Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 03 Apr 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
- Stocks in Asia rise as investors await developments on US-China trade (CNBC) Major Asian stock markets closed higher on Wednesday following a report that said the U.S. and China are closer to reaching a trade agreement. (See article under China, below.) The U.S. dollar index was lower at 97.187 after seeing highs around 97.5 yesterday. Brent crude futures contract gained 0.62% to $69.80 per barrel, while U.S. crude futures rose 0.32% to $62.78 per barrel. Spot gold was flat at $1,292.48 per ounce as of 0354 GMT, having touched its lowest level since March 7 at $1,284.76 in the previous session.
- Toxic air will shorten children’s lives by 20 months, study reveals (The Guardian) The life expectancy of children born today will be shortened by 20 months on average by breathing the toxic air that is widespread across the globe, with the greatest toll in south Asia. Air pollution contributed to nearly one in every 10 deaths in 2017, making it a bigger killer than malaria and road accidents and comparable to smoking. The problem is also serious in Europe, see Air pollution deaths are double previous estimates, finds research. For research details see State of Global Air/2019.
U.S.
- GOP shuts down Trump health push (The Hill) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) shut the door Tuesday on any possibility that the Senate would move legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act before the 2020 election. McConnell rejected a request from President Trump last week that Republican lawmakers prepare a comprehensive package, ending the debate and attempting to protect GOP senators up for reelection next year. McConnell delivered the message to Trump in a phone conversation Monday afternoon. See also Trump says health care plan will be first vote after 2020 election.
- Judge allows Wisconsin to withdraw from two lawsuits against ObamaCare (The Hill) A federal court has allowed Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general to withdraw the state from a pair of lawsuits challenging the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare. Josh Kaul’s office announced Tuesday that the U.S. District Court in Northern Texas granted Kaul’s request to remove Wisconsin from two lawsuits the state is involved that challenge the health care law, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
- Here’s what 2020 Democratic presidential candidates want to fund by reversing the Trump tax cuts (CNBC)
- 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are proposing to fund various programs by rolling back parts of the 2017 Republican tax law.
- President Donald Trump’s rivals aim to criticize the president’s signature legislative achievement and put forward their own proposals at the same time.
- Democrats have said they would use changes to the Republican tax overhaul to fund things such as tax credits for low-income people and an infrastructure overhaul.
- Mar-a-Lago: woman with malware and Chinese passports accused of illegal entry (The Guardian) A woman carrying two Chinese passports and a device containing computer malware lied to Secret Service agents and briefly gained admission to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club over the weekend during his Florida visit, federal prosecutors allege in court documents. Yujing Zhang, 32, approached a Secret Service agent at a checkpoint outside the Palm Beach club early Saturday afternoon and said she was a member who wanted to use the pool, court documents said. She showed the passports as identification.
Zhang appears to have been trying to access an event arranged by Li Yang, a Chinese native, Republican donor and former Florida massage parlor owner, the Miami Herald reported on Tuesday evening.
- Trump tells House GOP to be ‘paranoid’ about vote counts (CNN) President Donald Trump — who has previously issued baseless claims about ballot-counting and voter fraud — warned House Republicans to be “more paranoid” about vote tallies during a speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee spring dinner.
EU
- EU parliamentary committee backs visa-free travel for Britons after Brexit (Reuters) A European Parliament committee on Wednesday backed giving Britons the right to travel to the European Union without visas after Brexit, following weeks of controversy over the way the draft legislation dubs Gibraltar a UK “colony”.
UK
- Theresa May warned Brexit pact with Corbyn could tear Tories apart (The Guardian) Theresa May has been warned that a pact with Jeremy Corbyn to deliver a Brexit deal could destroy the Conservative party, as Eurosceptic MPs reacted with horror to her offer to work with Labour. Dozens of pro-Brexit Conservatives lined up to condemn the proposal from the prime minister, which could involve tearing up a manifesto commitment not to pursue a customs union.
May and Corbyn were due to hold talks later on Wednesday with the possibility of hammering out a common position by the end of the week. Any deal would then be presented to the EU at a summit next week with the aim of leaving on 22 May and avoiding European parliamentary elections.
Turkey
- Turkish election board rules in favor of partial Istanbul recount (Reuters) Turkey’s election board ruled on Wednesday in favor of a recount in eight of Istanbul’s 39 districts after an initial count showed the main opposition candidate earned a narrow victory in the city’s local election.
India
- India’s top court voided rules meant to resolve bad debt. That’s not good for banks, Moody’s says (CNBC)
- Ratings agency Moody’s says a recent ruling from India’s top court that voided guidelines about how lenders should resolve their bad debts is potentially bad news for Indian banks.
- India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Reserve Bank of India acted beyond its powers when it tightened those guidelines last February.
- For some bad loans, the resolution process may now have to start over, says Srikanth Vadlamani, vice president at Moody’s Investors Service.
- U.S. State Department approves sale of 24 MH-60R copters worth $2.6 bn to India (The Hindu) The United States Department of State has approved the sale of 24 MH-60R multi-mission helicopters to India under its Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. The value of the potential is $2.6 billion, as per a statement released on Tuesday by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the body that administers the FMS program. The principal contractor for the deal will be Lockheed Martin. The proposed sale will provide India the capability to undertake anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare missions.
Japan
- Outnumbered and elderly, Okinawa protesters oppose U.S. military runway (Reuters) A month after Jinshiro Motoyama’s five-day hunger strike forced a referendum over a new U.S. military runway on Japan’s island of Okinawa, he came to bid farewell to a knot of protesters trying to block trucks heading for the building site.
China
- Stocks & Bond Yields Jump As Algos Misread US-China Trade Headlines (Zero Hedge) Both countries have yet to agree on what happens to existing U.S. duties on Chinese goods and the terms of an enforcement mechanism to ensure China keeps to the trade deal, Financial Times reports, citing people briefed on the talks.
“Ninety per cent of the deal is done, but the last 10 per cent is the hardest part, it’s the trickiest part and it will require trade-offs on both sides,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
Venezuela
- Venezuela: Juan Guaidó stripped of parliamentary immunity (The Guardian) Nicolfls Maduro’s constituent assembly removes protection, opening the door for arrest of man backed by dozens of countries as interim leader.
Mexico
- The US-Mexico border: two sides that are united by fear of Trump’s closure (The Guardian) With about $82 billion in trade crossing between El Paso and Juarez yearly, businesses on both sides would suffer if the border closes. (See also Trump shutting Mexico border would ‘cripple’ El Paso, Republican mayor says.) 23,000 pedestrians every day, more than 7 million a year, cross Paso del Norte international bridge that connects El Paso in Texas with Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.
That’s what trade in the modern world looks like. Thousands of Mexicans pouring north across the bridge in search of a commercialized taste of the American dream, thousands of Americans crossing south seeking eternal youth in the form of cheap drugs, porcelain teeth and botox.
- 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. The number of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. illegally has declined by more than 1 million since 2007, but Mexicans still account for about half of the nation’s 10.7 million unauthorized immigrants.
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