News Headlines - 22 January 2020
▽France will delay digital tax on technology giants after talks with US | Euronews
France will delay its digital tax in a move that could avoid a trade war with the US.
Bruno Le Maire, France's finance minister, said that he and his American counterpart had reached an agreement that would allow them to "progress towards a solution".
The tax would have hit US technology giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon that make at least €750 million globally and €25 million in France. It would have seen a 3% duty imposed on their French turnover.
▽Architect of C.I.A. Interrogation Program Testifies at Guantánamo Bay - The New York Times
On the witness stand was James E. Mitchell, a psychologist and architect of the Bush-era interrogation program that had inflicted torture on prisoners held in secret C.I.A. prisons after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Defiantly, he described how the program came about and why in his view it was necessary, growing emotional only when recounting how he came to the conclusion that it was his patriotic duty to personally implement the techniques he had devised.
▽Coronavirus: WHO steps back from declaring public health emergency | The Guardian
The World Health Organization has stepped back from declaring the growing viral pneumonia outbreak in China to be a public health emergency of international concern, saying its expert committee would meet again on Thursday to discuss more evidence from its teams on the ground.
More than 80,000 Canadians have signed a petition demanding that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pay for their own security as the cost of Megxit continued to spiral.
The breakaway couple and eight-month-old baby Archie are currently being shielded by a six man team of British bodyguards and Canadian Mounties.
▽Australian Open: Ball girl peeling banana blown out of proportion, says Elliot Benchetrit - CNN
Now Benchetrit has offered his account of events, and insists he's amazed at the furore.
'At 6-5 in the final set, during the changeover, I asked the ball girl to peel the banana for me as I had put some cream on my hands in order not to sweat," he said.
"She had done it once before at the beginning of the match. But the second time the chair umpire stepped in and told me that the ball girl was not my slave and I had to peel the banana myself.
"I could not believe that the umpire said that and I find incredible how this situation got out of control on social media without people knowing what really happened on court."
