Papadopoulos says Sessions supported Putin campaign meeting, asks for most lenient sentence
CNN Digital Expansion 2018 Katelyn Polantz
By Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Updated 0725 GMT (1525 HKT) September 1, 2018
Papadopoulos' wife asks Trump to pardon him on CNN
BOCA RATON, FL - MARCH 21: Roger Stone, a longtime political adviser and friend to President Donald Trump, speaks before signing copies of his book "The Making of the President 2016" at the Boca Raton Marriott on March 21, 2017 in Boca Raton, Florida. The book delves into the 2016 presidential run by Donald Trump. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 30: Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and current lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks to members of the media during a White House Sports and Fitness Day at the South Lawn of the White House May 30, 2018 in Washington, DC. President Trump hosted the event to encourage children to participate in sports and make youth sports more accessible to economically disadvantaged students. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 08: Robert S. Mueller III, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), speaks at the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) on August 8, 2013 in New York City. The ICCS, which is co-hosted by Fordham University and the FBI, is held every 18 months; more than 25 countries are represented at this year's conference. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 21: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gives two thumbs up to the crowd during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicked off on July 18. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort leaves Federal Court on December 11, 2017 in Washington, DC.
In October, Trump's one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates were arrested on money laundering and tax-related charges. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
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NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 15: Don McGahn, general counsel for the Trump transition team, gets into an elevator in the lobby at Trump Tower, November 15, 2016 in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump is in the process of choosing his presidential cabinet as he transitions from a candidate to the president-elect. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 9: Don McGahn, lawyer for Donald Trump and his campaign, leaves the Four Seasons Hotel after a meeting with Trump and Republican donors, June 9, 2016 in New York City.
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BOCA RATON, FL - MARCH 21: Roger Stone, a longtime political adviser and friend to President Donald Trump, speaks before signing copies of his book "The Making of the President 2016" at the Boca Raton Marriott on March 21, 2017 in Boca Raton, Florida. The book delves into the 2016 presidential run by Donald Trump. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 30: Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and current lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks to members of the media during a White House Sports and Fitness Day at the South Lawn of the White House May 30, 2018 in Washington, DC. President Trump hosted the event to encourage children to participate in sports and make youth sports more accessible to economically disadvantaged students. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Trump legal team sends counteroffer to Mueller
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Burnett: Gates admits he conned alleged conman
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 08: Robert S. Mueller III, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), speaks at the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) on August 8, 2013 in New York City. The ICCS, which is co-hosted by Fordham University and the FBI, is held every 18 months; more than 25 countries are represented at this year's conference. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 21: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gives two thumbs up to the crowd during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicked off on July 18. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort leaves Federal Court on December 11, 2017 in Washington, DC.
In October, Trump's one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates were arrested on money laundering and tax-related charges. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
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Giuliani: Truth isn't truth
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 15: Don McGahn, general counsel for the Trump transition team, gets into an elevator in the lobby at Trump Tower, November 15, 2016 in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump is in the process of choosing his presidential cabinet as he transitions from a candidate to the president-elect. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 9: Don McGahn, lawyer for Donald Trump and his campaign, leaves the Four Seasons Hotel after a meeting with Trump and Republican donors, June 9, 2016 in New York City.
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(CNN)Convicted former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has publicly contradicted Attorney General Jeff Sessions' sworn testimony to Congress, saying both Sessions and Donald Trump apparently supported his proposal that Trump meet with Vladimir Putin during the 2016 campaign, according to a court filing late Friday night.
"While some in the room rebuffed George's offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it. George's giddiness over Mr. Trump's recognition was prominent during the days that followed," Papadopoulos' lawyers wrote in a court filing Friday. Papadopoulos' legal team said that he has shared with special counsel Robert Mueller his recollections of the March 31, 2016, meeting.
Sessions, when asked about that meeting under oath, said that he "pushed back" on the idea of the Putin summit. CNN previously reported that Trump "heard him out," according to another adviser in the room, when Papadopoulos proposed the idea and offered to help execute it.
The new description came in a criminal sentencing request Papadopoulos' legal team filed to a federal judge late Friday night -- the same day a lobbyist for Ukrainians admitted in court to criminal obstruction when he lied to Congress, and amid the President's intensifying public feud with Sessions.
Papadopoulos "was the first domino, and many have fallen in behind," his attorneys write Friday. "Despite the gravity of his offense, it is important to remember what Special Counsel said at George's plea of guilty: he was just a small part of a large-scale investigation."
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to one count of lying to investigators last October. He asked the judge to sentence him to only probation that he has already served during the year since his plea, effectively allowing him to go free after his sentencing next week.
In a long narrative about his experiences, Papadopoulos' attorneys attempt in the sentencing memo to portray Papadopoulos as a young and eager Trump campaign staffer who found himself unaware of the broad investigation into Russian interference in the election when he lied to the FBI last year.
"Mr. Papadopoulos is ashamed and remorseful," Papadopoulos' attorneys wrote Friday. "His motives for lying to the FBI were wrongheaded indeed but far from the sinister spin the government suggests."
The Trump-Putin idea
Papadopoulos goes into specifics for the first time about how he floated the idea of a meeting between Trump and Putin at a campaign roundtable at the Trump International Hotel in March 2016. Donald Trump, then-Sen. Jeff Sessions and others attended the meeting.
About a month later, Papadopoulos learned that the Russians had "dirt" on Trump's opposition, Hillary Clinton, in "thousands of emails."
A Trump-Putin get-together never happened during the campaign.
