#united airlines have been canceling hundreds of flights stranding thousands of people

[vantastic-villian]

I hate that humanity has made it possible to fly 400 tons of metal, carrying a few hundred people at 40,000 feet in the air only to make the rest of the process absolutely suck ass.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Migrants Being Held in Texas Enclosure as Surge Overwhelms El Paso (Reuters) Hundreds of migrants are being held in a chain-link enclosure in El Paso, Texas, as the number of families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in the city overwhelms U.S. Border Patrol facilities, the agency said on Thursday.

Honduran Police Arrest Journalist Convicted of Defamation (AP) Honduran police broke down the door of a radio station and arrested a journalist known as a strong critic of President Juan Orlando Hernandez who had holed up inside, carrying out an arrest order Thursday against the reporter for a defamation conviction.

U.S. Bringing ‘Maximum Pressure’ on Venezuela: Sanctions Official (Reuters) The United States was bringing “maximum pressure” on the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro, a top U.S. sanctions official said on Friday.

Brazil Ex-President Temer Charged in Graft Case Linked to Meatpacker JBS (Reuters) Former Brazilian President Michel Temer has been formally charged with corruption on allegations of using a middleman to procure a suitcase full of cash from the world’s largest meatpacker, JBS SA, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

‘Pandemonium’ at airports as Wow Air abruptly shuts down (The Week) Nothing ruins a trip quite like a canceled flight, but how about a canceled airline? Wow Air, the iconic purple-pink Icelandic carrier known for eye-poppingly cheap flights to and around Europe, folded on Thursday, leaving ticket-holding customers stranded at their gates without refunds or, well, flights.

UK’s Brexit options include customs union, no deal and delay (AP) Britain’s Brexit logjam has become a pileup. Lawmakers have voted, and the results are a mess. They don’t want Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU divorce deal, don’t want to leave without a deal, and don’t want any of the other options on offer. The country faces a deadline of April 12 to present the European Union with a new plan or crash out of the bloc.

German Government Extends Ban on Arms Exports to Saudi (AP) The German government has extended a ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia by six months until the end of September, but is making a conditional exception for systems developed jointly with other countries.

Modi launches election campaign (Reuters) India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has officially launched his party’s general election campaign. “Our vision is of a new India that will be in tune with its glorious past,” Modi said to roars of approval at a rally in India’s most populous state. The general election, the world’s biggest democratic exercise with about 900 million eligible voters, will be held in phases beginning on April 11 and ending on May 19.

Bangladesh high-rise office building catches fire, 19 dead (AP) A fire struck a high-rise office building in Bangladesh’s capital on Thursday, killing 19 people and injuring about 70 others, officials said. It trapped many inside the building, with some shouting for help from windows on high floors or from the roof.

Huawei Defends Security Record as Annual Sales Top $100B (AP) Chinese tech giant Huawei’s deputy chairman defended its commitment to security Friday after a stinging British government report added to Western pressure on the company by accusing it of failing to repair dangerous flaws in its telecom technology.

South Korea’s Moon to Meet Trump Over Stalled North Korea Talks (Reuters) Senior South Korean officials, including President Moon Jae-in, are launching a series of meetings with U.S. counterparts, in a bid to jumpstart stalled denuclearization talks with North Korea and mend fraying ties in their alliance.

Silent Crowd Listens to Mosque Victims’ Names at New Zealand Memorial (Reuters) Thousands stood in silence in a Christchurch park on Friday as the names of 50 people shot dead in two mosques were read out at a national memorial service, with speakers calling for the legacy of the tragedy to be a kinder, more tolerant New Zealand.

Pope Seeks to Build on Muslim Outreach With Morocco Trip (AP) Pope Francis is forging ahead with promoting moderate Islam during a weekend trip to Morocco, seeking to build on warming ties with the Sunni world while also ministering to a tiny Catholic community and offering solidarity with migrants.

Arabs Seek Unity on Golan, but Summit Likely to Expose Rifts (AP) Arab leaders meeting in Tunisia on Sunday hope to project unified opposition to the Trump administration’s acceptance of Israeli control over the Golan Heights and Jerusalem, but as with past Arab League summits, the gathering is likely to expose their own bitter rivalries.

Saudis contemplate nuclear power (Reuters) U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has approved six secret authorizations by companies to sell nuclear power technology and assistance to Saudi Arabia, according to a copy of a document seen by Reuters. Perry’s approvals, known as Part 810 authorizations, allow companies to do preliminary work on nuclear power ahead of any deal but not ship equipment that would go into a plant, a source with knowledge of the agreements said on condition of anonymity.

Mozambique Cholera Cases Jump to 139 a Day After Outbreak (AP) The number of cholera cases among survivors of a devastating cyclone in central Mozambique has jumped to 139, officials said, as nearly 1 million vaccine doses are rushed to the region.

[bigyack-com]

Cruise Giant Carnival Works to Manage Deepening Coronavirus Crisis

The arrival of the Westerdam cruise ship in Cambodia seemed like cause for celebration. After days of circling in the sea, hundreds of elated passengers disembarked in the Cambodian city of Sihanoukville on Feb. 14, amid assurances the ship was free of the coronavirus. President Trump broadcast the news on Twitter, thanking the Cambodian government for its hospitality and tagging Micky Arison, the chairman of the vast multinational cruise company, Carnival Corporation, that owns the Westerdam. But the joy was short-lived. Over the weekend, an American passenger who had been on the Westerdam tested positive for the virus, raising concerns that infected passengers were dispersing across Asia. Now the situation is fast becoming a crisis for Carnival. Thousands of miles away, another Carnival ship, the Diamond Princess, has been moored outside the Japanese port city of Yokohama, unable to let its passengers disembark after hundreds of coronavirus cases were reported on board. This week, American officials evacuated some passengers. “We have protocols, standards and practices for every possible issue you might imagine, including coronavirus,” said Roger Frizzell, a spokesman for Carnival. “But this virus is so new and unknown that everyone, including the medical profession, is learning on the job.” Carnival serves nearly 11.5 million travelers a year, or roughly 50 percent of the global cruise market. It runs some of the best-known cruise brands in the industry, including its flagship Carnival Cruise Line, the Princess Cruises brand and the Holland America Line, whose fleet includes the Westerdam. In the coming months, industry analysts say, the coronavirus crisis could take a financial toll on Carnival, potentially hurting its efforts to make inroads into China, a fast-growing market in the cruise industry. Updated Feb. 10, 2020 What is a Coronavirus? It is a novel virus named for the crown-like spikes that protrude from its surface. The coronavirus can infect both animals and people, and can cause a range of respiratory illnesses from the common cold to more dangerous conditions like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. How contagious is the virus? According to preliminary research, it seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS, and is possibly transmitted through the air. Scientists have estimated that each infected person could spread it to somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures. How worried should I be? While the virus is a serious public health concern, the risk to most people outside China remains very low, and seasonal flu is a more immediate threat. Who is working to contain the virus? World Health Organization officials have praised China’s aggressive response to the virus by closing transportation, schools and markets. This week, a team of experts from the W.H.O. arrived in Beijing to offer assistance. What if I’m traveling? The United States and Australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who recently traveled to China and several airlines have canceled flights. How do I keep myself and others safe? Washing your hands frequently is the most important thing you can do, along with staying at home when you’re sick. “That is a very negative initial impression for an awful lot of Chinese consumers,” said James Hardiman, a travel industry analyst at Wedbush Securities. Since the outbreak began in January, the coronavirus has disrupted virtually every major industry, from cruise lines to technology companies. Before the Westerdam docked in Cambodia last week, Carnival said it was expecting a “material impact” on its finances. It is not the first time the company has faced an international crisis. In 2012, one of its ships, the Costa Concordia, ran aground off the coast of Italy, killing 32 people. The following year, thousands of passengers and crew members were stranded aboard a Carnival ship that was called “the poop cruise” after it drifted for four days without air conditioning or working toilets. In 2016, Carnival’s Princess cruise line agreed to pay a $40 million penalty for illegally dumping oil-contaminated waste into the sea and trying to cover it up. In June, Carnival acknowledged violating probation terms from that case and was ordered to pay an additional $20 million penalty. And over the years, many cruise companies, including Carnival, have experienced outbreaks of the norovirus on board their ships. Given its size, experts say, Carnival regularly becomes a lightning rod for problems afflicting the industry. “It’s the biggest cruise company in the world by an order of magnitude,” Mr. Hardiman said. “If you’re going to have bad luck on a ship, it’s 50-50 at least that it’s going to be a Carnival ship.” The cruise brands owned by Carnival have their own leadership structures, but the parent company’s chief executive, Arnold Donald, has been heavily involved in the response to the coronavirus outbreak. In the last few days, he has visited the Princess headquarters in California and Holland America’s offices in Seattle to participate in crisis-response meetings where company officials have held conference calls with colleagues in Japan and Cambodia. Mr. Donald became the chief executive of Carnival in 2013, replacing Mr. Arison, who now serves as the chairman of the company’s board. Mr. Trump’s message tagging Mr. Arison on Friday was not the first time the two have interacted on Twitter. Over the years, Mr. Trump has also praised Mr. Arison’s management of the Miami Heat basketball team, which Mr. Arison took over in 1995. In 2012, for example, Mr. Trump saluted Mr. Arison after the Heat won the N.B.A. championship. “@MickyArison is a tremendous owner & has done wonders for Miami,” he wrote. The two have also spoken directly with each other on occasion, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Still, Mr. Arison has donated to both Democrats and Republicans, including giving $500,000 to a political action committee supporting Jeb Bush during the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2015. In recent days, Carnival has taken a series of steps to mitigate the business impact of the coronavirus crisis, redeploying ships that were scheduled to sail in Asia to other parts of the world. Princess Cruises has canceled 17 trips and one of it ships, the Sapphire Princess, is redeploying from Shanghai to Australia. Another Carnival brand, Costa Cruises, has canceled 12 voyages in China. “This is a big issue that’s being handled at the corporate level at Carnival,” said Ross Klein, a sociologist who studies the cruise industry. “They won’t want to redeploy a Princess ship on the same itinerary at the same time as a Holland America ship or another Carnival ship.” The problems for the cruise operator began early this month, when the Diamond Princess was stranded in waters off the coast of Japan with hundreds of passengers reported to have the virus. At the same time, the Westerdam struggled to find a country willing to let its passengers disembark. Ports in Taiwan, the Philippines and Thailand denied the ship entry over concerns about the coronavirus. Throughout the crises, Carnival Corporation has received help from the State Department and other American officials. On Monday, the U.S. government evacuated hundreds of passengers from the Diamond Princess, putting them on charter flights to the United States. After the Westerdam docked in Sihanoukville, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, W. Patrick Murphy, brought his own family to greet the passengers streaming off the ship. But then an American who had been on the Westerdam tested positive for the coronavirus after traveling to Malaysia. Now many Westerdam passengers who had remained in Cambodia are stuck there as local health officials look to prevent anyone else infected with the virus from leaving. Ninety-two American citizens remained on board the Westerdam, while another 260 were in hotels in the Cambodian capital, said William Walters, the managing director of operational medicine at the State Department. About 300 American citizens have left the country after being tested for the coronavirus by Cambodian health officials. “Everyone is very concerned about the safety of all of the American citizens and all of the other passengers on the Westerdam,” Mr. Walters said. “Every step is being taken on an international basis to collaborate on contact tracing and in staying in very close contact with the passengers of that ship.” Tariro Mzezewa and Edward Wong contributed reporting. Susan Beachy and Kitty Bennett contributed research. Read the full article

