NEW INFO 5 Results from share redemption are posted. Less than .2% redeemed. Very bullish as investors are showing extreme confidence in the future of PLBY.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/playboy-mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-120000721.html
NEW INFO 4 Definitive Agreement to purchase 100% of Lovers brand stores announced 2/1.
https://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Playboy+%28MCAC%29+Confirms+Deal+to+Acquire+Lovers/17892359.html
NEW INFO 3 I bought more on the dip today. 5081 total. Price rose AH to $12.38 (2.15%)
NEW INFO 2 Here is the full webinar.
https://icrinc.zoom.us/rec/play/9GWKdmOYumjWfZuufW3QXpe_FW_g--qeNbg6PnTjTMbnNTgLmCbWjeRFpQga1iPc-elpGap8dnDv8Zww.yD7DjUwuPmapeEdP?continueMode=true&tk=lEYc4F_FkKlgsmCIs6w0gtGHT2kbgVGbUju3cIRBSjk.DQIAAAAV8NK49xZWdldRM2xNSFNQcTBmcE00UzM3bXh3AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA&uuid=WN_GKWqbHkeSyuWetJmLFkj4g&_x_zm_rtaid=kR45-uuqRE-L65AxLjpbQw.1611967079119.2c054e3d3f8d8e63339273d9175939ed&_x_zm_rhtaid=866
NEW INFO 1 Live merger webinar with PLBY and MCAC on Friday January 29, 2021 at 12:00 NOON EST link below
https://mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/press-release-details/2021/Playboy-Enterprises-Inc.-and-Mountain-Crest-Acquisition-Corp-Participate-in-SPACInsider-ICR-Webinar-on-January-29th-at-12pm-ET/default.aspx
Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis
!!!WARNING READING AHEAD!!! TL;DR at the end. It will take some time to sort through all the links and read/watch everything, but you should.
In the next couple weeks, Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp is taking Playboy public. The existing ticker MCAC will become PLBY. Special purpose acquisition companies have taken private companies public in recent months with great success. I believe this will be no exception. Notably, Playboy is profitable and has skyrocketing revenue going into a transformational growth phase.
Porn - First and foremost, let's talk about porn. I know what you guys are thinking. “Porno mags are dead. Why would I want to invest in something like that? I can get porn for free online.” Guess what? You are absolutely right. And that’s exactly why Playboy doesn’t do that anymore. That’s right, they eliminated their print division. And yet they somehow STILL make money from porn that people (see: boomers) pay for on their website through PlayboyTV, Playboy Plus, and iPlayboy. Here’s the thing: Playboy has international, multi-generational name recognition from porn. They have content available in 180 countries. It will be the only publicly traded adult entertainment (porn) company. But that is not where this company is going. It will help support them along the way. You can see every Playboy magazine through iPlayboy if you’re interested. NSFW links below:
https://www.playboy.com/
https://www.playboytv.com/
https://www.playboyplus.com/
https://www.iplayboy.com/
Gambling - Some of you might recognize the Playboy brand from gambling trips to places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cancun, London or Macau. They’ve been in the gambling biz for decades through their casinos, clubs, and licensed gaming products. They see the writing on the wall. COVID is accelerating the transition to digital, application based GAMBLING. That’s right. What we are doing on Robinhood with risky options is gambling, and the only reason regulators might give a shit anymore is because we are making too much money. There may be some restrictions put in place, but gambling from your phone on your couch is not going anywhere. More and more states are allowing things like Draftkings, poker, state ‘lottery” apps, hell - even political betting. Michigan and Virginia just ok’d gambling apps. They won’t be the last. This is all from your couch and any 18 year old with a cracked iphone can access it. Wouldn’t it be cool if Playboy was going to do something like that? They’re already working on it. As per CEO Ben Kohn who we will get to later, “...the company’s casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth.” Honestly, I stopped researching Scientific Games' sports betting segment when I saw the word ‘omni-channel’. That told me all I needed to know about it’s success.
“Our SG Sports™ platform is an enhanced, omni-channel solution for online, self-service and retail fixed odds sports betting – from soccer to tennis, basketball, football, baseball, hockey, motor sports, racing and more.”
https://www.scientificgames.com/
https://www.microgaming.co.uk/
“This latter segment has become increasingly enticing for Playboy, and it said last week that it is considering new tie-ups that could include gaming operators like PointsBet and 888Holdings.”
https://calvinayre.com/2020/10/05/business/playboys-gaming-ops-could-get-a-boost-from-spac-purchase/
As per their SEC filing:
“Significant consumer engagement and spend with Playboy-branded gaming properties around the world, including with leading partners such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, and Caesar’s Entertainment, steers our investment in digital gaming, sports betting and other digital offerings to further support our commercial strategy to expand consumer spend with minimal marginal cost, and gain consumer data to inform go-to-market plans across categories.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tMDAA1
They are expanding into more areas of gaming/gambling, working with international players in the digital gaming/gambling arena, and a Playboy sportsbook is on the horizon.
https://www.playboy.com/read/the-pleasure-of-playing-with-yourself-mobile-gaming-in-the-covid-era
Cannabis - If you’ve ever read through a Playboy magazine, you know they’ve had a positive relationship with cannabis for many years. As of September 2020, Playboy has made a major shift into the cannabis space. Too good to be true you say? Check their website. Playboy currently sells a range of CBD products. This is a good sign. Federal hemp products, which these most likely are, can be mailed across state lines and most importantly for a company like Playboy, can operate through a traditional banking institution. CBD products are usually the first step towards the cannabis space for large companies. Playboy didn’t make these products themselves meaning they are working with a processor in the cannabis industry. Another good sign for future expansion. What else do they have for sale? Pipes, grinders, ashtrays, rolling trays, joint holders. Hmm. Ok. So it looks like they want to sell some shit. They probably don’t have an active interest in cannabis right? Think again:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/24/playboy-gets-serious-about-cannabis-law-reform-advocacy-with-new-partnership-grants/?sh=62f044a65cea
“Taking yet another step into the cannabis space, Playboy will be announcing later on Thursday (September, 2020) that it is launching a cannabis law reform and advocacy campaign in partnership with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Last Prisoner Project, Marijuana Policy Project, the Veterans Cannabis Project, and the Eaze Momentum Program.”
“According to information procured exclusively, the three-pronged campaign will focus on calling for federal legalization. The program also includes the creation of a mentorship plan, through which the Playboy Foundation will support entrepreneurs from groups that are underrepresented in the industry.” Remember that CEO Kohn from earlier? He wrote this recently:
https://medium.com/naked-open-letters-from-playboy/congress-must-pass-the-more-act-c867c35239ae
Seems like he really wants weed to be legal? Hmm wonder why? The writing's on the wall my friends. Playboy wants into the cannabis industry, they are making steps towards this end, and we have favorable conditions for legislative progress.
Don’t think branding your own cannabis line is profitable or worthwhile? Tell me why these 41 celebrity millionaires and billionaires are dummies. I’ll wait.
https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2019/07/12/top-celebrity-cannabis-brands/
Confirmation: I hear you. “This all seems pretty speculative. It would be wildly profitable if they pull this shift off. But how do we really know?” Watch this whole video:
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/playboy-ceo-telling-story-female-154907068.html
Man - this interview just gets my juices flowing. And highlights one of my favorite reasons for this play. They have so many different business avenues from which a catalyst could appear. I think paying attention, holding shares, and options on these staggered announcements over the next year is the way I am going to go about it. "There's definitely been a shift to direct-to-consumer," he (Kohn) said. "About 50 percent of our revenue today is direct-to-consumer, and that will continue to grow going forward.” “Kohn touted Playboy's portfolio of both digital and consumer products, with casino-style gaming, in particular, serving a crucial role under the company's new business model. Playboy also has its sights on the emerging cannabis market, from CBD products to marijuana products geared toward sexual health and pleasure.” "If THC does become legal in the United States, we have developed certain strains to enhance your sex life that we will launch," Kohn said. https://cheddar.com/media/playboy-goes-public-health-gaming-lifestyle-focus Oh? The CEO actually said it? Ok then. “We have developed certain strains…” They’re already working with growers on strains and genetics? Ok. There are several legal cannabis markets for those products right now, international and stateside. I expect Playboy licensed hemp and THC pre-rolls by EOY. Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/842996758/10-playboy-pre-roll-tubes-limited?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pre+roll+playboy&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1 Maintaining cannabis operations can be costly and a regulatory headache. Playboy’s licensing strategy allows them to pick successful, established partners and sidestep traditional barriers to entry. You know what I like about these new markets? They’re expanding. Worldwide. And they are going to be a bigger deal than they already are with or without Playboy. Who thinks weed and gambling are going away? Too many people like that stuff. These are easy markets. And Playboy is early enough to carve out their spot in each. Fuck it, read this too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimosman/2020/10/20/playboy-could-be-the-king-of-spacs-here-are-three-picks/?sh=2e13dcaa3e05
Numbers: You want numbers? I got numbers. As per the company’s most recent SEC filing:
“For the year ended December 31, 2019, and the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s historical consolidated revenue was $78.1 million and $101.3 million, respectively, historical consolidated net income (loss) was $(23.6) million and $(4.8) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million and $21.8 million, respectively.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Licensing segment contributed $44.2 million in revenue and $31.1 million in net income.”
“In the ninth months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Direct-to-Consumer segment contributed $40.2 million in revenue and net income of $0.1 million.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Digital Subscriptions and Content segment contributed $15.4 million in revenue and net income of $7.4 million.”
They are profitable across all three of their current business segments.
“Playboy’s return to the public markets presents a transformed, streamlined and high-growth business. The Company has over $400 million in cash flows contracted through 2029, sexual wellness products available for sale online and in over 10,000 major retail stores in the US, and a growing variety of clothing and branded lifestyle and digital gaming products.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
Growth: Playboy has massive growth in China and massive growth potential in India. “In China, where Playboy has spent more than 25 years building its business, our licensees have an enormous footprint of nearly 2,500 brick and mortar stores and 1,000 ecommerce stores selling high quality, Playboy-branded men’s casual wear, shoes/footwear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal suits, leather & non-leather goods, sweaters, active wear, and accessories. We have achieved significant growth in China licensing revenues over the past several years in partnership with strong licensees and high-quality manufacturers, and we are planning for increased growth through updates to our men’s fashion lines and expansion into adjacent categories in men’s skincare and grooming, sexual wellness, and women’s fashion, a category where recent launches have been well received.” The men’s market in China is about the same size as the entire population of the United States and European Union combined. Playboy is a leading brand in this market. They are expanding into the women’s market too. Did you know CBD toothpaste is huge in China? China loves CBD products and has hemp fields that dwarf those in the US. If Playboy expands their CBD line China it will be huge. Did you know the gambling money in Macau absolutely puts Las Vegas to shame? Technically, it's illegal on the mainland, but in reality, there is a lot of gambling going on in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/19/magic-johnson-and-uncle-buds-cbd-brand-enter-china-via-tmall-partnership/?sh=271776ca411e “In India, Playboy today has a presence through select apparel licensees and hospitality establishments. Consumer research suggests significant growth opportunities in the territory with Playboy’s brand and categories of focus.” “Playboy Enterprises has announced the expansion of its global consumer products business into India as part of a partnership with Jay Jay Iconic Brands, a leading fashion and lifestyle Company in India.” “The Indian market today is dominated by consumers under the age of 35, who represent more than 65 percent of the country’s total population and are driving India’s significant online shopping growth. The Playboy brand’s core values of playfulness and exploration resonate strongly with the expressed desires of today’s younger millennial consumers. For us, Playboy was the perfect fit.” “The Playboy international portfolio has been flourishing for more than 25 years in several South Asian markets such as China and Japan. In particular, it has strategically targeted the millennial and gen-Z audiences across categories such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, eyewear and watches.” https://www.licenseglobal.com/industry-news/playboy-expands-global-footprint-india It looks like they gave COVID the heisman in terms of net damage sustained: “Although Playboy has not suffered any material adverse consequences to date from the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has been impacted both negatively and positively. The remote working and stay-at-home orders resulted in the closure of the London Playboy Club and retail stores of Playboy’s licensees, decreasing licensing revenues in the second quarter, as well as causing supply chain disruption and less efficient product development thereby slowing the launch of new products. However, these negative impacts were offset by an increase in Yandy’s direct-to-consumer sales, which have benefited in part from overall increases in online retail sales so far during the pandemic.” Looks like the positives are long term (Yandy acquisition) and the negatives are temporary (stay-at-home orders).
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921006093/tm213766-1_defa14a.htm
This speaks to their ability to maintain a financially solvent company throughout the transition phase to the aforementioned areas. They’d say some fancy shit like “expanded business model to encompass four key revenue streams: Sexual Wellness, Style & Apparel, Gaming & Lifestyle, and Beauty & Grooming.” I hear “we’re just biding our time with these trinkets until those dollar dollar bill y’all markets are fully up and running.” But the truth is these existing revenue streams are profitable, scalable, and rapidly expanding Playboy’s e-commerce segment around the world.
"Even in the face of COVID this year, we've been able to grow EBITDA over 100 percent and revenue over 68 percent, and I expect that to accelerate going into 2021," he said. “Playboy is accelerating its growth in company-owned and branded consumer products in attractive and expanding markets in which it has a proven history of brand affinity and consumer spend.”
Also in the SEC filing, the Time Frame:
“As we detailed in the definitive proxy statement, the SPAC stockholder meeting to vote on the transaction has been set for February 9th, and, subject to stockholder approval and satisfaction of the other closing conditions, we expect to complete the merger and begin trading on NASDAQ under ticker PLBY shortly thereafter,” concluded Kohn.
The Players: Suhail “The Whale” Rizvi (HMFIC), Ben “The Bridge” Kohn (CEO), “lil” Suying Liu & “Big” Dong Liu (Young-gun China gang). I encourage you to look these folks up. The real OG here is Suhail Rizvi. He’s from India originally and Chairman of the Board for the new PLBY company. He was an early investor in Twitter, Square, Facebook and others. His firm, Rizvi Traverse, currently invests in Instacart, Pinterest, Snapchat, Playboy, and SpaceX. Maybe you’ve heard of them. “Rizvi, who owns a sprawling three-home compound in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a 1.65-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, moved to Iowa Falls when he was five. His father was a professor of psychology at Iowa. Along with his older brother Ashraf, a hedge fund manager, Rizvi graduated from Wharton business school.” “Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron: When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks (2013), one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. In IPO, Twitter seeks to be 'anti-FB'” “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia looks like a big Twitter winner. So do the moneyed clients of Jamie Dimon. But as you’ve-got-to-be-joking wealth washed over Twitter on Thursday — a company that didn’t exist eight years ago was worth $31.7 billion after its first day on the stock market — the non-boldface name of the moment is Suhail R. Rizvi. Mr. Rizvi, 47, runs a private investment company that is the largest outside investor in Twitter with a 15.6 percent stake worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday (November, 2013). Using a web of connections in the tech industry and in finance, as well as a hearty dose of good timing, he brought many prominent names in at the ground floor, including the Saudi prince and some of JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/technology/at-twitter-working-behind-the-scenes-toward-a-billion-dollar-payday.html Y’all like that Arab money? How about a dude that can call up Saudi Princes and convince them to spend? Funniest shit about I read about him: “Rizvi was able to buy only $100 million in Facebook shortly before its IPO, thus limiting his returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” Poor guy :(
He should be fine with the 16 million PLBY shares he's going to have though :)
Shuhail also has experience in the entertainment industry. He’s invested in companies like SESAC, ICM, and Summit Entertainment. He’s got Hollywood connections to blast this stuff post-merger. And he’s at least partially responsible for that whole Twilight thing. I’m team Edward btw.
I really like what Suhail has done so far. He’s lurked in the shadows while Kohn is consolidating the company, trimming the fat, making Playboy profitable, and aiming the ship at modern growing markets.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight/insight-little-known-hollywood-investor-poised-to-score-with-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE9920VW20131003
Ben “The Bridge” Kohn is an interesting guy. He’s the connection between Rizvi Traverse and Playboy. He’s both CEO of Playboy and was previously Managing Partner at Rizvi Traverse. Ben seems to be the voice of the Playboy-Rizvi partnership, which makes sense with Suhail’s privacy concerns. Kohn said this:
“Today is a very big day for all of us at Playboy and for all our partners globally. I stepped into the CEO role at Playboy in 2017 because I saw the biggest opportunity of my career. Playboy is a brand and platform that could not be replicated today. It has massive global reach, with more than $3B of global consumer spend and products sold in over 180 countries. Our mission – to create a culture where all people can pursue pleasure – is rooted in our 67-year history and creates a clear focus for our business and role we play in people’s lives, providing them with the products, services and experiences that create a lifestyle of pleasure. We are taking this step into the public markets because the committed capital will enable us to accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategies and to more rapidly build our direct to consumer capabilities,” said Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy.
“Playboy today is a highly profitable commerce business with a total addressable market projected in the trillions of dollars,” Mr. Kohn continued, “We are actively selling into the Sexual Wellness consumer category, projected to be approximately $400 billion in size by 2024, where our recently launched intimacy products have rolled out to more than 10,000 stores at major US retailers in the United States. Combined with our owned & operated ecommerce Sexual Wellness initiatives, the category will contribute more than 40% of our revenue this year. In our Apparel and Beauty categories, our collaborations with high-end fashion brands including Missguided and PacSun are projected to achieve over $50M in retail sales across the US and UK this year, our leading men’s apparel lines in China expanded to nearly 2500 brick and mortar stores and almost 1000 digital stores, and our new men’s and women’s fragrance line recently launched in Europe. In Gaming, our casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth. Our product strategy is informed by years of consumer data as we actively expand from a purely licensing model into owning and operating key high-growth product lines focused on driving profitability and consumer lifetime value. We are thrilled about the future of Playboy. Our foundation has been set to drive further growth and margin, and with the committed capital from this transaction and our more than $180M in NOLs, we will take advantage of the opportunity in front of us, building to our goal of $100M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
Also, according to their Form 4s, “Big” Dong Liu and “lil” Suying Liu just loaded up with shares last week. These guys are brothers and seem like the Chinese market connection. They are only 32 & 35 years old. I don’t even know what that means, but it's provocative.
https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1832415.htm
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-ii-002600994.html
Y’all like that China money?
“Mr. Liu has been the Chief Financial Officer of Dongguan Zhishang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., a regional designer, manufacturer and distributor of LED lights serving commercial customers throughout Southern China since November 2016, at which time he led a syndicate of investments into the firm. Mr. Liu has since overseen the financials of Dongguan Zhishang as well as provided strategic guidance to its board of directors, advising on operational efficiency and cash flow performance. From March 2010 to October 2016, Mr. Liu was the Head of Finance at Feidiao Electrical Group Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese manufacturer of electrical outlets headquartered in Shanghai and with businesses in the greater China region as well as Europe.”
Dr. Suying Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp., commented, “Playboy is a unique and compelling investment opportunity, with one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, its proven consumer affinity and spend, and its enormous future growth potential in its four product segments and new and existing geographic regions. I am thrilled to be partnering with Ben and his exceptional team to bring his vision to fruition.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
These guys are good. They have a proven track record of success across multiple industries. Connections and money run deep with all of these guys. I don’t think they’re in the game to lose.
I was going to write a couple more paragraphs about why you should have a look at this but really the best thing you can do is read this SEC filing from a couple days ago. It explains the situation in far better detail. Specifically, look to page 137 and read through their strategy. Also, look at their ownership percentages and compensation plans including the stock options and their prices. The financials look great, revenue is up 90% Q3, and it looks like a bright future.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
I’m hesitant to attach this because his position seems short term, but I’m going to with a warning because he does hit on some good points (two are below his link) and he’s got a sizable position in this thing (500k+ on margin, I think). I don’t know this guy but he did look at the same publicly available info and make roughly the same prediction, albeit without the in depth gambling or cannabis mention. You can also search reddit for ‘MCAC’ and very few relevant results come up and none of them even come close to really looking at this thing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOvAd6lebs452hFlWWbxVjQ3VMsjGBkbJeXRwDwIJfM/edit?usp=sharing
“Also, before you people start making claims that Playboy is a “boomer” company, STOP RIGHT THERE. This is not a good argument. Simply put. The only thing that matters is Playboy’s name recognition, not their archaic business model which doesn’t even exist anymore as they have completely repurposed their business.”
“Imagine not buying $MCAC at a 400M valuation lol. Streetwear department is worth 1B alone imo.”
Considering the ridiculous Chinese growth as a lifestyle brand, he’s not wrong.
Current Cultural Significance and Meme Value: A year ago I wouldn’t have included this section but the events from the last several weeks (even going back to tsla) have proven that a company’s ability to meme and/or gain social network popularity can have an effect. Tik-tok, Snapchat, Twitch, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. They all have Playboy stuff on them. Kids in middle and highschool know what Playboy is but will likely never see or touch one of the magazines in person. They’ll have a Playboy hoodie though. Crazy huh? A lot like GME, PLBY would hugely benefit from meme-value stock interest to drive engagement towards their new business model while also building strategic coffers. This interest may not directly and/or significantly move the stock price but can generate significant interest from larger players who will.
Bull Case: The year is 2025. Playboy is now the world leader pleasure brand. They began by offering Playboy licensed gaming products, including gambling products, direct to consumers through existing names. By 2022, demand has skyrocketed and Playboy has designed and released their own gambling platforms. In 2025, they are also a leading cannabis brand in the United States and Canada with proprietary strains and products geared towards sexual wellness. Cannabis was legalized in the US in 2023 when President Biden got glaucoma but had success with cannabis treatment. He personally pushes for cannabis legalization as he steps out of office after his first term. Playboy has also grown their brand in China and India to multi-billion per year markets. The stock goes up from 11ish to 100ish and everyone makes big gains buying somewhere along the way.
Bear Case: The United States does a complete 180 on marijuana and gambling. President Biden overdoses on marijuana in the Lincoln bedroom when his FDs go tits up and he loses a ton of money in his sports book app after the Fighting Blue Hens narrowly lose the National Championship to Bama. Playboy is unable to expand their cannabis and gambling brands but still does well with their worldwide lifestyle brand. They gain and lose some interest in China and India but the markets are too large to ignore them completely. The stock goes up from 11ish to 13ish and everyone makes 15-20% gains.
TL;DR: Successful technology/e-commerce investment firm took over Playboy to turn it into a porn, online gambling/gaming, sports book, cannabis company, worldwide lifestyle brand that promotes sexual wellness, vetern access, women-ownership, minority-ownership, and “pleasure for all”. Does a successful online team reinventing an antiquated physical copy giant sound familiar? No options yet, shares only for now. $11.38 per share at time of writing. My guess? $20 by the end of February. $50 by EOY. This is not financial advice. I am not qualified to give financial advice. I’m just sayin’ I would personally use a Playboy sports book app while smoking a Playboy strain specific joint and it would be cool if they did that. Do your own research. You’d probably want to start here:
WARNING - POTENTIALLY NSFW - SEXY MODELS AHEAD - no actual nudity though
https://s26.q4cdn.com/895475556/files/doc_presentations/Playboy-Craig-Hallum-Conference-Investor-Presentation-11_17_20-compressed.pdf
Or here:
https://www.mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/default.aspx
Jimmy Chill: “Get into any SPAC at $10 or $11 and you are going to make money.”
STL;DR: Buy MCAC. MCAC > PLBY couple weeks. Rocketship. Moon.
Position: 5000 shares. I will buy short, medium, and long-dated calls once available.

