The U.S. Consulate in the epidemic-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan will evacuate its personnel and some private citizens aboard a charter flight Tuesday.

A notice Sunday from the embassy in Beijing said there would be limited capacity to transport U.S. citizens on the flight that will proceed directly to San Francisco.

It said that in the event there are not enough seats, priority will be given to to individuals “at greater risk from coronavirus,” a new respiratory disease that has sickened 1,975 people and killed 56, almost all in Wuhan.

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Four people were killed and five others were injured on Saturday in an explosion at a motel in eastern South Korea.

The explosion occurred on the second floor of the motel where seven guests were using a gas stove to grill meat, said Kim Dong-woo, an official from the fire department in the coastal city of Donghae.

He said four people inside the room were killed and the other three were seriously injured. The explosion also caused minor injuries to two other guests who were in different rooms.

Kim said officials were investigating the cause of the explosion. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said the explosion could have been caused by gas leakage.

Officials did not provide the personal details of those who were killed or injured.

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Australia’s bushfire-stricken state of Queensland saw heavy rainfalls on Sunday that dampened some of the fires that have razed 2.5 million hectares (1.2 million acres) since September, but the wet weather caused major flooding. 

Some areas received a quarter of the annual average rainfall, according to Reuters’ calculations, with the state’s Bureau of Meteorology saying coastal areas experienced up to 160 millimeters (6.3 inches) of rain in the 24-hour period ending at 9 a.m. on Sunday. 

“More rain expected over the coming days,” the bureau said on Twitter. 

Several people were rescued from floodwaters and some bridges and causeways were closed, but no severe damage had been reported. 

Recent rains across drought-hit Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales states have substantially dampened many of the hundreds of bushfires that have burned an area nearly the size of Greece and killed 33 people and millions of animals since September. 

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The war film drama “1917” by Oscar winning filmmaker Sam Mendes has received 10 Oscar nominations making it one of the top Oscar contenders. The film follows two young soldiers during World War ONE on a mission to alert 1600 British soldiers that they are led into a trap by German forces. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more on the film

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Southeast Asia’s proximity to China and dependence on that nation for a major share of its economy is raising concerns that the coronavirus outbreak  that started there will not only have health impacts but harm the region’s economies.

The outbreak, which has so far caused 41 deaths in China, and caused the country to quarantine 16 cities, is causing comparisons to the 2003 spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which decreased the value of the global economy by $40 billion.“

Chinese Coronavirus Spreads Around The World

China’s National Health Commission says the death toll from the new virus has jumped to 41, with more than 1200 infections in 29 provinces across the country

Now that the Wuhan coronavirus has been found to be able to be transmitted from human to human, the economic consequences could be extremely concerning for the Asia-Pacific region,” Rajiv Biswas, IHS Markit Asia Pacific chief economist, said.“

Sectors of the economy that are particularly vulnerable to a SARS-like virus epidemic that can be spread by human-to-human transmission are retail stores, restaurants, conferences, sporting events, tourism and commercial aviation,” he said.

Observers agree that tourism could be one of the hardest-hit industries, in part because of the millions of Chinese who usually travel now, during the Lunar New Year, and in part because China has grown so much in the last two decades that many neighboring nations depend on it for tourism.

That is only one of the economic differences between China today and the China of the SARS virus in 2003.

China has since then become a member of the World Trade Organization and the second-biggest economy in the world. Its supply chain has become more integrated with the rest of the world than it has ever been, and it has become the biggest trading partner for many countries in the region.

The 2003 virus decreased China’s economic growth rate, but its effect was the same for Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam, Biswas said.

This time around Chinese tourism matters even more to Southeast Asia.

After Hong Kong, nations for which Chinese visitors’ spending accounts for the biggest share of gross domestic product are, from most to least, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia, according to statistics released by Capital Economics, a London-based research company, Friday. In many of these nations, businesses catering to tourists display signs in Chinese, accept China’s yuan currency, and use that country’s WeChat for mobile payments.

Major tourism events in the region add to the threat that the virus and its economic impact will spread, such as the Tokyo Summer Olympics, Biswas said. Vietnam will also host the Vietnam Grand Prix Formula One race this year, while Malaysia will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Singapore is an island nation that depends heavily on foreign trade, including to facilitate trade and investment in China. Selena Ling, head of treasury research and strategy at Singapore’s OCBC Bank, said Friday she was expecting Singapore’s economy to stage a modest recovery from 2019, but that may change.

She said “the recent coronavirus outbreak originating from China to other countries including Singapore may impart some uncertainty to near-term business and consumer sentiments.”

That could mean slower growth in the first quarter of 2020, she said.

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A coronavirus has stopped cold Lunar New Year celebrations for tens of millions of Chinese.

China’s National Health Commission says the death toll from the new virus has jumped to 41, with more than 1200 infections in 29 provinces across the country.

Fifteen medical workers are among those who have been infected.  One doctor has died.

Hundreds of medical personnel have been deployed to Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, where the virus emerged late last year.

WHO Expects Coronavirus Cases, Deaths to Escalate

UN agency says the number of reported cases and deaths is probably an underestimation

Wuhan, like 16 other Chinese cities, has been shuttered, in an effort to contain the coronavirus.   

