Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 27 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.
Global
Viewpoints: What the World Thinks About Clinton vs. Trump (Worldpress.org) Worldpress.org has gathered a sampling of recent news coverage from around the globe to give you the international perspective on Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump.
U.S.
Bernie Sanders Wins Washington State and Alaska; Hawaii Democrats Are Also Voting (The New York Times) Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders easily won nominating contests in Alaska and Washington on Saturday, chipping away at front-runner Hillary Clinton’s commanding lead in the race to pick the party’s candidate for the White House. Sanders still faces a steep uphill climb to overtake Clinton but the big victories in the West generated more momentum for his upstart campaign and could stave off calls from Democratic leaders that he should wrap up his bid in the name of party unity. Graphic below shows the crushing margins in Saturday’s caucuses:
Chief Justice Roberts Predicted The Supreme Court Nightmare Unfolding Right Before His Eyes (The Huffington Post) We don’t know how Roberts really feels about the gridlock over the vacancy at the Supreme Court. But an eventual appointment of Garland – or of any other Democratic nominee – carries a real risk for him. He’d become the first chief justice in several decades to be relegated to a minority with respect to the president who appointed the court’s current members. It was just last month, during an appearance at New England Law in Boston, that Roberts presaged precisely the kind of political chaos that’s unfolding over the court’s empty seat. His words, delivered before Scalia’s death, were prophetic. Roberts said:
“When you have a sharply political, divisive hearing process, it increases the danger that whoever comes out of it will be viewed in those terms. If the Democrats and Republicans have been fighting so fiercely about whether you’re going to be confirmed, it’s natural from someone in the public to say, ‘Well, you must be identified in a particular way as a result of that process.'”
Looking Back at Lehman’s Collapse With the Woman Who Fell Farthest (Bloomberg) Erin Callan’s new memoir recalls the steep price she paid to become Lehman’s CFO just in time for the financial crisis.
Police Brutality Protesters ‘Destroyed American Cities,’ Senator’s New Ad Claims (The Huffington Post) Sen. Pat Toomey (R, PA) is making strong statements in his reelection campaign decrying protests against police brutality. Below is a campaign ad:
UK
Northward Christian soldiers (The Economist) In 2001 40.1m Britons declared themselves Christian on the census form; in 2011, the figure was just 36.1m, or 59% of the population. Yet some places are resisting the tide of godlessness. According to a new analysis of census data, Britain’s bastions of Christianity tend to be urban (“but not too urban”) and mostly in north-west England. But the change is not due to increases in Islam or any other religion – the declines in numbers of professed Christians are matched by the numbers declaring they have no religion.
Nepal
The Real Stories of Mt. Everest’s Sherpas (Bloomberg) Sherpa, a documentary directed by Jennifer Peedom, focuses on Nepal’s Sherpa men who risk their lives to get Westerners to the top of Everest and other Himalayan summits such as K2. The film – which makes its TV debut on April 23 on Discovery Channel just as climbers start their spring ascent of Everest – was produced for a fraction of the cost of other recent films about Everest, but it feels like the bigger movie. The video below is an interview with Ms. Peedom about the film:
North Korea
North Korea propaganda video depicts nuclear attack on Washington (USA Today) North Korea released a dramatic propaganda video Saturday called “Last Chance” that depicts a nuclear strike on Washington, complete with animation of a missile slamming into the earth near the Lincoln Memorial. The four-minute video, backed by a hyper musical score reminiscent of TV Westerns of the 1960s, includes a mushroom cloud and an American flag going up in flames.
Brazil
Tick tock (The Economist) On 18 March the clock started ticking for Dilma Rousseff,according to The Economist. The lower house of Brazil’s Congress voted to start the impeachment process against the president, who has until early April to present her defense. She faces charges of using accounting trickery to hide the true size of the budget deficit. Her congressional foes plan to put forward a second motion based on allegations that relate more directly to the main scandal that threatens her future: a former ally claims that she tried to obstruct a wide-ranging investigation into a multibillion-dollar bribery scheme at Petrobras, the state-controlled oil giant, from which her left-wing Workers’ Party (PT) profited. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands are demonstrating in the streets demanding her removal.
Mexico
Mexicans burn Donald Trump effigies in Easter ritual (Reuters) Mexicans celebrating an Easter ritual late on Saturday burnt effigies of U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, whose anti-immigrant views have sparked outrage south of the American border. In Mexico City’s poor La Merced neighborhood, hundreds of cheering residents yelled “death” and various insults as they watched the explosion of the grinning papier-mâché mock-up of the real estate tycoon, replete with blue blazer, red tie and his trademark tuft of blond hair. Media reported that Trump effigies burned across Mexico, from Puebla to Mexico’s industrial hub Monterrey. The burning is part of a widespread Mexican Holy Week tradition where neighborhoods burn effigies to represent Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus Christ according to the Bible. The effigies are often modeled on unpopular political figures.