Covid-19 update Tuesday March 17th

Good morning from the UK. Happy St Patricks day. It'll be a woeful one for many Irish people around the world with pubs and bars shut in multiple US states, several European countries, several Asian countries and worst of all, Ireland itself. Here in the UK you can still go to the pub, although as of late yesterday afternoon the UK government advised against it says the BBC.

Virus statistics
Several comments from redditors in past days complained the WHO stats I C&P'd did not come very close to reflecting stats being quoted by national media wherever they lived. As a result, I'm abandoning the WHO stats and going back to the John Hopkins University tracker stats for all countries. If it's good enough for the likes of Forbes, Business Insider, FT, USA Today to regularly cite it then it's good enough for me:-

Region	Today (John Hopkins Stats at time of writing)	Yesterday (John Hopkins stats not the WHO's)	% daily change
Global	182,424	169,387	+7.7%
China	81,053	81,020	+0.4%
Italy	27,980	24,747	+13.1%
Iran	14,991	13,938	+7.6%
Spain	9,942	7,844	+26.7%
South Korea	8,320	8,162	+1.9%
Germany	7,272	5,813	+25.1%
France	6,655	5,437	+22.4%
USA	4,661	3,774	+23.5%
Switzerland	2,330	2,200	+5.9%
UK	1,553	1,395	+11.3%
Netherlands	1,414	1,136	+24.5%
Norway	1,347	1,256	+7.2%
Sweden	1,121	1,032	+8.6%
Belgium	1,058	886	+19.4%
Austria	1,018	860	18.4%

All other countries with under 1000 identified infections not listed (sorry Denmark), yesterday's threshold was 750. Total countries infected worldwide = 155, an increase from yesterday of 9. Source for all countries (as discussed above): the John Hopkins University dashboard (Link). (Personal note: Western countries infection counts are increasing each day much faster than Asian countries but that may be due to cultural differences or it may be that they're doing my testing, if anyone can shed light on this please do).
Reminder, these are identified case counts and medical experts are reporting this virus has a long incubation period with people being infections despite displaying no symptoms; the true infection figures are likely to be much higher. Note that some countries are reporting shortages of test kits which further skews the data available; assume true cases are much higher.
Finally, no, I don't believe China's official statistics either.

Selected Virus news

Warnings of shortages of regeants (ingredients) to make test kits in the US - the Fool (a high quality finance website despite the name) reports that FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn stated last week in testimony before a U.S. House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee that there could be supply chain issues with reagents needed for novel coronavirus diagnostic kits. He noted that the supply issues specifically apply to RNA used in testing for coronavirus disease COVID-19.

Shortages in US supermarkets likely to continue until panic buying eases - The LA Times says that shortages will continue until people calm down in their shopping habits. The major chains usually get shipments overnight, or perhaps twice a day, to restock essentials such as paper towels, toilet paper and water, but “manufacturers in some cases are having trouble keeping up, and that’s where the void is, they’re not able to keep up with demand,” said Bob Reeves, vice president for the West at the Shelby Report, a research firm that tracks the grocery industry. “We’re seeing shipments coming into the stores sometimes without any of those products, and it will be like that until people calm down a little bit,” he said. In some cases, chains are sending their delivery trucks directly to manufacturers — bypassing warehouses and distributors — to get the items to the stores faster. (Personal note: the same applies for all supermarket supply chains globally)

Pa. hospitals are rationing protective gear as the number of coronavirus cases grows - (Personal note, this is an example, there seems to be a general global shortage of medical PPE (personal protective equipment) - The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that hospitals across Pennsylvania are drastically limiting the use of key protective gear out of fears that a dramatic increase in coronavirus cases could diminish reserves and cause a dangerous shortage. The rationing comes as the state Department of Health maintains that it has personal protective equipment available and is working with health systems to make sure they have what they need. The gear includes eye protection, gowns, and N95 respirators, which are essential in preventing a health care worker from breathing in infectious particles when in close contact with someone who has COVID-19. In Philadelphia, two doctors who work at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania said it’s barring the use of N95 respirators “except in extraordinarily limited situations.” Penn Medicine declined to comment. Another city doctor, Daphne Owen, said in a tweet Thursday her clinic “for uninsured and undocumented patients” was out of masks. Two days later, the clinic, Puentes de Salud, said it was closed due to the pandemic.

