September 24th – The BESA Times
Fifty-fifth Edition - Monday, 24th Every week, a complete snapshot of what happened around the world in the past seven days
Uber is looking towards the British startup - Deliveroo to expand its presence in the food delivery market in Europe. Uber started UberEats in 2014 and since then the service just like the former has grown at a very significant rate of 200% per year, and is on track to reporting $6bn of revenues this year. The linking of the companies could allow the two to compete harder with justeat, which holds most of the UK market. The deal’s specifics are still unknown but executives at Deliveroo claimed the value of the company to be above $4bn, double its value last year. UberEats generates income from three sources, a delivery fee paid by the customer, a commission from the restaurant, and a portion of the driver’s fare. Purchase of Deliveroo would buy Uber an additional 44,000 users in Britain to 50,000 existing users.
This Saturday, 29 people were killed and 60 were wounded in an attack on a military parade in southwestern Iran. Among the wounded and dead were Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps soldiers and civilian onlookers. The attackers were said to be members of Alahvaziyeh group, a pan-Arab separatist group seeking independence from Iran who are funded and supported by Saudi Arabia, and the US according to Iran. Iran’s Supreme leader Khamenei, has said that "This crime is a continuation of the plots of the regional states that are puppets of the United States, and their goal is to create insecurity in our dear country.” An Iranian reporter has further stated that the group has been operating for the past several years, and “they are looking to cut off and separate Iran's energy-rich province of Khuzestan from Iran, which is exactly what Saddam Hussein wanted to do,"
South Korean President Moon Jae-in was in North Korea to remark what was a historical trip. During the meeting, Kim Jong Un, made pledges to curb his nuclear weapons, he further allow outside inspections on key missile facilities, and expressed a willingness, for the first time, to “permanently” scrap North Korea’s main nuclear complex, Yongbyon. The North has decided to permanently abolish the complex only if the US takes corresponding actions, which includes a declaration of an official end to the 1950-53 Korean War. Experts however point that they would do little damage to the country’s large nuclear and missile capabilities. It also doesn’t point to what will become of the existing stock pile. Kim Dae-young, a military analyst at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy in Seoul, said “How far the North would go to disclose its facilities would be key,” said Kim Dae-young, a military analyst at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy in Seoul. The US meanwhile is demanding concreteness before agreeing to start conversations.
What to remember from last week’s news?
Facebook’s War Room
At Facebook’s Headquarters in Menlo Park California a 25-foot-by-35-foot conference is being constructed. On one wall half a dozen televisions showing CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and other networks will be put. This war room will house about 20 top employees focused on rooting out disinformation, monitoring false news and deleting fake accounts that may be trying to influence voters before elections in the US, Brazil and the others. With the midterm elections just seven weeks away Facebook is concentrating on convincing the world that it is ready to handle any new attempts. Samidh Chakrabarti will lead this team and he’s been at Facebook for four years coming from Google.
Did you know:
The Vatican and China said this Saturday that they have signed a “provisional agreement” over the appointment of bishops, a breakthrough on an issue that has created tensions and aggravated a split among Chinese Catholics. The development comes nearly seven decades after the Holy See and Beijing severed official relations. With the status of the seven bishops now reconciled, the Vatican said all bishops in China re now in communion with Rome. This action was taken partly to reunite the split between the Chinese official church and those in the underground church that has remained loyal to the pope.
What to expect from the coming week:
On November 6th Trump’s remaining presidency will be determined and some fear seems to be appearing. Voters will be choosing 35 senators, 36 state governors and all 435 members of the Hourse of Representatives as well as dozens of local legislative officials. Midterm elections tend to act as a referendum on the president and that’s usually not good for the party governing the White House, of the 21 midterm elections since 1934 only 3 times have made gains in the House and five times in the Senate. Already being at historical lows of 40%, Trump’s approval rating is at strong risk in the coming weeks. This election is very important because if the Democrats were to take back control of the White House, they could strongly limit what Trump can do in his final 2 years.
WRITTEN BY RUGGERO CALAMAI PLEASE DIRECT ANY INQUIRY TO AS.BESA@UNIBOCCONI.ITTHANKS FOR READING THE BESA TIMES, FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK TO RECEIVE IT NEXT WEEK!