Seeking probation
Prosecutors previously asked the judge to imprison Papadopoulos for up to six months, after he thwarted their early attempts to question a foreigner who may have known about Russian interference in the presidential campaign. The prosecutors' sentencing request focused more on the repeated lies Papadopoulos told about his contact with foreigners when he spoke to the FBI last year, and less about his interactions inside the Trump campaign.
In the filing Friday, Papadopoulos' lawyers lay out the image of an intellectually curious, successful and worldly man. They describe his scholarly work on energy policy in foreign countries and his interest in working for Trump in 2016.
Papadopoulos had "no experience with US and Russian diplomacy" when he started with Trump's campaign in 2016 -- yet eventually became one of the future president's foreign policy advisers.
In March that year, Papadopoulos met Joseph Mifsud, a European professor working in London who claimed to have connections to the Russian government, Papadopoulos's lawyers said. "Professor Mifsud paid young George little attention until learning of his position as one of Trump's foreign policy advisers," they write.
Mueller's team wants George Papadopoulos to spend 6 months in jail, says lying impeded investigation
Mueller's team wants George Papadopoulos to spend 6 months in jail, says lying impeded investigation
Papadopoulos' defense team also describes the first time he spoke to the FBI, months before the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel. Papadopoulos thought the FBI agents who came to his mother's house while he showered in early 2017 wanted to speak with him about Russian businessman Sergei Millian -- then enmeshed in the Trump dossier news coverage, the filing says. Millian at one point had pitched Papadopoulos "an opportunity," the lawyers write, giving few other details.
Media reports around that time identified Millian as a source of information in the dossier, though CNN has not confirmed his involvement nor many of the details in the dossier about alleged Trump-Russia collusion.
Millian has denied being a source for the dossier and says he does not have any compromising information about Trump.
Papadopoulos also spoke to the FBI investigators at that time about another foreign policy adviser for Trump with Russia connections, Carter Page, and about Mifsud and others.
Papadopoulos admits to lying to the FBI about his knowledge of the hacked Clinton emails.
"Out of loyalty to the new president and his desire to be part of the administration, he hoisted himself upon his own petard," Papadopoulos' attorneys write.
Papadopoulos is scheduled to be sentenced on September 7 by federal district judge Randy Moss in DC.
Saturday, September 1, 2018
Poll by sinking poll, Trump inches closer toward being impeached - Independent ( source : Washington Post )
September 1, 2018.
Poll by sinking poll, Trump inches closer toward being impeached
In middle of Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon's poll numbers on impeachment were better than President Trump's today
Megan McArdle
President Trump has lashed out against social media giants like Facebook and Google in recent statements
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By any metric, Donald Trump is in trouble.
A poll out from The Post and ABC on Friday shows that 60 per cent of voters disapprove of the job he's doing as president, a new low. But that's just one poll; the polling average at statistician Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight shows Mr Trump with a mere 53.4 per cent disapproval rating, which is better than its 56.8 per cent peak last December.
But a presidency is not in good shape when the best spin on the new poll is "It's an outlier! Only 53 per cent of the country thinks the president is terrible." The poll is especially ugly for Republicans with midterms looming in two months.
Majority of Americans back Trump's impeachment, finds new poll
FiveThirtyEight's forecast for the mid-terms puts the likelihood of Democrats taking the House at more than 70 per cent. Their chances of taking the Senate are lower, but Republicans are hardly a lock despite a very favourable map for them. And if Democrats manage to eke out a majority in both houses of Congress, here is the poll's really bad news for Mr Trump: Half the country wants him impeached.
To put that in perspective: In January 1974, well into the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon's poll numbers on impeachment were better than President Trump's are now. Earlier, less disastrous polls for Mr Trump still showed him veering dangerously close to what we might call "the Nixon ceiling."
Most worrying for Mr Trump is that three-quarters of Democrats say they want Congress to impeach him. If Democrats gain control, they will be under immense pressure from their base to deliver.
That doesn't mean they'll do it. It takes a two-thirds super-majority in the Senate to actually remove a president from office. The best that Democrats can possibly manage in 2018 is a narrow majority; they would need more than a handful of Republican senators to support removal. The leaders of a Democrat-controlled House might well decide they'd rather not force their Senate brethren to take a hard and futile vote.
But as Republicans found in the 1990s, these things have a way of taking on unexpected momentum. A former Republican congressional staffer who was close to that process tells me that the day after the bruising 1998 mid-terms, Newt Gingrich - who would shortly step down as House speaker - said, "impeachment is over, that's one thing the election clearly meant." Five weeks later, with Mr Gingrich out of the way, House Republicans impeached Bill Clinton. Then he was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate.
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"The activist base of the party was committed to the idea, and that made it impossible for the elected officials to change course," the former staffer says, "even though they knew impeachment wasn't what the broader public wanted."
It's all too easy to imagine a similar scenario for Democrats intent on impeaching Mr Trump as they come up short looking for Republicans to help them make it across the finish line. But it's not entirely impossible to picture a few Republicans going along. If Democrats do manage to start impeachment hearings, it would be because - unlike Republicans in 1998 – they would be coming off a huge mid-term win. Public support for impeaching Mr Trump, even taking into account his more favourable polls, would be higher than it ever was for impeaching Mr Clinton.
Mr Trump is in a very unusual situation for an American president. Members of his die-hard base are loyal, but at his peak they were barely a plurality of the party. The rest of his support is purely expedient, interested in getting judges appointed and keeping Democrats out of power. Republicans in Congress are loyal, for now, but only because they're afraid of his voters.
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But by the time Mr Trump faced a Senate trial, that would mean the political calculus had shifted radically. He would have cost them the Congress; there would be no hope of more judges; the 2020 election would seem already lost. And he'd have no reservoir of goodwill in the party, for at every turn he has made a point of attacking and humiliating any Republican he deemed insufficiently obsequious. Just how long will the Coalition of the Unwilling stand by a president who was never really their man?
