BitGou: Tuesday Morning Briefing: U.S. Congress on verge of rejecting border emergency

Top News

Congress was on the verge of issuing a rebuke to U.S. president over his declaration of an emergency at the border with Mexico, with a top Republican predicting the Senate would approve a resolution to reject it. Already approved by the House of Representatives, the resolution to terminate the declaration has sufficient support in the Senate to be passed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

President Donald Trump looked set to open a new front in his trade wars with a plan to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States. Trump, who has vowed to cut U.S. trade deficits, has repeatedly called out India for its high tariffs, and U.S. trade officials said scrapping the concessions would take at least 60 days after notifications to Congress and the Indian government.

Attorney General William Barr will not recuse himself from overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible links between U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign and Moscow, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

China

China sought to shore up its slowing economy through billions of dollars in planned tax cuts and infrastructure spending, with economic growth at its weakest in almost 30 years due to softer domestic demand and a trade war with the United States. Sources told Reuters earlier this year that China would cut its 2019 growth target to 6.0 to 6.5 percent from the 2018 target of around 6.5 percent as both global and domestic demand ebbed and the U.S. trade war heightened economic risks.

Beijing-based conglomerate Tidal Star Group is among a rising number of Chinese firms working for, or taking inspiration from, the country’s ruling Communist Party to develop high-tech propaganda tools aimed at spreading the party’s message among a tech-savvy younger generation.

China accused detained Canadian citizen Michael Kovrig of stealing state secrets passed on to him from another detained Canadian, businessman Michael Spavor, in a move likely to increase tension between Ottawa and Beijing. This comes as China stepped up pressure on the U.S. and Canadian governments in a dispute over trade and telecoms technology that has ensnared Huawei’s CFO, who faces U.S. criminal charges.

World

In a serious blow to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a second member of his Cabinet resigned. Treasury Board President Jane Philpott expressed unhappiness about the government’s response to allegations that officials inappropriately pressured former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould last year to help major construction company SNC-Lavalin Group avoid a corruption trial. Trudeau told a Liberal Party rally in Toronto that he was disappointed but understood why she had left.

An HIV-positive man in Britain has become the second known adult worldwide to be cleared of the AIDS virus after he received a bone marrow transplant from an HIV resistant donor, his doctors said. “There is no virus there that we can measure. We can’t detect anything,” said Ravindra Gupta, a professor and HIV biologist who co-led a team of doctors treating the man.

“Game over” read one poster. “System - go away”, said another. Thousands of Algerians took part in renewed protests in the capital and other cities, calling on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down and rejecting his offer to not serve a full term after elections in April.

Chile is the world’s second largest producer of lithium, and with the global race to secure the white metal heating up in 2016, President Michelle Bachelet wanted to be sure her country seized the moment. Tapping the country's state-run miner Codelco to ramp up production seemed a sure bet. But as the world’s largest copper miner, Codelco officials told Reuters they felt they had to choose between the two metals. Any enthusiasm for former President Bachelet’s lithium drive fizzled once the center-right government of Sebastian Pinera took over from Bachelet last year, according to the Codelco officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

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