#in what? feb? march? somewhere around there. needs some updates. ]

[brightlilies-a]

   cracks knuckles. i’ve long put off rewriting this one, if not because it’s not an easy or concise subject matter to discuss, so bear with me. . . ! spoilers for dnc & 5.0 msq (though the latter is lighter, so i can expand on it later with a broader scope).

   headcanon, re: purpose.    * partially rewritten from my old blog & otherwise including new stuff.

   what’s your purpose?

   if you had asked him that question during a realm reborn and heavensward, he’d wholeheartedly answer that all he wants to do is have the strength to protect others. the funny thing is that it’s a purpose that was given to him——not because he’s the warrior of light or because people are relying upon his continued success, but because it was something his older brother, albi’a, said near constantly prior to the calamity. they were to use their strength to ensure the safety of the tribe, and when they would eventually be outcast, that strength would become something to protect others with. power was meant to protect——that was all it ever meant to albi’to.

   ‘course, after albi’a’s death at carteneau and his mother pushing him to become an adventurer seemingly on a whim, albi’to ultimately ended up parroting that sentiment for a good chunk of time. if someone asked why he was an adventurer, it was always to gain the power to protect, with no deeper thought to it. he believed his would-be mantra, sure (if he hadn’t, he would have never approached the gladiator’s guild, nor walked the path of a paladin), but the words were never something that were his. they were the remnants of a promise left unfulfilled, acting as a buoy for a young man with little else to cling to in the vast, churning ocean of heroics and intrigue that was swiftly becoming his life.

   putting it like that and only looking at it from that perspective, however, makes it seem insincere——and it’s not. albi genuinely wants to protect people. he’s kind and compassionate to others because he’s had a rough go at life and he doesn’t want anyone to go through what he did. he lost his home and much of what he considered his family only to be shuffled into a place that didn’t even want him all at once, and yet, he keeps his optimism (even if at times, he didn’t think he could.). so he often sympathizes, even with people he possibly shouldn’t, and wants to keep them safe.

   but, then again, stormblood happens. namely, in crimson it began happens, as all things inevitably return to zenos. zenos, who is so uncaring to things that don’t interest him, set against albi, who feels so much toward everything and everyone. and yet, the power albi had obtained to protect others wasn’t enough. the conviction he’d allowed to guide him through combating ultima weapon and the whole of the dragonsong war fell short suddenly. the scar on his shoulder is an ugly reminder of his loss, but his shattered shield, like haurchefant’s, reinforces a reality that, for a while, he’s afraid of: he can’t protect everyone.

   so he shifts jobs to samurai, thinking if he gets stronger he can brute force his way through it. he can still protect people, but maybe he doesn’t need a shield to do it. maybe all he needs is a stronger sword that will stop threats in their tracks. but the foundation of his (brother’s) belief that the strong will always be able to protect the weak is cracked, and patches 4.4 onward really reinforce that. for much of stormblood though, there isn’t any time to waver, so the problem only rears its head once the scions start getting called away and he’s helpless to do anything to stop it. yet again, he can’t stop what’s happening, not to the people he cares so much for, and no amount of power is going to help him.

   albi doesn’t do well on his own, as he’s never really had to face who he is and process his own identity. he tends to ensure other people are near him, hiding most of his insecurities through being overly social and directing conversation away from himself. so much of the time between 4.5 part 1 and 4.5 part 2 is very, very rough on him, because he’s holding on so tightly to the image of the warrior of light people want and expect from him, punishing himself for not being able to help the people he’s losing, and ignoring those who are still around’s concerns for him. part 2 of the patch helps, as aymeric reminds him that he isn’t alone, and tataru opens his eyes to the fact he can’t keep bottling everything up and trying to handle these things on his own anymore, which are both things he desperately, desperately needs to hear at that point.

   so while they’re out looking for the crystal tower beacon… he’s not alone, and he’s doing better to include the others in what he’s doing so they can help, but it’s not perfect. it’s hard when he isn’t the same bright-eyed kid that walked into the waking sands at thancred’s behest. he’s still loud and energetic, but he’s begun to mellow out somewhat from everything he’s been through and witnessed.

   above all else, though, he’s come to terms with the truth he once feared: he can’t protect everyone; sometimes, he can’t even protect himself. which brings us back to that initial question of purpose.

   if he cannot protect with his shield and if his blade alone cannot wield enough power, then what’s left to guide him on his way? he’s relied on the scions’ support for so long, and while he’s always done what’s expected of him, he’s never really had much to offer outside of being the eikon slayer or the muscle. but while he’s not allowed to help search for the beacon himself, it gives him plenty of time to find another answer for himself, which he does on a wayward trip to limsa lominsa to visit his sister.

   “ put another way, bringing joy and succor to the scorned and the suffering is no less than our calling in life. ” - nashmeira, a soirée in the sultanate.

   while he’s never offered much besides being a weapon, albi has always had a naturally charismatic personality. he likes people, enjoys their company, delights in bringing them together and building them up. which, in some ways, goes hand in hand with being the warrior of light——sowing hope where despair otherwise reigns is simply part of being the realm’s champion, even if he isn’t fond of the title himself. so the thought of supporting the people around him is one that is more secondhand nature than parroting what his brother said while he was alive, and one that comes more naturally to him.

   natural affinity for and history of dance aside (because this isn’t about that), it’s a job that suits him infinitely better than swinging a sword around. and not because he’s simply good at dancing, but because being a dancer is about supporting the people around oneself, lifting their spirits and unburdening hearts, leaving a bit of joy and happiness in his wake. it isn’t something done alone; it requires a partner or an audience.

   and traveling with troupe falsiam, brief as it might’ve been, truly assured him that he wanted to do nothing more with his life. fighting the absolutely horrible monsters born out of the sorrow in people’s hearts, seeing their burdens manifest like that, it hurt, sure. but he had the ability to help those people, so he would. and he will, because in the end it’s what he wants to do. mistress nashmeira’s words ring true in a way he wholly agrees with——his purpose isn’t to protect people or to fight their battles, but to bring joy and help the helpless. to do as much as he can as kindly as he can, but not promise any form of salvation.

   because he’s not a god, nor is he infallible, and twelve does he know that.

   “ in a place like this, you learn to take what little moments of happiness you can get. “ - tesleen, the time left to us.

   of course, norvrandt puts this new purpose to its test swiftly. most people don’t have much of a reason to be happy, what with the end of the world being nigh. the people’s hearts are filled with doubts, shadows of disdain for the lot they’ve been given, and even by the time he goes to amh araeng to meet with alisaie (which he does first, given how things ended at ghimlyt dark), albi is keenly aware of the general condition. moreover, that it isn’t anything he can fix immediately, because as long as the main problem exists, people will continue to suffer after the fact.

   worse, having gone through what he did alongside troupe falsiam tends to make the events in norvrandt pull on his heartstrings uncomfortably. meeting f’lhaminn once more before seeing thancred struggle to let go of minfilia, dealing with the fuath wanting to make him theirs to perform again and again in endless fights on their drowned stage, watching the carers at journey’s head struggle to find even an ilm of kindness to share with the afflicted... not to mention eulmore in its entirety engorging itself on false happiness, there’s a lot that makes him hesitate. lightwardens, and knowing they were once people, make him sad, but he tries to view it as tesleen put it: the warrior of darkness comes to care for souls at their dying moment, to bring them somewhere hopefully better than where they are currently.

   not a promise of salvation, but a measure of kindness he can deliver to them. something that keenly fits along with the purpose he’s decided for himself, that isn’t asking him to be something or someone he isn’t.

#🏶: bloom in the dark. ( headcanon. ) #[ there's technically a second half to this i'll eventually get to bc pixies are. tenthands. v interesting as a dnc #but i wanna go back and grab screengrabs for specific instances and scenes so i'm not always creating giant text walls of meta #. v . but i've always liked this hc so i did wanna go back to address it with like. actual continuation since i originally wrote this back #in what? feb? march? somewhere around there. needs some updates. ]

[agreateryesterday]

Reylo - ABO fics

House of The Rising Sun by amybeegood

(Last updated April 17, 2020) 28 chapters

A canon-esque, Omegaverse, Reylo/Hades and Persephone version of the War of The Roses. But in space.

Reyne by itsjustsilver

(Last Updated March 29, 2020) 3 Chapters

The Princess Rey does not want to attract the Emperor’s interest.

Alternative Methods (of Pain Relief) by Camucia

(Last updated March 26, 2020) 10 chapters

Rey has never exactly had the most normal of reproductive health, and Jakku left her with the pain tolerance of a rancor. But even by her standards, the increasingly awful cramps that have plagued her these last few months are getting a bit... unmanageable. She’s perfectly content to do as she has always done for her entire life, gritting her teeth and soldiering through the pain - Too bad this is apparently Not An Option when these sensations are shared with a certain Supreme Leader.

Only his Queen by Lanie_cakes

(Last updated March 26, 2020) 16 chapters

Rey world is turned upside down when she turns 27 when her suppressed shapeshifter gene is unlocked when she goes into Heat. She is shipped off to a place called the First Order to relearn about her origins and has a hard time adjusting in this new world she dubbed as the Fuzzy Kingdom of Nudity. A year into waiting for her alpha Mate to come to her and unlock her inner animal from its cage. She is shocked to find that she not going to mated to just any regular Alpha...But the King of the Wild People Himself.

Naboo by Sweetaro

(Last updated Dec 29, 2019) 4 chapters

Naboo was supposed to be a paradise. A way for Rey to get away from society while she waits for Poe. Getting the invite to go to Naboo, a closed society where Alphas and Omegas get along. Where everything looks perfect. Too perfect. And is it just Rey or do all of the Omegas act weird? They all cling to Alpha males, and talk only about pups and homemaking, how great their alpha husbands are, and just how much Naboo is perfect. Nothing seems right, and Rey is starting to get uncomfortable with how the town keeps asking her when she and the reclusive Ben Solo are going to get married and be the same. And the fact that he sounds so assured when agreeing with them. Something is going on, but is Rey going to get out in time before she has some of the Kool-Aid?

The Late Bloomer by JJJJ12

(Last updated Feb 17, 2020) 10 chapters

Rey and Ben have been friends since they could walk and have avoided any tension in their relationship for a simple reason—Ben is an Alpha and Rey is a Beta. But, when Rey unexpectedly presents as an Omega almost a decade after she’s supposed to, the best friends must figure out how to ignore the attraction that’s always been there for the sake of preserving their friendship.

Ambrosial by devdevlin

(Last updated Feb 13, 2020) 6 chapters

Somewhere in the Calvary, there's an Alpha who smells like heaven.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief by KiraStar

(Last updated Nov 18, 2019) 4 chapters

"My father bought you for 20 pounds and a plot of land not fit enough for a cow to graze upon." At 17, Rey is forced into an arranged marriage with Kylo Ren, the adopted son of a wealthy lord, in order to produce an heir. Lady Macbeth AU

Heat In Your Gaze by Chibirini1

(Last updated Nov 17, 2019) 19 chapters

When Rey, a feisty omega, wanders too far into the forest and starts her first heat, she is found by none other than Kylo Ren, an alpha with a secret. Will he be able to break against his clan's expectations to be with Rey? Or will she return to her lonely life once more?

Explosive Chemistry by MizuPhoenix

(Last updated Sep 28, 2019) 10 chapters

As far as Rey's concerned, her boss can blow an aneurysm. Kylo Ren, more like the big bad wolf, with all his huffing and puffing. Nevermind that he's drop-dead gorgeous, he was an Alpha. Rey had dealt with enough Alpha's to know that her adoptive brother was the only one she would tolerate. At least she was lucky enough to not be born an Omega. No, Rey would not be bending over for her boss or any other posturing Alpha male. Except... that little voice in the back of her head keeps growing louder, and her body has started to ache whenever the overwhelming (insufferable) man is not around. Then there are the urges, probably just sexual frustration, but they are all clamoring for her asshole boss' attention. Rey just wanted a nice normal life. With Kylo Ren in the mix that dream has shattered. Needless to say, their interactions have the chemical reagents necessary for explosive reactions.

Gravitation by CaraRose

(Last updated Jan 31, 2019) 7 chapters

Modern A/B/O. Rey Johnson is an eighteen year old Omega who's asshole "stepfather" Plutt is pocketing her grant money meant to help her pay for college. The archaic laws that say an Omega isn't of legal age until they're twenty one is leaving her stuck with little recourse as how to get away from Plutt so she can get her education. Kylo Ren is an alpha, and one of the top enforcers in the First Order, a crime syndicate run by the shadowy "Supreme Leader" Snoke. The two live lives that are worlds apart, but events are in motion that will send them on a collision course neither of them is ready for.

Dark Woods and Daffodils by Austere_Ahhhnie

(Last updated Nov 28, 2018) 3 chapters

Across the bloodied battlefield, a young Omega on the cusp of womanhood catches the eye of an enemy Alpha on the ascent of his power.

Winter's Cage by Nelsbels

(Last updated April 16, 2018) 5 chapters

The reason why the historians called it the era of the Dark Ages is because the scholars had limited knowledge about this period of time due to the scarce records left behind. It was an Age of the rising Leviathans, a race of ancient and primordial monsters that walked this earth unchallenged. During the Dark Ages the Lycans fought a vicious war for their freedom from their masters and enslaves, the Nosferatu. For many generations the bloody conflict ravaged the lands with no end in sight. An elusive Lycan by the alias of the White Ghost stands defiant against the Nosferatu. Kylo Ren will stop at nothing to end the uprising and put down the said Werewolf. However, things change once they finally come face to face and consequently the scales of the war start to tip.

Misbehaving For Days by t0bemadeofglass

*Finished* 18 chapters

Rey’s experience with Demi-Humans is about as limited as her experience with snow, that is to say: horrendously minimal, given that she’s just moved to Coruscant with no intention of returning to the hell hole of a desert she scraped herself from. Easing herself into the lifestream of a city that demands assimilation to the rigors and confines of a bustling metropolitan was never going to be easy, but throw in a one-night stand with a tall, brick house of a man that doesn’t seem keen on leaving it at one night, and any hopes Rey had for an easy transition got blown to high heaven.

Knot an Omega by SkywalkerSince1980

(Last updated May 22, 2020) 4 chapters

How would A/B/O society have developed over the past 15,000 years, and what would it be like in modern-times? How would Rey, Kylo, and the crew handle it? What is the A/B/O backstory, and how did it develop into modern times? Plenty of (semi-fictional) ancient history mixed in with the story, and plenty of smut down the line. Rose is a badass. Rey has a bad decade. HEA, but not the way you think.

Labyrinth - a Reylo Book Of Sins Re Write by RayofDawn

*Finished* 5 chapters

A retelling of a childhood favorite but with a sinful reylo twist

Knots in the Heart by Anonymous

(Last updated July 2, 2018) 2 chapters

Kylo’s determines to keep his prisoner.

Catacombs by monsterleadmehome

*Finished* One Shot

Kylo Ren is the oldest living alpha vampire. He has been chasing his omega, Rey, for centuries. Ever since the night he turned her, he’s wanted her for his own. Will she finally let herself be claimed or doom herself to a worse fate?

No One But You by faequeentitania

*Finished* 5 chapters

When he scented her on the wind, his entire world ground to a halt. It was primal, it pulled at something in his guts like a hook, and everything- the droid, the map, Skywalker- all became secondary to her. Her. The girl. His mate.

The Mating Service by AlbaStarGazer

*Finished* 36 chapters

'If Rey had known how quickly she would find her biological mate and alpha through the world wide mating service, 'Match,' she might have considered signing up years ago.' A sceptic of the leading mate finding service, Rey decides to sign up after too much wine and years of loneliness. She never expected to find her match within days of submitting her samples. Join the two as they are separated by an ocean, Rey in England, Ben in America as they explore their situation. Can Ben convince Rey that he wants his omega for her and not simply their biology and change her mind about the reliability of the mating service?

Vanilla Jasmine Dreams by Trulyurs

(Last updated May 30, 2018) 4 chapters

Rey is a young research assistent hoping to learn from the best, so when she is hired by Luke Skywalker she is hopeful. What she didn't exspect was Ben Solo. An alpha that seems to shutter at the sight of her. He is loud and harsh, one of the harder alphas she has incountered, and she is horribly attracted to him. What Rey doesn't know is that Dr.Solo is hidding a secret.

Until you by Ever-so-reylo (Ever_So_Reylo)

*Finished* One Shot

Kylo looks at her, and he smells her, and he thinks, Fuck. He thinks, Yes. He thinks, I didn’t know. I couldn’t have known. And he says: ”You should watch your right side.”

Finding Home by JaneEyre1847

*Finished* One Shot

Can therapist Ahsoka Tano and a lot of resentful pondering prepare Ben for the terrible secret Rey is ready to reveal?

Dark Nights by Polkadotdotdot

*Finished* 27 chapters

"Cause I need a man, a man who has blood on his hands and the truth on his face," Rey is broke.Trying out for a second job to solve her mounting debts, Rey has a chance encounter with an Alpha by the name of Kylo Ren who makes her an offer she just doesn't want to refuse. Little did she know how her choice would pull her into the underworld of New York crime.

Hotter than Hell by slxtforbangtanboys

(Last updated May 3, 2018) 1 chapter

They went by many names. The Light, and The Dark. Rey and Kylo - But on days that he's feeling generous, Rey and Ben. The Jedi and the Jedi Killer, fated to be.

Heartstring by Oh_Snapcrackle

(Last updated Sep 9, 2018) 13 chapters

“Did you just smell me?” The girl accuses, craning her neck to meet his stare. Her eyes are wide with shock and weariness. Hazel eyes. Warm eyes that look like they have lived a thousand lives. Breathed a thousand deaths. Soulful eyes. His cheeks color, and he realizes he is blushing. And he never blushes. Not since he was a little boy. But he is blushing now from embarrassment and the fact he did just get caught trying to catch her scent. “No, sorry. I was just sniffling. Got a cold.” Every demon is connected to an angel by a heartstring. Ben just found his. In this world where angels and demons live among humans, balance is kept through the mysterious mating bonds between creatures of light and dark. Where there is darkness, the light will rise to meet it. Or so it used to be. Angels are too rare these days. And even if a demon finds their mate, keeping them safe is impossible.

