal it’s not just black voters whom Sanders is struggling with

Analyst: Tough times ahead for autos due to virus

TPF — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 20:33:14 +0000

An automotive analyst says the car industry will potentially suffer as the world economy is negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic (March 12)

Analyst: Tough times ahead for autos due to virus

Airline crisis worsens as U.S. puts Europeans in coronavirus quarantine

TPF — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 20:31:10 +0000

PARIS/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Airlines bore the brunt of a dramatic expansion of the coronavirus crisis on Thursday, as U.S. travel curbs on much of continental Europe deepened the sector’s misery and piled more pressure on governments to offer emergency support.

The 30-day restrictions will badly disrupt transatlantic traffic key to the earnings of major European carriers and their U.S. airline partners, analysts warned, as the move hit travel stocks already battered by the virus outbreak.

Those routes account for 20-30% of large European operators’ revenue and a majority of profit, Credit Suisse analyst Neil Glynn warned, “highlighting the damage to revenue lines for the coming weeks and potentially well into the summer.”

Glynn added: “A ban on travel to the U.S. will likely mean heavier cuts” than the drastic capacity reductions already ordered as airlines scrapped flights – first to China and then to other destinations including Italy as the virus spread.

Shares in European and U.S. airlines slumped in turn to new lows, with Delta (DAL.N) and United Airlines (UAL.O) down more than 13% and American Airlines (AAL.O) 7.2% lower.

Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) was down 9.1% at 1506 GMT, with British Airways parent IAG (ICAG.L) down 10.7% and Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) 11.5% lower. Troubled Norwegian Air (NWC.OL) and U.S.-dependent Icelandair (ICEAIR.IC) both plunged more than 20%.

The U.S. curbs on travel from the 26-country Schengen Area – which excludes Britain and Ireland – are similar to restrictions on China that took effect on Feb. 1 and do not apply to U.S. residents or their immediate family.

“The ban effectively stops travel from the Schengen Area to the USA,” said Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska – predicting a “more substantial” earnings impact than European carriers had suffered from the earlier China flight suspensions.

U.S. airlines had already cut flight schedules to Italy and will take another hit from lower demand for flights from major destinations such as France and Germany.

Among them, American Airlines could be relatively spared by its alliance with British Airways (BA) and higher share of UK traffic, while Air France-KLM partner Delta and Lufthansa ally United Airlines are likely to suffer more, analysts say.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence defended the travel curbs on Thursday, after the European Union complained they had been imposed “unilaterally and without consultation”.

The virus has taken root in the United States after spreading from China to Italy, South Korea, Iran and elsewhere.

‘TOTAL MELTDOWN’

Airlines had already been scrambling to respond to a global travel slump that looks increasingly likely to require government aid to avoid widespread insolvencies. The EU will publish new state-aid guidelines on Friday.

Germany may extend loans and other support to airlines, a government official said on Thursday. The French government also stands ready to help Air France-KLM, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.

“There is a need for measures from many governments,” said Norwegian pilots’ union president Yngve Carlsen. “This could lead to a total meltdown.”

Scandinavian carrier SAS (SAS.ST) is in talks with the Swedish and Danish governments about potential support measures, a company spokeswoman said.

EU airlines have seized on the crisis to push back on green taxes designed to help the bloc meet climate goals – including proposals to end current tax exemptions on jet fuel.

“New fiscal burdens should be postponed until the industry is back on a sound operational and financial footing,” lobby group Airlines for Europe said.

CRITICAL TIME

The latest travel clampdown could make coronavirus worse than previous aviation crises including the 9/11 attacks of 2001, UK-based consultant John Strickland said.

“It’s coming at the end of the northern hemisphere winter, which is a weak period for airline finances (when) they should be sowing seeds of a strong summer season by getting the bookings in,” he said.

Air France-KLM and Lufthansa said they were still studying the implications of the U.S. move for flight schedules. IAG is potentially less impacted thanks to BA’s Heathrow base.

There were panicky European airport scenes as travelers scrambled to fly to the United States before the restrictions take effect late on March 13.

The fallout is also spreading fast from travel and tourism to aerospace and other industries.

Safran (SAF.PA), the world’s third-biggest aerospace group, sees a growing threat to aircraft and engine order books, Chief Executive Philippe Petitcolin said on Thursday, adding more cost cuts were now being drawn up.

