Bedugul Coffee: Thursday Morning Briefing: Big donors battle for Democrats' future in Florida

Highlights

“Who are we?” said Andrew Gillum, the son of a bus driver who became the mayor of Florida’s capital, in an interview. Key Democratic megadonors and liberal leaders have backed the 39-year-old Gillum over a crowded field of viable candidates, convinced his voice represents the party’s future in America’s largest swing state in presidential elections.

Chris Collins, a Republican U.S. congressman from New York who was one of Trump’s earliest supporters, was criminally charged with taking part in an insider trading scheme involving an Australian biotechnology company on whose board he served.

Commentary: Under President Xi Jinping, China has evolved into a country that is "simultaneously more self-confident yet paranoid, and no longer nearly so bothered what the rest of the world thinks," writes Reuters global affairs columnist Peter Apps. If anything, "domestic problems and international criticism only seem to intensify China’s conviction – and enthusiasm – for pushing ahead with its plans to reshape the world."

Russia

Russia condemned a new round of U.S. sanctions as draconian after news of the measures sent the rouble tumbling to two-year lows and sparked a wider asset sell-off over fears that Moscow was locked in a spiral of never-ending sanctions.

Wider Image: Their slogan is Orthodoxy or Death. They are convinced Russia should be ruled by an autocratic monarch. They believe the coming of a new tsar may be imminent. The Union of Orthodox Banner Bearers is a small fringe group of Russian nationalists with no political power that stages processions, rallies and even burns books to promote their views.

World

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told North Korea’s foreign minister that the United States cannot be trusted, Tehran’s state media said, as the United States seeks a deal to rein in the North’s nuclear and missile programs.

Saudi-led coalition air strikes killed dozens of people, including children traveling on a bus, in Yemen’s Saada province, Yemeni medical sources and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

The number of confirmed deaths from a strong earthquake that hit the Indonesian island of Lombok on Sunday has risen to 259 and will continue to rise as more victims are found in the rubble, the disaster mitigation agency said.