Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 06 March 2015
Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.
U.S.
Cruz on Trump’s heels after victories on Super Saturday (The Hill) Ted Cruz won the caucuses in Kansas and Maine in a runaway. Donald Trump edged him at the caucuses in Kentucky and the primary in Louisiana. The delagate count lead for Trump narrowed slightly (less than 100) but Trump still leads is states won 12 – 6.
Sanders takes two of three Dem contests on Super Saturday (The Hill) Bernie Sanders triumphed in the caucuses of Nebraska and Kansas, while rival Hillary Clinton won the only Democratic primary of the night, in Louisiana. Even though Sanders won two of the three states, the allocation of delegates will be close. Clinton took Louisiana Saturday, where 51 delegates are up for grabs, while there are only 58 delegates at stake total between Nebraska and Kansas, where the Vermont senator won. Clinton entered the day with a substantial advantage in pledged delegates, leading 610 to 411.
What you need to know about Hillary Clinton’s emails (The Washington Post) The Washington Post analyzed all 52,000 pages of Hillary Clinton’s correspondence released by the State Department over the past nine months. The Post found that 1,789 individual emails were classified as a result of the State Department’s review process. They were authored by 299 different people. The authors included Clinton and members of her inner circle, but also long-tenured diplomats and others. The 10 individuals who authored the most emails with classified redactions are listed in this article. The security exposures were ex post facto: The emails were not marked as “classified” at the time but do contain information now considered classified, according to the intelligence community’s inspector general.
EU
ECB Preview: Easing Mix in Sight as Draghi Aims to Over-Deliver (Bloomberg) The ECB is expected to deliver a package of easing measures at a March 10 meeting, or risk disappointing markets that are already pricing aggressive action. Expected policy measures include a deposit-rate cut by at least 10 basis points, an increase of 10 billion to 20 billion euros in monthly asset purchases and an extension of the program, economists and strategists say in client notes and interviews. The ECB is also likely to announce downward revisions to CPI and GDP forecasts, which would probably lead to broader consensus among governing council members for more easing.
Slovakia
Slovakia election: anti-immigration PM wins, but loses majority (The Guardian) Leftist-nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico could struggle to form a new government after ‘very complicated’ results. Fico’s Smer-Social Democracy party bet on a combination of popular welfare measures such as free train rides for students and pensioners and his opposition to accepting refugees to secure a third term, after ruling from 2006-2010 and 2012-2016. The results showed that at least eight groups may win seats in the new parliament. The biggest gains were for parties on the far-right.
Iran
U.S. Investors Late for Iran Deals Worth Billions, Greylock Says (Bloomberg) U.S. investors are at risk of getting shut out of deals in Iran while their European competitors get a head start on billions of dollars in opportunities unlocked by the lifting of international sanctions, according to Greylock Capital Management.
Japan
Aging, indebted Japan debates right to ‘die with dignity’ (Reuters) Although Japan has one of the world’s fastest aging populations, the country has no laws regarding “living wills”, let alone assisted suicide, which is legal in a few U.S. states such as California and some nations including Canada and Belgium. But as aging baby-boomers ponder their own demise and the country struggles with the worst public debt among advanced countries due partly to rising expenditure on medical care, the taboo on avoiding life-extending care is eroding. The topic of “natural death” is increasingly being tackled in TV shows, newspaper and magazine articles and books; seminars on preparing for death are popular; and health experts say the use of feeding tubes for feeble elderly patients is declining.
China
China’s Xi says won’t allow Taiwan to be ‘split’ off again (Reuters) China will never allow the tragedy of Taiwan being “split” off from the rest of the country to happen again, state media on Sunday quoted President Xi Jinping as saying, offering a strong warning to the island against any moves towards independence. China considers self-ruled and democratic Taiwan a wayward province, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after the Chinese civil war. Beijing has repeatedly warned against any moves towards independence since January’s landslide win by Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
Brazil
Senior judges voice concern over detention of former Brazilian president (The Guardian) Senior judges in Brazil have voiced concern over the detention of the former president, Luiz Inflcio Lula da Silva, even as they threw their support behind the sweeping corruption investigation that threatens to topple his embattled successor. Lula’s three hours of questioning in police custody on Friday was the highest profile development in the two-year-old investigation focused on state oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras).