The 10 most important things in the world right now
Good morning! Here's what you need to know on Friday.
1. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his country's nuclear weapons made ready for use at a moment's notice, the country's official state news agency reported Friday. Kim also said his country will ready its military so it is prepared to carry out pre-emptive attacks.
2. The pound could slump into a "currency crisis" if Britain votes to leave the European Union on June 23. In a note, foreign exchange firm Caxton FX, notes that the effects of Brexit would set off a major downward spiral in sterling.
3. Russia and Syria are indiscriminately bombing Syrian civilians to drive the refugee crisis and "weaponise migration," a Nato commander has claimed. He said the air attacks formed part of a deliberate strategy to "get them [refugees] on the road" and "make them a problem for someone else."
4. China's defence budget this year is likely to rise at its slowest pace since 2010, in line with the decelerating economy, by a much lower figure than had been expected, although it probably does not represent the true spending number.
5. Donald Trump rejected criticism from 2012 nominee Mitt Romney at a debate on Thursday as establishment Republicans tried to muster some unity behind a last-ditch anti-Trump effort. The Fox News-sponsored debate began as a free-for-all fracas with tension mounting over Trump's rise.
6. Bitcoin payments are failing around the world as the digital currency platform that supports it struggles to cope with a surge in demand, according to Re/code. Bitcoin was created in 2008 and aims to provide a radical alternative to traditional finance.
7. BHP Billiton's credit rating has been cut by Moody's as the industry battles weak commodity prices and softer demand, just a month after Standard & Poor's also downgraded the global mining giant.
8. Brazilian GDP fell 3.8 percent in 2015, the government said Thursday, in the steepest drop-off of economic growth for the Latin American giant in 25 years. President Dilma Rousseff's government is struggling to combat both worsening recession and 10.67 percent inflation.
9. Europe will set Greece a deadline of May 12 to register all migrants in an orderly fashion or face more border controls, Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told a German newspaper on Friday. Greece has been the main gateway for nearly a million migrants over the past year.
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