Tuesday Morning Briefing: Florida school staff to return this week after mass shooting

Highlights

Staff members will return to work at the Florida school where a gunman shot and killed 17 people in the deadliest shooting ever at a U.S. high school. The incident has galvanized advocates for stricter gun control, including many survivors of the rampage, while the White House said that Trump will support efforts to improve federal background checks for gun purchases.

Trump endorsed former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s run for a U.S. Senate seat in Utah, despite Romney often being critical of Trump.

Commentary: The U.S.-China relationship is once again defined by ideology. “A relationship that has, in recent decades, been organized around the pursuit of shared interests appears to be reverting to one increasingly defined by differences in worldview,” writes Peter Marino. American political scientists are warning about the dangers of Chinese influence, and U.S. universities “that were enticed to China with promises of academic freedom have now been forced to establish Communist party units… and to give high-level decision-making powers to party officials.”

World

Three months after Saudi Arabia detained scores of people in a crackdown on corruption, its rulers are trying to reassure investors that the kingdom remains open for business. Foreign and local investors have long complained about corruption, and confronting it is an important part of reforms unveiled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transform the country and reduce the economy’s reliance on oil exports.

Britain and the United States are in talks about the fate of two captured British Islamic State militants, suspected of being part of a notorious group known for torturing and killing Western hostages, British interior minister Amber Rudd said.

Pro-government forces bombarded Syria’s eastern Ghouta, killing at least 49 people, after the heaviest one-day death toll there in three years yesterday, a war monitoring group said.

Slovenian ice hockey player Ziga Jeglic has tested positive for a banned substance and been suspended for the remainder of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said. More from Winter Olympics.

Patpicha Best  @patpichatan

Thai court grants custody to Japanese father of 13 surrogate children http://reut.rs/2CwZwbW

10:16 PM - FEB 19, 2018

Business

Exclusive: GM offers $2.2 billion debt for equity swap in return for Seoul's support - sources

General Motors has offered to convert debt of around $2.2 billion owed by its ailing South Korean operation into equity in exchange for financial support and tax benefits from Seoul, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

5 Min Read

Albertsons to buy Rite Aid in cash-and-stock deal

U.S. grocery chain operator Albertsons Companies said it would buy drugstore chain Rite Aid in a cash-and-stock deal to create a company with $83 billion in revenue.

2 min read

Refiner goes belly-up after big payouts to Carlyle Group

Under a deal Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) signed in 2015, the refiner paid minimum quarterly payments of $30 million to terminal owner North Yard Logistics LP - even if little crude arrived. Much of that cash, in turn, flowed to the investors that own both PES and North Yard, led by the Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm with $178 billion in assets.

9 min read

Walmart worries, bond yields threaten six-day winning streak

U.S. stock index futures fell more than half a percent as Wall Street returned from a long holiday weekend, a rise in bond yields and underwhelming results from Walmart halting a six-day winning streak for the major indexes.

3 min read

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Billionaire jeweller denies ties to India's largest-ever bank fraud

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