But even if Republicans hold the party line, what Mr Trump faces in this scenario is bad enough: a public trial that he can't avoid by firing the investigators, nor distract from with more Twitter blasts. One senses that public humiliation, especially at the hands of an establishment that has always looked down on him, is the thing that Mr Trump fears most. Though far from certain, that humiliation is growing more likely.
Yes, the president is clearly in trouble. But does Mr Trump, hunkered down with deferential staffers and screens blaring Fox News, realise it? Or might he learn it only when Congress calls him to account – and he finds no one standing behind him?
The Washington Post
Poll by sinking poll, Trump inches closer toward being impeached
In middle of Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon's poll numbers on impeachment were better than President Trump's today
Megan McArdle
President Trump has lashed out against social media giants like Facebook and Google in recent statements
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By any metric, Donald Trump is in trouble.
A poll out from The Post and ABC on Friday shows that 60 per cent of voters disapprove of the job he's doing as president, a new low. But that's just one poll; the polling average at statistician Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight shows Mr Trump with a mere 53.4 per cent disapproval rating, which is better than its 56.8 per cent peak last December.
But a presidency is not in good shape when the best spin on the new poll is "It's an outlier! Only 53 per cent of the country thinks the president is terrible." The poll is especially ugly for Republicans with midterms looming in two months.
Majority of Americans back Trump's impeachment, finds new poll
FiveThirtyEight's forecast for the mid-terms puts the likelihood of Democrats taking the House at more than 70 per cent. Their chances of taking the Senate are lower, but Republicans are hardly a lock despite a very favourable map for them. And if Democrats manage to eke out a majority in both houses of Congress, here is the poll's really bad news for Mr Trump: Half the country wants him impeached.
To put that in perspective: In January 1974, well into the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon's poll numbers on impeachment were better than President Trump's are now. Earlier, less disastrous polls for Mr Trump still showed him veering dangerously close to what we might call "the Nixon ceiling."
Most worrying for Mr Trump is that three-quarters of Democrats say they want Congress to impeach him. If Democrats gain control, they will be under immense pressure from their base to deliver.
That doesn't mean they'll do it. It takes a two-thirds super-majority in the Senate to actually remove a president from office. The best that Democrats can possibly manage in 2018 is a narrow majority; they would need more than a handful of Republican senators to support removal. The leaders of a Democrat-controlled House might well decide they'd rather not force their Senate brethren to take a hard and futile vote.
But as Republicans found in the 1990s, these things have a way of taking on unexpected momentum. A former Republican congressional staffer who was close to that process tells me that the day after the bruising 1998 mid-terms, Newt Gingrich - who would shortly step down as House speaker - said, "impeachment is over, that's one thing the election clearly meant." Five weeks later, with Mr Gingrich out of the way, House Republicans impeached Bill Clinton. Then he was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate.
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"The activist base of the party was committed to the idea, and that made it impossible for the elected officials to change course," the former staffer says, "even though they knew impeachment wasn't what the broader public wanted."
It's all too easy to imagine a similar scenario for Democrats intent on impeaching Mr Trump as they come up short looking for Republicans to help them make it across the finish line. But it's not entirely impossible to picture a few Republicans going along. If Democrats do manage to start impeachment hearings, it would be because - unlike Republicans in 1998 – they would be coming off a huge mid-term win. Public support for impeaching Mr Trump, even taking into account his more favourable polls, would be higher than it ever was for impeaching Mr Clinton.
Mr Trump is in a very unusual situation for an American president. Members of his die-hard base are loyal, but at his peak they were barely a plurality of the party. The rest of his support is purely expedient, interested in getting judges appointed and keeping Democrats out of power. Republicans in Congress are loyal, for now, but only because they're afraid of his voters.
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But by the time Mr Trump faced a Senate trial, that would mean the political calculus had shifted radically. He would have cost them the Congress; there would be no hope of more judges; the 2020 election would seem already lost. And he'd have no reservoir of goodwill in the party, for at every turn he has made a point of attacking and humiliating any Republican he deemed insufficiently obsequious. Just how long will the Coalition of the Unwilling stand by a president who was never really their man?
But even if Republicans hold the party line, what Mr Trump faces in this scenario is bad enough: a public trial that he can't avoid by firing the investigators, nor distract from with more Twitter blasts. One senses that public humiliation, especially at the hands of an establishment that has always looked down on him, is the thing that Mr Trump fears most. Though far from certain, that humiliation is growing more likely.
Yes, the president is clearly in trouble. But does Mr Trump, hunkered down with deferential staffers and screens blaring Fox News, realise it? Or might he learn it only when Congress calls him to account – and he finds no one standing behind him?
The Washington Post
Mahathir, China and neo-colonialism - Nikkei Asian Review
Mahathir, China and neo-colonialism
Beijing will not forget Malaysian premier's barbed attack on Belt and Road
Richard McGregor
August 30, 2018 14:00 JST
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad did not mince his words in referring to a new form of colonialism during his recent visit to China. © VCG/Getty Images
In time, it may be seen as a turning point in China's relations with its neighbors.
At the end of a trip to China in August, during which the red carpet had been laid out for him at every turn, Mahathir Mohamed, Malaysia's newly elected prime minister, stood at a press conference in Beijing alongside Li Keqiang, China's premier.
Foreign leaders are used to minding their words in China, more so than at other diplomatic stops, lest they offend their often prickly hosts on anything from Taiwan to Beijing's multiple territorial disputes.
But Mahathir has never been a leader to bite his tongue, as many of his Western counterparts have found out to their discomfort. Prodded by Li on stage to offer public support for free trade, Mahathir delivered a very different message.
