BitGou: Tuesday Morning Briefing: France says primed to retaliate with EU over U.S. tariff threat against Paris

2019年12月3日星期二

Tuesday Morning Briefing: France says primed to retaliate with EU over U.S. tariff threat against Paris

Highlights

France and the European Union are ready to fight back over the latest U.S. tariff threats on French products, French government ministers said on Tuesday. On Monday, the U.S. government said it may impose punitive duties of up to 100% on $2.4 billion of imports from France, including champagne, handbags, cheese and other products, after concluding that France’s new digital services tax would harm U.S. tech companies.

Turkey will oppose a NATO plan to defend Baltic countries unless the alliance backs it in recognizing a Kurdish militia as a terrorist group, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. The threat underlined the mounting challenges to a bloc hailed by backers as the most successful military alliance in history just as its leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, gather in London to celebrate its 70th anniversary.

A U.S. House Intelligence Committee report laying out the Democratic case for President Donald Trump’s impeachment will be publicly released on Tuesday, the panel’s chairman said in a television interview. “We’re putting the finishing touches on the report, which will be released tomorrow,” Democrat Adam Schiff said on MSNBC on Monday night. Trump says the impeachment inquiry is a 'hoax' being used for political gain.

Potential jurors in the defamation trial of high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk may be excused from the case if they voice strong feelings about billionaires or people who visit Thailand. Jury selection was set to begin on Tuesday in the civil suit brought against the Tesla chief executive by a British cave explorer who gained fame for his leading role in the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand last year.

World

The leak and distribution of classified British-U.S. trade documents online resembles a disinformation campaign uncovered this year that originated in Russia, according to experts who say it could signal foreign interference in Britain’s election. Researchers said the way the documents were first shared online mirrored a campaign called Secondary Infektion, which was uncovered by the Atlantic Council in June and stemmed from a network of social media accounts which Facebook said “originated in Russia.”

The past decade is almost certain to be the hottest on record, weather experts warned on Tuesday, painting a bleak picture of vanishing sea ice, devastating heatwaves and encroaching seas in a report launched at a climate summit in Spain. Meanwhile climate activist Greta Thunberg was approaching Lisbon aboard a catamaran on Tuesday after crossing the Atlantic from New York, before her appearance at the summit to demand urgent action on global warming.

North Korea has celebrated the completion of leader Kim Jong Un’s signature construction project, a new city near the sacred mountain where his family claims its roots, with state media on Tuesday calling it the “epitome of modern civilisation”.

Zimbabwe’s former leader Robert Mugabe, who died in September, left $10 million and some properties in the capital, but no will naming his beneficiaries, details of his estate published by state-owned newspaper the Herald showed on Tuesday.