BitGou: Wednesday Morning Briefing: Democratic 2020 contenders embrace marijuana legalization

TOP NEWS

When it comes to legalizing marijuana, many of the current and potential 2020 Democratic presidential contenders are eager to show they are cool with cannabis. Their embrace of the issue reflects a rapid shift in public opinion that has brought what was once an extreme political position into the mainstream. Cory Booker reintroduced his U.S. Senate bill to legalize marijuana at the federal level, Beto O’Rourke called for expunging the records of those arrested for possession of the drug and Kamala Harris admitted she had smoked pot - and inhaled.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet regrets Israel's dismissal of Gaza killings report. Independent U.N. investigators found last week that Israeli security forces may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in killing 189 Palestinians and wounding more than 6,100 at weekly protests in Gaza last year. United Nations human rights boss said that she regretted Israel’s “immediate dismissal” of the report “without addressing any of the very serious issues raised”.

Britain’s 800-year-old parliament has a big decision to make. After months of drama and delay, the elaborate and time-consuming way British lawmakers make decisions in parliament has been thrust to the fore by Brexit. So what happens behind the scenes of a parliamentary vote?

In a series of interviews for Reuters ahead of International Women's Day on March 8, mothers from the United States to Uruguay to South Africa to Singapore told of their concerns about stopping work to give birth and look after their newborns.

Social media firms and foreign investors must do more to ensure they support human rights in Myanmar, U.N. Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee said, suggesting Facebook was failing to treat parties to the country’s conflict even-handedly. Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been imprisoned in Myanmar for 450 days. Follow updates on the case.

India

High-resolution satellite images reviewed by Reuters show madrasa buildings in northeastern Pakistan still standing days after India claimed its warplanes had hit the site and killed a large number of militants, casting further doubt on statements made over the last eight days by the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Exclusive: Philip Morris paid Indian partner Godfrey Phillips manufacturing costs to make its Marlboro cigarettes, circumventing a government ban on foreign direct investment in the industry. Four former enforcement officials said the dealings should be probed.

North Korea

The Soviet Union may have collapsed, and socialism in both Vietnam and North Korea has taken on forms barely recognizable to the ideology’s first thinkers, but a secretive team of Russian technicians still keeps the aging bodies of Vietnam’s founding father and North Korea's dead leaders looking ageless.

North Korea has restored part of a rocket test site it began to dismantle after pledging to do so in a first summit with President Donald Trump last year, while Trump’s national security advisor warned that new sanctions could be introduced if Pyongyang did not scrap its nuclear weapons program.

Sustainability

The Trump administration’s plans to roll back climate change regulations could boost U.S. carbon emissions by over 200 million tonnes a year by 2025, according to a report prepared for state attorneys general. “The Trump administration’s actions amount to a virtual surrender to climate change,” said the report by the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, released at a gathering of the National Association for Attorneys General in Washington.

The European anti-trust watchdog plans to send formal complaints to BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen this spring, in which the EU regulator will make detailed allegations regarding collusion on emissions of diesel engines, Handelsblatt reported. In a so-called “Statement of Objections” the EU is expected to detail its allegations, which may result in fines for the carmakers.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will not seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. president in 2020. Rather than running, Bloomberg said he would use his massive personal fortune - estimated at more than $50 billion - to launch a new climate change push, Beyond Carbon, with the goal of moving the nation away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy sources.

Sponsored by Calvert: The Transparency Report How business leaders translate climate strategy into shareholder value. Read more

Business

Exclusive: Mexican central bank in talks with Amazon about new mobile payments

Mexico’s central bank is in talks with Amazon.com to launch a new government-backed mobile payment system that would allow consumers to pay for online purchases using QR codes, the bank’s head of payments said.

3 min read

Exclusive: Grab eyes more funding after record $4.5 billion round in Southeast Asia

Grab is considering raising more funds from strategic investors, the president of Southeast Asia’s top ride-hailing firm said, after raking in over $4.5 billion in the region’s largest private financing round that included SoftBank’s Vision Fund. The Singapore-based firm continues to see strong interest from global investors after securing nearly $1.5 billion from the Vision Fund in a year-long round, Ming Maa told Reuters.

4 Min Read

Russia's sanctioned Rusfincorp to take on Venezuela's PDVSA accounts: source

The Russian accounts of Venezuelan companies, including state oil firm PDVSA, will be moved to the Russian Financial Corporation Bank, Rusfincorp, which is sanctioned by the United States, a source told Reuters.

3 min read