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A United Airlines plane is viewed through a plane window January 17, 2014 at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, Illinois.United Airlines Wants an App to Personalize Your Experience — Without… PHOTO: Delta Bombardier C-Series aircraft. (photo courtesy of Delta Air Lines)Delta’s Flight Experience for Children with Disabilities is Awesome a group of people around each other: PSA Airlines, a regional carrier for American, canceled 275 of its scheduled flights on Thursday and 400 more on Friday. © Provided by Fox News PSA Airlines, a regional carrier for American, canceled 275 of its scheduled flights on Thursday and 400 more on Friday. Thousands of passengers scheduled to fly out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport, in North Carolina, on an American Airlines-operated carrier became stranded on Thursday night after the airline suddenly canceled all remaining flights. PSA Airlines, a regional carrier for American Airlines, reportedly experienced a “technical issue” that led to the cancellation of 275 flights on Thursday and 400 on Friday, a representative for the airline confirmed to Fox News. “Our team, in coordination with PSA, is working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” said American in a statement. “PSA plans to resume their operations at 12 p.m. ET on June 15.” GALLERY: RANKED: 13 of the worst airlines in the world in 2018 (Provided by Business Insider) a airplane that is sitting on a runway at an airport: Flight compensation company Airhelp has produced a ranking of 72 of the world's airlines, revealing the best and worst - and some are certainly surprising. The company's sixth annual AirHelp Score rates airlines based on quality of service, on-time performance, and claim processing in order to produce an overall score.A spokesperson for AirHelp told Business Insider that in order to ensure consistency, where data wasn't available across each of these metrics, an airline was excluded from the survey, which resulted in a ranking of 72 international carriers in total. Of the 13 lowest scoring carriers on AirHelp's ranking, six were European.Scroll on for the 13 worst airlines of AirHelp's list, ranked in descending order by their overall score. RANKED: 13 of the worst airlines in the world in 2018 In the meantime, the carrier claims it is working to accommodate impacted travelers on “mainline flights or other regional carriers.” “We never want to disrupt our customers’ travel plans, and we are sorry for the trouble this caused. Customer relations will be reaching out to all of those who have been impacted by this issue. Customers are encouraged to check their flight status on the American Airlines app or at aa.com before heading to the airport,” the airline added. PSA’s cancellations reportedly impacted other area airports as well, though Charlotte Douglas International appeared to be most affected. As a result, thousands of passengers were left to wait overnight for the airline to resume operations, or to be re-accommodated on another flight, the Charlotte Observer reported. WSOC further reported that a school group from Ohio was among travelers forced to sleep on the ground after waiting around for six hours. Other fliers were outraged over the cancellations, with some taking to Twitter to vent their frustrations. American Airlines and Charlotte Douglas International Airport both tweeted that operations would be resuming at noon, though both urged fliers to check the status of their American Airlines flights before leaving for the airport. https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/american-airlines-carrier-cancels-hundreds-of-flights-over-technical-issue-leaves-thousands-stranded/ar-AAyH9y8

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[danwetzelsports]

As this blog has long noted I travel a lot for work. I’ve flown over one million miles on Delta/Northwest and who knows how many more on airlines ranging from Southwest to an operation known as Aeroflot.

  I’ve taken domestic flights inside some edge-of-proper-society-places such as China, Russia, South Africa, Brazil and Louisiana. Other than the obvious similarities between our looks, I am not George Clooney from that movie, but I’ve seen a thing or two.

  And here is what I know: Not to defend United for dragging that guy off the plane, but generally the biggest problem when it comes to flying is not the airlines but my fellow passengers.

  I don’t know all the details and don’t care for all the details but clearly United messed up. If you need seats on a full flight you have to keep raising your bump compensation until someone takes it. That’s the way to deal with this.

  But in defense of airlines, we can walk back the rest.

  Just briefly: overbooking isn’t a bad thing. It’s a good thing. Good for the airlines who can maximize profits by accounting for the number of people who miss flights, fly stand by earlier or later or cancel at the last moment. And good for passengers because that allows flight prices to remain lower than they otherwise would and gets as many people on a plane (and thus across a day) as possible. Also, you can score some sweet credits if you volunteer.

  Airlines are terrible at lots of things. Believe me. I’ve been taken off flights. I’ve been put on flights to unnecessary connecting airports. I’ve been stranded overnight. I’ve had long set plans ruined. It’s brutal.

  Ninety-plus percent of the time however I’ve climbed in a tin can in one city/country and landed on time or earlier in another. It’s amazing. Lewis And Clark was two hundred years ago.

  The United thing was extreme. Poor work by the airline, but when three cops come and tell you to move out of your seat, you should really move out of your seat. It’s not going to end well and an airline seat is hardly the hill you want to get roughed up on. Go protest something important.

  On Wednesday April 5, Delta was dealing with heavy storms and everything was a mess in Augusta, Ga. The little airport was packed with beaten-down travelers. Luckily they called my flight we all boarded the plane. Then we sat on the tarmac for an hour before being told told we all needed to get off.

  The entire plane – every passenger – peacefully exited only to have Delta give our plane to another flight. We had to watched a couple hundred other people take our seat. They soon departed for Atlanta instead of us. Our flight never left. Cancelled for good.

  It sucked but no police were needed. Everyone listened to the flight attendant.

  I appreciated that because it’s usually an idiot passenger causing all the problems, not the stressed-out, under-paid, no-good-option flight attendant or gate agent.

  Here are my five worst people on a plane (in no particular order and I’m not even getting to the obvious ones such as belligerent drunks or barking dogs – no dogs should be allowed in the damn main cabin, by the way).

  1. Starbucks Lady

  It’s a 6:30 a.m. cross-country flight and you felt the need to get a Venti double Frappuccino or whatever that creation is? Not only are you going to spend the first hour of the flight sucking loudly through a straw, but that creation has enough caffeine and sugar to drop a horse. Look lady, no one is asking you to fly the plane. Exactly how alert do you need to be?

  You want to know how to make air travel better? Go to sleep. Flight goes faster, you don’t need to be entertained, you can ignore the other passengers and you catch up on some rest (fitful, but whatever). Don’t tell me you can’t sleep on planes between a gargle of Starbucks. You have to have a plan – turn off electronics, read a book, avoid stimulants. It isn’t hard. I feel for like 6-foot-10 guys, but you aren’t that.

  Don’t book a window seat, drink a massive coffee and then wonder why you are as fidgety as a kindergartener, unable to sleep and have to get up three times to go to the bathroom – thus bothering the rest of us.

  2. Big bag guy

  It ain’t going to fit, buddy. Maybe it’s compensating for other parts of their life. Maybe they just really think they are going to get over on the airline for that $25 baggage fee. Whatever it is, that massive roller isn’t getting into the tiny overheard compartment.

  These guys are the worst. They push and slam and bitch and moan. The people already seated below them are panicked and jostled. Some properly sized bag is inevitably getting crushed up there.

  The guy gets angrier and angrier as he tries to defy the laws of physical space. Soon he’s regaling everyone about that time the airline lost his luggage in Albuquerque – cry me a river, we’re not on your side.

  Then the poor flight attendant has to come by and tell him he needs to check it (for free) and he gets mad at them. Everyone’s stress goes up. Look, pay the fee or pack less. It’s simple. How much crap you need for this weekend in Erie?

  The baggage fee thing is horrible but they have to do it because all you fools will only pay for the cheapest flight that comes up on Expedia. Then you complain when the flight isn’t luxurious like it supposedly used to in the Mad Men days or something. It’s like someone buying a Chevy Spark and then bitching it isn’t as roomy as a Cadillac Escalade.

  3. Idiot/Patriot in the TSA line

  You know these people are there to stop us from getting blown up, right? Imperfect system but it’s the best we’ve got.

  So, can you please pay attention? September 11 was over a decade and a half ago … the freakin’ laptop has to come out of the bag. Yes, a cell phone is a metal item. And actually I am not surprised that your oversized belt buckle caused the x-ray to ping. It’s not shocking at all.

  This isn’t that hard. Follow the stupid rules. You’re slowing up the line because you are a clown.