"We should always remember that the level of development of countries are not all the same," Mahathir said. "We do not want a situation where there is a new version of colonialism happening because poor countries are unable to compete with rich countries, therefore we need fair trade."
Mahathir was referring specifically to a number of large Chinese-backed infrastructure programs in Malaysia being developed under the banner of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, the billion-dollar plan to anchor Beijing at the heart of new commercial empire.
Although he focused on BRI, Mahathir was also amplifying the largely private complaints of many regional leaders who welcome Chinese investment but increasingly worry it will leave them in Beijing's debt, financially and politically.
Critics, including some political leaders, have warned about the dangers of Chinese debt as far afield as Pakistan, Thailand, Cambodia and the Pacific islands.
As much as it resents his comments, Beijing will not ignore Mahathir's message, and China is already showing signs of trying to recalibrate the project to make it more politically and financially palatable for target countries.
There is a crowning irony in Mahathir's evocation of neo-colonialism, as this was precisely the charge that he used to lay against the West and Western investment when he was at the height of his powers in his first period in office in the 1980s and 1990s.
His remarks are even more remarkable when compared with the starkly different tone struck only two years earlier by his predecessor, Najib Razak, when visiting China in late 2016.
Around that time, Najib, once seen by Washington and other Western nations as a potential partner in Southeast Asia, had been caught up in the U.S. Department of Justice's investigations into the looting of Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB.
Najib wrote an article for the People's Daily, the ruling Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece, pointedly pushing back against the U.S. and, by implications, the West generally.
Former colonial powers should not lecture nations that they once exploited, he said, a statement which carried with it an implied threat. If the U.S. was going to go after him, Najib would throw Malaysia's lot in with China in response.
Then came the Malaysian elections in May 2018, when voters got to have their own say about the 1MDB scandal. They ejected Najib from office and elected Mahathir to replace him, decades after the regional elder statesman had stepped down.
For the 93-year-old Mahathir, now back in power, to make exactly the same charge against China that both he and Najib made against the West, is incendiary on many levels.
China, after all, is used to playing the anti-colonialism card itself. To have it played back against them must have been galling but Beijing, for the moment, is holding its fire. At a time when its foreign relationships are fraying on many fronts, Beijing needs all the friends it can get.
Mahathir went further than just insulting his hosts. He has also put on ice a number of the BRI investments, including a railway in east Malaysia, which is one of the largest projects being developed under the initiative's banner.
In a bid to reassure countries like Malaysia, Chinese leaders say their investments will be based on "extensive consultation, joint contributions, and shared benefits."
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who emerged in recent weeks from the party's midsummer conclave, held a meeting of the leadership in late August in Beijing in which he started the process of recalibrating the initiative's sale pitch.
"The BRI is an economic cooperation initiative, not a geopolitical or military alliance," Xi said. "It is an open and inclusive process, and not about creating exclusive circles or a China club."
It is hard, at the moment, to know if Xi's recalibration will just be rhetorical, or whether China will genuinely try to redo some projects, or even pull back altogether.
Unlike many Asian leaders, going to China had not been an immediate priority for Mahathir. As someone who had been in power when Japan was the leading Asian economy, and a beacon for the region, Mahathir's first overseas visit after the election was to Tokyo.
Japan is a card that Mahathir has to play against overreliance on China. Japan is China's only genuine rival in the region in terms of investment and infrastructure. It is also a country that Mahathir has long admired and cultivated.
Japan had its own colonial ambitions for Asia in the 1930s, which helped trigger the disastrous Pacific War. But few in Southeast Asia now consider Japan maintains any kind of a colonial mentality. It will anger China even more that this barb is now directed at Beijing instead.
Beijing will not forget Malaysian premier's barbed attack on Belt and Road
Richard McGregor
August 30, 2018 14:00 JST
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad did not mince his words in referring to a new form of colonialism during his recent visit to China. © VCG/Getty Images
In time, it may be seen as a turning point in China's relations with its neighbors.
At the end of a trip to China in August, during which the red carpet had been laid out for him at every turn, Mahathir Mohamed, Malaysia's newly elected prime minister, stood at a press conference in Beijing alongside Li Keqiang, China's premier.
Foreign leaders are used to minding their words in China, more so than at other diplomatic stops, lest they offend their often prickly hosts on anything from Taiwan to Beijing's multiple territorial disputes.
But Mahathir has never been a leader to bite his tongue, as many of his Western counterparts have found out to their discomfort. Prodded by Li on stage to offer public support for free trade, Mahathir delivered a very different message.
"We should always remember that the level of development of countries are not all the same," Mahathir said. "We do not want a situation where there is a new version of colonialism happening because poor countries are unable to compete with rich countries, therefore we need fair trade."
Mahathir was referring specifically to a number of large Chinese-backed infrastructure programs in Malaysia being developed under the banner of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, the billion-dollar plan to anchor Beijing at the heart of new commercial empire.
Although he focused on BRI, Mahathir was also amplifying the largely private complaints of many regional leaders who welcome Chinese investment but increasingly worry it will leave them in Beijing's debt, financially and politically.
Critics, including some political leaders, have warned about the dangers of Chinese debt as far afield as Pakistan, Thailand, Cambodia and the Pacific islands.
As much as it resents his comments, Beijing will not ignore Mahathir's message, and China is already showing signs of trying to recalibrate the project to make it more politically and financially palatable for target countries.
There is a crowning irony in Mahathir's evocation of neo-colonialism, as this was precisely the charge that he used to lay against the West and Western investment when he was at the height of his powers in his first period in office in the 1980s and 1990s.