Court You, I Shall. by LadyErica

(Last updated Dec 10, 2018) 3 chapters

A fair maiden Omega from Jakku is doing her mistress's errands when she meets the Alpha Lord from Cornelia while he is on a hunting trip. Their eyes meet and though the maiden refuse because of her background and upbringing. The Lord refuses to give up. His mother always howls him for not finding a mate and settle down with pups already, but in this Omega he just met. He believes he has found his mate that will birth his heirs. He will do anything even court her if he must.

That's Enough! by SithLord98

(Last updated Aug 27, 2018) 4 chapters

After a deadly virus caused by the overuse of suppressants that nearly wiped out omegas in 2449, federal laws were put into place to preserve and protect them. These laws are highly oppressive in nature for them, requiring omegas to register if they have not been claimed by 18. Rey Marek and Tatum Rax are two betas and former foster sisters trying to heal after living a rather traumatic childhood. Rey accepts a mathematics teaching position at Resistance Academy, one of the last omega secondary schools in the U.S., located within the D.C. Metro area next to First Order Academy – an exclusive alpha secondary school founded and financed by the Skywalker and Palpatine families. Tatum is the school librarian, which makes the situation even more convenient for her. Kylo Ren and his friend Armitage Hux have been asked to oversee in the merging of the two schools. After a prescription recall on suppressants, Rey and Tatum both realize that they are omegas that haven't presented, but opt to take the risk and not report this in hopes that the suppressants will kick back in again soon. Everything is fine until they meet Kylo and Armitage during a transition visit at Resistance Academy that everything goes to shit for them…

So yours, So mine by Anonymous

*Finished* One Shot

“Where is she?” He asks impatiently. Hux nods and walks quickly, but he hesitates for a moment when they take a different corridor from the prison cells, his question is quickly answered by Hux. “We had to separate several of them due to their condition.”“Condition?” His impatient voice distorts behind his mask. "Yes ... several of the omegas got heat during the trip, so they were separated from the others ..."

Clan by moonstone88

*Finished* 14 chapters

Wars between clans were normal, but what happens when that war is between two who love each other. Rey knew she shouldn't have bent to Kylo as her Alpha, but she had no idea what their fleating connection would do and the pieces she would be left to pick up. Can Kylo overcome the years of hatred he holds in his heart for a clan that forced him away from the love of his life, and is trying to snatch her from his grasp once more.

Second Heat by UmpBumpFizz

*Finished* 4 chapters

"Stay right there." She stilled instantly. Her eyes settled on his outstretched hand, her breathing shallow and rapid. "You're alright... You're alright. I've got you." She blinked as she felt the warmth of his hand as he gently caressed her face. His voice... God, his voice was like silk. Safe? "I've got you. You're safe." She drew in and let out a long, shuddering breath as the scent from the gland on his wrist hit her nose, calming her instantly. Safe.

Feral by Hormonal_Trashbag

*Finished* One Shot

Snow began its idle descent from above the line of barren trees, filtering to the frozen forest floor in fat flakes. Despite the turn of weather, Rey remained focused on the pair of long ears ducking behind the nearby brush. Her fingers trembled as she nocked an arrow in the string of her bow but she ignored the cold as she prepared to take her shot. If she was like any other omega, she would be sequestered in the warmth of her den right now, heavy with pups and waiting for her alpha to return from the hunt. But Rey hadn’t gone into heat with the shift from autumn to winter like she was supposed to. The alphas of her pack had turned their noses from her in disgust when her scent didn’t sharpen with mating pheromones. What’s wrong with her? They would ask themselves and Rey had no answer.

FRACTURE by succubusybody

*Finished* One Shot

Rey's older brother Ben has been head of the household ever since their parents died when she was young. When her first heat comes, he'll take good care of her.

Swell by Hormonal_Trashbag

(Lqst updated June 17, 2019) 4 chapters

She knew that some omegas ignored the archaic pull to be mated. There was some debate over how voluntary an omega’s participation in mating could be, though she knew many of those that argued against it were betas that had never experienced a heat to begin with. What could they possibly know? There was always a choice. Rey couldn’t help being practical about it. If she ignored her biological call, she would spend a long week throbbing, writhing with a need to be filled. She’d have to skip work for a few days at the very least. It was just...easier to give in.

Gonna Get Myself Connected

The Birds and The Bees by TourmalineGreen

*Finished* 9 chapters, One Shot

Who understands Alphas, anyway; they’re mysteries, wrapped in enigmas, dusted with hormones and deep-fried in a vat of unquenchable rage. And Ben, he’s a classic, textbook example. Rey doesn’t need his intensity in her life. Rey was quite happy to steer clear of him, as long as he wants to be like… well, like that. And he’d been like that ever since she hired on. Always testy around her, always scowling, stomping, difficult. But he produced excellent code, so… maybe management was sympathetic. Then again, maybe he just had someone’s incriminating photographs, and was holding them over their heads, who knew. OR: Ben Solo: Wunderkind developer, office Alpha, noted cantankerous asshole, gets stuck in an elevator with Rey Johnson: New hire, ray of literal sunshine, progressive Omega who seriously does not have time for this.

Ben will never ever be able to forget the first, squalling sight of his son. Black-haired—so much hair—and red-faced, yelling in a way that had made the midwives remark about ‘healthy Alpha lungs!’ Ben hadn’t exactly hoped to have an Alpha son, but he hadn’t not hoped, either. It was familiar to him, and his own experience, although he knew that his son would have his own life. Hopefully a less-anxious, less-awkward time of it than Ben had… but, judging by the expression on his son’s face, Ben knows that something is very definitely up.

Run Cried the Crawling by succubusybody

*Finished* 4 chapters

Rey is mated by force during a day trip to Amish country. When her heat comes around, she is charged with abandoning her mate and forced to return to the home of the man who ruined her life.

abash the little bird by SecretReyloTrash (BadOldWest)

*Finished* 5 chapters

Ben Solo has a pretty easy time of fighting his Alpha instincts with the right cocktail of suppressants and bad attitude. However, some old wive's tales about the moon or the position of the stars may have knocked this mating cycle way out of wack for a lot of Alphas and Omegas; making them desperate to attract a mate. He may have had an easy time fighting his instincts before, but his body has other plans. Especially when it starts sprouting some truly impressive plumage to attract the right Omega. At least it catches Rey's eye. AKA Kylo gets a freakin' TAIL.

Hallowed Heat by gopherbroke

(Last updated Nov 4, 2018) 3 chapters

As the steady babysitter, Rey is accompanying Mr. Solo and his son, Grey, to the city's big Halloween Fest. It is a little too late when she realizes that she had broken Mr. Solo's rigid contract and had forgotten her supressants. She flees, hiding in the portapotty as she starts to go into heat. While Mr. Solo paces, impatient and bossy, on the other side of the thin plastic door, Rey looks back on her relationship with her boss and how he has changed from hostile employer to friend... to Alpha? But would he ever be her Alpha? And how long will that flimsy door hold back Alpha like Mr. Solo from an Omega that smells as sweet as Rey?... Grey had always said how much his father had a sweet tooth.

The Ballad of You, Me, and Everything in Between

The House on Prairie Corners by bluetoast

*Finished* 3 chapters, 5 chapters

Alpha Ben Solo just wanted to get to his new job in Yellowstone National Park by the weekend. He'd had it planned out - get through the major cities outside of rush hours, be there and settled by Saturday. Pretty easy, considering most traffic was headed east, to Woodstock. That was before an omega named Rey Johnson tapped on the window of his Volkswagen bus in some spit in the dirt town in Ohio asking for a ride.

It's been 5 months since Rey and Ben met and became mates, and they have only grown closer since that time. As a mid December blizzard sweeps into Yellowstone, the weather is the last thing on either of the minds. As Rey's next heat and Ben's rut are about to align, they only have one plan while they're snowed in. Start a family.

Shivers by AlbaStarGazer

*Finished* 3 chapters

Alphas have been illegal for decades due to their thirst for power and destructive tendencies. They are housed in institutions, prisons and state hospitals and away from the general population that consists of omegas and betas. Writer and omega Rey comes across an unconscious man outside of her secluded cabin. She realises too late he is an alpha.

End of the Republic & Freedom by SithLord98

*Finished* 8 chapters

Unknownbeknognst to them, Rey, Tarren, Rose, and Paige were marked as soul mates to four men who have lived dangerous, powerful and privileged lives, but have been sad because they believed their soul mates were dead. The girls have been raised under the noses of the Plutt brothers this whole time, to avenge for Maz's death. On Rey's 18th birthday, the guys discover the truth and kidnap the girls. How will they manage to survive unscathed, as they are now confined with them in one of their manors in the middle of nowhere, while the men go into strong ruts, causing them to go into heat...

Camping by Anonymous

*Finished* 6 chapters

Rey’s sweet alpha boyfriend takes her camping to celebrate their one year anniversary. But Rey gets lost in the woods before they can celebrate. Another alpha finds her first and he will take what he wants. *Rey is technically of legal age of consent, but she’s still just a teenager, so I’m tagging it underage. Rey is 16 and Kylo is 26*

The End Of The Beginning by Fearthefaithful

*Finished* One Shot

As her scent infiltrated my senses I could focus on nothing else. I watched her as she floated by across the hall. She seemed to be too preoccupied with her friends to notice me but I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. It had been months since I’d seen her and that was before she presented. Now she was fully an omega and I felt all the anger and frustration that had built over the past 10 years was coming to fruition. This time she was mine and I wasn’t letting anyone, not even my mother disuade me from that.

May The Guac Be With You by PiscesSiren

*Finished* 13 chapters

Rey has been doing fine on her own for years. Her job isn’t fulfilling but it keeps her fed. Her house isn't perfect but it keeps her safe. But after a few things start to change, she slowly starts to realize that she wants more out of her life and maybe even... herself. Also, what the hell is up with that hot customer who says she smells obscene? Rude.

Little Thieves by ohwise1ne

(Last updated March 15, 2019) 17 chapters

"If you come out now, Omega, I'll make this easy for you." His voice carries clearly through the house, and it's almost as sinful as the smell of him, suffocating her as she shrinks back against the wall of his closet. “Or maybe… you don’t want this to be easy.” A pause. “Yes. Oh, yes. I can smell it on you. You can’t hide from me.” Rey breaks into the wrong house. Kylo Ren catches her in the act.

not because you need me to by starkylosolo

*Finished* 2 chapters

Rey just got hired at her dream job, cardiology, when she meets Ben who needs a favor from her. It's just that she didn't expect Ben from nephrology to be so... big, and so alpha. She certainly didn't expect him to smell so nice. Maybe she can ignore the way he affects her, but then he opens his mouth.

Stay the Course by aduirne

(Last updated March 4, 2019) 10 chapters

Rey is in her second year at university on a full scholarship as a forensic science major. She plans on working for the FBI one day. She had no plans of letting anyting or anyone gettig her off track. She has no time for alpha/omega drama. Her job at the campus library suits her well since it gives her lots of time to be alone in the old, ornate building she had grown to love. Everything is going rather well for her until one night when she scents someone that makes her pause. She does the only logical thing. She runs like hell.

I Seek My Freedom in the Moonlight by asongforjonsa

(Last updated March 2, 2019) 26 chapters

Rey moves to Chandrila with her step-mom and step-sister. Neither of them know the real reason why she goes for runs on full moons: she's a werewolf. On the first full moon in Chandrila, she runs into a huge black wolf: Kylo Ren. And he has news that will rock her foundation...

A Poetic Match by commandercrouton

*Finished* 2 chapters

It didn’t matter who was here at the moment. The only thing Rey could focus on was that scent. Her wide hazel eyes circled the room as she tried to see the one who was emitting those delectable pheromones. How was no one else in this room reacting? The smell was making her crazy, and she dug her nails into her skin. She would know this scent anywhere. She found him frozen by the podium, staring at her with the same look she knew she was giving him. She felt her thighs clench in anticipation as memories of their last, and only, time together filled her brain. “Rey, is everything okay? Your scent...shifted,” Poe inquired tentatively. “What?” she asked, not willing to take her eyes off the man in front of the room. “Why is Professor Solo staring at you like you killed his pet cat?” At this statement, Rey looked at Poe, realization dawning on her. No, not this, anything but this. This wasn’t a professor. He was something entirely different to her. Alpha.

Your Pretty Little Heart

A Perfectly Good Heart

And corgi makes five by Ever-so-reylo (Ever_So_Reylo)

*Finished* 15 chapters, 3 chapters, One Shot

“Good. Good little Omega.” He says the words against her gland, almost sweetly, and Rey—Rey is going to die. A wonderful, delicious death. Depraved, all of this. Filthy. Beautiful.

It’s physically painful, to be near her. And not to be, too. (Your Pretty Little Heart in Ben's POV)

It’s not about the dog, not really. It’s the name on the plate. Rey gasps. Ben almost recoils. Because there is no way that someone thought it would be a good idea to name a dog—“… Leia Corgana?” Rey’s fingers press against her lips. She is smiling. Then grinning. Then trying not to laugh. Then inevitably failing.

Algorithms by greyorchids

(Last updated Jan 27, 2020) 12 chapters

I run out to the lobby, grabbing my tablet and try to remain cool in the face of Satan in a Suit. “Mr. Ren, how can I help you?” He’s taller and more broad than pictures can translate. His black on black suit seems menacing, not a coincidence, I am sure. He seems a bit taken aback, something I am used to in this male-dominated profession. When most of the employees here come for help with their computers or experience network issues, they don’t expect me to know how to solve their problems. Challenging stereotypes one satisfied customer at a time. He breathes in deep and pauses before he speaks. I think I see the flash of recognition in his eyes but I keep my body still and my face impassive. Yeah, I am an omega, Ren. Get over it. Rey works in the IT Department for a tech company that is recovering from a recent hostile takeover. Ever at odds with the universe, Rey continues to live against the grain by excelling in a male driven industry and by redefining what it means to be omega.

Call You Mine by lovingreylo (PeaceBlessingsPeyton)

(Last updated July 25, 2019) 2 chapters

"The first day he saw her was like an out of body experience. He always felt completely silly when he thought back on it, how he had literally felt time slow or how the world that day seemed to have an extra sparkle to it. Ben sighed again before getting out of the car and heading up the walkway to his parent's house thinking about the day Rey Johnson had come into his life three months ago. How the alpha in him was immediately alarmed at how pale and malnourished she looked, how he just wanted to take care of her, how her smile and the way she laughed at his stupid jokes made his heart want to break out of his chest and offer itself to her." Even though he’s never been in love before, Ben Solo could easily tell you that he’s falling in love with Rey, the girl his parents had taken in off the street. There’s one small problem though, his father tells him that he isn’t good enough for her and to stay away. It works… for a short while anyway.

beyond the fields of wrongdoing and rightdoing (i'll meet you there) by black_facade

(Last updated Sep 23, 2019) 5 chapters

Rey has been a scavenger throughout her life in Jakku. When a dark figure suddenly came into her life, insisting that she was his mate, what could've gone wrong? Especially when it turns out that he was an Emperor and a Prime Alpha. "Lovers are patient and know that the moon needs time to become full." ***An Arabian Steampunk AU. With a dash of Omegaverse.

slake. by MalevolentReverie

*Finished* 8 chapters

It's normal for an opposite-designation parent to help their teenager through heat or rut, so why is it so hard for Rey and her widowed father, Ben?

The Hunt by commandercrouton

*Finished* 2 chapters

“Mortals tell the legend of Romulus and Remus, known as demigods who helped create the country of Rome. They were not demigods, but warlocks born to a powerful witch. She was hunted down and destroyed, but not before she begged for protection for her children. Her familiar, Lupa, transformed into a wolf granting her wish. She fed her witch’s children from her breast, creating the first Alpha and Omega in our world. All of us are descendants from those warlocks. Although magic has dwindled in our bloodlines, there are some who still possess it. And those people are us. I invite my omega brothers and sisters, on this rare Blood Moon, to celebrate our designation, and the familiar Lupa, who created us,” she pauses, raising her goblet above her head, signaling for her coven to follow her lead. “Tonight we will mingle with our neighboring Alpha coven. You will meet one another and choose your hunted during The Matching. Remember to save your carnal desires for the forest. To Lupercalia, the festival of the wolves!”

Territory by EdenMiasma

(Last updated June 16, 2019) 1 chapter

Growing up under Ben Solos wing was safe, comfortable, like nothing could ever hurt them. But Rey has to learn her place amongst her peers, and when everyone begins to present things just seem to get harder.

Honeysuckle by LBellicose

*Finished* 18 chapters

For 33 years Dr. Ben Solo has lived as a beta, he was the unlikely child of two Alphas. His life got turned inside out and upside down the day he met Rey, young omega that had been struck by a car and was bleeding out in his emergency room.

You'll Hear Me Howling (Outside Your Door) by HarpiaHarpyja

*Finished* 11 chapters

Father Ben Solo has been a priest at St. Ailbe's parish for the last year. It's a position that provides the structure and control he lacked in his youth, and maybe best of all, a way to wrangle his more unsavory urges as an Alpha. Rey Stafford has just moved to Ontario, hoping to advance at work and adjust to a new life across the Atlantic as an Omega living alone. When an unusual encounter in the confessional leaves them spiraling into a constant routine of advance and retreat, they both begin to struggle against their own baser urges and the ticking time bomb of years of repression.

Some Kind of Trouble by HopelesslyReylo

(Last updated July 16, 2019) 3 chapters

Going into heat, in the middle of the grocery store wasn’t Reys idea of a good time. Things get even more complicated when Ben offers to see her through her heat.

Mating Systems, Reproductive Success, and Sexual Selection in Secretive Species: A Case Study of the Wild Ahch-To Omega by NewerConstellations

(Last updated Feb 22, 2020) 21 chapters

For generations, Omegas have adapted to civilized environments, permanently impacting the expression of their DNA and pheromones. When a group of lost fisherman discovered an isolated population of feral Omegas on the remote island of Ahch-To, it offered a unique and precious opportunity to document their behavior in the wild. Research biologist Dr. Benjamin Solo spent a year living amongst the herd of Ahch-To Omegas and recorded his experiences, particularly his interactions with the Omega subject known as “Rey.” These are his findings.

