Bedugul Coffee: Monday Morning Briefing: Denials of immigrant visas skyrocket after little-heralded rule change

United States

More and more aspiring immigrants – especially Mexicans – are being denied visas based on determinations by the U.S. State Department that they might become “public charges,” dependent on the government for support, according to official data and interviews with attorneys, immigrants and their family members. The refusals, capping an often complex and lengthy application process, can trap people for months or longer outside the United States, separated from American spouses and children, as they renew their efforts to legally return. Some may never be able to go back.

U.S. negotiators have tempered demands that China curb industrial subsidies as a condition for a trade deal after strong resistance from Beijing, according to two sources briefed on discussions, marking a retreat on a core U.S. objective for the trade talks.

Millennial 'Mayor Pete' Buttigieg makes case for U.S. presidency. The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who has enjoyed a surge in opinion polls and a torrent of media coverage, formally launched a bid on Sunday for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

President Donald Trump said that actions by the U.S. Federal Reserve have nicked U.S. economic growth and stock market gains by perhaps 30 percent, and that it should begin pumping money into the economy as it did during the 2007-2009 recession. Should Trump shape a Fed that answers first to his politics, it could roil the landscape for other central banks, and for a dollar-dependent world financial system whose fortunes can swing dramatically based on Fed decisions.

Redemption song: With the cool stroke of a putter under ominous clouds hovering over the 18th green at Augusta National, Tiger Woods put an emphatic finishing touch on the most redemptive victory in sport history on Sunday. World leaders and some of the most decorated sports figures alike flooded social media to congratulate American Tiger Woods after he clinched his fifth Masters title.

Trump did not wish any harm in his Twitter post criticizing Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s comments on the 9/11 attacks, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Sunday. Lawmakers from Trump’s Republican Party have accused Omar of minimizing the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks by al Qaeda on the United States that killed almost 3,000 people, while critics of the president say he took Omar’s words out of context in order to stoke anti-Muslim sentiment.

European Union

EU countries back start of trade negotiations with United States. European Union countries gave final clearance to start formal trade talks with the United States after months of delay due to resistance from France. In the end, the EU governments voted by a clear majority to approve the negotiating mandates proposed by the European Commission, with France voting against and Belgium abstaining.

The European Union’s bid to overhaul its two-decade old copyright rules cleared its final hurdle as EU governments backed the move forcing Google to pay publishers for news snippets and Facebook to filter out protected content. Nineteen countries, including France and Germany, endorsed the revamp while Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden were against. Belgium, Estonia and Slovenia abstained.

World

An outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has killed more than 700 people and is continuing to spread does not constitute an international emergency, the World Health Organization said. Declaring the epidemic a “public health emergency of international concern” would have signaled that greater resources and international coordination are needed.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange repeatedly violated his asylum conditions and tried to use the Ecuadorian embassy in London as a center for spying, Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno told Britain’s Guardian newspaper. London police dragged Assange out of the embassy on Thursday after his seven-year asylum was revoked, paving the way for his extradition to the United States for one of the biggest ever leaks of classified information.

New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern's approval rating rises to her highest since taking office in a widely watched poll on Monday. The 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton political survey showed 51 percent of respondents said Ardern was their preferred prime minister, climbing seven percentage points from the last poll in February.

Sudanese protesters moved to block an attempt to break up a sit-in outside the Defence Ministry, where demonstrators have been pushing for a quick transition to civilian rule after President Omar al-Bashir was ousted, a Reuters witness said. Troops had gathered on three sides of the sit-in and tractors were preparing to remove stone and metal barricades, but protesters joined hands and formed rings around the sit-in area to prevent them.