  The only people worse are the ones who believe the TSA is infringing on their Constitutional rights with that there new-fangled body scanner or a pat down or merely existing. What, you think I’m a terrorist? Look, if you’re that into your privacy, then cool. Just find a better way to get the woods of Idaho.

Twitter follower @FakeKevinKugler added a subset to this: the person who was sent to TSA PreCheck but decides to clog everything up by stripping down anyway. You undeservedly reached the promised land and this is how you act? Pay attention.

  4. Burrito Bowl Dude

  Tight connections and long trips can mean there is limited time to get a meal at the airport. And we know you aren’t getting anything substantive in coach. So people bring food on the plane.

  Here’s a tip. Maybe on those days, you just have a protein bar. Or eat right away as you wait for everyone else to board. Not these people. They have to bring an elaborate, often sloppy meal, let it sit in a bag for an hour stinking up the place and then pull it out and try to spread out.

  There’s usually some assembly required, some salsa to pour over, some Sriracha or salad dressing. Then a knife and fork come out. You need the dexterity of Houdini to eat this thing in such a small space so rice or lettuce is inevitably flying everywhere and chicken is spilling and it’s a massive mess.

  You’re bothering me now. I don’t care if it’s good.

  5. Drink Cart Enthusiast

  They need to get rid of the drink cart on all flights under like two hours. It’s a rolling debacle. If you are so desperate for hydration or a tiny snack then buy your own.

  Yet they pull that thing out and people act like dogs that just saw their master walk in with the treat jar. You’ve never had a Diet Coke before? A package of five to six pretzels? I have had people wake me up to let me know the drink cart is here so I wouldn’t miss out.

  The drink cart blocks the aisle, slams knees and elbows and generally only gives the customers something else to bitch about because they didn’t get the whole can or found the peanuts an unsatisfying meal. You know, back in the day they used to carve up steak. Yeah, well, back in the day flights cost a thousand bucks and planes crashed all the time.

  I once had a 37-minute flight to Indianapolis delayed for 1:45 because “catering” needed to restock the drink cart. That means we could have flown to Indy, deplaned, slammed a beer at the airport bar, reboarded and returned.

BONUS: 5A Delusions of Grandeur Guy in 38B

 Many Twitter followers mentioned this one. You’re way in the back of the plane yet somehow believe once the plane arrives at its destination and pulls up to the skybridge that you’ll somehow beat the crowd and race off the plane first. I get the desperation to make a connecting flight, but it isn’t happening. Usain Bolt couldn’t charge the aisle fast enough to make it. Accept reality and wait your turn.

BONUS: 5B Boarding Group ZZ Gate Blockers

 More Twitter recommendations. They have a process to get on the plane. The Diamond Medallion and First Class people go first. Deal with it. If you find yourself in Group 7 or whatever, get the hell out of the way. Standing in front of the little ropes that lead to the ticket scanning machine when you aren’t getting on for the next 20 minutes assures only one thing, it will take even longer to get on.

This is a partial list. In summary, as much as I sometimes hate airline bureaucracy, I hate you people even more.

  And don’t lean your seat back.

[newstechreviews]

The COVID-19 pandemic has had unprecedented effects on freedom of movement. Thousands, if not millions, of people worldwide now find themselves stuck indefinitely in locations they do not consider home. A good number of them are running low on critical medications, struggling financially, and many of those who should be able to work remotely are unable to do so due lack of equipment, timezone differences, or insufficient internet access.

According to the U.S. Department of State, roughly 50,000 Americans worldwide are currently seeking to return to the United States but cannot because of flight cancellations and border closures. The situation has strained U.S. repatriation protocols, but social media has increasingly served as a means by which these stranded citizens can form communities, answer one another’s questions, collectively request government assistance, and share financial, logistical, and emotional support while they wait. Having been personally involved these past three weeks in efforts to repatriate 5,000 Americans from Peru, I can attest to the invaluable role of citizen coordination across social media. Despite being a general social media skeptic, I can also say that such collective mobilization should be encouraged in order to bring people home sooner and more smoothly, and to provide support in the interim wait.

I got wrapped into the #stuckinperu odyssey trying to help my father and his partner find a way home. Early in the morning on Mar. 16, I started receiving frantic messages from them telling me that at midnight Peru would close its borders and begin a two-week lockdown. By the time they reached the airport in Cusco, Peru, it was already blockaded by the Peruvian military; all remaining commercial flights were either preemptively canceled by airlines or overbooked by the thousands already in the airport. My father and his partner were stuck until the airspace was reopened to commercial flights or until the U.S. government began repatriation flights.

I registered them in the State Department’s Smart Traveller Enrollment Program (STEP) and called everyone I knew who might be able to help, but I knew I had to do more, so I turned to social media. A quick Twitter search turned up a few others similarly stranded, so I contacted them and started making a spreadsheet registry of names and contact information. By nightfall that first day, I naively estimated there were a couple hundred Americans stuck in Peru.

By the night of Mar. 17, I no longer had to seek people out to add them to the spreadsheet. They were finding me across Facebook, Twitter, and even my email (I’m still not sure how some people got that) to ask for the link to the registry, which was growing so rapidly that I could not keep up. I added instructions at the top of the spreadsheet, so that anyone who saw it or joined it would know to register with STEP, and give their info to the State Department’s American Citizen Services (ACS) team and the Peruvian Tourism Bureau’s iPeru information service. I figured that way, if anyone wasn’t regularly checking the instructions on the embassy website, they would still be accounted for.

Within a few days, I met others who were equally as motivated to harness the group’s potential. Before I knew it, a group of seven strangers coalesced into admins. Together, we coordinated Twitter outreach (including formulating our signature #stuckinperu hashtag), moderated WhatsApp and Telegram chat rooms, created a Reddit page, managed a Facebook group of 5,000+ members, and translated the Peruvian president’s daily lockdown speeches. Ultimately, the seven of us worked to create a central hub of reliable and accurate information to counter wild rumors and the underlying current of panic that reared its head when there were developments like a two-week extension of the lockdown or the delay of repatriation flights. Later, us admins even began helping to coordinate local travel logistics to make sure no one was left behind when the embassy sent buses to smaller regional cities.

For all that the admins did, the group members were equally, if not more, instrumental. When one person’s child was having seizures and couldn’t reach the embassy, a medical professional in the group was able to advise them and help them find analogous medication at a local pharmacy. Every day as the lockdown curfew approached, group members would warn one another in the WhatsApp and Telegram group chats. When the Peruvian Ministry of Health came to one American’s hotel to test for COVID-19, others in the group were able to offer live Spanish-language translation. As the weeks passed and people got desperate it was the kindness and optimism of others that kept them from losing hope.

None of this would have been possible without a colossal collective effort fueled by the interconnected social-media world. In my case, one daughter’s effort to get her dad home from Peru would probably have remained as such. Instead, social media made it that much easier for everyone to step up and pitch in. As a group, 5,000 people have helped themselves, their fellow citizens, and the U.S. government make the repatriation process smoother and swifter. As I watch Americans continue to be or get stranded in countries around the world, I wholeheartedly urge them to replicate and improve upon the #stuckinperu process. Beyond that, I’d like to see some creative solutions as to how we can include those who are less likely to use social media and how we can synergize these citizens’ initiatives more seamlessly with the efforts of the State Department and the U.S. government at large.

[mastcomm]

‘Now We Are Refugees’: A Family in Limbo Amid the Coronavirus Outbreak

These days, Chloe Chang, a Taiwanese woman stranded at the center of China’s coronavirus outbreak, says she wakes up every half-hour during the night. Sometimes she breaks down in tears.

She and her family are effectively trapped in her grandmother’s apartment building, where a man recently died from the virus. Workers in hazmat suits haunt the surrounding streets, and the neighborhood has a strong police presence. There are shortages of food and other essentials throughout Yichang, the Hubei Province city of more than four million where they have been in limbo for weeks.

“No household can go out at this time,” said Ms. Chang, a 26-year-old industrial artist. She said she feared that even a trip for groceries would increase her chances of contracting the virus.

“My child has eaten nine meals of plain noodles in the past three days,” she said of her 2-year-old son.

Ms. Chang and her family thought they were on the verge of escaping Yichang earlier this month, but the bus taking them to the airport was abruptly turned around.

All she can do now is wait — and hope.

“The government of Taiwan surely will come to our rescue,” her husband, Calvin Fan, who is from Beijing, has reassured her. But the chartered flight they have eagerly awaited to evacuate them has yet to materialize.

“Neither side wants us,” Ms. Chang said. “We’ve given up. Now we are refugees.”

Taiwan and China each say the other is the reason that she and other Taiwan citizens are unable to leave Hubei, a province under lockdown, where hundreds have died from the coronavirus and tens of thousands have been infected.

Ms. Chang and hundreds of other Taiwanese people in Hubei had hoped to go home via chartered jet. But last month, after the first plane carrying evacuees landed in Taiwan with an infected passenger onboard, a backlash ensued on the self-governing island, which China claims as part of its territory.

Some said Taiwan would not be able to handle an outbreak if more infected people arrived. Others said Taiwan should not help to evacuate mainland Chinese spouses of Taiwan residents.

Updated Feb. 10, 2020

What is a Coronavirus? It is a novel virus named for the crown-like spikes that protrude from its surface. The coronavirus can infect both animals and people, and can cause a range of respiratory illnesses from the common cold to more dangerous conditions like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

How contagious is the virus? According to preliminary research, it seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS, and is possibly transmitted through the air. Scientists have estimated that each infected person could spread it to somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures.

How worried should I be? While the virus is a serious public health concern, the risk to most people outside China remains very low, and seasonal flu is a more immediate threat.

Who is working to contain the virus? World Health Organization officials have praised China’s aggressive response to the virus by closing transportation, schools and markets. This week, a team of experts from the W.H.O. arrived in Beijing to offer assistance.

What if I’m traveling? The United States and Australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who recently traveled to China and several airlines have canceled flights.

