The civilian aircraft chartered by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office left Wuhan at 9:45am, the government said in a notice on its Web site. “We know how distressing the situation has been for those waiting to leave,” British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dominic Raab said in the notice. The flight had been expected to depart Wuhan on Thursday morning with about 150 British citizens and 50 non-British nationals, but its departure was blocked by Chinese officials. Some British citizens have reportedly said they were told that they could not take family members with Chinese passports out of the city. A British government spokesman said that any citizens who were eligible for the flight would be given a seat, but nationals already infected would not be allowed to leave Wuhan.

By Jason Pan / Staff reporterA number of people have been summoned for questioning as the judiciary cracks down on online rumors regarding the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. A Yunlin County woman surnamed Shih (施) was summoned for questioning for claiming on Facebook that the hospital to which she took her baby for a vaccine had a confirmed 2019-nCoV patient, Chen said. “Shih was asked by a friend, whom she told that the patient with the ‘Wuhan virus’ was at Chiayi Christian Hospital. As of press time last night, the CDC and local health authorities nationwide had filed reports with the bureau and other law enforcement agencies regarding 12 cases of misinformation or rumors about the outbreak. Investigators have identified eight people for questioning and investigation by public prosecutors.

By Elin McCoy / BloombergNapa Valley whiz winemaker Dave Phinney thinks big. So far, Phinney, 46, has made more than US$150 million from selling those ventures. Now he’s taken on spirits with his Savage & Cooke Distillery, which led to a partnership with billionaire Gaylon Lawrence to transform the San Francisco Bay Area’s Mare Island into a hip booze destination and a sustainable community for 75,000 people. Looking through old Navy files on Mare Island, two names popped out to him: “Savage” and “Cooke.”HISTORY OF GOOD TASTEPhinney certainly had the startup funds. But he first made his name with wine brand Orin Swift, which he founded in 1998 and sold to E & J Gallo in 2016 for a reported $100 million.

By Dave Carroll / Staff reporter, with Reuters, MELBOURNETaiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Czech partner Barbora Strycova yesterday fell to a comprehensive defeat in the Australian Open women’s doubles final, but there was a silver lining for the Taiwanese as she is to regain the world No. The top seeds fell to a 6-2, 6-1 defeat to second seeds Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic at Rod Laver Arena in 1 hour, 12 minutes. Strycova, who has said this is likely be her final year on tour, recalled her almost two decades playing at Melbourne Park. 7 when I was playing junior finals and here I am still,” Strycova told the tournament Web site. MEN’S SINGLESIn a new-generation battle, Dominic Thiem yesterday beat Alex Zverev 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/4) to reach his first Australian Open final and set up the ultimate test against Melbourne Park maestro Novak Djokovic.

AP, WASHINGTONUS Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Thursday suggested that a new coronavirus outbreak in China might offer an unexpected benefit for the US economy: It could encourage US manufacturers in China to return home. Some to US, probably some to Mexico as well,” Ross told Fox Business Network. However, skeptics doubt that many US companies with deep roots in China might abandon the country purely over the virus. For one thing, no one knows how long the viral outbreak would last or how much damage it might inflict, and it takes significant time for companies to choose suppliers or locations for their factories. Rosemary Coates, whose Blue Silk Consulting firm helps companies make such decisions, said it was “ridiculous” to think the viral outbreak would result in a significant return of business to the US.

By Natasha Li / Staff reporterThe Taipei Game Show is to be postponed until summer after the WHO declared a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, the show’s organizer, the Taipei Computer Association (台北電腦公會), said yesterday. To preserve the health and safety of all participants, the show is to be postponed until the summer and would be held at its original location, Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1, it said. Citing local confirmed cases of the virus, Gamania said that at the end of the Lunar New Year holiday it established a team to prevent and combat the disease. While there is no need for panic, the company said that it would remain cautious and therefore refrain from participating in crowded events held indoors. Following Gamania’s announcement, Wanin International Co (網銀國際), Kingston Technology Corp’s Hyper X and Logitech International SA also quit the show, online news outlet Tech News reported yesterday.

By Jason Pan / Staff reporterLast year was one that Taiwanese soccer fans would like to forget, with the men’s national team in disarray after calamitous results and a stumbling finish with the head coach being sacked. Lancaster said he wanted to help Taiwan improve their results and qualify for major Asian tournaments. “My goal is to lead a team which can compete against other elite teams of Asia, and a team that Taiwanese fans can be proud of,” he said. His philosophy was for Taiwan to play “attacking football,” with players pressing deep into the opposition’s zone. The results only went downhill from there: visiting Australia pounding Taiwan 7-1 at the Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 15.

