Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 13 February 2020.
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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Key Articles
Global
- Chinese stocks slip as new coronavirus cases in Hubei spike (CNBC) Stocks in major Asian markets declined on Thursday as investors weighed a spike in the number of new coronavirus cases reported in China’s Hubei province due to a tweak in methodology. Mainland Chinese stocks reversed earlier gains and ended their trading day lower. The U.S. dollar index was last higher at 98.995 after an earlier low of 98.980. Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures slipping 0.25% to $55.65 per barrel. U.S. crude futures were fractionally lower at $51.15 per barrel. Spot gold was up 0.4% to $1,571.70 per ounce as of 0312 GMT.
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U.S.
- Trump takes on Judge Amy Berman Jackson ahead of Roger Stone’s sentencing (The Washington Post) First he went after the prosecutors who recommended a multiyear sentence for his friend Roger Stone. Then President Trump turned his Twitter ire to the “witch hunt disgrace” of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, which led to Stone’s indictment. But perhaps most surprising was Trump’s decision to target U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson – who will determine Stone’s fate when he appears in her courtroom next Thursday. See also Roger Stone sentencing explained: the controversy over Trump’s intervention (The Guardian) and also Barr ensnared in Roger Stone firestorm (The Hill).
- Yovanovitch warns that the State Department is in trouble (CNN) Retired Ambassador Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch — a highly respected career diplomat who unwittingly became one of the central figures in the impeachment drama — warned about the degradation of the State Department and took veiled jabs at the Trump administration in her first public remarks since leaving the diplomatic service.
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China
- Coronavirus: China purges regional leaders hours after spike in deaths and new cases (The Guardian) The number of deaths and infections caused by the coronavirus in China has risen dramatically after authorities changed the way they calculate the figures amid an ongoing purge of party officials in the stricken province of Hubei and in Hong Kong. See Global section report, below.
Figures released on Thursday morning showed that deaths in Hubei, the epicentre of the deadly outbreak, had increased by 242 and new confirmed cases rose by almost 15,000 – a jump of about a third on the total so far.
With data from other provinces still being collated, the number of people who have died from the infection on the mainland is now 1,368 and the number infected is 59,805.
- China’s Hubei Province Reports 14,840 New Coronavirus Cases, 242 New Deaths (Newsweek) At the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China’s Hubei province, health officials reported 14,840 new cases of the virus and 242 new deaths related to the infection according to CNBC. In Wuhan, where the latest outbreak of the coronavirus is alleged to have begun, over 33,000 patients are still hospitalized with many listed as critically ill. More than 48,000 people have contracted the virus in the Hubei province while the death toll has risen to over 1,300. See more detailed data under Global section, below.
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Other important articles
Global
- Track the Coronavirus Outbreak on Johns Hopkins Live Dashboard (MedPage Today) This tracker from Johns Hopkins University provides realtime information and tracks cases of this novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China, as well as around the world, including numbers of deaths, recovered patients, and countries affected. See also Coronavirus Cases Seemed to Be Leveling Off. Not Anymore. (The New York Times).
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- Global oil demand is now expected to see its first quarterly contraction in over a decade, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), as the new coronavirus and widespread shutdown of China’s economy hits demand for crude.
- Demand is now expected to fall by 435,000 barrels a day (b/d) in the first quarter of 2020, down from the same period a year ago, and marking the first quarterly contraction in more than 10 years, the IEA said in its monthly oil market report Thursday.
U.S.
- DOJ Nears Decision on Whether to Charge Blackwater Founder Erik Prince (The Wall Street Journal) The Justice Department is in the late stages of deciding whether to charge businessman and Trump ally Erik Prince in an investigation into whether he lied to Congress in its Russia probe and violated U.S. export laws in his business dealings overseas, according to people familiar with the matter. Prince is the brother of Dept. of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
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- Senate moves toward vote restraining Trump on Iran (Associated Press) A bipartisan measure limiting President Donald Trump’s authority to launch military operations against Iran is moving toward approval in the Senate.
- Two items buried in Trump’s budget call for big changes to Medicare (CNBC)
- White House quietly trims dozens of national security experts (Tribune News Service)
- Fed chief issues stark warning to Congress on deficits (The Hill)
UK
- UK’s Big Ben tower more badly damaged by Nazi bombs than thought (Reuters)
- Psychoactive drugs linked to 95% of jail’s ambulance callouts (The Guardian) Paramedics were called 200 times in six months to a prison in West Yorkshire, which is a training and resettlement prison designed to prepare prisoners for life after their release, to deal with medical incidents linked to drugs like spice, an inspection has revealed. Nearly 25% of inmates told inspectors they had developed a drug habit since entering the jail.
Germany
- Data released on Friday showed that German industrial production fell for the fifth time in the last seven months.
- Over the last 18 months, Germany narrowly avoided a recession twice.
- According to the OECD, the German economy is expected to grow 0.4% in 2020 and 0.9% in 2021.
Ireland
Syria
- For the first time in 9 years, two nation states are going toe-to-toe in Syria (CNN) Turkey and Syria are now engaged in direct combat.
Somalia
- ‘Most devastating plague of locusts’ in recent history could come within weeks, U.N. warns (NBC News) Kenya and Ethiopia may be next.
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India
- Another wall goes up for Trump, this time in India (Reuters) It will shield slums from the president’s view
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