First Death From Wuhan Coronavirus Outside China Reported in Philippines - WHO

Chinese media earlier claimed that the so-called Wuhan coronavirus, as of Saturday, has killed 304 people and infected over 14,000 on mainland China. While the Chinese death toll continues to increase, the first fatal case outside of the country was reported on Sunday.

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Report: WeWork has a new CEO and he’s a real estate — not a tech — exec

If WeWork wanted to cement the impression that it no longer strives to be viewed as a tech company but rather as a real estate giant focused on leasing space to millennials and enterprise customers, it would probably choose a veteran from the real estate world.

That’s just what it has done, too, according to a new story from the WSJ that say the company, which was famously forced to pull its initial public offering last fall, has settled on Sandeep Mathrani as its new top banana.

Mathrani, has spent the last 1.5 years as the CEO of Brookfield Properties’ retail group and as a vice chairman of Brookfield Properties. Before joining the Chicago-based company, he spent eight years as the CEO of General Growth Properties. It was one of the largest mall operators in the U.S. until Brookfield acquired it for $9.25 billion in cash in 2018.

Mathrani also spent eight years as an executive vice president with Vornado Realty Trust, a publicly traded real estate company with a market cap of $12.5 billion. (Brookfield is slightly smaller, with a market cap of roughly $8 billion.)

Mathrani will reportedly relocate to New York from Miami, where according to public records, he owns at least one high-rise apartment that he acquired last year.

He’ll be reporting to Marcelo Claure, the SoftBank operating chief who was appointed executive chairman of WeWork in October in order to help salvage what Claure has himself said is at least an $18.5 billion bet on WeWork at this point by SoftBank.

Specifically, Claure told nervous employees at an all-hands meeting shortly after his appointment, “The size of the commitment that SoftBank has made to this company in the past and now is $18.5 billion. To put the things in context, that is bigger than the GDP of my country where I came from [Bolivia]. That’s a country where there’s 11 million people.”

Claure — who earlier spent four years as the CEO of SoftBank-backed Sprint —  was reportedly trying to hire T-Mobile CEO John Legere for the CEO’s post. Legere later communicated through sources that he had no plans to leave T-Mobile, yet just days later, in mid-November, Legere, who joined T-Mobile in 2012, announced that he’s stepping down as CEO after all, though he will remain chairman of the company. (According to the Verge, his contract is up April 30.)

Sprint and T-Mobile were expected to merge, though 13 states, led by the attorneys general of New York and California, are suing to block the deal.

Either way, Mathrani is a stark contrast to WeWork’s cofounder and longtime CEO Adam Neumann, who was pressure to resign from the company after his sweeping vision for it as a tech company that would enable customers to seamlessly shift from one WeWork location to another — paying for ever increasing software and services as monthly or yearly subscribers — was met with extreme skepticism by public market investors.

Indeed, though SoftBank marked up the company’s value over a number of private funding rounds to a brow-raising $47 billion, public investors began raising questions about its real value — and WeWork’s governance — as soon as WeWork publicly released the paperwork for its initial public offering.

Between the in-depth look its S-1 provided into the company’s spiraling losses, the degree of control held by Neumann (not fully understood previously), and a series of unflattering reports about his leadership style, including beginning with the WSJ, it didn’t take long before the company was forced to abandon its IPO dreams.

No doubt it’s now Mathrani’s job to eventually resuscitate those.

According to the WSJ, SoftBank has already established a five-year business plan that it expects will get the company to profitability and allow it to be cash-flow positive by some time next year. Part of that plan clearly involved layoffs; it cut 2,400 employees in late November, shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. It has also been selling off companies that were acquired at Neumann’s direction but are seen as non-core assets. What WeWork does not intend to curtail, reportedly, are its efforts to open new locations, even if it acquires them at a slower pace than in previous years.

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US Navy Chief Compares Hypersonic ‘Hindsight’ to ‘Sputnik Moment’, Schedules Test

Russia and China are the two leading countries in developing and producing hypersonic weapons. Russia was the first to deploy a hypersonic nuclear missile and recently deployed its first hypersonic glider, the Avangard.

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Japanese Warship Departs for Middle East - Report

Deployment of a Japanese Navy vessel to the Middle East reportedly comes after lengthy approval that has been sought by Tokyo in a bid to keep a delicate balance to avoid spoiled relations with Wahsington and maintain its ties with Tehran.

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These gorgeous roses can last for a year without any upkeep

Valentine's Day always tends to creep up on even the best and most thoughtful gift-givers—leading people to scramble to the flower store on the big day in vain. So this year for Valentine's Day, give the gift of long-lasting roses that will both stand the test of time and arrive directly at your loved one's door with these best-selling premium rose packages.

1. Rose Box Golden Box & Long-Lasting Roses

MSRP: $249 | Sale Price: $187 (25% off)

Make that special person in your life feel extra special this Valentine’s Day with this unique box of 9 to 10 long-lasting roses that will stay fresh for a full year without any maintenance.

2. Rose Box Velvet Gray Box & Long-Lasting Roses

MSRP: $199 | Sale Price: $150 (25% off)

Available in a variety of colors, this velvet box of roses comes with 8 to 10 flowers that will stand the test of time without any upkeep.

3. 24 Rose Square Box

MSRP: $350 | Sale Price: $215 (38% off)

Available in red, yellow, blue or pink, these 24 everlasting roses come wrapped in a luxurious black velvet box.

4. 24 Roses Round Box - Red

MSRP: $350 | Sale Price: $200 (42% off)

Perfect for a significant other or a family member, these long-lasting roses come in a variety of colors and are handpicked by local farmers.

5. Red Everlasting Rose

MSRP: $155 | Sale Price: $105 (32% off)

Perfect for lovers of Beauty and the Beast, this gorgeous rose comes with its own beautiful crystal glass case that will protect it for months to come.

6. Mini Gold Box with 5 Long-Lasting Roses

MSRP: $150 | Sale Price: $112 (25% off)

These five long-lasting roses come with a specialized mini gold box that will keep your gift fresh for an entire year.

7. Rose Box 4-Rose Jewelry Box

MSRP: $179 | Sale Price: $135 (25% off)

This gorgeous jewelry box comes packed with four roses that are sourced directly from Ecuador, and when the roses come to the end of their long life the box can be used to store your valuables.

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Commander Haftar Confirms LNA Participation in 5+5 Military Commission Talks - UN Mission in Libya

CAIRO (Sputnik) - Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar confirmed that his side will take part in the upcoming 5+5 military commission talks in Geneva, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said Saturday.

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Warren Introduces Her Golden Retriever for US Presidential Campaign, Netizens Split

While rallying in Iowa, Senator Elizabeth Warren, 70, one of the remaining Democratic contenders for the Oval Office, stirred up supporters with a new campaign strategy by introducing amendments to her favored and famous "selfie line".

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