By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter, with CNAGlobal support for Taiwan’s participation in WHO meetings has grown as the international body continues to bar the nation from its discussions about 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), even though Taiwan had reported 10 cases as of yesterday. EU External Action Service spokeswoman Virginie Battu-Henriksson on Thursday said that Taiwan should be included in the global body, as it has the expertise and ability to contribute. The remarks came after similar calls by US officials, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trudeau on Wednesday said during a question-and-answer session in the Canadian parliament that his administration supports the meaningful participation of Taiwan in international multilateral forums. Taiwan is not a member of the UN or its affiliated organizations, including the WHO, due to opposition from China.

ReutersFilip Forsberg and Matt Duchene on Thursday scored in a shoot-out for the visiting Nashville Predators, who outlasted the New Jersey Devils for a thrilling 6-5 victory in Newark, New Jersey. Predators head coach John Hynes also won his first game against the Devils since New Jersey fired him on Dec. 3 last year. The Predators’ Forsberg scored twice in regulation, including the goal that forced overtime midway through the third period. Duchene, Mattias Ekholm and Nick Bonino also scored for the Predators, who are 5-4-0 under Hynes, while goalie Pekka Rinne made 27 saves. Coyotes goalie Adin Hill, pressed into service with All-Star Darcy Kuemper still not ready to return from a lower-body injury, stopped 35 shots.

BloombergThe global cost of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak could be three or four times that of the 2003 SARS outbreak, which sapped the world’s economy by US$40 billion, the economist who calculated that figure said. “Most of the GDP loss that we saw in the SARS model, and in reality, was China slowing down. Nomura International forecast that the negative effects on China’s growth could exceed those seen during the SARS outbreak. “Back in 2003, China accounted for just 4 percent of global GDP. That means the global spillover if China’s growth slumps will be larger,” Bloomberg economists Chang Shu (舒暢), Jamie Rush and Tom Orlik said.

Reuters, TOKYOJapanese fashion billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has pulled out of a documentary search for a girlfriend to take on his voyage around the moon with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, citing his “mixed feelings” about participating. The 44-year-old earlier this month announced that he was seeking single females over 20 willing to vie to become his girlfriend for a documentary to be aired on streaming service AbemaTV. As Zozo chief executive, he launched the Zozosuit, a polka-dot bodysuit that allowed users to collect body measurements to order custom-made clothes, a product that did not work well in practice. He also outlined an ambitious overseas expansion plan that wildly undershot targets, leading to a crash in the company’s share price. Maezawa has pledged to give away US$9 million to his Twitter followers in what he says is a “social experiment” to see if the payment boosts their happiness.

AP, PARISFrench President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday accused Turkey of breaching an agreement to halt foreign interference in Libya by sending warships and mercenaries to the North African nation. Following a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Macron also described a maritime deal between Turkey and Libya’s UN-backed government as a “void document” with no legal or political standing. “These past few days we have seen Turkish warships accompanied by Syrian mercenaries arrive on Libyan soil. Macron dismissed a maritime deal between Turkey and Sarraj’s government last year that would give Turkey and Libya access to an economic zone, despite the objections of Greece, Egypt and Cyprus, which lie between the two geographically. “I must reiterate that the prerequisite for any political solution in Libya is the cancelation of this document.”Turkey accused Macron of making “unrealistic claims” against Ankara, holding France responsible for the crisis in Libya.

Of France’s 35,048 municipal councils, 712 have British representatives — 757 councilors in total. They make up almost a third of the nearly 2,500 foreign representatives among France’s nearly half a million local councilors. In Poupas, a town of 85 inhabitants in the south of France, three of the 11 councilors are from across the English Channel. “It is a colossal loss,” Poupas Mayor Pascal Guerin said of the Brexit-induced upheaval. Allison Mackie, a 63-year-old from Scotland, is one of two British representatives on the council of Bellegarde-du-Razes, a town of 240 people in southern France.

After more than seven months of unrest, even choosing a restaurant has become political in Hong Kong. Tommy Wu (胡東安), a senior economist at Oxford Economics Hong Kong, said the yellow-blue divide is “more about demonstrating one’s political ideology rather than making a real impact” on the economy. Being listed as a blue shop risks becoming the target of vandalism. Vicky Tam, a Hong Kong professional who is getting married this month, illustrates the divide. She is instead using another local chain, Saint Honore Cake Shop, where cake sales have soared 50 percent since September.

AFP, MOSCOWRussian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday sacked a regional leader who forced a firefighter to jump in the air to receive keys for new fire engines. After a video emerged on social media, Ignatyev’s press service tried to play down the scandal, saying that the men were friendly acquaintances. However, Russian Minister of Emergency Situations Yevgeny Zinichev said Ignatyev’s behavior was unethical. In a speech on Jan. 13, he said such journalists “need to be rubbed out, as the ordinary folk say. Putin appointed Russian lawmaker Oleg Nikolayev as acting head of Chuvashia, pending elections of a new regional chief.