BitGou: Monday Morning Briefing: Hurricane Dorian pounds Bahamas, menaces U.S. southeast coast

Highlights

Hurricane Dorian pounded the Bahamian islands of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama on Sunday night and was forecast to move dangerously close to Florida in the next two days, U.S. forecasters said. Dozens of Floridians who live in boats in marinas along the Atlantic Coast in Brevard County were rushing to secure their vessels, strapping them to docks and removing canvas coverings from decks as Dorian, the second-strongest Atlantic storm on record, spun toward the state.

Texas gunman fired from job before massacre. The man who killed seven people and wounded 22 others in a rolling rampage across West Texas on Saturday was fired from his trucking job hours before the massacre, media and officials reported. Police continued to comb through 15 different crime scenes in neighboring Midland and Odessa, Texas.

Actor Kevin Hart suffered major injuries in a car accident in Los Angeles early on Sunday morning, the California Highway Patrol said. Hart, 40, was being driven in a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda shortly after midnight on Mulholland Highway when the driver lost control of the car and it tumbled down an embankment.

Novak Djokovic’s U.S. Open title defense came unstuck when a nagging shoulder injury forced the world number one to retire from his fourth-round match against Stan Wawrinka, prompting a chorus of boos from the crowd at Flushing Meadows. “The pain was constant for weeks now. Some days higher, some days with less intensity, and obviously taking different stuff to kill the pain instantly,” said Djokovic, who has won the U.S. Open three times.

Hong Kong

At a closed-door meeting, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam expresses deep regrets about her push to pass the extradition bill and says she would 'quit' if she could, fears her ability to resolve crisis now 'very limited', according to an audio recording reviewed by Reuters. Read the full special report.

Thousands of Hong Kong university and school students swapped classes for democracy demonstrations, the latest act of defiance in an anti-government movement that has plunged the Chinese-ruled city into its biggest political crisis in decades.

World

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson preparing to call an election? Prime Minister Boris Johnson is preparing to call an election, British media reported, on the eve of an historic showdown with parliament over Brexit. Rebel lawmakers from his Conservative Party are plotting with opposition parties to take control of parliament and tie the government’s hands with legislation that would block a no-deal exit from the EU which they say would be ruinous to the economy.

Wildfires in Greenland, Alaska and Siberia are leaving a painful mark on the environment. Most have been in the U.S. state of Alaska and the Russian region of Siberia, but one fire in Alberta, in the Canadian Arctic, was estimated to be bigger than 300,000 soccer pitches, or about the size of Luxembourg. This map shows the fires burning daily through July and August.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to annex all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, reiterating an election promise made five months ago but again giving no timeframe. “With God’s help we will extend Jewish sovereignty to all the settlements as part of the (biblical) land of Israel, as part of the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said. Palestinians have voiced fears Netanyahu could defy international consensus and move ahead with annexation with possible backing from Trump.

Business

China and U.S. kick off new round of tariffs in trade war

Global stocks dipped on Monday after the United States and China imposed new tariffs on each other’s goods, reinforcing investors’ worries over slowing global growth, with no clear end in sight for the trade war. The U.S. began imposing 15% tariffs on a variety of Chinese goods on Sunday - including footwear, smart watches and flat-panel televisions - as China began imposing new duties on U.S. crude, the latest escalation in a bruising trade war.

11 min read

Chinese face-swapping app goes viral, sparks privacy concerns

ZAO - a new Chinese app that lets users swap their faces with celebrities, sports stars or anyone else in a video clip - racked up millions of downloads on the weekend but swiftly drew fire over privacy issues. The app’s surge in popularity and sudden backlash from some users highlights how AI technologies bring about new concerns surrounding identity verification.

3 min read

Europe should ignore 'treacherous promises' of Facebook's Libra currency: ECB's Mersch

Facebook’s proposed Libra currency could undermine the European Central Bank’s ability to set monetary policy and Europe should ignore its siren call of “treacherous promises” ECB board member Yves Mersch said. Facebook announced Libra — a new digital coin backed by four official currencies and available to billions of social network users around the world — earlier this year, saying it hoped to launch next year.

2 Min Read