Brexit

Fighting back tears, Theresa May said she would quit, setting up a contest that will bring a new British prime minister to power who could pursue a cleaner break with the European Union. The end of May’s premiership will usher in an even more turbulent phase of Britain’s exit from the EU as any new leader is likely to seek to strike a tougher divorce deal, and there could be an election within months. The big question now is who wants to be Britain's next prime minister?

From Breakingviews: Brexit has claimed its second British prime minister. Less than three years after she took over from David Cameron following the country’s vote to leave the European Union, Theresa May on Friday announced she would step down on June 7. But her replacement will face the same dilemmas, writes Peter Thal Larsen.

Reading the Brexit tea leaves: Political uncertainty has loomed over the UK since Britain voted to leave the EU. But investors have been revealing their own Brexit fortunes by positioning bets on the strength - and weakness - of the pound.

Highlights

Same-sex couples tied the knot in emotional scenes in Taiwan, the first legal marriages in Asia hailed by activists as a social revolution for the region. Taiwan’s parliament passed a bill last week that endorsed same-sex marriage, although the measure could complicate President Tsai Ing-wen’s bid for re-election next year. More than 360 same-sex couples married on Friday, according to government data, after years of heated debate over marriage equality that has divided the self-ruled and democratic island.

Why U.S.-Iran tensions could quickly escalate into a crisis. Three years ago, when Iran’s military captured 10 U.S. sailors after they mistakenly strayed into Iranian waters, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif jumped on the phone in minutes and worked out the sailors’ release in hours. Could a similar crisis be so quickly resolved today? “No,” Zarif said in a recent interview with Reuters. “How could it be averted?”

North Korea said an “arbitrary and dishonest” U.S. position had resulted in the failure to reach a deal during a second North Korea-U.S. summit, warning the nuclear issue would never be resolved without a new approach. A spokesman for North Korea’s foreign ministry accused the U.S. of trying to shift the blame for the breakdown of the summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump in February by raising a “completely irrelevant issue”. He did not elaborate.

China denounced U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for fabricating rumors after he said the chief executive of China’s Huawei was lying about his company’s ties to the Beijing government. The United States placed Huawei on a trade blacklist last week, effectively banning U.S. firms from doing business with the world’s largest telecom network gear maker and escalating a trade battle between the world’s two biggest economies.

U.S.

President Donald Trump’s campaign believes he can turn Republicans’ biggest liability from last year’s congressional elections - the debate about the future of healthcare in America - into a winning issue for his reelection. That would have appeared highly unlikely just months ago, when Democrats seized upon the issue of coverage for pre-existing medical conditions to capture control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Democrats seeking to unseat Trump in 2020 will choose from the largest and most diverse set of candidates in history - yet, so far, two older white men are leading the pack. Women candidates played a key role in Democrats regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives last year. But they still face greater hurdles than men in seeking executive offices, and there is division in the party about what kind of candidate is best suited to win in November 2020.

Trump ordered the intelligence community to cooperate with Attorney General William Barr’s review of the events that prompted an investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia. “Today, at the request and recommendation of the attorney general of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the attorney general’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 presidential election,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said after Trump issued the directive.

The U.S. Justice Department unveiled 17 new criminal charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying he unlawfully published the names of classified sources and conspired with and assisted ex-Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in obtaining access to classified information.