Other Virus news in brief
- The Scottish courts and tribunals announced today that no new criminal jury trials would be commenced or new juries empanelled until further notice.
- Iran has temporarily freed a total of 85,000 prisoners, including political prisoners, a spokesman for its judiciary said on Tuesday, adding that the prisons were responding to the threat of a coronavirus epidemic in jails.
- Britain had “no time to lose” in changing tactics in order to prevent thousands of deaths and the NHS being overwhelmed, scientists providing guidance to the UK government have said. The Imperial College Covid-19 response team – which is one of several scientific teams advising UK ministers – published a paper (I've put it in the addendum below) showing that 250,000 people could die if efforts were focused only on delaying and slowing down the spread of Covid-19.Separately, England’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, could not rule out the strict measures having to last for a year but predicted they would last at least “several months“.
- Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs has advised Australians to return home as soon as possible by commercial means because overseas travel is becoming “more complex and difficult” as countries impose travel restrictions and close their borders.
- Leaders of EU states were expected on Tuesday to suspend all travel into the passport-free Schengen zone by non-EU nationals for at least 30 days in a bid to instil uniformity across the bloc after some member states, including Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, unilaterally began imposing border checks.
- China has issued an angry reaction (by diplomatic standards) to the US president Donald Trump’s characterisation of the disease as “the Chinese virus.” (he tweeted late last night "The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!"). China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the US president should take care of his own matters first and not seek to “stigmatise” China.
- The postponement of soccer’s Euro 2020 Championship may already have been decided after Uefa last week cancelled its hotel bookings in Copenhagen.
- The UK just advised its citizens against all non essential travel worldwide in the past 10 minutes
- Mobile phone networks are struggling in some areas of the UK with significantly increased demands according to down detector. For sure a lot of people seem to be home working, my commute in this morning was like it was the middle of August and everyone else was on holiday.
- Alitalia, the Italian airline flag carrier is to be renationalised by Italy
- Cinema chains are closing in multiple countries due to shutdowns
- Kazakhstan is closing down its two largest cities (despite only having 32 cases so far)
- A preliminary calculation by a US expert suggests that tens of thousands of premature deaths from air pollution may have been avoided by the cleaner air in China, far higher than the 3,208 coronavirus deaths.
- Jordan: the army has said it will deploy at entrances and exits of main cities in the kingdom in a move officials said was ahead of an imminent announcement of a state of emergency to combat the spread of coronavirus.
- In a joint statement, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit and YouTube said they would help ensure people could stay connected to each other during isolation as well as fight any misinformation and fraud linked to the outbreak. “We are working closely together on Covid-19 response efforts,” the statement said. “We’re helping millions of people stay connected while also jointly combating fraud and misinformation about the virus, elevating authoritative content on our platforms, and sharing critical updates in co-ordination with government healthcare agencies around the world.
- Almost all Germans shops are about to close by government decree; supermarkets, pharmacies will remain open (including on Sundays when they are usually closed). Separately, government press briefings there have gone online only.
- Olympic organisers in Japan are asking people not to create crowds along the route of the Olympic torch relay and not to gather near the route if they feel sick. A Boeing aircraft flew to Greece on 15 March to bring the torch to Japan.
- France: No movement allowed except for essential work or health reasons. “There can be no more outside meetings, no more seeing family or friends on the street or in the park. We must slow the spread of this virus by limiting the number of people we are in contact with each day to the strict minimum. If we do not, we endanger the lives of those we hold dear.” said the French President Macron.
- Israel’s government has approved emergency measures to track people suspected or confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus by monitoring their mobile phones, immediately raising privacy concerns in the country. The cabinet unanimously approved the use of the technology, developed initially for counter-terrorism purposes, in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said providing the country’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, with new secretive powers was a “dangerous precedent and a slippery slope that must be approached and resolved after much debate and not after a brief discussion”.
- Indonesian president Joko Widodo said on Saturday that he had withheld some information about cases to prevent the country from panicking, the Jakarta Post reported. He has rejected calls for a lockdown to be imposed on hard hit areas.
- Malaysia has announced it's closing its borders prompting neighbouring Singapore's citizens to panic buy (90% of their food is imported from Malaysia).
- New Zealand on Tuesday deported its first unruly traveller flouting the country’s mandatory 14-day self-isolation rule for almost all arrivals, the health ministry said. The tourist, who had checked into a backpackers hostel in the city of Christchurch, was removed from the accommodation by the police after officials learned she did not have clear self-isolation plans.

Economics

Goldman Sachs doesn't think the stock market drops have finished - BusinessInsider says that Goldman Sachs thinks that the S&P 500 might plunge as low as 2,000 before recovering through the rest of the year, the investment bank wrote Friday. The level is the benchmark index's lowest since early 2016 and implies a 20% decline from Monday's open. Such a tumble would also place the index more than 40% below its February 19 peak. The coronavirus outbreak is responsible for "unprecedented financial and societal disruption," the analysts said, and equities have so far served as accurate leading indicators before the release of relevant earnings or macroeconomic data. That said, the analysts pointed out that "The lesson of prior event-driven bear markets is that financial devastation ultimately allows a new bull market to be born,".

U.S. factories are likely to close because of the coronavirus’ supply-chain shock - Marketwatch reports (link) that there is a very real chance that companies from auto makers to electronics manufacturers will soon begin to cease or limit production. With a downed China as the headstream of global manufacturing, mercantile America simply can’t function as it’s accustomed to. We’re starting to see this happen in official reports: The New York Fed’s Empire State business conditions index, released Monday, plunged by a record 34.4 points to minus 21.5 in March. And Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Sunday he expects a contraction in GDP in the second quarter. (Personal note: I expect similar problems across all G20 countries). The article goes on to explain that many supply chain directors may understand their first tier suppliers but often do not have full visibility of the status of their 2nd or 3rd tier suppliers

Supply impact of the coronavirus outbreak is waning, but demand shock will linger, economist says - CNBC says that in January and February, industrial output fell by 13.5% from the same period a year earlier, the weakest reading since January 1990 — when Reuters' record began. China's industrial production is likely to improve in March over a slump in January and February due to the coronavirus outbreak, but consumer demand will take longer to recover both in the country and globally, an economist said Monday. "We will see some recovery, but this recovery, I think, is being undermined by the global spread as well," said Bo Zhuang, chief China economist at TS Lombard. Meanwhile, retail sales in January and February shrank 20.5% from a year ago, compared with a 8% growth in December as fearful consumers avoided crowded places like malls, restaurants and cinemas. "We were worried about supply-side issues, but now it's becoming a demand shock issue," said Zhuang. Smaller outfits like restaurants and service-oriented businesses have "resumed work but there are no customers," said Zhuang. "I think we are going to see a delayed V-shape (recovery), and this V may be a tilted V or W, or even U. We are not sure," he added.

Coronavirus Impacts Every Sector of the Supply Chain - Supply and demand chain executive reports that the global supply chain continues to experience disruption. "We have seen that in the way that it’s spreading across into different hubs where we see alternative routes to be overly burdened, such as the rail system,” says Koray Köse of Gartner. “Now with the crisis and the hubs being closed and product movements are still active to some extent, but not necessarily from those regions, will become crowded and impacted. This means that there’s an additional strain on the overall network to move material.” Some products have experienced significant upticks including Chicken noodle soup (+37%), Hand sanitizer (+65%), Disinfecting Wipes: (+353%) and Cold & Flu medications (+197%) amongst others.

Coronavirus pandemic worse than 1997 financial crisis, Malaysian ex-PM Mahathir warns - The Strait times reports on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the former premier who steered Malaysia's recovery from the 1997 Asian financial crisis, expects the current coronavirus pandemic to hit the global economy even harder. "This is worse than the financial crisis," he said in a Bloomberg Television interview. "This is really a terrible blow to the economies of the whole world." Dr Mahathir joins other world leaders in warning that the virus impact may be worse than past periods of upheaval (Personal note: I pointed out yesterday the NZ PM also saying this).

Supply chain news relating to Covid-19

For Global Supply Chains the Worst Is Yet to Come - Supply Chain Management review says (Link) that most industrial companies have 30-60 days of parts and raw materials either on hand, in-transit, or obtainable on short notice. After these supplies run out, we will start to see shortages of finished products as well as parts needed to produce other goods. Shortages will start to become more evident toward the end of March and beginning of April. Production in some non-Chinese factories will have to be put on hold for lack of parts. Partially finished products will remain in suspension until all parts are available to build finished products. Some companies are pressing their engineers to redesign parts that can be sourced in the U.S., or at least outside of China. Other companies are giving 3D printing a serious try for the first time. The article goes on to point out delays in sea freight ex-Asia and extremely high airfreighting costs are exacerbating the situation.

U.S. Suspends Truck-Driving Limits to Speed Coronavirus Shipments - The Wall Street Journal reports as of 2 days ago that maximum working hours for truck drivers in the US have been suspended. This applies to truck drivers moving emergency supplies such as medical equipment, hand sanitizer and food in response to the nationwide coronavirus outbreak. It comes as hospitals report shortages of medical masks and as retailers and manufacturers are straining under surging demand for everything from hand sanitizer to staples such as toilet paper and rice. As anxious consumers stockpile goods, grocers have turned to rationing, imposing purchase limits on disinfectant wipes, cleaning supplies and other high-demand products. The move is the first time the FMCSA has issued nationwide-wide relief from hours-of-service regulations, although regional declarations have waived those rules in response to disasters such as hurricanes. Federal regulations limit most commercial truck drivers to 11 hours of driving time in a 14-hour workday, restrictions intended to reduce accidents caused by highway fatigue.

For supply chain companies, U.S.-Mexico border closures could be catastrophic - Marketplace points out that Mexico’s deputy health minister says he’s worried about people coming into Mexico from the United States; currently the U.S. has far more cases of COVID-19 than Mexico. The Mexican government even said it might consider restricting access at its northern borders. For businesses that operate on both sides of the border, any shutdown could be catastrophic. The article gives a case study of a manfacturer employing 150 people in Texas. The company president says before anyone considers closing the border, President Donald Trump and Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, should discuss a coordinated response to the virus. As for now, he says all of his people can work from home, if the situation calls for it. Everyone here has a laptop, he said. But he says the independent truck drivers and contractors who work on the loading docks, they have to be on site to run things. Those people also only get paid if they show up for work. So, for now, they’re glad the COVID-19 hasn’t shut this part of Texas down, yet.

It won't be long before Coronavirus shuts down local African supply chains - The major Kenyan newspaper daily nation reports that there are imminent difficulties facing Kenyan pharma firms due to the industry importing 70% of its ingredients from India and China, both of whom have restricted exports. Studies show that the Kenyan pharmaceuticals market is worth Sh100 billion ($965m USD), 80 per cent of which is prescription drugs. Although Kenya exports 50 per cent to the COMESA region and 75 per cent to East African Community, most of these exports are re-exports from India and China.

European automotive factories shutting down - Ferrari and Lamborghini have both suspended almost all production (says the Express and Star) whilst Yahoo Finance reports that Fiat Chrysler said in a statement on Monday 16 March that it would halt operations at most of its European plants, from now until 27 March because of an “interruption in market demand.” The Italian-American automotive group said the manufacturing stop includes six factories in Italy, the EU country worst hit by coronavirus. Italy has had over 24,700 infection cases so far, and more than 1,800 people have died from the virus. The PSA group, which includes Peugeot, Citroen, and Opel, said today it will close all its European plants, including in the UK, France and Germany for the remainder of the month too. German car giant Volkswagen is also suspending production at a number of manufacturing bases in Europe, including in Slovakia and Spain. VW-owned Seat has shuttered its main factory near Barcelona for at least the rest of the month. Meanwhile, according to the Financial Times, Volkswagen may also be forced to curtail production at the main factory in its home town of Wolfsburg, because of running low on parts.
Useful parcel courier current operational status links for anyone else in eCommerce:Canada Post, DHL Express, DPD, Fedex, Parcelforce, USPS. If anyone has any other major courier links for service status, please let us all know :)

Good news section
Amazon to hire 100,000 more workers and give raises to current staff to deal with coronavirus demands - CNBC says that Amazon is hiring an additional 100,000 employees in the U.S. to meet the surge in demand from online shopping amid the coronavirus outbreak, the company said Monday. The company is looking to add extra full-time and part-time positions for warehouse and delivery workers. Through the end of April, it will raise pay for these employees by $2 per hour in the U.S., £2 per hour in the UK, and approximately €2 per hour in many EU countries. Amazon currently pays $15 per hour or more in some areas of the U.S. for warehouse and delivery jobs. Amazon encouraged employees in other industries whose jobs were "lost or furloughed" as a result of the coronavirus to apply, including members of the hospitality, restaurant and travel industries. "We want those people to know we welcome them on our teams until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them back," the company added.

Educating in denial older relatives anecdote
Personal story time; my 69 year old Aunt is very grumpy because despite me telling her for well over a month, it is finally dawning on her that her dream guided coach bus tour of the West USA national parks in 10 weeks time is rapidly going up in smoke whilst my 75 year old Dad has realised his third cruise of the year (this time around the med) in 5 weeks time is also about to be toast. My Aunt complained on Facebook yesterday that nobody is mentioning the 46,000 people who have recovered from the illness and that "it's just a bit of flu". It isn't, otherwise governments around the world would not be reacting as they are.
If you have an elderly relative like mine who relies far too much on social media anecdotes rather than good quality fact based mainstream media, maybe point them at this businessinsider article here where it points out that 1) flu mortality rates are 0.1% vs. Covid-19 is 3.4% and 2) for 70-79 the mortality rate is 8% and for over 80's it's 14.8%. Hopefully they might just realise the seriousness of the situation; my Aunt dismissed it as "a website I've never heard of and won't believe" despite the article clearly citing CDC figures.

