Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 19 February 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
- Asia markets mixed amid renewed US-China tensions (CNBC) Stocks in Asia were mixed on Tuesday amid renewed geopolitical tensions, with China accusing the U.S. of fueling cybersecurity fears. The U.S. dollar index was at 96.893 after touching an earlier high of 96.935. Brent crude futures were largely flat at $66.51 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.74% to $56.00 per barrel. Spot gold was little changed at $1,326.10 per ounce as of 0048 GMT, after touching a 10-month high of $1,327.64 an ounce in the previous session.
U.S.
- Rod Rosenstein, key figure behind Mueller inquiry, expected to step down in mid-March (The Guardian) Rod Rosenstein, the US deputy attorney general who appointed a special counsel to investigate possible ties between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign, is expected to step down by mid March, a Justice Department official has said. Rosenstein had been expected to depart shortly after new Attorney General William Barr assumed office. Barr was confirmed for the role by the US Senate last week.
The Justice official said Rosenstein’s departure was not related to renewed allegations that he considered wearing a wire in meetings with Trump and using the 25th amendment of the U.S. Constitution to remove the president from office.
- Kellyanne Conway’s Husband Thinks We Should Be Worried About Donald Trump’s Mental Stability (Mother Jones) It’s no secret that one of the goals the Trump presidency is to try to make nice with North Korea, but a new report from the New York Times suggests that that president is willing to go extraordinary lengths to paint himself as the hero in America’s decades-long standoff with the communist country. And that’s pissing off people close to his administration – namely George Conway, husband of top aide Kellyanne Conway. Reporter Peter Baker published a story over the weekend detailing Trump’s claims that former President Barack Obama came startlingly close to going to war with North Korea. Conway saw the news as another sign of the president’s supposed instability.
- Alabama newspaper editor calls for Klan return to ‘clean out D.C.’ (Montgomery Advertiser) The editor of a small-town Alabama newspaper published an editorial calling for “the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again” against “Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats [who] are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama.”
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- 16 US states sue over Trump border wall emergency declaration (The Guardian) A coalition of 16 US states led by California has launched legal action against Donald Trump’s administration over his decision to declare a national emergency in order to fund a wall along the Mexico border. The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the US district court for the northern district of California after Trump invoked emergency powers on Friday when Congress declined his request for $5.7bn to help create his signature policy promise. His move aims to let him spend money appropriated by Congress for other purposes.
- Fox News’ Chris Wallace Hammers Stephen Miller: How Is This a ‘National Emergency?’ (Daily Beast) The last time Stephen Miller got this heated during a television interview, CNN’s Jake Tapper had to cut him off for “wasting” viewers’ time and the White House adviser reportedly had to be escorted out of the building by security. This time, he was on Fox News, struggling to defend President Donald Trump’s announcement this week that he would be declaring a national emergency to obtain the funding his border wall with Mexico in a highly contentious sit-down with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. See also article under Mexico, below.
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- Legal experts are stunned as Roger Stone files a mortifying apology with the court after his attack on a judge (Alternet) Roger Stone filed a formal apology to Judge Amy Berman Jackson Monday for posting a picture on Instagram in the afternoon that showed her face next to crosshairs. After the post was initially criticized, he reposted the image with the crosshairs cropped out and with toned-down language. He later removed the second version of the image as well. He told reporters than any inference that the photo was meant to be threatening was “false,” and many noted that Stone himself had not taken the original image but apparently found it on a conspiracy website. In his apology, Stone wrote:
Please inform the Court that the photograph and comment today was improper and should not have been posted. I had no intention of disrespecting the Court and humbly apologize to the Court for the transgression.
