Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 30 April 2018
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, published Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.
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​Global
- Asian shares rise on final trading day of the month (CNBC) Asian stocks rose on the last trading day of the month, as investors focused on a mix of ebbing geopolitical tensions, robust earnings and economic data. The dollar index traded flat at 91.553 at 11:41 a.m. HK/SIN. Brent crude futures shed 0.68% to trade at $74.13 per barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate eased 0.34% to $67.87. Spot gold was little changes, down less thanl 0.1% to $1,320.80 per ounce at 0428 GMT.
U.S.
- Judge puts Stormy Daniels case on hold for 90 days, citing likelihood Michael Cohen will be indicted (The Washington Post) A federal judge on Friday granted Michael Cohen’s request for a delay in a lawsuit brought against him by porn star Stormy Daniels, saying it appeared likely Cohen will be indicted in a related criminal investigation.
Judge S. James Otero’s order for a 90-day stay comes two days after Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself in the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California. Cohen’s declaration cited the investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, who are examining his role in quashing embarrassing stories about Trump during the 2016 campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter.
- Was Jeff Sessions Aware of a Proposed Trump-Putin Back Channel? (Rolling Stone) New details from the House Intelligence Committee suggest the attorney general was privy to a critical episode of the NRA-Russia scandal.
Democrats have published a response to the House Intelligence Committee report on the Trump/Russia nexus, released Friday by the committee’s Republican majority. The minority report offers new details – and unanswered questions – about the role of the NRA as a conduit between Russia and the Trump campaign, raising fresh questions about then-Senator Jeff Sessions’ knowledge of Russian outreach.
- White House: Records dispute allegations against Jackson (Associated Press) The White House said Friday that internal records raise doubt about some of the most serious allegations leveled against White House doctor Ronny Jackson in his failed bid to become the next secretary of Veterans Affairs. Jackson withdrew his nomination Thursday after allegations by current and former colleagues raised questions about his prescribing practices and leadership ability, including accusations of drunkenness on the job. Democratic Sen. Jon Tester’s office collected the allegations, which included a claim that Jackson “got drunk and wrecked a government vehicle” at a Secret Service going-away party.
The records, including police reports, show Jackson was in three minor vehicle incidents in government vehicles during the last five years, but none involved the use of alcohol and he was not found to be at fault. In one case, a side-view mirror was clipped by a passing truck. In another incident an enraged driver in Montgomery County, Maryland, allegedly punched out Jackson’s window during a morning drive to Camp David.
- Trump: If Dems win in 2018 midterms, they’ll impeach me (The Hill) President Trump said Saturday that Republicans need to maintain the House majority, otherwise he could face impeachment from Democrats. Trump said at a Michigan rally:
“We have to keep the House because if we listen to Maxine Waters, she’s going around saying ‘We will impeach him’. ”
- Democrat Phil Bredesen is running against his own party to win in pro-Trump Tennessee (CNN) Bredesen, the former two-term governor of Tennessee and former mayor of Nashville, says:
“I don’t want to come across as somebody who is the toy of the national Democratic Party.”
- Ex-Bush ethics official to run for Franken’s former Senate seat as Dem: report (The Hill) Richard Painter, the former chief ethics lawyer for George W. Bush’s administration, is expected to announce on Monday he will run as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by Al Franken (D-MN). The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported Sunday that Painter, who has been a frequent critic of President Trump, recently filed paperwork with federal elections officials to run against Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who replaced Franken in January.
- Michelle Wolf’s Routine Sets Off a Furor at an Annual Washington Dinner (The New York Times) Comedian Michelle Wolf delivered a roast that took unflinching aim at some of the notables in the room – and quickly opened a divide, largely but not entirely along partisan lines, over the limits of comedy and comity under a president who rarely hesitates to attack the press. Criticism came from both the right and the left, generally of the opinion that Wolf simpily went too far into cruel and crude humor. (Not everybody was critical, however. – See also next article.)
- Opinion: Michelle Wolf got it just right (Twitter, The Washington Post)
- Renewable Energy Dominates Early 2018 Power Plant Construction (EcoWatch) The February Infrastructure Update from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reported that 98 percent of power plants built in the first two months of 2018 were renewable, Popular Mechanics reported Thursday. During January and February, the U.S. saw an additional 2,173 megawatts of electricity generation constructed. A full 1,568 of those megawatts came from wind power and 565 from solar. The only fossil fuel to add megawatts to the grid was natural gas, with a mere 40. Also, Kaiserwetter Energy Asset Management, an industry asset manager based in Germany, used data from Bloomberg, the Frankfurt School, Renewable Cost Database of the International Agency for Renewable Energy (IRENA) and UN Environment and concluded that it cost G20 countries $49 to $174 per megawatt hour to generate energy from fossil fuels in 2017 and only $35 to $54 per megawatt hour to generate energy from renewable sources. See also next article.
