10 things you need to know today: March 7, 2020

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1. Officials deciding where to dock cruise ship with coronavirus cases
2. Trump ousts Mulvaney, names Meadows chief of staff
3. Trump signs coronavirus emergency spending package
4. Yields, oil prices, stocks fall after week of tumult
5. New DNC debate rules will make for Biden-Sanders faceoff
6. House report blames Boeing, FAA for fatal 737 MAX crashes
7. U.S. intelligence suggests Taliban doesn't intend to honor peace deal
8. Saudi Arabia detains royal family members over alleged coup
9. Unemployment rate falls slightly as U.S. adds 273,000 jobs in February
10. Austin cancels South by Southwest over coronavirus fears

published 7 March 2020

1. Officials deciding where to dock cruise ship with coronavirus cases

California authorities are working with federal officials to decide where to dock the Grand Princess cruise ship Saturday as it waits off the coast of San Francisco. The ship holds 3,500 passengers and crew, 21 of whom have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The ship was forbidden to dock in San Francisco over concerns it was the breeding ground for a cluster of more than 10 cases during its previous voyage. Overall, the number of global cases of COVID-19 crossed the 100,000 threshold Friday and it has reportedly killed nearly 3,500 people. The U.S. death toll rose to 17 after Florida reported two fatalities, the first that weren't on the West Coast.

President Trump announced Friday that retiring Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) will replace acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney in the role. Meadows is considered one of Trump's staunchest congressional allies. Mulvaney, who filled the acting role in January 2019, is being appointed as the U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland. He also will shed his title as the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, which he retained while serving as chief of staff. The acting director, Russ Vought, is expected to be nominated for the permanent position. Mulvaney's exit was anticipated as he fell out of Trump's favor a while ago, but advisers urged the president to keep him on until after his Senate impeachment trial in February.

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President Trump on Friday signed a $8.3 billion emergency spending package to combat the new COVID-19 coronavirus. After being unveiled earlier this week, the funding bill was easily passed by both the House and the Senate in bipartisan votes. Trump while signing the package noted his administration had originally asked for $2.5 billion to combat the coronavirus, but "I got 8.3, and I'll take it." Trump was expected to sign the coronavirus package at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta but instead did so at the White House, with Trump saying this was because of a "person who was potentially infected" at the CDC. However, Trump said the person tested negative for the coronavirus, and so "we may go."

Treasury yields, oil prices, and stocks all plunged Friday afternoon after a week of mounting concerns over COVID-19 and its effect on the economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 255 points to close a week of ups and downs, while the S&P 500 went down 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq Composite went down 1.9 percent. The indexes did all eke out gains from last week's record-breaking plunge. Oil prices took a major dip of $4.72 per barrel as Russia and OPEC failed to come to a production agreement, continuing a fall of more than 20 percent since January. And yields on 10-year Treasury bonds fell below .7 percent for the first time before rebounding a tad to .71 percent.

The Democratic National Committee announced the rules for its March 15 debate on Friday, saying only candidates with more than 20 percent of the delegates doled out so far will appear onstage. That'll ensure only former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will get to face off, and removes Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) and her one delegate from the contest. Biden, Gabbard, and Sanders are the only candidates left in the race for the Democratic nomination. Even if Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Michael Bloomberg hadn't dropped out after Super Tuesday, their delegate totals wouldn't have met the DNC's threshold. Rules for the last two debates allowed any candidate with at least one delegate onstage.

House investigators released a report Friday blaming Boeing's engineering mistakes and "culture of concealment," as well as the Federal Aviation Administration's "grossly insufficient" oversight of the production of Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft for two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in October 2018 and March 2019, respectively, that killed 346 people. The report highlighted the fact that Boeing avoided putting pilots through necessary training protocols and removed key references about the plane's flight control system from official manuals during the FAA certification process for the MAX model, which has been grounded for months and saw its production halt in January. Despite accusing Boeing of withholding information from the FAA, the report still chastised the agency for failing "to identify key safety problems." Meanwhile, a draft report from Ethiopian investigators reportedly blamed the plane's design for last year's fatal crash.

Three American officials told NBC News the U.S. government has collected "persuasive intelligence" that the Taliban does not plan on sticking to the promises they made in last week's peace agreement with Washington, which would ultimately result in the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 18 years. "They have no intention of abiding by their agreement," one official said. The deal was considered precarious from the start, and President Trump acknowledged Friday the Taliban could potentially "overrun" the Afghan government once U.S. forces leave. The intelligence described by the officials indicates the Taliban is using the peace pact to secure the departure of American troops after which it plans to attack Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government.

Saudi Arabia reportedly detained two prominent members — Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al Saud, the brother of King Salman, and the king's nephew Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz al Saud, who is known as MBN — of the kingdom's royal family over allegations of a coup attempt. The move further consolidates power for the king's son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Both of the detainees, who had once been in line for the throne, are now reportedly under threat of lifetime imprisonment or execution, although the details of the alleged plot to unseat the king and crown prince aren't clear. MBN has close ties to U.S. intelligence because of his knowledge of security and terror threats in the Middle East. The New York Times reported his younger brother, Prince Nawaf bin Nayef was also detained.

The U.S. economy beat expectations to add 273,000 jobs in February, even as COVID-19 raised concerns of an economic slowdown. The stock market saw a massive decline at the end of the month, but the unemployment rate still fell slightly from 3.6 to 3.5 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday. That unemployment rate is the lowest the U.S. has seen in 50 years, CNBC notes. But including people not looking for work and those with part-time jobs looking for full-time grew a bit to 7 percent. The health care, restaurant, and construction industries, as well as government hiring, boosted the job gains. February may mark the last glimpse of a growing economy for awhile, seeing as most of the month wasn't spent in the grips of COVID-19 fear.

The city of Austin, Texas, announced Friday it will cancel South by Southwest, the annual festival that draws major musicians, tech companies, and keynote speakers. The cancellation is due to fears of the spreading COVID-19 coronavirus. "After careful deliberation, there was no acceptable path forward that would mitigate the risk enough to protect our community," said Mark Escott, the city's interim health authority. The festival was scheduled to begin on March 13, but major companies slowly announced plans to pull out of the lineup over coronavirus fears, including Netflix, Facebook, and Amazon Studios. Austin has no known cases of coronavirus. The cancellation is the first time in 34 years the festival will not go on as planned.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.