The local government of the virus-hit city said Saturday, “Motor vehicles shall be prohibited from driving in the central urban areas.”

Beijing’s Forbidden City and Shanghai Disneyland have been closed indefinitely. Popular tourist destination Sanya city in Hainan province has closed all tourist sites to prevent the spread of the virus.

Hong Kong has declared a state of emergency, canceling the official Lunar New Year celebration and closing schools.

The virus is making is slowly making its way around the world.

Five cases have been reported in Thailand.

Australia has reported four cases.

France, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan have each reported three cases.

Both the United States and Vietnam confirmed two cases.

Nepal reported one case.

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U.S. President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike earlier this month that killed the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani. Trump said Soleimani was “plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel.” It was a move that lawmakers criticized as putting the U.S. at the brink of war. But some U.S. veterans of the Iraq War and their families share a different view.  VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.

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Turkey’s emergency management agency says an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 has shaken the country’s east.

The earthquake struck Friday at 1755 GMT, 8:55 p.m. local time, near the town of Sivrice in eastern Elazig province, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said.

 Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said there were no reports deaths in Sivrice or other affected areas. However, 4-5 buildings collapsed in Sivrice, where two people were hurt, he said. Soylu was at a meeting on earthquake preparedness when the quake struck.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters that there were no reports of any casualties in Sivrice but said the quake may have caused casualties in rural areas outside the town. He said troops were on standby to help is they are needed.

The Kandilli seismology center in Istanbul said the quake measured 6.5.

The U.S. Geological Survey gave the preliminary magnitude as 6.7, with the quake affecting not only Turkey but also Syria, Georgia and Armenia.

Turkish media said the earthquake sent people running outdoors for safety.

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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Feb. 4. Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas will deliver the Spanish-language response.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer made the announcement Friday.

They praised Whitmer for her efforts to ensure clean drinking water is available in communities across Michigan, which was scarred by the 2014 water crisis in Flint. About 25,000 people have sued over the crisis, in which a change in the source of the city’s water resulted in lead contamination.

Whitmer, a former prosecutor who was sworn in as governor last year, defeated Republican state Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Trump ally. She had previously served as Democratic Leader in the Michigan state Senate and was the first woman to lead the Senate caucus.

Escobar, of El Paso, attended a protest rally in August ahead of Trump’s visit to the city after a mass shooting at a Walmart killed 22 people. Police said the gunman specifically targeted Mexicans. Escobar spent two decades in local government before coming to Washington. She’s the first Latina to represent her district.

Trump has said he intends to deliver the State of the Union as scheduled despite his ongoing Senate impeachment trial.

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VOA Connect Episode 106 – Meet a creator of huge sculptures celebrating the natural world, visit a community medical clinic for people in need, and see how service dogs are helping people to whom much is already owed.

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As House Democrats lay out their case against Donald Trump in the Senate, the White House is mounting an aggressive defense arguing that the president did not commit an impeachable offense and should not be removed from office. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.

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Most U.S. adults report worrying about at least two financial issues, such as being able to afford medical bills, retirement or a child’s college education, new research finds.

Individuals with two or more financial worries were far more likely to suffer from serious psychological distress than those who reported fewer money concerns, Dr. Judith Weissman, a mental health researcher at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City, and her colleagues found.

Financial distress had a relatively greater effect on mental health in women and Latinos, while less-educated whites reported the most psychological distress.

The findings show that “people are feeling very disturbed about financial matters,” Weissman told Reuters Health in a phone interview. “These financial matters are a proxy for our life stability.”

Death rates among middle-aged white men and women in the U.S. have been on the rise since about 1999, largely driven by increases in deaths from drug overdoses, alcohol poisoning, alcoholic liver disease and suicide, the study team notes in the Community Mental Health Journal. While unemployment and other objective economic measures have been linked to mental and physical health, the role of subjective measurements — how people feel about their financial situation — is not as clear, they write.

The researchers looked at serious psychological distress, which isn’t a diagnosis but a measurement of a person’s overall mental health and social functioning, in a sample of 24,126 U.S. adults who represented more than 245 million people nationwide.

Study participants, who were surveyed in 2016, also reported whether they were worried about paying their bills, paying costs due to serious medical events, paying costs due to unexpected medical events, paying for retirement, paying for children’s college, or being able to maintain their standard of living.

Tuition tops concerns

College tuition was the top worry, reported by about 56% of participants, followed by paying for retirement, by about 49%.

Fifty-nine percent reported at least two financial worries, while about 28% reported having no worries and 13% had just one financial concern.

Women were more likely to report each of the financial worries than men, and the worries were also more common among Hispanic people compared to other groups. More-educated individuals reported fewer financial worries, while people with multiple chronic illnesses reported more.

Weissman and her colleagues are now planning to investigate whether the financial worries they studied are associated with suicide risk.

People suffering from distress should understand that care and treatment is available, Weissman said. “A lot of times feeling depressed or feeling distressed shapes the way we perceive our options,” she said. “Persevere, depression is treatable, even suicidal ideation is treatable.”

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