Let’s See How Far We’ve Come by Fearthefaithful

(Last updated July 5, 2019) 12 chapters

Ben Solo was always angry. Chalk it up to his over active alpha tendencies, or his shitty childhood, but he was always angry. And when Rey walked into his life, it was like gasoline to a fire. She was an annoying little omega who always put him in his place. But now it’s been years, and he’s a raging alpha, and she’s the best thing he’s ever smelt in his life. And all the years of trying to protect her like a sister seem a little different now.

Forbidden Love by LadyErica

(Last updated Sep 20, 2019) 12 chapters

A/O/B modern world Alternate Universe Ben and Rey are siblings. Ben is an Alpha and Rey Omega. Ben has a desire. A wrong desire. After his sister had her first heat at fourteen when she gets her first period. Ben couldn't stop thinking about her. Desire turns to lust. Lust to love. It's forbidden. He was caught with her in away siblings shouldn't be. He is sent to asylum for others like him for his own good.

Lasso by ReyloRobyn2011

*Finished* 11 chapters

Western ABO because who doesn't love some Outlaw Alpha Kylo Ren?

We only live once by P_Dunton

*Finished* 16 chapters

Betrayed by her best friend and boyfriend, Omega Rey finds herself friendless and homeless for the first time in years. Thank god for her amazing boss, Maz who lets her crash above the auto repair shop where she works. Sad and lonely, Rey lets herself be talked into paying the First Order to locate a compatible Alpha Mate for her. As if her year didn’t already suck, of course she would match with the famous Kylo Ren, second in command of the most powerful suppressant production company in the country.

More Than This by LadySansasDirewolf

(Last updated July 1, 2019) 7 chapters

"Ben Solo?""Yes?"The woman slapped the documents into my hand so hard it stung. "Consider yourself served!"...In which Ben and Rey are soulmates who cannot seem to get on the same page.

Oathbreaker by Angelic_Hellraiser

(Last updated Sep 14, 2019) 7 chapters

"Claim me." she whispers, her words hard and final. He shakes his head, angered. "And kill us both? No." Stepping closer, she repeats the words in the high speech of her elvish tongue, voice low and chest brushing against his heavy cuirass. "Garo im, hîr o hûn-nín."

Expect the Unexpected by Arynn

(Last updated Jan 19, 2020) 2 chapters

Rey Ando is working for a legal company that fights for fair treatment and equality within the Alpha/Omega and Beta circles. However, little does anyone else know that she wants to be treated as an Omega submissive like the old days. Things change when she finally meets the mysterious owner of the company she works for, Ben Solo.

Quatervois by Poaxath

(Last updated Sep 12, 2019) 2 chapters

The north and the south have been at war for decades, a never-ending struggle between two sides that will never see eye to eye. In an attempt to negotiate and bring peace to a land ravaged by war, Rey departs on a quest to see if she can somehow help in that endeavour. It may be more than she bargained for, in the form of a marriage to The Dragon King - Kylo Ren.

Seasons of Love by Daisyflo

*Finished* One Shot

After his grandmother's death, Ben discovers he inherited her house. First problem: he isn't the only one. Second problem: his new housemate is an Omega.

No place like home. by HisAngel910

*Finished* 14 chapters

Rey Sanders has worked her entire life to fight against the stereotypes of traditional Omega's. Her design and renovation company helps to build the dream homes of all of her clients. Can she help her newest client Kylo Ren build his dream home? And can she do it before his Alpha drives her wild?

the dreadful need in the devotee by redbelles

*Finished* One Shot

God’s bones, what is happening? He’s smelled heat-scent before, but it’s never affected him like this. Never made him want to rip his armor off so he can feel the omega’s skin against his, never filled him with the visceral need to bite— The thought is like ice water pouring down his spine; it cuts through the haze of heat-scent like a knife, leaving a brutal clarity in its wake. The only omega on this godforsaken journey is the princess. En route to her betrothed and surrounded by a cadre of the realm’s fiercest alphas, the emperor’s granddaughter is going into heat.

Refuse Me by Autonomee

(Last updated Sep 4, 2019) 4 chapters

It’s the most contact she’s received in years, since her Grandpa was still alive. This Alpha’s touch is electric, completely unfamiliar but just what she needs. Her eyes automatically find his, they are molten brown, and everything in her wants to examine those eyes forever and- What am I doing? some sensible part of her screams at herself. Whatever he bids, another part answers. Rey’s plan to live her life to the fullest as an Alpha falls apart when a classmate discovers her secret.

Unbonded, Unbroken by Spiegatrix_Lestrange

(Last updated Nov 26, 2019) 6 chapters

Alderaan city is facing a new, disturbing threat. A powerful crime cartel is kidnapping Omegas, keeping them as prisoners for unspeakable, revolting reasons the local police need to investigate further. Detective Ben Solo goes undercover as Kylo Ren, determined to dismantle the cartel from the inside, but there's a requirement he must fit if he wants to gain the cartel's trust: he must bring an Omega as an offer to the organization. Rey Niima is a young, promising agent who knows exactly how hard an Omega's life can be. When the opportunity occurs to give her contribution to saving her fellow Omegas from the cartel's grasp, she volunteers immediately, determined to help Detective Solo with any means necessary.

Mine by assortedfruitsnacks212

(Last updated Sep 3, 2019) 3 chapters

The duel between Kylo and Finn in the snow, reframed as a fight over Omega Rey. It’s sexy. The end. Then Kylo whisks Rey away from Starkiller Base. Cue SMUTTY SMUT SMUT with MINIMAL PLOT. Marked "dubcon" because TFA Kylo isn't a gentleman...yet.

A good brother by Anonymous

*Finished* One Shot

Ben is home alone with Rey, taking care of his little sister as the good brother he is. Everything goes as usual on a Saturday night, oh at least that is what Ben thinks, until Rey is going into preheat…

Blow your smoke to fog up the mirror (write our name in hearts) by reygrets

(Last updated Sep 3, 2019) 9 chapters

Of course, this lecture is on the opposite side of the spacious campus, and she’s practically running from the titillating two-hour long Thermodynamics class. It was an introductory session, mostly that ‘get to know you’ crap and going over the syllabus, but the content she saw listed was a high that would carry her through anything--- even classic lit with Professor Solo. Or so Rey had thought, trying to slip into the lecture-hall without drawing too much attention. Unfortunately for Rey, the doors are heavy, old, and they slam even when you try to shut them gently. The man standing at the head of the class stares her down, and oh no. Rey's hot teacher (who probably already hates her) is an Alpha.

A Tale of Tooth and Claw

A Tale of Monsters and Legends by Khawapashi

*Finished* (Last updated Nov 24, 2019) 32 chapters, 30 chapters

Rey experiences her first heat in the middle of a crowded convention and is rescued by a dashing, dark-haired stranger. Kylo takes things too fast, because he's an intense, emotional idiot. The Knights of Ren are fun, especially Kylo's most loyal 'Knight'. Hux is the devil as always. The Skywalker-Organa-Solo family drama is... complicated.

“What the fuck, Argent, Rey is in heat -" The phone slid suddenly from his boneless grip, and Rey gathered herself up on her knees, fingers quickly working open the leather fastenings keeping her gagged. Kylo fell to his knees and she was there, wrapping herself around him from behind, murmuring nonsense words to calm him. “He’s back," he whispered. “Luke Skywalker."

Post: Part 1

#reylo #rey skywalker #kylo ren #ben solo #otp #fanfic #rey #skywalker #ben #solo #werewolf #fan fiction #fanfiction #ABO #AOB #aob #alpha/beta/omega verse #alpha/beta/omega au #alpha!kylo #omega!rey #alpha!ben solo #mate #mates #werewolves #were #wolf #jedi #dynamics #abo #star wars

[corona-de-vil]

Feb 3, 2022

Oy. Hi there. Well, I kind of don't know how or when to "end" this blog, this account of coronavirus. This was not meant to be long term. This honestly wasn't meant to be any sort of diary of everyday life and the events of our family to be quite honest. I've sprinkled some of that in for context mostly. This was supposed to be a small "time capsule", if you will, so that one day when we're far away from this time, there'll be a first hand account of what was going on, that you two can read about, from your mom. I often think back at historic times from our country's past, and think how meaningful it would be to have documents from our family to live it through their words. Anyhow, that's what this was meant to be.

But you see, this virus, it has a beginning, somewhere, were still not certain, but I fear it has no end. It's here with us now. It just... is. And so, I can update here and give stats and talk about life but I think now, we just have pre-covid-19 pandemic life, and post-covid-19 pandemic life, and that's just that.

I sometimes don't know what to make of that. Our family is almost fully vaxxed. Sophie got hers this late Fall. We are still waiting for Isla's age group to be approved. We may need a yearly vaccine booster for...forever. I have no idea. There's a new variant - Omicron - that is much lore contagious but less severe. That may prove to be helpful in the long run. Idk.

We've stopped going out much at all to indoor places again, aside from shopping that needs done. That's meant telling you girls no when you've begged to go to the trampoline park or the ice cream playplace.

Honestly, at some point I suspect we'll all get covid. If we haven't had it already.

Anyhow I just wanted to pop in I suppose. We're nearly 2 years in to this. Next month, March will mark 2 years into the first round of shut downs.

Sophie is halfway through 1st grade, really enjoying and thriving at school. Her best friend Isabel is moving to Portugal at the end of the school year. I worry about that a bit. Isla is gearing up to start pre-k this coming Fall. Your grandparents, my mom and dad, have split up. I don't know for good, but its been more than a few months already. It's really sad. And stressful. Your grandpa Gardner has had a myriad of health problems this year and hopefully is on his way to getting better.

Otherwise, I'm just waiting for Spring again. That always brings joy around. Those first daffodil blooms always make me so happy. They're coming....

Love,

Mom

[bigyack-com]

Cruise Ship Passengers, Some Infected, Flown Back to U.S.

U.S. officials learned cruise ship evacuees were infected at the last minute.

A day before 328 Americans were to be whisked away from a contaminated cruise ship in Japan, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo told passengers that no one infected with the new coronavirus would be allowed to board charter flights to the United States. But those plans were hastily changed after the test results for 14 passengers came back positive — just as they were being loaded onto buses and dispatched to the airport, where two reconfigured cargo jets were waiting to fly them to military bases in California and Texas. After consultations with health experts, the U.S. government decided to let the infected evacuees, who were not yet exhibiting symptoms, board the flights. The reversal was the latest chaotic turn in a two-week quarantine of the ship, the Diamond Princess, that has become an epidemiological nightmare.

Apple cuts sales forecast as the outbreak slows both production and demand.

Apple said on Monday that it was cutting its sales forecast because of the coronavirus, in a sign of how the outbreak is taking a toll on manufacturing, even at one of the world’s most valuable companies. The announcement came hours before China announced new figures for the outbreak. The number of cases was put at 72,436 — up from 70,548 the day before — and the death toll now stands at 1,868, up from 1,770, the authorities said. In a statement, the iPhone maker, which is heavily dependent on factories in China, said its supply of smartphones would be hurt because production was slowed by the outbreak. None of the factories that make iPhones are in Hubei Province, the center of the outbreak, but travel restrictions have hindered other parts of the country as well. Production was taking longer than hoped to get back on track after the facilities reopened following the Lunar New Year, the company said. Apple said it was also cutting its sales forecast because demand for its products was being hurt in China. China has been one of the Silicon Valley company’s fastest-growing and largest markets. Apple’s warning is significant because it is a bellwether of global demand and supply of products. The company said it was “fundamentally strong, and this disruption to our business is only temporary.”

Cambodia’s leader is famously complacent about the coronavirus. That may exact a global toll.

When Cambodia’s prime minister greeted passengers on a cruise ship amid a coronavirus scare on Valentine’s Day, embraces were the order of the day. Protective masks were not. Not only did Prime Minister Hun Sen not wear one, assured that the ship was virus-free, his bodyguards ordered people who had donned masks to take them off. The next day, the American ambassador to Cambodia, W. Patrick Murphy, who brought his own family to greet the passengers streaming off the ship, also went maskless. “We are very, very grateful that Cambodia has opened literally its ports and doors to people in need,” Mr. Murphy said. Five other ports had said no. 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. But after hundreds of passengers had disembarked, one later tested positive for the coronavirus. Now, health officials worry that what Cambodia opened its doors to was the outbreak, and that the world may pay a price as passengers from the cruse ship Westerdam stream home. Officials are testing those passengers still on the ship, but health authorities may be hard put to trace all the those who have headed back to their home countries. The coronavirus epidemic has been a blow to tourist-dependent businesses around the world, with China blocking tour groups from going abroad and many countries restricting entry to people from China. As China has become wealthier in recent decades, its tourists have become mainstays of shops, hotels, airlines, restaurants, museums and tour companies on multiple continents. Chinese tourists spent $277 billion abroad in 2018, up from $10 billion in 2000, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. The sudden drop in their numbers is readily apparent, whether on the Champs-Élysées, at the Colosseum or on the beaches of Bali. Italy’s government has weighed whether to provide financial support for tour group operators. Fear of the virus and travel restrictions have led to cancellation of thousands of flights and hotel bookings, and a handful of cultural and business events. Travel companies have also reported a drop in tourism by non-Chinese people who want to avoid crowded spaces.

China signaled a delay in a big government gathering.

China signaled on Monday that it would postpone the annual session of its Communist Party-dominated legislature because of the epidemic, a symbolic blow for a government that typically runs with regimented discipline. Each March, nearly 3,000 delegates gather in the Great Hall of the People, next to Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The annual full meeting of the legislature, called the National People’s Congress, is a major event in China’s political cycle. President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and other leaders were expected to lay out their agenda for the year, issue the annual budget and pass major legislation. But delay is now virtually certain, judging by an announcement from the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which oversees the legislature. It said the committee would consider voting on Monday on whether to delay the congress. It would be extremely unlikely that the proposal would be up for formal approval unless Mr. Xi had agreed it was necessary. It would be the first time in recent memory that the annual legislative session has been delayed. Even in 2003, when China was battling SARS, the congress went ahead as usual.

A Russian court ordered a quarantine escapee to return to the hospital.

A Russian court ruled on Monday that a woman who had escaped coronavirus quarantine must be forcibly isolated in a hospital, sending a clear message to all potential escapees and dodgers. To prevent the virus from taking hold in Russia, the country has closed its roughly 2,600-mile border with China and ordered the quarantine of hundreds of Russian citizens who recently returned from China. But at least five people have escaped, citing poor conditions at hospitals and frustration over their status. Alla Ilyina, the woman ordered into isolation on Monday, made headlines in Russia by carrying out an elaborate plan to escape the 14-day quarantine. On Feb. 7, she broke an electromagnetic lock in her room and fled the hospital while doctors attended to an incoming patient. Mrs. Ilyina tested negative for coronavirus upon her arrival from China. The court ruled that she would have to stay in a hospital for at least two days and get two negative coronavirus tests before she could return home. After the ruling was issued, she was taken by ambulance to the Botkin infectious diseases hospital in St. Petersburg. The only Russian citizen to test positive for the virus so far is aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.

China Inc. slowly rumbles back to life.

The world’s second-largest economy practically shut down three weeks ago as the coronavirus outbreak sickened tens of thousands of people, unexpectedly lengthening a Chinese holiday. The freeze set off warnings that the global economy could be in jeopardy if the world’s pre-eminent manufacturing powerhouse stayed shut for long. Now, as some factories rumble back into action, the monumental task of restarting China is becoming clear. China’s efforts to contain the virus are clashing with its push to get the country back to work, requiring the country’s leaders to strike a balance between keeping people safe and getting vital industries back on track. Quarantines, blocked roads and checkpoints are stopping millions of workers from returning to their jobs. Supply lines have been severed. The reopening of businesses means trying to bring together again much of China’s 700 million-strong labor force after what had become a nearly three-week national holiday. China’s containment efforts have effectively carved up the country. At least 760 million people — slightly over half the country’s population — are under various kinds of lockdown.

Chinese lawmakers consider controlling the trade in wildlife.

The coronavirus epidemic has prompted China to reconsider its trade and consumption of wildlife, which has been identified as a probable source of the outbreak. The practice is driven by desire to flaunt wealth and beliefs about health benefits from products made from certain animals. Officials drafted legislation to introduce controls and plan to present it at the next preparatory session for the annual National People’s Congress. The details of the proposal are not yet clear, but the goal is to end “the pernicious habit of eating wildlife,” according to a statement released on Monday by the Standing Committee of the congress. Although the exact origin of the coronavirus is still under investigation, health officials and scientists say it spread outward from a wholesale market in Wuhan where vendors legally sold live animals from crowded stalls in close quarters with meats and vegetables. The epidemic has inflamed public sentiment that the consumption of animals like reptiles, civets and hedgehogs is fundamentally unsafe. The trafficking of endangered or threatened wildlife is prohibited in China, but Wang Ruihe, an official with the National People’s Congress, said last week that enforcement was lax.

Australia will evacuate citizens stuck on a cruise ship, but another quarantine awaits.

Australia will evacuate more than 200 of its citizens who have been trapped on the cruise ship in Japan, and quarantine them for two more weeks at a mining camp in the northern city of Darwin, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday. The passengers, many of them elderly, will take a Qantas flight to Australia on Wednesday, he said. New Zealanders on the Diamond Princess will be able to join the flight and will be subject to quarantine in Darwin. The passengers flying out on Wednesday will join more than 200 evacuees from Wuhan, China, the center of the epidemic, who have been housed at the mining camp since last week. Australia airlifted 242 other people from Wuhan to Christmas Island, where they have been staying for two weeks. Mr. Morrison acknowledged that some of the cruise ship passengers would be frustrated by the additional two weeks in isolation. But he said that the spread of infections on the ship had forced health officials to take extra precautions.

The Tokyo Marathon is limiting the 2020 race to elite athletes.