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Donations
Several asked if they can send me $/£/€ via Patreon (in some cases because I've saved them time or money, others for no reason at all). I don't need the cash (that's lovely though) but food bank charities are getting really hit hard with all this panic buying. Please consider giving whatever you'd have given me to a foodbank charity instead:
UK: https://www.trusselltrust.org/
France: https://www.banquealimentaire.org/
Germany: https://www.tafel.de/
Netherlands: https://www.voedselbankennederland.nl/steun-ons/steun-voedselbank-donatie/
Spain: https://www.fesbal.org/
Australia: https://www.foodbank.org.au/
Canada: https://www.foodbankscanada.ca/
USA: https://www.feedingamerica.org/
Thanks in advance for any donations you give. If there's foodbank charities in your country and it's not listed above, please suggest it and I will include it going forward.

EDIT: Missed out virus news in brief, added as of 12:45. EDIT 2: Added in the Dutch foodbank link (hat tip siliconfrontier)

chance an ultimate frisbee player for comp sci at ivy leagues

[10/31/2019] Thursday's Off Topic Free Talk Thread

The manhattan project till i get banned 3/5

10/31	11/1	11/2	11/3	11/4	11/5	11/6
52°, Clouds	59°, Clear	58°, Clouds	62°, Clouds	67°, Clouds	80°, Rain	72°, Rain

Work began on 221-T and 221-U in January 1944, with the former completed in September and the latter in December. The 221-B building followed in March 1945. Because of the high levels of radioactivity involved, all work in the separation plants had to be conducted by remote control using closed-circuit television, something unheard of in 1943. Maintenance was carried out with the aid of an overhead crane and specially designed tools. The 224 buildings were smaller because they had less material to process, and it was less radioactive. The 224-T and 224-U buildings were completed on 8 October 1944, and 224-B followed on 10 February 1945. The purification methods that were eventually used in 231-W were still unknown when construction commenced on 8 April 1944, but the plant was complete and the methods were selected by the end of the year.[193] On 5 February 1945, Matthias hand-delivered the first shipment of 80 g of 95%-pure plutonium nitrate to a Los Alamos courier in Los Angeles.[186]

Weapon design
Main article: Project Y
Long, tube-like casings. In the background are several ovoid casings and a tow truck.
A row of Thin Man casings. Fat Man casings are visible in the background.
In 1943, development efforts were directed to a gun-type fission weapon with plutonium called Thin Man. Initial research on the properties of plutonium was done using cyclotron-generated plutonium-239, which was extremely pure, but could only be created in very small amounts. Los Alamos received the first sample of plutonium from the Clinton X-10 reactor in April 1944 and within days Emilio Segrè discovered a problem: the reactor-bred plutonium had a higher concentration of plutonium-240, resulting in up to five times the spontaneous fission rate of cyclotron plutonium.[194] Seaborg had correctly predicted in March 1943 that some of the plutonium-239 would absorb a neutron and become plutonium-240.[195]

This made reactor plutonium unsuitable for use in a gun-type weapon. The plutonium-240 would start the chain reaction too quickly, causing a predetonation that would release enough energy to disperse the critical mass with a minimal amount of plutonium reacted (a fizzle). A faster gun was suggested but found to be impractical. The possibility of separating the isotopes was considered and rejected, as plutonium-240 is even harder to separate from plutonium-239 than uranium-235 from uranium-238.[196]

Work on an alternative method of bomb design, known as implosion, had begun earlier under the direction of the physicist Seth Neddermeyer. Implosion used explosives to crush a subcritical sphere of fissile material into a smaller and denser form. When the fissile atoms are packed closer together, the rate of neutron capture increases, and the mass becomes a critical mass. The metal needs to travel only a very short distance, so the critical mass is assembled in much less time than it would take with the gun method.[197] Neddermeyer's 1943 and early 1944 investigations into implosion showed promise, but also made it clear that the problem would be much more difficult from a theoretical and engineering perspective than the gun design.[198] In September 1943, John von Neumann, who had experience with shaped charges used in armor-piercing shells, argued that not only would implosion reduce the danger of predetonation and fizzle, but would make more efficient use of the fissionable material.[199] He proposed using a spherical configuration instead of the cylindrical one that Neddermeyer was working on.[200]

Diagram showing fast explosive, slow explosive, uranium tamper, plutonium core and neutron initiator
An implosion-type nuclear bomb
By July 1944, Oppenheimer had concluded plutonium could not be used in a gun design, and opted for implosion. The accelerated effort on an implosion design, codenamed Fat Man, began in August 1944 when Oppenheimer implemented a sweeping reorganization of the Los Alamos laboratory to focus on implosion.[201] Two new groups were created at Los Alamos to develop the implosion weapon, X (for explosives) Division headed by explosives expert George Kistiakowsky and G (for gadget) Division under Robert Bacher.[202][203] The new design that von Neumann and T (for theoretical) Division, most notably Rudolf Peierls, had devised used explosive lenses to focus the explosion onto a spherical shape using a combination of both slow and fast high explosives.[204]

The design of lenses that detonated with the proper shape and velocity turned out to be slow, difficult and frustrating.[204] Various explosives were tested before settling on composition B as the fast explosive and baratol as the slow explosive.[205] The final design resembled a soccer ball, with 20 hexagonal and 12 pentagonal lenses, each weighing about 80 pounds (36 kg). Getting the detonation just right required fast, reliable and safe electrical detonators, of which there were two for each lens for reliability.[206] It was therefore decided to use exploding-bridgewire detonators, a new invention developed at Los Alamos by a group led by Luis Alvarez. A contract for their manufacture was given to Raytheon.[207]

To study the behavior of converging shock waves, Robert Serber devised the RaLa Experiment, which used the short-lived radioisotope lanthanum-140, a potent source of gamma radiation. The gamma ray source was placed in the center of a metal sphere surrounded by the explosive lenses, which in turn were inside in an ionization chamber. This allowed the taking of an X-ray movie of the implosion. The lenses were designed primarily using this series of tests.[208] In his history of the Los Alamos project, David Hawkins wrote: "RaLa became the most important single experiment affecting the final bomb design".[209]

Within the explosives was the 4.5-inch (110 mm) thick aluminum pusher, which provided a smooth transition from the relatively low density explosive to the next layer, the 3-inch (76 mm) thick tamper of natural uranium. Its main job was to hold the critical mass together as long as possible, but it would also reflect neutrons back into the core. Some part of it might fission as well. To prevent predetonation by an external neutron, the tamper was coated in a thin layer of boron.[206] A polonium-beryllium modulated neutron initiator, known as an "urchin" because its shape resembled a sea urchin,[210] was developed to start the chain reaction at precisely the right moment.[211] This work with the chemistry and metallurgy of radioactive polonium was directed by Charles Allen Thomas of the Monsanto Company and became known as the Dayton Project.[212] Testing required up to 500 curies per month of polonium, which Monsanto was able to deliver.[213] The whole assembly was encased in a duralumin bomb casing to protect it from bullets and flak.[206]

A shack surrounded by pine trees. There is snow on the ground. A man and a woman in white lab coats are pulling on a rope, which is attached to a small trolley on a wooden platform. On top of the trolley is a large cylindrical object.
Remote handling of a kilocurie source of radiolanthanum for a RaLa Experiment at Los Alamos
The ultimate task of the metallurgists was to determine how to cast plutonium into a sphere. The difficulties became apparent when attempts to measure the density of plutonium gave inconsistent results. At first contamination was believed to be the cause, but it was soon determined that there were multiple allotropes of plutonium.[214] The brittle α phase that exists at room temperature changes to the plastic β phase at higher temperatures. Attention then shifted to the even more malleable δ phase that normally exists in the 300 °C to 450 °C range. It was found that this was stable at room temperature when alloyed with aluminum, but aluminum emits neutrons when bombarded with alpha particles, which would exacerbate the pre-ignition problem. The metallurgists then hit upon a plutonium-gallium alloy, which stabilized the δ phase and could be hot pressed into the desired spherical shape. As plutonium was found to corrode readily, the sphere was coated with nickel.[215]

The work proved dangerous. By the end of the war, half the experienced chemists and metallurgists had to be removed from work with plutonium when unacceptably high levels of the element appeared in their urine.[216] A minor fire at Los Alamos in January 1945 led to a fear that a fire in the plutonium laboratory might contaminate the whole town, and Groves authorized the construction of a new facility for plutonium chemistry and metallurgy, which became known as the DP-site.[217] The hemispheres for the first plutonium pit (or core) were produced and delivered on 2 July 1945. Three more hemispheres followed on 23 July and were delivered three days later.[218]

Trinity
Main article: Trinity (nuclear test)
Because of the complexity of an implosion-style weapon, it was decided that, despite the waste of fissile material, an initial test would be required. Groves approved the test, subject to the active material being recovered. Consideration was therefore given to a controlled fizzle, but Oppenheimer opted instead for a full-scale nuclear test, codenamed "Trinity".[219]

Men stand around a large oil-rig type structure. A large round object is being hoisted up.
The explosives of "the gadget" were raised to the top of the tower for the final assembly.
In March 1944, planning for the test was assigned to Kenneth Bainbridge, a professor of physics at Harvard, working under Kistiakowsky. Bainbridge selected the bombing range near Alamogordo Army Airfield as the site for the test.[220] Bainbridge worked with Captain Samuel P. Davalos on the construction of the Trinity Base Camp and its facilities, which included barracks, warehouses, workshops, an explosive magazine and a commissary.[221]

Groves did not relish the prospect of explaining the loss of a billion dollars worth of plutonium to a Senate committee, so a cylindrical containment vessel codenamed "Jumbo" was constructed to recover the active material in the event of a failure. Measuring 25 feet (7.6 m) long and 12 feet (3.7 m) wide, it was fabricated at great expense from 214 short tons (194 t) of iron and steel by Babcock & Wilcox in Barberton, Ohio. Brought in a special railroad car to a siding in Pope, New Mexico, it was transported the last 25 miles (40 km) to the test site on a trailer pulled by two tractors.[222] By the time it arrived, however, confidence in the implosion method was high enough, and the availability of plutonium was sufficient, that Oppenheimer decided not to use it. Instead, it was placed atop a steel tower 800 yards (730 m) from the weapon as a rough measure of how powerful the explosion would be. In the end, Jumbo survived, although its tower did not, adding credence to the belief that Jumbo would have successfully contained a fizzled explosion.[223][224]

A pre-test explosion was conducted on 7 May 1945 to calibrate the instruments. A wooden test platform was erected 800 yards (730 m) from Ground Zero and piled with 100 short tons (91 t) of TNT spiked with nuclear fission products in the form of an irradiated uranium slug from Hanford, which was dissolved and poured into tubing inside the explosive. This explosion was observed by Oppenheimer and Groves's new deputy commander, Brigadier General Thomas Farrell. The pre-test produced data that proved vital for the Trinity test.[224][225]

For the actual test, the weapon, nicknamed "the gadget", was hoisted to the top of a 100-foot (30 m) steel tower, as detonation at that height would give a better indication of how the weapon would behave when dropped from a bomber. Detonation in the air maximized the energy applied directly to the target, and generated less nuclear fallout. The gadget was assembled under the supervision of Norris Bradbury at the nearby McDonald Ranch House on 13 July, and precariously winched up the tower the following day.[226] Observers included Bush, Chadwick, Conant, Farrell, Fermi, Groves, Lawrence, Oppenheimer and Tolman. At 05:30 on 16 July 1945 the gadget exploded with an energy equivalent of around 20 kilotons of TNT, leaving a crater of Trinitite (radioactive glass) in the desert 250 feet (76 m) wide. The shock wave was felt over 100 miles (160 km) away, and the mushroom cloud reached 7.5 miles (12.1 km) in height. It was heard as far away as El Paso, Texas, so Groves issued a cover story about an ammunition magazine explosion at Alamogordo Field.[227][228]

The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon.
Oppenheimer later recalled that, while witnessing the explosion, he thought of a verse from the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Gita (XI,12):

कालोऽस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो लोकान्समाहर्तुमिह प्रवृत्तः। ऋतेऽपि त्वां न भविष्यन्ति सर्वे येऽवस्थिताः प्रत्यनीकेषु योधाः॥११- ३२॥ If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one ...[229][230]

Years later he would explain that another verse had also entered his head at that time:

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.[231][a]

Personnel
In June 1944, the Manhattan Project employed some 129,000 workers, of whom 84,500 were construction workers, 40,500 were plant operators and 1,800 were military personnel. As construction activity fell off, the workforce declined to 100,000 a year later, but the number of military personnel increased to 5,600. Procuring the required numbers of workers, especially highly skilled workers, in competition with other vital wartime programs proved very difficult.[235] In 1943, Groves obtained a special temporary priority for labor from the War Manpower Commission. In March 1944, both the War Production Board and the War Manpower Commission gave the project their highest priority.[236]

A large crowd of men and women in uniform listens to a fat man in uniform speaking at a microphone. They are wearing the Army Service Forces sleeve patch. The women are at the front and the men at the back. Beside him is the flag of the Army Corps of Engineers. Behind them are wooden two-storey buildings.
Major General Leslie R. Groves, Jr., speaks to service personnel Oak Ridge Tennessee in August 1945.
Tolman and Conant, in their role as the project's scientific advisers, drew up a list of candidate scientists and had them rated by scientists already working on the project. Groves then sent a personal letter to the head of their university or company asking for them to be released for essential war work.[237] At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Stanislaw Ulam gave one of his students, Joan Hinton, an exam early, so she could leave to do war work. A few weeks later, Ulam received a letter from Hans Bethe, inviting him to join the project.[238] Conant personally persuaded Kistiakowsky to join the project.[239]

One source of skilled personnel was the Army itself, particularly the Army Specialized Training Program. In 1943, the MED created the Special Engineer Detachment (SED), with an authorized strength of 675. Technicians and skilled workers drafted into the Army were assigned to the SED. Another source was the Women's Army Corps (WAC). Initially intended for clerical tasks handling classified material, the WACs were soon tapped for technical and scientific tasks as well.[240] On 1 February 1945, all military personnel assigned to the MED, including all SED detachments, were assigned to the 9812th Technical Service Unit, except at Los Alamos, where military personnel other than SED, including the WACs and Military Police, were assigned to the 4817th Service Command Unit.[241]

