Bhinneka News Online: Thursday Morning Briefing: Democrat package bombs, the hunt for suspects

Thursday 25 October 2018

Thursday Morning Briefing: Democrat package bombs, the hunt for suspects

Highlights

U.S. authorities were hunting for suspects in the sending of package bombs to high-profile Democrats in what has been called a terrorist act that has raised tensions in a nation already polarized ahead of elections in less than two weeks.

CIA director Gina Haspel heard an audio recording of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during her visit to Turkey this week, two sources told Reuters.

China’s foreign ministry has some suggestions for the Trump administration if they are worried about foreign eavesdropping on the U.S. president’s iPhone: use a Huawei handset instead.

US politics

The record numbers of women running for office in the United States this year are mostly Democrats, and their party is banking on their candidacies and a widening gender gap on key issues to achieve big wins in the Nov. 6 elections.

At a political rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday night, Trump sought to project a message of unity, pledging to find those responsible for the suspected bombs and calling on Americans to come together. Democrats were having none of it, saying the Republican president had little credibility to act as a unifying figure.

Lawyers for Donald Trump will appear in court to try and convince a judge to dismiss a lawsuit by New York’s attorney general alleging the president unlawfully used his charity to help his 2016 campaign and to benefit his businesses. Stay up to date with the latest U.S. political news.

Business

Twitter ad sales surge in third quarter, shares jump

Twitter reported a larger-than-expected decline in monthly users in the third quarter, its second straight quarterly drop, and predicted the figure will fall again in the current period.

4 min read

Tesla shares jump as Musk delivers quarterly profit, cash

Tesla reported a net profit, positive cash flow and wider-than-expected margins for the latest quarter on Wednesday, delivering on Chief Executive Elon Musk’s promise to turn the electric carmaker profitable as higher production volumes of its new Model 3 began to pay off.

6 min read

UK regulator upholds Facebook fine in Cambridge Analytica case

Britain’s information regulator upheld a small but symbolic 500,000 pound ($645,000) fine for Facebook for breaches of data protection law related to the harvesting of data by consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

1 min read

China, Japan seek warmer ties against backdrop of U.S. trade friction

Japan’s prime minister arrived in Beijing for his first formal bilateral summit with Chinese leaders in seven years as the Asian rivals seek to build on a thaw in ties against a backdrop of trade friction with the United States.

4 MIN read