BitGou: Wednesday Morning Briefing: Sanders just beats Buttigieg in New Hampshire Democratic primary, Biden in fifth

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Bernie Sanders narrowly won New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary, solidifying his front-runner status in the race to take on Donald Trump and dealing a setback to moderate rival Joe Biden, who finished a disappointing fifth. Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who edged out Sanders in last week’s messy Iowa caucuses, came in a close second after splitting much of the centrist vote with Senator Amy Klobuchar.

China reported its smallest number of new coronavirus cases since January, lending weight to a prediction by its top medical adviser for the outbreak to end by April, but a global diseases expert warned of the spread elsewhere. Financial markets took heart from the outlook of the Chinese official, epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan, who said the number of new cases was falling in some provinces, and forecast the epidemic would peak this month.

Nissan said it filed a civil lawsuit in Japan against former Chairman Carlos Ghosn seeking $91 million in damages over his alleged financial misconduct. Ghosn had been facing criminal charges in Japan for understating his annual salary and misusing company funds, until he fled to Lebanon in December. He denies any wrongdoing.

The Kremlin accused Turkey of flouting agreements it had made with Russia to neutralize militants in the Syrian province of Idlib and said militant attacks on Syrian and Russian forces in the region were continuing. The Kremlin made its comments after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country’s military would strike Russian-backed Syrian forces by air or ground anywhere in Syria if another Turkish soldier was hurt as the Assad government tried to regain control of Idlib province.

Google will seek to overturn the first of three hefty European Union antitrust fines at Europe’s second-highest court in a landmark case that could determine how EU enforcers take on U.S. tech giants for abuse of market power. The company will lay out its arguments against a $2.6 billion fine handed out by the European Commission during a three-day hearing at the General Court.

World

Australia’s deadly wildfires have opened up a small window of opportunity for the country to break a decade-long impasse on climate policy, as some politicians and big business push for major change. Independent politician Zali Steggall this week unveiled proposed legislation to target zero carbon emissions by 2050, aiming to take advantage of a subtle shift in rhetoric from the conservative Liberal-led coalition government.

Pope Francis, in one of the most significant decisions of his papacy, dismissed a proposal to allow some married men to be ordained in the Amazon region to ease an acute scarcity of priests. The recommendation, put forward by Latin American bishops last year, had alarmed conservatives in the deeply polarised 1.3 billion-member Roman Catholic Church, who feared it could lead to a change in the centuries-old commitment to celibacy among priests.

The Philippine military stood by the president’s decision to scrap a security agreement with the United States, saying the country could now develop its own defense capabilities and alliances, and would do fine without it. The military chief backed President Rodrigo Duterte’s termination of the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement and said doing so would allow the Philippines to expand its modernization program and its engagement with Australia and Japan - both U.S. allies.

Fuel shortages have left motorists in Sudan skipping work to queue for petrol and forced the transitional government to introduce a rationing system as it tries to manage acute economic pressures. Some people have been spending entire days in queues that stretch for several miles since the fuel crisis began late last week. Coming on top of bread shortages it has piled more pressure on a government struggling to deliver improvements after the overthrow of former President Omar al-Bashir last April.

Business

Exclusive: Thyssenkrupp-Kone merger would trigger litigation war - Schindler

Swiss elevator maker Schindler would embark on an all-out antitrust offensive in the courts to stall any deal to combine Thyssenkrupp’s lift division with rival Kone, board member Alfred Schindler told Reuters.

4 min read

Lyft forecasts slower growth in 2020, leaves target profit date unchanged

Lyft forecast slower revenue growth in the new year and the company refused to match larger rival Uber, which recently moved up a key profit target by a year, sticking to its later date of projected profitability.

5 min read

U.S. stores, online sales boost Ahold's quarterly profit

Food retailer Ahold Delhaize met forecasts with a 3% rise in fourth-quarter core earnings helped by its Food Lion and Hannaford U.S. grocery chains and strong online sales.

3 min read