BRIEF – ME! – DAILY NEWS BRIEFING
In today’s briefing update, The headlines are – 44 more coronavirus cases on the moored Japanese cruise ship have been confirmed.
Scores of businessmen in India have been lured into a ‘honeytrap’ on the popular dating site Grindr. Criminals targetted wealthy men to extort cash, jewellery and laptops.
France, the wine industry has been told to brace itself for a tough year ahead following US tariffs.
UK, the cost of repairing Big Ben’s Elizabeth Tower has risen by £18.6m bringing the total to £79.9m. The rise in cost is due to the discovery of bomb damage and asbestos.
Entertainment, Rose McGowan has called out Natalie Portman’s Oscars dress – labels actress a ‘fraud’.
All this and more in today’s news briefing – A daily roundup of all the news headlines that you need to know, summarised as part of WTX News Briefing.
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44 more novel coronavirus cases on Japan ship: health minister
Arab News reports another 44 people onboard a cruise ship moored off Japan’s coast have tested positive for the 
coronavirus, the country’s health minister said.
Katsunobu Kato said the 44 new cases were from another 221 new tests. They raise the number of infections detected on the Diamond Princess to 218.
Kato said authorities now want to move elderly people off the ship if they test negative for the virus, offering to put them in government-designated lodging.
“We wish to start the operation from tomorrow or later,” Kato told reporters.
Read the full story on Arab News
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Scores of corporate executives, CEOs caught up in ‘honey trap’ blackmail operation on a gay dating app
RT News says at least 50 Indian business executives based in New Dehli were tricked into an elaborate extortion set-up, ‘honey trapped’ on LGBT dating app Grindr and then blackmailed with their own intimate, and often embarrassing, 
photos.
The gang of extortionists targetted wealthy people across India to get cash, laptops, watches from them. Some 150 people fell victim to the enterprise, not all of them businessmen.
“Around 50 executives of top multinational companies in Delhi-NCR have been duped and robbed,” said Gurugram police commissioner said, noting that the victims, “fearing social stigma” were not prepared to take legal action.
Read the full story on RT News
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French wine industry braces for a tough year as US tariffs bite
France24 says French wine exports to the United States plunged by almost a fifth in the last quarter of 2019 as punitive tariffs kicked in, the FEVS industry body has said as they warned of a “challenging year” ahead. 
There was an overall 5.9 per cent rise in wine and spirits exports last year – some 14 billion euros in total. But the federations was downbeat as it pointed to uncertainties in its three main markets – the US, China and Britain.
Even the global increase, it said, was partly motivated by fear as buyers placed “anticipation” orders “in an international context of strong trade tensions and uncertainty.”
The French Association of Wines and Spirits Exporters once again called for the government to set up a 300 million euro emergency compensation fund.
Read the full story on France24
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Cost of repairing Big Ben’s tower rises by £18.6m
BBC News says the cost of repairing the Elizabeth Tower, which houses the famous Big Ben bell, has risen by £18.6m following the discovery of bomb damage and asbestos. 
The need for more money was only discovered during a survey of the 177-year-old structure in central London. The House of Commons Commission said it was “extremely disappointed” that the cost had risen to £79.9m.
The restoration of the tower – which began in 2017 and will continue until next year – “had been more complex than we could have anticipated,” said the director-general of the House of Commons.
Read the full story on BBC News
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Rose McGowan tells of her disgust at ‘fraud’ Natalie Portman’s Oscars dress
Sky News says Rose McGowan has called Natalie Portman a “fraud” and wrote of her “disgust” at the star’s oscar dress, which featured the names of female directors who did not get nominated. 
McGowan, a leading figure in the #MeToo and Times Up movements, said Portman was “an actress acting the part of someone who cares” and that her type of activism was “deeply offensive to those of us who actually do the work.”
In a Facebook post, she wrote of her “disgust”, adding: “Natalie, you have worked with two female directors in your very long career – one of them was you.”
Read the full story on Sky News
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