Friday Morning Briefing

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U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May react during a ceremony at the new NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann


U.S. politics

 

Talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders of the world's rich nations at the G7 summit on Friday were expected to be "robust" and "challenging" after he lambasted NATO allies and condemned German trade policies a day earlier.

 

President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, is under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Russia probe, the Washington Post and NBC News reported on Thursday. Kushner is being investigated because of his meetings in December and other possible interactions with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the investigation. 

 

In a stinging rebuke to President Donald Trump, a U.S. appeals court refused to reinstate his travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority nations, calling it discriminatory and setting the stage for a showdown in the Supreme Court. 

 

Republican Greg Gianforte defeated a political novice to win Montana's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, barely 24 hours after he was charged with assaulting a reporter who asked him about the Republican healthcare bill. 


 

World headlines

 

Masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 26 others as they were driving to a monastery, medical sources and eyewitnesses said. 

 

Military ties between the United States and Vietnam were forged under the Obama administration, but even more important was the strategic Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. Vietnam was disappointed when Trump ditched that deal and focussed trade policy on reducing deficits - Vietnam's $32 billion surplus with the United States was the sixth biggest last year. Next week the meeting with Trump is a coup for Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who will be the first Southeast Asian leader to visit the White House under the new administration

 

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker denied on Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump had aggressively condemned German trade policies during a meeting in Brussels on Thursday. 

 

Campaigning for Britain's national election next month resumed in earnest on Friday, with the country still on high alert for further attacks, days after a suicide bombing killed 22 people in Manchester. 

 

The leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party said on Friday Britain's foreign policy and intervention in wars abroad had fueled the threat of terrorism at home as a political truce after the Manchester suicide attack came to an end. 

 

Exclusive: Kim's rocket stars. Meet the trio behind North Korea's missile program. 

 

When locals on this Aegean island fall ill, first they turn to their medicine cabinet. Then they turn to God.

 

An Orthodox priest reads the gospel during the baptism of the first baby born on the islet of Thymaina after six years, with the financial support of the Aegean Team doctors, on the islet of Ayios Minas, Greece, May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis


Business

 

Fidelity Investments may support shareholder proxy proposals calling on companies to report on sustainability matters this year, a major shift by the Boston asset manager as climate activists gain more traction at large U.S. corporations. 

 

The sex-savvy generation in China is set to spur sharp growth of the country's condom market, a key driver behind a deal by Chinese investors to buy the world's no. 2 condom business for $600 million from Australia's Ansell. 

 

German prosecutors investigating whether carmaker Daimler manipulated emission tests on its diesel cars are looking at whether auto components supplier Bosch was involved in the alleged fraud. 

 

California regulators said Volkswagen’s spending plan on clean vehicle infrastructure had shortcomings and that it lacked details on how it would help disadvantaged communities as well as promote hydrogen fuel cell technology. 


 

Science news

 

Rocket Lab, a Silicon Valley-funded space company, launched the maiden flight of its battery-powered, 3-D printed rocket from New Zealand's remote Mahia Peninsula. 

 

Jupiter's atmosphere features colossal cyclones and rivers of ammonia welling up from deep inside the solar system's largest planet, researchers said, publishing the first insights from a NASA spacecraft flying around the gas giant.