Thursday Morning Briefing: Governments ramp up preparations for coronavirus pandemic

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Governments ramped up measures on Thursday to battle a looming global pandemic of the coronavirus as the number of infections outside China, the source of the outbreak, for the first time surpassed those appearing inside the country. South Korea reported 505 new coronavirus cases and postponed military drills with the U.S. military and the U.N. has asked the global community to fight virus-spawned discrimination. President Donald Trump told Americans on Wednesday that the risk from coronavirus remained “very low,” and placed Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the U.S. response to the looming global health crisis.

Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish military said on Thursday they had recaptured the strategic town of Saraqeb in what would be the first major reverse for the Syrian army in a Russian-backed offensive that had made swift gains.

Malaysia’s parliament will vote on a new candidate for prime minister on Monday and if nobody can win majority support there will be a snap election, interim prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Thursday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed for peace in Delhi after days of Hindu-Muslim clashes over a disputed new citizenship law sparked some of the worst sectarian violence seen in the capital in decades. But the sight of a mob screaming pro-Hindu slogans suddenly turning on an unarmed individual, apparently because he was a Muslim, was a sign that growing tensions between members of India’s two dominant religions may be hard to contain.

Environment

Britain’s plan to expand Heathrow Airport has been rejected by an appeal court judge on climate change grounds, meaning that the government will have to go back to the drawing board and amend the policy. The government could now either rework the policy or choose to scrap the project.

Carbon emissions throughout the full value chain of IKEA furniture fell for the first time last year, brand owner Inter IKEA said on Thursday citing increased use of renewable energy. IKEA is aiming for its value chain to be climate positive - where it cuts more greenhouse gas emissions than it emits - by 2030.

The top shareholder of carmaker Aston Martin is on a mission to turn investments from theme parks to high-end furniture brands “carbon positive” by the end of 2020, as buyout funds battle to woo investors increasingly focused on tackling global warming. Investindustrial committed to a series of ambitious environmental, social and corporate goals when raising its seventh $4.08 billion fund last year.

Rising sea levels put Myanmar's villages on the frontline of climate change. Ta Dar U is among hundreds of villages where extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels have amplified and accelerated natural erosion and forced people away from the fertile fields they have cultivated for decades..

Business

Virus-hit stocks shed $3 trillion; safe havens thrive

Stocks resumed their plunge, wiping out more than $3 trillion in value this week alone, and U.S. Treasuries yields hit record lows on Thursday as the coronavirus spread faster outside China and investors fled to safe havens.

4 min read

Coronavirus clouds Apple's timeline for new iPhones

Travel restrictions to China because of the coronavirus have come just as Apple’s engineers usually jet off to Asia to perfect the production of this fall’s new iPhones, former employees and supply chain experts told Reuters.

5 min read

Oil prices fall for fifth day to lowest in a year

Oil prices fell 2% on Thursday, plunging for a fifth day to their lowest since January 2019 as a rise in new coronavirus cases outside China fueled fears of a pandemic that could slow the global economy and dent demand for crude.

3 min read

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