ADP (ADP.PA) declined to comment on a report it was preparing to close Terminal 3 at Roissy Charles de Gaulle, the French capital’s main aviation hub. Norway may close several airports, operator Avinor said.

Italy announced the partial closure of Rome’s main airports to commercial aviation in response to its own travel lockdown. Near-empty airports in Milan and elsewhere may follow, a government source told Reuters.

(GRAPHIC: European airlines crater – here)

The travel curbs will also decimate European tourists’ spending in the United States. In March 2019, European visitors accounted for 29% of arrivals and $3.4 billion in spending, the U.S. Travel Association said.

FILE PHOTO: Airplanes of German airline Lufthansa and U.S. carrier United Airlines land and take off at Frankfurt Airport, Germany March 2, 2020. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

“Temporarily shutting off travel from Europe is going to exacerbate the already-heavy impact of coronavirus on the travel industry and the 15.7 million Americans whose jobs depend on travel,” U.S. Travel Association President Roger Dow said.

Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, Laurence Frost in Paris and David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Sarah Young in London, Jamie Freed in Sydney, Toby Sterling in Amsterdam, Victoria Klesty in Oslo, Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm, Sayantani Ghosh in Singapore, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell, Tim Hepher and Mark Potter

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Airline crisis worsens as U.S. puts Europeans in coronavirus quarantine

New research provides important clues for the evolution of human behavior — ScienceDaily

TPF — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 20:27:54 +0000

Scientists have discovered that gorillas really are territorial — and their behaviour is very similar to our own.

Published in the journal Scientific Reports, the research shows for the first time that groups of gorillas recognise “ownership” of specific regions. They are also more likely to avoid contact with other groups the closer they are to the centre of their neighbours’ home range, for fear of conflict.

The study, which was carried out by academics from the University of Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), the University of Barcelona, SPAC Scientific Field Station Network, and the University of Vienna, involved monitoring the movements of groups of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla).

Western lowland gorillas are difficult to track on foot because they live in dense forests. Instead, the scientists followed eight groups of gorillas using a network of cameras placed at 36 feeding “hotspots” across a 60km2 area of the Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo.

It was previously thought that gorillas were non-territorial, due to the overlap of home ranges and their tolerance of other groups. This is markedly different to chimpanzees, which display extreme territorial-based violence.

However, this new research discovered that gorillas display more nuanced behaviours, and their movements are strongly influenced by the location of their neighbours — they are less likely to feed at a site visited by another group that day — and the distance from the centre of their neighbours’ home range.

Lead author Dr Robin Morrison, who carried out the study during her PhD at the University of Cambridge, said: “Our findings indicate that there is an understanding among gorillas of ‘ownership’ of areas and the location of neighbouring groups restricts their movement.

“Gorillas don’t impose hard boundaries like chimpanzees. Instead, gorilla groups may have regions of priority or even exclusive use close to the centre of their home range, which could feasibly be defended by physical aggression.

“At the same time groups can overlap and even peacefully co-exist in other regions of their ranges. The flexible system of defending and sharing space implies the presence of a complex social structure in gorillas.”

Co-author Dr Jacob Dunn, Reader in Evolutionary Biology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: “This new research changes what we know about how groups of gorillas interact and has implications for what we understand about human evolution.

“Almost all comparative research into human evolution compares us to chimpanzees, with the extreme territorial violence observed in chimpanzees used as evidence that their behaviour provides an evolutionary basis for warfare among humans.

“Our research broadens this out and shows instead just how closely we compare to our next nearest relatives. Gorillas’ core areas of dominance and large zones of mutual tolerance could help with our understanding of the social evolution of early human populations, showing both the capacity for violence in defending a specific territory and the between-group affiliations necessary for wider social cooperation.”

Story Source:

Materials provided by Anglia Ruskin University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

New research provides important clues for the evolution of human behavior — ScienceDaily

Coronavirus expert says US is 'failing' on testing

TPF — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 20:26:44 +0000

Director of the National Institute of Health Dr. Anthony Fauci tells Congress that the US is “failing” when it comes to coronavirus testing.

Coronavirus expert says US is 'failing' on testing

Where Civil War Soldiers Will March Again

TPF — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 20:25:40 +0000

This article is part of our latest special report on Museums, which focuses on the intersection of art and politics.

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Standing on the remnants of earthworks erected by Confederate forces in the waning months of the Civil War, the historian Chris Fonvielle pointed to a sandy trace snaking through a stand of pine trees — the last remnant of the Federal Point Road that once ran about 20 miles south, toward the mouth of the Cape Fear River.