An Associate Professor of Radiology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, Stafford L. Warren, was commissioned as a colonel in the United States Army Medical Corps, and appointed as chief of the MED's Medical Section and Groves' medical advisor. Warren's initial task was to staff hospitals at Oak Ridge, Richland and Los Alamos.[242] The Medical Section was responsible for medical research, but also for the MED's health and safety programs. This presented an enormous challenge, because workers were handling a variety of toxic chemicals, using hazardous liquids and gases under high pressures, working with high voltages, and performing experiments involving explosives, not to mention the largely unknown dangers presented by radioactivity and handling fissile materials.[243] Yet in December 1945, the National Safety Council presented the Manhattan Project with the Award of Honor for Distinguished Service to Safety in recognition of its safety record. Between January 1943 and June 1945, there were 62 fatalities and 3,879 disabling injuries, which was about 62 percent below the rate of private industry.[244]

Secrecy
A 1945 Life article estimated that before the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings "probably no more than a few dozen men in the entire country knew the full meaning of the Manhattan Project, and perhaps only a thousand others even were aware that work on atoms was involved." The magazine wrote that the more than 100,000 others employed with the project "worked like moles in the dark". Warned that disclosing the project's secrets was punishable by 10 years in prison or a $10,000 ($113,000 today) fine, they saw enormous quantities of raw materials enter factories with nothing coming out, and monitored "dials and switches while behind thick concrete walls mysterious reactions took place" without knowing the purpose of their jobs.[245][246][247][248][249]

In December 1945 the United States Army published a secret report analysing and assessing the security apparatus surrounding the Manhattan Project. The report states that the Manhattan Project was "more drastically guarded than any other highly secret war development." The security infrastructure surrounding the Manhattan Project was so vast and thorough that in the early days of the project in 1943, security investigators vetted 400,000 potential employees and 600 companies that would be involved in all aspects of the project for potential security risks.[250]

Uncle Sam has removed his hat and is rolling up his sleeves. On the wall in front of him are three monkeys and the slogan: What you see here/ What you do here/ What you hear here/ When you leave here/ Let it stay here.
A billboard encouraging secrecy among Oak Ridge workers
Oak Ridge security personnel considered any private party with more than seven people as suspicious, and residents—who believed that US government agents were secretly among them—avoided repeatedly inviting the same guests. Although original residents of the area could be buried in existing cemeteries, every coffin was reportedly opened for inspection.[249] Everyone, including top military officials, and their automobiles were searched when entering and exiting project facilities. One Oak Ridge worker stated that "if you got inquisitive, you were called on the carpet within two hours by government secret agents. Usually those summoned to explain were then escorted bag and baggage to the gate and ordered to keep going".[251]

Despite being told that their work would help end the war and perhaps all future wars,[251] not seeing or understanding the results of their often tedious duties—or even typical side effects of factory work such as smoke from smokestacks—and the war in Europe ending without the use of their work, caused serious morale problems among workers and caused many rumors to spread. One manager stated after the war:
Well it wasn't that the job was tough ... it was confusing. You see, no one knew what was being made in Oak Ridge, not even me, and a lot of the people thought they were wasting their time here. It was up to me to explain to the dissatisfied workers that they were doing a very important job. When they asked me what, I'd have to tell them it was a secret. But I almost went crazy myself trying to figure out what was going on.[248]

Another worker told of how, working in a laundry, she every day held "a special instrument" to uniforms and listened for "a clicking noise". She learned only after the war that she had been performing the important task of checking for radiation with a geiger counter. To improve morale among such workers Oak Ridge created an extensive system of intramural sports leagues, including 10 baseball teams, 81 softball teams, and 26 football teams.[248]

Censorship

Security poster, warning office workers to close drawers and put documents in safes when not being used
Voluntary censorship of atomic information began before the Manhattan Project. After the start of the European war in 1939 American scientists began avoiding publishing military-related research, and in 1940 scientific journals began asking the National Academy of Sciences to clear articles. William L. Laurence of The New York Times, who wrote an article on atomic fission in The Saturday Evening Post of 7 September 1940, later learned that government officials asked librarians nationwide in 1943 to withdraw the issue.[252] The Soviets noticed the silence, however. In April 1942 nuclear physicist Georgy Flyorov wrote to Josef Stalin on the absence of articles on nuclear fission in American journals; this resulted in the Soviet Union establishing its own atomic bomb project.[253]

The Manhattan Project operated under tight security lest its discovery induce Axis powers, especially Germany, to accelerate their own nuclear projects or undertake covert operations against the project.[254] The government's Office of Censorship, by contrast, relied on the press to comply with a voluntary code of conduct it published, and the project at first avoided notifying the office. By early 1943 newspapers began publishing reports of large construction in Tennessee and Washington based on public records, and the office began discussing with the project how to maintain secrecy. In June the Office of Censorship asked newspapers and broadcasters to avoid discussing "atom smashing, atomic energy, atomic fission, atomic splitting, or any of their equivalents. The use for military purposes of radium or radioactive materials, heavy water, high voltage discharge equipment, cyclotrons." The office also asked to avoid discussion of "polonium, uranium, ytterbium, hafnium, protactinium, radium, rhenium, thorium, deuterium"; only uranium was sensitive, but was listed with other elements to hide its importance.[255][256]

Soviet spies
Main article: Atomic spies
The prospect of sabotage was always present, and sometimes suspected when there were equipment failures. While there were some problems believed to be the result of careless or disgruntled employees, there were no confirmed instances of Axis-instigated sabotage.[257] However, on 10 March 1945, a Japanese fire balloon struck a power line, and the resulting power surge caused the three reactors at Hanford to be temporarily shut down.[258] With so many people involved, security was a difficult task. A special Counter Intelligence Corps detachment was formed to handle the project's security issues.[259] By 1943, it was clear that the Soviet Union was attempting to penetrate the project. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash, the head of the Counter Intelligence Branch of the Western Defense Command, investigated suspected Soviet espionage at the Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley. Oppenheimer informed Pash that he had been approached by a fellow professor at Berkeley, Haakon Chevalier, about passing information to the Soviet Union.[260]

The most successful Soviet spy was Klaus Fuchs, a member of the British Mission who played an important part at Los Alamos.[261] The 1950 revelation of his espionage activities damaged the United States' nuclear cooperation with Britain and Canada.[262] Subsequently, other instances of espionage were uncovered, leading to the arrest of Harry Gold, David Greenglass, and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.[263] Other spies like George Koval and Theodore Hall remained unknown for decades.[264] The value of the espionage is difficult to quantify, as the principal constraint on the Soviet atomic bomb project was a shortage of uranium ore. The consensus is that espionage saved the Soviets one or two years of effort.[265]

Foreign intelligence
Main articles: Alsos Mission and Operation Epsilon
In addition to developing the atomic bomb, the Manhattan Project was charged with gathering intelligence on the German nuclear energy project. It was believed that the Japanese nuclear weapons program was not far advanced because Japan had little access to uranium ore, but it was initially feared that Germany was very close to developing its own weapons. At the instigation of the Manhattan Project, a bombing and sabotage campaign was carried out against heavy water plants in German-occupied Norway.[266] A small mission was created, jointly staffed by the Office of Naval Intelligence, OSRD, the Manhattan Project, and Army Intelligence (G-2), to investigate enemy scientific developments. It was not restricted to those involving nuclear weapons.[267] The Chief of Army Intelligence, Major General George V. Strong, appointed Boris Pash to command the unit,[268] which was codenamed "Alsos", a Greek word meaning "grove".[269]

Soldiers and workmen, some wearing steel helmet, clamber over what looks like a giant manhole.
Allied soldiers dismantle the German experimental nuclear reactor at Haigerloch.
The Alsos Mission to Italy questioned staff of the physics laboratory at the University of Rome following the capture of the city in June 1944.[270] Meanwhile, Pash formed a combined British and American Alsos mission in London under the command of Captain Horace K. Calvert to participate in Operation Overlord.[271] Groves considered the risk that the Germans might attempt to disrupt the Normandy landings with radioactive poisons was sufficient to warn General Dwight D. Eisenhower and send an officer to brief his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith.[272] Under the codename Operation Peppermint, special equipment was prepared and Chemical Warfare Service teams were trained in its use.[273]

Following in the wake of the advancing Allied armies, Pash and Calvert interviewed Frédéric Joliot-Curie about the activities of German scientists. They spoke to officials at Union Minière du Haut Katanga about uranium shipments to Germany. They tracked down 68 tons of ore in Belgium and 30 tons in France. The interrogation of German prisoners indicated that uranium and thorium were being processed in Oranienburg, 20 miles north of Berlin, so Groves arranged for it to be bombed on 15 March 1945.[274]

An Alsos team went to Stassfurt in the Soviet Occupation Zone and retrieved 11 tons of ore from WIFO.[275] In April 1945, Pash, in command of a composite force known as T-Force, conducted Operation Harborage, a sweep behind enemy lines of the cities of Hechingen, Bisingen, and Haigerloch that were the heart of the German nuclear effort. T-Force captured the nuclear laboratories, documents, equipment and supplies, including heavy water and 1.5 tons of metallic uranium.[276][277]

Alsos teams rounded up German scientists including Kurt Diebner, Otto Hahn, Walther Gerlach, Werner Heisenberg, and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, who were taken to England where they were interned at Farm Hall, a bugged house in Godmanchester. After the bombs were detonated in Japan, the Germans were forced to confront the fact that the Allies had done what they could not.[278]

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Main article: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Preparations
Starting in November 1943, the Army Air Forces Materiel Command at Wright Field, Ohio, began Silverplate, the codename modification of B-29s to carry the bombs. Test drops were carried out at Muroc Army Air Field, California, and the Naval Ordnance Test Station at Inyokern, California.[279] Groves met with the Chief of United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), General Henry H. Arnold, in March 1944 to discuss the delivery of the finished bombs to their targets.[280] The only Allied aircraft capable of carrying the 17-foot (5.2 m) long Thin Man or the 59-inch (150 cm) wide Fat Man was the British Avro Lancaster, but using a British aircraft would have caused difficulties with maintenance. Groves hoped that the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress could be modified to carry Thin Man by joining its two bomb bays together.[281] Arnold promised that no effort would be spared to modify B-29s to do the job, and designated Major General Oliver P. Echols as the USAAF liaison to the Manhattan Project. In turn, Echols named Colonel Roscoe C. Wilson as his alternate, and Wilson became Manhattan Project's main USAAF contact.[280] President Roosevelt instructed Groves that if the atomic bombs were ready before the war with Germany ended, he should be ready to drop them on Germany.[282]

A shiny metal four-engined aircraft stands on a runway. The crew pose in front of it.
Silverplate B-29 Straight Flush. The tail code of the 444th Bombardment Group is painted on for security reasons.
The 509th Composite Group was activated on 17 December 1944 at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, under the command of Colonel Paul W. Tibbets. This base, close to the border with Nevada, was codenamed "Kingman" or "W-47". Training was conducted at Wendover and at Batista Army Airfield, Cuba, where the 393d Bombardment Squadron practiced long-distance flights over water, and dropping dummy pumpkin bombs. A special unit known as Project Alberta was formed at Los Alamos under Navy Captain William S. Parsons from Project Y as part of the Manhattan Project to assist in preparing and delivering the bombs.[283] Commander Frederick L. Ashworth from Alberta met with Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz on Guam in February 1945 to inform him of the project. While he was there, Ashworth selected North Field on the Pacific Island Tinian as a base for the 509th Composite Group, and reserved space for the group and its buildings. The group deployed there in July 1945.[284] Farrell arrived at Tinian on 30 July as the Manhattan Project representative.[285]

Most of the components for Little Boy left San Francisco on the cruiser USS Indianapolis on 16 July and arrived on Tinian on 26 July. Four days later the ship was sunk by a Japanese submarine. The remaining components, which included six uranium-235 rings, were delivered by three C-54 Skymasters of the 509th Group's 320th Troop Carrier Squadron.[286] Two Fat Man assemblies travelled to Tinian in specially modified 509th Composite Group B-29s. The first plutonium core went in a special C-54.[287] In late April, a joint targeting committee of the Manhattan District and USAAF was established to determine which cities in Japan should be targets, and recommended Kokura, Hiroshima, Niigata, and Kyoto. At this point, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson intervened, announcing that he would be making the targeting decision, and that he would not authorize the bombing of Kyoto on the grounds of its historical and religious significance. Groves therefore asked Arnold to remove Kyoto not just from the list of nuclear targets, but from targets for conventional bombing as well.[288] One of Kyoto's substitutes was Nagasaki.[289]

Bombings
In May 1945, the Interim Committee was created to advise on wartime and postwar use of nuclear energy. The committee was chaired by Stimson, with James F. Byrnes, a former US Senator soon to be Secretary of State, as President Harry S. Truman's personal representative; Ralph A. Bard, the Under Secretary of the Navy; William L. Clayton, the Assistant Secretary of State; Vannevar Bush; Karl T. Compton; James B. Conant; and George L. Harrison, an assistant to Stimson and president of New York Life Insurance Company. The Interim Committee in turn established a scientific panel consisting of Arthur Compton, Fermi, Lawrence and Oppenheimer to advise it on scientific issues. In its presentation to the Interim Committee, the scientific panel offered its opinion not just on the likely physical effects of an atomic bomb, but on its probable military and political impact.[290]

At the Potsdam Conference in Germany, Truman was informed that the Trinity test had been successful. He told Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, that the US had a new superweapon, without giving any details. This was the first official communication to the Soviet Union about the bomb, but Stalin already knew about it from spies.[291] With the authorization to use the bomb against Japan already given, no alternatives were considered after the Japanese rejection of the Potsdam Declaration.[292]

