Thursday 27 September 2018

Thursday Morning Briefing: Trump says he wants two-state solution for Middle East conflict

Highlights

President Donald Trump said he wanted a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the clearest expression yet of his administration’s support for such an outcome.

China demanded the United States “dispel obstacles” to improving military ties and stop slandering it, amid growing tensions over trade, Taiwan, the South China Sea and Trump’s claims of China meddling in the upcoming U.S. election.

Commentary: President Trump and Iranian President Rouhani flipped traditional scripts during their dueling addresses at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. That should trouble anyone who cares not just about the United States' global standing, but about the prospects for multilateral diplomacy to address the world's very real problems with Tehran, writes David E. Wade, who was chief of staff to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and chief of staff to the U.S. Department of State from 2013-2015.

World

Special Report: Known as the Kennedys of Jeddah for their wealth and tragedies, the Bin Ladens built Saudi’s roads, mosques and palaces. Their empire grew from humble beginnings in 1931, so what led to the family’s fall from grace? Reuters investigates the dramatic change in the fortunes of the Bin Ladens.

The real identity of one of the men wanted by Britain for the Salisbury nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter is Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga, according to media reports which said he was a decorated Russian colonel.

Monday will mark one year since a banned referendum in Catalonia on whether to separate from the rest of Spain. A year later, the organizers of an illegal referendum on independence for Catalonia are in jail or in self-imposed exile and Spain has a new prime minister. But the situation remains tense and could flare up any time.

Sponsored by IBM: Build your AI foundation. Learn how to implement the techniques and technologies associated with AI and machine learning, and unlock the massive potential of your data. Read the report.

Leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee called on the Trump administration to declare the Myanmar military’s campaign against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority a genocide, days after a State Department report stopped short of that description.

 

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two @Reuters journalists, have been imprisoned in Myanmar since Dec. 12, 2017. Follow the case: https://reut.rs/2MYbyAf

12:40 AM - Sep 27, 2018

Business

U.S. gasoline prices at seasonal four-year high ahead of midterm elections

U.S. gasoline prices are sitting at four-year seasonal highs headed into the November midterm elections, even as Trump has called repeatedly for OPEC to push prices lower.

3 min read

Comcast to stop buying Sky shares in the market

Comcast said it would stop buying Sky’s shares in the market after it secured 38 percent of the stock plus the 39 percent holding from Rupert Murdoch in the $40 billion takeover.

2 Min Read

Japan dodges U.S. auto tariffs, for now, as Trump and Abe agree on trade talks

Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to start trade talks in an arrangement that, for now, protects Japanese automakers from further tariffs, seen as a major threat to the export-dependent economy.

5 min read

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