His remarks are even more remarkable when compared with the starkly different tone struck only two years earlier by his predecessor, Najib Razak, when visiting China in late 2016.
Around that time, Najib, once seen by Washington and other Western nations as a potential partner in Southeast Asia, had been caught up in the U.S. Department of Justice's investigations into the looting of Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB.
Najib wrote an article for the People's Daily, the ruling Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece, pointedly pushing back against the U.S. and, by implications, the West generally.
Former colonial powers should not lecture nations that they once exploited, he said, a statement which carried with it an implied threat. If the U.S. was going to go after him, Najib would throw Malaysia's lot in with China in response.
Then came the Malaysian elections in May 2018, when voters got to have their own say about the 1MDB scandal. They ejected Najib from office and elected Mahathir to replace him, decades after the regional elder statesman had stepped down.
For the 93-year-old Mahathir, now back in power, to make exactly the same charge against China that both he and Najib made against the West, is incendiary on many levels.
China, after all, is used to playing the anti-colonialism card itself. To have it played back against them must have been galling but Beijing, for the moment, is holding its fire. At a time when its foreign relationships are fraying on many fronts, Beijing needs all the friends it can get.
Mahathir went further than just insulting his hosts. He has also put on ice a number of the BRI investments, including a railway in east Malaysia, which is one of the largest projects being developed under the initiative's banner.
In a bid to reassure countries like Malaysia, Chinese leaders say their investments will be based on "extensive consultation, joint contributions, and shared benefits."
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who emerged in recent weeks from the party's midsummer conclave, held a meeting of the leadership in late August in Beijing in which he started the process of recalibrating the initiative's sale pitch.
"The BRI is an economic cooperation initiative, not a geopolitical or military alliance," Xi said. "It is an open and inclusive process, and not about creating exclusive circles or a China club."
It is hard, at the moment, to know if Xi's recalibration will just be rhetorical, or whether China will genuinely try to redo some projects, or even pull back altogether.
Unlike many Asian leaders, going to China had not been an immediate priority for Mahathir. As someone who had been in power when Japan was the leading Asian economy, and a beacon for the region, Mahathir's first overseas visit after the election was to Tokyo.
Japan is a card that Mahathir has to play against overreliance on China. Japan is China's only genuine rival in the region in terms of investment and infrastructure. It is also a country that Mahathir has long admired and cultivated.
Japan had its own colonial ambitions for Asia in the 1930s, which helped trigger the disastrous Pacific War. But few in Southeast Asia now consider Japan maintains any kind of a colonial mentality. It will anger China even more that this barb is now directed at Beijing instead.
US ends aid to Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa - BBC News
September 1, 2018.
US ends aid to Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa
Unrwa provides critical services, including education and health care
The United States is ending all funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, the US State Department says.
It described the organisation, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), as "irredeemably flawed".
The US administration has "carefully reviewed" the issue and "will not make additional contributions to Unrwa," spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later said the move was an "assault" against his people.
"Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution," Nabil Abu Rudeina told Reuters news agency.
He added that the decision was "a defiance of UN resolutions".
Palestinians fear cost of Trump's aid cut
UN alarm as US cuts aid to Palestinians
A spokesman for Unrwa, Chris Gunness, defended the agency in a series of tweets.
"We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that Unrwa's schools, health centres, and emergency assistance programs are 'irredeemably flawed'," he wrote.
3. These very programs have a proven track record in creating one of the most successful human development processes and results in the Middle East. The international state community, our donors and host countries have consistently praised UNRWA for its achievements and standards
9:00 AM - Sep 1, 2018
The latest move comes after the US announced back in January that it would withhold more than half of a tranche of funding for the agency.
What is Unrwa?
Unrwa was originally set up to take care of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The agency says it currently supports more than five million Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, including providing health care, education and social services.
The US has been the largest single donor to Unrwa, providing $368m (£284m) in 2016 and funding almost 30% of its operations in the region.
The Trump administration had pledged $60m to Unrwa in January, but withheld another $65m.
The remaining payment of $65m is now expected to be cancelled.
Why is the US critical of Unrwa?
The US disagrees with Unrwa, and Palestinian officials, on a number of issues.
US President Donald Trump has previously complained that the US received "no appreciation or respect" for the large sums of aid it provided to the region.
Earlier this year, he threatened to cut aid to the Palestinians over what he called their unwillingness to negotiate with Israel.
The US has said Unrwa needs to become more accountable
The US and Israel also disagree with Unrwa on which Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to the homes they fled following the 1948 war.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said earlier this week that Unrwa exaggerated the number of Palestinian refugees, and needed to reform.
"You're looking at the fact that, yes, there's an endless number of refugees that continue to get assistance, but more importantly, the Palestinians continue to bash America," she said.
The state department says the US is contributing a "very disproportionate share of the burden of Unrwa's costs".
It complains of a business model and fiscal practices, linked to an "exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries", which is "unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years".
What does the Palestinian side say?
On Friday, the Palestinian ambassador to Washington, Hossam Zomlot, accused the US of "endorsing the most extreme Israeli narrative on all issues including the rights of more than five million Palestinian refugees".
The US "is damaging not only an already volatile situation but the prospects for future peace", he told AFP.
Nikki Haley has criticised Palestinian officials for "bashing America"
Palestinian officials have already accused the Trump administration of worsening tensions due to its pro-Israel stance.
In December, Mr Trump controversially recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital, despite it being claimed by both sides.
His move overturned decades of US neutrality on the issue, attracted international criticism, and led to the Palestinian Authority cutting off dialogue in Washington.
Why Trump and Jerusalem was not about peace
Palestinian territories profile
In May, the US also opened an embassy in Jerusalem, a move described by Palestinian officials as a "blatant provocation".
