Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 25 January 2019
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 stocks gain despite US-China trade jitters (CNBC) Major stock indexes in Asia closed higher on Friday despite fresh overnight uncertainties surrounding the ongoing U.S.-China trade negotiations. The U.S. dollar index rose to 96.432 after seeing a session low of 96.357 earlier. International Brent crude oil futures were at $61.89 a barrel at 0246 GMT, $0.80 (1.3%) above their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $53.90 per barrel, up $0.77 or 1.5%. Spot gold rose 0.2% at $1,282.50 per ounce, as of 0343 GMT, while U.S. gold futures were steady at $1,281.40 per ounce.
U.S.
- GOP senators read Pence riot act before shutdown votes (The Hill) Frustrated GOP senators read Vice President Pence the riot act at a closed-door meeting Thursday, telling him the partial government shutdown needs to end soon, according to lawmakers in the room. Republican senators, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell( KY), warned the vice president that prolonging the shutdown is not a smart political strategy, in hopes of sending a clear message to President Trump that he needs to resolve the crisis as soon as possible.
Lawmakers vented their irritation to Pence shortly before six GOP senators defected to vote for a Democratic-backed bill that would open the government without funding Trump’s proposed border wall.
- Senate seeks solution to open U.S. government, Trump insists on wall (Reuters) U.S. senators made a new try at ending a partial month-long government shutdown through a temporary funding bill on Thursday, but President Donald Trump demanded a “down payment” for a border wall that Democrats reject. After the Republican-led Senate failed to advance two measures to reopen shuttered agencies, Democratic and Republican lawmakers spoke on the Senate floor and urged quick passage of a three-week, stopgap funding bill to create time for talks on border security. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said such a measure would only work “if there is a large down payment on the wall.”
But a spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Senate Democrats had made clear to Republicans that “they will not support funding for the wall.”
- Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen subpoenaed by Senate panel: adviser (Reuters) President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and self-described “fixer” Michael Cohen has been subpoenaed to testify by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, Cohen’s adviser Lanny Davis said on Thursday.
- FBI Agents Are Saying They Can’t Do Their Jobs Because Of The Shutdown. Here Are Their Stories. (BuzzFeed News) FBI agents across the country shared their personal accounts of how the partial government shutdown is posing a threat to national security. The FBI Agents Association – which represents the interests of more than 14,000 active and former FBI special agents – released a 72-page report on Tuesday detailing the impact of the shutdown on its members.
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- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has proposed a “wealth tax” on some of the richest Americans.
- The new tax from Warren, who recently announced her bid to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020, would only apply to Americans with more than $50 million in assets.
- Roe: 47 Years and Counting (CounterPunch) The Roe decision forced 46 states to liberalize their abortion laws and became the defining issue of the culture wars. Personal privacy is at the heart of the debate over Roe as well as many of the other sex-related Court decisions over the last half-century. Before Roe, each state had the authority to determine the limits of a woman’s privacy, especially in terms of determining her pregnancy … and, possibly, an abortion.
Do Americans have a right to privacy? This “right” is not enumerated in the Constitution but the Ninth Amendment states, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” The battle over the right to privacy, especially a woman’s right to an abortion, defines the culture wars.
- US to become a net energy exporter in 2020 for first time in nearly 70 years, Energy Dept says (CNBC)
- The U.S. will start exporting more energy products than it imports next year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says.
- The country has been a net importer of energy since 1953, according to EIA.
- U.S. oil production continues to set new records through 2027, when it begins to level off.
- Polar vortex to inflict dangerous cold on midwestern, northeastern US to end January (MSN News) The colder air plunging back into midwestern and northeastern United States late this week will pale in comparison to the brutal cold expected to end January as the polar vortex plunges south with the deep freeze reaching a maximum the middle of next week. For the latest in hazardous weather nationally read the contumously updated Live: Severe Weather Events 21 January Through 27 January 2019. A new article for next week will be published Sunday night.
UK
- Goldman Sachs’s Solomon warns hard Brexit means less investment (Reuters) Goldman Sachs will invest less in the United Kingdom if there is a difficult or hard Brexit, Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said. Solomon told the BBC in Davos:
“Our headcount in the UK over the last couple of years has not gone down but it hasn’t gone up either – we have added head count you know on the continent. But I would say that, over time, if this is resolved in a difficult way or a hard way, it’ll have an impact on where we invest and where we put people.”
Iran
- American held in Iran faces ‘private complaint’: prosecutor (Reuters) An American held in Iran faces a complaint filed against him while authorities probe possible security charges against the ex-Marine, an Iranian prosecutor was quoted on Friday as saying, in a case that risks further worsening ties with Washington.
Russia
- Russia was China’s largest crude oil supplier in 2018, its third year in a row ahead of Saudi Arabia, customs data showed on Friday.
- Russian imports rose to 71.49 million tonnes in 2018 from 59.7 million tonnes in 2017.
- Demand for Russian crude was supported by a rise in throughput by China’s private refiners, who favour Russian grades such as ESPO.
Japan
- How a windswept island soured Japanese-Russian relations since 1945 (The Telegraph) See also Elderly Japanese pine for return to ‘lost’ northern islands taken by Russia (Raw Story). Surviving islanders and descendants of the 17,300 Japanese who were evicted from Japan’s Northern Territories (visible from Japan’s Hokaido shore) after Japan’s surrender in 1945, are pinning hopes on meetings this week in Moscow between Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, and Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, as well as follow-on meetings to follow.
The two leaders will discuss the future of the islands, which Moscow refers to as the Southern Kurils, as well as economic cooperation.
Tokyo has proposed that the Habomai archipelago and Shikotan be returned to Japanese control and that the two governments move forward on joint development of the remaining two disputed islands, Etorofu and Kunashiri.
China
- U.S. warships pass through Taiwan Strait amid China tensions (Reuters) The United States sent two warships through the Taiwan Strait on Thursday in the first such operation this year, the Taiwanese government said, as it increases the frequency of transits through the strategic waterway amid tensions with China. The voyage risks further heightening tensions with China, which considers Taiwan its own and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the self-ruled island under its control.
Venezuela
- Brazilian Generals Rule Out Military Intervention In Venezuela (BuzzFeed News) Venezuela’s President Maduro retains his military’s backing for now, despite international support for opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
The assessment of the military officials surrounding Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro – who requested anonymity to speak freely on a sensitive diplomatic matter – is that it’s only a matter of time before Maduro leaves Venezuela. He would only remain, according to these generals, if he is a “suicidal fanatic.”
Maduro’s failure, in the military’s eyes, is thanks to two recent failures: an inability to keep the opposition from declaring the presidency vacant after Maduro won a second term in an election viewed as rigged by international observers, and the recognition that world leaders quickly heaped upon the new government.
Mexico
- U.S. to start returning asylum seekers to Mexico on Friday (Reuters) The U.S. government will return the first group of migrants seeking asylum in the United States to the Mexican border city of Tijuana on Friday, U.S. and Mexican officials said, marking the start of a major policy shift by the Trump administration.
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