BitGou: Monday Morning Briefing: U.S. top trade negotiator praises deal, China remains cautious

2019年12月16日星期一

Monday Morning Briefing: U.S. top trade negotiator praises deal, China remains cautious

Top Stories

U.S. President Donald Trump’s top trade negotiator praised a “phase one” U.S.-China trade deal which is expected to nearly double U.S. exports to China over the next two years, while China remained cautious ahead of the signing of the agreement. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Sunday said there would be some routine “scrubs” to the text, but “this is totally done, absolutely.”

Schumer seeks testimony from Mulvaney and Bolton in expected Senate trial of Trump. The senior U.S. Senate Democrat called on Sunday for the Republican-led chamber to demand testimony from four current and former White House aides in a trial expected early next year on whether to remove President Donald Trump from office.

U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, urged Pyongyang on Monday to return offers of talks, dismissing leader Kim Jong Un’s year-end deadline while highlighting Washington’s willingness to discuss “all issues of interest”. Tension has been rising in recent weeks as Pyongyang has conducted a series of weapons tests and waged a war of words with President Donald Trump.

The chief executive officer of Hallmark Cards apologized on Sunday night and said the company would reverse an earlier decision to pull television advertisements featuring same-sex couples from the wedding registry and planning website Zola. Hallmark Channel faced a public outcry after it pulled the ads last week, under pressure from the conservative group One Million Moms.

World

Protests over a new Indian citizenship law based on religion spread to student campuses on Monday as critics said the Hindu nationalist government was pushing a partisan agenda in conflict with the country’s founding as a secular republic. Students threw stones at police who locked up the gates of a college in the northern city of Lucknow to prevent them from taking to the streets.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam in Beijing on Monday, saying he recognized her courage to govern the Asian financial hub in these “most difficult” times. “The situation in Hong Kong in 2019 was the most complex and difficult since its return to the motherland,” Xi told local media in brief comments before the closed door session.

Tear gas engulfed central Beirut as security forces chased protesters near Lebanon’s parliament on Sunday in a second night of street clashes that wounded dozens of people. Protesters had returned despite a fierce crackdown by security forces the night before when clashes also injured dozens.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will welcome 109 new Conservative lawmakers to parliament on Monday, promising to honour his election pledges to get Brexit done as soon as possible and boost funding to the state health service. After winning a commanding majority in last week’s election, Johnson will seek to speed up the approval by parliament of his withdrawal agreement with the European Union.

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