|  | | | | | | | | | Top News | | | | | | Before flying to Washington to climb the steps of Congress and testify to a crowd of aviation experts and lawmakers this week, Paul Njoroge spent a desolate weekend packing away toys his children would never play with again. All three of them - chubby baby Rubi, four-year-old songstress Kelli, and six-year-old Ryan, who dreamed of being an astronaut - were killed alongside his wife Carolyne and mother-in-law Anne on Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 on March 10. “Without them I feel nothing. I’m empty,” the 35-year-old investment professional told Reuters by telephone from his company house in Bermuda. “The pain will never go away. I will think of them every minute for the rest of my life.” | | | | | | | | Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives introduced bills to keep tight restrictions on Huawei, amid concern about President Donald Trump’s easing of curbs on the Chinese firm. The legislation would among other things bar the removal of the massive telecommunications equipment firm from a Commerce Department trade blacklist without House and Senate approval, and let Congress disallow waivers granted to U.S. companies doing business with the company. | | | | | | | | A wave of quarterly reports from Netflix and other top-tier, high-growth companies will test Wall Street’s willingness to extend a recent rally driven by expectations of lower interest rates. Facebook, Amazon and Google-owner Alphabet, all part of the so-called FANG group of widely held stocks, have jumped over 5% so far in July, with investors increasingly willing to bet on the volatile names thanks to expectations the Federal Reserve will cut rates later this month by as much as half a percentage point to support economic growth. | | | | | | | | Former Justice John Paul Stevens died on Tuesday at age 99. Stevens, who retired from the court in 2010 at the age of 90, died at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, of complications from a stroke he suffered on Monday, a statement issued by the Supreme Court said. A Republican appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court who later became an outspoken leader of the liberal wing as the court moved to the right, the idiosyncratic Stevens initially built a record as a maverick with a reputation as a non-partisan, highly independent jurist. His views evolved during his time on the bench, not least on the death penalty, which he initially supported. He announced in 2008 that he believed it was unconstitutional. | | | | | | | | | | | | | Tech | | | | | | Trump said his administration would investigate whether Alphabet’s Google supports the Chinese government, following accusations that a company official refuted hours later at a Senate hearing. The president repeated accusations made previously by Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and venture capitalist, that Google may be infiltrated by Chinese intelligence agents. | | | | How lithium-rich Chile botched a plan to attract battery makers. In March 2018, the Chilean government unveiled big news: Corporate investors, including South Korean electronics giant Samsung, would build three factories in Chile to produce battery parts for electric vehicles. Chile had lured the companies with an enticing offer. In exchange for helping the South American country, the world’s No. 2 miner of lithium, jumpstart its own EV battery industry, the firms would get a guaranteed supply of the coveted metal at attractive prices for nearly three decades amid a global race to lock down supplies. | | | | | Crypto | | The cryptocurrency market took a beating with bitcoin losing over 10% in value after U.S. lawmakers grilled Facebook on its cryptocurrency plans, as political and regulatory scrutiny of digital coins intensifies. The social media giant is fighting to get Washington onside after it shocked regulators and lawmakers with its announcement on June 18 that it was hoping to launch its own digital coin called Libra in 2020. | | | | | | | | | | | | | World | | When Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen started work at the No. 40 Garment Factory, it was still producing boots and uniforms for the Vietnamese army, just as it had done during the Southeast Asian country’s long war with the United States. Now the sprawling, Soviet-built complex on the outskirts of Hanoi has a different mission: churning out millions of units a year for global sportswear brands like Nike and the U.S. Olympic team, Team USA.
3 min read | | | | More than 60 opposition Labour members of Britain’s upper house of parliament signed a statement in a newspaper accusing leader Jeremy Corbyn of failing “the test of leadership” over anti-Semitism in the party. 2 Min Read | | | | Hundreds of people demonstrated in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, in support of proposed constitutional amendments that would reduce the power of the military. A separate protest against the reforms was planned for later in the day. Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy party is pushing for change despite objections from military lawmakers, who hold a veto over amendments. 3 min read | | | | | | | | | | | | | Top Stories on Reuters TV | | | | | | | |
