“They are laughing their asses off in Moscow,”President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday morning. In a series of tweets over the weekend from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump said congressional investigations and political “hatred” showed Russia had succeeded in sowing “discord, disruption and chaos” in the United States. Trump attacked the FBI and lawmakers probing suspected Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S presidential election, drawing sharp criticism for saying an excessive focus on Russia led investigators to miss signs that could have prevented a deadly school shooting in Florida.
Commentary: How democracy’s spread dashed dreams of liberalism.A quarter century ago, the fall of Soviet communism and the end of South African apartheid led many in the West to hope that liberalism was ascendant worldwide. But, writes John Lloyd, the spread of democracy has, in some countries, turned out to bring more oppression. “The exercise of democracy is a hard-won, long-haul phenomenon. A central tenet – that those in power are themselves subject to the greater power of laws – is hardest won of all.”
China’s tech giants Alibaba and Tencent, worth a combined $1 trillion, are on a retail investment binge, forcing merchants to choose sides amid a battle for shoppers’ digital wallets.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said General Motors decision to shut down a factory south of Seoul will hurt that region, and called upon his administration to take measures to boost economic activity there.
Jolted by the global investment craze over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, U.S. lawmakers are moving to consider new rules that could impose stricter federal oversight on the emerging asset class, several top lawmakers told Reuters.
Oil prices hit their highest level in nearly two weeks, lifted by a global equity market recovery and tensions in the Middle East, although concerns of rising U.S. production tempered gains.
