BitGou: Thursday Morning Briefing: Trump says he is seriously looking at ending birthright citizenship

2019年8月22日星期四

Thursday Morning Briefing: Trump says he is seriously looking at ending birthright citizenship

Top News

President Donald Trump said that his administration was seriously looking at ending the right of citizenship for U.S.-born children of noncitizens and people who immigrated to the United States illegally. “We’re looking at that very seriously, birthright citizenship, where you have a baby on our land, you walk over the border, have a baby - congratulations, the baby is now a U.S. citizen. ... It’s frankly ridiculous,” Trump told reporters.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said it had pulled all staff from an annual crop tour after an employee was threatened, and three sources said the threat of violence was made during a phone call from an angry farmer. U.S. farmers have complained this month that a government crop report did not reflect damage from historic flooding this spring. They are also frustrated about unsold crops due to the trade war with China, falling farm income and tighter credit conditions.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Thursday try to convince France to reopen Brexit negotiations less than a day after President Emmanuel Macron bluntly ruled out any further talks on the divorce deal. In his first foreign trip since winning the premiership a month ago, Johnson is warning German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Macron that they will face a potentially disorderly no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31 unless the European Union does a new deal.

Italy’s president wants political parties to reach a deal to form a new coalition government in the next few days if they want to avoid snap elections, a source familiar with the matter said. The euro zone’s third-largest economy is in political turmoil after its government, riven by months of infighting, collapsed this week. Find out who's who in Italy's political crisis.

Hong Kong

Frontline protesters make case for violence in Hong Kong protests. Pun sees himself as a peaceful, middle-class Hong Kong student. Yet since the beginning of June, he has been building barricades and throwing bricks at police, risking his own liberty to fight, as he sees it, for the city’s freedoms. Hong Kong banks have published full-page newspaper ads calling for law and order as weeks of pro-democracy protests show no sign of letting up.

'All the forces' - China's global social media push over Hong Kong protests. Wang Ying has for the last four years identified herself as a diehard fan of Chinese boy band star Lay Zhang. Recently, the 17-year-old also started describing herself as a patriot who supports China’s stance on Hong Kong. The high school student from Shanghai is among the Chinese citizens who in recent weeks have flocked to Western social media platforms to criticize demonstrators in the former British colony.

Australia is seeing an increase in interest in its millionaires-only visa program from wealthy Hong Kong residents who are eyeing a safety net amid political turmoil, migration lawyers told Reuters. “Anybody who can make an alternate plan is trying to do so," said Sydney-based lawyer Bill Fuggle.

Business

How Brazil and Vietnam are tightening their grip on the world's coffee

With increasing use of mechanization and other new technologies, the world’s top two coffee producers, Brazil and Vietnam, are achieving productivity growth that outstrips rivals in places such as Colombia, Central America and Africa. A plunge in global coffee prices has begun to trigger a massive shake-out in the market in which only the most efficient producers will thrive, according to coffee traders and analysts.

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Fed was divided on rate cut, wanted to avoid appearing on path for more cuts

Federal Reserve policymakers were deeply divided over whether to cut interest rates last month but were united in wanting to signal they were not on a preset path to more cuts, a message not likely to sit well with President Donald Trump. The depth of the debate raises the stakes for the signal that Chairman Jerome Powell is set to deliver at the Fed’s annual policy retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

4 Min Read

E-cigarette firms probed over health concerns by U.S. House panel

Four dominant e-cigarette manufacturers face a probe into the health impacts of their products, as the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee asked on Wednesday about the firms’ research and marketing practices. A separate House panel in July released internal Juul emails that committee staff described as attempts to “enter schools and convey its messaging directly to teenage children.”

2 min read