Plus, Trump now wants Epstein files released.

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Daily Briefing

Daily Briefing

By Anisha De

Hello. A Bangladeshi war crimes court sentences former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death for a lethal crackdown on student protests and Trump urges Republicans to vote for releasing the Epstein files.

Elsewhere, EVs are booming in South America - while Tesla loses out.

Plus, Japanese firms are warming up to dyed hair and nail art in a tussle for workers. 

 

Today's Top News

 

Sheikh Hasina in Bangkok, Thailand, April 26, 2024. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File Photo

Asia

  • A Bangladesh war crimes court sentenced ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death, concluding a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.
  • More than 200,000 protesters turned out for the second day of an anti-graft rally in the Philippines, demanding accountability over accusations of corruption in flood-mitigation projects.
  • Taiwan will begin distributing millions of civil defense handbooks to households across the island this week, in an unprecedented effort to prepare residents for potential emergencies, including the possibility of a Chinese attack.

Around the world

  • US President Donald Trump urged his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reversing his earlier resistance to such a move.
  • A visit by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House for talks with Trump aims to deepen decades-old cooperation on oil and security while broadening ties in commerce, technology and potentially even nuclear energy.
  • Britain will update its approach to human rights laws to make it easier to deport migrants who arrive in the country illegally as part of the most sweeping asylum policy overhaul in modern times. Alistair Smout tells the Reuters World News podcast the Labour Party has a difficult needle to thread among its left-leaning base.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had signed a deal with France to obtain 100 Rafale warplanes as he seeks to bolster the country's long-term military capacity to fight Russia's invasion.
  • The German government will lift an order suspending some weapons sales to Israel from next week, following the ceasefire agreement reached last month, a government spokesperson said.
  • Chilean far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast is favored to clinch a runoff victory next month despite lagging slightly behind governing coalition candidate Jeannette Jara in the country's first-round presidential vote.
 

Business & Markets

 

A factory is reflected in a traffic mirror at the Keihin industrial zone in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, November 30, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo

  • Japan's economy shrank almost 2% in the three months through September, as a drop in exports in the face of US tariffs resulted in the first contraction in six quarters, government data showed. Elsewhere, the euro zone economy is set to grow faster than earlier expected in 2025, the European Commission said.
  • Samsung Electronics this month raised prices of certain memory chips - now in short supply due to the global race to build AI data centers - by as much as 60% compared to September, two people with knowledge of the hikes said.
  • New Zealand’s highest court sided with a lower court’s ruling that drivers of Uber who brought a case against the rideshare company should be treated as employees, a decision that could pave the way for collective bargaining.
  • Google-parent Alphabet's shares rose in premarket trading after Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a stake in the tech giant, marking what could be one of the final major moves by the conglomerate under the leadership of Warren Buffett.
  • Airbus looks set to beat Boeing to the lion's share of a major jet order from flydubai at the Dubai Airshow, breaking its rival's grip on the fast-growing budget carrier for the first time, people familiar with the matter said.
  • Retail investors are showing signs of waning confidence in the US stock market's ability to rebound, with market data and analysts' observations both indicating an ebb in their enthusiasm about buying dips. For more on markets, watch our daily rundown.
  • Euro zone officials have embarked on a two-year process to replace most of the European Central Bank's executive board, including President Christine Lagarde, raising questions along the way about how well the institution represents the people it serves.
 

Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America — without Tesla

 

Chinese electric vehicles are parked at the Chancay megaport in Peru November 13, 2025. REUTERS/Gerardo Marin/File Photo

When Peruvian green energy entrepreneur Luis Zwiebach wanted to buy an electric vehicle in 2019, he flew 4,000 miles to California to test drive Tesla’s Model 3 sedan.

But Tesla lacked an official importer and he couldn’t find a way around Peru’s complex vehicle import procedures. Charging the Tesla also initially proved difficult at his friend’s beach house outside Lima. 

Today, it’s not so hard to take the plunge on an EV in Peru. Tesla still lacks a showroom but there’s been an influx of Chinese models from the likes of BYD, Geely and GWM, which sell electric vehicles here at around 60% of the price of a Tesla, as well as legacy manufacturers such as Toyota , Kia and Hyundai.

Read our story
 

And Finally...

Hinako Mori works arr