Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 21 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
- China stocks rise as Beijing says work resumption is speeding up (CNBC) Stocks in Asia were mixed on Friday as concerns lingered over the economic impact of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. In mainland China, shares jumped on the day. Markets in India were closed on Friday for a holiday. The U.S. dollar index was last higher at 99.835 after seeing lows around 99.5 yesterday. Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 1.13% to $58.64 per barrel. U.S. crude futures also declined 0.97% to $53.36 per barrel. Spot gold rose 0.4% to $1,625.05 per ounce by 0409 GMT, after hitting its highest since Feb. 2013 at $1,626.27 earlier in the session. For the week, prices have risen 2.5% so far and were set to post their biggest weekly percentage gain since Jan. 3. Yields were sharply lower, except for UK gilts which were mixed.
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U.S.
- House Uses Trump Impeachment Legal Team’s Arguments in Filing Seeking His Tax Returns (Law & Crime) House Democrats on Saturday asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C. to resume the legal proceedings on the Ways and Means Committee’s lawsuit seeking to obtain President Donald Trump’s tax returns. In doing so, they used arguments put forth by Trump’s impeachment legal team.
In an 11-page motion asking U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, a Trump appointee, to lift the stay on the Committee’s lawsuit, House general counsel Douglas Letter accused President Trump’s impeachment lawyers of disavowing arguments made in this case about congressional subpoena enforcement.
“[C]ounsel for President Trump in the Senate impeachment trial disavowed the position of Defendants (who include the President) in this case that the House is constitutionally barred from obtaining judicial enforcement of its subpoenas,” the motion said. Letter specifically cited to Trump’s formal Answer to the Articles of Impeachment and statements made by the president’s impeachment attorneys Jay Sekulow and Alan Dershowitz.
In court filings to prevent House Democrats from obtaining his tax returns, Trump and the DOJ have repeatedly insisted that Congress cannot use the judicial branch to enforce a subpoena against the president. At the same time, Trump’s impeachment legal team said the House should have gone to court to enforce subpoenas.
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- ‘A complete disaster’: Fears grow over potential Nevada caucus malfunction (Politico) Anxiety is rising over the possibility of another tech-induced meltdown at the Nevada Democratic caucuses on Saturday. In interviews, three caucus volunteers described serious concerns about rushed preparations for the Feb. 22 election, including insufficient training for a newly-adopted electronic vote-tally system and confusing instructions on how to administer the caucuses. There are also unanswered questions about the security of Internet connections at some 2,000 precinct sites that will transmit results to a central “war room” set up by the Nevada Democratic Party.
- Roger Stone sentenced to over three years in prison (The Hill) A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Roger Stone to three years and four months in prison for lying to Congress and witness tampering, and criticized President Trump for trying to influence the outcome of the case over his former adviser.
Thursday’s sentencing hearing follows a tumultuous stretch that saw Trump attack the original prosecutors, the judge and the jury in the case on behalf of his longtime adviser. And it follows the withdrawal of the original prosecution team from the case after the Justice Department amended their recommendation that Stone serve seven to nine years in prison.
- Roger Stone juror Seth Cousins defends forewoman Tomeka Hart after Trump’s claim of ‘significant bias’ (USA Today) A former juror in the trial of Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Donald Trump, defended the forewoman whom the president accused of “significant bias” that influenced the guilty verdict. Juror Seth Cousins told CNN on Wednesday night:
“The irony here is that Tomeka Hart, who we elected as our foreperson on a secret ballot, [was] perhaps the strongest advocate in the room for a rigorous process, for the rights of the defendant and for making sure that we took it seriously and looked at each charge.”
- Trump says Roger Stone has ‘very good chance of exoneration’ in Las Vegas (Fox News) President Trump blasted Roger Stone’s treatment by the criminal justice system, the Justice Department and the jury forewoman in the GOP operative’s trial Thursday in a blistering address in front of an audience in Las Vegas, saying Stone has a “very good chance of exoneration.” His remarks, part of a speech to the organization Hope for Prisoners, came hours after a federal judge sentenced Stone to over three years in prison.
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Other important articles
Global
- Track the Coronavirus Outbreak on Johns Hopkins Live Dashboard (MedPage Today) There was just announced an uptick in the number infected. See article under China, below.
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U.S.
- Trump’s quest to rewrite history of the Russia probe (The Washington Post) President Trump is actively seeking to rewrite the narrative that had been meticulously documented by federal law enforcement and intelligence officials.
- DOJ Twice Ordered Prosecutors to Publicly Support Trump Admin’s Policy Goals: Report (Law & Crime)
- Trump’s deputy national security adviser Victoria Coates leaving White House (Reuters) Victoria Coates, one of President Donald Trump’s longest-serving national security aides, is leaving the White House soon to become a senior adviser at the Energy Department, the White House said on Thursday.
Coates has been at the Trump White House since Trump took office three years ago and has been a key player in the administration’s deliberations on Iran and the Middle East.
But she had battled rumors that she was the author of an “Anonymous” opinion article expressing opposition to Trump’s agenda that ran in the New York Times.
- Trump budget calls for slashing funds to climate science centers (The Hill)
- More than 1,100 ex-Justice Department officials call for Barr’s resignation (The Washington Post)
- Vengeful Trump Tweet Reveling in King Comparison Is ‘Most Sinister’ One Yet: Lawyers (Law & Crime)
- Trump drives massive turnout in primaries despite token opposition (Politico)
- Lawmakers Are Warned That Russia Is Meddling to Re-elect Trump (The New York Times) The resident fears that Democrats will try to use that against him. Mr. Trump’s allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that he had been tough on Russia and that he had strengthened European security.
- He thought therapy was confidential. Now, a traumatized migrant may be deported. (The Washington Post) The information sharing is part of a Trump administration strategy that is technically legal but which professional therapy associations say is a profound violation of patient confidentiality.
EU
- Trump camp finds no appeasement at Munich (Politico) For decades, the Munich Security Conference served as a powerful symbol of the strength of the Western alliance. The 2020 installment offered a testament to its accelerating decline. If the three-day event, which drew to a close on Sunday, illustrated anything, it was that the divergence between the U.S. and the dominant European powers – Germany and France (the U.K. was MIA) – is greater than ever. Those who thought last year’s tense gathering represented a low point in the relationship left Munich this year chastened.
UK
- Assange’s fate hangs in balance as UK court considers U.S. extradition bid (Reuters) Almost a decade after his WikiLeaks website enraged Washington by leaking secret U.S. documents, a London court will begin hearings on Monday to decide whether Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States.
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- Storm Dennis, 2nd-strongest bomb cyclone on record in North Atlantic, causes severe flooding in U.K. (The Washington Post) Storm Dennis, the second-strongest nontropical storm on record in the North Atlantic Ocean, caused widespread flooding across parts of the United Kingdom on Sunday, along with winds exceeding hurricane force.
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Iraq
- Rockets strike near U.S. Embassy in Baghdad (Politico)
India
South Korea
China
- Coronavirus on G20 agenda as China reports uptick in cases (Reuters) China reported an uptick in new cases of coronavirus on Friday, boosted by more than 200 people testing positive for the disease in two prisons outside of Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.
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