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Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Welcome to another Saturday with the Reuters weekend crew, and thanks to Kate Turton for letting me sleep past oh-dark-thirty last week.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy talks with congressional colleagues after an event addressing debt-ceiling negotiations. Washington, May 17, 2023. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Will the U.S. ceiling be unbroken?

All quiet on the default front: A second meeting on Friday between White House and Republican congressional negotiators on raising the federal government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling broke up with no progress reported and no new meeting set. The Treasury Department has said the US might not be able to pay all its bills by the beginning of June if no agreement emerges.
Out on the weekend: Negotiations might resume before Monday. Or they might not. Meanwhile, the Fed is unlikely to raise interest rates as long as the talks remain unresolved.

What will the G7 do about China?

Talk about it, mainly: G7 powers increasingly see Beijing as a threat to economic security, and at their meeting in Hiroshima said they would urge measures to reduce reliance on Chinese trade.
What else made the menu: Budget support for Ukraine, tougher sanctions against Russia were on the list, along with reliable standbys about phasing out fossil fuel and seeking a world without nuclear weapons. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy also made an appearance to drum up support to fight Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine says it repels attacks near Bakhmut

Lines on the map: The push-pull between Ukrainian and Russian forces continued at Bakhmut, Washington voiced support for training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets and the Pentagon accidentally overvalued arms and equipment sent to Ukraine by $3 billion.
Keep an eye on corruption: Rooting out graft is a key condition for Ukraine to join the EU, and Kyiv has been busy. See this report on a Supreme Court corruption probe and this one on suspicions of embezzlement involving Ukraine's gas-transit system and an alleged theft of nearly half a billion dollars.

Pacific faux pas

Pass on Port Moresby: President Biden dropped out of a planned visit to New Guinea where he was supposed to meet 18 leaders from a regional bloc and sign a defense cooperation pact, prioritizing the debt-ceiling talks instead. It would have been the first visit to the country by a sitting U.S. president.
Let's try this again: The White House said Biden will schedule a new meeting for later this year, but analysts said the cancellation dealt a blow to U.S. credibility as China builds its influence among Pacific nations. Washington did renew defense pacts with Micronesia and Palau, while China showed off its friendly relations with central-Asian nations.

Montana governor could sign law defining sex

Legislating biology: Montana could become the fourth state to pass a law defining sex as strictly male or female and unchangeable, raising concern among LGBTQ advocates who see such legislation as the next trend in Republican bills that limit transgender rights.
And in Florida: Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to announce his bid for the presidency next week, signed into law a bill that bans gender-affirming medical care and enacts obstacles for adults to access treatment.

Before I forget…

'Where is the state?': Mass looting in Khartoum as airstrikes pound the Sudanese capital.

India is withdrawing its 2,000-rupee note ($25) from circulation after introducing it in 2016. That's when the government abruptly withdrew 500 and 1,000 notes from circulation in an attempt to fight forgery. (This was an ordeal for visitors turning up with suddenly worthless cash. Take it from me.)

Floods killed more than 13 people in Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy. Fans criticized Bruce Springsteen for not canceling his concert in Ferrara out of respect for the dead.

Wildfires in Alberta, Canada forced tens of thousands of evacuations and may close parks over the Victoria Day weekend. The fires also caused a spike in natural-gas prices as flow to the U.S. suffers.

Job seekers in finance, take note: The term ‘ESG’ in U.S. finance-job titles tends to come with a 20% pay premium, according to an analysis of salary data conducted for Reuters.

China fined a comedy company (Did you know such things existed?) $2 million after it deemed a comedian’s joke about the military to be harmful to society.

An Earth-sized alien planet is gripped by widespread volcanism. Who isn’t these days?

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