Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 22 Aug 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
- Asia markets mixed as US politics take center stage (CNBC) Asian markets were mixed on Wednesday as investors looked to tariff talks between the U.S. and China later this week, with sentiments lifted by Wall Street’s strong Tuesday session which saw the S&P 500 touch an all-time high. The U.S. dollar index traded flat at 95.246 at 3:16 p.m. HK/SIN. U.S. crude gainied 0.64% to $66.26 a barrel. Global benchmark Brent was also up 0.66% at $73.11.
- Record Long Bull May Be Nearly 3 Years Away (Twitter) Whether a new record length for a bull market has been acheived depends on whether one counts the 19.92% drawdown late 1990 as 20% or not.
U.S.
- Trump ‘directed’ hush money, says Cohen (BBC News) US President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has pleaded guilty in a Manhattan court to violating campaign finance laws. He said he did so at the direction of “the candidate“, for the “principal purpose of influencing [the] election“. Mr Cohen’s admission was related to hush money paid to Mr Trump’s alleged mistresses. The 51-year-old admitted eight counts, including tax and bank fraud in a plea deal with prosecutors. Mr Trump ignored questions about Mr Cohen as he arrived on Tuesday evening for a pre-scheduled rally in West Virginia. The White House also declined to comment.
- Paul Manafort trial: Jury finds former Trump campaign manager guilty on 8 counts in tax fraud case (USA Today) A federal jury has found Paul Manafort guilty on eight of 18 counts in the financial fraud trial of a man who just two years ago helped President Donald Trump secure the Republican nomination for the White House. Manafort was found guilty on five counts of submitting false tax returns, one count of failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts, and two counts of bank fraud. The verdict here does not mark the end of Manafort’s legal troubles. The 69-year-old longtime Republican operative faces a second trial next month in the District of Columbia on related charges of money laundering.
- Trump lashes out after Cohen, Manafort blows (The Hill) President Trump capped off one of his worst days as president by lashing out at familiar targets, hours after two of his former confidants simultaneously were found guilty and pleaded guilty in federal criminal probes. Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty on Tuesday in New York to violating campaign-finance law by arranging hush money payments for two women, saying he did so in coordination with Trump. Minutes later in a Virginia courtroom, Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. The president responded to the twin legal blows ahead of a campaign event in West Virginia, telling reporters the Manafort conviction was a “disgrace” that had “nothing to do with Russian collusion.” Trump said he feels “badly for both” Manafort and Cohen, but did not comment further on his former lawyer’s guilty plea.
- Lanny Davis: Cohen ‘more than happy’ to tell Mueller ‘all that he knows’ (The Hill) Michael Cohen’s attorney on Tuesday night said his client had knowledge that would be “of interest” to Robert Mueller and would be willing to tell the special counsel “all that he knows“.
- Cohen implicated Trump in campaign finance crimes – but did not name him directly. Here’s why (CNBC)
- President Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen made a startling admission in New York federal court on Tuesday.
- At the direction of a “federal candidate,” Cohen said, he facilitated payments on two occasions to two women in order to keep information from the public for the purposes of winning an election.
- According to experts, Cohen may have been told that he was not allowed to use the president’s name because Trump is not a defendant in the case.
- Michigan health director Nick Lyon to face trial on Flint charges (USA Today) A judge on Monday ordered Michigan’s state health director to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter charges in the deaths of two men linked to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Flint area, the highest ranking official to stand trial as a result of the scandal. Nick Lyon is accused of failing to issue a timely alert to the public about the outbreak. Judge David Goggins said deaths likely could have been prevented if the outbreak had been publicly known and keeping the public in the dark was “corrupt.” Some experts have blamed Legionnaires’ on the scandal over Flint’s water, which wasn’t properly treated when it was drawn from the Flint River in 2014 and 2015.
- Hurricane Lane May Threaten Hawaii (GEI) A category 4 monster may strike Hawaii Friday.
- Florida Manatee: 10% of Population Could Be Wiped Out This Year (EcoWatch) 2018 has not been a good year for Florida’s iconic manatees. A total of 540 sea cows have died in the last eight months, surpassing last year’s total of 538 deaths, according to figures posted Monday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The figure will likely climb higher before the year’s end amid the state’s ongoing toxic algae crisis. The red tide in the state’s southwest is the known or suspected cause of death for 97 manatees as of Aug. 12, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission recently reported. Combined with the winter cold spell, which claimed 69 manatees, more than 10% of the state’s estimated manatee population of around 6,300 individuals could be wiped out this year.
EU
- President Donald Trump said Tuesday night that the U.S. would slap a 25 percent tariff on cars coming from the European Union.
- The president’s statement came hours after The Wall Street Journal reported that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he had postponed an August timeline to publish a report on auto tariffs.
- “We’re going to put a 25 percent tax on every car that comes into the United States from the European Union,” Trump said at a campaign rally in West Virginia.
- Measles cases hit record high in Europe (BBC News) Measles is a highly infectious viral illness that can be deadly. More than 41,000 people have been infected in the first six months of 2018, leading to 37 deaths. Last year there were 23,927 cases and the year before 5,273. Experts blame this surge in infections on a drop in the number of people being vaccinated. Measles is highly infectious and spreads by droplets in coughs and sneezes. The infection lasts seven to 10 days. But while most people recover completely, it can cause some serious complications, including:
- encephalitis (infection and swelling of the brain)
- meningitis
- febrile convulsions
- pneumonia
- liver infection (hepatitis)
UK
- UK Tax Receipts Surge (Twitter) See also Families protest against £5million SEND funding cut by Bristol City Council before judicial review (BristolLive)
- EU residents will be secure if no Brexit deal says Raab (BBC News) EU residents will not be ‘turfed out‘. The UK will “move swiftly” to safeguard the future of EU citizens in the event of no deal being agreed, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has said. After talks in Brussels, he told the BBC the UK had a “moral obligation” to people.