Here on the afternoon of Feb. 20, 1865, the flags, muskets and blue forage caps of the Fifth Regiment of the United States Colored Troops would have appeared in the distance.

“They came marching up this road,” Mr. Fonvielle said.

And they will again — albeit in a representational work of art.

In November, a bronze sculpture honoring the African-American soldiers who would have led the Union advance in what would become known as the Battle of Forks Road, will be unveiled on this spot, which is on the grounds of the Cameron Art Museum.

Just 250 feet from the entrance to the museum — with its collection of 3,000 works by the likes of Joan Miró, Robert Rauschenberg and Marc Chagall — the sculpture will stand, along with interpretive signs explaining the role of the black troops here.

Forks Road, although a small battle by Civil War standards, was a decisive engagement in the campaign to take Wilmington: the South’s last major open port and a critical lifeline for supplies to Robert E. Lee’s army in Virginia. Mr. Fonvielle — professor emeritus of history at University of North Carolina-Wilmington and author of an upcoming book on the battle, “Glory at Wilmington: The Battle of Forks Road” — points out that less than two months after this battle and the city’s subsequent capitulation, Lee was forced to surrender at Appomattox.

More than 50 percent of all Union casualties in the Wilmington campaign were men of the United States Colored Troops, or U.S.C.T. — most of them at the Battle of Forks Road. The Confederates, who had been entrenched, repulsed the first assault here but withdrew after another day of fighting.

The memorial, which is being created by Stephen Hayes, a sculptor based in Durham, N.C., will celebrate the black soldiers who carried out the initial attack and suffered the brunt of the casualties. They were among the roughly 179,000 African-Americans who served in the United States Colored Troops, a branch of the federal army created in 1863 after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Some of those involved in the Wilmington campaign were escaped slaves from the Cape Fear region who had joined the Union effort.

It is quite a story and one that Mr. Fonvielle admits “is not what you’d expect to see at an art museum.”

And yet, the museum — which has been in its present location since 2002 — is now as committed to the Civil War as it is to exhibiting Modernist prints and paintings.

“I feel like it’s a moral obligation for us to recognize what happened here,” said Heather Wilson, the museum’s deputy director.

Coming at a time when Confederate memorials are being removed throughout the South, however, there are those who might not be happy seeing one erected to the memory of Union soldiers — particularly African-American soldiers. The Cameron is expecting that there will be attempts to vandalize the sculpture.

“It would be naïve not to,” said Anne Brennan, the museum’s executive director.

Of course, Wilmington has changed in 150 years. Like many cities in North Carolina, it has experienced enormous growth in recent decades. (The city limits themselves have expanded to include the area now occupied by the museum. At the time of the battle, it was an open pine barren, three miles outside Wilmington proper.)

Moreover, many of the area’s new residents are from some of the same Northern states that were the bitter enemies of those fighting the U.S.C.T. troops here in 1865.

But old attitudes die hard. When Ms. Wilson approached the local chapter of a Confederate heritage organization to tell them about the project, she said she received a cool reception. “I was asked why we would be erecting a monument to Union soldiers here,” she said.

Wilbur Jones, 85, a native of Wilmington, has an answer for that. Mr. Jones is a local historian who has written on the city’s role as an industrial powerhouse during World War II (when Wilmington’s shipyards churned out 243 vessels in four and a half years).

He is proud of his hometown and his Southern heritage, but he fully supports the Cameron’s decision to honor the African-American men who fought here, for the “other” side.

“I think it’s a marvelous idea,” Mr. Jones said. “Let’s recognize all the participants.”

Recognition has also come in the form of a $50,000 grant. The Cameron was one of 10 sites around the state to have been awarded an Inclusive Public Art Grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem. The U.S.C.T. memorial sculpture “fits squarely with the spirit of what our grant is all about,” said Joy Vermillion Heinsohn, the foundation’s assistant director. “It’s a very compelling story they want to tell.”

Ms. Heinsohn acknowledges that the sculpture could be a hot-button issue. “Our hope is that the conversations that may be sparked by these pieces of art can lead to a deeper understanding and a more complete acknowledgment of North Carolina’s history,” she said, adding that “we can’t control how the conversations may go.”