Organizers of the Tokyo Marathon, citing the confirmation of a coronavirus case in Tokyo, are limiting the race this year to elite runners, including wheelchair elites, the event announced on its website Monday. A statement posted on the site said that all registered runners could defer their entry to the 2021 event, but that runners who defer would have to pay again and would not receive refunds for this year’s race. About 38,000 participants had signed up for the race scheduled for March 1. Of that number, 245 are elite runners and 30 are elite wheelchair athletes. The Hong Kong Marathon, scheduled for Feb. 9, was canceled as coronavirus cases in the semiautonomous Chinese city increased. Hong Kong now has 57 confirmed coronavirus cases. Japan’s Imperial Household Agency also canceled birthday celebrations for the emperor, an event within the Imperial Palace that normally draws large crowds in Tokyo. Emperor Naruhito turns 60 on Feb. 23. This would be his first birthday since he became emperor.

A heist at knifepoint and a manhunt in Hong Kong, all over toilet paper.

Three masked robbers appeared at dawn on Monday outside a Hong Kong supermarket. There, they held a deliveryman at knifepoint and made off with over $100 worth of one of the most sought after commodities in this city of seven million: toilet paper. Toilet paper has been sold out across the city for weeks after a run on the product was prompted by rumors that manufacturers in mainland China would cease production or that the border would be sealed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Retailers have dispelled the rumor, saying there is no genuine shortage. But bulk packs of toilet paper are snatched off supermarket shelves almost as soon as they are restocked, and city blocks are crowded with residents lined up at shops just to buy the product. So short is the supply that lovers exchanged individual rolls on Valentine’s Day as a sort of pragmatic joke. Online, users have offered to barter surgical masks, which actually are in short supply, for a few rolls of toilet paper. And one hoarder was shamed on social media when neighbors spotted an apartment whose windows were crowded by a wall of toilet paper rolls. The toilet paper stolen in Monday’s heist was later discovered stashed at a hotel, local news outlets reported, but the perpetrators remain at large.

A U.S. senator repeated an unsubstantiated claim about the coronavirus origins.

Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, has repeated an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that has spread from small-town China to the right-wing news media in the United States: The new coronavirus originated in a high-security biochemical lab in Wuhan. In a television interview on Fox News on Sunday, Mr. Cotton suggested that a dearth of information about the origins of the virus raised more questions than answers. “We don’t know where it originated, and we have to get to the bottom of that,” Mr. Cotton said on the program Sunday Morning Futures. He then raised the possibility that the virus originated in a “biosafety level-4 super laboratory.” Such laboratories are used for research into potentially deadly infectious diseases. “Now, we don’t have evidence that this disease originated there but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says, and China right now is not giving evidence on that question at all,” he added. After receiving criticism for lending credence to what has been largely considered a fringe theory, the senator took to Twitter to say he did not necessarily think the virus was an “engineered bioweapon.” Research and reporting was contributed by Russell Goldman, Austin Ramzy, Ivan Nechepurenko, Steven Lee Myers, Claire Fu, Tiffany May, Richard C. Paddock, Sui-Lee Wee, Alexandra Stevenson, Roni Caryn Rabin, Ben Dooley and Keith Bradsher. Read the full article

#Cruise #Flown #health #HealthNews #Infected #Passengers #Ship

[chelseaonjta-blog]

the 2 major Ms of my JTA: Morocco

woooo i’m back!

life update: it’s now UPF’s exam week(s), and i have 17 days left in barcelona! i dont know what to feel…now that i’m near the finish line, I feel like time flew by so fast. But I remember being in Feb or March and feeling like time was moving _soooooo _slow. and now that i’m about to leave, I’m starting to REALLY enjoy JTA. i’m starting to make new friends and be closer to them, going on trips i’m really enjoying, seeing a different culture, and being more excited for my classes even! (ok i was always excited about international journalism, but i found my 2nd wind for Spanish outta nowhere and i’m a nerd so i’m actually enjoying doing research for sociology class…)

but anyway. maybe i should look into that deeper. or maybe i won’t, because i’m always so scared of my own feelings hahahahhsskjdnkjsn

so. my 2 major Ms – Morocco and Madrid!!!! first:

Morocco

yo. I loved Morocco! what a different experience. I, being dumb, didn’t even consider that it wasn’t part of the EU. I knew it was in Africa, but for some reason I thought it was part of the EU???? i don’t know, man, i don’t know. i was suddenly hit by the fact that I was in Africa when I landed. About time, I know but…wow. this goes without saying, but being in Africa is so different from being in Europe. and I loved it. I loved being away from picture perfect Europe, where everything was so similar that it started getting boring.

Morocco reminded me a lot of Manila. It was hot, it was crazy, there were sketchy people and people trying to sell you stuff everywhere. It was Manila but in Africa. And I think that’s why I appreciated it a lot more than I would’ve if I had come in March or something. I think I came at the perfect time too because it was end of May, right after a slew of trips in Europe and I was starting to get bored with how old and stuffy Europe was.

I guess it made me miss home too. It was all so Manila-esque. Manila’s probably a little better than Morocco, but the vibe was definitely there.

oh and legina went with us too! so that was really fun. she’s a lot of fun to be with!

so the first day we went to this palace thing which wasn’t really all that great. i don’t remember much of it really…i guess i’m over the whole palace thing hahaha. then we ate some REALLY good food. i remember the food from morocco really well…

Tajine is AMAZING. its like chicken/beef/lamb roasted in vegetables and herbs cooked in this special pot. and it was heaven. so we had our first tajine then we walked around Jemaa Al-Fna and bought some really good shakes! Moroccans are extremely sensitive though - we bought from this one guy and on our way to his stall we ignored the neighboring stall. the neighbour started looking dirty at us and getting angry that we were taking pictures with the drinks and with our food stall guy named…Anas (I think that was his name). that didn’t stop us though – picturing we went!

couldn’t get a picture of the main square, it was so hectic but hahaha it was all very salmon colored and fruit stands.

what made this trip for me though was something that happened at night. Morocco’s predominantly Muslim, and they were nearing the end of Ramadan by the time we went. at around 6pm, we got hungry and asked the hostel lady if we could order dinner at the hostel. she said ok, but that she would only start cooking at 8pm, because before then she’d be preparing for the end of day Ramadan feast. and so we sat there while she prepared and converted half the lobby into a dinner area. and it was SOOO cool. at the end of ramadan there’s this really loud sound that goes through the entire city. it’s not a pretty sound, it sounds short of that emergency sound that means you need to evacuate immediately. and right at that time, it’s like everyone stops. we walked around on day 2 and 3 and really...everyone is QUIET at this time because they’re all eating. so the hostel people all gathered together to start eating. it wasn’t noisy or whatever, it was just a meal shared by people who worked together who had the same faith. it looked a lot like a family. everyone was just quiet when they ate, but there was an air of solemnity there. 

it amazed me how these people (and almost everyone in Morocco) could practice their faith without anyone telling them to do so. they literally dropped everything to eat at the end of the day (understandable cause they were hungry)...which meant that they really did fast for the rest of the day. and they weren’t just at home or whatever: they were working people. they had jobs. they got tired. they had to deal with their 37-40 degree heat and not eat a thing. they couldn’t even have water. what faith and loyalty these people had!!

day 2!

day 2 was alot of fun. we booked this airbnb experience thing - credits to bianca for always finding such nice and cheap things to do. 

we got to do a lot of fun things. i was wondering what to wear because the description said there would be a hike involved, but because of how hot it was i wanted to wear a dress (also cause i didn’t bring appropriate pants). i went for it. i wore the dress. and no regrets! 

it was an extremely fun day, and it was something i wouldn’t find anywhere else. our host, Ibri, was super fun and welcoming. he brought us first to this camel place. I RODE A CAMEL!!! which is a big feat for me because i’m uneasy around animals. we got to wear these cool costumes too.

it was pretty cool. then after our camel ride we had Moroccan tea. I love Moroccan tea now - it makes me relaxed. plus they like to put sugar so of course I like that too hehe. we then went to this Argan oil cooperative where we tried different sauces with our bread -- the sauces were Argan oil, olive oil, this peanut butter-y thing and honey. all really good, and even the olive oil tasted a lot richer than regular oil! i got some argan oil and argan soap too. can’t wait to try it!

^ our view otw to the cooperative. where else can you find places like this?!

we then went to start our hike. it wasn’t too hard, but there were some parts that made me lose my breath. but it was all worth it! we passed by a waterfall too on our way up. it was all so beautiful and real. i definitely wouldn’t have gotten this anywhere else. maybe for this one pictures do speak a thousand words:

the last one: Ibri’s view from his HOUSE TERRACE. beautiful!!!

then we had lunch at Ibri’s place. his “lovely mother” (as stated in the airbnb description) cooked for us. and wow...it was great.

yes, that last one is just monggo with...bread. weird but good! and that was an appetizer! it was an amazing experience, and i’m really glad we took it. i really would not have experience this anywhere else. and _that’s _the kind of feeling i was looking for when i went on JTA. after being around Europe and seeing the same designs and the same _vibe _from everywhere, I was relieved to finally be somewhere else. 

after lunch, we hiked backed down and said goodbye to Ibri. we then went to our hostel and rested for a bit (it was so hot). we then talked a bit with Bruno, a Portuguese guy who is super friendly but who was pretty talkative. he apparently travels a loooot. he came to manila, and he super enjoyed _Manila. _not Boracay, not Palawan (he went there too) but MANILA. what a guy. after Morocco, he was going to Madrid, then Norway, South Africa, South Korea...we all thought this guys was rich. we’re probably right. he was really friendly...for the other girls, he was a little too friendly. but i think that we’re just not used to this hostel kind of culture. it’s shocking for me, but to my merit (or detriment), i just go along with people’s trip. or better in filipino - hindi ako nagbabasag ng trip. which sometimes sucks for me because people are joking and i pretend to take them seriously on whatever dumb shit they’re doing and they think i believe them :< well . that’s what i get for being nice...HAHAHA well it’s not a bad thing. but i digress (as always!)

so anyway we went out again and tried some really good night market food. it was a lot cooler at night too, so it was enjoyable to walk around. it was a pleasant evening!

[vileart]

Updated: Heads up on Tour, 2017. Kieran Hurley @ across the UK

Heads Up

Kieran Hurley with Show And Tell

credit: Jassy Earl

A city. Just like this. Right now. A woman staggers home after a two-day bender. A priest who doesn’t believe in God stares blankly at the endless disasters on the TV news. A finance worker tears down a Keep Calm And Carry On sign outside a Café Nero. In just one moment, all their worlds will end. With an original innovative score by Michael John McCarthy, multi award-winner Kieran Hurley (Beats, Chalk Farm, Hitch) weaves a picture of a familiar city at its moment of destruction, asking what would we do if we found ourselves at the end of our world as we know it.

Tron Theatre

63 Trongate, Glasgow, G1 5HB

Wednesday 22 February 2017 (as part of TAKE ME SOMEWHERE, a new citywide festival of contemporary performance that builds on the legacy of The Arches arts programme)

7.45pm | £14 (£10)

Tickets: 0141 552 4267 | www.tron.co.uk

Traverse Theatre (Traverse 2)

10 Cambridge Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2ED

Thursday 23 – Saturday 25 February 2017

Post show discussion: Thursday 23 Feb 2017

8pm | £16.50 (£13.50/£8.50)

Tickets: 0131 228 1404 | www.traverse.co.uk

Crewe Axis Arts Centre

Cheshire Campus, Manchester Metropolitan University, Crewe Green Rd Crewe, CW1 5DU

Thursday 2 March 2017 

7.30pm | £8 (£5)

Tickets:  0843 2080 500 | http://ift.tt/1H1L78a

Dundee Rep Theatre

Tay Square, Dundee, DD1 1PB

Tuesday 14 March 2017

7.30pm | £14

Tickets:  01382 223530 | www.dundeerep.co.uk

Crucible Theatre (Studio Theatre)

55 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, S1 1DA

Thursday 16 March 2017

7.45pm | £12

Tickets: 0114 249 6000 | http://ift.tt/Z3Lm6I

Battersea Arts Centre

Lavender Hill, London, SW11 5TN

Monday 20 – Saturday 25 March 2017 | £10 (all tickets)

Monday 27 March – Saturday 1 April 2017 | £12.50 (£10)

8pm

Tickets: 020 7223 2223 | www.bac.org.uk

Oxford Playhouse

Oxford Burton Taylor Studio, 11 - 12 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2LW 

Monday 3 April 2017

8pm | £10

Tickets: 01865 305305 | http://ift.tt/NsSQwI 

Marlborough Theatre

4 Prince's Street, Brighton, BN2 1RD

Tuesday 4 April 2017

8pm | £12 (£10)

Tickets: 01273 570028 | http://ift.tt/1OvbEQ7

South Street Arts Centre

21 South Street, Reading, RG1 4QU

Wednesday 5 April 2017

8pm | £12 (£10)

Tickets: 0118 960 6060 | http://ift.tt/2jFeTpKstreet 

Northern Stage

Barras Bridge, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 7RH

Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 April 2017

7.45pm | £10 (£8)

Tickets: 0191 230 5151| http://ift.tt/S38ALY

HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN

Thursday 18 – Saturday 20 May 2017

7pm (Thu & Fri) // 2.15pm & 7.45pm (Sat only) | £10 (£8)

Tickets: 0161 200 1500 | www.homemcr.org

ARC, Stockton Arts Centre Dovecot Street, Stockton on Tees, TS18 1LL

Thursday 8 June 2017

7pm | Pay what you decide

Tickets: 01642 525199 | www.arconline.co.uk

What was the inspiration for this performance? I don't think it's possible to point to one singular moment of inspiration for a show - at least not this one - so I'll be a bit annoying and avoid answering the question directly.  I wanted to make something that was about how it feels to live in a

world that is built on catastrophe. I was aware - for myself at least - of this world we find ourselves living in feeling more and more like a constant cavalcade of crisis. The disaster of now.  I also think it feels like we're living in times of great change, like the end of something big, be it this particular stage of capitalism, or old certainties around nationhood and social structures. I knew I wanted to think around some of this stuff, and I wanted to do it by telling an apocalypse story. I also really wanted to make something in a kind of DIY way again, like I did when I was first starting out working in a room in the Arches basement collaborating with musicians or whoever before a word was even written. You'd know a show was going to happen at the end of it because there was a date in the programme where I'd stand in front of a room with a microphone with some people. I'd begun to miss some of the urgency and immediacy of making work and meeting an audience in this way, so I rang up Tom Searle (of Show And Tell) who helped me get the necessary stuff in place and away we went. How did you go about gathering the team for it? After Tom came on board I brought in Alex Swift, who I've been developing a completely different piece with and who I've built quite an important working relationship with over these last couple of years. Alex and I spent some time supported the Playwrights' Studio experimenting with stuff do with form and storytelling and he's really made a significant mark on the work.  I tend to work with musicians a lot, and I thought of MJ McCarthy for this because of how versatile and collaborative he is and also because he's got a really sharp dramaturgical brain as well as a musical one. Julia Taudevin has had a major hand in everything I've ever made that I perform in, so I knew I wanted her by my side for this again. 

It's true that there's no such thing as a solo show, and everything I do is really collaborative because it's theatre. I knew that I wanted this show to be kind of back-to-basics in terms of process, but that I wanted to take risks and make new demands on myself through that - so I needed a team that I could trust but who could also challenge me and breathe a different kind life into what I do. How did you become interested in making performance? Dunno, really. I liked drama at school, I suppose. I have a running joke that I probably always just wanted to be in a band but can't play an instrument, so ended up doing this - hence my longstanding admiration for and collaboration with musicians of various stripes. Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance? Yes and no, in that there are different strands to what I do I think. In terms of this kind of writer-performer work, I suppose it is typical in that I was in a room with some collaborators before the script is even close to finished and that music is a big part of it. But the process towards making each show always feels completely different. I don't have a rule book.

What do you hope that the audience will experience? That's a tricky question and I don't know if I know how to answer it to be honest. It's stories, I just tell stories. My stuff has often been described as political, and that's probably true but so is everything else, all the time, always.  I can tell you that I think this piece is more challenging than a lot of my previous work, both formally and in tone. It's more angry, more hurt, more difficult - and I want it to be difficult. Sometimes difficulty feels like the most appropriate response to the way the world is. Or maybe it's just a reflection of where I'm at just now. I wasn't interested in revisiting the warm-hearted fuzzy optimism of some of my early stuff, like Hitch. That said, I do hope and believe that there is heart and humanity in here. I hope it cares for its audience. I hope there are still some laughs. What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience? With all the love in the world for both critics and academics (I tried to be one once, don't you know) I do think this is the kind of question that only one of you guys could really come up with. I've chewed it over and I can't think of a helpful way of answering it and I think it's because, for me, the "strategies of shaping the experience" are just like, the whole of the thing of making the show. It's really important but so fundamental that it's actually pretty hard to summarise it in a general way, and a lot of it is way more instinctive than the question suggests. What I can say is that I realised recently that basically everything I've made has been a variation on a search for connection and community in the face of a hugely atomised and isolating world. It's about a belief that we need each other, even when the world we've built seems set-up towards the opposite.  And theatre can be a good place to unpick some of this, for obvious reasons. The real reason I continue to persevere with theatre, for all that it infuriates me a lot of the time, is that I still think that theatre and the stories that live within it can create a space for us to meet with each other and take stock of where we're at, together. And that that matters. So in terms of strategies for shaping the audience experience - that sense of meeting an audience, of being present and alive to each other is, for me, always at the forefront of everything.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition? Not really, if I'm honest, in that I think that's for other people to decide. There's definitely overlap between what I do and what many of my peers do, and there are other people who I admire hugely, of course. But it'd be presumptuous of me to place myself in a lineage of artists that are better than me,

from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2jfO1QF

#Theatre #Blogger #visual art #Edinburgh Fringe #Experimental Critique

[mastcomm]

Fed Focused on Coronavirus Fallout at January Meeting

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged at their January meeting as the economy grew steadily, but they spent their meeting reviewing risks to the outlook — including fresh concerns about the coronavirus that had begun to take hold in China.

