Evans appointment remains stuck
Eight months after his nomination to be US ambassador to Luxembourg, Randy Evans’s appointment remains in limbo, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Evans, a Republican lawyer, is Donald Trump’s only ambassadorial candidate to have been approved by a US senate committee but not by the full chamber, the newspaper said. Senate Democrats object to Evans’s role on the Georgia state election board a decade ago. “The Democrats’ objections aren’t preventing the Senate from confirming Evans, but they do require GOP leaders to set aside a full 30 hours of debate time on the floor in order to tee up a final vote,” according to the AJC. That has meant other nominations, such as Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and the new American ambassador to Germany, have taken priority. Evans has not commented, but did tweet a link to the newspaper article after it was published with the note “FYI”. In the meantime, reported Law.com, Evans has resigned from his current law firm, Dentons.
Trump to make Iran announcement
Donald Trump is expected to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, despite entreaties from several European leaders, according to the New York Times. US and UK crude oil prices marked three-year highs, reported the Financial Times.
Pacific trade tensions
Following two days of “candid and constructive” meetings between American and Chinese trade officials, the gulf between the two countries remains large, wrote the Economist. “What, until now, has largely been a war of words could easily careen into a full-fledged trade war.”
Nestle-Starbucks tie-up
The Swiss food and beverage group Nestle is paying Starbucks $7.15bn for the rights to distribute the American coffee company’s beans in supermarkets and other retail outlets, reported the Telegraph. One business school professor told the Washington Post that Nestle wanted the deal because: “To anybody under 60 years old, Nescafe is boring.”
Train collision in southern Germany
Two people were killed and several injured in a train crash in Bavaria, reported Reuters.
Facebook friends
The vast majority of Facebook users in the US “have remained loyal to the social network” despite revelations that the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica collected personal data through the internet firm without permission, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. About half of American users said they had not changed the amount of time they spent on the site; 25% said they used Facebook more since the news broke.