Friday Morning Briefing: From skateboards to spying, Assange arrest followed drawn-out dispute with Ecuador

Highlights

Ecuador’s decision to abruptly end Julian Assange’s seven-year asylum in its London embassy on Thursday followed a long deterioration in relations, driven in part by suspicions he was secretly fueling corruption allegations against President Lenin Moreno. From skateboards to spying, take a look back at his time behind the embassy's walls.

Greg Craig, who served as former President Barack Obama’s top White House lawyer, has been charged with lying about work he performed in 2012 for Ukraine. Craig, 74, faces up to 10 years in prison for charges of making false statements and violating a lobbying law in a case that grew out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Markets

Uber has 91 million users, but growth is slowing and it may never make a profit, the ride-hailing company said in its IPO filing. The document gave the first comprehensive financial picture of the decade-old company and contains data that will be key to selling itself to investors. The share sale follows a public offering by rival ride-sharing service Lyft last month, see how the two compare here.

Chevron said on Friday it would buy smaller rival Anadarko Petroleum for $33 billion in cash and stock to strengthen its presence in the Permian basin and beef up its LNG business. The offer of $65 per share represents a 39 percent premium to Anadarko’s Thursday close. Anadarko’s shares soared 33 percent in light premarket trading and the enterprise value of the deal is $50 billion.

Walt Disney shares rose 3.2 percent in premarket trading after the company launched an online streaming service. The ad-free monthly subscription called Disney+ is set to launch on Nov. 12 and in every major global market over time. “What we are putting forward is an aggressive strategy,” Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger told analysts. “We’ve got to be very serious and all in on it.”

World

Sudan’s ruling military council has promised that the country would have a new civilian government, a day after the armed forces overthrew President Omar al-Bashir after 30 years in power. “We are the protectors of the demands of the people,” the head of the military council’s political committee, General Omar Zain al-Abideen, said. Demonstrators who have been holding almost daily anti-Bashir protests have rejected the decision to set up a transitional military council and vowed to continue protests until a civilian government is established.

In one of the biggest leadership shake-ups in years, North Korea named a new nominal head of state and a new premier, and gave leader Kim Jong Un a new title, state media reported, moves analysts said solidify Kim’s grip on power. For the first time, state media referred to Kim as “supreme representative of all the Korean people.”

'Beam me up': Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo is using holograms to woo rural voters ahead of Wednesday's presidential election. Wearing his signature casual white shirt, jeans and sneakers, a holographic Widodo promotes his plan to tackle Indonesia’s education and employment issues, in hopes of appealing to rural and young voters. Ninik, a young voter said she enjoyed the experience. “It feels like Jokowi is here with us.”

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5:05 AM - 12 Apr 2019

Business

The Great Space Wait: How Virgin Galactic kept ticket holders’ interest and money

Virgin Galactic’s goal to fly tourists into space as early as this summer is about 12 years later than initially promised. But many of its customers aren’t sweating it. Since its early days, Virgin Galactic specifically set out to win customer loyalty, knowing its attempt to become the world’s first commercial spaceline would likely see its share of setbacks.

Exclusive: Toyota sees new business opportunity in leveraging hybrid tech

The head of Toyota’s electric vehicle (EV) business told Reuters the automaker has received enquiries from more than 50 companies since announcing last week that it would offer free access to patents for EV motors and power control units.

5 min read

Nepal bans online game PUBG citing negative impact on children

Nepal banned the popular online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), saying its violent content had a negative impact on children, an official said. “We have ordered the ban on PUBG because it is addictive to children and teenagers,” Sandip Adhikari, deputy director at Nepal Telecommunications Authority, the nation’s telecoms regulator, told Reuters.

2 min read

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