News Headlines - 06 July 2020

▽Mother of late ‘Terrace House’ star claims staff incited conflict : The Asahi Shimbun

The mother of a young reality TV star who committed suicide following intense cyberbullying is claiming that production staff provoked her daughter into getting physical with her co-stars.
“I want people to know the truth and restore Hana’s honor,” said Kyoko Kimura, 43, in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun on July 4.
She said her daughter, Hana Kimura, who was a 22-year-old professional wrestler, confided to her that while filming the reality TV show "Terrace House" the staff told her to slap a co-star in the face.

▽Heavy rain emergency warning for 3 Kyushu prefs. | NHK WORLD

Japan's Meteorological Agency has issued a heavy rain emergency warning for parts of Fukuoka, Saga, and Nagasaki prefectures in the country's southwestern region of Kyushu. The warning is the highest level on the agency's scale.
The prefectures are experiencing rainfall that hasn't been seen in several decades.
Officials say that serious damage from flooding and landslides is likely.

▽Seven year coronavirus trail from mine deaths to a Wuhan lab | The Sunday Times

n the monsoon season of August 2012 a small team of scientists travelled to southwest China to investigate a new and mysteriously lethal illness. After driving through terraced tea plantations, they reached their destination: an abandoned copper mine where - in white hazmat suits and respirator masks - they ventured into the darkness.
Instantly, they were struck by the stench. Overhead, bats roosted. Underfoot, rats and shrews scurried through thick layers of their droppings. It was a breeding ground for mutated micro-organisms and pathogens deadly to human beings. There was a reason to take extra care. Weeks earlier, six men who had entered the mine had been struck down by an illness that caused an uncontrollable pneumonia. Three of them died.

▽Amazon tribe releases hostages after body of leader returned

Amazonian tribe members in Ecuador released six people they had kidnapped to demand the release of the body of a leader killed by the coronavirus, the government said on Saturday.
Two police officers, two soldiers and two civilians were taken captive by the indigenous people on Thursday in the village of Kumay near the Peruvian border.
Their tribal leader who died from Covid-19 was buried according to health guidelines but the body was later exhumed and returned to the people.

▽Uber confirms it is acquiring Postmates in an all-stock, $2.65B deal | TechCrunch

Uber today announced that it has acquired Postmates in a $2.65 billion, all-stock deal. It plans to run the business alongside its own food delivery business, Uber Eats, keeping the Postmates app running while merging some of the tech and delivery operations at the back end - for example, by having drivers delivering orders for both businesses.
The deal confirms reports that emerged last week, and got re-reported last night with more financial detail, that Postmates and Uber were in negotiations. That deal itself sprung up in the wake of Uber failing to acquire another competitor, Grubhub, which was instead acquired by Europe’s takeout behemoth Just Eat Takeaway for $7.3 billion.