Tuesday Morning Briefing: The besieged Kashmiri neighborhood of Soura is in a test of wills with India's Modi

World

Prime Minister Modi's Hindu-nationalist government says its move to tighten control over Kashmir was necessary to integrate the area fully into India. Residents of the Kashmiri neighborhood of Soura are fighting back. Security forces detained 30 people overnight in Indian Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, local officials said, seeking to keep a tight lid on protests over the federal government’s decision to strip the region of its autonomy.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said she hoped a peaceful weekend of anti-government protest was the start of an effort to restore calm and that talks with non-violent protesters would provide “a way out” for the Chinese-ruled city. Hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied peacefully in torrential rain on Sunday in the eleventh week of what have been often violent demonstrations. “I sincerely hope that this was the beginning of society returning to peace and staying away from violence,” Lam said.

An Iranian tanker at the center of an angry confrontation between Iran and Washington sailed for Greece after it was freed from detention off Gibraltar, as Washington called the release unfortunate and warned Greece and Mediterranean ports against helping the vessel. Tehran said any U.S. move to seize the vessel again would have “heavy consequences”. While Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appeared to downplay the possibility of military conflict with Washington in an interview on U.S. television, he also indicated on a visit to Finland that Washington was seeking “more escalation”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's opening Brexit bid: rip out the Irish border backstop. After more than three years of Brexit crisis, the United Kingdom is heading towards a showdown with the EU. Johnson has fired the opening salvo in his bid to renegotiate Britain’s divorce from the bloc, demanding that an insurance policy for the Irish border be removed from the Brexit deal and replaced with a pledge.

Business

Exclusive: Facebook’s messaging service WhatsApp is in talks with multiple Indonesian digital payment firms to offer their mobile transaction services, in a bid to tap the nation’s fast growing e-commerce sector, people familiar with the matter said.

Online retailer Zalando is just the kind of fast-growing German business with foreign expansion plans that Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Christian Sewing needs to help drive the struggling lender’s recovery. In an attempt to draw a line under years of scandals and heavy losses, Sewing is pulling back from investment banking and rebuilding Deutsche Bank’s corporate division by deepening existing relationships and attracting clients beyond its traditional blue-chip customers. But when Deutsche has tried to expand its business with Zalando by offering to hold more of its cash for free, rather than charging a fee, Zalando has declined.

Saudi Aramco’s biggest asset could also be a liability. The state energy giant’s vast oil reserves – it can sustain current production levels for the next 50 years – make it more exposed than any other company to a rising tide of environmental activism and shift away from fossil fuels. Aramco, for its part, argues oil and gas will remain at the heart of the energy mix for decades, saying renewables and nuclear cannot meet rising global demand. But with the company talking again to banks about an IPO, some investors and lawyers say the window to execute a sale at a juicy price is shrinking and Aramco will need to explain to prospective shareholders how it plans to profit in a lower-carbon world.

U.s.

New York officer fired, but tensions still high where Eric Garner died

Hassan Johnson was getting his head shaved at the same barber shop Eric Garner used to visit. Five years after Garner’s death in a confrontation with police in the Tompkinsville neighborhood of Staten Island, relations between law enforcement and the community have improved nominally at best, Johnson said. The case surrounding Garner’s death came to an official close, when the NYPD fired former officer Daniel Pantaleo, who had placed Garner in a fatal chokehold and escaped criminal prosecution.

4 min read

U.S. attorney general shakes up prison bureau after Epstein death

U.S. Attorney General William Barr shook up the leadership at the federal Bureau of Prisons, removing its acting chief following the suicide of financier Jeffrey Epstein in a New York City jail.

4 Min Read

California tightens restrictions on police use of lethal force

California police officers will be allowed to use lethal force only when “necessary” in response to a threat, instead of the existing standard of “reasonable”, under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

2 min read

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