How do I keep myself and others safe? Washing your hands frequently is the most important thing you can do, along with staying at home when you’re sick.

Decades of tensions between the two governments have come to a head over the outbreak, and people like Ms. Chang and her husband — both of who arrived in China last month to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday with family — have become pawns in a complicated and dangerous game of political chess.

Ms. Chang said she was told by Chinese officials that she could return to Taiwan on a second chartered flight, scheduled for Feb. 5. That day, her family boarded a bus bound for the airport in Wuhan, the provincial capital, where the coronavirus first emerged.

But just as the bus was about to leave, she said, a Chinese official hopped on and announced that the flight would not take off, saying: “Taiwan won’t let you go back.”

“I was really devastated, ” Ms. Chang said.

Taiwan had a different explanation. According to officials there, reports in Chinese state media that said a flight was scheduled to leave were untrue — the two sides had never discussed it.

Both governments, and their proxies, have continued to point fingers while Ms. Chang and her compatriots languish in Hubei.

“Taiwan authorities have repeatedly delayed the schedule,” Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, said last week. “Let the Taiwan compatriots return home as soon as possible, and stop making up all manner of excuses and rationale to block them from returning.”

Chen Shih-Chung, Taiwan’s minister of health and welfare, said on Friday that “China still uses all excuses to delay the evacuation, and refuses our plans and suggestions.”

Fears of the virus — and, perhaps, anti-China sentiment — have led Taiwan to escalate preventive measures in recent days.

On Wednesday, Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center announced that children who have mainland citizenship but a Taiwanese parent would not be allowed to enter Taiwan for the time being if they were arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau.

Confined to her grandmother’s home for so long, Ms. Chang has turned to her art as an outlet for the helplessness and resentment she feels.

In a satirical cartoon she recently sketched, she portrayed the administration of Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president, as deliberately delaying the evacuation.

She depicted the Taiwanese in Hubei as pawns.

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[biofunmy]

Coronavirus Live Updates: China Expands Travel Limits to Include 35 Million People

China restricts travel for 35 million people as the death toll rises.

The authorities on Friday greatly expanded a travel lockdown in central China to include 12 cities near the center of the outbreak, effectively penning in 35 million residents — nearly the population of Canada — in an effort to contain the deadly virus.

The new limits — abruptly decreed ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, China’s busiest travel season — were an extraordinary step that underlined the ruling Communist Party’s deepening fears about the outbreak of a little understood coronavirus.

Just one day after China restricted travel in and from Wuhan, a city of 11 million people and the capital of Hubei Province, and four nearby towns, the government announced plans to suspend public transportation services covering more than half the population of the province.

The rapidly expanding outbreak has overwhelmed the province’s hospitals and fueled fears of a global pandemic. Chinese health officials reported on Friday that there had been 26 deaths from and 830 cases of the coronavirus, a sharp increase.

On Thursday morning, the authorities imposed a travel lockdown in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. Airlines canceled hundreds of flights to Wuhan, leaving thousands of people stranded.

Later in the day, officials said they would also halt public transportation in the nearby cities of Huanggang, Ezhou, Zhijiang and Chibi, which are together home to more than nine million residents. And by Friday, restrictions had been announced in eight other cities.

China reports two deaths outside the epicenter.

The official death toll from the mysterious coronavirus increased by more than a half-dozen in 24 hours, while the number of confirmed cases jumped by more than 200.

The majority of the deaths have occurred in Hubei Province in central China, but two deaths have been confirmed outside the epicenter.

One patient died in Hebei Province, more than 600 miles north of Wuhan, the authorities announced on Thursday.

Another death was confirmed in Heilongjiang, a province near the border with Russia, more than 1,500 miles from Wuhan.

The disease has also been detected in Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States, in travelers who had visited China.

Residents, some displaying symptoms of the virus, are turned away from overrun hospitals.

As Wuhan residents waited in long lines at hospitals to be checked for possible coronavirus infections, some residents complained they were not able to get the treatment they needed.

Xiao Shibing, 51, has had a fever for 15 days and finds it difficult to breathe. When he went to a hospital, he was not given a test for the new coronavirus, said his daughter, Xiao Hongxia. He was told he had a viral chest infection and was sent home.

Mr. Xiao’s family has continued to seek treatment, visiting other hospitals but being turned away by at least three because of a shortage of beds, his wife, Feng Xiu, said. “It is like kicking a ball from here to there,” she said.

Cai Pei, 41, said his wife began coughing and developed a fever three days ago. He wrote on Weibo that hospitals would not admit her, and he had difficulty finding masks and cold medicine in local pharmacies.

They still do not know if she is infected with the new coronavirus or some more common ailment.

“Sometimes I can only hide and cry, but I couldn’t tell her and had to reassure her that it is not the virus,” Mr. Cai said by phone. “It is very scary. If it’s real, we have a child and elderly parents at home. What if we all get sick?”

Anxiety hangs over residents on Lunar New Year’s Eve.

The Lunar New Year is the most important holiday in the traditional Chinese calendar and celebrations start on the eve, which this year falls on Friday. Chinese are expected to travel home in time to help wrap dumplings or fry sticky rice cakes for all-important reunion dinners with their extended families. At midnight, families around the country would set off firecrackers and fireworks.

But these celebrations are set to be far more muted this year, particularly in Wuhan and other parts of Hubei Province where the authorities have imposed travel restrictions.

In Wuhan, people waited anxiously on Friday outside Hankou Hospital, one of the medical facilities designated to test for the coronavirus, as their relatives sought treatment inside.

Several of them said the Lunar New Year would pass this year without the usual celebrations or vacation travel. They and other residents said that the city is now also confronting food supply problems because so many shops and markets have closed, adding to the hardships caused by the city shutdown.

“We won’t have a new year celebration tonight. There’s no feeling for it, and no food,” Wu Qiang, a city resident in his 50s who was waiting outside the hospital entrance for word about his son, told a New York Times correspondent.

Mr. Wu said he understood the need to close off the city, but added that city authorities should ensure that enough shops and markets are selling fresh food. He said his son had been sneezing, setting off alarm at home.

“I think he’s O.K., but now even an ordinary sneeze makes you worry,” Mr. Wu said. “You start to think every cough or sneeze might be the virus.”

Chen Yanming, 47, who said her father may have contracted the coronavirus, said she was melancholic and anxious as the Lunar New Year came. She said her father had had a high fever for a few days and was being treated inside the hospital.

“Today should be the Chinese people’s happiest day,” she said, “but this sickness has destroyed that feeling.”

Hospitals in Wuhan make urgent appeals for supplies and help.

Hospitals and medical workers at the center of the outbreak made urgent appeals for supplies, as stocks of surgical masks and other equipment quickly flew off shelves.

“Shortage of medical supplies, request help!!!” the Wuhan Children’s Hospital said Thursday in a post on Weibo, a Chinese social network.

The hospital asked for donations of surgical masks, disposable garments, protective goggles and gloves.

Several other hospitals, including the Hubei General Hospital, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and the Central Hospital of Wuhan posted similar notices.

The central government on Thursday acknowledged the severe strain on resources, and the Ministry of Finance announced an urgent allocation of one billion renminbi, about $144 million, for epidemic prevention and control work.

State news media also carried reports of people volunteering to help ease the strain on health workers.

Young doctors at the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University volunteered to take on additional shifts or to take over from colleagues with children, the state broadcaster CCTV reported.

A team of 30 volunteers in Wuhan mobilized to drive doctors to and from hospitals, while others have offered to help the local Red Cross answer phone calls and publicize requests for help from hospitals, according to a report by the China Business Journal.

Masks may help, but experts say it’s more important to wash your hands.

Many infectious disease specialists say that cheap, disposable masks that cover the nose and mouth can help prevent the spread of infections if they are worn properly and used consistently.

But there isn’t much high-quality scientific evidence on their effectiveness outside health care settings, experts say.

Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, chairwoman of the public health committee for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said surgical masks are “the last line of defense.”

The masks will, however, block most large respiratory droplets from other people’s sneezes and coughs from entering your mouth and nose, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Coronaviruses are primarily spread through droplets, he said.

Dr. Mark Loeb, an infectious disease specialist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said a study during an outbreak of the SARS coronavirus found that any type of protection — whether a mask or a respirator — reduced the risk of infections in health care workers by about 85 percent.

“The most important message was that the risk was lower if they consistently used any mask,” he said.

The American and British governments on Friday urged travelers to avoid the city of Wuhan and the surrounding area amid growing signs that the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus is worsening.

The American Embassy in Beijing advised travelers from the United States to avoid Hubei Province, where Wuhan is the capital. It said the State Department had already ordered nonemergency government personnel to leave the city. It further warned that the Chinese government might prevent travelers from arriving or leaving.

The notice from the State Department was a Level 4 advisory, the sternest warning the United States government issues regarding travel. Other Level 4 warnings issued by the State Department cover travel to Syria, North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela and Yemen, among other places.

The warning is a step up from Washington’s earlier cautions. Just a day before, the American government had been advising travelers to “exercise extreme caution” when traveling to the Wuhan area.

The British government, in a notice dated Thursday, similarly advised against all but essential travel to Wuhan.

A Texas student may be infected, health officials say.

A Texas A&M University student was being isolated at home on Thursday as health officials said they were examining whether he could be the second known case of Wuhan coronavirus in the United States.

The man had traveled from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak of the respiratory illness began, and health care providers determined that he met the criteria for coronavirus testing, health officials in Brazos County, Texas, said. They said they would promptly announce if testing confirmed the patient’s illness was a case of Wuhan coronavirus.

Texas A&M said in a statement that the immediate health risk to those on its campus in College Station was considered low.

The case marked a growing roster of people being monitored around the United States since officials identified the country’s first confirmed Wuhan coronavirus patient in Washington State this week. Officials have been working to contact people who were on his flight home from the Wuhan region, and on Thursday they increased the number of people they have identified as having had close contact with that patient in recent days to 43. Those people will get daily check-ins from medical personnel to monitor their health.

