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Financial institutions have paid more than $150bn in fines in the US relating to the credit crisis, passing a significant milestone a decade after it became clear American subprime woes had become a global problem. Ten years ago this week, France’s BNP Paribas barred investors from accessing money in funds with subprime mortgage exposure, citing a “complete evaporation of liquidity”. The date — August 9 2007 — is pegged by many as the moment the financial crisis began.

Here’s John Plender on lessons from the credit crunch and John Authers on the warnings from history that Wall Street ignored. (FT)

In the news

Trump and Moon say NK poses ‘grave’ threat
Donald Trump and South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in have affirmed that North Korea poses “a grave and growing direct threat to the US, South Korea and Japan”. Mr Moon requested a phone call with Mr Trump on Sunday following a unanimous UN vote to impose sanctions on Pyongyang. The sanctions, which gained approval from both China and Russia and are aimed at depriving North Korea of $1bn in revenues, marked a victory for a US-led effort to form an international coalition to halt the country’s nuclear programme. At a meeting on Sunday in the Philippines China’s foreign minister warned his North Korean counterpart that the situation on the Korean Peninsula was close to “crisis point” and urged the rogue nation not to violate the UN sanctions. North Korea has so far shrugged off the sanctions. Meanwhile, a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman welcomed the measures, saying it was time for more “effective pressure” on Pyongyang rather than dialogue, which China said was vital. (FT, WaPo, WSJ, Reuters)

Trump warned against firing US special counsel
Donald Trump is being warned by lawmakers that if he fires Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian election interference, Congress could strike back by reinstating him. A Democrat pushing legislation to make it harder to fire Mr Mueller said on Sunday that both parties in Congress could respond to his dismissal by rehiring the special counsel using their own powers. (FT)

UK payment obligations to EU to last until 2020
Britain will have to make payments for long-term programmes to the EU until at least 2020, the bloc’s budget commissioner Guenther Oettinger has told a German newspaper. The UK will have to honour commitments it made to long-term programmes before the referendum vote last year. (Reuters)

MEPs push to regulate London euro clearing
The European Parliament is preparing to toughen EU plans to police London’s prized euro clearing business after Brexit, increasing the risk that the UK might lose the lucrative activity. Paris is strengthening is bid for post-Brexit bank jobs. (FT, Bloomberg)

France to accept 3,500 more migrants to meet Macron pledge
The French interior minister has pledged to welcome an additional 3,500 migrants in 2018 to help meet President Emmanuel Macron’s vow to “no longer see anyone on the streets”. (FT)

Google’s gender memo firestorm
The tech giant was struggling to quell a gender controversy over the weekend, after a male engineer published an internal memo arguing that biological differences between the sexes accounted for the scarcity of women in technical and leadership jobs in Silicon Valley. The 3,000-word paper drew an angry response from many workers and prompted the company to reassert its commitment to “diversity and inclusion”. (FT)

Venezuela suspended from South American trade bloc
Mercosur has suspended Venezuela indefinitely in a symbolic show of force following President Nicolás Maduro’s decision to push ahead with an election for an all-powerful constituent assembly, which critics fear will crush the last vestiges of democracy in the crisis-ridden nation. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan opposition is seeking to join forces with the growing number of socialists who are disillusioned with Mr Maduro in a bid to weaken his hold on power. A search is under way for 10 men who escaped with weapons after an attack on a military base, Mr Maduro said. (FT, BBC)

The day ahead

SoftBank reports earnings
The Japanese tech group is expected to book a ¥174bn net profit for its first quarter. Investors will watch for strength of acquisition appetite, as well as the company’s $93bn tech investment fund, which was closed in May. There has also been talk SoftBank is seeking a stake in Uber when it already has holdings in the ride-hailing service’s rivals, and speculation about SoftBank’s ambitions to drive further consolidation in the US wireless sector. (FT)

Keep up with the important business, economic and political stories in the coming days with the FT’s Week Ahead.

What we’re reading

Kenya elections tensions fill the air
It may be described by an observer as an “act of insanity”, but one of Africa’s most fiercely contested political systems is evolving. (FT)

The strange case of Fox News and a fake news story
The revelation that Fox News made contact with the White House over a false and malicious story could spell trouble for the network — and the president. (Guardian)

Peace tourism
The historic visit to Hiroshima by President Obama last year generated a fresh wave of international interest in the city, which was devastated by the atomic bombing 72 years ago. The city has launched a “peace tourism” campaign to attract attention to sites related to the nuclear devastation other than the symbolic Atomic Bomb Dome. (Nikkei Asian Review)

Robots lack sensitive touch
On the front line of automation, where robots truly are poised to displace humans from their jobs, some cutting-edge technology is testing the best minds in Japanese industry. It turns out it is remarkably hard to automate the bento lunchbox . . .  (FT)

The hijacking of the Brillante Virtuoso
In 2011, the 300-metre ship was plodding into the world’s most dangerous shipping lane in the pirate-strewn waters off Somalia with a cargo worth $100m when it was hijacked. Explosions ensued as well as an unsolved murder, but was this the most spectacular fraud in shipping history? (Bloomberg)

The men who trade Isis loot
Meet the middlemen who buy and sell the antiquities looted by the jihadi group from Syria and Iraq. (WSJ)

Has Donald Trump’s fledgling presidency already collapsed?
Jonathan Chait makes the case that the chaos that surrounds and consumes the White House is destroying Mr Trump’s presidency: “Politically gridlocked presidencies have become normal, but for the office to be occupied by a man whose own party elites doubt his functional competence and even loyalty is, to borrow a term, unpresidented. Trump’s obsession with humiliation and dominance has left him ill-prepared to cope with high-profile failure.” (NYMag)

Video of the day

The week ahead
Josh de la Mare previews some of the big stories in the week ahead, including a tour of Latin America by US vice-president Mike Pence as Venezuela tensions continue, UK insurers’ results, including Prudential and Standard Life, and key elections in Kenya. (FT)

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