- Renewables Now Contribute Nearly One-Fifth of U.S. Electricity Generation (EcoWatch) Coal is the big loser as natural gas and renewables have surged in generation of electricity in the U.S.
UK
- Exposed: Russian Twitter bots tried to swing general election for Jeremy Corbyn (The Sunday Times) The first evidence of Russian attempts to influence the result of the general election by promoting the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has emerged in a ground-breaking investigation into social media by The Times. The paper’s research, in conjunction with Swansea University, discovered that 6,500 Russian Twitter accounts rallied behind Labour in the weeks before last year’s election, helping supportive messages to reach millions of voters and denigrating its Conservative rivals.
- British interior minister Rudd resigns after immigration scandal (Reuters) Britain’s interior minister resigned on Sunday after Prime Minister Theresa May’s government faced an outpouring of indignation over its treatment of some long-term Caribbean residents who were wrongly labeled illegal immigrants.
- Theresa May urged to sack Brexit negotiator Oliver Robbins as cabinet revolts over customs (The Sunday Times) Theresa May has been told she could be ousted like Margaret Thatcher unless she sacks her chief Brexit negotiator, Oliver Robbins, and ditches his plan to bind Britain into a customs partnership with the EU.
David Davis, the Brexit secretary, has told May that she should ignore Robbins and start listening to her ministers instead – a move that the mandarin has interpreted as an attempt to get him fired.
Syria
- Syria reports rocket attacks on military bases near Hama, Aleppo (The Hill) Rockets hit multiple Syrian military bases in Hama and Aleppo on Saturday night, according to Syrian state media. State television reported that “enemy” rockets struck at 10:30 p.m. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the blasts in the rural Hama province. Reuters reported that one of the locations hit was widely known as a recruitment center for Iranian-backed militia soldiers who fight alongside President Bashar Assad’s troops. Other missiles reportedly hit weapons warehouses.
India
- The Sino-Indian summit last week could be a new departure for neighbors who realize there is no alternative to constructive political, economic and security engagement.
- China and India are part of a Eurasian institution that can make that possible.
- Those two countries could soon become the key drivers of global demand and output.
North Korea
- Trump says North Korean meeting could happen in 3-4 weeks (CNBC) President Donald Trump said at a campaign rally in Washington, Michigan:
“I think we will have a meeting over the next three or four weeks. It’s going be a very important meeting, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
South Korea
- South Korea to remove loudspeakers along border, North Korea to align time zone with the South (Reuters) In initial small steps toward reconciliation, South Korea said on Monday it would remove loudspeakers that blared propaganda across the border, while North Korea said it would shift its clocks to align with its southern neighbor.
China
- China says its manufacturing activity slowed down in April amid trade fight with the US (CNBC) China’s official PMI reports for April showed continued strong service sector activity but slowingg for manufacturing. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released on Monday fell for manufacturing to 51.4 in April, from 51.5 in March, but remained well above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis. It marked the 21st straight month of expanding business conditions
- America’s Weak Case Against China (Project Syndicate) Yale economics professor Stephen S. Roach writes:
On the surface, United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer appears to have made an ironclad case against China in the so-called Section 301 report issued on March 22. Laid out in a detailed 182-page document (which, with 1,139 footnotes and five appendices, would make any legal team blush with pride), the USTR’s indictment of China on charges of unfair trading practices regarding technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation seems both urgent and compelling.
But don’t be fooled. The report is wide of the mark in several key areas. First, it accuses China of “forced technology transfer,” arguing that US companies must turn over the blueprints of proprietary technologies and operating systems in order to do business in China. This transfer is alleged to take place within the structure of joint-venture arrangements – partnerships with domestic counterparts which China and other countries have long established as models for the growth and expansion of new businesses. Currently, there are more than 8,000 JVs operating in China, compared to a total of over 110,000 JVs and strategic alliances that have been set up around the world since 1990.
Significantly, US and other multinational corporations willingly enter into these legally-negotiated arrangements for commercially sound reasons – not only to establish a toehold in China’s rapidly growing domestic markets, but also as a means to improve operating efficiency with a low-cost offshore Chinese platform. Portraying US companies as innocent victims of Chinese pressure is certainly at odds with my own experience as an active participant in Morgan Stanley’s joint venture with the China Construction Bank (and a few small minority investors) to establish China International Capital Corporation in 1995.
Mexico
- Migrants from caravan in limbo as U.S. says border crossing full (Reuters) About 50 people from a Central American migrant caravan including women, children and transgender individuals tried to seek U.S. asylum on Sunday but were not allowed to cross the Mexico border because officials said the facility was full.
