Thursday Morning Briefing: Beto O’Rourke has joined the 2020 presidential race

Highlights

Beto O’Rourke has joined the 2020 presidential race. O’Rourke, who gained a national following with his long-shot election battle against U.S. Senator Ted Cruz last year, joins a sprawling field of Democrats vying for the chance to run against President Donald Trump. “This moment of peril produces, perhaps, the greatest moment of promise for this country,” he said, announcing his candidacy in an online video.

Two black boxes from the Boeing 737 MAX airplane that crashed in Ethiopia have arrived in Paris for expert analysis, officials said, as regulators around the world awaited word on whether it was safe to resume flying the jets. Yesterday, the United States became the latest to join the long list of countries around the globe to ground Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft.

Britain’s parliament is due to vote today on whether to delay Brexit beyond March 29th. Prime Minister Theresa May is preparing to push lawmakers to vote again on her EU divorce deal, which they have twice rejected. Key to May’s plan will be an attempt to persuade the most pro-Brexit lawmakers to reverse their opposition to her deal in the face of a possibly long delay that could mean Britain ends up with a closer relationship with the EU than May’s plan foresees or that Brexit is overturned in a second referendum.

Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, the reported crime boss of the New York Mafia’s Gambino family, was gunned down in front of his Staten Island home late Wednesday, police and media said. The Gambino crime operation is one of the five historic Italian-American Mafia families in New York, and it makes money through violence and extortion. Media reported that Cali was shot at least six or seven times and also run over by a blue pickup truck driven by the shooter.

Chinese trade

China’s customs authority has lifted their suspension on imports of Tesla’s Model 3, after the U.S. electric car maker made the necessary rectifications. China’s General Administration of Customs stopped clearing Tesla Model 3 imports last week, saying that they did not have the required Chinese language warning signs and had missing or incorrect nameplate labels.

Despite failing to sell a mountain of soybeans in the last harvest due to the U.S.-China trade war, U.S. farmers are gearing up to plant what could be their third-largest soybean crop ever. Chinese tariffs have almost halted the trade, taking the biggest buyer out of the market and leaving farmers with crops they cannot sell. According to estimates, approximately $8 billion worth of last year’s soybean harvest will sit in storage silos around the country when the next harvest starts. As winter ends farmers say there are simply no better options but to begin planting again.

Growth in China’s industrial output fell to a 17-year low in the first two months of the year and the jobless rate rose, pointing to further weakness in the world’s second-biggest economy. Capital Economics and others noted that infrastructure investment has not improved as much as hoped after the government began fast-tracking road and rail projects last year, and data last week showed exports tumbled the most in three years in February. This suggests U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and cooling global demand were taking a toll.

Reuters Top News  @Reuters

Two @Reuters journalists have been imprisoned in Myanmar for 458 days. See full coverage: https://reut.rs/2TFfrlh

6:45 AM - 14 Mar 2019

Technology

Facebook struggles into day two of global outage

Facebook Inc struggled to restore its services fully on Thursday after a 17-hour partial outage made the world’s largest social network inaccessible to users across the globe, driving a wave of online complaints. A Facebook spokesman, asked by Reuters for more details, would only repeat the company’s initial statement on the outage on Wednesday, saying that it was working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

3 min read

Japan's Netflix contender bets on youth-driven viral hits

Eschewing the pricy serials and star-studded films that have helped companies like Netflix upend the traditional TV business in the U.S., AbemaTV is betting on low-budget, reality-based fare with colorful graphics, relatable young faces and a relentless focus on generating social media buzz. The approach has pulled in millions of young viewers, convincing some advertisers and industry analysts that AbemaTV has found a lucrative new model.

5 Min Read

Top gamer 'Ninja' made $1 million to promote EA's 'Apex Legends' launch: source

What are a few hours playing videogames and a handful of tweets worth? $1 million if you are Tyler Blevins, known to millions as “Ninja,” the world’s most-followed computer gamer. Blevins was one of a few select professionals pulled in by videogame giant Electronic Arts Inc to play and promote its latest title, “Apex Legends,” in the first hours of the launch last month, generating a buzz that notched 10 million signups in the first three days.

4 min read

Top Stories on Reuters TV

Vietnamese woman will stand trial in Kim murder

world   1:25

New fines for insulting Russian state online

world   1:18
 

Minibox 3 Column Blogger Template by James William at 2600 Degrees