BitGou: Friday Morning Briefing: Egypt kills hundreds of suspected militants in disputed gun battles

Top News

“Prompt justice”: Following the assassination Egypt’s chief prosecutor, Hisham Barakat a close ally of Egypt’s President Sisi, by Islamist militants in 2015, a sweeping anti-terrorism law was passed that shielded the police and military from prosecution if they use proportionate force. But human rights groups say it was the start of a brutal crackdown, Reuters investigates.

Minutes after take-off, the pilots of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX were caught in a bad situation. Sources who reviewed the crash data said the problems started barely 12 seconds after take-off. A key sensor had been wrecked, possibly by a bird strike. As soon as they retracted the landing gear, flaps and slats, it began to feed faulty data into the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, designed to prevent stalls. Ethiopian authorities said that the pilots followed all the correct procedures in trying to keep MCAS from sending the plane into a fatal dive. But the full picture of what happened in the cockpit of Flight 302 on March 10 is emerging from a preliminary report and a newly released data plot showing how crew and technology interacted. Here is a look at what we know about Boeing 737 MAX crashes and what comes next.

Saudi Arabia has arrested at least eight people, including two dual U.S.-Saudi citizens, in an apparent crackdown on supporters of women activists whose trial has drawn condemnation from abroad, an associate and a rights group said. The eleven women on trial had campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system. Their case has intensified Western criticism of Saudi Arabia’s rights record, already in the spotlight after last year’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.

With more followers on Instagram than France's Emmanuel Macron, Germany's Angela Merkel, Britain's Theresa May and Italy's Giuseppe Conte combined - Ukrainian comedian, TV host and actor, Volodymyr Zelenskiy is shunning traditional presidential campaign tactics. He relies heavily on social media and comedy gigs where he pokes fun at rivals and presents himself as an everyman who stands up to corrupt elites — a man to whom Ukrainians can relate. Aides say he is sticking to an unorthodox campaign routine that has torn up the play book as he prepares for a runoff against President Petro Poroshenko on April 21.

British Prime Minister Theresa May wrote to European Council President Donald Tusk asking for a delay of Brexit until up to June 30, but said she aims to get Britain out of the EU earlier to avoid it participating in European elections. An EU official signaled that Donald Tusk, the chairman of EU leaders, could be willing to offer even longer: up to a year for Britain’s feuding politicians to agree and ratify a plan. France, however, indicated it was not yet ready to accept an extension unless the British presented a clear plan which would justify such a delay.

United States

The U.S. government granted waivers to just 6 percent of visa applicants subject to its travel ban on a handful of countries during the first 11 months of the ban, new data reviewed by Reuters shows. Trump administration officials have pointed to the waiver process embedded in the travel ban as proof it was not motivated by animus toward Muslims, as critics have charged, but rather serves to protect the United States.

Motel 6 agreed to pay $12 million to settle a lawsuit in which Washington state’s attorney general said the chain routinely provided guest lists to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who announced the settlement on Thursday, said the money will go to roughly 80,000 people who stayed at seven of the chain’s Washington locations from 2015 and 2017.

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who is Donald Trump’s pick for a position on the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting panel, runs a political fundraising group that has spent more than half its money supporting Trump’s reelection. Trump, who described Cain as “a friend” on Thursday, said he plans to nominate the former head of Godfather’s Pizza to one of two vacancies on the Fed’s seven-member Board of Governors.

Business

Exclusive: Saudi Arabia threatens to ditch dollar oil trades and sell its oil in other currencies if Washington passes a bill exposing OPEC members to U.S. antitrust lawsuits, three sources familiar with Saudi energy policy said. They said the option had been discussed internally by senior Saudi energy officials in recent months. The chances of the U.S. bill known as NOPEC coming into force are slim and Saudi Arabia would be unlikely to follow through, but the fact Riyadh is considering such a drastic step is a sign of the kingdom’s annoyance about potential U.S. legal challenges to OPEC.

China’s lengthy approval process for genetically modified crops remains a sticking point in talks to end the trade war between China and the United States, according to two sources with knowledge of the talks. The issue is one of a host of U.S. complaints that the administration of President Donald Trump is demanding China address if it wants to end trade disputes that have cost both countries billions of dollars and slowed the global economy.

U.S. employment growth likely rebounded from a 17-month low in March as milder weather boosted activity in sectors like construction, which could further allay fears of a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the first quarter. “A number that is close to consensus and with an upward revision to February will give you some degree of comfort that while the economy is slowing, it isn’t declining rapidly,” said Dan North, chief economist at Euler Hermes North America in Baltimore.

Tech

Jeff Bezos keeps Amazon voting power in divorce settlement

Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos will retain voting control of his entire $143 billion stake in the company under a divorce settlement with his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, who will own 25 percent of those shares, removing uncertainty over control of the online retailer. United States securities regulators shot down attempts by Amazon.com to stop its investors from considering two shareholder proposals about the company’s controversial sale of a facial recognition service, a sign of growing scrutiny of the technology.

3 min read

Australia, New Zealand join Pacific central bankers to focus on climate change

Central banks of South Pacific islands, joined by those of Australia and New Zealand, will focus on the impact of climate change on their financial systems and ways to respond, they said in a statement

2 min read

Google to pull plug on AI ethics council

Alphabet’s Google said on Thursday it was dissolving a council it had formed a week earlier to consider ethical issues around artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. The council had run into controversy over two of its members, according to online news portal Vox, which first reported the dissolution of the council.

2 Min Read

Elon Musk safe for now as U.S. judge urges Tesla CEO, SEC to end tweet dispute

Elon Musk’s job as Tesla’s chief executive appeared safe on Thursday as a federal judge in Manhattan urged the billionaire to settle contempt allegations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over his use of Twitter. “Take a deep breath, put your reasonableness pants on, and work this out,” District Judge Alison Nathan said. The judge gave both sides two weeks to work out their differences, and said she could rule on whether Musk violated his recent fraud settlement with the regulator if they failed.

6 min read