Good morning. The New York State Department of Financial Services said it would start charging cryptocurrency firms registered in the state for the costs of annual supervision and examination, Risk & Compliance Journal's Mengqi Sun reports.

• Banking supervision model: The new rule, adopted Monday and applying to those holding a so-called Bitlicense, aligns the crypto sector more closely with how the agency bills insurance and banking firms in New York for the assessment fees that fund the agency’s operations.
   
• Helping to bolster operations: The assessment charges, proposed in December, will help the New York regulator bring in additional resources and hire more staff to expand its virtual currency unit, the agency said.
   
• How the fees are assessed: The assessment fees will in part be based on a formula of a crypto firm’s size and complexity, NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris said recently at a crypto industry conference.The assessment, she said, will ultimately “go a long way toward helping the space grow and helping make sure it grows safely.”

The Risk & Compliance Forum on May 9 will feature speakers including Glenn Leon, chief of the fraud section at the Justice Department, Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod, Elizabeth Atlee, chief ethics & compliance officer at CBRE and Sidney Majalya, chief risk officer at Binance.US. You can register here.

SEC sues Bittrex crypto exchange and former CEO.

Securities regulators sued Bittrex, a crypto exchange that once ranked as the biggest U.S.-based platform for trading digital assets.

The charges. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit accuses Bittrex Inc. of operating an illegal securities exchange, broker-dealer and clearinghouse. The lawsuit hinges on the claim that Bittrex listed digital assets that qualified as securities, which would have required the company to register with the SEC and follow its rules.

Fox News, Dominion face risks if defamation case goes to trial. 

Both Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News face legal risks if their heavyweight defamation battle goes to trial beginning Tuesday, but any last-minute settlement talks would need to overcome two years of intense legal hostilities that so far have put an agreement out of reach.

Both sides gained an extra day Monday to consider their positions as Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis delayed the start of the trial until Tuesday. Jurors are scheduled to begin considering whether Fox News and Fox Business defamed Dominion in a series of broadcasts airing false claims by associates of Donald Trump that the voting-machine company helped rig the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden.

U.S., allies weigh how to reduce economic ties with China.

The U.S. and its allies are grappling with how to pare their economic relationships with China, attempting to limit ties in certain sectors they view as strategic while preserving broader trade and investment flows with the world’s second-largest economy.

What's the issue? The Group of Seven advanced democracies are growing concerned that China, a dominant supplier of many goods and materials, could cut off key exports in the event of a conflict or another pandemic, according to top Western economic officials. They also worry that Western investment and expertise, if left unrestricted, could help develop Beijing’s military.

• G-7 Countries Claim Unity on China After Macron Comments
• China’s Economy Rebounds After Three Years of Zero-Covid Isolation
• U.S.-China Tensions Over Taiwan Put Pressure on Europe

• Regulators knew they were facing a political hornet’s nest when they launched a plan that would force businesses to disclose their carbon emissions and other climate data. The fight has been just as bitter among companies.
   
• Few U.S. banks protected themselves against rising interest rates during the Federal Reserve’s monetary-tightening campaign last year, according to a research paper that says unhedged securities holdings are more widespread than investors might realize.
   
• Charles Schwab Corp. and State Street Corp. both reported a decline in customer deposits, the latest sign that rising interest rates continue to weigh on banks’ balance sheets.
   
• Jet fighters and military helicopters roared in the skies above Sudan’s capital and residents sheltered at home from gunfire and explosions, as a lethal power battle between the country’s top generals dragged into a third day Monday.

• More than 40 Chinese security officers and their associates wielded thousands of fake social-media personas to discredit American policies and set up a secret police station in New York City to harass China’s critics, U.S. prosecutors charged in three complaints unveiled Monday.
   
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said coming legislation would nullify agreements that Walt Disney Co. struck in February to maintain substantial control over the land near Orlando where its theme parks are located.
   
• Environmentalists have long treated lumber producer Weyerhaeuser Co. as an enemy. Now, the new math of carbon emissions is enabling it to cast itself as something quite different: a force for environmental good.
   
• Companies are bringing back relocation benefits, paying for workers to move across the country and around the world again, in a sign of how much bosses really do want workers back in the office.
   
• The jailed WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich appeared in a Moscow court on Tuesday, where an appeal on his detention was being heard.