What's the Israeli view?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously called for Unrwa's funding to be cut gradually and its responsibilities transferred to the UN's global refugee agency, the UNHCR, arguing that it "perpetuates the Palestinian problem".
However, he said that "every step taken also contains some risk".
Some Israelis have raised concerns that weakening Unrwa could cause regional instability and create more extremism in the region.
How has the international community reacted?
Earlier on Friday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said his country would increase its contributions to the agency because its funding crisis was fuelling uncertainty.
"The loss of this organisation could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction," Mr Maas said.
Meanwhile, the UN's secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has said he has "full confidence" in Unrwa, and called on other countries "to help fill the remaining financial gap".
US ends aid to Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa
Unrwa provides critical services, including education and health care
The United States is ending all funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, the US State Department says.
It described the organisation, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), as "irredeemably flawed".
The US administration has "carefully reviewed" the issue and "will not make additional contributions to Unrwa," spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later said the move was an "assault" against his people.
"Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution," Nabil Abu Rudeina told Reuters news agency.
He added that the decision was "a defiance of UN resolutions".
Palestinians fear cost of Trump's aid cut
UN alarm as US cuts aid to Palestinians
A spokesman for Unrwa, Chris Gunness, defended the agency in a series of tweets.
"We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that Unrwa's schools, health centres, and emergency assistance programs are 'irredeemably flawed'," he wrote.
3. These very programs have a proven track record in creating one of the most successful human development processes and results in the Middle East. The international state community, our donors and host countries have consistently praised UNRWA for its achievements and standards
9:00 AM - Sep 1, 2018
The latest move comes after the US announced back in January that it would withhold more than half of a tranche of funding for the agency.
What is Unrwa?
Unrwa was originally set up to take care of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The agency says it currently supports more than five million Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, including providing health care, education and social services.
The US has been the largest single donor to Unrwa, providing $368m (£284m) in 2016 and funding almost 30% of its operations in the region.
The Trump administration had pledged $60m to Unrwa in January, but withheld another $65m.
The remaining payment of $65m is now expected to be cancelled.
Why is the US critical of Unrwa?
The US disagrees with Unrwa, and Palestinian officials, on a number of issues.
US President Donald Trump has previously complained that the US received "no appreciation or respect" for the large sums of aid it provided to the region.
Earlier this year, he threatened to cut aid to the Palestinians over what he called their unwillingness to negotiate with Israel.
The US has said Unrwa needs to become more accountable
The US and Israel also disagree with Unrwa on which Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to the homes they fled following the 1948 war.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said earlier this week that Unrwa exaggerated the number of Palestinian refugees, and needed to reform.
"You're looking at the fact that, yes, there's an endless number of refugees that continue to get assistance, but more importantly, the Palestinians continue to bash America," she said.
The state department says the US is contributing a "very disproportionate share of the burden of Unrwa's costs".
It complains of a business model and fiscal practices, linked to an "exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries", which is "unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years".
What does the Palestinian side say?
On Friday, the Palestinian ambassador to Washington, Hossam Zomlot, accused the US of "endorsing the most extreme Israeli narrative on all issues including the rights of more than five million Palestinian refugees".
The US "is damaging not only an already volatile situation but the prospects for future peace", he told AFP.
Nikki Haley has criticised Palestinian officials for "bashing America"
Palestinian officials have already accused the Trump administration of worsening tensions due to its pro-Israel stance.
In December, Mr Trump controversially recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital, despite it being claimed by both sides.
His move overturned decades of US neutrality on the issue, attracted international criticism, and led to the Palestinian Authority cutting off dialogue in Washington.
Why Trump and Jerusalem was not about peace
Palestinian territories profile
In May, the US also opened an embassy in Jerusalem, a move described by Palestinian officials as a "blatant provocation".
What's the Israeli view?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously called for Unrwa's funding to be cut gradually and its responsibilities transferred to the UN's global refugee agency, the UNHCR, arguing that it "perpetuates the Palestinian problem".
However, he said that "every step taken also contains some risk".
Some Israelis have raised concerns that weakening Unrwa could cause regional instability and create more extremism in the region.
How has the international community reacted?
Earlier on Friday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said his country would increase its contributions to the agency because its funding crisis was fuelling uncertainty.
"The loss of this organisation could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction," Mr Maas said.
Meanwhile, the UN's secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has said he has "full confidence" in Unrwa, and called on other countries "to help fill the remaining financial gap".
'Ghost ship' in Myanmar: Navy finds answers - BBC News
September, 1, 2018.
'Ghost ship' in Myanmar: Navy finds answers
The Sam Ratulangi PB 1600, built in 2001, is more than 177m long
Myanmar officials investigating a "ghost ship" found mysteriously drifting near the Yangon region this week have found the answer to its fate.
The large, empty and rusty container vessel, Sam Ratulangi PB 1600, had been discovered by fishermen off Myanmar's commercial capital.
The navy now say the freighter was being towed by a tugboat headed to a ship-breaking factory in Bangladesh.
However, the crew abandoned the ship after being caught up in bad weather.
Authorities and navy personnel had boarded the Sam Ratulangi PB 1600 on Thursday to search for clues after it ran aground on a beach.
Police and observers were baffled at how such a large ship, with no sailors or goods on board, had ended up in Myanmar.
Skeletons found on 'ghost ship' in Japan
Why do 'North Korea ghost boats' keep washing up?
The container ship was described as being in a working condition
The vessel, which was built in 2001, is more than 177 metres (580 ft) long, according to the Marine Traffic website, which logs the movements of ships around the world.