Two mushroom clouds rise vertically.
Little Boy explodes over Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945 (left);
Fat Man explodes over Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945 (right).
On 6 August 1945, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress (Enola Gay) of the 393d Bombardment Squadron, piloted by Tibbets, lifted off from North Field, and Little Boy in its bomb bay. Hiroshima, the headquarters of the 2nd General Army and Fifth Division and a port of embarkation, was the primary target of the mission, with Kokura and Nagasaki as alternatives. With Farrell's permission, Parsons, the weaponeer in charge of the mission, completed the bomb assembly in the air to minimize the risks during takeoff.[293] The bomb detonated at an altitude of 1,750 feet (530 m) with a blast that was later estimated to be the equivalent of 13 kilotons of TNT.[294] An area of approximately 4.7 square miles (12 km2) was destroyed. Japanese officials determined that 69% of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed and another 6–7% damaged. About 70,000 to 80,000 people, of whom 20,000 were Japanese combatants and 20,000 were Korean slave laborers, or some 30% of the population of Hiroshima, were killed immediately, and another 70,000 injured.[295][296][297]

2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup Group C Preview [Honduras, Jamaica, El Salvador, Curaçao]

HONDURAS , via fanolato2

About

Nickname(s): Los Catrachos, La H, La Bicolor
CONCACAF Gold Cup Appearances: 14
Best Finish: Second place (1991)
FIFA Ranking: 61 (5th in CONCACAF)

Introduction

The current ‘successful’ era of Honduras football can be pinpointed to the 2007 Gold Cup. Reinaldo Rueda’s first tournament in charge saw him beat Mexico in the group stage, with THAT famous kiss. While Honduras did not win, there was hope again after a disastrous 2006 World cup qualifying campaign, where Honduras didn’t even make the final Hexagonal. Honduras then qualified, with Rueda in charge, to South Africa 2010 (Thank you Bornstein) for the first time since 1982, and then with another Colombian in Luis Suarez, they made it back again in 2014 to Brazil. Both performances at the actual World Cup left a lot to be desired. While losing to France is expected, the final group stage match in 2014 vs Switzerland left a sour taste.
For 2018, after a disastrous Hernan Medford UNCAF tournament stint, Honduras turned to Costa Rica’s 2014 miracle worker, Jose Luis Pinto. Pinto then had disappointing showings in the 2015 Gold Cup and qualified to the Hexagonal under a lot of criticism of the team’s play, particularly the defending of crosses. Once in the Hex, despite USA’s destruction of Honduras in San Jose, and despite one defensive mistake after another in late game situations dealing with crosses, Honduras still found themselves in the playoff vs Australia for the 2018 World Cup final spot, by making a spirited comeback vs Mexico in the final hexagonal game, who up to then had not lost in qualifying. The playoff just set the pain back a month though, as Honduras played two very sad games vs Australia, both at home and away, meaning that Honduras would not be the first Central American team to qualify to three World Cups in a row.
Now Honduras looks to another foreigner, Fabian Coito, the Uruguayan who has been a long standing disciple of Oscar Tabarez and manager of the Uruguayan U-20s. With only one friendly under his belt, there is a lot to learn on how his teams will approach this Gold Cup.

Manager and Squad

Manager: Fabián Coito (Uruguay)

FINAL 23 MAN SQUAD

POTENTIAL STARTING XI

 R. Castillo M. Chirinos A. López A. Elis L. Garrido B. Acosta E. Izaguirre M. Figueroa (C) H. Figueroa B. Beckeles L. López

Players to Watch

Alberth Elis (RW)
The Houston Dynamo winger and forward,has been rumoured with moves to Europe the past couple of years. He is pacy but strong, and is a physical mismatch for many fullbacks. His decision making can be an issue. Very unselfish in the box, often to a fault, he will have to become a more decisive finisher for Honduras to make a leap in this Gold Cup. He will be looking for that move to Europe, and there is no better place than at an international tournament.
Michaell Chirinos (LW)
The small and skillful winger currently playing in Liga MX for Lobos BUAP (Now Bravos de Ciudad Juarez), on Loan from Olimpia. He has 6 goals and 4 assists for a team that is more likely fighting against relegation than for a trophy. The good production and his incisiveness will provide a different kind of weapon than Elis on the opposite wing. As Chirinos is better at keeping the ball close to his feet, and at combining with teammates, Honduras will look to trust often in counters but also when the smaller sides of this tournament attempt to stifle Honduras’ attack with numbers behind the ball.
Henry Figueroa (CB)
The center back, who was heavily criticized during the 2018 WC qualifying campaign, will need to step into leadership for Honduras during this Gold Cup. Maynor Figueroa his likely partner at the back is showing his age, and the Motagua youth product will have to take it upon himself to ensure that defense is quick when balls are played behind them, and strong when defending crosses. Currently a starter at Alajuelense of the Costa Rican league, Henry isn’t great on the ball like Maynor is and has been, but he is a good reader of the game, and is absolutely fearless going into tackles. He can exposed against the most skillful players on 1v1 situations, but he has great recovery speed. He will want to maybe make a jump to MLS or Europe, and this could be the platform that propels him that way.

Points of Discussion

Can Coito improve defensive performances?
In the 2018 qualifiers, Honduras let in late goals at Panama (90th minute by Roman Torres), vs USA (85th Minute Bobby Wood), at Costa Rica (90th + 5 minute by Kendall Waston). All those goals came from crosses that were not dealt with or lack of concentration. It turned out to be the achilles heel of the national team. Can Coito ensure better solidity? He might have to make some changes, which leads to…
How long can Maynor Figueroa and Emilio Izaguirre start in defense?
Figueroa, the former Wigan Athletic and Hull City defender now at MLS, is both the captain of the team and was one of the most scrutinized players for not qualifying. His decline in athleticism has exposed his bad positioning issues, and rivals have taken advantage of this. But as the captain and leader of the national team, it will be a tough decision to bench him. Similar with Izaguirre who is one of the emotional leaders of the team, and has so much European experience with Celtic. But at the Glasgow side, Izaguirre has not been chosen often since he returned from his short time in the Saudi league. Leading to the question on whether he is being chosen on what he can do or what he has done for the national team.
Can Honduras finally win a major trophy?
Honduras has only once won the CONCACAF Championship/Gold Cup, and it was at home in a tournament that doubled as World Cup qualifying. Since 1981, Honduras has not lifted any actual hardware. There have been feel good stories, like in 1991 losing out in the final of the first Gold Cup to the USA in penalties, or the 2001 Copa America third place in what was Honduras’ first and only participation in that tournament. Honduras is thirsty for a trophy, and with key absences in the Mexican side, plus a renewed spirit from the new manager, Honduras might have a reason to hope this summer.

JAMAICA , via kauliflower_

About

Nickname(s): Reggae Boyz
CONCACAF Gold Cup Appearances: 11
Best Finish: Runner Ups (2015, 2017)
FIFA Ranking: 53 (5th in CONCACAF)

Introduction

Jamaican Football has not been this exciting since the late 90s when current head coach, then top striker, Theodore "Tappa" Whitmore and Co. lead the nation to a first World Cup appearance at France 98'. After various false revivals this crop of Jamaican footballers is arguably the best in two decades. After being outplayed in two Gold Cup finals in a row the Reggae Boyz will be looking to make it third time the charm with another deep run expected by a team full or experience, talent and youth.
Beating the USA in a recent friendly on the eve of the tournament (albeit a weaker USA starting 11) will surely give a mental boost to the players and management in their hopes to repeat the exploits of 2015 and 2017. Many key players have been retained in all positions from the previous Gold Cup campaign with a few fresh faces, some long overdue.

Manager and Squad

Manager: Theodore Whitmore (Jamaica)

FINAL 23 MAN SQUAD

POTENTIAL STARTING XI

 D. Mattocks B. Brown P. Vassell L. Bailey M. Hector K. Lambert K. Lawrence S. Francis D. Lowe A. Powell A. Blake (C)

Players to Watch

Andre Blake (GK)
Goalkeeper for the current MLS Eastern Conference leaders Philadelphia Union has been a key players for club and country for the past seasons. After suffering a heartbreaking injury in last tournament's final (NSFW?), he will be hoping to lead the team to another final as captain and custodian.
Peter-Lee Vassell (AM)
Recently drafted by Los Angeles FC in the MLS Draft, Vassel is a creative midfielder not often seen among Jamaican youths. Although struggling for game time at high fliers LA FC, when he puts on the national jersey he shows the potential, vision and creativity that convinced LA FC to acquire the service of the young midfielder. He can use this tournament to convince Bob Bradley he deserves a starting spot at Los Angeles.
Leon Bailey (RW)
The Bayer Leverkusen winger has finally committed to the Reggae Boyz after stand-offs with the Jamaican Football Federation and his management (His Step-father) and himself (situation is too long to explain in this post). His pace and skills on the wing and his eye for goal may be what gives Jamaica an edge in this year's Gold Cup. If he's on his game, he could be a top 5 player in CONCACAF.

Points of Discussion

Third time's the charm?
With the USA seemingly still suffering from demons of that warm night in Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico with a solid but not spectacular team, and Canada and Costa Rice with slightly aging squads, all things are aligning for a first nation to win the Gold Cup since Canada in 2000. Jamaica have their fates in their own hands and should not fear any of the teams in CONCACAF.
Leon Bailey
Leon Patrick Bailey. Where to start. Born in Jamaica, he was taken to Europe by his step-father along with his step-brother with the intent to find European clubs for his then minor children. After arriving in Europe and shocking scouts of various teams (KRC Genk of Belgium a front runner) he and his family had to return to Jamaica but that did not stop the Baileys and after a couple 'not so legal' encounters, a verbal agreement with Ajax FC and a police raid, Leon Bailey eventually signed for AS Trencin as a youth player, eventually moving to KRC Genk as his first professional contract. Bailey won the Belgian Young Player of the Year in his first season at Genk and attracted many clubs, halfway into his second season in Belgium, Bayer Leverkusen came and he signed in Janaury 2017. His time in Germany has had many ups and downs but he has shown his skills and aggressive dribbling in a very up and down Leverkusen team. After failing to be eligible for England and seemingly burying the hatchet after 2 or so years of conflict with the JFF, Bailey is donning the Black, Green and Gold. However, all this turmoil the worst thing that could happen is him not showing up in this tournament, after all this is his performance at the senior international level.

EL SALVADOR via Currul

About

Nickname(s): La Selecta, Los Cuscatlecos, La Azul y Blanco
CONCACAF Gold Cup Appearances: 11 Times
Best Finish: Quarter-finals (2002, 2003, 2011, 2013, 2017)
FIFA Ranking: 71 (9th in CONCACAF)

Introduction

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, it was the first country from that region to qualify to a World Cup (Mexico 1970). Twelve years later ‘La Selecta’ would qualify for their second (and last to date) World Cup in Spain 1982 where they scored their first goal in a World Cup ik the first game where they lost to Hungary in a historical game that ended 10-1. The Salvadorian National Team has won the gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean games in two occasions (1954 and 2002). El Salvador had some troubles qualifying to the 2019 edition of the World Cup after a shocking lost against Bermuda but they earned their ticket in their last game of the Concacaf Nations League after beating Jamaica 2-0 at the Estadio Cuscatlan in San Salvador.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the country even though the country have not qualified to the World Cup in 37 years. The Cuscatlecos enter this Gold Cup in great form and in a winning streak of 5 games in a row after beating Haiti twice (1-0), Guatemala (3-1), Jamaica (2-0) and Peru (2-0).

Manager and Squad

Manager: Carlos de los Cobos (Mexico)

FINAL 23 MAN SQUAD

POTENTIAL STARTING XI

 N. Bonilla J. Alas M. Monterrosa D. Cerén Ó. Cerén N. Orellana J. Jiménez R. Domínguez I. Mancía B. Tamacas H. Hernández (C)

Players to Watch

Óscar Cerén (RM)
The younger of the Ceren brothers, probably the player with most protection in the country at the moment. He was an important part for Alianza in order to reach 6 finals in a row. Rumors had linked him to MLS before so we’ll see if the Gold Cup is the tournament that makes him migrate to another league.
Narciso Orellana (DM)
The best midfielder in the country at the moment, key player in Alianza too, has the quality to migrate to another league and Alianza had received offer from Europe for him but the money wasn’t right for them. The 24 year old will be essential for the midfield in El Salvador for years to come. Because his dimunitive 5'7" (170 cm) stature, he retains the ball easily and his aggressive style of play is something to look out for.
Nelson Bonilla (ST)
Currently the most successful Salvadorian playing in a foreign league after scoring 25 goals in 32 games in 2018 for the Sukhothai in Thailand, Bangkok United paid more than 1 million dollars to sign him. Wirh 14 goals in 40 games, a lot of the hope for goals in El Salvador is on Bonilla’s back.

Points of Discussion

Momentum!
For the first time in a long time Salvadorians are expecting and with hope that the team will perform good in the tournament after showing a good style and game the friendlies played, who knows maybe this year will be the first time that ‘La Selecta’ reaches more than Quarter Finals in the Gold Cup.
Lack of goals in the past
El Salvador has struggled finding a reliable goal scorer for the team after the match fixing ban in 2012 that took out of professional soccer 11 players from the national team and gave temporal bans to a couple more including Rodolfo Zelaya who at that moment was the starting forward and the player with most talent in the team. Can Bonilla, Rugamas or Portillo finally fill the shoes of the great Raul Diaz Arce, Ronald Cerritos and Rudis Corrales who were the last great goal scorers in La Selecta.
Can de los Cobos make the match fixing ghost go away?
Even though is being 7 years after the ban most of the fans have not forgotten about it, Carlos de los Cobos was the coach when the Match Fixing happened and no one really know how much he knew about everything or even if he knew anything a all, that was one of the most painful memories in recent time for Salvadorian fans as the team were in a good route to qualify to the 2010 World Cup but made some questionable mistakes in key games that later on were found as fixed. We’ll see if this generation is the one that finally is going to throw away that bad memory for Salvadorian fans.