Reporting was contributed by Chris Buckley, Javier Hernández, Vivian Wang, Austin Ramzy, Elaine Yu, Tiffany May, Carlos Tejada, Russell Goldman, Gillian Wong, Paulina Villegas, Steven Lee Myers, Denise Grady, Karen Zraick, Roni Caryn Rabin, Carl Zimmer and Rick Gladstone. Amber Wang, Albee Zhang, Claire Fu, Elsie Chen, Yiwei Wang and Zoe Mou contributed research.

Sahred From Source link Health

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[kansascityhappenings]

Thomas Cook collapses, leaving thousands of travelers stranded

https://newsource-embed-prd.ns.cnn.com/videos/newsource-video-embed.js

British tour operator Thomas Cook collapsed Sunday night, stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers and putting 21,000 jobs at risk.

The 178-year-old company said in a statement that its board “concluded that it had no choice but to take steps to enter into compulsory liquidation with immediate effect” after talks on a financial rescue failed. All Thomas Cook bookings have been canceled, the UK Civil Aviation Authority tweeted.

Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook’s chief executive, apologized to customers, employees, suppliers and partners.

“This marks a deeply sad day for the company which pioneered package holidays and made travel possible for millions of people around the world,” Fankhauser said.

“Despite huge efforts over a number of months, and further intense negotiations in recent days, we have not been able to secure a deal to save our business. I know that this outcome will be devastating to many people and cause a lot of anxiety stress and disruption,” he added.

The collapse of the iconic UK company had ripple effects in Asia. Shares in China’s Fosun Tourism dropped by nearly 5% in Hong Kong. The billionaire founder of parent company Fosun International, which owns all-inclusive holiday firm Club Med, is Thomas Cook’s largest shareholder, according to Refinitiv data.

“Fosun is disappointed that Thomas Cook Group has not been able to find a viable solution,” the company said in a statement. “We extend our deepest sympathy to all those affected by this outcome,” it added.

Meanwhile, Thomas Cook India — owned by Canada’s Fairfax — said it had nothing to do with the collapse of the venerable British brand and its business was unaffected.

Shares in rival European travel groups got a boost on Monday. Germany’s TUI gained more than 6%, while low-cost airline EasyJet — which is making a big push into the holidays business — were up nearly 4%.

Repatriation operation underway

The move triggers the largest ever peacetime repatriation in the history of the United Kingdom, topping the operation the government carried out after the 2017 collapse of Monarch Airlines.

There are more than 150,000 UK outbound Thomas Cook customers abroad, almost twice the number that were repatriated following the failure of Monarch, according to the aviation authority.

“When people get to the end of their holiday, they will be brought back to the UK,” Tim Johnson, head of policy at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, told CNN.

“We’ve chartered 40 planes and we’re going to be running over 1,000 flights over the next two weeks,” he added.

Repatriation flights are only available for passengers whose journey originated in the UK. The aviation authority launched a website where customers can find details on those flights.

“Customers currently overseas should not travel to the airport until their flight back to the UK has been confirmed on the dedicated website,” the aviation authority said in a statement.

Depending on where travelers are located, return flights will be either on flights operated by the aviation authority or by existing flights with other airlines, according to Thomas Cook.

For Thomas Cook travelers abroad on holiday packages protected by the Air Travel Organiser’s Licence, the aviation authority said it will sort out hotel bills.

ATOL is a UK financial protection program that protects most air package holidays sold by UK-based travel businesses.

“While arrangements are being made, please do not make a payment to your hotel unless instructed otherwise by the CAA team,” the aviation authority said. “If our guarantee is not accepted by the accommodation provider, we may need to relocate you to another hotel for the duration of your stay.”

Travelers on an ATOL-protected holiday should have received an ATOL Certificate either by email or by post.

Thomas Cook customers that only booked hotel stays will not be bailed out by the aviation authority. ATOL protection only applies to hotels when booked as part of an air inclusive holiday package.

Banks wanted new funding

Thomas Cook had been scrambling over the weekend to avoid collapse after the Royal Bank of Scotland and a range of other banks demanded that Thomas Cook Group PLC find £200 million ($250 million) in funding by this upcoming week.

Grant Shapps, the UK’s secretary of state for transport, said in a statement that the government and CAA are “working round the clock” to help people affected by the collapse.

“Our contingency planning has helped acquire planes from across the world — some from as far away as Malaysia — and we have put hundreds of people in call centres and at airports,” he said. “But the task is enormous, the biggest peacetime repatriation in UK history.”

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said earlier Sunday, while speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr, that the government would not “systematically step in” to save businesses unless there was a “good strategic national interest.”

Thomas Cook on Friday confirmed to CNN that it had 600,000 customers on vacation, including those 150,000 from the United Kingdom.

“We’ve got all the contingency planning to make sure no one will be stranded,” Raab said. “I don’t want to go into the detail of it because it depends on the nature of which people are out there, whether they’d booked a package or just paid for the flights.”

The plan, nicknamed Operation Matterhorn, would cost the UK government an estimated $750 million, the country’s Civil Aviation Authority confirmed to CNN.

The development comes after a tumultuous year for Thomas Cook. Since May 2018, shares have fallen by more than 96% amid Brexit uncertainty and intense competition in the tourism sector. They were suspended from trade on Monday. “Unfortunately, as a result of the liquidation appointments, there is no prospect of a return to Thomas Cook’s shareholders,” the UK government said.

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[courtneytincher]

Hong Kong protesters apologise after violence in airport

Flights resumed at Hong Kong’s international airport on Wednesday as pro-democracy protesters apologised for demonstrations that shut down the global transport hub.  Hundreds of flights were cancelled on Tuesday after activists blocked the terminal and clashed with police in chaotic scenes that saw officers fire pepper spray and one draw his gun. “It is not our intention to cause delays to your travels,” read a formal statement issued by protesters, “we ask for your understanding and forgiveness as young people in Hong Kong continue to fight for freedom.” "After months of prolonged resistance, we are frightened, angry and exhausted," it continued. "Some of us have become easily agitated and over-reacted last night." Security at the airport was tighter than usual on Wednesday and authorities had obtained an injunction preventing any further protests at the site, although there were doubts as to its efficacy. Some entrances were closed and armed police patrolled by check-in counters in the departures hall.  Airlines were working to rebook thousands of stranded passengers after hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled this week after demonstrators flooded the departures terminal and arrivals hall. A handful of demonstrators remained on Wednesdaybut operations otherwise largely returned to normal.  The protesters sat on the ground sharing snacks and waving posters, some of which apologised for the disruption. The airport has been flooded by activists since last Friday as they argue it is the last safe refuge from tear gas, which cannot be fired inside without hitting foreign tourists.  Last weekend, violence escalated significantly when riot police fired tear gas into a subway station. “It is as a last resort that we have moved the protest to the airport,” demonstrators said in a statement.  “After months of prolonged resistance, we are frightened, angry and exhausted. Some of us have become easily agitated and over-reacted last night. For this we feel pained and dispirited and would like to express our most sincere apologies.”  British comedian Bill Bailey was caught up in the chaos with his family while on a layover from Bali back to London. "I think the scale of protests is extraordinary," he told the Telegraph. "We've been coming to Hong Kong for over 20 years now; I've worked here, and we've never seen anything like it." Hong Kong protests | Read more “Everyone’s been good natured, very polite, very respectful. Protesters came up to us and offered us food and drink, and said 'sorry you’ve had to wait,' and are constantly apologising for the inconvenience, hoping that we understand.” g Kong is facing its worst political crisis since the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule. Millions first came to the streets against an extradition proposal that would have sent people to face trial in mainland China, where the Communist Party controls the courts.  Anger has risen steadily against city leaders for failing to make any concessions and the police for escalating crowd-control tactics, shooting tear gas, rubber bullets and bean bag rounds ending almost all protest in violence. Beijing continues to seize on the chaotic scenes and again condemned the protesters Wednesday for “near-terrorism” at Hong Kong airport, denouncing them for “violent acts” after they surrounded two men, fuelled by suspicions that they were undercover police or spies.  It later emerged that one was a traveller at the airport, and the other, a reporter for China’s Global Times newspaper, a state media outlet controlled by the Communist Party. China has ramped up its rhetoric of the protests lately, sending ominous signals that military and police officers were ready to deploy at a moment’s notice to restore order.  The ruling Communist Party government “is priming public opinion in China for a crackdown in Hong Kong,” said Anne-Marie Brady, a China scholar and professor at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury. “Despite many warnings, however, the government is holding back on its actions because it knows the international pushback on any intervention will be huge.” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tweeted Tuesday: “Concerning to see what’s happening in Hong Kong and the worrying pictures of clashes between police & protesters at the airport. As I said to Carrie Lam during my call last week, we condemn the violence & encourage constructive dialogue to find a peaceful way forward.”  Both US president Donald Trump and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau have also commented on the protests in recent days. And on Tuesday the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Hong Kong to exercise restraint and investigate evidence of its forces firing tear gas at protesters in ways banned under international law