The completed bronze sculpture will have nine life-size soldiers marching with muskets, a flag bearer and a drummer boy. For the faces of the soldiers, Mr. Hayes used the faces of local U.S.C.T. Civil War re-enactors, and some descendants of actual participants in the battle. The casting process, in which the models’ faces were wrapped in wet plaster strips, took place over the course of a day at the museum in October.

“For me, it’s a big deal,” said James White, a resident of nearby Southport, N.C., who is descended from a black Civil War veteran and has been a U.S.C.T. re-enactor for eight years. “They could have used anybody’s face, but they asked me.”

As for the issue of Confederate statues, Mr. Hayes — a visiting instructor in studio art at Duke University — says he would welcome a memorial for the Rebel forces that opposed the black Union troops. “How would the two statues interact?” he said. “What would that conversation be like?”

Where Civil War Soldiers Will March Again

Brazil communications secretary, who met Trump, has coronavirus, government says

TPF — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 20:23:31 +0000

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s communications secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, has been diagnosed with coronavirus following a second confirmatory test, the presidency’s communications office said on Thursday.

Wajngarten accompanied Bolsonaro on a recent trip to the U.S. and posted a photograph on Instagram standing next to Donald Trump. In the statement, Brazil said it had already notified U.S. authorities of the positive test.

Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Writing by Gabriela Mello; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Brazil communications secretary, who met Trump, has coronavirus, government says

Hopes of bipartisan deal rise as White House, Democrats negotiate coronavirus relief

TPF — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 20:22:52 +0000

Pelosi vowed Thursday not to recess the House until action was taken to address the upheaval, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced he would cancel next week’s recess to advance “bipartisan legislation to continue combating the coronavirus and keep our economy strong.”

“I think it would be wise to have folks here,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who is up for reelection in November. “This is such a serious issue. We need to be continually monitoring this as a group, not having us all out to the four winds.”

The behind-the-scenes negotiations between Democrats and the White House stood in contrast to the partisan response that greeted a package of economic measures that House Democrats introduced late Wednesday.

The House bill includes a $2 billion boost to state unemployment insurance programs, more than $1 billion in nutritional aid, a new paid-leave benefit for employees affected by the outbreak and an increase in federal Medicaid spending, as well as a guarantee of free coronavirus testing.

That package met a frosty reception early Thursday from the White House and congressional Republicans, who were wary of the bill’s costs and its potential burdens on employers.

McConnell called the bill “an ideological wish list that was not tailored closely to the circumstances.”

“Instead of focusing on immediate relief to affected individuals, families and businesses, the House Democrats chose to wander into various areas of policy that are barely related if at all to the issue before us,” he said on the Senate floor.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), meanwhile, told reporters the Democratic bill contains “glaring problems” that would be difficult to resolve before the week-long congressional recess begins later Thursday.

“We should not take a rush just because there is a bill,” he said. “We should make sure it works.”

President Trump is advancing costly ideas of his own — including a payroll-tax holiday that could drain tens of billions of dollars from Social Security. That idea has gotten limited traction among both parties on Capitol Hill.

But leaders of both parties sent signals there was a deal to be had. McCarthy, for instance, suggested a narrower package could win GOP support — leaving broader measures, such as the payroll-tax cut, for another day.

“I know at the end of the day we will find to do what is right,” he said. “I think we can get this done in 24 or 48 hours. I think it’s critical that we do.”

Pelosi said Mnuchin’s suggestions had been “all very reasonable” and, like McCarthy, held out the possibility of a broader economic relief bill later.

“We are . . . agreeing to most of it, because they are not that different. So we don’t need 48 hours,” she said. “We need to just make a decision to help families right now.”

Announcing their proposal late Wednesday, Pelosi and Democrats said the package was a definitive sign to the country that Congress would act to protect the average American from economic disruption caused by the pandemic — and called on Republicans to join in decisive action.

“We cannot slow the coronavirus outbreak when workers are stuck with the terrible choice between staying home to avoid spreading illness and the paycheck their family can’t afford to lose,” she said in a statement late Wednesday.

The White House, meanwhile, moved to assemble its own relief plan — one that included requests for congressional action as well as administrative actions that the Trump administration could take unilaterally.

White House officials were holding meetings Thursday to hammer out details of the administration’s economic response package as promised by Trump in his national address Wednesday night.

