Six In The Morning Monday 9 March 2020

Global stocks plunge as oil crashes and coronavirus fear spreads

By Laura He, Clare Duffy and Julia Horowitz, CNN Business

Updated 0851 GMT (1651 HKT) March 9, 2020

Global markets are plunging after the implosion of an alliance between OPEC and Russia caused the worst one-day crash in crude prices in nearly 30 years, fueling panic triggered by the escalation of the coronavirus epidemic.

S&P 500 (SPX) futures plunged as much as 5% Sunday evening, triggering a limit that prevents futures from trading below that mark. Dow (INDU) futures are down more than 1,200 points, or about 4.9%. Nasdaq Composite (COMP) futures were down 4.8%.

The sell-off carried over into Asia Pacific, where Australia's S&P/ASX 200 ended 7.3% lower on Monday, the index's biggest plunge since October 2008. Japan's Nikkei 225 (N225) sank 5.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng (HSI) lost 4.2%, while China's Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) shed 3%.

BBC

Live Reporting

By Robert Greenall and Sophie Williams

Olympic torch lighting ceremony to be staged without spectators

The lighting ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics torch-lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia, Greece, will be staged without spectators, the Olympic Committee confirmed on Monday.

The ceremony will take place on 12 March, before a seven-day relay that will culminate with a handover ceremony.

Last week, Japan's Olympic minister said the Tokyo 2020 Games could be postponed from the summer until later in the year amid fears over the coronavirus outbreak.

The Games are due to be held from 24 July to 9 August.

Iran coronavirus death toll rises to 237

The death toll from coronavirus infections in Iran has risen to 237, a spokesman for the country's health ministry said.

As of 9 March, there have been 7,161 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country. 2,394 patients have recovered so far.

More on the Italy prison riot

Earlier on we mentioned a riot in Modena prison where six people died. Here's some more information on the incident.

The riot started on Sunday when sixty inmates set the prison on fire in an attempt to escape, according to Corriere de Bologna. They had been told that relatives and friends were banned from visiting due to the lockdown.

Law enforcement officers managed to stop 500 prisoners from escaping.

However, some were able to raid the infirmary for methadone and other drugs, a source told the Corriere Della Sera.

Authorities are investigating the incident.

Hong Kong police seize homemade bombs and arrest 17

Raids were in connection with campaign calling for border closures over coronavirus

Helen Davidson in Hong Kong

 @heldavidson

 Email

Mon 9 Mar 2020 08.04 GMT

Hong Kong authorities say they have seized “significant quantities of homemade explosives” and arrested more than a dozen people in raids across the city.

Separately, police were accused of overzealous responses at two protests on Sunday, arresting people and pepper-spraying journalists.

The pre-dawn raids on Sunday were in connection with an alleged campaign to get the government to close its borders with China to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Hong Kong police said.

Trump spreads fake video of Joe Biden

Twitter flags edited clip under new policy while Facebook criticised for failing to alert users to fact video is manipulated

Andrew Naughtie @andrewnaughtie

Donald Trump has been criticised for retweeting a doctored video of Joe Biden supposedly endorsing his re-election – spurring Twitter to use its “manipulated media” warning tag for a video for the first time.

In the clip, originally shared by White House social media director Dan Scavino, Mr Biden first stumbles over his words and then says “we can only re-elect Donald Trump”.

However, in the full clip, the context of Mr Biden’s remarks is clear. Exhorting his audience to ignore attacks from Bernie Sanders and get behind him, he says: “We can only re-elect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here.”

Germany open to resettling children from Greek refugee camps

Germany's government is seeking a "coalition of the willing" to take in the children across Europe. The EU wants to avoid a repeat the 2015 refugee crisis as thousands of refugees and migrants gather at Greece's border.

Germany is prepared to take in "an appropriate share" of the neediest refugee children housed in overcrowded Greek migrant camps, German officials said on Monday.

The country is set take children in as part of "a coalition of the willing" to be made up of other EU countries.

The announcement from the German government came after its Chancellor, Angela Merkel, met with members of her coalition government to discuss the humanitarian crisis on Greece's borders and in its migrants camps. Migrants and refugees have been amassing along the Greece-Turkey border ever since Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said its borders were open to refugees seeking to cross into Greece.

Mexican women launch general strike to protest the high rate of femicide

 

An average of 10 women are victims of femicide every day in Mexico. Thousands have mobilised to take a stand against femicide in a country where they say women’s rights are being ignored, with a nationwide strike planned for Monday. FRANCE 24 reports.

Two recent killings in particular shocked the nation: Ingrid Escamilla was stabbed and skinned by her boyfriend back in February, the images of her corpse widely circulated by the media. Just days later, 7-year-old Fatima also became a symbol of femicide after her body was found mutilated.