Monday Morning Briefing

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A Filipino soldier lies on a mattress at their combat position in a house as government troops continue their assault against insurgents from the Maute group in Marawi city, Philippines July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva


G-20


U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, reaffirming their commitment to increase pressure on North Korea and its nuclear program ahead of a G-20 summit in Germany later this week. Trump has recently suggested he was running out of patience with China's modest steps to pressure North Korea.

 

Saudi king to skip G20 summit: German government spokesman

 


White House

 

President Trump stepped up his feud with the media on Sunday by tweeting a mock video of himself tackling and repeatedly striking a man with a CNN logo super-imposed in place of his head, followed by a logo saying "Fraud News Network."


 

North Korea

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping set off on a visit to Russia stressing the grave threat the United States’ THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea poses to both Chinese and Russian interests. The United States and South Korea say the THAAD is solely aimed at defending the South from North Korea, but China says the system's powerful radar can probe deep into its territory, undermining its security. China and Russia have maintained close communication and coordination on the issue and held very similar views on it, Xi said in an interview with Russian media.


 

Qatar

 

Four Arab states which accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism agreed to extend a deadline for Doha to comply with a list of demands - including closing Qatar-based al Jazeera TV and ejecting Turkish troops based there – until late Tuesday. Qatar has said the demands are so severe that they seem intended to be rejected.


Mexico

 

tower of human skulls unearthed beneath the heart of Mexico City has raised new questions about the culture of sacrifice in the Aztec Empire after crania of women and children surfaced among the hundreds embedded in the forbidding structure. "We were expecting just men, obviously young men, as warriors would be, and the thing about the women and children is that you'd think they wouldn't be going to war," said Rodrigo Bolanos, a biological anthropologist investigating the find.

 


Business

 

Tesla's high-volume Model 3 sedan passed all regulatory requirements for production two weeks ahead of schedule, Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday night. Tesla's previous launches for its Model S sedan and Model X sports utility vehicle were hit by production delays and initial quality issues. That track record meant some analysts were skeptical about the model's July launch.

 

Snake on a plane! Don't panic, it's probably just a (soft) robot

 

British factories were left out of a demand-driven surge in manufacturing activity across much of Asia and Europe in June, as weakness in sterling failed to translate into export growth, surveys showed. Factories in the euro zone rounded off the first half of 2017 by ramping up at the fastest rate for over six years while Asia's tech-manufacturing economies were helped by growing global demand for electronics products.

 

Breakingviews: What really creates the value of money

 

Oil prices eased after rising for seven sessions in a row, as evidence of increasing OPEC crude production snuffed out earlier gains made on the back of data that pointed to moderating U.S. output.

 


South China Sea

 

A U.S. warship sailed near a disputed island in the South China Sea claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, in an operation meant to challenge the competing claims of all three nations, a U.S. Defense Department official said. It was the second "freedom-of-navigation operation," or "fonop," conducted during Trump’s presidency, following a drill in late May in which a U.S. warship sailed near an artificial island built up by China in the South China Sea.

 


Philippines

 

Saripada Pacasum Jr. gagged and turned away the first time he came across a decomposing body in Marawi City, where hundreds have died since Islamic State-inspired fighters attempted to overrun the southern Philippines town six weeks ago. But Pacasum, 39, continues to lead a team of about 30 young men and women who make near-daily forays to rescue civilians and retrieve victims in an urban battlefield that is infested with rebel snipers and battered by air strikes. They have come to be known as the "white helmets" or "suicide squad" because of the risks they take when going in unarmed and with little protection.

 


Germany

 

Many people were killed when a tour bus burst into flames after colliding with a truck on a motorway in the German state of Bavaria on Monday, the German government said. Police said on Twitter that "a number of people" had died with 31 people injured, some of them seriously. Police said there had been 48 people on the bus at the time of the crash.

 

Commentary: Seeking the truth, not the tragedy, in journalism