News Headlines - 16 September 2019

▽Trump Says U.S. and Japan Have Reached Initial Trade Agreement - The New York Times

President Trump said on Monday that his administration had reached an initial trade agreement with Japan and would announce a deal in the coming weeks.
The trade pact, while limited, is expected to increase access for American agricultural products like beef and chicken to the Japanese market. That would provide some relief to farmers who have been hurt by Mr. Trump’s trade war with China.
Exact details of the deal have not been released. But people briefed on the negotiations said the pact would lower Japanese tariffs on beef and other American farm products in return for cutting American tariffs on industrial goods like machinery. Unlike most trade deals, the pact is expected to be limited to a few industries.

▽The US deficit topped $1 trillion. The year's not even over yet - CNN

The US budget deficit widened to $1.067 trillion for the first 11 months of the fiscal year, an increase of 19% over this time last year, the Treasury Department reported Thursday.
The current shortfall exceeds the full-year deficit for fiscal 2018, which was $898 billion... The White House's Office of Management and Budget has predicted that the deficit will exceed $1 trillion for the entire fiscal year, which ends on September 30. On Monday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the federal deficit had surpassed $1 trillion in the first 11 months of fiscal 2019, according to its budget review.

▽Liberal Democrats formally adopt 'Stop Brexit' policy - Reuters

Britain’s Liberal Democrats party on Sunday toughened its anti-Brexit stance, formally adopting a policy to stop the country from leaving the European Union if it wins power at a national election.
The party holds just 18 seats in Britain’s 650-seat parliament but has cast itself as the only ‘Stop Brexit’ party, hoping to pick up votes from the 16 million who voted to remain in the EU in 2016 and win enough seats to form what would be an unprecedented Liberal Democrat government.

▽Brexit: Johnson, EU talks fail to move amid protest chaos

Talks in Luxembourg between Boris Johnson and Jean Claude Juncker failed to make any ground on the central challenge of the Northern Ireland backstop on Monday as EU officials insisted that the UK has still failed to produce proposals for a specific, legally operable alternative.
The British prime minister and the European Commission president met for a heavily hyped working lunch aimed at “taking stock” of the state of play in talks. But its aftermath descended into farce as noisy Remain demonstrators forced Mr Johnson to abandon a planned open-air press conference.
His departure was followed by a solo performance by Luxembourg prime minister Xavier Bettel, who rounded on his absent guest over the handling of the Brexit mess as entirely “homemade problems” which had created a “nightmare” for EU citizens.

▽Banksy MPs as chimpanzees painting up for auction - BBC News

A painting by Banksy showing the House of Commons packed with chimpanzees is to be auctioned.
Devolved Parliament was painted by the anonymous Bristol artist in 2009 and could fetch more than ￡1.5m, according to auctioneer Sotheby's... It goes on show on 28 September before its sale in London on 3 October.