One senior White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss deliberations, said the paid-sick-leave plan would probably include compensation for those who are sick and for caregivers who attend to them. The administration was also considering extending compensation to workers who had been furloughed because of the coronavirus, but it had not yet decided to do so. The senior White House official also said there would be no cap on the duration of time the sick leave would be paid out.

But unresolved as of Thursday morning were critical questions about how the sweeping policy action would work in practice, including how eligibility would be determined, how the program would be paid for and which agency would be responsible for administering it, according to a second White House official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely.

The House paid-leave plan relies on a two-pronged approach, combining a temporary program that would be administered by the Social Security Administration that would provide up to $4,000 a month to affected households with a new permanent sick-leave mandate for U.S. employers. Only firms employing fewer than 50 people would be eligible for federal assistance in meeting that mandate.

Another controversial provision would increase the percentage of Medicaid spending borne by the federal government by 8 percentage points through Sept. 30, 2021. That would be a welcome relief to states, which could see an influx of Medicaid enrollees in a time of economic crisis. But the price tag for the federal government could be vast — stretching easily into the tens of billions of dollars.

Budgetary scorekeepers have yet to publicly release a cost estimate for the bill.

Besides the Medicaid provision, the Trump administration opposes provisions in the House legislation that provide free federal coverage for coronavirus testing for those without insurance, according to one person familiar with the administration’s deliberations.

Several Republicans, including McConnell, invoked the words of former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel — who helped assemble the 2009 stimulus bill and famously said, “Never let a crisis go to waste” — to dismiss the Democratic bill as a partisan proposal.

Asked as he left a coronavirus briefing in the Capitol if he feared Democrats were taking advantage of the crisis to advance unrelated policies, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) said, “Did the sun rise this morning?”

But other Republicans said that if Trump could reach a deal with Democrats, they would probably be on board.

“We all want to do what is right, but this is not a time to cut us out of this discussion,” said Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.). “We hear nothing but rumors and conjecture. We need to be at the table working together as Americans.”

Hopes of bipartisan deal rise as White House, Democrats negotiate coronavirus relief

Stock market plunge escalates, S&P 500 enters bear

TPF — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 20:21:27 +0000

The stock market rout intensified on Thursday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 tumbling into a bear market for the first time since the financial crisis as the coronavirus’s threat to the economy escalated.

The S&P 500 dropped 9.5%, the day after President Donald Trump banned travel from Europe to stem the economic fallout from the virus. A series of distressing headlines followed, including suspension of the NBA and NHL seasons. The MLB delayed opening day games. New York state, meanwhile, will ban events of 500 people or more and impose restrictions on other gathering venues.

The U.S. death toll was at 39 Thursday afternoon; there are more than 1,323 confirmed cases.

The S&P 500, which professional investors watch closely as a gauge for the health of the markets, fell into a bear market, or a drop of 20% from its peak, ending the longest bull market in Wall Street history. It took just 16 trading days for the broader stock market to drop from records into a bear market, the fastest decline ever and nearly twice as fast as the stock market crash in 1929, according to LPL Financial.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which fell into bear market territory Wednesday, plunged 2,200 points, or 10% — its biggest one-day percentage drop since the 1987 market crash.

Amid the market tumult, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced plans to inject $1.5 trillion into short-term funding markets in a move widely viewed as an attempt to help boost investor confidence.

Stocks briefly and sharply pared their losses. But they erased those gains as volatility continued.

“I feel like the last few weeks have taken years off my life and added years until retirement,” says Justin Wiggs, managing director of equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus. “The Fed’s move sparked a new wave of angst among investors that are worried that this is worse than initially thought.”

Market chaos:New York Federal Reserve injects $1.5 trillion into markets

The day’s declines came amid fear that efforts to contain the coronavirus are not enough to prevent widespread economic damages.

The plunge came after Trump announced in an address late Wednesday that all travel from Europe to the U.S. is banned for 30 days to limit the spread of the deadly virus.

Coronavirus:Dow drops into bear territory for the first time since the financial crisis

European travel ban:Economy, stock markets look even shakier after Trump announces European travel ban

Stocks are likely to remain volatile until there’s some combination of “evidence of successful virus containment, “clarity on the net economic impact” and “a concerted global policy response,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer for global wealth management at UBS.

“Currently, the virus remains uncontained in Europe and the US, and, although we have seen some stimulus measures from policymakers, it is unclear if it will prove comprehensive enough to mitigate the economic damage arising from coronavirus containment measures,” Haefele wrote in a note to investors.