The ship's location was last recorded off the coast of Taiwan in 2009, and this was the first reported instance of an abandoned ship appearing in Myanmar's waters, according to the AFP news agency.
On Saturday, Myanmar's navy said it suspected the ship had been towed by another ship after "two cables... were found at its head".
They later found a tugboat, called Independence, about 80km (50 miles) off Myanmar's coast.
After questioning the 13 Indonesian crew members on board, they learned that the tugboat had been towing the vessel since 13 August, and intended to take it to a factory in Bangladesh that would dismantle and salvage the ship.
However, some of the cables attached to the boat broke in bad weather, and they decided to abandon the ship.
The authorities are investigating further.
The owner of the tugboat is thought to be from Malaysia, news site Eleven Myanmar reports.
Bangladesh has a large ship-breaking industry - with hundreds of old commercial vessels dismantled in Chittagong each year.
But the business is controversial - with critics saying the work is poorly regulated and dangerous to labourers.
'Ghost ship' in Myanmar: Navy finds answers
The Sam Ratulangi PB 1600, built in 2001, is more than 177m long
Myanmar officials investigating a "ghost ship" found mysteriously drifting near the Yangon region this week have found the answer to its fate.
The large, empty and rusty container vessel, Sam Ratulangi PB 1600, had been discovered by fishermen off Myanmar's commercial capital.
The navy now say the freighter was being towed by a tugboat headed to a ship-breaking factory in Bangladesh.
However, the crew abandoned the ship after being caught up in bad weather.
Authorities and navy personnel had boarded the Sam Ratulangi PB 1600 on Thursday to search for clues after it ran aground on a beach.
Police and observers were baffled at how such a large ship, with no sailors or goods on board, had ended up in Myanmar.
Skeletons found on 'ghost ship' in Japan
Why do 'North Korea ghost boats' keep washing up?
The container ship was described as being in a working condition
The vessel, which was built in 2001, is more than 177 metres (580 ft) long, according to the Marine Traffic website, which logs the movements of ships around the world.
The ship's location was last recorded off the coast of Taiwan in 2009, and this was the first reported instance of an abandoned ship appearing in Myanmar's waters, according to the AFP news agency.
On Saturday, Myanmar's navy said it suspected the ship had been towed by another ship after "two cables... were found at its head".
They later found a tugboat, called Independence, about 80km (50 miles) off Myanmar's coast.
After questioning the 13 Indonesian crew members on board, they learned that the tugboat had been towing the vessel since 13 August, and intended to take it to a factory in Bangladesh that would dismantle and salvage the ship.
However, some of the cables attached to the boat broke in bad weather, and they decided to abandon the ship.
The authorities are investigating further.
The owner of the tugboat is thought to be from Malaysia, news site Eleven Myanmar reports.
Bangladesh has a large ship-breaking industry - with hundreds of old commercial vessels dismantled in Chittagong each year.
But the business is controversial - with critics saying the work is poorly regulated and dangerous to labourers.
Russian air crash: Utair jet catches fire after landing at Sochi - BBC News
September 1, 2018.
Russian air crash: Utair jet catches fire after landing at Sochi
The plane's left engine caught fire after the aircraft left the runway
A passenger jet skidded off the runway and caught fire while landing in the Russian city of Sochi, injuring 18 people, officials have said.
Flight UT579, a Boeing 737-800 operated by the Utair airline, was carrying 164 passengers and six crew from Moscow.
Video shows fierce flames from the aircraft after it crashed through the airport fence and fell into a riverbed.
Some of the injured suffered burns, others carbon monoxide poisoning, officials said.
A spokesperson at Sochi airport said one airport employee had suffered a fatal heart attack during the rescue operation.
The jet was attempting to land in strong wind and heavy rain early on Saturday, Russian media reported.
Russia's NTV channel carried images and video of the incident.
A Utair Boeing 737-500 landing at Riga in Latvia. File image
The plane's undercarriage and a wing were damaged when it left the runway and a left engine then caught fire.
Three of the injured are children.
The fire has now been extinguished.
Russia's Investigative Committee has launched a criminal investigation into the incident "on suspicion of inadequate services with a risk to clients' health".
Last month, a helicopter belonging to Utair crashed in north-western Siberia, killing 18 people.
The fatal crash of a Russian airliner at Moscow's Domodedovo airport in February again raised concern about national air safety.
It was the third major plane crash in the country since 2015.
Russian air crash: Utair jet catches fire after landing at Sochi
The plane's left engine caught fire after the aircraft left the runway
A passenger jet skidded off the runway and caught fire while landing in the Russian city of Sochi, injuring 18 people, officials have said.
Flight UT579, a Boeing 737-800 operated by the Utair airline, was carrying 164 passengers and six crew from Moscow.
Video shows fierce flames from the aircraft after it crashed through the airport fence and fell into a riverbed.
Some of the injured suffered burns, others carbon monoxide poisoning, officials said.
A spokesperson at Sochi airport said one airport employee had suffered a fatal heart attack during the rescue operation.
The jet was attempting to land in strong wind and heavy rain early on Saturday, Russian media reported.
Russia's NTV channel carried images and video of the incident.
A Utair Boeing 737-500 landing at Riga in Latvia. File image
The plane's undercarriage and a wing were damaged when it left the runway and a left engine then caught fire.
Three of the injured are children.
The fire has now been extinguished.
Russia's Investigative Committee has launched a criminal investigation into the incident "on suspicion of inadequate services with a risk to clients' health".
Last month, a helicopter belonging to Utair crashed in north-western Siberia, killing 18 people.
The fatal crash of a Russian airliner at Moscow's Domodedovo airport in February again raised concern about national air safety.
It was the third major plane crash in the country since 2015.
