** MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020 ~ VOL. CCLXXV NO. 44 WSJ.com HHHH $4.
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agallonofregulargasolineSource: GasBuddy$3.2.2.2.2.2.2017 ’18 ’19 ’WeeklyIf You Knead No-Carb Bread,
It Might Cost You Some Dough
iiiShunning wheat, bakers use bamboo,
bananas, cauliflower. A hole in the loaf.
Instead of wheat flour, Ve-
ronica Culver’s ultra-low-carb
bread recipe calls for five
eggs, six tablespoons of finely
ground almonds and half a cup
of powdered collagen, a pro-
tein found in animal bones and
tissues.
Bake for 40 minutes, then
cool for an hour. Upside down.
Otherwise, “as soon as it
starts to cool, you can literally
watch it start to sink in the
middle,” said Ms. Culver, of
Newport Beach, Calif., who
spent nine months perfectingthe recipe after pining for
bread on her carb-cutting diet.
“Then it’s just like, OK, it’s
still edible, but it’s not at all
what you think it should be.”
The quest to make better
low-carb bread is heating up,
and amateur cooks, food start-
ups and grocery chains are
seeking out increasingly exotic
ingredients for the perfect
loaf. Regular bread, made from
high-carb wheat, is verboten
on the low-carb diets that are
becoming more mainstream,
so bakers are trying all kinds
of workarounds to see how
Please turn to page ABYMIKECHERNEYNevada
Win Gives
Sanders
TheInside
Track
Victory bolsters his
case as front-runner,
worrying Democrats
seeking a centristBoeing Co. is planning more
support for suppliers for its
737 MAX jetliner program to
prepare them for restarting
production—and to dissuade
some from seeking more busi-
ness from Airbus SE.
Boeing suspended MAX pro-
duction in January after build-
ing more than 400 planes it
was unable to deliver. Regula-
tors grounded the aircraft in
March last year, following the
second of two fatal crashes that
claimed a total of 346 lives.
That has left a network of
more than 600 big suppliers
and hundreds of smaller firms
in limbo about business that
in some cases contributed half
their annual sales. Many sup-
pliers had expanded factories
and hired more staff to help
Boeing fill orders for more
than 4,500 MAX jets it had
planned to build at a rate of 57
a month. Now, analysts say, it
could take three years to reach
that level when production re-
starts after the plane is
cleared to fly again.
Heading the effort is Stan
Deal, who was elevated to lead
the Boeing Commercial Air-
planes unit last October, after
the ouster of Kevin McAllister.
Mr. Deal formerly ran Boeing’s
services arm, but he had
headed its supply-chain rela-
tions earlier in his 34-year ca-
reer at the company.
The company said it plans
to stockpile more parts than in
the past to guarantee order
flow for suppliers.
Boeing, which had set aside
$4 billion for additional ex-
Please turn to page AEDUCATION
Legacy preference gets
fresh look after
college-admissions
scandal. AMINING
Report blames Vale
dam failure in Brazil on
company conflicts of
interest. BISTOCK DOUGLAS MAGNO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGESFinance ministers and cen-
tral bankers from the Group of
20 major economies on Sun-
day warned in Riyadh that the
coronavirus posed a serious
risk to global growth and
agreed to take action should
its impact intensify.
Over the weekend, the In-
ternational Monetary Fund cut
China’s annual growth by 0.
percentage point, to 5.6%,
compared with the fund’s pre-
virus prediction in January.
The slower growth would
Please turn to page Aproxies such as private security contractors,
businesses and advisers, according to people
involved and European security officials.
Russian activity in the Middle East and
Africa coincides with a pulling back in those
regions by the U.S. and its European allies.
During a three-country tour of Africa last
week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reit-
erated that the Trump administration is con-
sidering reducing military forces in Western
Africa.
The Russian campaign has drawn the at-
tention of U.S. and European officials who
worry about the impact of growing Russian
influence in the regions.
Earlier this month, the top American en-
voy to Syria said Russian military contrac-
tors are engaging in tense encounters with
U.S. troops in Syria.
Please turn to page AIn October, dozens of armed Russian mer-
cenaries fanned out across two Libyan oil
ports. Brought in by a renegade Libyan gen-
eral, they helped rebel forces wrest control
of the oil-rich region from the Libyan gov-
ernment.
After the fighting ended, a delegation of
mining and oil executives from former So-
viet states arrived seeking business with the
rebels who now controlled the ports, Libyan
immigration records show.
Almost three decades after the collapse of
the Soviet empire, Russian President Vladi-
mir Putin is on a mission to rebuild Mos-
cow’s international influence in the Middle
East and Africa. The campaign relies partly
on building alliances with developing coun-
tries outside official channels, often throughBYBENOITFAUCONANDJAMESMARSONFuel Costs
Prime Pump
Gas and energy prices have
dropped from a year ago, a
boon to consumers. BRussia Leans on Mercenary
Forces to Regain Clout
Campaigns in Africa and Middle East involve private security
contractors and business interests with ties to KremlinHOUSTON—Bernie Sanders’s
resounding victory in the week-
end’s Nevada caucuses cast him
as the clear front-runner for
the Democratic presidential
nomination and enhanced the
Vermont senator’s argument
that he can build a diverse co-
alition of voters ahead of po-
tentially decisive contests.
At the same time, the sena-
tor’s latest win, and his mo-
mentum ahead of next Satur-
day’s South Carolina primary
and the Super Tuesday contests
March 3, are stirring increasing
anxiety among some establish-
ment Democrats who believe a
more centrist nominee would
have a better chance to beat
President Trump in Novem-
ber and help carry down-ballot
candidates across the finish
line. If Mr. Sanders, a self-de-
scribed democratic socialist,
performs well on March 3,
when more than one-third of
the total convention delegates
are up for grabs, it could be dif-
ficult for any Democratic rival
to overtake him.
