A Houthi militant reacts as he sits on a tank after the death of Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

 

United States

 

The U.S. Supreme Court handed a victory to President Donald Trump by allowing his latest travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries to go into full effect even as legal challenges continue in lower courts. 

 

Reuters TV: Supreme Court allows Trump’s travel ban. 

 

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has asked Deutsche Bank to share data on accounts held by Trump and his family, a person close to the matter said on Tuesday. Germany’s largest bank received a subpoena from Mueller several weeks ago to provide information on certain money and credit transactions, the person added, confirming a report by German daily Handelsblatt. 

 

Trump shrank two wilderness national monuments in Utah by at least half in the biggest rollback of public land protection in U.S. history, drawing praise from pro-development lawmakers and a lawsuit from environmentalists. 

 

Trump endorsed Senate candidate Roy Moore on Monday, throwing his weight behind the embattled Alabama Republican before a special election next week that has been rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore. 

 

Trump said he wants Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah to run for re-election next year, putting Trump on a collision course with Republican rival Mitt Romney, who wants to run for Hatch’s seat. 

 

America’s worst traffic jam this fall occurred on the Ohio River, where a line of about 50 miles of boats hauling grains and other products turned into a waterborne parking lot, as ship captains waited for the river to reopen. 

 

Business

 

European markets started firmly, as a hit to the pound from stalled Brexit talks lifted London’s FTSE and economic data pointed to the euro zone finishing the year strongly. 

   

Chipmaker Broadcom made its first formal move toward a hostile bid to take over Qualcomm, laying out a slate of 11 nominees it wants to put on the board of the U.S. semiconductor firm. 

   

Ford will launch 50 new vehicles in China by 2025, including 15 electrified vehicles, the U.S. firm said at an event in Shanghai, as it looks to rev up sales growth in the market and shift towards cleaner electric cars. 

 

Breakingviews: Jack Ma enlarges his Chinese payment peloton.

  

In Wu Qiong’s small cafe in downtown Shanghai, coffee beans nestle in glass jars on the bar while various brews bubble away behind the counter. The cafe - one of thousands of trendy, artisan coffee shops in the city - reflects a growing cafe culture in China that’s driving growth for chains like Starbucks and attracting more competition. 

   

Oil steadied above $62 a barrel as expectations of a drop in U.S. crude inventories and prolonged supply curbs by OPEC and other producers countered rising output in the United States. 

 

A supporter of Salvador Nasralla, presidential candidate for the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, puts a balloon on the shield of a soldier in a protest while the country is still mired in chaos over a contested presidential election in Tegucigalpa, Honduras December 3, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

        

Social media

    

YouTube said it plans to add more people next year to identify inappropriate content as the company responds to criticism over extremist, violent and disturbing videos and comments. 

    

Top executives at Apple and Facebook managed to find something to praise Beijing for at an internet conference in China this week, even as its Communist Party rulers ban Western social media and stamp on online dissent. 

 

World

   

Saudi Arabia has expressed hope the United States would not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and warned such a decision would have serious implications, state news agency SPA reported. 

  

The son of Yemen’s ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh has called for revenge against the armed Houthi movement that killed the veteran leader after he switched sides in the civil war, Saudi-owned al-Ekbariya TV reported. 

   

Myanmar told the United Nations that it was finalizing terms for a joint working group with Bangladesh that will launch the process of safe and voluntary return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees within about two months. 

   

Same-sex couples will be allowed to get married in Austria from 2019, the country’s supreme court ruled, saying a current law to the contrary violated the principle of non-discrimination. 

   

Germans see Trump as a bigger challenge for German foreign policy than authoritarian leaders in North Korea, Russia or Turkey, according to a survey by the Koerber Foundation. 

     

South Korea and the United States launched large-scale joint aerial drills, officials said, a week after North Korea said it had tested its most advanced missile as part of a weapons programme that has raised global tensions. 

    

Special reports

    

An investigation of mortgage fraud in China finds the deception is widespread: Unqualified borrowers are using fake documents to secure mortgages, while loans deceptively obtained for other purposes are being funneled into property. 

    

Commentary

    
Donald Trump may be denying it, but there seems no doubt that Rex Tillerson days as secretary of state are numbered, writes State Department veteran Peter Van Buren. The question now is whether any replacement can succeed where Tillerson failed. Hawkish CIA director Mike Pompeo, Trump's apparent favorite for the position, "brings specific issues with him" and the mood at State is currently "reminiscent of a rescue dog kennel," says Van Buren. "At the end of the day, the mismatch is not really about who is secretary of state, but who is president."