BitGou: Tuesday Morning Briefing: Trump says UK and U.S. can do a phenomenal post-Brexit trade deal

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President Donald Trump said the United States and Britain could agree a “phenomenal” post-Brexit trade deal. The U.S. president told Britain’s prime minister that the United States would do a very substantial and fair deal with the UK after Brexit. Trump waded into Britain’s political crisis by telephoning Boris Johnson, the Brexit-supporting favourite to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May.

Thailand’s parliamentary vote for prime minister will be a contest between the leader of a 2014 military coup and a rising opposition star facing two criminal charges he says stem from his stand against the junta. The stark choice comes 10 weeks after a March 24 election the opposition says was heavily weighted to favor pro-army parties.

Sudan’s opposition rejected a plan by military authorities to hold elections within nine months, a prominent opposition figure said, after the country’s worst day of violence since ex-president Omar al-Bashir was ousted in April. The military council that has ruled since Bashir’s overthrow afterwards canceled all agreements with the main opposition alliance and said an election should be held within nine months.

The Kremlin contradicted a statement by the U.S. president and said it didn’t know where Donald Trump had got the idea Moscow had removed most of its military specialists from Venezuela, who it said continued to work there. Trump tweeted on Monday that Russia had told the United States it had removed “most of their people” from Venezuela, where Moscow has maintained close military and economic ties with socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel described a future trade agreement between the European Union and United States as being of existential importance, saying she would keep trying to make progress despite the “regrettable” opposition from France. “We have a mandate for talks with the United States and I think it is of existential importance,” Merkel told the BDI industry association.

Tiananmen

The anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown when Beijing sent troops and tanks to quell pro-democracy activists, is not spoken of openly in China and will not be formally marked by the government, which has ramped up censorship. Tourists thronged Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Tuesday amid tighter-than-usual security, although most visitors approached by Reuters said they were unaware of the bloody crackdown on student-led protests 30 years ago or would not discuss it.

Chinese authorities ban any public commemoration and have never released a full death toll. Estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand. Democratic Taiwan tends to use the Tiananmen Square anniversary to criticize China and call for it to face up to its actions. Financial information provider Refinitiv, under pressure from China’s government, has removed from its Eikon terminal Reuters news stories related to the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.

Business

The U.S. government is gearing up to investigate whether Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google misuse their massive market power, sources told Reuters, setting up what could be an unprecedented, wide-ranging probe of some of the world’s largest companies. The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, which enforce antitrust laws in the United States, have divided oversight over the four companies, two sources said, with Amazon and Facebook under the watch of the FTC, and Apple and Google under the Justice Department.

The sudden deterioration in trade talks between the United States and China last month has ratcheted up concerns among U.S. firms that the dispute could go beyond tariffs and affect business in the long-term. China also warned its companies operating in the United States they could face harassment from U.S. law enforcement agencies, as it also rebuffed U.S. criticism of a trade white paper as “singing the same old tune”.

Walmart expands education program for workers ahead of controversial shareholders meeting. The company said it is seeking to attract high school students by offering them a low-cost path to a college degree and will expand an education program it started a year ago - in a new bid to draw workers in a tight labor market. The announcement comes a day before its annual shareholders meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas, which will be attended by Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

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