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

Flights resumed at Hong Kong’s international airport on Wednesday as pro-democracy protesters apologised for demonstrations that shut down the global transport hub.  Hundreds of flights were cancelled on Tuesday after activists blocked the terminal and clashed with police in chaotic scenes that saw officers fire pepper spray and one draw his gun. “It is not our intention to cause delays to your travels,” read a formal statement issued by protesters, “we ask for your understanding and forgiveness as young people in Hong Kong continue to fight for freedom.” "After months of prolonged resistance, we are frightened, angry and exhausted," it continued. "Some of us have become easily agitated and over-reacted last night." Security at the airport was tighter than usual on Wednesday and authorities had obtained an injunction preventing any further protests at the site, although there were doubts as to its efficacy. Some entrances were closed and armed police patrolled by check-in counters in the departures hall.  Airlines were working to rebook thousands of stranded passengers after hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled this week after demonstrators flooded the departures terminal and arrivals hall. A handful of demonstrators remained on Wednesdaybut operations otherwise largely returned to normal.  The protesters sat on the ground sharing snacks and waving posters, some of which apologised for the disruption. The airport has been flooded by activists since last Friday as they argue it is the last safe refuge from tear gas, which cannot be fired inside without hitting foreign tourists.  Last weekend, violence escalated significantly when riot police fired tear gas into a subway station. “It is as a last resort that we have moved the protest to the airport,” demonstrators said in a statement.  “After months of prolonged resistance, we are frightened, angry and exhausted. Some of us have become easily agitated and over-reacted last night. For this we feel pained and dispirited and would like to express our most sincere apologies.”  British comedian Bill Bailey was caught up in the chaos with his family while on a layover from Bali back to London. "I think the scale of protests is extraordinary," he told the Telegraph. "We've been coming to Hong Kong for over 20 years now; I've worked here, and we've never seen anything like it." Hong Kong protests | Read more “Everyone’s been good natured, very polite, very respectful. Protesters came up to us and offered us food and drink, and said 'sorry you’ve had to wait,' and are constantly apologising for the inconvenience, hoping that we understand.” g Kong is facing its worst political crisis since the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule. Millions first came to the streets against an extradition proposal that would have sent people to face trial in mainland China, where the Communist Party controls the courts.  Anger has risen steadily against city leaders for failing to make any concessions and the police for escalating crowd-control tactics, shooting tear gas, rubber bullets and bean bag rounds ending almost all protest in violence. Beijing continues to seize on the chaotic scenes and again condemned the protesters Wednesday for “near-terrorism” at Hong Kong airport, denouncing them for “violent acts” after they surrounded two men, fuelled by suspicions that they were undercover police or spies.  It later emerged that one was a traveller at the airport, and the other, a reporter for China’s Global Times newspaper, a state media outlet controlled by the Communist Party. China has ramped up its rhetoric of the protests lately, sending ominous signals that military and police officers were ready to deploy at a moment’s notice to restore order.  The ruling Communist Party government “is priming public opinion in China for a crackdown in Hong Kong,” said Anne-Marie Brady, a China scholar and professor at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury. “Despite many warnings, however, the government is holding back on its actions because it knows the international pushback on any intervention will be huge.” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tweeted Tuesday: “Concerning to see what’s happening in Hong Kong and the worrying pictures of clashes between police & protesters at the airport. As I said to Carrie Lam during my call last week, we condemn the violence & encourage constructive dialogue to find a peaceful way forward.”  Both US president Donald Trump and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau have also commented on the protests in recent days. And on Tuesday the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Hong Kong to exercise restraint and investigate evidence of its forces firing tear gas at protesters in ways banned under international law

August 14, 2019 at 11:52AM via IFTTT

[tripstations]

How to Survive Cancelled Flights with Kids

Family travel can be chaotic at the best of times, but throw in snowstorms and thousands of cancelled flights and even the most Zen of families can become unbalanced.

I want to share some tips for surviving cancelled or delayed flights with kids in tow.

Our worst experience (so far!) happened when we arrived in Newark International Airport with our two kids (then aged six and four). We had flown in from Geneva, Switzerland, expecting to transfer onto our 5:10pm Mexico City flight to head home. At first we were told that the flight was delayed. Then we had to change gates (to the other end of the airport, naturally) and then we were informed that there were further delays.

This went on for several hours before we were told that a plane had been found for us and it was slowly making its way over to our terminal. At 9:00pm it was announced that we would begin boarding (lots of cheers!). At 9:10pm we were told that we couldn’t board until our pilots had arrived. At 10:00pm we were informed that the flight had been cancelled due to lack of crew.

The airport was in chaos with hundreds of cancelled flights. We were one of the lucky ones as we managed to secure seats on the Saturday flight. This still left us with 24 hours in Newark airport with two small kids.

  Here are my tips on how to handle cancelled or delayed flights with children.

1. Keep Calm

I’m not the most patient of people, but I’m lucky to have a level-headed husband who is good at keeping things in perspective. Remember, it’s not the end of the world and that there are always people in far worse travel situations than you. We met a teenage girl travelling solo for the first time ever who had been stuck in Newark for three days and a couple who had missed their cruise due to cancelled flights. Also remember to breathe — breathing is good.

  2. Split Up

Our kids had fallen fast asleep by the time the flight had been cancelled, so we commandeered airline pillows and blankets that United Airlines had supplied for stranded travellers and put them to sleep on the airport floor. I looked after them while my husband went off to try and find some way for us to leave Newark.

  3. Treat It Like Part of the Adventure

I’m always amazed at how adaptable kids are, especially when faced with what you believe to be difficult situations. We told the kids that the plane couldn’t go because the weather was too bad but what fun (yippeee!) we got to spend another night in a hotel instead! They’re still at that age where travel — no matter how crappy — is exciting.

  4. Be Nice to Ground Staff

It was horribly chaotic at the airport, none of the staff had much information to give, and we were all seriously tired. The staff were dealing with their own battles, however, including lots of grumpy and unnecessarily shouty customers. We found a lovely woman who helped us out enormously — booking tickets for the following day’s flight and finding a hotel for the night. Similarly, when we checked in on Saturday morning, a wonderful woman spent ages trying to get all four of us confirmed on the flight. Being nice to people works.

  5. Join a Mileage Program

We have Premier status with United Airlines as my husband travels so much for work. This literally saved us, as we were able to go to the lounge, join the shorter queue at Customer Services, and ultimately secure seats on the following day’s flight. It’s only because of this status that we got out on Saturday as we were bumped to the top of the flight waiting list. Others were being told that they had to wait until Tuesday or later to fly.

  6. Join Priority Pass

Even if you are not a frequent flyer, it’s worth joining a program like Priority Pass that allows you access to airport lounges around the world. These can be a lifesaver during long layovers or if you find yourself stranded like we did.

  7. Bring a Change of Clothes

Given that my kids were six and four at the time, I had stopped bringing spare clothes for them. This was a mistake. Not only did we spend the night without any of our bags and therefore any other clothes, my daughter had a once-in-a-year accident and wet her pants. Cue me washing and drying her knickers with the hand dryer in the ladies’ restroom! What’s more, it was freezing in Newark and we only had a sweatshirt each. Layers would have helped us.

  8. Bring a Toothbrush

I never used to do this, but now I always pack a toothbrush in my carry on bag.

  9. Accept That Things Don’t Always Work Out Perfectly

That’s the nature of travel!

  Travel Tip Shared by katya_globetotting globetotting.com

The post How to Survive Cancelled Flights with Kids appeared first on Tripstations.

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[clusterassets]

New world news from Time: It’s So Cold in Europe That People in Amsterdam Are Ice Skating on the Canals

(LONDON) — As unusually cold weather gripped Europe, Britain’s military was sent out Friday to central and western England to get hospital employees to work and help police rescue people from snowbound vehicles.

Nicknamed “The Beast from the East,” the cold front caused travel chaos, with hundreds of flights cancelled in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Switzerland. Trains broke down. Motorists found themselves stuck on highways and trapped in frosty conditions for hours.

“This is particularly unusual weather,” British Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said. “It’s something that happens very rarely in this country.”

Up to a meter (three feet) of snow was reported in eastern Ireland, and travelers were stranded south and west of the capital, Dublin.

The big chill also froze canals in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam. Ice on the historic Prinsengracht canal was thick enough for residents to lace up their skates and glide across its frozen surface. Tourists without skates slid across the ice, taking selfies.

“It’s just cool. You can go fast and you see the world from a slightly different perspective,” said skater Noldus Reijnders.

Heathrow Airport tweeted Friday that it was working with airlines to consolidate the flight schedule “to provide more certainty around departing flights,” amid the extreme winter conditions across the U.K. and Europe. More than 350 flights were cancelled. Gatwick, London City, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports also reported cancellations.

Other European airports closed down entirely. Authorities at Geneva’s airport suspended air traffic for a second straight day amid heavy snowfall. By early afternoon, flights had resumed.

Around 340 flights were cancelled at Ireland’s Dublin Airport, which posted images of swirling snow together with the hashtag “BeastFromTheEast.” It doesn’t plan to open until Saturday.

The army sent 20 troops and 10 four-wheel drive vehicles to Shropshire, the county south of Liverpool, and the Royal Marines sent resources to Devon and Cornwall on the southwest coast after police asked for help.

One train traveling from London’s Waterloo Station to Weymouth ground to a halt outside New Milton, stranding motorists for hours. By mid-afternoon, South Western Railway and Southeastern had urged customers not to travel.

Some commuters reported that rail doors refused to open as the push-button mechanisms froze in the cold. Thousands of homes are without electricity as temperatures remain below freezing with bitter winds.

One police force in Scotland tweeted a picture of a patrol car beside a snowdrift almost as high as the vehicle itself to show drivers why they should stay home. “PLEASE AVOID THIS AREA,” the post said.

In central England, volunteers brought hot drinks and blankets to stranded drivers as they waited for help. Eleanor Kelly, 19, said those stranded in the Milnrow suburb of Rochdale included a father with a baby and toddler in his car.

“We’ve been trying to get to as many people as we can,” she said.

Commuter Philip Brown endured more than 15 hours on a train travelling from London Waterloo to Bournemouth, Dorset. The average time for the journey is about two hours.

“I didn’t have any food or water. There were no buffet facilities on board. The train lost power and we lost heating and lights,” said Brown, 49. “I couldn’t tell you how cold it was, but it was cold enough to prevent you from sleeping … People were wrapping jumpers round their legs trying to keep warm.”

But in Amsterdam, nobody was complaining about the cold. Residents on skates glided past tourists who slithered across the ice for pictures. One woman took her dog for a walk along the frozen canal.

