BitGou: Monday Morning Briefing: As trade talks reach endgame, U.S.-China ties could hinge on enforcement

United States

U.S. negotiators head to China on Tuesday to try to hammer out details to end the two countries’ trade war, including the shape of an enforcement mechanism, the success or failure of which could set the trajectory of ties for years to come. Both sides have cited progress on issues including intellectual property and forced technology transfer to help end a conflict marked by tit-for-tat tariffs that have cost the world’s two largest economies billions of dollars, disrupted supply chains and rattled financial markets.

A 19-year-old man accused of opening fire on Sabbath worshippers in a deadly shooting rampage at a Southern California synagogue is believed to have acted alone, without help from any organized group, authorities said on Sunday. Police say the gunman walked into the suburban San Diego synagogue late on Saturday morning, the last day of the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover, and killed one woman and wounded three other people inside, using an assault-style rifle. For one family caught up in the California synagogue shooting, a move from Israel to the United States in search of a safer life has been a journey “from fire to fire”.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr objects to testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in a closed session dedicated to redacted portions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report, a congressional Democratic aide said on Sunday. Barr is threatening to skip his planned appearance on Thursday, the aide told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. military said it sent two Navy warships through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday as the Pentagon increases the frequency of movement through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China. Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which also include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols.

The leader of a paramilitary group that has detained undocumented migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border is expected to appear in court in New Mexico on Monday to face federal weapons charges. Larry Hopkins, commander of the United Constitutional Patriots, has been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm after the FBI said it found guns during a 2017 visit to his home

A suspect in the killings of seven people in rural Tennessee was shot and captured by police after an hours-long manhunt triggered by the discovery of the bodies in two separate homes, authorities said on Sunday.

World

Spain’s ruling Socialists were considering possible partners for a new government for the politically polarized country after they won a national election but failed to secure a majority. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez faces a choice between a complex alliance with fellow leftists Podemos or joining forces across the political divide with the center-right Ciudadanos. With nearly all the votes counted, the Socialists together with the far-left Podemos were 11 seats short of a majority in the 350-seat parliament.

The father and two brothers of the suspected mastermind of Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings were killed when security forces stormed their safe house on the east coast two days ago, police and a relative said on Sunday. Authorities in Sri Lanka on Monday banned women from wearing face veils under an emergency law. The measures would help security forces to identify people as a hunt for any remaining attackers and their support network continues across the Indian Ocean island, authorities said.

Map of landmines - How Brexit might help the Scottish independence quest. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s plans to lead her nation to independence from the United Kingdom have been muddled by Brexit, but the whirlwind at the centre of British politics may yet advance her cause. “The Brexit debacle has further undermined confidence in the British political system,” said Michael Keating, professor of politics at the University of Aberdeen. “But it matters in Scotland because of this alternative, the independence option.”

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United Nations to grant Mozambique and the Comoros Islands $13 million in emergency funds to help provide food and water and repair damage to infrastructure after the second cyclone in a month slammed into the region https://reut.rs/2GMLeIe

4:19 AM - 29 Apr 2019

Business

Exclusive: Anadarko to pursue deal talks with Occidental Petroleum - sources

Anadarko Petroleum, the U.S. oil and gas exploration and production company that agreed this month to sell itself to Chevron for $33 billion, decided on Sunday to begin negotiations to sell itself to Occidental Petroleum instead, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Boeing CEO faces shareholders for first time since 737 MAX crashes

Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg will face shareholders on Monday for the first time since two fatal crashes that led to the 737 MAX’s grounding worldwide and triggered investigations, lawsuits and a sharp loss in share value.

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Exclusive: GAM whistle blower concerns focused on bonds sold by metals tycoon

A whistle blower at Swiss asset manager GAM Holding AG who alerted UK financial regulators last year did so over concerns about the purchase of more than half a billion pounds of bonds from commodities tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, according to two people familiar with the matter.

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Germany eyes slice of lucrative space market

Facing tough competition from China, the United States and even tiny Luxembourg, Germany is racing to draft new laws and attract private investment to secure a slice of an emerging space market that could be worth $1 trillion a year by the 2040s.

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