Minutes from the Fed’s Jan. 28 and 29 meeting showed that officials called the new coronavirus “a new risk to the global growth outlook.” At the time, the outbreak had killed more than 100 people and sickened about 5,000. It has continued to spread since, causing more than 2,000 deaths and infecting more than 75,000 people.

Central bankers have been cautious about predicting how much the virus will affect the United States economy, though they have made it clear that they expect some spillover. Swaths of China have ground to a standstill as authorities try to contain the virus by shuttering factories and enforcing quarantines, disrupting trade and tourism. Factories across the nation are reopening, but haltingly.

The Fed is monitoring how the economic fallout in China bears on American growth and inflation.

“The question for us really is: What will be the effects on the U.S. economy? Will they be persistent, will they be material?” Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, told lawmakers while testifying last week. “We know that there will be some, very likely to be some effects on the United States. I think it’s just too early to say.”

Fed officials have signaled that they plan to leave policy unchanged as they wait to see how the economy shapes up in 2020. That patient stance comes after central bankers cut interest rates three times last year in a bid to insulate the economy against fallout from President Trump’s trade war and a slowdown abroad.

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.

While an initial trade deal with China has alleviated some uncertainty that dogged America’s economy last year, tensions are not fully resolved. Beyond that, manufacturing remains slow and business investment is still weak.

“Participants generally expected trade-related uncertainty to remain somewhat elevated, and they were mindful of the possibility that the tentative signs of stabilization in global growth could fade,” according to the January minutes. Against that backdrop, they saw the current policy as “likely to remain appropriate for a time.”

Interest rates are currently set in a range between 1.5 and 1.75 percent. That is below the Fed’s longer-run estimate of where its rate will settle, and officials believe the current stance should give the economy a slight boost.

The central bank’s next meeting will take place March 17 and 18 in Washington. Since the January gathering, Fed officials have consistently signaled that they remain comfortable leaving rates unchanged for now, unless an economic surprise knocks them off that course.

Policymakers also discussed the future of their bond-buying program at their meeting last month. The central bank has been snapping up $60 billion in Treasury bills per month since mid-October. Officials say the program is a technical fix meant to prevent a money market disruption that happened in September from repeating.

The Fed had just stopped shrinking its bond holdings, swollen by post-crisis stimulus programs, when rates in the obscure but important market for short-term lending between banks temporarily jumped. Officials concluded that they may have gone too far in draining reserves — deposits at the Fed — from the financial system, contributing to that cash crunch.

To fix the problem, they swelled their balance sheet holdings using a combination of short-term operations and bill purchases. Now, the size of those temporary programs is shrinking, and bill purchases are being used to make sure that reserves in the financial system stay at what the Fed considers an “ample” level.

Lorie Logan, who oversees the open market account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said that conditions would support slowing Treasury bill purchases in the second quarter of this year.

“As reserves reached durably ample levels, we intend to slow our purchases to a pace that will allow our balance sheet to grow in line with trend demand for our liabilities,” Mr. Powell told lawmakers last week, meaning that the balance sheet would grow along with the economy.

Central bankers also discussed a longer-running problem at the January gathering: inflation has remained below policy maker’s 2 percent goal even as the unemployment rate lingers near half-century lows and the economy grows steadily.

“A few participants stressed that the Committee should be more explicit about the need to achieve its inflation goal on a sustained basis,” the minutes said. Several said that “mild overshooting” might help the Fed to reinforce that its goal is symmetric, meaning that officials want price gains to oscillate around 2 percent rather than hovering below that level.

If prices grow too slowly, it diminishes the central bank’s already-limited room to cut interest rates in a recession, since the federal funds rate incorporates price gains. As of December, the central bank’s preferred price index accelerated by just 1.6 percent.

While Fed officials are hopeful that inflation will rise toward its 2 percent target in 2020, they have expressed a similar optimism for years, only to repeatedly fall short.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/business/fed-focused-on-coronavirus-fallout-at-january-meeting/

#Business

[goldeagleprice]

Letters to the Editor (Apr. 3, 2018)

(Image courtesy www.usmint.gov)

First Philadelphia cent shows up at a restaurant

I received my first 2018 cents in change at a restaurant in Concord, N.C. on Feb. 26.

Bill Watts Concord, N.H.

  Counterfeit Morgan dollar shows widespread problem

As a long-timer subscriber to Numismatic News, I am constantly amazed by the out-of-touch-with-reality situation at the U.S. Mint. Since they have received no complaints about counterfeit U.S. coins, maybe mine will be the first. I have a 1889-CC Morgan dollar that is counterfeit. I obtained it recently as a throw-in to a bunch of Morgans that I was purchasing. It is not in mint state condition, which would have aroused suspicion quickly, but is worn and darkened. I weighed it and found it to be a bit light, the “CC” mintmark looks phony, and it doesn’t have a sliver “Ring” sound. I took it to a local reputable dealer who verified my suspicions.

Can I mail this counterfeit to you and ask you to forward it to the Mint so they will finally realize that there is a true problem? Should I use the address listed in the title page of the magazine?

Paul Kubala Rootstown, Ohio

  Editor’s note: Keep it for now. Perhaps the industry Council for Tangible Assets will want it in the future. The issue with the Mint presently is not lack of evidence but lack of interest on their part. Let’s see what other readers have to say.

  That looks like an 1888-O not an 1880-O silver dollar

I LOVE LOVE NN … been getting it since day 1 … I still wish you’d put out maybe once a year a Canada coin price guide … but last time you said no way … on page 54 I hope you know by now that your 1880-O silver dollar is actually an 1888 … yes its no biggy at all – but just a comment to make your publication even better than an A grade publication – Have a super year … Take care. Gary Kruesel Address withheld

Editor’s note: That is indeed the wrong photograph. Sorry. Thanks for writing.

  Coinstar reject chutes yield interesting finds

In a recent “Best of buzz” column, Mr. Harper asks us readers “When was the last time you found a silver coin in your change?”

It wasn’t exactly in my change, but it was in circulation – left in the reject chute of a Coinstar counting machine. It is a 1960-D FDR dime. But wait! There’s more! Going farther back in time, I’ve also collected a 1956-D quarter and another silver dime dated 1964 recently.

The oldest silver coin I found (again in the Coinstar reject) was an 1857 Trime (three-cent piece). How was this in circulation for 160 years without being culled out by some collector before me? I don’t know. All those years passing for a dime? I doubt it.

Most likely it was somebody’s lucky coin until an heir gathered up all Grandpa’s (or Great Grandpa’s) loose change from a forgotten desk drawer and taken to the Coinstar. We’ll never really know. (If coins could talk!)

Bill Tuttle, Cleveland, Ohio

  First new coin finds not happening in Queens

I read your Feb. 16 column regarding reports of 2018 coins in commerce. I am a collector who lives in New York City and specifically in the Borough of Queens.

Regarding the premise that new coins typically appear in major cities on the Atlantic seaboard, based on 30 years of collecting from circulation, I believe the opposite is true. When I read these annual columns, I feel like I am missing out.

I rarely see the current year’s coins in pocket change before summer. Dimes are usually the first to appear in May or June. Quarters and cents typically appear in late summer and that year’s nickels appear in the fall. The current year’s cents continue to be rare until around November, when every drawer has a roll of new cents.

New coins first appear at big-box retailers, such as Home Depot, Stop and Shop (northeast grocery store), or McDonald’s. I see the current year’s coins at stores in the suburbs of Long Island before I do in Manhattan. (I used to work across the street from the Federal Reserve).

When I travel to the Midwest, or even Pennsylvania or western New York, I often see that year’s coins for the first time.

Certainly your information is probably based on real statistics on where the treasury delivers coins, but invariably, in New York City, those coins must be sitting in banks or coin distributors or somewhere until late in the year. I am not seeing them.

Also, in case you are wondering half dollars are no longer accessible at banks in this area and must be special-ordered. Regarding silver coins, they come in waves. One year, I will find several dimes and maybe a quarter. Then five years with nothing will go by, before I get another lucky year.

Wheat cents going back to the 1920s and Jeffersons going back to 1940 come around all the time. However, its been about 10 years since I picked up a war nickel in change.

Clark Whitsett Richmond Hill, N.Y

  New 2018 cents appear in another town

I responded recently about not having received a current year coin. Just this week have begun seeing 2018 cents. Still no 2017-D though. Cents are the only ones so far.

Steven B. Gray Sylva, N.C

  Reader questions grade of silver dollar rarity

Can you tell me how PCGS can assign a grade of Proof-65 for the Dexter specimen of the 1804 Draped Bust dollar?

If God himself punched a “G” in the cloud on the reverse, it would come back as “ Unc details – Graffiti.”

Name withheld

  Now the new year nickels have begun to arrive

I just received three 2018-D Jefferson nickels in change at the CasaBlanca Casino & Resort in Mesquite, Nev.

Roger Putzler Albany, Ore.

  Back to nickels after nearly half a century

Got a kick out of the Ginger Rapsus article on Jefferson nickels. It was very much like my own experience with Jeffersons that I started as a boy back in the 1950s. After completing my various type sets I saw my unfinished nickels with 1959 the last coins in the album. Found two 1950-Ds back then. I decided to complete my set using only what I found in circulation. Took me five months and some 50,000+ nickels later with the 1954-P the last one.

My wife asked how much is this last treasure worth? I replied “less than 50 cents” so why don’t I just buy it? Really?! I guess she just didn’t get it!

Frank Henry Address withheld

  What’s the matter with your eyesight, Mr. editor?

I know that at the beginning of a new calendar year many publications make the error of using the date for the previous year by mistake, i.e., Numismatic News first issue of this year was dated 2017 rather than 2018.

But come Mr. Harper, your proof reader needs a break. Here it is March 8, 2018, and I just received my March 6 edition and lo and behold the Mint Statistics page is showing sales figures for the 2017 Commemorative Coins I do believe the box for these coins, World War I commemoratives should read 2018 Commemorative Coins.

Gerald d’Aquin Harvey, La.

Editor’s note: Thanks for spotting the error.

  This article was originally printed in Numismatic News. >> Subscribe today.

  More Collecting Resources

• Are you a U.S. coin collector? Check out the 2019 U.S. Coin Digest for the most recent coin prices.

• Check out the newly-updated Standard Catalog of World Coins, 2001-Date that provides accurate identification, listing and pricing information for the latest coin releases.

The post Letters to the Editor (Apr. 3, 2018) appeared first on Numismatic News.

#Precious Metals

[awesomecolorfulcollectorwombat]

Will Tesla Have To Pre-Announce A 42% Q1 Sales Miss?

New Post has been published on http://indolargeprints.com/will-tesla-have-to-pre-announce-a-42-q1-sales-miss/

Will Tesla Have To Pre-Announce A 42% Q1 Sales Miss?

We all know that Tesla’s (TSLA) Model 3 sales have already fallen way behind Tesla’s guidance this quarter. Its guidance has been for 400,000 Model 3 units in 2018, for a total of 500,000 units when adding 100,000 from the Model S and X columns.

With 1,875 Model 3 units in January and 2,485 in February, the Model 3 already is looking like an epic miss of Olympian proportions. At 2,500 per month, that would be a measly 30,000 a year, or more than a 90% shortfall from the 400,000 per year guidance. Adding insult to injury, Tesla admitted in its February 7 financial report that the Model 3 has negative gross margin even at a selling price that’s currently starting at $50,000. One certainly understands the company’s reluctance to start selling the $36,000 version.

But enough about the Model 3 for a change. Seeing as the Model 3 is suffering from an amazing inability to enter proper volume production, Tesla is left with selling its existing models – Model S and X. So, how are they doing?

Let’s start with the six countries in Europe that as of the time of this writing (Saturday) have reported February month numbers to their respective government registration authorities:

Model S+X

Jan-Feb 2017

Oct-Nov 2017

Jan-Feb 2018

sequentially

year/year

Norway

467

1288

296

-77%

-37%

Germany

353

422

237

-44%

-33%

Belgium

138

144

76

-47%

-45%

Austria

115

108

52

-52%

-55%

Sweden

179

148

48

-68%

-73%

Finland

42

30

4

-87%

-90%

TOTAL

1294

2140

713

-67%

-45%

As you can see in the table above, it’s a massacre. No matter whether you compare the two first months of this quarter with the first two months of the previous quarter, or the one a year ago, sales are down by epic proportions. Down 45% from last year, and down 67% from last quarter.

Alright, I know from geography class that Europe consists of more countries than just six. While these six countries are among Tesla’s top dozen countries in Europe, they are unfortunately the only ones who reported February numbers as of this writing.

Therefore, in the interest of fairness and as a “double-check” on these numbers, let’s look at the other six top Tesla European countries for the January-only comparisons. These comparisons are vs. January a year ago, and the first month in the previous quarter – October 2017:

Model S+X

Jan 2017

Oct 2017

Jan 2018

sequentially

year/year

UK

325

327

139

-57%

-57%

Holland

115

175

77

-56%

-33%

Switzerland

103

155

15

-90%

-85%

Italy

20

59

29

-51%

45%

Spain

23

23

23

0%

0%

France

72

93

12

-87%

-83%

TOTAL

658

832

295

-65%

-55%

As you can see in the table above, the situation is remarkably similar to the one for the other six countries for whom we have not only January numbers, but also February. These are down 65% vs. 67% for the other half-dozen countries. Year over year, these are down 55% vs.45% for the other. Split the difference, and we’re at a nice round 50% year-over-year decline.

Just like Europe doesn’t consist of six countries, the world doesn’t consist of only Europe either. Let’s add Tesla’s home market, the U.S., to this analysis. We do this by virtue of getting the January and February Model S and X numbers from Insideevs, the agreed-to-by-all-parties most accurate estimator of Tesla monthly U.S. sales numbers: here.

Tesla USA

Jan-Feb 2017

Oct-Nov 2017

Jan-Feb 2018

sequentially

year/year

Model S

2650

2455

1925

-22%

-27%

Model X

1550

2725

1575

-42%

2%

TOTAL

4200

5180

3500

-32%

-17%

As you can see in the table above, Tesla’s Model S and X sales in the U.S. are down this year, but not as much as they are in Europe. They are down 32% sequentially and 17% year over year. Those are horrible numbers, but not as bad as the declines in Europe that are more than twice as bad.

So what if we aggregate Tesla’s top six countries in Europe that have reported February numbers, with the U.S. estimates from Insideevs? What’s the combined result?

Tesla US+E

Jan-Feb 2017

Oct-Nov 2017

Jan-Feb 2018

sequentially

year/year

Europe

1294

2140

713

-67%

-45%

USA

4200

5180

3500

-32%

-17%

TOTAL

5494

7320

4213

-42%

-23%

As you can see in the table above, Tesla’s combined Model S and X sales so far this year, between the U.S. and six of Tesla’s top countries in Europe, are down 42% sequentially from the first two months of the previous quarter, and down 23% from a year ago.

So which of these two numbers – a 42% sequential decline and a 23% year-over-year decline – is most relevant? Frankly, I don’t care. Argue it as you wish. Pick your favorite plague and compare it with your favorite cholera. Tesla is trading at a hyper-valuation, based on a hyper-multiple, and is therefore supposed to be a hyper-growth company. If the product was extremely profitable and there were no balance sheet issues or any other “hair” on the story, year-over-year growth of 50% or 100% or something like that, might be considered acceptable for a hyper-growth company.

But not a decline of 42% or a decline of 23%.

Of course, there are at least two factors that we do not know in order to complete the picture for the quarter:

Sales outside Europe and the U.S.

Sales in the month of March.

It’s entirely possible that the Model S and X are able to dig themselves out of the massive hole created by a 42% decline thus far from last quarter, in Europe and the U.S. combined. For starters, Tesla sells to some other countries. Maybe China is having a monster quarter? Perhaps Zimbabwe or Uzbekistan are coming to the rescue? I’m sure some eccentric billionaires in Iceland and New Zealand can pitch in for a few cars.

I have not found reliable February numbers from China. For January, the Tesla China numbers were a disaster: here.

Basically, the Tesla Model X sold only 500 units in China, putting it behind not only one, but two, Trumpchi models (no, I kid you not), as the two Trumpchis sold a collective 1,043 units. Year over year, the Tesla Model X number was down from 624 last year: here. That’s a decline of 20%.

Adding insult to injury, the Tesla Model S sold only 330 units in China in January, bumping it off the top-20 best-selling plug-in list. Cadillac’s (GM) plug-in luxury sedan, the CT6, outsold it with 451 units. Yes, Cadillac.

All that said, the situation in China is simple and most brutal: The top 15 best-selling plug-in cars are domestic Chinese brands that we never see here in the West. In this context, Tesla is going from being an already tiny player in China to somewhere way to the right of the decimal point. It’s simply not a factor, and the 20% decline in the Model X this year suggests confirmation of that tailspin.

Now of course, we are on the lookout for reliable February numbers from China. Perhaps January was a fluke, and Tesla turns it around the second half of the quarter. An update to this article will be due, at some point within the next few weeks.

More generally, we know that Tesla’s quarters always are extremely back-end loaded. Looking historically, almost regardless of geography, the last month in the quarter tends to be by far the biggest.

I have no reason to believe that pattern won’t repeat itself yet again this quarter. However, that also raises the hurdle for what Tesla needs to accomplish in the month of March. With the sequential and year-over-year comps being so high for the final month of the quarter in the past, that leaves precious little room for error this time around March 2018.

Does Tesla have to pre-announce a 42% March quarter sales miss?

We are now four weeks away from the end of the March quarter. Given shipment times to overseas markets, Tesla’s direct sales model, and 3-6 week delivery time for its tiny rate of Model 3 units leaving the factory, Tesla’s management knows right now with some relative precision what its March quarter deliveries will be. Tesla cannot claim to be surprised, in the last week of the quarter, as to what the number turned out to be. That’s simply not a valid excuse for a company which should know this number with a high degree of accuracy at least a month in advance.

For that reason, and with the background of 1Q looking like a 42% miss based on all available numbers, Tesla had better “know” already now, that it can overcome this sales deficit, in order to avoid having to pre-announce a sales miss, before its usual reporting schedule. Remember, Tesla’s policy is to announce a quarter’s deliveries at some point within the first five days of the quarter’s end. We would normally expect Tesla to report the quarterly number right around April 3.

