Monday, 3 June 2019

Monday Morning Briefing: Trump rocks the boat as he arrives for banquet with British queen

Trump in the UK

President Donald Trump began a state visit to Britain but the pomp and formal banquet with Queen Elizabeth looked set to be overshadowed by his views on Brexit, the UK’s next leader and a security row over China’s Huawei. Trump has praised a more radical Brexit-supporting potential successor to Prime Minister Theresa May, and his envoys have urged a tougher British stance towards Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.

Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, calling him a “stone-cold loser” after the mayor criticized the British government for inviting the U.S. president for a state visit. On Sunday, Khan said it was important to have good relations with the United States but that Britain should not be “rolling out the red carpet” for Trump. During Trump’s presidency, the alliance with Britain - famously nurtured by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s - is increasingly fraying. What is the special relationship, and how do the U.S. and UK compare on key measures?

World

China must “sincerely repent” for the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square three decades ago, Taiwan said on Monday, as a Chinese newspaper said nobody in China was interested in dragging up the past. Tuesday marks 30 years since Chinese troops opened fire to end the student-led unrest. Chinese authorities ban any public commemoration of the event on the mainland and have never released a full death toll.

At least three people were killed when Sudanese security forces stormed a protest camp in central Khartoum, a medical association affiliated to the protesters said. Talks between protesters and Sudan’s military rulers over who should govern during a transitional period following the ousting of President Omar al-Bashir earlier this year are in deadlock.

South Korean rescue divers performed test dives in the Danube river in Budapest as they prepared an attempt to reach the wreckage of a pleasure boat which had been carrying mostly South Korean tourists when it sank in an accident last week.

Germany’s troubled Social Democrats start choosing a new leader after Andrea Nahles stepped down, with a membership appalled by plummeting popularity agitating for the party to quit Chancellor Angela Merkel’s scrappy coalition. Senior figures in Germany’s SPD have proposed that three members serve as caretakers of the beleaguered party after chief Andrea resigned, sources said.

United States

States with large undocumented residents like Texas, California and New York could see a drop in federal financial aid if their populations are undercounted in the upcoming census. Critics say a citizenship question could do just that. See how changes in census data affect where federal funding goes. For more on the 2020 census.

Fighting to stave off punitive tariffs announced by Trump, a senior Mexican delegation was set to begin high level talks in Washington, where it will be pushed to do more to hold back Central American migrants. Global equities tumbled as investors feared Trump's aggressive trade diplomacy could tip the United States and other major economies into recession.

China warned students and academics about risks involved in studying in the United States, pointing to limits on the duration of visas and visa refusals, amid a bitter trade war and other tension between the two countries. The Ministry of Education, in a short statement, said that recently some students seeking to study in the United States had encountered problems with the duration of their visas being limited and an increase in visa refusals.

Huawei kicks off a trade secrets lawsuit in the United States against a former employee who has sought to turn the case into a referendum on Huawei’s corporate behavior. The trial, involving salacious allegations of corporate espionage, racketeering and a secret database of rivals’ technology, promises to keep Huawei in the spotlight amid a U.S. blacklisting and pressure on allies not to buy its networking gear over security concerns.

Business

Exclusive: U.S. set to grant tentative approval to American, Qantas venture - sources

The U.S. Transportation Department is expected to provide tentative approval to a bid by American Airlines Group and Qantas Airways to operate a joint venture, two people briefed on the matter said on Sunday.

4 min read

Google says issues affecting YouTube, Gmail, Google Cloud in U.S. resolved

Alphabet’s Google said it had resolved the network congestion in the eastern United States that affected services in Google Cloud, G Suite and YouTube. Google said it would conduct an investigation of the outage and make appropriate improvements to the company's systems to prevent or minimize future recurrence.

2 Min Read

Goldman Sachs arm to buy Capital Vision Services

Goldman Sachs said that West Street Capital Partners VII, a fund managed by the company’s merchant banking unit, will acquire Capital Vision Services, to bolster their portfolio in the healthcare services sector.

1 min read

Infineon digs deep to buy Cypress in $10 billion deal

Infineon has agreed to buy Cypress Semiconductors in a deal that values the U.S. maker of microchips used in cars and electronic devices at 9 billion euros ($10.1 billion) including debt, sending shares in the German company lower on concerns over the cost.

5 min read

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