News Headlines - 11 February 2020

▽Quarantined Cruise Passengers Have Many Questions. Japan Has Few Answers. - The New York Times

Experts in crisis management said the government was offering a textbook example of how not to handle a public health crisis... The government’s communications strategy has undermined trust, and speculation has sometimes filled the void, including about whether there could be alternatives to keeping so many people locked inside a contaminated vessel.

▽Philippines Tells U.S. It Will End Military Cooperation Deal - The New York Times

The Philippines said Tuesday it had officially informed the United States that it was scrapping a military pact that has given the longtime American ally a security blanket for the past two decades.
The notice to terminate the pact, the Visiting Forces Agreement, comes as President Rodrigo Duterte has warmed up to China while distancing himself from the United States, the Philippines’ former colonial ruler. The move also comes as the Philippines has shown increasing reluctance to stand up to China over its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

▽UK to implement new global trade tariffs from 2021 - Reuters

Britain plans to develop a new tariff schedule which will enter into force at the start of 2021 and will apply to goods from countries around the world where no other trade arrangements are in place, the government said on Thursday.
The government has launched a four-week consultation to help shape its new most favoured nation tariff regime, which will be known as the UK Global Tariff. This could include simplifying tariffs and removing tariffs completely on goods where Britain has no domestic production, it said.

▽German digital bank N26 pulls out of UK, blaming Brexit | The Guardian

The German digital bank N26 is has blamed Brexit for its decision to pull out of the UK and close more than 200,000 customer accounts.
The lender has given customers less than two months to move their money, with all UK accounts to be closed by 15 April. It has also stopped offering new accounts to UK residents.
The move comes less than 18 months after the Berlin-based firm launched in the UK. It had about a dozen employees in the UK, with the rest of the business run remotely from the German capital.

▽Samsung Galaxy Z Flip Hands On: A Folding Phone With a Glass Screen | WIRED

There’s a new folding phone in town. Another folding phone. The thing we’re not entirely sure people want yet. No matter! Samsung has just released its second smartphone with a flexible display. This one is called the Galaxy Z Flip, and it will have a base price of $1,380 when preorders start February 14... A folding phone is, of course, a phone with a flexible display. The display itself bends and creases, so that the device can morph into something smaller. But when it’s open, it’s one long display... Samsung’s first folding phone, last year’s Galaxy Fold, had a disastrous start, with devices that broke after a few days.