Mr. Sanders has said he can
expand the electorate by bring-
ing in new voters, which would
help him overcome any con-
cerns about ideology in a gen-
eral election.
Nevada, a more diverse state
than mostly white Iowa and
New Hampshire, gave Mr. Sand-
ers the first opportunity to
show he can build the “multi-
generation, multiracial coali-
tion” he has said will propel
him. This year’s Nevada cau-
cuses are on track to break
Please turn to page ABYELIZACOLLINSHONG KONG—The last time
a coronavirus outbreak hit
China in 2003, the global
economy emerged relatively
unscathed. Now, nearly two
decades later, the growth-
damping effects of a similar
pathogen threaten to ripple
around a world transformed
by China’s boom.
Chinese consumption and
production power growth from
Asia to North America, Europe
and beyond. Manufacturers
world-wide are tethered to
China by the tentacles of a sup-
ply chain that relies on the
country’s factories for many in-termediate and finished goods.
With fears of contagion
keeping Chinese workers
home, production is getting
pinched. In the U.S., General
Motors Co. unions have
warned that a lack of China-
made parts could slow assem-
bly lines at sport-utility vehi-
cle plants in Michigan and
Texas; the company said it is
working to mitigate the risk.
Elsewhere, the story is the
same—even in places that
might seem remote.
Mostafiz Uddin, a bluejeans
manufacturer in the south-
eastern Bangladeshi city of
Chittagong, said he has been
unable to fulfill an order for
100,000 women’s jeans be-cause he can’t get the fabric
he needs from China. “I am
just waiting,” he said. “We
have no option.”
A month after the epi-
demic forced factories into
limbo past their usual Lunar
New Year break—a handful are
reopening—officials and econ-
omists are warning that an ex-
tended Chinese shutdown
could cripple global manufac-
turing and cost the world up
to $1 trillion in lost output.
“The current situation is
more serious than we
thought,” South Korean Presi-
dent Moon Jae-in said on
Tuesday. “We need to take
emergency steps in this time
of emergency.”BYCHUIN-WEIYAP
ANDJONEMONTGlobal Economy Shows Strain
As Virus Starts to Take a Toll
People line up to stock up on food at a supermarket in Casalpusterlengo, Italy. The city is closed due to the coronavirus. ACARLO COZZOLI/IPA/ZUMA PRESSBYDOUGCAMERONBoeing
Plans More
Relief for
Suppliers
INSIDE
Outbreaks proliferate outside
China............................................... A
Fear grips South Korea amid
mounting cases........................ ACONTENTS
Business News...... B
Crossword.............. A
Heard on Street. B
Life & Arts....... A11-
Markets...................... B
Opinion.............. A15-Outlook.........................A
Small Business.......B
Sports....................... A
Technology............... B
U.S. News............. A2-
Weather................... A
World News....... A6-s2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved>What’s
News
Bernie Sanders’s re-
sounding victory in the Ne-
vada caucuses cast him as
the clear front-runner for
the Democratic presidential
nomination, even as some
Democrats think a more-
centrist figure might stand a
better chance against Trump
in the general election. A
Twitter has removed
some accounts supportive
of Bloomberg for possible
content manipulation. A
Senior White House offi-
cials are discussing an over-
haul of the government’s sur-
veillance program for people
in the U.S. suspected of posing
a national-security risk. A
Ten towns at or near the
center of a coronavirus out-
break in Italy were put under
quarantine, with hospitals
in Milan on high alert. A
Fear is gripping South
Korea as new cases mount,
and the country’s virus-alert
system was raised to the
highest of four levels. A
Iran’s conservatives won
a landslide in parliamentary
elections, strengthening
hard-liners opposed to di-
plomacy with the West. A
The U.N. provided evi-
dence of the Afghan war’s
massive toll on civilians
as the U.S. and Taliban
started a partial truce. A
A British court is set to
begin examining whether
to extradite Julian As-
sange to the U.S. to stand
trial on spying charges. A
Some elite U.S. univer-
sities are walking back the
practice of giving the chil-
dren of alumni preferential
treatment in admissions. AT
he economic growth-
damping effects of the
current coronavirus outbreak
threaten to ripple around a
world dependent on supply
chains that rely on China’s
factories for many interme-
diate and finished goods. A
Boeing plans more sup-
port for suppliers to its
737 MAX to prepare them for
restarting production and to
dissuade some from seeking
more business from Airbus. A
Trump is pushingAmeri-
can shale gas when he visits
India this week. So far, U.S.
gas exports have proven to
be a tough sell globally. B
Intuit is nearing a deal to
buy personal-finance portal
Credit Karma for about $
billion in cash and stock. B
Buffett sought to reassure
investors about Berkshire’s
long-term future after an
underwhelming year for the
company’s performance. B
Fidelity and its “special sit-
uations” negotiator have be-
come Argentina’s new nemesis
in the bond market as it pre-
pares to restructure debt. B
A second Vale -commis-
sioned report links con-
flicts of interest and other
problems at the company
to a deadly mine-waste-
dam collapse in 2019. B
Some of the largest
health insurers are capitaliz-
ing on recent massive deals
by steering patients toward
clinics they now own. B
The new HBO Max
streaming service will in-
clude a “Friends” special
and all of the sitcom’s epi-
sodes when it is launched in
May, WarnerMedia said. BBusiness&Finance
World-Wide