Bhinneka News Online: Tuesday Morning Briefing: After a Four Seasons breakfast, Harvey Weinstein sent to dank New York jail

Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Top Stories

Harvey Weinstein’s day began with expensive coffee and Acqua Panna mineral water at a breakfast meeting with his lawyers in a Four Seasons hotel near Manhattan’s criminal courts. It was due to end at New York’s violence-plagued Rikers Island jail complex, where the former Hollywood film producer was ordered to await sentencing after a jury found him guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another.

South Korea aims to test more than 200,000 members of a church at the center of a surge in coronavirus cases, as countries stepped up efforts to stop a pandemic of the virus that emerged in China and is now spreading in Europe and the Middle East. More than 80,000 people have been infected in China since the outbreak began, apparently in an illegal wildlife market in the central city of Wuhan late last year.

U.S. President Donald Trump said that India will buy $3 billion worth of military equipment, including attack helicopters, as the two countries deepen defense and commercial ties in an attempt to balance the weight of China in the region. India and the United States were also making progress on a big trade deal. Negotiators from the two sides have wrangled for months to narrow differences on farm goods, medical devices, digital trade and new tariffs.

Global stock markets stabilised after a wave of early selling petered out and Wall Street futures managed a solid bounce after the previous day’s sharp selloff on fears about the spreading coronavirus. European shares recorded their worst one-day loss since June 2016 on Monday as worries about the spread of the new virus far beyond China whacked global markets and risk sentiment.

Egypt’s ousted former President Hosni Mubarak has died at the age of 91, state television said on Tuesday, weeks after undergoing surgery. Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years until he was ousted following mass protests against his rule in 2011. He was jailed for years after the uprising, but was freed in 2017 after being acquitted of most charges.

World

German prosecutors urged carnival organizers to review their security arrangements on Tuesday after a local man plowed his car into a parade in the western German town of Volksmarsen, injuring more than 50 people, including 18 children. The incident on Monday shook Germans still struggling to take in last week’s racist gun attack on two bars in the town of Hanau which left 11 people dead.

A ceasefire brokered by Egypt and the United Nations took hold on the Israel-Gaza border after two days of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. Islamic Jihad had fired 80 rockets towards Israeli communities along the Gaza border since Sunday, an Israeli military spokeswoman said, while Israel attacked sites in Gaza and Syria that killed three members of the militant group.

Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish military seized the town of Nairab in northwest Syria’s Idlib, Turkish and rebel officials said, the first area to be taken back from Syrian government forces advancing in the province. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, supported by Russian air power, are trying to retake the last large rebel-held region in Syria after nine years of war. Nearly a million Syrians have been displaced by the latest fighting.

At least seven people were killed and around 150 were injured in clashes between opposing groups in the Indian capital, a police official told Reuters, the deadliest riots in the city since protests against a new citizenship law began over two months ago. “Seven persons, including one head constable of Delhi police, have died,” said Anil Mittal, a police officer.

Business

Amazon expands physical footprint with bigger cashier-less grocery shop

Amazon.com is bringing its cashier-less store technology to a larger stage. The world’s biggest online retailer is set to open ‘Amazon Go Grocery,’ a store in Seattle’s Capitol Hill with four times the shopping space as the first cashier-less location it opened to the public in January 2018.

3 min read

Exclusive: Japan to further ease rules on foreign ownership of stocks

Japan will add exemptions to new foreign investment restrictions for companies exposed to sensitive national security issues, government sources said, in a move aimed at keeping overseas capital in the country.

3 min read

Deere taps tractor-hailing tech in bid to break ground in Africa

It’s ride-hailing, farm style. Deere & Co. is teaming up with the “Uber of tractors” in Africa and betting on a future where farmers summon machines with the touch of a button.

6 min read