This would be the right thing to do under any normal circumstance, in any quarter. However, this quarter Tesla may have raised the bar on its reporting requirement for any potential shortfall. Why? Because it told one media outlet – BusinessInsider – apparently on February 21 or shortly before, that “Tesla confirmed to Business Insider that the Model S and X delays are due to an increase in demand…”: here.

So what Tesla said – or at least implied to anyone understanding plain English – at that stage of the quarter, was basically that business was not only good, but improving. Given that every single Tesla sales number, from every single geography, that I showed above, was not only bad, but an outright catastrophe, how could Tesla’s statement to BusinessInsider be even remotely true?

I suppose that there is only one way out. Tesla’s statement could, perhaps, be interpreted to have had some accuracy if it knew at the time, based on backlog and shipment schedules, that the month of March was going to redeem itself to the point where there would be massive sales increases beyond the market’s expectations.

If Tesla did not know that at the time, then the clock is now urgently ticking for Tesla to pre-announce what its expected March quarter sales number is expected to be. Tesla knows what the Wall Street consensus number is. Does it have reason to believe it will fall short, despite telling BusinessInsider on February 21 that it is experiencing “an increase in demand?”

Let’s add it all up, where Telsa stands two-thirds through the March quarter (all lines not saying “Model 3” are of course Model S and X only, for Model 3 is sold only in North America thus far):

Europe top 6 countries Jan-Feb

713

Europe other 6 countries Jan

295

Europe other 6 countries Feb (est)

450

Other Europe Jan-Feb (est)

100

North America Jan-Feb

3500

China Jan

830

China Feb (est)

1000

Rest of World Jan-Feb (est)

300

Model 3

4360

TOTAL

11548

As you can see in the table above, based on the best available data to date, plus some estimates to fill the remaining gaps, Tesla sold 11,548 cars in January and February. What is the Wall Street consensus for the March quarter? It’s somewhere around 40,000 units, right? 25,000 Model S and X, plus 15,000 Model 3.

If Tesla knows that it did approximately 11,548 units in January and February combined, and it knows at this point that getting to approximately 40,000 for the March quarter as a whole is all but impossible, is it required to let the investing public know as soon as possible, right now, or is it permissible to wait until after the quarter has ended?

Let’s assume that Tesla magically manages to sell as many cars in March as it did in January and February combined. That means it would end the quarter at 23,096 units (2 x 11,548). Divide by 40,000 and you have 58%. In other words, a 42% shortfall. If you lock in the combined US plus Europe table above, that also yielded a 42% sales decline from the previous quarter.

Amazing coincidence, right? A 42% March quarter sales shortfall, either way.

So when will Tesla pre-announce the number? Will it wait until April 3, plus or minus a couple of days, or will it first try to raise money before it ends up disclosing a material shortfall in sales?

Disclosure: I am/we are short TSLA.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Additional disclosure: At the time of submitting this article for publication, the author was short TSLA and long GM. However, positions can change at any time. The author regularly attends press conferences, new vehicle launches and equivalent, hosted by most major automakers.

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[psychicguild]

The AstroGirl Horoscopes - Free Monthly Horoscope

AstroGirl brings us our monthly horoscopes to give us that overview of the month ahead which thousands have grown to love.

Choose your star sign:

Aquarius

January 27, you birthday peeps experienced an important annual event - an extremely vitalizing New Moon in your sign. Never underestimate the power of a positive New Moon, especially when setting out on a new venture - such as a new business, relationship or lifestyle change.

Be very careful with your wallet or purse around February 26, when the Solar Eclipse in your 2nd house of personal finances and money matters all done up in distracted Pisces could have you misplacing your plastic or cash or both. Be on guard too for someone with a sob story who is looking for a ‘loan’...if you do lend them money don’t expect to see it paid back anytime soon if at all.

YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 9, 13, 20 & 23 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 2, 8, 21 & 26 FRIENDS: LEOS and ARIES FRENEMIES: CANCERS & VIRGOS

PISCES

Venus and Mars spend the month in your 2nd house of self-esteem and self-worth. Money and how you spend it, save it and view it overall will be very much on your cosmic radar this month. And with Venus spending the next few months in this part of your chart - through early June - creating a workable budget and sticking to it is imperative Pisces.

YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 6, 11, 18 & 25 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 8, 21, 26 & 27 FRIENDS: SCORPIOS & VIRGOS FRENEMIES: ARIES and LEOS

ARIES

February 8 and 23 are stand out professional days for you. The emotional Moon will jump into a testy situation with expansive Jupiter, shocking Uranus and no-nonsense Pluto on Feb 8 Aries, activating your solar chart in a very big way. If you’re ready to talk with your employer about that raise, bonus or promotion - or about giving you more freedom at work - February 23 is the date to do it. Authority figures will be open to even the most outrageous ideas. Now’s the time to make your case for working from home too.

YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 9, 13, 16 & 23 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 7, 10, 15 & 21 FRIENDS: SAGITTARIUS & LIBRA FRENEMIES: CAPRICORN & CANCER

TAURUS

The main headline this month are the 2 eclipses - one Lunar in Leo and one Solar in Pisces. These eclipses are guaranteed to shake things up - the Leo eclipse transiting your 4th house of home and family, the Pisces Solar Eclipse in your 11th house of hopes and wishes. These are the first eclipses of 2017 and are in very different signs - fire and water. The Solar Eclipse will impact on the home and family as does every Solar Eclipse - so this will be a reinforcement of the previous eclipse on the 10th. Considering starting a family? February is the month you will think more about it bulls and even get to work!

YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 4, 14, 16 & 19 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 8, 10, 21 & 26 FRIENDS: PISCES & SCORPIOS FRENEMIES: SAGITTARIUS & GEMINI

GEMINI

Continue to focus on your career this month twins. The upper half of your horoscope is easily the most dominant and your 10th house of career is even stronger than last month. A Solar Eclipse ends the month on the 26th in your career zone which could definitely mean that you’re in the mood to change not just your job, but your actual profession. Sure, it’s a major shift, but you’ve probably been thinking about it for months. Talk things over with a trusted elder or a higher-up who understands you. This Solar Eclipse in Pisces affects you strongly, so make sure to reduce your schedule and arrange stressful activities. Doors will open for you while other doors will close. YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 6, 13, 16 & 23 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 7, 8, 9 & 26 FRIENDS: AQUARIUS & LIBRA FRENEMIES: TAURUS & CANCER

CANCER

Uranus, Mars and Venus all line up in your career zone this month. In fact, Venus remains there through early June. There is a need for positive action career wise and if you have been waiting for a chance to ask for a promotion, pay rise or look for work elsewhere, you will feel ready around the second eclipse February 26. In Pisces, your 9th house of overseas travel, higher education and philosophy, some of you might seek employment overseas. Others will decide to go back to school or do an online course in order to boost your resume. YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 1, 6, 18 & 25 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 8, 10,  21 & 26 FRIENDS: VIRGO & PISCES FRENEMIES: ARIES & GEMINI

LEO

Those of you born between August 9-13 will feel the Lunar Eclipse on the 10th.  It brings a redefinition of yourself - of your self-concept (how you think of yourself), your identity, your image and the look you present to the world.  Now is the time to define yourself for yourself.  If you haven’t been looking after yourself health wise, this is a great time to do a cleanse/detox.  Venus and Mars both spend time in your fellow fire sign of Aries, your 9th house of spirituality and philosophy.  Getting more in tune with you, your emotions, your moods and alternative healing are all in store for you this month and through June, with Venus spending 4 months in Aries.  YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 3, 9, 11 & 21 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 8, 26, 27 & 28 FRIENDS: SAGITTARIUS & AQUARIUS FRENEMIES: VIRGO & SCORPIO

VIRGO

Late last month, January 27 a New Moon in Aquarius will stir up daily activity at the office, studio or lab where you work. New assignments are sure to pile up on your desk and hopefully you’ll be able to pick and choose the ones that interest and excite you most. Be aware that power struggles are possible professionally around February 22 and it will take everything you’ve got to resist the urge to get involved in them. Resist the urge, ignore the urge to put your two cents worth in. YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 1, 16, 22 & 23 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 2, 7, 21 & 26 FRIENDS: TAURUS & CAPRICORN FRENEMIES: ARIES & LEO

LIBRA

February 8 could be a tough day for you Libra, so listen up. The emotional Moon will activate a battle of sorts that could involve your partner, your family and perhaps even your professional life as well. If you sense that a situation is turning volatile, back off. Just because you’re invited to an argument doesn’t mean you have to show up! YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 4, 11, 14 & 20 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 2, 10, 21 & 27 FRIENDS: ARIES & AQUARIUS FRENEMIES: CANCER & CAPRICORN

SCORPIO

Your work life will be unusually busy this month. You could very well achieve a career victory around the time of the Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse on the 10th. This Leo Full Moon in your professional sector will crystallize years of work, bringing a rare golden triangle of harmony. The Lunar Eclipse in Leo will link up with Saturn in your house of salary. If you don’t actually get the promotion you know you deserve or thought was coming, you’ll have a series of six eclipses due to bolster your professional sector every 6 months from now, until early 2019. These eclipses will have a cumulative effect too, where one paves the way for the next.

YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 5, 11, 12 & 13 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 7, 10, 21 & 26 FRIENDS: PISCES & TAURUS FRENEMIES: GEMINI & SAGITTARIUS

SAGITTARIUS

The Solar Eclipse on February 26 will occur in woozy, dreamy Pisces and your solar 4th house of emotions from the past. What you remember most about a former relationship but not be an entirely accurate account. You’re not seeing the whole picture and you’re not giving credence to the not so good times or perhaps the wonderful times. If a decision needs to be made and you need to get your memories and stories straight, you could very well be suffering from ‘selective memory syndrome’. Ask a practical friend for their advice. YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 9, 14, 22 & 23 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 2, 8, 21 & 26 FRIENDS: ARIES & LIBRA FRENEMIES: CANCER & VIRGO

CAPRICORN

Your first order of business as you march into February is to ask for that raise/promotion/bonus or all 3! The New Moon January 27 opened a door wide for you to get that increase but you must ask for it during February’s first few days. You have plenty on your agenda as usual, but the New Moon/Solar Eclipse on the 26th will open up your schedule for a quick trip. If you can grab your partner, bff, dog and head out of town somewhere relaxing, great. Choose a place near water or snow - as you have the Sun, New Moon, Neptune and Mercury all crowded into Pisces during the last week of the month. Pisces is the sign that rules the Sea and all bodies of water. So a pool, lake or even a hot tub will do in a pinch! YOUR SHINY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 6, 13, 16 & 23 YOUR DULL DAYS IN FEBRUARY: 8, 21, 26 & 27 FRIENDS: TAURUS & SCORPIO FRENEMIES: GEMINI & SAGITTARIUS

For regular, comprehensive information about astrology and your horoscope, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Our social media channels are updated regularly to ensure that you get only the latest and greatest in the world of astrology and psychic news!

(via February: A Month of Love and Positivity)

#monthly horoscope #monthly horoscopes for free #capricorn #sagittarius #scorpio #libra #cancer #leo #virgo #aquarius #pisces #aries #taurus #gemini

[mastcomm]

Cruise Ship Passengers, Some Infected, Flown Back to U.S.

U.S. officials learned cruise ship evacuees were infected at the last minute.

A day before 328 Americans were to be whisked away from a contaminated cruise ship in Japan, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo told passengers that no one infected with the new coronavirus would be allowed to board charter flights to the United States.

But those plans were hastily changed after the test results for 14 passengers came back positive — just as they were being loaded onto buses and dispatched to the airport, where two reconfigured cargo jets were waiting to fly them to military bases in California and Texas.

After consultations with health experts, the U.S. government decided to let the infected evacuees, who were not yet exhibiting symptoms, board the flights.

The reversal was the latest chaotic turn in a two-week quarantine of the ship, the Diamond Princess, that has become an epidemiological nightmare.

Apple cuts sales forecast as the outbreak slows both production and demand.

Apple said on Monday that it was cutting its sales forecast because of the coronavirus, in a sign of how the outbreak is taking a toll on manufacturing, even at one of the world’s most valuable companies.

The announcement came hours before China announced new figures for the outbreak. The number of cases was put at 72,436 — up from 70,548 the day before — and the death toll now stands at 1,868, up from 1,770, the authorities said.

In a statement, the iPhone maker, which is heavily dependent on factories in China, said its supply of smartphones would be hurt because production was slowed by the outbreak.

None of the factories that make iPhones are in Hubei Province, the center of the outbreak, but travel restrictions have hindered other parts of the country as well. Production was taking longer than hoped to get back on track after the facilities reopened following the Lunar New Year, the company said.

Apple said it was also cutting its sales forecast because demand for its products was being hurt in China. China has been one of the Silicon Valley company’s fastest-growing and largest markets.

Apple’s warning is significant because it is a bellwether of global demand and supply of products. The company said it was “fundamentally strong, and this disruption to our business is only temporary.”

Cambodia’s leader is famously complacent about the coronavirus. That may exact a global toll.

When Cambodia’s prime minister greeted passengers on a cruise ship amid a coronavirus scare on Valentine’s Day, embraces were the order of the day. Protective masks were not.

Not only did Prime Minister Hun Sen not wear one, assured that the ship was virus-free, his bodyguards ordered people who had donned masks to take them off. The next day, the American ambassador to Cambodia, W. Patrick Murphy, who brought his own family to greet the passengers streaming off the ship, also went maskless.

“We are very, very grateful that Cambodia has opened literally its ports and doors to people in need,” Mr. Murphy said. Five other ports had said no.

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.

But after hundreds of passengers had disembarked, one later tested positive for the coronavirus.

Now, health officials worry that what Cambodia opened its doors to was the outbreak, and that the world may pay a price as passengers from the cruse ship Westerdam stream home.

Officials are testing those passengers still on the ship, but health authorities may be hard put to trace all the those who have headed back to their home countries.

The coronavirus epidemic has been a blow to tourist-dependent businesses around the world, with China blocking tour groups from going abroad and many countries restricting entry to people from China.

As China has become wealthier in recent decades, its tourists have become mainstays of shops, hotels, airlines, restaurants, museums and tour companies on multiple continents. Chinese tourists spent $277 billion abroad in 2018, up from $10 billion in 2000, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

The sudden drop in their numbers is readily apparent, whether on the Champs-Élysées, at the Colosseum or on the beaches of Bali. Italy’s government has weighed whether to provide financial support for tour group operators.

Fear of the virus and travel restrictions have led to cancellation of thousands of flights and hotel bookings, and a handful of cultural and business events. Travel companies have also reported a drop in tourism by non-Chinese people who want to avoid crowded spaces.

China signaled a delay in a big government gathering.

China signaled on Monday that it would postpone the annual session of its Communist Party-dominated legislature because of the epidemic, a symbolic blow for a government that typically runs with regimented discipline.

Each March, nearly 3,000 delegates gather in the Great Hall of the People, next to Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

The annual full meeting of the legislature, called the National People’s Congress, is a major event in China’s political cycle. President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and other leaders were expected to lay out their agenda for the year, issue the annual budget and pass major legislation.

But delay is now virtually certain, judging by an announcement from the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which oversees the legislature. It said the committee would consider voting on Monday on whether to delay the congress.

It would be extremely unlikely that the proposal would be up for formal approval unless Mr. Xi had agreed it was necessary.

It would be the first time in recent memory that the annual legislative session has been delayed. Even in 2003, when China was battling SARS, the congress went ahead as usual.

A Russian court ordered a quarantine escapee to return to the hospital.

A Russian court ruled on Monday that a woman who had escaped coronavirus quarantine must be forcibly isolated in a hospital, sending a clear message to all potential escapees and dodgers.

To prevent the virus from taking hold in Russia, the country has closed its roughly 2,600-mile border with China and ordered the quarantine of hundreds of Russian citizens who recently returned from China.

But at least five people have escaped, citing poor conditions at hospitals and frustration over their status.

Alla Ilyina, the woman ordered into isolation on Monday, made headlines in Russia by carrying out an elaborate plan to escape the 14-day quarantine. On Feb. 7, she broke an electromagnetic lock in her room and fled the hospital while doctors attended to an incoming patient.

Mrs. Ilyina tested negative for coronavirus upon her arrival from China. The court ruled that she would have to stay in a hospital for at least two days and get two negative coronavirus tests before she could return home. After the ruling was issued, she was taken by ambulance to the Botkin infectious diseases hospital in St. Petersburg.

The only Russian citizen to test positive for the virus so far is aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.

China Inc. slowly rumbles back to life.

The world’s second-largest economy practically shut down three weeks ago as the coronavirus outbreak sickened tens of thousands of people, unexpectedly lengthening a Chinese holiday.

The freeze set off warnings that the global economy could be in jeopardy if the world’s pre-eminent manufacturing powerhouse stayed shut for long.

Now, as some factories rumble back into action, the monumental task of restarting China is becoming clear. China’s efforts to contain the virus are clashing with its push to get the country back to work, requiring the country’s leaders to strike a balance between keeping people safe and getting vital industries back on track.

Quarantines, blocked roads and checkpoints are stopping millions of workers from returning to their jobs. Supply lines have been severed.

The reopening of businesses means trying to bring together again much of China’s 700 million-strong labor force after what had become a nearly three-week national holiday. China’s containment efforts have effectively carved up the country. At least 760 million people — slightly over half the country’s population — are under various kinds of lockdown.

Chinese lawmakers consider controlling the trade in wildlife.

The coronavirus epidemic has prompted China to reconsider its trade and consumption of wildlife, which has been identified as a probable source of the outbreak.

The practice is driven by desire to flaunt wealth and beliefs about health benefits from products made from certain animals.

Officials drafted legislation to introduce controls and plan to present it at the next preparatory session for the annual National People’s Congress. The details of the proposal are not yet clear, but the goal is to end “the pernicious habit of eating wildlife,” according to a statement released on Monday by the Standing Committee of the congress.