Still, despite measures taken by authorities to help the ice develop, there were still some holes and parts of the canal weren’t frozen at all. Reijnders was wearing a special red ice pick around his neck just in case.

“If you sink through the ice — and there are still a few dangerous places — you can pull yourself out,” he said.

March 02, 2018 at 10:51PM ClusterAssets Inc., https://ClusterAssets.wordpress.com

[bigyack-com]

Coronavirus Lockdowns Torment an Army of Poor Migrant Workers in China

Clutching a gray plastic suitcase filled with most of his belongings — a blanket, a toothbrush, a pair of white sneakers and a comb — Wang Sheng goes from factory to factory in southern China begging for a job. The answer is always no. Mr. Wang, 49, used to be able to find work in Shenzhen, a sprawling industrial megacity. But factories are turning him away because he is from Hubei Province, the center of China’s coronavirus epidemic, even though he hasn’t lived there in years. “There’s nothing I can do,” said Mr. Wang, who has only a few dollars left in savings, lives off plain noodles and rents a small room for about $60 a month. “I’m just by myself, isolated and helpless.” China’s roughly 300 million rural migrants have long lived on the margins of society, taking on grueling work for meager wages and limited access to public health care and education. But now they are among the hardest hit as China’s leader, Xi Jinping, calls for a “people’s war” to contain the virus and the authorities impose controls across broad swaths of the country. As outsiders, rural migrants, no matter where they are from, are an easy target. Many factories are afraid to restart operations in case their workers are carrying the virus, raising concerns that the government’s controls could smother the economy. Local officials have barred many migrants from crossing city lines. Landlords have kicked them out of their apartments. Some are crammed into hotels or sleeping under bridges or on sidewalks. “We have struggled so much already,” Liu Wen, 42, a factory worker in Zhengzhou, a city in central China, who was evicted from her apartment because she had returned from her husband’s hometown in the southern province of Guangdong and her landlord worried she might be carrying the virus. She now is living with her husband and two children in a hotel. “Now we’ve lost hope.” On Sunday, Mr. Xi acknowledged that the situation in China remained “grim and complex,” but urged party officials to not only continue their efforts to contain the virus but also to focus on restarting production. “We must turn pressure into motivation, be good at turning crisis into opportunity, orderly restore production and living order,” he said. But the strict lockdowns imposed across the country make it difficult for rural workers to return to cities; only about a third have done so, according to official statistics. Many workers are stuck in the countryside after traveling there last month to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday. Mr. Xi, already under scrutiny for the Chinese government’s slow and erratic response to the coronavirus outbreak, now faces pressure to quell anger among low-income families and dispel broader fears of an economic downturn. The party has long staked its legitimacy on the idea that it can deliver prosperity and protect the working class. Updated Feb. 10, 2020 What is a Coronavirus? It is a novel virus named for the crown-like spikes that protrude from its surface. The coronavirus can infect both animals and people, and can cause a range of respiratory illnesses from the common cold to more dangerous conditions like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. How contagious is the virus? According to preliminary research, it seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS, and is possibly transmitted through the air. Scientists have estimated that each infected person could spread it to somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures. How worried should I be? While the virus is a serious public health concern, the risk to most people outside China remains very low, and seasonal flu is a more immediate threat. Who is working to contain the virus? World Health Organization officials have praised China’s aggressive response to the virus by closing transportation, schools and markets. This week, a team of experts from the W.H.O. arrived in Beijing to offer assistance. What if I’m traveling? The United States and Australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who recently traveled to China and several airlines have canceled flights. How do I keep myself and others safe? Washing your hands frequently is the most important thing you can do, along with staying at home when you’re sick. “The Chinese Communist Party leadership does not like to be criticized for neglecting or abandoning workers,” said Jane Duckett, the director of the Scottish Center for China Research at the University of Glasgow. “Their ideological underpinnings — Marxism-Leninism, socialism — lie in being a party of the ‘workers and peasants.’” Ms. Duckett said the party was probably wary of discontent among workers. Mr. Xi has said that the government should watch employment closely and that companies should avoid large-scale layoffs. The virus, which has killed at least 2,400 people and sickened nearly 77,000 in China alone, has brought parts of the Chinese economy, the world’s second largest, to a near standstill. While some factories have started up again in recent days, many are still closed or operating well below capacity, with parts in short supply and workers stranded hundreds of miles away. Businesses across a variety of sectors — manufacturing, construction and transportation — have ordered their employees to stay home, usually without pay. That has created strains for many migrants, who earn barely enough to keep up with the rising cost of living in Chinese cities and often hold little in savings. While wages are low, migrants can still earn more in the cities than they would in the countryside, where jobs are scarce. They are willing to go to cities for a shot at a better life, even if they must live in crowded workers’ dormitories or run-down apartments. Yang Chengjun, 58, who lives in northeast China and sometimes works as a carpenter, says he and his son are living off the land now, relying on rice and vegetables they grow and struggling “just to stay alive.” Mr. Yang worries the family will run out of money within a month. “The pressure on migrant workers was always great,” Mr. Yang said. “The epidemic adds insult to injury.” Their struggles have been made worse by local officials who have helped fuel a perception that rural migrants pose a threat to public health and should be treated as potential carriers of the virus. In some cities, migrants have been forced into quarantine in facilities run by the government, according to reports on social media. In others, like Wuxi in the east, workers from afar have been barred from entering and warned that they would be “seriously dealt with” if they resisted. China’s strict population controls have worsened the plight of many migrant families. The Mao-era household registration system, known as hukou, makes it difficult for people from the countryside to change their legal residence to cities. As a result, they are considered outsiders — even if they have lived in cities for decades — and have limited access to health care, schools, pensions and other social benefits. As the coronavirus has spread, some workers who have come down with pneumonia and other symptoms say they have been unable to find affordable care in major cities. While the government now provides free care to those found to have the coronavirus, many hospitals are overwhelmed and lack the resources to officially diagnose the virus. As a result, some migrant workers living in cities say they have been forced to pay thousands of dollars in medical expenses to treat sick relatives. In Hubei, where the outbreak began in December, many workers worry that the economic pain will continue for months or longer. The province, which is home to more than 10 million migrant workers, remains shut off from the rest of China, and business has ground to a halt. Huang Chuanyuan, a 46-year-old construction worker in Hubei, has stopped buying meat to save money. His employer, a Chinese construction company, told him that he had no choice but to wait at home. “I don’t want to think about the future now,” said Mr. Huang, who has a wife and three children. “The more I think about it, the more stressed I get.” As their struggles have mounted, some workers have pushed local officials to do more to help reopen businesses. But their pleas are often met with silence, as local governments work to contain the virus. Mr. Wang, the migrant worker who has been going from factory to factory in Shenzhen, worries it may be months before he can find a job. He spends his days scouring online job ads and watching news about the virus. Frustrated about his job prospects, Mr. Wang recently posted a poem on social media about the sense of isolation and distress he felt. He criticized the local government for not doing more to help workers. “You suffer loneliness by yourself, but you are still discriminated against,” he wrote. “The Labor Department, now silent. And me: alone in Shenzhen.” Albee Zhang contributed research. Read the full article

[mastvideos]

Hurricane Harvey Cancels Thousands Of Flights, Disrupts Shipping

Flooding in the Houston area continues today, as remnants of Hurricane Harvey continue to unleash unfathomable torrents of rain on the Gulf Coast. In addition to the destruction facing local homes and businesses, all travel into or out of the nation’s fourth-largest city — both for people and for things — has been hampered, and will likely continue to be for some time.

Air Travel

Houston is home to two major airports, George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and William P. Hobby Airport (HOU). Several major airlines fly through Hobby Airport, including American, Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest. Several more national and international carriers fly through Bush Intercontinental, including Air Canada, Air France, Alaska, British Airways, United, and others.

Botth IAH and HOU have been completely closed since Sunday, Aug. 27, and it’s unclear how much longer they might stay that way.

More: Southwest Airlines flies 500 stranded passengers out of closed Houston airport

The airport authority website says for both that they are closed until further notice; the FAA indicates that HOU may reopen at noon on Wednesday (Aug. 30), with IAH to follow on Thursday (Aug. 31). That is, of course, weather-dependent; continued rain is forecast to last during the rest of the week, to say nothing of how long it may take for flood waters to ebb and damage to be assessed.

In the meantime, approximately 1,400 flights into or out of those airports have been cancelled each day this week, including Wednesday, and several hundred pre-emptive cancellations marked for as late as Thursday as well, according to FlightAware.

If you were supposed to be on any of those flights — or are supposed to travel to or through basically any airport in the region — airlines are waiving change and cancellation fees for those flights. We’ve gathered up direct links to information on rebooking and travel waivers for the following airlines below:

Alaska

American

Delta

JetBlue

Southwest

United

Because the Houston airports serve as hubs for many airlines, particularly Southwest, the widespread cancellations are likely to have a lingering domino effect on other flights around the country, too. As always, check with your airline before heading to the airport if your travel plans may be affected.

Shipping

Shuttered airports don’t only affect passenger travel, of course; they also affect cargo planes, and so any packages or goods that have to go that way are probably not going anywhere any time soon.

But Houston is also one of the nation’s biggest, busiest port cities — and widespread flooding is no better for sea lanes than it is for airplanes.

Port Houston closed most of its facilities by noon local time on Friday, Aug. 25; all facilities are still closed as of today and it’s not clear when they may reopen. Ship pilots tell industry publication S&P Global Platts that the last outbound ships left the port on Thursday (Aug. 24).

That means anything that needs to go into or out of the U.S. via Houston isn’t going right now: Everything from petroleum to grain to cars to containers full of consumer goods is on hold, which will also likely have ripple effects in the days and weeks to come.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist via Blogger http://ift.tt/2wGI6L4 http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

[jaeame-blog]

BA hoping to operate 'near | British Airways

British Airways has cancelled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick following a massive global IT failure. British Airways warned families they face half-term travel chaos today after it cancelled scores of flights yesterday from Heathrow and Gatwick following a 'catastrophic' computer crash. Every departure scheduled on Saturday was cancelled and the airline asked passengers not to come to the airports. Global computer outage grounds all British Airways flights at Heathrow and Gatwick. 1:43pm. share.

