Friday, 18 October 2019

Friday Morning Briefing: Cartel gunmen terrorize Mexican city and free El Chapo's son

Top Stories

Heavily armed fighters surrounded security forces in a Mexican city and made them free one of drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s sons, after his capture triggered gunbattles and a prison break that sent civilians scurrying for cover. The reaction to Guzman’s capture was on a scale rarely seen during Mexico’s long drug war, even after his more famous father’s arrests. The chaos was continuing as night fell.

A top White House aide’s suggestion that President Donald Trump wanted a political favor from Ukraine in exchange for military aid upended the administration’s impeachment strategy and left Republican allies flummoxed and frustrated. The House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry into whether Trump abused the power of his office to push the Ukrainian president to order a probe into a political rival has heard from a series of administration insiders over the past two weeks.

Shelling could be heard at the Syrian-Turkish border on Friday morning despite a five-day ceasefire agreed between Turkey and the United States, and Washington said the deal covered only a small part of the territory Ankara aims to seize. The truce, announced on Thursday by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence after talks in Ankara with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, sets out a five-day pause to let the Kurdish-led SDF militia withdraw from an area controlled by Turkish forces.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators waving pro-independence flags and chanting “freedom for political prisoners” joined marches across Catalonia on Friday, the fifth day of protests against the jailing of nine separatist leaders over a failed bid to break away from Spain in 2017.

When Japan’s youngest prince, Hisahito, visited Bhutan in August on his first overseas trip just months after his uncle Naruhito became emperor, his trip was regarded as the debut of a future monarch on the world stage. Japan only allows males to ascend the ancient Chrysanthemum Throne and changes to the succession law are anathema to conservatives backing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Hisahito, 13, the lone royal male in his generation, is second in line to the throne after his father Crown Prince Akishino, 53, the emperor’s younger brother.

Brexit

Britain’s exit from the European Union hung on a knife-edge as Prime Minister Boris Johnson scrambled to persuade doubters to rally behind his last-minute European Union divorce deal. In an extraordinary Saturday sitting, the first since 1982, parliament will vote on approving Johnson’s deal. Britain is due to leave the EU on Oct. 31.

The British pound retreated on Friday morning, as relief that a Brexit deal had been agreed was replaced by doubts the proposed deal will get through the British parliament in Saturday’s vote. In Europe, the bloc's leaders will discuss a new budget plan that could allow it to spend up to $1.2 trillion in the 2021-2027 period, but deep divisions among governments could block a deal for months.

Wider Images

Ebola survivors battle grief and stigma in eastern Congo. Arlette Kavugho was discharged from an Ebola ward in eastern Congo in March, but her troubles did not end there. When the mother of six tried to return to work as a seamstress in her hometown of Butembo, her customers were too scared of catching the disease, despite doctors' assurances that she was no longer contagious.

Bolivia's Aymara torn over their man Evo as he clings to power. The nation's leader Evo Morales, often known simply as "Evo", has helped lift many out of poverty since he came to office, and even changed the country's name to the Plurinational State of Bolivia to honor its diverse ethnic groups long treated as second-class citizens. But the left-leaning former coca farmer has faced a rising tide of dissatisfaction, even among the indigenous groups he has most visibly supported, as he bids for an unprecedented and contentious fourth term in elections on Sunday.

Business

Tesla's Nuerburgring run revs up debate over speed records

Porsche and Tesla are battling to establish supremacy in lap times for four-door electric sportscars, but comparisons are not exact, as conditions, ranging from car modifications to tire types, vary with each test. So Tesla’s attempts to humble Porsche with a new lap record on Germany’s legendary Nordschleife racetrack have reignited a controversy about the value of lap times, as the circuit steps in to quash claims of cheating.

4 min read

Exclusive: Lampert helps bankroll Sears as woes persist after bankruptcy

U.S. retailer Sears has borrowed about $150 million from lenders, including its billionaire owner Eddie Lampert, as it racks up losses less than a year after it emerged from bankruptcy protection, sources said.

5 Min Read

Trading tires: How the West fuels a waste crisis in Asia

When night falls in the Indian village of Nabipur, the backyard furnaces come to life, burning waste tires from the West, making the air thick with acrid smoke and the soil black with soot. Global trade in waste tires has almost doubled in the past five years, mainly to developing countries like India and Malaysia, according to customs data provided to the United Nations. Britain is currently the largest exporter, followed by Italy and the United States.

9 min read

Tankers defer retrofits to cash in on record freight rates

Tankers that had been scheduled to install emissions-cutting equipment ahead of stricter pollution standards starting in 2020 have deferred their visits to the dry docks to capitalize on an unexpected surge in freight rates, three trade sources said.

3 min read

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