Although the exact origin of the coronavirus is still under investigation, health officials and scientists say it spread outward from a wholesale market in Wuhan where vendors legally sold live animals from crowded stalls in close quarters with meats and vegetables.

The epidemic has inflamed public sentiment that the consumption of animals like reptiles, civets and hedgehogs is fundamentally unsafe.

The trafficking of endangered or threatened wildlife is prohibited in China, but Wang Ruihe, an official with the National People’s Congress, said last week that enforcement was lax.

Australia will evacuate citizens stuck on a cruise ship, but another quarantine awaits.

Australia will evacuate more than 200 of its citizens who have been trapped on the cruise ship in Japan, and quarantine them for two more weeks at a mining camp in the northern city of Darwin, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday.

The passengers, many of them elderly, will take a Qantas flight to Australia on Wednesday, he said. New Zealanders on the Diamond Princess will be able to join the flight and will be subject to quarantine in Darwin.

The passengers flying out on Wednesday will join more than 200 evacuees from Wuhan, China, the center of the epidemic, who have been housed at the mining camp since last week.

Australia airlifted 242 other people from Wuhan to Christmas Island, where they have been staying for two weeks.

Mr. Morrison acknowledged that some of the cruise ship passengers would be frustrated by the additional two weeks in isolation. But he said that the spread of infections on the ship had forced health officials to take extra precautions.

The Tokyo Marathon is limiting the 2020 race to elite athletes.

Organizers of the Tokyo Marathon, citing the confirmation of a coronavirus case in Tokyo, are limiting the race this year to elite runners, including wheelchair elites, the event announced on its website Monday.

A statement posted on the site said that all registered runners could defer their entry to the 2021 event, but that runners who defer would have to pay again and would not receive refunds for this year’s race. About 38,000 participants had signed up for the race scheduled for March 1. Of that number, 245 are elite runners and 30 are elite wheelchair athletes.

The Hong Kong Marathon, scheduled for Feb. 9, was canceled as coronavirus cases in the semiautonomous Chinese city increased. Hong Kong now has 57 confirmed coronavirus cases.

Japan’s Imperial Household Agency also canceled birthday celebrations for the emperor, an event within the Imperial Palace that normally draws large crowds in Tokyo. Emperor Naruhito turns 60 on Feb. 23. This would be his first birthday since he became emperor.

A heist at knifepoint and a manhunt in Hong Kong, all over toilet paper.

Three masked robbers appeared at dawn on Monday outside a Hong Kong supermarket. There, they held a deliveryman at knifepoint and made off with over $100 worth of one of the most sought after commodities in this city of seven million: toilet paper.

Toilet paper has been sold out across the city for weeks after a run on the product was prompted by rumors that manufacturers in mainland China would cease production or that the border would be sealed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Retailers have dispelled the rumor, saying there is no genuine shortage. But bulk packs of toilet paper are snatched off supermarket shelves almost as soon as they are restocked, and city blocks are crowded with residents lined up at shops just to buy the product.

So short is the supply that lovers exchanged individual rolls on Valentine’s Day as a sort of pragmatic joke. Online, users have offered to barter surgical masks, which actually are in short supply, for a few rolls of toilet paper. And one hoarder was shamed on social media when neighbors spotted an apartment whose windows were crowded by a wall of toilet paper rolls.

The toilet paper stolen in Monday’s heist was later discovered stashed at a hotel, local news outlets reported, but the perpetrators remain at large.

A U.S. senator repeated an unsubstantiated claim about the coronavirus origins.

Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, has repeated an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that has spread from small-town China to the right-wing news media in the United States: The new coronavirus originated in a high-security biochemical lab in Wuhan.

In a television interview on Fox News on Sunday, Mr. Cotton suggested that a dearth of information about the origins of the virus raised more questions than answers.

“We don’t know where it originated, and we have to get to the bottom of that,” Mr. Cotton said on the program Sunday Morning Futures. He then raised the possibility that the virus originated in a “biosafety level-4 super laboratory.” Such laboratories are used for research into potentially deadly infectious diseases.

“Now, we don’t have evidence that this disease originated there but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says, and China right now is not giving evidence on that question at all,” he added.

After receiving criticism for lending credence to what has been largely considered a fringe theory, the senator took to Twitter to say he did not necessarily think the virus was an “engineered bioweapon.”

Research and reporting was contributed by Russell Goldman, Austin Ramzy, Ivan Nechepurenko, Steven Lee Myers, Claire Fu, Tiffany May, Richard C. Paddock, Sui-Lee Wee, Alexandra Stevenson, Roni Caryn Rabin, Ben Dooley and Keith Bradsher.

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As Virus Tightens Grip on China, the Art World Feels the Squeeze

A single Chinese billionaire, an investor and former taxi driver named Liu Yiqian, has spent at least $200 million on art in recent years, including $170 million for a Modigliani nude in 2015.

With China as the second-largest market for the global movie industry, approval or rejection by the government in Beijing can make or break a movie’s bottom line.

Orchestras from around the world plan tours of China years in advance, seeing them as a way to sell tickets, raise their profile and cultivate China’s growing wealthy class as donors.

But now, as China struggles to get the coronavirus epidemic under control, the country is essentially closed for business to the global arts economy, exposing the sector to deep financial uncertainty. Movie releases have been canceled in China and symphony tours suspended because of quarantines and fears of contagion. A major art fair in Hong Kong was called off, and important spring art auctions half a world away in New York have been postponed because well-heeled Chinese buyers may find it difficult to travel to them.

“It’s just not realistic to plan to offer things that are objects we know people want to see in person during a time when they can’t get here,” said Lark Mason, the founder of iGavel, one of six auction houses that have postponed many of their sales. “It does mean we have to scramble a bit because, OK, we don’t have this amount of revenue coming in. What are we going to do to fill the gap?”

The virus has infected more than 60,000 people and killed more than 1,400 in China. As tens of millions of people are sealed off in cities there, new questions are emerging about how the virus, named SARS-CoV-2, is transmitted. Even art dealers who expect business to suffer because of closed borders and mandatory quarantines say they understand that stopping the contagion comes first.

Still, there will be a financial impact. China was the third-biggest art market in the world in 2018, according to last year’s Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, accounting for 19 percent of the $67 billion spent on art that year. (The United States, at 44 percent, and United Kingdom, at 21 percent, had the top two spots.)

Last week, Art Basel Hong Kong, an annual art fair scheduled for mid-March, was canceled, depriving dealers and artists of a major opportunity to show works to customers based in China and beyond. The fair attracts droves of visitors who descend on the region for art shows, cocktail gatherings and yacht parties in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi and Tokyo before, during and after the fair. Some of these have been postponed or canceled as well.

In Hong Kong, the cancellations come after months of political protests that have convulsed the city and left much of the territory on shaky footing.

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.

Ben Brown, a gallery owner with locations in London and Hong Kong, said that his shop has made a big profit every year at Art Basel Hong Kong, and this year, that bump will disappear. But the damage will go beyond immediate sales.

“It’s the center of the artistic universe for a week, and it leads to other things during the year,” he said. “Imagine if you had to cancel the Oscars. The film world would carry on, and films would carry on either making money or losing money, but it’s a major blow.”

Galleries that had planned to exhibit at Art Basel Hong Kong were offered a refund of 75 percent of their booth fees, which run to $125,000 for the largest spaces. Besides forfeited fees and lost sales, galleries are bleeding money in other ways. Cliff Vernon, director of the contemporary division of Gander & White, which ships fine art, said that there were two shipping containers currently at sea that had been on their way to Art Basel carrying pieces from five dealers. Now, the galleries will have to pay to ship it back, at a cost of about $15,000 for the return trip.

China is also critical for the movie business, a $9 billion annual market second only to North America, according to Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst at Comscore, a media measurement company. But with most movie theaters in the country closed, he said, that business is almost entirely on hold. Releases of “Jojo Rabbit” and “Dolittle” — a box-office bomb in the United States that desperately needs foreign sales — are among those postponed in China so far.

“There’s no question there are going to have to be footnotes as far as the box offices goes this year,” Mr. Dergarabedian said. “The longer this goes on, the bigger an issue it becomes.”

With China’s emergence as the fastest-growing market for classical music in recent years, the ripple effects of the virus crisis were quickly felt across that field as well.

Several American ensembles, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, based in Washington, canceled planned tours of China. The Juilliard School, which is preparing to open a branch in Tianjin this fall, announced that it was suspending all in-person admissions-related activities in Asia until at least March. And the ambitious monthlong Hong Kong Arts Festival, which would have assembled leading orchestras, opera companies, soloists and dance companies from all over the world, was canceled.

The economic impact is still being gauged. American orchestra tours are expensive, complicated undertakings that are planned years in advance; fees they earn from foreign hosts generally cover only part of what it costs to ship roughly a hundred musicians and their instruments thousands of miles. But orchestral tours of China have proved especially attractive to sponsors interested in cultivating relationships there — and whose financial support makes such tours possible.

“You try to break even with sponsorship dollars,” said Michael M. Kaiser, the chairman of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland.

The Boston Symphony said that the tour it canceled was expected to cost approximately $2.1 million, including artist fees and expenses; security; lodging; airfare; and transporting the trunks and instruments of orchestra members. The administration has been hoping to speak with vendors about waiving or reducing some fees, but with the crisis it has been difficult to get through to some of them.

Even institutions that are far less dependent on Chinese patrons, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Broadway theaters in New York City, say they are watching the situation carefully. Chinese tour groups have been suspended, and if the virus spreads widely, other travelers themselves may decide to stay home. In Paris, the Louvre said it had not yet seen a drop in visits, but according to the museum’s most recent figures, 800,000 of its 10 million visitors in 2018 came from China.

Art galleries are not completely reliant on foot traffic and fairs; thanks to the internet and her phone, Emerald Mou, a partner at the Hong Kong gallery Mine Project, said that half the current show at her gallery has now sold through email, WhatsApp or WeChat. (Ms. Mou also said she was recently able to negotiate with her landlord for a five percent reduction on her rent for two months.) Mathieu Borysevicz, a director of the BANK gallery in Shanghai said that he had just sold a painting on WeChat to a collector who was at home, bored, in Beijing.

But Mr. Borysevicz also said that a collector in Thailand had canceled a purchase not long ago, saying it was because of the virus that he could not buy the piece.

Many high-end auction bids are delivered by phone, as was the record-setting Modigliani purchase Mr. Liu made at Christie’s New York. But buyers often like to see what they’re bidding on beforehand. And right now, Chinese buyers can’t easily visit the marble Sui dynasty Buddha head (estimated to sell for $500,000 to $700,000) or the 17th-century incense stand ($800,000 to $1,200,000) that Christie’s in New York had planned to offer this spring. The auctions held every March at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and elsewhere in New York City have been postponed until June.

The virus comes at a particularly difficult time because any art that originated in China has been subject to a 15 percent tariff for months (they will be lowered to 7.5 percent on Friday) as a result of President Trump’s trade standoff with Beijing, which means it is now harder not only for dealers to sell art, but also to buy it.

“For my exhibition next month, I would say more than half of it was acquired outside the United States, so to bring that in and add 15 percent, that’s what we used to call the profit margin,” said James Lally, founder of J.J. Lally & Co. in Manhattan, a gallery that specializes in Chinese art.

“It’s two unfortunate things on top of each other that affect opposite ends of the market,” he added. “It’s not a good time.”

Reporting was contributed by Michael Cooper and Michael Paulson from New York; Jacob Dreyer from Bangkok; Constant Meheut from Paris; and Scott Reyburn from London‏.

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Saudi-Russian Alliance Is Strained as Coronavirus Saps Demand for Oil

An alliance between Saudi Arabia and Russia has helped prop up oil prices for the last three years. But the two big oil producers were not in perfect harmony this week, as they have tried to recalibrate production targets to cope with reduced demand from China, whose economy has been crippled by the coronavirus epidemic.

Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Abdulaziz bin Salman, wanted to move ahead quickly with a meeting to consider new production cuts, but he has struggled to persuade Moscow, even after his father, King Salman, made a call to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Monday.

Instead, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries this week convened three long days of meetings of a technical group that produced a recommendation to cut output by 600,000 barrels, an almost 30 percent addition to curbs agreed upon in December but probably less than the Saudis wanted, according to some analysts.

Still, Russia’s representatives told the group that while they found the recommendations reasonable they needed more time to consider them, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The inability to reach a quick consensus inevitably raised concerns about whether Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of OPEC, and Russia were still able to work together to coordinate oil policy.

“The real question is whether the Russians and the Saudis are on the same page on the necessity for collective action,” said Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, an investment bank, who monitored the meeting in the OPEC press room.

Ms. Croft speculated that Russia might be “slow-walking” on cuts, though she figures that Moscow will come around in time.

Still, the fact that meetings did occur, and the prospect that further cuts might be on the way, was enough to at least temporarily halt what had been a steep fall in oil prices since the outbreak of the coronavirus, which has now killed more than 600 people in China. Brent crude, the international benchmark which exceeded $70 a barrel in early January, was trading at about $55 a barrel on Friday.

In an interview, Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil market research at Rystad Energy, a research firm, said the 600,000-barrel-a-day cut being discussed was “quite a reasonable number.”

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.

As OPEC ponders what to do, it faces a difficult calculation. The degree of impact that the coronavirus outbreak will have on demand for oil is not yet known, though it is expected to be substantial. Several Chinese cities have been seemingly shut down, with some factories idled and flights canceled.

The curtailment of economic activity will result in a major reduction of energy consumption — a huge concern for OPEC because China is the world’s largest energy importer and a key customer. Wood Mackenzie, a market research firm, figures that oil demand for the first three months of this year will be slashed by about 900,000 barrels a day, or nearly 1 percent of global consumption.

The effects of reduced energy use are already being seen in the market for liquefied natural gas, a chilled fuel used in industry and power generation.

Rystad Energy estimates that Chinese imports of liquefied natural gas fell 10 percent in January from a year earlier. Analysts say that with customers not needing as much fuel as they thought, Chinese buyers are trying to stop or reschedule shipments with some of them going to the extreme option of declaring force majeure — a legal term for unforeseen circumstances that invalidate a contract.

Total, the French oil company, said it had recently rejected a force majeure claim by a Chinese buyer of liquefied natural gas. Analysts say the situation is likely to worsen, as vessels laden with gas are forced to go elsewhere — all while the liquefied natural gas market is already amply supplied and prices are at rock bottom.

“There is clearly a major issue in China with its ability to take L.N.G.,” said Frank Harris, head of liquefied natural gas consulting at Wood Mackenzie.

In the oil market, there are offsetting factors. The output of the Libyan oil industry is down by about one million barrels a day, or about 1 percent of world demand, because of political turmoil. While it is widely assumed that Libyan oil will come back on the market soon, no one is certain when that will be.

With the oil industry just beginning to come to terms with the implications of the coronavirus, there is an argument for waiting until the next OPEC meeting, scheduled for early March, to make decisions.

“I don’t know why the urgency,” said Bill Farren-Price, director of intelligence at RS Energy group, a market research firm. “It looks slightly panicky to me.”

Whether the split between Russia and the Saudis will widen will become clear only over time, but some analysts say Russia has good reason to continue to coordinate policy with OPEC.

Analysts say Mr. Putin benefits from playing along with the Saudis. Working with OPEC gives Russia a seat at the table at which many of the world’s largest oil producers negotiate output decisions that have an impact on prices.

Ties to the Saudis also fit with Mr. Putin’s efforts to expand Russia’s influence in the Middle East, in countries like Syria and Iraq, as well as in Libya. A web of business relationships is forming between Russian companies and Riyadh and its allies like Abu Dhabi, where Lukoil recently became the first Russian firm to gain participation in natural gas production.

The Russians “seem to be content to be part of this coalition and maintain this political role even if their implementation of cuts is very limited,” Mr. Farren-Price said.

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‘Like Europe in Medieval Times’: Virus Slows China’s Economy

Workers are stuck in their hometowns. Officials want detailed health plans before factories or offices can reopen. Assembly lines that make General Motors cars and Apple iPhones are standing silent.

More than two weeks after China locked down a major city to stop a dangerous viral outbreak, one of the world’s largest economies remains largely idle. Much of the country was supposed to have reopened by now, but its empty streets, quiet factories and legions of inactive workers suggest that weeks or months could pass before this vital motor of global growth is humming again.

The global economy could suffer the longer China stays in low gear. It has been hampered by both the outbreak and its own containment efforts, a process that has cut off workers from their jobs and factories from their raw materials. The result is a slowdown that is already slashing traffic along the world’s shipping lines and leading to forecasts of a sharp fall in production of everything from cars to smartphones.

“It’s like Europe in medieval times,” said Jörg Wuttke, the president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, “where each city has its checks and crosschecks.”

New figures show the authorities still have a long way to go before the outbreak can be tamed. On Tuesday, they reported a milestone: the overall death toll from coronavirus in China had topped 1,000. On Monday, the number was 908.

In a sign that China’s leaders feel increasing pressure to look like they are in control, Xi Jinping, the country’s top leader, toured a Beijing neighborhood and hospital, in what state media described as an inspection of the front line of the outbreak. Chinese officials have been roundly criticized online even in the face of tough censorship for what many see as a slow initial response and the suppression of early warnings.

On Monday, a team from the World Health Organization landed in Beijing to work with Chinese researchers battling the coronavirus. Their arrival could signal a shift in attitude among China’s leaders, who had balked at a visit and have long worked to show that they do not need foreign assistance to tackle problems.

The organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, cited with concern instances of infections among people who had not traveled to China, suggesting that even more cases could emerge. “In short, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg,” he wrote on Twitter.

Chinese health officials have been encouraged that the pace of recoveries among victims has outpaced deaths for more than a week. The rate of infection, however, has continued to soar, suggesting that the worst is still to come.

It is becoming increasingly clear that restarting China — the world’s largest manufacturer and a titan of global trade — would be difficult even if the country made major strides in the next few days toward containing the outbreak.

Until then, the damage is spreading.

On Monday, Nissan of Japan said it would shut down its plant in Kyushu, Japan, for four days beginning later this week “due to supply shortages of parts from China.” Other carmakers, like FCA in Italy and Hyundai in South Korea, have already warned that a lack of parts from China could force them to curtail production in their home markets.

