The Globalist Weekly: 10th February 2020
A concise weekly digest of the top readings, content, ideas and discussions from our global bureaux and correspondents at ComplexGlobal
This week we discuss the continuing Coronavirus outbreak in China and how it affects places like Macau, Trump’s State of the Union, Floods in New Zealand, a terror attack in Maldives and elections in India.
In China: The coronavirus outbreak has killed more than 600 people and infected over 28,000 — the vast majority in China. Close to 60 million people remain under lockdown in China, with three cities reporting more than 1,000 confirmed cases each.
Outside mainland China: The virus has spread to over 25 countries and territories, infected more than 250 and killed two people. Thousands of people are being quarantined on two cruise ships, docked in Japan and Hong Kong, after former passengers were confirmed to have the virus. Babies infected: Two newborn babies in Wuhan have been infected, according to China’s state broadcaster. The youngest was diagnosed at 30 hours old.
Trump makes dazzling, divisive reelection pitch
In the most politicized State of the Union address in modern times, the President took the choreography of an annual America ritual to new levels on Tuesday night at a fraught moment in the nation’s history.And he spelled out a daunting warning to a band of Democrats who couldn’t even cobble together a winner in the Iowa caucuses on Monday that he’s an effective, relentless political communicator who will stop at nothing to win.In two stunning moments that book-ended the evening, Trump, as he began his speech, turned his back on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s outstretched hand in a snub that encapsulated their boiling bad blood.
Coronavirus turned Macao casinos into a ghost town
There isn’t a single face exposed in the cavernous Galaxy casino. Everyone is wearing a mask, including the croupiers, waitresses and security guards — who happen to vastly outnumber the scattered customers gambling at blackjack and roulette tables. Visitors only momentarily drop their masks at the entrances to the casino, to pose for thermal cameras on the lookout for the deadly Wuhan coronavirus that has killed hundreds of people in mainland China and infected thousands more. The outbreak has left the free-wheeling, semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Macao shell-shocked.
‘Feed them bullets not biryani’: Delhi elections
Standing before a political rally in Delhi, Yogi Adityanath, the firebrand Hindu nationalist chief minister of Uttar Pradesh known for preaching hate and violence against India’s Muslims, did not mince his words. The thousands of women who have been gathered for two months in the Delhi suburb of Shaheen Bagh in protest against India’s new citizenship law were “terrorists”, he said.“The protests happening at various places in Delhi are not because of the Citizenship Amendment Act,” said Adityanath, to roars from the orange-clad crowd gathered before him on Sunday. “They are happening because these people want to prevent India from becoming a global power. ”Terrorists, he added, should be fed with “bullets not biryani”.
Australian man stabbed in Maldives in terror attack
An Australian man is in hospital after being stabbed by suspected extremists in the Maldives. The three suspects were on Thursday arrested by police on the island of Hulhumale in the south of the Indian Ocean archipelago nation. The arrests come after the 44-year-old Australian man, along with two Chinese nationals, were stabbed in Hulhumale on Tuesday night.The three victims were injured, but remain in a stable condition. “The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is seeking to contact an Australian man hospitalised in the Maldives. Owing to our privacy obligations we will not provide further comment,” a DFAT spokesperson said.A local radical group affiliated with Islamic State published a video on social media claiming responsibility for the attack.
New Zealand floods: first ever red weather warning
Part of New Zealand’s South Island has become cut off after days of torrential rains washed away roads, forced the evacuation of 2,000 people and saw the country’s MetService issue its first ever red weather warning. The flooding across the flat agricultural plains of Southland, in the island’s southernmost end, came a day after hikers and tourists were evacuated from another part of the region, Fiordland, where more than a metre of rain had fallen in less than three days. Lewis Ferris at New Zealand’s MetService said the storms had generated its first red warning, a new alert the agency created in May last year. “The difference between the orange and red warnings is the impact on people,” he said. “We saw a road washed out, we saw people isolated. There was a real risk to communities given the impact on the roading network.”
Originally published at https://www.complexglobal.co
