| Syria Russia suggested it would publicly stand by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad despite outrage over a chemical weapons attack that choked scores of people to death in a rebel-held northern Syrian town. This sets U.S. President Donald Trump up with the same dilemma as his predecessor: openly challenge Moscow and risk deep involvement in a Middle East war by seeking to punish Assad, or compromise and accept the Syrian leader remaining in power at the risk of looking weak.
Washington North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast, ahead of a summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping who are set to discuss Pyongyang's increasingly defiant arms program. President Trump signed an executive order last week rolling back former president Obama’s Clean Power Plan to end the ‘war on coal.’ But Reuters surveyed 32 utilities with operations in the 26 states that sued to block the Clean Power Plan. The bulk of them have no plans to alter their multi-billion dollar, years-long shift away from coal. The window is closing for Republicans to use an obscure U.S. law known as the Congressional Review Act (CRA) which has allowed President Trump to aggressively roll back Obama-era regulations. If confirmed as expected this week by the Senate, President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch would join his new fellow justices in time to act on divisive cases concerning religion, guns and big business, underscoring his importance as the fifth conservative on a nine-justice court.
Iraq An Islamic State attack in Tikrit, Iraq left 31 people dead, including 14 police officers, and more than 40 wounded, security and medical sources said. Islamic State used a Mosul museum housing priceless Mesopotamian artifacts as a tax department.
A man carries his pet cat as he walk under the cherry blossoms at Tongji University in Shanghai, China April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song
EU European Union lawmakers rejected attempts by British MEPs to recognize Gibraltar's pro-EU stance in the Brexit referendum. The rocky British enclave on the southern Spain coast caused a harsh controversy after EU summits' chair Donald Tusk drafted guidelines gave Madrid a say in the future relationship between Gibraltar and the EU after Britain leaves the bloc. The European Commission is weighing stricter rules on the use of cash to cut terrorists' funding, but Germany's economy minister defended the use of notes and coins, which Germans are said to covet (they carry an average of 103 euros on their person according to Germany’s central bank).
Business ChemChina won EU antitrust approval on Wednesday for its $43 billion bid for Swiss pesticides and seeds group Syngenta, a crucial deal that could help China boost its domestic agricultural output. An internal probe at Wells Fargo found that employees pushed small firms toward more expensive contracts as part of aggressive sales tactics, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. This raises questions about the scope of the sales scandal that hit the lender's retail banking business last year and cost Chief Executive John Stumpf his job. Credit Suisse Securities, a unit of Credit Suisse AG, and a former investment adviser have agreed to pay about $8 million in fines to settle charges relating to improper investments, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said. | 
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