Mar 14, 2018 - World

White House: Russia to blame for U.K. nerve agent attack on ex-spy

Trump and Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

The White House released a statement on Wednesday supporting the U.K.'s expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats earlier in the day over the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal in the English town on Salisbury.

"The United States shares the United Kingdom’s assessment that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter, and we support the United Kingdom’s decision to expel Russian diplomats as a just response."
— Press Secretary Sarah Sanders

The backdrop: Theresa May's announcement was a major escalation in Russia-U.K. relations, and President Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. would condemn Russia "[a]s soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them." Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley took a strong stance against Russia on Wednesday.

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There's little consensus on TikTok's specific national security threat

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The big picture: Much of what D.C. fears about TikTok is fear itself, and that's reflected in President Trump's executive order to ban the app by Sept. 20 if it's not sold by parent company ByteDance — alongside another focused on Chinese messaging app WeChat and its parent company Tencent.

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U.S. sanctions Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam

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Why it matters: It's the toughest sanction yet imposed on China for its destruction of Hong Kong’s relatively free political system.

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GM's high-stakes electric move

The Cadillac Lyriq. Image courtesy of Cadillac

Cadillac on Thursday unveiled the Lyriq, the luxury brand's first all-electric model and GM's first consumer electric vehicle unveil since the Chevy Bolt several years ago.

Why it matters: It's the first reveal by GM of an electric vehicle that will use the company's new modular platform and Ultium battery system — technologies meant to underpin the 20 electric vehicles that GM plans to launch by 2023.

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