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 China Development Forum, the country’s premier gathering of business leaders and economists, said its annual meeting, set for next month, had been postponed indefinitely.

Government officials had extended China’s official Lunar New Year holiday by three days to Feb. 3 to keep people home. Major business hubs, like the cities of Beijing and Shanghai and the provinces of Guangdong and Shandong, then further extended holidays until Monday.

As the day dawned, it was clear that business as usual had not resumed. Traffic in Beijing was much lighter than normal, stores remained closed and many residents worked from home or did not work at all.

Daimler, the German maker of Mercedes cars, said it began gradually ramping up production at its Chinese factories on Monday. But other major companies said their factories remained closed or were running slower than usual. Ford Motor said that its joint venture with one of China’s biggest state-owned firms was restarting some production, but that it would “ramp up our production over the following weeks.”

General Motors said it would reopen the first of its huge assembly plants in China on Saturday, and would gradually reopen the rest over the next two weeks, “based on local employees’ safety readiness, supply chain readiness and product inventory needs.”

China’s containment efforts are contributing to the disruptions.

The authorities have locked down a region of central China around Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak. The local authorities are taking a tough stance with traffic, meaning workers are struggling to return to their jobs. Many towns and cities have begun imposing two-week mandatory quarantines on arriving truck drivers who picked up cargos in cities with disease outbreaks or even just drove through these areas.

Wu Lin, an associate director at a Shanghai advertising company, returned to Wuhan, her hometown, for the holidays on Jan. 21 and had a high-speed train ticket back to Shanghai on Feb. 2. But her ticket was canceled soon after Wuhan was locked down, and she has tried and failed repeatedly since then to find a way out.

“There is no point to keep looking,” she said.

Shipyards around the country have run into labor shortages, said Tim Huxley, the chief executive of Mandarin Shipping, a Hong Kong freighter shipping company. Shipbuilders and ship repair providers have begun citing these labor shortages to invoke clauses in their contracts that allow them to delay completion of projects for events beyond their control, he said.

Aside from fear of disease, the country’s nearly 300 million migrant workers — almost two-fifths of the labor force — now have another reason to be reluctant to travel to distant cities: Their children are still home. Depending on the province, many schools are not scheduled to resume until Feb. 25 or even March 1.

Even factories with enough workers are running into further problems. The packaging industry is almost shut down, so everything from plastic packing to steel drums is running out, Mr. Wuttke said.

Local regulators are putting up even more barriers.

Before businesses in big manufacturing hubs like Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou or Nanjing can reopen, they must now verify the travel history and health of every employee over the past two weeks. They must have frequent temperature checks of employees, hand-washing procedures and a plan to isolate and refer to hospitals anyone showing even fevers as low as 99.1 degrees Fahrenheit.

Most difficult of all, businesses cannot reopen without approval of their health plans by municipal officials — and larger operations also have to wait for a site visit from a health official.

Shenzhen, a vast sprawl of electronics factories and skyscrapers next to Hong Kong, issued new health and safety rules on Sunday and said factories that made iPhones and other Apple products would have to meet them before opening. Foxconn Technology, a Taiwanese company that owns the factories, said it met all health and hygiene rules but declined to comment on when production would restart at specific locations. Apple declined to comment.

Apple’s iPhone production, which is heavily concentrated in China, could drop by 10 percent in the first three months of the year, projected TrendForce, a technology forecasting firm in Taiwan.

The municipal government in Shanghai, home to more than 20 million people and a vast array of businesses, said only 70 percent of the city’s manufacturers were taking steps to resume production. Few have actually received permission to do so.

Businesses “want to protect staff, but also nobody wants to get caught offsides when it comes to the labor law or the daily announcements from the government,” said Ker Gibbs, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

It is not yet clear how the ripples from China’s slowdown will affect the United States. Businesses that rely on assembling a lot of different parts from various suppliers could become the hardest hit. At the top of that list is the auto industry — a single car may require as many as 30,000 parts from various suppliers.

American businesses have been trying to diversify away from China as President Trump’s trade war with Beijing has made it less economical to manufacture there. But a lot of steering parts, electronics and even door hinges still come to the United States from China, said Razat Gaurav, the chief executive of Llamasoft, a company in Ann Arbor, Mich., that handles supply chain logistics for big automakers and aerospace companies in North America.

“If the current coronavirus crisis continues to impact production capacity in China,” he said, “it will ultimately impact auto assembly plants in the U.S. and Mexico.”

Ben Dooley, Jack Ewing and Raymond Zhong contributed reporting. Cao Li contributed research.

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As Virus Tightens Grip on China, the Art World Feels the Squeeze

A single Chinese billionaire, an investor and former taxi driver named Liu Yiqian, has spent at least $200 million on art in recent years, including $170 million for a Modigliani nude in 2015.

With China as the second-largest market for the global movie industry, approval or rejection by the government in Beijing can make or break a movie’s bottom line.

Orchestras from around the world plan tours of China years in advance, seeing them as a way to sell tickets, raise their profile and cultivate China’s growing wealthy class as donors.

But now, as China struggles to get the coronavirus epidemic under control, the country is essentially closed for business to the global arts economy, exposing the sector to deep financial uncertainty. Movie releases have been canceled in China and symphony tours suspended because of quarantines and fears of contagion. A major art fair in Hong Kong was called off, and important spring art auctions half a world away in New York have been postponed because well-heeled Chinese buyers may find it difficult to travel to them.

“It’s just not realistic to plan to offer things that are objects we know people want to see in person during a time when they can’t get here,” said Lark Mason, the founder of iGavel, one of six auction houses that have postponed many of their sales. “It does mean we have to scramble a bit because, OK, we don’t have this amount of revenue coming in. What are we going to do to fill the gap?”

The virus has infected more than 48,000 people and killed more than 1,350 in China. As tens of millions of people are sealed off in cities there, new questions are emerging about how the virus, named SARS-CoV-2, is transmitted. Even art dealers who expect business to suffer because of closed borders and mandatory quarantines say they understand that stopping the contagion comes first.

Still, there will be a financial impact. China was the third-biggest art market in the world in 2018, according to last year’s Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, accounting for 19 percent of the $67 billion spent on art that year. (The United States, at 44 percent, and United Kingdom, at 21 percent, had the top two spots.)

Last week, Art Basel Hong Kong, an annual art fair scheduled for mid-March, was canceled, depriving dealers and artists of a major opportunity to show works to customers based in China and beyond. The fair attracts droves of visitors who descend on the region for art shows, cocktail gatherings and yacht parties in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi and Tokyo before, during and after the fair. Some of these have been postponed or canceled as well.

In Hong Kong, the cancellations come after months of political protests that have convulsed the city and left much of the territory on shaky footing.

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.

Ben Brown, a gallery owner with locations in London and Hong Kong, said that his shop has made a big profit every year at Art Basel Hong Kong, and this year, that bump will disappear. But the damage will go beyond immediate sales.

“It’s the center of the artistic universe for a week, and it leads to other things during the year,” he said. “Imagine if you had to cancel the Oscars. The film world would carry on, and films would carry on either making money or losing money, but it’s a major blow.”

Galleries that had planned to exhibit at Art Basel Hong Kong were offered a refund of 75 percent of their booth fees, which run to $125,000 for the largest spaces. Besides forfeited fees and lost sales, galleries are bleeding money in other ways. Cliff Vernon, director of the contemporary division of Gander & White, which ships fine art, said that there were two shipping containers currently at sea that had been on their way to Art Basel carrying pieces from five dealers. Now, the galleries will have to pay to ship it back, at a cost of about $15,000 for the return trip.

China is also critical for the movie business, a $9 billion annual market second only to North America, according to Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst at Comscore, a media measurement company. But with most movie theaters in the country closed, he said, that business is almost entirely on hold. Releases of “Jojo Rabbit” and “Dolittle” — a box-office bomb in the United States that desperately needs foreign sales — are among those postponed in China so far.

“There’s no question there are going to have to be footnotes as far as the box offices goes this year,” Mr. Dergarabedian said. “The longer this goes on, the bigger an issue it becomes.”

With China’s emergence as the fastest-growing market for classical music in recent years, the ripple effects of the virus crisis were quickly felt across that field as well.

Several American ensembles, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, based in Washington, canceled planned tours of China. The Juilliard School, which is preparing to open a branch in Tianjin this fall, announced that it was suspending all in-person admissions-related activities in Asia until at least March. And the ambitious monthlong Hong Kong Arts Festival, which would have assembled leading orchestras, opera companies, soloists and dance companies from all over the world, was canceled.

The economic impact is still being gauged. American orchestra tours are expensive, complicated undertakings that are planned years in advance; fees they earn from foreign hosts generally cover only part of what it costs to ship roughly a hundred musicians and their instruments thousands of miles. But orchestral tours of China have proved especially attractive to sponsors interested in cultivating relationships there — and whose financial support makes such tours possible.

“You try to break even with sponsorship dollars,” said Michael M. Kaiser, the chairman of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland.

The Boston Symphony said that the tour it canceled was expected to cost approximately $2.1 million, including artist fees and expenses; security; lodging; airfare; and transporting the trunks and instruments of orchestra members. The administration has been hoping to speak with vendors about waiving or reducing some fees, but with the crisis it has been difficult to get through to some of them.

Even institutions that are far less dependent on Chinese patrons, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Broadway theaters in New York City, say they are watching the situation carefully. Chinese tour groups have been suspended, and if the virus spreads widely, other travelers themselves may decide to stay home. In Paris, the Louvre said it had not yet seen a drop in visits, but according to the museum’s most recent figures, 800,000 of its 10 million visitors in 2018 came from China.

Art galleries are not completely reliant on foot traffic and fairs; thanks to the internet and her phone, Emerald Mou, a partner at the Hong Kong gallery Mine Project, said that half the current show at her gallery has now sold through email, WhatsApp or WeChat. (Ms. Mou also said she was recently able to negotiate with her landlord for a five percent reduction on her rent for two months.) Mathieu Borysevicz, a director of the BANK gallery in Shanghai said that he had just sold a painting on WeChat to a collector who was at home, bored, in Beijing.

But Mr. Borysevicz also said that a Thai collector had canceled a purchase not long ago, saying it was because of the virus that he could not buy the piece.

Many high-end auction bids are delivered by phone, as was the record-setting Modigliani purchase Mr. Liu made at Christie’s New York. But buyers often like to see what they’re bidding on beforehand. And right now, Chinese buyers can’t easily visit the marble Sui dynasty Buddha head (estimated to sell for $500,000 to $700,000) or the 17th-century incense stand ($800,000 to $1,200,000) that Christie’s in New York had planned to offer this spring. The auctions held every March at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and elsewhere in New York City have been postponed until June.

The virus comes at a particularly difficult time because any art that originated in China has been subject to a 15 percent tariff for months as a result of President Trump’s trade standoff with Beijing, which means it is now harder not only for dealers to sell art, but also to buy it.

“For my exhibition next month, I would say more than half of it was acquired outside the United States, so to bring that in and add 15 percent, that’s what we used to call the profit margin,” said James Lally, founder of J.J. Lally & Co. in Manhattan, a gallery that specializes in Chinese art.

“It’s two unfortunate things on top of each other that affect opposite ends of the market,” he added. “It’s not a good time.”

Reporting was contributed by Michael Cooper and Michael Paulson from New York; Jacob Dreyer from Bangkok; Constant Meheut from Paris; and Scott Reyburn from London‏.

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China’s Powerful Growth Engine Idles as Coronavirus Spreads

Workers are stuck in their hometowns. Officials want detailed health plans before factories or offices can reopen. Assembly lines that make General Motors cars and Apple iPhones are standing silent.

More than two weeks after China locked down a major city to stop a dangerous viral outbreak, one of the world’s largest economies remains largely idle. Much of the country was supposed to have reopened by now, but its empty streets, quiet factories and legions of inactive workers suggest that weeks or months could pass before this vital motor of global growth is humming again.

Global growth could suffer the longer China stays in low gear. It has been hampered by both the outbreak and its own containment efforts, a process that has cut off workers from their jobs and factories from their raw materials. The result is a slowdown that is already slashing traffic along the world’s shipping lines and leading to forecasts of a sharp fall in production of everything from cars to smartphones.

“It’s like Europe in medieval times,” said Joerg Wuttke, the president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, “where each city has its checks and crosschecks.”

New figures show the authorities still have a long way to go before the outbreak can be tamed. On Monday, the authorities reported the most deaths from the new coronavirus in a single day, raising the death toll by 97 to 908.

In a sign that China’s leaders feel increasing pressure to look like they are in control, Xi Jinping, the country’s top leader, toured a Beijing neighborhood and hospital, in what state media described as an inspection of the front line of the outbreak. Chinese officials have been roundly criticized online even in the face of tough censorship for what many see as a slow initial response and the suppression of early warnings.

On Monday, a team from the World Health Organization landed in Beijing to work with Chinese researchers battling the coronavirus. Their arrival could signal a shift in attitude among China’s leaders, who had balked at a visit and have long worked to show that they do not need foreign assistance to tackle problems.

The organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, cited with concern instances of infections among people who had not traveled to China, suggesting that even more cases could emerge. “In short, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg,” he wrote on Twitter.

Chinese health officials have been encouraged that the pace of recoveries among victims has outpaced deaths for more than a week. The rate of infection, however, has continued to soar, suggesting that the worst is still to come.

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.

It is becoming increasingly clear that restarting China — the world’s largest manufacturer and a titan of global trade — would be difficult even if the country makes major strides in the next few days toward containing the outbreak.

Until then, the damage is spreading.

On Monday, Nissan of Japan said it would shut down its plant in Kyushu, Japan, for four days beginning later this week “due to supply shortages of parts from China.” Other carmakers like FCA in Italy and Hyundai in South Korea have already warned that a lack of parts from China could force them to curtail production in their home markets.

The China Development Forum, the country’s premier gathering of business leaders and economists, said its annual meeting, set for next month, had been postponed indefinitely.

Government officials had extended China’s official Lunar New Year holiday by three days to Feb. 3 to keep people home. Major business hubs, like the cities of Beijing and Shanghai and the provinces of Guangdong and Shandong, then further extended holidays until Monday.

As the day dawned, it was clear that business as usual had not resumed. Traffic in Beijing was much lighter than normal, stores remained closed and many residents worked from home or did not work at all.

Major companies said their factories remained closed or were running slower than usual. Ford Motor said that its joint venture with one of China’s biggest state-owned firms was restarting some production, but that it would “ramp up our production over the following weeks.”

General Motors said that it would reopen the first of its huge assembly plants in China only on Saturday, and would gradually reopen the rest over the following two weeks, “based on local employees’ safety readiness, supply chain readiness and product inventory needs.”

China’s containment efforts are contributing to the disruptions.

The authorities have locked down a region of central China around Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak. The local authorities are taking a tough stance with traffic, meaning workers are struggling to return to their jobs. Many towns and cities have begun imposing two-week mandatory quarantines on arriving truck drivers who picked up cargos in cities with disease outbreaks or even just drove through these areas.

Wu Lin, an associate director at a Shanghai advertising company, returned to Wuhan, her hometown, for the holidays on Jan. 21 and had a high-speed train ticket back to Shanghai on Feb. 2. But her ticket was canceled soon after Wuhan was locked down and she has tried and failed repeatedly since then to find a way out.

“There is no point to keep looking,” she said.

Shipyards around the country have run into labor shortages, said Tim Huxley, the chief executive of Mandarin Shipping, a Hong Kong freighter shipping company. Shipbuilders and ship repair providers have begun citing these labor shortages to invoke clauses in their contracts that allow them to delay completion of projects for events beyond their control, he said.

Aside from fear of disease, the country’s nearly 300 million migrant workers — almost two fifths of the labor force — now have another reason to be reluctant to travel to distant cities: Their children are still home. Depending on the province, many schools are not scheduled to resume until Feb. 25 or even March 1.

Even factories with enough workers are running into further problems. The packaging industry is almost shut down, so everything from plastic packing to steel drums is running out, said Mr. Wuttke.

Local regulators are putting up even more barriers.

Before businesses in big manufacturing hubs like Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou or Nanjing can reopen, they must now verify the travel history and health of every employee over the past two weeks. They must have frequent temperature checks of employees, hand-washing procedures and a plan to isolate and refer to hospitals anyone showing even fevers as low as 99.1 degrees.

Most difficult of all, businesses cannot reopen without prior approval of their health plans by municipal officials — and larger operations also have to wait for a site visit from a health official.

Shenzhen, a vast sprawl of electronics factories and skyscrapers next to Hong Kong, issued new health and safety rules on Sunday and said that factories that make iPhones and other Apple products would have to meet them before opening. Foxconn Technology, a Taiwanese company that owns the factories, said it met all health and hygiene rules but declined to comment on when production would restart at specific locations. Apple declined to comment.

Apple’s iPhone production, which is heavily concentrated in China, could drop by 10 percent in the first three months of the year, projected TrendForce, a Taiwan-based technology forecasting firm.

The municipal government in Shanghai, home to more than 20 million people and a vast array of businesses, said that only 70 percent of the city’s manufacturers were taking steps to resume production. Few have actually received permission to do so.

Businesses “want to protect staff, but also nobody wants to get caught offsides when it comes to the labor law or the daily announcements from the government,” said Ker Gibbs, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

It is not yet clear how the ripples from China’s slowdown will affect the United States. Businesses that rely on assembling a lot of different parts from various suppliers could become the hardest hit. At the top of that list is the auto industry — a single car may require as many as 30,000 parts from various suppliers.

American businesses have been trying to diversify away from China as President Trump’s trade war with Beijing has made it less economical to manufacture there. But a lot of steering parts, electronics and even door hinges still come to the United States from China, said Razat Gaurav, the chief executive of Llamasoft, a company in Ann Arbor, Mich., that handles supply chain logistics for big automakers and aerospace companies in North America.

“If the current coronavirus crisis continues to impact production capacity in China,” he said, “it will ultimately impact auto assembly plants in the U.S. and Mexico.”

Ben Dooley and Raymond Zhong contributed reporting, and Cao Li contributed research.

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