Tuesday, Jan 21, 2020 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering the spread of a mysterious virus across Asia, why important details of a Boeing crash from a decade ago were suppressed and the frisky history of cocktails.

By Melina Delkic

Members of the medical staff at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, China, where people infected by the virus were being treated. Getty Images

Viral ailment spreads in Asia, feeding fears of pandemic

The coronavirus causing a new respiratory illness is now capable of spreading from person to person, a prominent Chinese scientist said on Monday, as the authorities reported a third death and doubled the number of cases from a day earlier, including in Beijing and southern China for the first time.

Cases have also been reported in Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

With hundreds of millions of people in China expected to travel for the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins Friday, public health officials are working to forestall a major outbreak. Some experts have suggested that there are probably far more cases of the illness than China’s authorities have disclosed.

Investigators examining the wreck of a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 in February 2009 near Amsterdam. Ade Johnson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

How Boeing’s role in a deadly crash ‘got buried’

When a Boeing 737 crashed near Amsterdam in 2009, killing nine people, the accident was blamed on Dutch pilots. But Boeing’s mistakes also contributed, including its design choices and faulty safety assessments.

A review by The New York Times of evidence from the 2009 accident, some of it previously confidential, reveals striking parallels with recent Boeing crashes that killed hundreds — and resistance by a team of Americans, including Boeing and federal officials, to a full airing of findings that later proved relevant to Boeing’s Max plane.

An expert commissioned by the Dutch Safety Board to analyze the 2009 crash said it “represents such a sentinel event that was never taken seriously.” His study was never made public.

Comparisons: In the 2009 and Max accidents, the failure of a single sensor caused systems to misfire, with catastrophic results, and Boeing did not provide pilots with information that could have helped them react to the malfunction.

Quotable: The Turkish Airlines crash “should have woken everybody up,” said one aviation safety expert.

Jules Julien

Times editorial board endorses two candidates

The board, which is separate from the Times newsroom, announced that it’s supporting both Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The dual endorsement is a departure from convention. The board says that it is meant to address the party’s “realist” and “radical” models.

While arguing that President Trump must be defeated, the board did not take a position on which was the best path forward for Democrats, writing that both “warrant serious consideration.” Read the endorsement here, which distills the themes and challenges of the election coming in November.

Background: The board’s 15 members met with nine candidates and released full transcripts of their interviews.

Behind the scenes: The endorsement process has typically been opaque, but this year, our TV show “The Weekly” was invited in. Our deputy editorial page editor explained the process and the decision to open it up to cameras.

Hail covering in an intersection in Canberra, Australia, on Monday. Tom Swann/The Australia Institute, via Associated Press

Australia can’t catch a break

Thousands of people were left without power as baseball-size hailstones pummeled major cities in the country’s southeast over the past two days, the latest turn in a summer of extreme weather.

Although a drought — along with the devastating wildfires it has fed — is far from over, thunderstorms have lashed Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.

What’s next: Meteorologists warned that the storms would continue for the next few days. Hot and windy conditions are expected to return to many parts of New South Wales later this week.

If you have 20 minutes, this is worth it

David M. Benett/Getty Images

Helping to exploit Angola’s wealth

Isabel dos Santos, above center, Africa’s richest woman, often took cuts of her country’s wealth through decrees signed by her father. Global banks, bound by strict rules about politically connected clients, largely declined to work with her family.

But global consulting firms embraced her business, helping her amass a fortune in a country hobbled by corruption and park it abroad, according to a trove of documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with The Times. The vast empire stretches from Hong Kong to the U.S.

Here’s what else is happening

India: As the country seeks to rein in foreign technology companies and international news outlets, its leaders have pressured Jeff Bezos, who owns one of each: Amazon and The Washington Post.

How warm was your town?: Scientists said that 2019 was the second-warmest year on record, and an AccuWeather database of 3,500 cities around the world showed that more than 80 percent experienced higher-than-normal average temperatures last year. See how your city compares.

China: Video of a pig being tied up and shoved off a bungee tower at a theme park in Chongqing has sparked outrage in a country where animal rights activism is a relatively new phenomenon.

Na Zhou for The New York Times

Snapshot: Above, mounds of plastic junk on the outskirts of Beijing. In an effort to combat waste, China is banning the use of disposable foam cutlery and nonbiodegradable plastic bags in major cities by the end of this year, with broader bans to follow.

What we’re reading: This piece in Taste about a food specialty familiar to only a small subset of Italian-Americans. “It has come to my attention that some of you do not know the first blessed thing about lard bread," tweeted our food critic Pete Wells. “Max [Falkowitz] is here to guide you into the light of lardy knowledge.”

Now, a break from the news

Julia Gartland for The New York Times

Cook: Vegetarian skillet chili is one of those pantry meals that you’ll memorize. (Our Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter has more recommendations.)

Read: The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda helped save over 2,000 refugees. Isabel Allende’s latest book, “A Long Petal of the Sea,” imagines two of them.

Smarter Living: Should you live out of a suitcase when you travel, or unpack your things? There are arguments for both.

And now for the Back Story on …

Cocktails

A hundred years ago this month, the U.S. embarked on a 13-year official prohibition on the “manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors” anywhere within the country.

It didn’t go well.

Bootlegging liquor operations proliferated, as did the illicit bars known as speakeasies. And the drink of choice: the cocktail, which spread out the hooch or disguised its sometimes bad flavors. The boom far outlasted Prohibition. Sidecar, anyone?

A Prohibition-era speakeasy. Margaret Bourke-White/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images

Dave Wondrich, a drinks historian, tracked down the source of the word “cocktail.” In the second edition of his landmark reconstruction of mixed drinks, “Imbibe!,” he notes that prospective horse sellers in England would give old or droopy specimens a rectal dose of ginger to make them cock their tails for a younger, zippier appearance.

From there it was just a short jump to the zingy drinks that made humans perk up, at least at the start of their alcoholic forays.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Melina

Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Andrea Kannapell, the Briefings editor, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• “The Daily” is off for the Martin Luther King holiday in the U.S. Try listening to the latest “Modern Love,” in which the actress Rebecca Hall reads an essay about dating while bipolar, the inspiration behind one of the episodes in the Modern Love TV series.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Point of a fable (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times is always looking for talent. Check out our international and U.S. job postings.