- The changing face of Congress in 6 charts (Pew Research Center) The 116th U.S. Congress took office in January, with Democrats taking control of the House while Republicans maintain an edge in the Senate. Apart from its political makeup, the new Congress differs from prior ones in other ways, including its demographics. Here are six charts that show how Congress has changed over time, using historical data from CQ Roll Call, the Brookings Institution, the Congressional Research Service and other sources. See also For the fifth time in a row, the new Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse ever. Here are 3 of the 6 graphics:
EU
- Is ECB Turning Off the Spigots? (Twitter)
Germany​
- Germany’s Trade Partners in 2018 (Twitter)
Ireland
- Ireland urges people not to stockpile medicines ahead of Brexit (Reuters) Ireland’s deputy prime minister on Tuesday called on people not to stockpile medicine before Britain quits the European Union, saying the country had at least eight weeks of supply and was moving to source medicines from other EU countries.
Despite its large pharmaceutical industry, Ireland relies on Britain for many medicines. Some of them may not be approved for use in the EU if Britain leaves on March 29 without a deal, Simon Coveney told RTE radio.
Egypt
- Egyptian security forces kill 16 suspected militants: state media (Reuters) Egyptian security forces killed 16 suspected militants in two separate raids in the city of Arish in North Sinai, state-run Al Ahram said on Tuesday.
Syria
- Syrian Kurdish leader: border force needed to protect us from Turkey (The Guardian) The leader of the Syrian Kurds has called for a small international observer force to be stationed on the Turkey-Syria border to protect Kurds from what she says is the threat of crimes against humanity committed by Turkish forces. Ilham Ahmed is co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council – the political arm of the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have been responsible for liberating much of north-eastern Syria from Islamic State.
Described as one of the most powerful women in Syria, Ahmed is leading a Kurdish delegation touring Washington, Paris and London to persuade western countries not to betray the Kurds by leaving them exposed to the threat of a Turkish attack.
Saudi Arabia
- Congress closer to forcing Trump’s hand on Saudi support (The Hill) Supporters of a measure to cut off U.S. support to Saudi Arabia in Yemen are projecting victory in the coming weeks when the Senate takes up a House-passed resolution. The Trump administration is expected to ramp up its lobbying against the Yemen war powers resolution as the vote nears in hopes of flipping some of the Republicans who back the measure. But opponents have few tools at their disposal to stop the resolution, which only needs a simple majority for a procedural vote and subsequent final passage.
Russia
- U.S. Intelligence: Russia Tried to Con the World With Bogus Missile (Daily Beast) On Jan. 23, Russian military officials held a press conference showing off what they said was a cruise missile at the center of a years-long arms control controversy between Washington and Moscow. Except the presentation was essentially a hoax, according to a classified briefing prepared by U.S. intelligence. Neither the missile, nor its launch vehicle, nor the accompanying schematics were what Russia claimed them to be.
India
- ‘A free pass for mobs to kill’: India urged to stem cow vigilante violence (The Guardian) Hindu cow vigilante groups in India are escaping punishment for lynchings because of police inertia and complicity by local officials, leaving the family of those affected without justice, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. The report urges the government to prosecute mob violence by cow protection groups that have targeted Muslims, Dalits and other minorities in the five years since theHindu nationalist BJP came to power.
Japan
- Japan’s Superior Performance (Twitter)
China
- China’s top graft buster to go after ‘political deviation’ (Reuters) China’s top anti-corruption body will target “political deviation” this year along with continued efforts to stamp out graft, it said on Tuesday, as part of a long-running campaign to improve discipline in the ruling Communist Party.
- New round of US-China trade talks to kick off in Washington on Tuesday (CNBC)
- A new round of talks between the U.S. and China to resolve their trade war will take place in Washington on Tuesday.
- The talks will follow-up with sessions at a higher level later in the week, the White House said.
- The discussions follow a round of negotiations that ended in Beijing last week without a deal but which officials said had generated progress on contentious issues between the world’s two largest economies.
Mexico
- What we know about illegal immigration from Mexico (Pew Research Center) There were 12.0 million immigrants from Mexico living in the United States in 2016, and fewer than half of them (45%) were in the country illegally, according to Pew Research Center estimates. Mexico is the country’s largest source of immigrants, making up 26.6% of all U.S. immigrants. With President Donald Trump’s administration taking steps to reduce the number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. – including through the increase of law enforcement agents at the southern border – here’s what we know about illegal immigration from Mexico.
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