CURAÇAO , via ArawakFC

About

Nickname(s): n/a
CONCACAF Gold Cup Appearances: 2
Best Finish: Group Stage (2017)
FIFA Ranking: 82 (15th in CONCACAF)

Introduction

Curaçao used to play as the Netherlands Antilles up until 2010. The only notable achievements being two 3rd place finishes in 1963 and ’69 in the old CONCACAF championship(1963-1989), which was the predecessor to the Gold Cup.
In 2010 that all changed as they gained their constituent country status. The “Curaçao Football Federation” was established in 2011, making it the youngest football federation in the world. In June 2015, Patrick Kluivert, who’s mother is from Curaçao, was brought in to coach the team and he started to raise the bar for the then mostly amateur team. With Kluivert’s pedigree, it was now possible to recruit professional players, playing in the Eredivisie, lower levels of the Dutch footballing pyramid and across other European leagues. The most notable players recruited at that time were Eloy Room(GK) and Leandro Bacuna(MF). In just one year, Kluivert managed to equal the amount of wins(6) the team managed from 2011-2014.
With much of the groundwork laid out by Kluivert, his successor, assistant coach Remco Becentini led the team to their first ever title in 2017, beating Jamaica to take the Caribbean Cup. The key player though in the final wasn’t any of the players born in the Netherlands, but it was Willemstad born and raised Elson Hooi, who netted a brace to secure Curaçao’s first triumph in its history as an autonomous nation. To give everyone an idea of the scale of the achievement, Curaçao went from being 183rd (lower than Aruba) in the FIFA rankings to 68th in a period of just 3 years.
The Gold Cup in 2017 wasn’t a success, having lost all 3 of their group stage matches to Jamaica, Mexico and El Salvador. However, the experience playing at such a tournament for the first time would prove to be invaluable for a team aspiring to become the smallest nation to reach the FIFA world cup.
Recently, the team participated in the CONCACAF nations league qualifiers which also doubled as qualifiers for the Gold Cup. Curaçao showed that they now belong in the upper tiers of CONCACAF, having seemingly outgrown most of the other Caribbean island nations.

Manager and Squad

Manager: Remko Bicentini (Netherlands)

FINAL 23 MAN SQUAD

POTENTIAL STARTING XI

 J. Arias E. Hooi R. Bonevacia G. Nepomuceno L. Bacuna M. Maria J. Carolina D. Lachman C. Martina (C) J. Gaari E. Room

Players to Watch

Cuco Martina (RB/CB)
One of the most experienced players in the squad, having played in the Premier League and Eredivisie, he will be critical for organizing the team in defense and for overall motivation and moral. Together with Room, they have the Captain duties within the squad. While normally a right back, Becentini has used him in central defense as well.
Leandro Bacuna (CM)
Another experienced player in the Championship and Premier League, his presence and quality on the ball, but also his physicality will be needed in midfield. His skill and ability on the ball is miles ahead of most teams in the Caribbean region. His verstatility will also be of use, capable of playing quite literally anywhere in midfield and fullback if absolutely needed
Elson Hooi (LW)
Small, quick and versatile at 5'6" (67 cm). Was a key player for them in the Caribbean cup. If Hooi starts firing again, he is an incredible joy to watch and dangerous in attack.
And when I say quick, I mean QUICKKKK, can be a bit selfish with the ball at times but can skin defenders. Think of him as a shorter, less bulky Adama Traore

Points of Discussion

"Total Football" principles introduced by Patrick Kluivert
Curaçao plays a possession game, building out from the back with ever present “triangles”. They need to take care of their defense, because it is not the most sound with only Martina having top level experience. Which is why Cuco Martina is selected to play center back at times. What they need to avoid at all cost, is an injury to goalkeeper and captain Eloy Room. The keeper position is the one with the least depth and if Room is out, they are left with one EFL League Two keeper and an amateur keeper from Curaçao’s own Vesta.
To close....
Curaçao went from a mostly amateur side, to almost a full professional side in under a decade. They did this by hiring Kluivert and supporting him in trying to get Dutch born players with roots in Curaçao to choose to play for the national team. Players like Kuwas (who elected to not play this Gold Cup), Bacuna and Room all played for the Dutch youth sides. Looking at the future, there are also plenty of Curaçao born and Dutch born players of Curaçaoan descent currently playing for various youth sides in Europe. With proper coaching and infrastructure and the willingness to improve, I can’t bet against this side advancing passed the group stage of the Gold Cup and I can’t help but imagine if they can make the World Cup given that CONCACAF have two extra spots this time around from 2026 onward.

Tune in tomorrow when sardar_star will be posting Group D!

Don't forget to participate in the Predictions Game in the comments below!

PREVIOUS REVIEWS

GROUP A: Mexico, Canada, Martinique, Cuba

GROUP B: Costa Rica, Haiti, Nicaragua, Bermuda

Streaming industry news and highlights - week of June 15, 2020

Coronavirus Live Updates: Cases Rise in Italy and Iran, and Spread to Other Countries

