Bhinneka News Online: Tuesday Morning Briefing: Comcast's Sky bid spoils the Disney-Fox party

Tuesday 27 February 2018

Tuesday Morning Briefing: Comcast's Sky bid spoils the Disney-Fox party

Highlights

Comcast boss Brian Roberts is driving a Sky-shaped wedge between Walt Disney and Twenty-First Century Fox. The U.S. cable group’s $31 billion offer for the UK pay-TV group leaves Fox chair Rupert Murdoch with two unappealing options: enter a bidding war for Sky, or re-think his deal to sell Fox’s entertainment assets to Disney chief Bob Iger.

A coalition of 20 U.S. states sued the federal government yesterday over Obamacare, claiming the law was no longer constitutional after the repeal last year of its requirement that people have health insurance or pay a fine.

The U.S. Supreme Court on wades into a major privacy rights fight between Microsoft and the Justice Department today, weighing whether U.S. law allows prosecutors to compel technology companies to hand over data stored overseas.

The Florida teenager accused of carrying out the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in U.S. history will appear in court today as a long-simmering national debate rages on between proponents of gun rights and advocates of firearms controls.

world

The world’s chemical weapons watchdog is investigating recent attacks in the besieged, rebel-held Syrian region of eastern Ghouta to determine whether banned munitions such as chlorine bombs were used, sources told Reuters.

The United States threatened unilateral action against Iran yesterday after Russia vetoed a western bid for the United Nations Security Council to call out Tehran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of Yemen’s Houthi group.

Beijing, a major hub for artificial intelligence and semiconductors in China, is touting a new list of incentives to try and bait foreign talent for its equivalent of Silicon Valley in the Chinese capital.

Bernadette Baum

@bernadettebaum

U.S. to overtake Russia as top oil producer by 2019 at latest: IEA http://reut.rs/2GQ35N3

11:53 AM - FEB 27, 2018

Business

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Commentary: Science fiction no more, can lab-grown meat feed — and save — the world?

We now have the capacity to grow real meat outside of animals' bodies, writes Paul Shapiro, author of a book on how this development could revolutionize the world. Lab-grown "clean meat," made from actual animal muscle tissue, will save the resources needed to raise farm animals - and is starting to get serious attention from agribusiness giants and traditional food processors.

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Exclusive: Secretive U.S. security panel discussing Broadcom's Qualcomm bid - sources

A national security panel that can stop mergers that could harm U.S. security has begun looking at Singapore-based chipmaker Broadcom’s plan to take over rival Qualcomm, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

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German court rules in favor of city bans on diesel cars

A top German court ruled today in favor of allowing major cities to ban heavily polluting diesel cars, a move likely to hit the value of 12 million vehicles in Europe’s largest car market and force carmakers to pay for costly modifications.

2 min read