Stocks are suffering badly across the board.

Investors are fearful that the economy will suffer from a global slowdown in travel, shopping and other consumer spending.

In the airline business, Delta, Southwest, United and American stocks were down double digits. In the automotive industry, General Motors, Ford, Fiat Chrysler and Tesla were down double digits. In the retail sector, Target, Macy’s and J.C. Penney were down double digits.

Trump’s announcement of travel restrictions for most European countries added to concerns over disruptions to travel and trade, while the World Health Organization’s warning over “alarming levels of inaction” by governments in corralling the virus further raised the alarm.

“Markets reacted negatively to what was perceived as a solemn but confused speech that placed blame on other nations, omitted to focus on immediate actions to relieve the most affected individuals, and lacked in concrete fiscal and health measures to address the economic and financial impact of the virus,” Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, said in a note.

European markets were down 10%, even after the European Central Bank announced more stimulus measures. World markets are enduring violent swings amid uncertainty about how badly the outbreak will hit the economy.

Some economists questioned whether interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve will be enough to ward off the economic impact from the virus that threatens to disrupt global supply chains.

The central bank made an emergency rate cut last week, the first outside of a regularly scheduled meeting since the global financial crisis. But it did little to calm jittery investors, who are debating whether those methods can still prod Americans that are fearful of contracting the virus to visit malls and restaurants.

“Investors want to see real evidence that these measures are working,” says Hollis Brewer, Founder & CEO at Hollistic Capital Management. “Based on standard economic theory, this should be helping, but it’s not. The fact that these standard measures don’t appear to be working is driving investor fear.”

Industry trade group Airlines for America warned Trump’s travel measure would hit the U.S. airline industry “extremely hard.” Airlines for America had previously forecast the virus could threaten to wipe out between $63 billion and $113 billion in global airline revenues this year.

“The ban will undoubtedly further impact demand for oil,” Jack Allardyce, oil and gas analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe, said in a note. “The most direct effect will be on jet fuel demand.”

A plunge in crude prices is hurting profits for energy companies.

Benchmark U.S. crude lost $1.64 to $31.35 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost $1.38 to $32.98 per barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude, the standard for international pricing, gave up $1.76 to $34.03 per barrel.

Treasury yields, one of the loudest alarm bells on Wall Street about the economic risks of the crisis, remain well below 1%, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury at 0.74% from 0.83% late Wednesday.

Global shares plunged Thursday after the World Health Organization declared a coronavirus pandemic and indexes sank on Wall Street.

In Europe, France’s CAC 40 dropped 9%, while Germany’s DAX lost 8.8%. Britain’s FTSE 100 plunged 8.4%. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dived 4.4% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 7.4%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 3.7%.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Stock market plunge escalates, S&P 500 enters bear

At 8 months, babies already know basic grammar — ScienceDaily

TPF — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 20:18:18 +0000

Even before uttering their first words, babies master the grammar basics of their mother tongue. Thus eight-month-old French infants can distinguish function words, or functors — e.g. articles (the), personal pronouns (she), or prepositions (on) — from content words — e.g. nouns (rainbow), verbs (to drive), or adjectives (green). Functors are frequently encountered because there are fewer of them, and they are placed before content words in languages such as English and French.

In contrast, there is a much greater diversity of content words, which are also longer. Experiments conducted by three researchers from the Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center (CNRS/Université de Paris) with 175 eight-month-old babies, using a simple artificial language, demonstrated that these infants understood functors were more frequent and came before content words in their mother tongue (French).

The young participants quickly adapted to new content words but showed little interest for newly introduced functors — as though already aware there were only a limited number of prepositions, determiners, and other words in this category. Babies’ preferences were evaluated by observing how long they looked at visual displays associated with the grammar words. This study appears in Current Biology, 12 March 2020.

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Materials provided by CNRS. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

Caterina Marino, Carline Bernard, Judit Gervain. Word Frequency Is a Cue to Lexical Category for 8-Month-Old Infants. Current Biology, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.070

Cite This Page:

CNRS. “At 8 months, babies already know basic grammar.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 March 2020. .

CNRS. (2020, March 12). At 8 months, babies already know basic grammar. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 12, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200312142254.htm

CNRS. “At 8 months, babies already know basic grammar.” ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200312142254.htm (accessed March 12, 2020).

At 8 months, babies already know basic grammar — ScienceDaily