British Airways says it is "aiming to operate a near-normal schedule" after an IT systems failure hit thousands of passengers. Passengers wait at a British Airways check-in desk after the airport suffered an IT systems failure, at London"s Gatwick Airport, Saturday, May 27, 2017. British Airways canceled all flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports on Saturday as a global IT failure upended the travel plans of tens of thousands of people on a busy U.K. holiday weekend.Passengers have been told not to travel to the London airports because of "extreme congestion" at the terminals, with all BA planes. Serious problems with British Airways' IT systems have led to thousands of passengers having their plans disrupted, after all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick were cancelled.

British Airways said it had cancelled all flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports scheduled before 6pm on Saturday due to a global computer outage. British Airways has cancelled all flights from Gatwick and Heathrow as computer problems cause disruption worldwide.HOLIDAYMAKERS were left stranded after a major IT system failure forced British Airways to cancel all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick airports - with disruptions expected to carry on until tomorrow. Airline glitches and the ensuing pandemonium are nothing new, but they've just hit one of the world's largest travel hubs. A global computer outage struck British Airways' systems early Saturday, at the beginning of a busy holiday weekend in both the US and the UK, forcing the airline to cancel all flights leaving both London Gatwick and London Heathrow airports. Passengers should check their flight status, but British Airways says in an announcement on its website that its long-haul flights scheduled to land in London on Sunday are expected to arrive as normal.

[mastcomm]

Coronavirus Epidemic Keeps Growing, but Spread in China Slows

HONG KONG — Chinese officials hailed recent figures as evidence that the spread of the coronavirus epidemic has slowed, and World Health Organization officials said on Tuesday that China’s strict limits on its people’s movements have helped.

But the outbreak and its death toll continue to grow, the picture outside China has grown steadily more alarming, and experts caution against excessive optimism about the crisis peaking.

“It could be unwise for anybody in China, or outside China, to be complacent that this is coming under control at this point in time,” said Prof. Malik Peiris, chief of virology at the University of Hong Kong.

Researchers in Germany presented evidence on Tuesday that people who have the new coronavirus can infect others even when they have no symptoms, as disease experts had suspected. Their findings, published in a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine, indicated that people may be spreading the disease before they know they are sick.

But the Chinese government’s daily tally of new infections and deaths from the virus has declined steadily since Feb. 12.

On Tuesday, the authorities reported that in the previous 24 hours, 1,886 new cases had been confirmed — the first time since Jan. 30 that the number had dropped below 2,000 — and 98 patients had died. On Wednesday, the number of new infections reported by authorities was again below 2,000, with China recording 1,749 confirmed new cases of coronavirus infection, bringing the country’s total number of reported infections to 74,185.

With 136 deaths reported in Wednesday’s figures, the total number in China of those confirmed to have died from the virus surpassed 2,000, reaching 2,004.

Government officials, as well as public health experts around the world, said the numbers suggested that China’s aggressive measures to contain the epidemic were working. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, told Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain in a phone call on Tuesday that China was making “visible progress” in containing the epidemic, according to Chinese state media.

More than half the country’s population is under some limitations on its movements, and 150 million of its people face restrictions on leaving their homes, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

“Right now, the strategic and tactical approach in China is the correct one,” Dr. Michael Ryan, the W.H.O.’s chief of emergency response, said on Tuesday. “You can argue whether these measures are excessive or restrictive on people, but there is an awful lot at stake here in terms of public health — not only the public health of China but of all people in the world.”

China’s lockdown has slowed the spread of the virus from its epicenter, the city of Wuhan, to the rest of China by two to three days, and from China to the rest of the world by two to three weeks, W.H.O. officials said.

The organization’s endorsement of China’s methods was an apparent reversal from less than three weeks earlier, when it had advised against restrictions on travel and trade. Some health experts have condemned the restrictions, saying that they were preventing vital resources from getting where they were needed, and could instill panic.

Updated Feb. 10, 2020

What is a Coronavirus? It is a novel virus named for the crown-like spikes that protrude from its surface. The coronavirus can infect both animals and people, and can cause a range of respiratory illnesses from the common cold to more dangerous conditions like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

How contagious is the virus? According to preliminary research, it seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS, and is possibly transmitted through the air. Scientists have estimated that each infected person could spread it to somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures.

How worried should I be? While the virus is a serious public health concern, the risk to most people outside China remains very low, and seasonal flu is a more immediate threat.

Who is working to contain the virus? World Health Organization officials have praised China’s aggressive response to the virus by closing transportation, schools and markets. This week, a team of experts from the W.H.O. arrived in Beijing to offer assistance.

What if I’m traveling? The United States and Australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who recently traveled to China and several airlines have canceled flights.

How do I keep myself and others safe? Washing your hands frequently is the most important thing you can do, along with staying at home when you’re sick.

Prof. Zhong Nanshan, a renowned respiratory disease expert in China, said on Monday that he expected the epidemic to peak in the country’s southern regions by mid- to late February, and the rest of the country to follow soon after.

But Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O. director general, said on Monday that the apparent tapering of the spread in China “must be interpreted very cautiously.”

“It’s too early to tell if this reported decline will continue,” he said during a news conference in Geneva. “Every scenario is still on the table.”

Since Chinese officials first acknowledged the virus in December, it has been hard to judge with precision the severity and scale of the outbreak.

China has changed its criteria for diagnosis, prompting a large increase in reported infections and deaths last week. Tests for the virus have not been very accurate, and people who do not seek or receive medical care may not be counted. And people with mild or no symptoms may not realize they have the virus and may not get counted.

Initially, the cases reported outside mainland China were mostly among people who had recently visited there, but increasingly, they stem from contact in other countries.

The number of cases in Japan has spiked in recent days, most of them tied to a quarantined cruise ship that turned into a hotbed of transmission. Other case clusters have also turned up in Japan, but so far, the ship, the Diamond Princess, accounts for most of the cases worldwide outside of China — 542 as of Tuesday, an increase of 88 in one day.

On Monday, more than 300 American passengers on the ship were flown to the United States and placed in a two-week quarantine. Fourteen of them tested positive for the coronavirus shortly before leaving Japan, but were still allowed to board the flights. American officials had started the process of evacuating them home without knowing their test results.

Some of those passengers said on Tuesday they had been informed that a few more of them had tested positive for the virus since they arrived in the United States.

Also on Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told more than 100 Americans who have been on the Diamond Princess they cannot return home for at least two more weeks, after it became clear that efforts to control the virus aboard the ship had been ineffective. The passengers include some who have tested positive for the virus and are hospitalized, and others still aboard the ship who have not shown signs of illness.

Japanese officials said they expected 500 people to be let off the ship on Wednesday. But they did not make it clear how they had concluded it was safe to release people, or how they had decided which passengers would leave, or who those people would be.

Cambodia has allowed more than a thousand passengers from another cruise ship, the Westerdam, to disembark without testing most of them. Hundreds of them flew out of the country, before one of them took ill and tested positive for the virus, raising fears of undetected cases and a further global spread.

The country’s authoritarian leader, Hun Sen, has continued to express complacency about the outbreak, even encouraging passengers from the Westerdam to go sightseeing in Cambodia.

“Cruise ships are the weak link in the containment,” said Prof. Raina MacIntyre, an expert in biosecurity at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Citing the potential for future cruise ships to harbor the virus, she said, “we could lose control of the epidemic if we don’t get a tight handle on the cruise ship situation.”

There are other signs the outbreak’s global toll has not crested. The first coronavirus-related death outside of Asia was announced on Saturday, when a Chinese man died in France. Taiwan announced its first virus-related death on Sunday, marking the fifth fatality outside mainland China.

The economic cost of the outbreak, which has paralyzed China, the world’s second-largest economy, also continues to grow.

On Tuesday, HSBC, the London-based bank with deep roots in Hong Kong, said that it would cut 35,000 jobs over the next three years, in part because of the coronavirus outbreak.

President Moon Jae-in of South Korea warned on Tuesday that the outbreak in China is creating an “emergency” for the economy, saying his country could be one of the hardest hit.

If the virus starts to spread rapidly around the globe, it is unclear how other countries will respond. Few other governments have the power to clamp down as thoroughly as China, or even the desire.

The lockdown in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak started, has taken a heavy human toll, making it difficult for many to find medical care or care for sick loved ones. The countrywide restrictions create their own challenges, stranding employees away from their jobs and pummeling the economy.

“This is the issue,” said Professor Peiris. “It is not clear that this is something that is replicable, even in other parts of China.”

It’s a complicated calculation for China and the world. Though relaxed restrictions could revive the economy and ease fear and frustration, they could also lead to a resurgence of infections.

In recent days, the Chinese authorities, hoping to nudge the economy back to life, have urged migrant laborers to return to work. Hundreds of millions had left urban centers for the Lunar New Year holiday in January.

Officials in the Philippines said on Tuesday that they would allow Filipino migrant workers to return to Hong Kong and Macau, reversing an earlier ban on travel to those regions. (The bar to travel to China remains.)

“The battle’s not over, because the travel restrictions can’t last forever,” Professor MacIntyre said.

Reporting and research were contributed by Austin Ramzy, Isabella Kwai and Alexandra Stevenson in Hong Kong, Hannah Beech in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Choe Sang-Hun in Seoul, South Korea, Raymond Zhong and Lin Qiqing in Shanghai, Wang Yiwei in Beijing, Roni Caryn Rabin in New York, Richard C. Paddock in Jakarta, Indonesia, Motoko Rich in Tokyo and Daisuke Wakabayashi in San Francisco.

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