World Briefs

TRADE WAR U.S. and Chinese negotiators are discussing adding a concession on cloud computing to their trade agreement that would give foreign companies greater access to the USD12 billion Chinese market. 

NORTH KOREA’s Supreme People’s Assembly is expected to convene today to formally approve leader Kim Jong Un’s latest economic policies and possibly endorse a shift in U.S. strategy following his failed summit with President Trump in Hanoi. 

THAILAND A fire broke out at one of Bangkok’s biggest mall complexes yesterday, killing at least two people and injuring more than a dozen. The extent of the fire at the Thai capital’s Central World complex, which includes a hotel, a convention center and an office tower, was small, but it caused the shopping mall’s evacuation.

EGYPT A Bedouin woman, Umm Yasser, is breaking new ground among the deeply conservative Bedouin Sinai Peninsula. Women among the Bedouin almost never work outside the home, and even more rarely do they interact with outsiders. But Umm Yasser is one of four women from the community who for the first time are working as tour guides.

VENEZUELA The International Committee of the Red Cross regained access to prisons in Venezuela, including highly guarded military facilities where dozens of inmates considered political prisoners are being held, as President Nicolas Maduro seeks to counter mounting criticism of his government’s human rights record.

TRUMP President Donald Trump says there’s only one person in charge of his immigration policy: Him. Asked by reporters whether he considers tapping his aide, Stephen Miller, to lead the Department of Homeland Security given Miller’s focus on the issue, Trump was ready with praise — but not a promotion.

BREXIT Just days away from a potentially calamitous no-deal Brexit, European Union leaders meet yesterday to discuss granting the United Kingdom a new delay — possibly of up to a year — to its departure from the bloc. 

SPACE Scientists yesterday revealed the first image ever made of a black hole. The picture, assembled from data gathered by eight radio telescopes around the world, shows the hot, shadowy lip of a supermassive black hole, one of the light-sucking monsters of the universe theorized by Einstein.