Bhinneka News Online: Tuesday Morning Briefing: Trump goes head to head with Congress in big speech

Tuesday, 4 February 2020

Top Stories

With the impeachment drive against him ebbing, U.S. President Donald Trump will face his Democratic accusers on Tuesday night at a State of the Union speech where he is expected to push his case for another four years in office. Trump, a Republican, may be tempted to lash out at the Democratic critics seated before him in the U.S. House of Representatives, seeing it as a chance for payback against those who sought to oust him through what he calls a “witch hunt.”

Chinese policymakers are readying measures to support an economy jolted by a coronavirus outbreak that is expected to have a devastating impact on first-quarter growth. The government is debating whether to lower the planned 2020 economic growth target of around 6 percent, which many private sector economists see as well beyond China’s reach.

The Democratic Party’s effort to choose an election challenger to Republican U.S. President Donald Trump got off to a chaotic start in Iowa, with officials blaming “inconsistencies” for an indefinite delay in the state’s caucus results. Hours after voters made their choices at 1,600 schools and other public locations, Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price told reporters to expect results sometime on Tuesday in the state, the first to hold a nominating contest.

Two people working for a charity have been sentenced to jail on charges of spying for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency , Iran’s judiciary spokesman said. “Two ... CIA spies who were working under the cover of an organization and charitable foundation have been identified, tried and sentenced to ten years in prison for spying and five years in prison for acting against national security,” Iran’s judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said.

A viral claim by a conservative activist group that voter registration numbers in Iowa are suspiciously large ahead of the first U.S. presidential nominating contest is false, a senior state government official said. Iowa’s Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, said the claim by Washington D.C.-based group Judicial Watch that total registration numbers for caucuses in eight Iowa counties were larger than the eligible voter population had been disproven by official data.

World

Australia suspended parliament to honor the victims of a national bushfire crisis that has killed 33 people, as more than 100 fires remained ablaze across the country’s east coast. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has received public criticism for his handling of the crisis, led a tribute as legislators returned to parliament for the first time after the long summer break.

A South African court issued an arrest warrant for former president Jacob Zuma, after he skipped court on grounds of needing medical treatment, but the judge stayed the warrant until his corruption trial resumes on May 6. Zuma’s lawyer presented the judge with a sick note from what he said was a military hospital, but the judge questioned whether the note was valid or even written by a doctor.

Online games and short video apps have been among the few beneficiaries of China’s virus outbreak, raking in millions of views and downloads as people stuck in self-quarantine at home seek entertainment and ways to beguile their time. The shift has even drawn companies more used to doing business in showrooms, such as carmakers Tesla and Mercedes-Benz, to promote products heavily online during the week.

The brother of the bomber who carried out a suicide attack on an Ariana Grande concert in the English city of Manchester three years ago was just as guilty of murdering the 22 victims as his sibling, prosecutors told London’s Old Bailey court. Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old Briton born to Libyan parents, blew himself up at Manchester Arena at the close of a show by the Grammy-winning U.S. pop singer.

Business

BP boosts dividend as profit tops forecast and CEO bows out

BP raised its dividend and said it had completed a $1.5 billion share buyback program in a sign of confidence in its growing oil and gas business on the last day in office for Chief Executive Bob Dudley.

5 min read

Electric future: Britain to ban new petrol and hybrid cars from 2035

Britain will ban the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars from 2035, five years earlier than planned, in an attempt to reduce air pollution that could herald the end of over a century of reliance on the internal combustion engine.

6 min read

China's airlines told not to axe global flights as thousands cut

China’s civil aviation authority has urged domestic carriers to continue flying international routes as they consider cuts in response to a drop in demand due to the coronavirus outbreak, state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

3 min read

Wizz Air's top shareholder cuts stake to comply with ownership rules

Wizz Air’s largest shareholder, U.S.-based private equity firm Indigo Partners, carried out a long-time plan to cut its stake in the company as the Budapest-based low-cost airline works to comply with European Union ownership rules.

3 min read