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Coca-cola is moving to diversify with a purchase of major British coffee chain Costa for $5.1 billion, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The big picture: The purchase will "give [Coca-cola] a strong position in coffee" around the world as Costsa has about 4,000 stores across 32 countries. The deal, which is expected to be finalized in 2019, is the latest signal that soda companies are looking to branch out from sugary drinks.
A satellite image of Hurricane Zeta. Photo: National Hurricane Center/NOAA
Hurricane Zeta has killed at least one person after a downed power line electrocuted a 55-year-old in Louisiana as the storm moved into Alabama overnight.
What's happening: After "battering southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi," it began lashing Alabama late Wednesday, per the National Hurricane Center.
Catholics go through containment protocols including body-temperature measurement and hands-sanitisation before entering the Saint Christopher Parish Church, Taipei City, Taiwan, in July. Photo: Ceng Shou Yi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Taiwan on Thursday marked no locally transmitted coronavirus cases for 200 days, as the island of 23 million people's total number of infections reported stands at 550 and the COVID-19 death toll at seven.
Why it matters: Nowhere else in the world has reached such a milestone. While COVID-19 cases surge across the U.S. and Europe, Taiwan's last locally transmitted case was on April 12. Experts credit tightly regulated travel, early border closure, "rigorous contact tracing, technology-enforced quarantine and universal mask wearing," along with the island state's previous experience with the SARS virus, per Bloomberg.
Go deeper: As Taiwan's profile rises, so does risk of conflict with China
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios