Beijing signaled it will likely delay (SCMP) its biggest annual political meeting due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to state media, while Apple announced it does not expect to meet (Guardian) its March quarter revenue targets due to China’s coronavirus-related worker shortages and store closures.
 
Around half of China’s population faces some kind of virus-related movement restrictions, with more than 150 million people restricted in how often they can leave their homes, according to New York Times analysis. A Reuters poll of forty economists estimated that China’s annual growth in the first quarter of 2020 could fall to 4.5 percent, down from 6 percent in the previous quarter. The outbreak has sickened (NYT) more than 73,000 people and killed more than 1,800, according to health officials.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised Pakistan’s commitment (UN) to hosting refugees during a three-day visit to the country. He also offered UN mediation to India and Pakistan over the conflict in Kashmir, which India refused (Al Jazeera).
 
Afghanistan: Senior Taliban leader Abdul Salam Hanafi said an agreement with the United States will be signed (WaPo) by the end of the month.

The European Union will deploy (Guardian) naval ships, planes, and satellites to enforce an embargo on weapons to Libya, possibly by the end of March (NYT), the bloc’s chief diplomat announced.
 
Syria: President Bashar al-Assad gave a televised address after the government consolidated control (Reuters) of towns in the Aleppo Governorate’s northwestern countryside, calling the advance a prelude to the opposition’s final defeat. More than forty thousand people have been displaced from western Aleppo in the last four days, a UN spokesperson said.
 
CFR President Richard N. Haass looks at the diminishing U.S. presence in Syria and the greater Middle East.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Ethiopia today as part of a nine-day visit (VOA) to six African countries that has so far focused on economic partnerships.
 
South Sudan: President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar are due to meet (VOA) in Juba today ahead of a Saturday deadline to form a unity government. 

The EU commissioner overseeing the bloc’s data strategy said a plan for online content regulation presented by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg yesterday did not meet (FT) the bloc’s standards.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Ganesh Sitaraman discusses the national security risks posed by the market dominance of U.S. tech giants.
 
Turkey: An Istanbul court acquitted (AP) nine of sixteen civil society activists accused of attempting to overthrow the government in 2013. The trial will continue for the seven remaining defendants.

U.S. intelligence officials did not try to expose or stop mass killings by Latin American military regimes in the late 1970s despite the CIA’s knowledge of such crimes, according to a Washington Post report.
 
Mexico: Parents of child cancer patients filed lawsuits against Mexico’s government due to medication shortages (Reuters) that began after federal authorities modified the procurement process.

The U.S. State Department announced it helped repatriate more than three hundred Americans from a cruise ship in Japan, including fourteen who tested positive for the new coronavirus. The patients will remain in isolation and care in the United States.