Wednesday, 2 May 2018

Wednesday Morning Briefing: Mueller raises possibility of issuing Trump subpoena

Highlights

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump’s lawyers in March, raised the possibility of issuing a subpoena for Trump if he declines to talk to investigators in the Russia probe, a former lawyer for the president said.

Texas and six other Republican-governed states sued the Trump administration to try to end a program launched by Democratic former President Barack Obama that protects immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.

Commentary: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered no substantive evidence at Monday's news conference that Iran has violated the multinational nuclear agreement, but it could give Donald Trump more impetus to withdraw from the deal, writes former nuclear negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian. "Implicit in Trump’s approach is that he can bully and pressure Iran into meeting his demands. However, the track record of U.S.-Iran relations since the 1979 Iranian revolution leaves little room to believe that Iran concedes to pressure."

World

Armenian protesters blocked roads in and around the capital, responding to a call from opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan for a campaign of civil disobedience to force the ruling elite to relinquish its grip on power.

A judge in Myanmar declared that a witness who said two Reuters reporters accused of possessing state secrets were framed by police was credible, dealing a blow to the prosecution in what has become a landmark press freedom case. Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been imprisoned for 142 days.

China’s foreign ministry reiterated that all sides should continue to uphold the Iran nuclear agreement, and that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said many times Iran is in compliance with the deal.

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The Wider Image: Pictures show journalists killed in the second of two explosions that rocked Kabul during the morning rush hour. They were taken by Reuters photographer Omar Sobhani, 10 or 15 seconds after a suicide bomber, apparently targeting members of the media, detonated his explosives.

 

Bugs bite (1) -- WHO says unprecedented #dengue outbreak hits La Reunion https://reut.rs/2Fy8g36

6:39 AM - MAY 2, 2018

Tech

Facebook to play cupid in online dating debut

Facebook is entering the dating game, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said, planning a dating service to matchmake millions of people on the world’s largest online social network and nudge them into spending more time there.

6 Min Read

How Samsung fell behind Sony and LG in the premium TV market

Samsung is now the only major TV manufacturer not to produce OLED screens. And while the TV business generates less than 3 percent of Samsung’s profit, which largely comes from its semiconductor and mobile phones businesses, the loss of the leadership of the premium, higher-margin market is a hard blow.

8 min read

Apple surprises with solid iPhone sales, announces $100 billion buyback

Apple reported resilient iPhone sales in the face of waning global demand and promised $100 billion in additional stock buybacks, reassuring investors that its decade-old smartphone invention had life in it yet.

7 min read

Cyberwarfare, populism top 'black swan' events at Milken conference

Cyberwarfare and populism are some of the top risks that could threaten global stability and financial markets in the years ahead, investors and policymakers warned at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference this week, as they characterized them as black swan events.

4 min read

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