Welcome to whitephilip blog

Italy is to close all shops except food stores and pharmacies in Europe's toughest lockdown yet as virus deaths and cases continue to mount. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said bars, restaurants, hairdressers and non-essential company departments would also close. Meanwhile,  President Donald Trump has suspended all travel from Europe to the United States for 30 days  from Friday. He said the EU had "failed to take the same precautions" as the US, However, he said the United Kingdom would be exempt from the new travel ban. Earlier the World Health Organization (WHO) said the outbreak was a pandemic. WHO chief Dr Tedros said cases outside China had soared 13-fold in two weeks. He said he was "deeply concerned" by "alarming levels of inaction". What is a pandemic and why use the term now? Stock markets plunge as WHO confirms pandemic A pandemic is defined as a disease that is spreading in multiple countries around the world at the sa...

Image Credits:  Pradeep Gaur/Mint   /   Getty Images The  JEDI contract  award process might never be done.  Following legal challenges from Amazon  after the Pentagon’s massive, $10 billion cloud contract was  awarded to Microsoft  in October, the Pentagon indicated in court documents last night that it wishes to reconsider the award. It’s just the latest plot twist in an epic government procurement saga. Here’s what we know. The Pentagon filing is based on  Amazon’s   complaints about the technical part of the deal only. Amazon has said that it believes political interference influenced the awarding of the contract. However, the cloud computing giant also believes it beat Microsoft on the technical merits in a majority of instances required in the request for proposals issued by the Pentagon. In fact, sources told TechCrunch, “AWS’s protest identified evaluation errors, clear deficiencies and unmistakable bias in...

Anthony Rizzo may look like a player you'd want to bring to your squad, but beware what will happen to your stats once you let him in ...  Jamie Squire/Getty Images) 3:55 PM WAT AJ Mass ESPN Staff Writer Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print Drafting a successful fantasy team in any format often comes with a bit of luck. Let's face it, even if you leave your draft room with what you believe to be a strong squad, just one week into the season a nightmare scenario can strike and suddenly you find yourself without the trio of  Giancarlo Stanton ,  Trea Turner  and  Mike Clevinger . These things can (and did) happen. Fantasy managers can't blame themselves when a horrific spate of injuries decimates their roster. However, if it's simply the case that you blindly drafted a bunch of players way sooner than you should have and they end up dragging your team stats to hell? Well, that's just like running upstairs when the gu...

Spain's prime minister says a state of emergency will come into effect there on Saturday amid a steep rise in coronavirus deaths. Pedro Sánchez warned that very hard weeks lay ahead but he vowed the government would do everything necessary to combat the crisis. Earlier, the number of deaths in Spain increased by some 50% in a day to reach 120. Infections jumped to 4,200. Mr Sanchez said the figure could top 10,000 next week. The state of emergency in Spain allows his government to take wide-ranging measures for up to 15 days, including: limiting the movement of people or vehicles ordering evacuations prohibiting access to certain areas or places intervening in areas of industry and farming Controls are being introduced at an increasing number of borders in Europe, in response to the coronavirus.

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, wife of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, has tested positive for coronavirus after returning from a trip to London, a statement from the PM's office says. "She will remain in isolation for the time being. She is feeling well, is taking all the recommended precautions and her symptoms remain mild," it read. The couple is now self-isolating. Mr Trudeau is in good health and has no symptoms, according to his office, but will remain in isolation for 14 days. There are no plans at present for Mr Trudeau to be tested for coronavirus. "The prime minister will continue to fully assume his duties and will address Canadians tomorrow [Friday]," his office said. There are currently approximately 103 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Canada. Meetings postponed Ms Grégoire Trudeau began to show mild flu-like symptoms including a low fever late on Wednesday night after returning from the UK. Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Image caption M...