Tuesday Morning Briefing

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Women walk past a portrait of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

 


Autos

 

Mazda said it would become the world's first automaker to commercialize a compression ignition engine - a type of cleaner, more fuel efficient gas engine that has eluded the likes of Daimler AG and GM, a twist in an industry that is increasingly going electric. 

 

Breakingviews: Musk fine-tunes Tesla with junk-fueled turbo boost

 

Nissan to sell its electric battery business to GSR Capital

 

Carmakers are increasingly looking to forego outright ownership of future autonomous driving systems in favor of spreading the investment burden and risk.

 


Business

 

Google fired the male engineer who authored an internal memo asserting there are biological causes behind gender inequality in the tech industry.

 

Envision to sell ambulance business to KKR in $2.4 billion deal

 

Time Inc misses revenue estimates as advertising sales slip


Venezuela

 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is trying to turn state oil company PDVSA into a bastion of support. Political appointees are gaining clout at the expense of veteran oil executives, while employees are under mounting pressure to attend government rallies and vote for the ruling Socialists. The increasing focus on politics over performance is contributing to a rapid deterioration of Venezuela's oil industry, home to the world's largest crude reserves, and to a brain drain at the once world-class company.


North Korea

 

China will pay the biggest price from the new United Nations sanctions against North Korea because of its close economic relationship with the country, but will always enforce the resolutions, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

 

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pressed Thai leaders for more action on North Korea during the highest level visit to Thailand by a U.S. official since a military coup in 2014 soured relations with the United States.

 

Japan defense review warns of enhanced North Korea threats


U.S.

 

Lawyers on both sides of a trial pitting pop star Taylor Swift against a Colorado radio personality she accused of groping her are expected to deliver opening statements to jurors hearing the case in a federal courtroom in Denver today.

 

Less than week after a U.S. President Donald Trump embraced legislation to reduce immigration, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari urged residents of South Dakota to embrace newcomers instead. "Just going to math, if a big source of economic growth is population growth, and your population growth slows, either because you restrict immigration or because you have fewer babies, your economic growth is going to slow," Kashkari said at the Rotary Club of Downtown Sioux Falls, responding to a question about a Trump-backed bill to cut legal immigration by 50 percent over the next 10 years. "Do we want economic growth, or not? That’s what it comes down to." 


 

Haruo Nakajima, who dressed in a rubber suit to play the original Godzilla, is seen in Tokyo, Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo May 12, 1966. Picture taken May 12, 1966. Mandatory credit REUTERS/Kyodo

Haruo Nakajima, the man who dressed in a rubber suit to play the original Godzilla, crashing through Japanese cities and destroying them with swipes of his massive tail, has died at the age of 88, film company Toho said on Tuesday.


UK 

 

Britain's most senior judge has said the government needs to spell out how British courts should interpret rulings from the European Court of Justice after Brexit. Currently Britain must abide by ECJ judgments but Prime Minister Theresa May's government has said that Britain will leave its jurisdiction after Brexit. The government, however, has said the British courts might still take note of ECJ rulings after the country has left the bloc.

 

Let them play: kids glued to phones could save UK, ex-spy chief says

 

Britons will be able to make social media platforms like Facebook delete information, including content published in their childhood, under government proposals that will bring data laws into line with new European regulations.