The number of new infections outside China has outpaced those inside the country for the first time, according to the World Health Organization.
RIGHT NOWThe epidemic has begun in Germany, the health minister said, after new infections apparently were contracted there.
—-
Coronavirus pushes across Europe and Middle East, while U.S. prepares for outbreak.
New cases of the coronavirus popping up across Europe. Dozens of infections in Iran stoking fears about an uncontrolled spread in the Middle East. Global market jitters continuing after a steep slide. American health authorities warning that it was a matter of when, not if, the epidemic would reach the United States. A toxic political climate in Washington complicating the public health challenge.
That worrying drumbeat frayed nerves across the world on Wednesday even as the pace of the outbreak seemed to be slowing in China.
For the first time, more new cases were reported outside China than inside, according to the World Health Organization. Chinese officials on Tuesday reported 411 new infections; in the rest of the world, the number was 427. The total number of cases globally has now reached 80,980 and nearly 3,000 have died.
In the European Union, which prides itself on open borders, new cases were recorded in Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece and Spain. Most were tied to Italy, where the authorities have been struggling to contain an outbreak that has infected at least 325 people, most of them in the north near Milan. Hotels in Austria, France and the Canary Islands of Spain were locked down this week after guests tested positive for the virus or were suspected of having it. The steps to limit contagion differed from place to place, but large group gatherings were often the first things to be canceled where the virus had been detected.
In China, the authorities cautioned that the falling infection rate might be only a temporary reprieve, while South Korean officials scrambled to contain the largest outbreak outside China. The U.S. military confirmed that one soldier stationed in South Korea had tested positive.
As the American health authorities braced for an outbreak in the United States, the Trump administration came under criticism from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers for contradictory statements on the severity of the crisis, a lack of transparency and seemingly lax preparations.
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Brazil confirms coronavirus infection, the first in Latin America.
Brazil’s health ministry said on Wednesday that a 61-year-old man who recently traveled to São Paulo from Italy had contracted the coronavirus.
The first known case in Latin America, it comes as Brazil is in the midst of Carnival, a hugely popular festival that draws large crowds into close quarters for raucous street celebrations.
Officials were scrambling to track down other passengers on the flight the man took to Brazil and to find others who had come into contact with him in recent days.
The patient, who lives in São Paulo, had recently traveled for work to northern Italy, where an outbreak has infected at least 325 people. He sought medical help after experiencing a fever, cough and sore throat, according to health officials.
Brazil’s health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, told the G1 news site that officials were hopeful that the virus would not spread briskly in Brazil, given the warmer time of year.
“The virus behaves differently in the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere,” he said. “Brazil is a country of younger people, and we’re in summertime. This is a period that is not conducive for a respiratory virus.” CORONAVIRUS IN BRAZILIn the first case in Latin America, a man in São Paolo tested positive for the virus. Iran downplays outbreak spreading fast there and in neighboring countries. Image Despite an increase in coronavirus cases, Iran has yet to shut down popular pilgrimage sites like the holy city of Qom. Despite an increase in coronavirus cases, Iran has yet to shut down popular pilgrimage sites like the holy city of Qom.Credit...Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images Iran’s leaders continued to downplay the seriousness of the outbreak there on Wednesday, even as the number of cases in Iran or linked to it kept climbing quickly.
The health ministry reported 139 cases and 19 deaths, up from 95 and 15 on Tuesday, and the government ordered a weeklong closure of schools and cultural sites in 10 provinces. Experts say Iran’s high apparent death rate suggests that it has far more infections than it has discovered or acknowledged.
But President Hassan Rouhani said that the virus was coming under control, and he predicted that things would return to normal by Saturday, Iranian state media reported. He added that Iran’s enemies were using the epidemic to further isolate the country.
———
The Coronavirus Outbreak Answers to your most common questions: Updated Feb. 26, 2020
How worried should I be? New outbreaks in Asia, Europe and the Middle East are renewing fears of a global pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned this week that Americans should brace for the likelihood that the virus will spread to the United States. 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. What if I’m traveling? The C.D.C. has warned older and at-risk travelers to avoid Japan, Italy and Iran. The agency also has advised against all non-essential travel to South Korea and China. How can I prepare for a possible outbreak? Keep a 30-day supply of essential medicines. Get a flu shot. Have essential household items on hand. Have a support system in place for eldery family members. 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. Where has the virus spread? The virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, has sickened more than 80,000 people in at least 33 countries, including Italy, Iran and South Korea. How contagious is the virus? According to preliminary research, it seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS, and is probably transmitted through sneezes, coughs and contaminated surfaces. Scientists have estimated that each infected person could spread it to somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures. Who is working to contain the virus? The World Health Organization officials have been working with officials in China, where growth has slowed. But this week, as confirmed cases spiked on two continents, experts warned that the world is not ready for a major outbreak.
——
Iran has not closed pilgrimage sites that draw millions of Shiite Mulsims to the city of Qom, the center of the country’s outbreak. On Wednesday, the cleric in charge of one of the most important sites there, the Fatima Masumeh shrine, said people should keep visiting.
Bahrain on Wednesday raised its case total to 26, and said all three new patients had just arrived from Iran — as had some of the previous ones. Bahrain is one of several countries reporting infections in people who had recently traveled to Iran.
Pakistan’s health minister, Dr. Zafar Mirza, on Wednesday confirmed the first two cases of the coronavirus in that country, and said that one of them was a 22-year-old student who had recently returned from Iran. Pakistan closed its border with Iran on Sunday.
————-
As new cases soar in South Korea, a U.S. soldier there tests positive. Image Workers disinfecting a market in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday. The country now has the largest outbreak of the coronavirus outside China. Workers disinfecting a market in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday. The country now has the largest outbreak of the coronavirus outside China.Credit...Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA, via Shutterstock
As the number of new coronavirus infections in South Korea soared on Wednesday, the U.S. military ordered all people who had come into contact with an American soldier who tested positive for the virus to isolate themselves in their homes.
The 23-year-old soldier, one of nearly 30,000 U.S. troops based in the country and the first of them to be infected, is stationed at Camp Carrol in Waegwan, 12 miles from Daegu, the city at the center of South Korea’s outbreak.
South Korea reported 284 new cases on Wednesday, the largest single-day jump so far, as the authorities complete the testing hundreds of members of a secretive church in Daegu that has been hit hard by the virus.
South Korea now has 1,261 cases, the largest outbreak outside China.
The government says it is still unsure how the virus got to South Korea, but suspicions have been raised about the Shincheonji church, which has members in Wuhan, China, which has the world’s largest concentration of infections.
In response to the growing crisis, the U.S. military in South Korea elevated its risk level to “high” on Monday, advising all troops to “limit non-mission-essential” meetings and “off-installation travel.” At gates of American bases, assessment stations have been set up, with soldiers lining up for temperature checks and screening questionnaires. Col. Edward Ballanco, the Army garrison commander for the affected area, said the military was arranging grocery deliveries to those quarantined.
On Tuesday, the United States and South Korea said they would consider scaling back joint military exercises after at least 13 South Korean soldiers were infected.
The U.S. military in Japan sent out a notice on Wednesday telling all personnel there to avoid nonessential travel to South Korea.
———
To Fight Stigma, Ukraine’s Health Minister Puts Herself in Quarantine Image The health minister of Ukraine, Zoryana Skaletska, has joined a group of evacuees from China during their two-week quarantine at a clinic in the village of Novi Saranzhy. The health minister of Ukraine, Zoryana Skaletska, has joined a group of evacuees from China during their two-week quarantine at a clinic in the village of Novi Saranzhy.Credit...Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters Ukraine’s minister of health has sequestered herself with a group of evacuees from China, trying to counteract exaggerated fears of people under coronavirus quarantines.
She missed her daughter’s birthday party, and she is not working at Ukraine’s Health Ministry at a busy time, as colleagues brace for the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak.
The health minister, Zoryana Skaletska, had pledged to join the group that had been in China during their two-week quarantine at a clinic in the countryside. The purpose, she said, is to puncture the stigma and fear of the virus. “If it is safe here, in the same building, it is really safe for the whole population in the nearby cities,” Ms. Skaletska said in a telephone interview. “I hope people will become calm.”
Ms. Skaletska has been praised by some for her courageous leadership, but derided by others for what they are calling a reckless publicity stunt.
Ukraine, which has not reported a coronavirus case, evacuated 45 Ukrainians and 27 other nationals last week from China to the Poltava region. None has shown signs of illness, but they are in isolation for 14 days as a precaution.
On the day of their arrival, a protest broke out in the nearest village, Novi Saranzhy. Demonstrators blocked a road, burned tires and hurled stones at buses carrying the evacuees, breaking windows.
Should Ms. Skaletska contract the virus, which she said was unlikely, she said she would trust Ukraine’s doctors to see her through it.
“Even if I have a case of coronavirus, I am sure everything will be all right,” she said.
———
President Trump plans to hold a news conference with health officials. Image President Trump has tried to minimize fears about the virus, saying on Monday that it was “very much under control” in the United States. President Trump has tried to minimize fears about the virus, saying on Monday that it was “very much under control” in the United States.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times President Trump said he would hold a news conference with officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the White House on Wednesday, a day after conflicting assessments of the epidemic from him and his administration.
The news conference, to be held at 6 p.m. Eastern, will also include other officials, he wrote in a Twitter post. The president also attacked the news media for “doing everything possible” to make the situation look dire, “including panicking Mr. Trump has repeatedly tried to minimize fears about the coronavirus, saying on Tuesday that it was “very much under control” in the United States, and his top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said, “we have contained this.”
But on the same day, C.D.C. officials said U.S. institutions needed to prepare for an outbreak, which they described as inevitable. Alex M. Azar III, the secretary of health and human services, said, “we cannot hermetically seal off the United States to a virus.”
Mr. Trump lashed out on Wednesday at what he called “Do Nothing Democrat comrades,” even as his administration has come under fire from both Republicans and Democrats for not doing enough to prepare for the coronavirus in the United States.
His administration has asked Congress to allocate $1.25 billion in new emergency funds to bolster its coronavirus response.
TRUMP ON THE VIRUSPresident Trump had harsh works for the news media.
———-
Germany’s health minister says source of some new infections cannot be traced. Image Medical staff transporting a patient infected with the coronavirus into the University Hospital in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Wednesday. Medical staff transporting a patient infected with the coronavirus into the University Hospital in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Wednesday.Credit...Guido KirchneDPA, via Associated Press
A coronavirus epidemic has broken out in Germany, Health Minister Jens Spahn said Wednesday, after new cases were confirmed that cannot be traced to the virus’s original source in China.
The disease is moving to a new phase in Germany, Mr. Spahn said at a news conference.
“The infection chains are partially no longer trackable,” he said.
About 20 cases of the coronavirus have been identified in the country, he said, but until now health officials had been able to trace those who became infected back to the virus’s origins in central China or to hot spots in Italy.
Mr. Spahn said people should not panic, because “not every cough is a case of coronavirus.”
The authorities in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, were trying on Wednesday to retrace the steps of a couple who contracted the coronavirus from a source they could not immediately identify. This raised the troubling prospect that it might have been transmitted within the country itself.
The couple had spent the previous two weeks — the estimated incubation period for the virus — “taking part in normal, public life,” said Karl-Josef Laumann, the state health minister.
That included attending a large carnival party and taking a brief trip to the Netherlands, he said. Dutch authorities and the hotel where the couple stayed have been informed.
The authorities in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg confirmed another new case, a 25-year-old man thought to have contracted the virus during a trip to Milan. On his return, he contacted local health officials and was placed in isolation.
————-
As global markets continue to slide, Wall Street shows some signs of recovery. Image A trading room in the stock exchange in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday. A trading room in the stock exchange in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday.Credit...Jean Chung for The New York Times
Stocks on Wall Street appeared to be rebounding on Wednesday, recovering somewhat from back-to-back losses this week that had wiped more than 6 percent off the S&P 500.
The recovery came as major markets in Europe and Asia continued to drift lower, with investors reacting to reports of the coronavirus spreading across the globe.
The S&P 500 was up by about 0.5 percent in trading at midday on Wednesday. The benchmark had fallen by 3 percent on Tuesday and experienced its worst one-day slide in two years on Monday.
However, European markets fell more than 1 percent on Wednesday as investors weighed the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Asian markets ended the trading day lower.
Investors have been dumping stocks all week, seeking safer investments like government bonds, as the outbreak spreads beyond Asia.
In trading on Wednesday, the DAX in Germany fell 2.1 percent, and the FTSE 100 in Britain was 1.1 percent lower. In Asia, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.7 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.8 percent.
——-
Two European hotels remain locked down as new cases spread across the Continent. Image Looking out from balconies of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel on the Spanish resort island of Tenerife on Tuesday. Looking out from balconies of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel on the Spanish resort island of Tenerife on Tuesday.Credit...Associated Press
Two European hotels were on lockdown on Wednesday as coronavirus infections spread on the Continent, and a third was quarantined for several hours.
The authorities in Innsbruck, an Austrian ski town in the Alps, sealed off the 108-room Grand Hotel after an Italian employee there tested positive for the virus. The cordon was the second at a European hotel in two days, after Spain on Tuesday cordoned off the H10 Costa Adeje Palace on the resort island of Tenerife after a guest, also from Italy, tested positive.
Each of the infected Italians had recently visited the Lombardy region of the country.
Though the virus originated in China, an outbreak in Italy has given it a foothold in Europe from which it has spread to at least five countries.
Spain, Austria, Croatia, Switzerland and France all reported cases linked to Lombardy on Tuesday.
In central France, the Ibis Center hotel in Beaune was closed after a client from Hong Kong died during the night. The health authorities ordered that all 30 members of the guest’s group remain in isolation while tests were conducted.
But the tests results on Wednesday afternoon did not show coronavirus, and the lockdown was lifted. THE VIRUS IN TENERIFEWhat happens when a vacation turns into a lockdown?
———-
Nurses in Wuhan make a bold appeal for international help. Image Treating coronavirus patients at a hospital in Wuhan on Monday. Treating coronavirus patients at a hospital in Wuhan on Monday.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Nurses in Wuhan, China, psychologically stressed and physically exhausted, appealed to medical workers around the world to come to the heart of the outbreak and help them treat the thousands of infected people there.
The unusually public appeal for help, made in an open letter published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet, underlines how severely overwhelmed and understaffed the hospitals in the city continue to be despite the thousands of volunteers the government has deployed.
The government has sought to promote its efforts in the party’s propaganda outlets, hailing the medical workers as patriots while playing down the shortages in hospitals beds, protective gear and medical supplies that have been made worse by a monthlong lockdown.
“We are asking nurses and medical staff from countries around the world to come to China now, to help us in this battle,” read the letter, which was signed by nurses working in isolation units at a Wuhan hospital. “In addition to the physical exhaustion, we are also suffering psychologically. While we are professional nurses, we are also human.”
Severe shortages of protective equipment and health care professionals in Wuhan were exacerbating the tough conditions in isolation wards, the letter said. Wearing thick layers of protective gear for long stretches means having to “speak very loudly” to communicate, while some nurses developed pressure ulcers on their foreheads and ears from masks and goggles, and blisters around their mouths.
Such workers are at particular risk of infection. More than 3,000 medical workers across China have been infected with the virus, according to the Chinese government.
Offers of assistance from doctors and nurses around the world as well from the World Health Organization were ignored in the early weeks of the outbreak. “Like everyone else, we feel helplessness, anxiety and fear,” the letter said. NURSES BESIEGEDThe difficult life of nurses on the front line fighting the virus.
—————
Some discharged patients test positive again, Chinese health officials say
Image A laboratory at a company developing Covid-19 detection kits in Guangzhou, China. A laboratory at a company developing Covid-19 detection kits in Guangzhou, China.Credit...Alex Plavevski/EPA, via Shutterstock
Some medical experts point to an alarming finding that calls into question the accuracy of the tests being used to diagnose and release patients: 14 percent of patients discharged from hospitals in China’s populous Guangdong Province have tested positive for the coronavirus during follow-up examinations, according to provincial officials.
It is unclear if these patients are contagious, said Song Tie, a Guangdong health official, during a news conference. But he said that in the city of Guangzhou, for instance, 13 patients had tested positive again after being discharged, but none of their 104 close contacts showed signs of infection.
Officials in several other regions, including Hainan Province in the south and the city of Chengdu in southwestern China, have said they found patients who tested positive after being discharged.
Under China’s latest national treatment plan, patients can be discharged from hospitals only if they have twice tested negative for the virus and have a clear chest scan. Several medical experts have said that patients who were already been infected could not be infected again, because they would have developed immunity.
According to Mr. Song, some experts have speculated that patients’ lungs may still be recovering and undergoing “intermittent detoxification,” releasing the virus even after they are discharged.
But others were skeptical of that explanation, pointing instead to the diagnostic tests, which have already proven unreliable in some cases. Lu Hongzhou, an expert in Shanghai, told the Beijing News that it was more likely that the tests used to discharge patients had failed to detect the virus.
Dr. Jin Dongyan, a virus expert at the University of Hong Kong, was more explicit: He said in an interview that the tests used by many hospitals had likely created false negatives.
———-
Japan insists that Summer Olympics plans are unchanged.
Image Olympic Rings in Tokyo on Jan. 17. Olympic Rings in Tokyo on Jan. 17.Credit...Issei Kato/Reuters
The Japanese government on Wednesday sought to play down concerns that the global spread of the coronavirus would affect the Tokyo Olympics, saying it had no plans to cancel or make other big changes to the Games.
At a regular news briefing, the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said that preparations for the Games, which are scheduled to open in late July, were proceeding “as planned.”
Mr. Suga offered his assurances a day after The Associated Press published an interview with Dick Pound, a member of the International Olympic Committee, who said the Games might have to be canceled if they could not be held safely.
Mr. Pound said a decision would need to be made no later than May. “In and around that time, I’d say folks are going to have to ask, ‘Is this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo or not?’” he said. In response to a question about the remarks, Mr. Suga said they were “not the official view of the I.O.C.”
The virus has already affected preparations for the Olympics, particularly in China, where athletes have had to change their training regimens and forgo qualifying events because of restrictions on their travel.
Hoping to curb a gradual increase in reported coronavirus cases in Japan, the authorities on Tuesday called for the cancellation of public gatherings such as sporting events and concerts in the coming weeks.
Japan’s professional soccer and rugby leagues have announced that they will cancel or delay events, while some professional baseball games have been closed to spectato
Reporting was contributed by Russell Goldman, Choe Sang-Hun, Keith Bradsher, Austin Ramzy, Elaine Yu, Ben Dooley, Alexandra Stevenson, Kevin Granville, Marc Santora, Melissa Eddy, Christopher F. Schuetze and Matina Stevis-Gridneff.
NY times update page 2:15pm EST 2/26/2020
LIVE UPDATES
Updated Feb. 26, 2020, 2:06 p.m. ET

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Our predictions cover the Premier Football Leagues in 10 soccer loving countries across Europe (England, France, Holland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and Turkey), plus 3 Divisions in the Americas (the top 2 in Brazil and the USA's MSL), where the season there extends across the European football “close season”.We also provide predictions for 4 English Major and 3 Our prediction team always analyse the key facts of each team in full detail which allows our experts to then make the very best predictions on each soccer match based on those facts and figures. That may not necessarily be the bookmakers expected results of those matches, and as such there will often be some large and generous odds available when our experts do pick out those unlikely, yet In case you are seeking for sites, which predict soccer matches accurately, then Victor Predict is the best soccer prediction site. They are an online service, which gives precise soccer predictions and soccer betting tips to its esteemed users. They even offer avenues for professionals to make some profit predicting football and offering betting tips on how to make money simply by predicting best football prediction site free,best football prediction site of the year,soccer stats predictions, soccer prediction. We make accurate predictions on all available matches and leagues. Our unique interface has almost makes it easy for the users to browse easily both on desktop and mobile.If you are looking for sites that predict football matches correctly, Fcpredicts.com is the Best Halftime FullTime Fixed Matches is the best way to make money online fast with big odds soccer prediction. If you are a passionate bettor who is after big profits and doesn’t bet for fun only, this is the right football ticket choice for you. DONT MISS OUT THE NEXT FIXED MATCHES WITH CORRECT PREDICTIONS AND BUY TODAY! MATCH 1: Tip: 2/1 or 1/2 (HT/FT) Odds 30.00 BUY NOW!!! MATCH 2: Tip: X/1 Discussing about the Best 10 Football Prediction sites in the world is never an easy task as we made sure we pick exactly the Best 10 in the game of Football Betting Tips. We have seen so many questions on what are the Best 10 Football Prediction Sites in the world, so today, we will be giving you guys the answer. so guys here are the Best 10 Football Prediction Site in the world. 1. Fulltime Confirmbets is the best football predictions site that connects the best experts and tipsters from around the world to punters and soccer lovers. All experts or guru as we like to call them make betting tips and soccer predictions on our website, our system checks their betting tips and football predictions with the match result and scores them. Make sure to check our daily soccer predictions at the right time so that you don’t miss out on the value. Toggle navigation. HOME; TODAY SOCCER PREDICTIONS; TIPSTERS DIRECTORY; ABOUT US; BLOG; CONTACT US; 0. 0. TODAY SOCCER PREDICTIONS . Free Football Tips and Prediction 6th February GMT / Private . Private. Brionna Langosh- Confidential. CORRECT SCORE / USD2399 / Match. 6th February 11:30 Free soccer predictions for Europe's top leagues English Premier League, French Ligue 1, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, Dutch Eredivisie, and Spanish LaLiga. Also the most accurate football tips to the Champions League, Europa League, World Cup, and World Leagues. On our football predictions page, we make the most accurate predictions for you thanks to mathematical formulas. You can find

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2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup Group C Preview [Honduras, Jamaica, El Salvador, Curaçao]

HONDURAS , via fanolato2

About

Introduction

Manager and Squad

POTENTIAL STARTING XI

Players to Watch

Points of Discussion

Can Coito improve defensive performances?

How long can Maynor Figueroa and Emilio Izaguirre start in defense?

Can Honduras finally win a major trophy?

JAMAICA , via kauliflower_

About

Introduction

Manager and Squad

POTENTIAL STARTING XI

Players to Watch

Points of Discussion

Third time's the charm?

Leon Bailey

EL SALVADOR via Currul

About

Introduction

Manager and Squad

POTENTIAL STARTING XI

Players to Watch

Points of Discussion

Momentum!

Lack of goals in the past

Can de los Cobos make the match fixing ghost go away?

CURAÇAO , via ArawakFC

About

Introduction

Manager and Squad

POTENTIAL STARTING XI

Players to Watch

Points of Discussion

"Total Football" principles introduced by Patrick Kluivert

To close....

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