Friday, August 31, 2018
Ditch the Playbook, Just Follow Buffett and Trump: Taking Stock - Bloomberg
Ditch the Playbook, Just Follow Buffett and Trump: Taking Stock
By Brad Olesen
August 31, 2018, 9:32 PM GMT+10
Whatever your game plan was to close out what became one of the busiest Augusts in recent memory was likely rendered moot late Thursday on a Bloomberg report that Trump is seeking to move ahead on tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, subject to a public comment period that concludes Sept. 6. What was already a middling day hovering around the unchanged mark became markedly worse for the S&P 500, as this round of tariffs would be the largest thus far in the trade saga. Materials and the trade-sensitive industrial names like Caterpillar and Kansas City Southern were among stocks hit on the news, as money shifted to more defensive sectors like utilities and staples, with tobacco and food retailer sub-sectors the best performers on the day.
Worldwide markets are in the red early Friday as commerce and trade fears reemerge (Trump also threatened to pull out of the WTO), despite China PMI figures that were better than expected. S&P futures appear to be holding up rather well, poised to open below its newfound “support” at 2,900. Equity indexes have been resilient in the face of Trump shocks before, and today looks no different (on pace to post a weekly gain).
But What Happened Before the Bombshell?
It’s tempting to allow the Oval Office news to wipe away all of yesterday’s action, which featured Warren Buffett again singing the praises of equity markets. His commentary spurred a round of buying, especially in Apple (which also announced its next presumed iPhone unveiling for Sept. 12) as he admitted to buying more shares. This was timely as by the end of the day, the top four names pushing against losses in the S&P were, you guessed it, FAANG names (AAPL, AMZN, FB, NFLX). Rounding out the top five was Micron, mentioned in this column Thursday (its suppliers LRCX and AMAT were also higher, as the S5SEEQ index was among the top performing subsectors in an otherwise down-ish day).
AMZN and FB are now marginally lower in the pre-market (GOOGL ever so slightly post-market) after Trump singled the three out as a possible “antitrust situation.” China Internet names too (HUYA, BABA, IQ), are also down pre-market, likely on renewed tensions. Other parts of the interview touched on Trump’s rejection of the EU tariff offer on autos, leading all members of the EURO STOXX Automobiles & Parts index into the red. Watch U.S. names GM, F, GT and CTB for volatility.
There was also a bit of merger mania Thursday ahead of the long weekend in the U.S. (CPB asset sale plans, REXX, REIS/MCO, PARR, KTWO/SYK), which continued into this morning with Coca-Cola’s expansion into the coffee market in a $5.1 billion deal to buy U.K. coffee shop Costa from Whitbread Plc (watch KDP, DNKN, QSR, KKD, SBUX).
M&A led most of the names in the green, while discounters and dollar stores suffered (mainly DLTR). Closeout retailer Big Lots hit the tape with their earnings and early indications are for shares to open down 11 percent given a weaker-than-expected forecast.
And Wasn’t Today Supposed to Be NAFTA Day?
Friday was supposed to be about welcoming a deal from U.S. and Canadian officials on NAFTA, validating strength in equity indices earlier in the week while assisting the “melt-up.”
We were also supposed to be wary of contagion from emerging markets. The Turkish lira had resumed its downward move after a brief respite, giving up 11 percent of its value over the past four days (keep the ETF TUR in mind), while Argentina’s peso lost a third of its value in the two days since the government requested the IMF speed disbursements from a credit line (ETF ARGT had its worst day on Thursday in three years, and counts cult-ish name MercadoLibre as a top holding at 31 percent). This appears to be spreading with weakness in the Indonesian rupiah (weakest in 20 years) and the Indian rupee early (touched record lows).
We also wanted to take solace in knowing athleisure is alive and well, with Lululemon stock up 11 percent pre-market market with results. The COO said the demand in recent quarters was not slowing down. In a similar apparel vein we were to be curious if Abercrombie could recover from its worst day in more than a year after sales missed expectations.
And surely, cannabis was to be a topic of conversation as the news bombs keep driving this segment. Trump met his match with Citron Research’s Andrew Left, who waded into Cronos (previously unscathed from Wednesday’s report that the Administration was waging a "secret war" on marijuana), by cautioning on its valuation and placing a price target 70 percent below where it had then traded. Cronos extended its losses in the post-market after closing down 28 percent. It remains up 58 percent on the month despite the move. Fellow cannabis names TLRY, CGC fell in sympathy. Citron’s prior cannabis target, CV Sciences, staged a 27 percent recovery Thursday after it attempted to refute short seller allegations (and Citron claimed to have covered its short a day earlier).
Cloud software developer and new IPO Zuora is also due for an interesting day. Its lockup expiry today coincides with its second earnings report, which disappointed investors post market (-12 percent), as 3Q loss views came in worse than expected. This follows its last earnings report where it spiked 19 percent. In other earnings, American Outdoor Brands (formerly Smith and Wesson) spiked 29 percent post-market after its better than expected results -- now poised to erase much of its underperforming year (down 24 percent YTD).
On Tap for Next Week
A re-categorization of investor favorites will unfold with the heralded (?) creation of the Communication Services sector, which will include FAANG components FB, GOOGL and NFLX that were lumped into the Info Tech segment previously. These mega caps will now be part of a larger space that is comprised of other telecoms and media names and amount to ~10 percent of the S&P 500, according to Goldman Sachs.
Conference season is upon us. B Riley FBR Healthcare conference kicks off Tuesday in this abreviated holiday week, and the energy sector will be focus as the Barclays Energy Power conference gets underway Wednesday with crude up 16% year to date. Barclays is also running a Consumer Staples conference where we can hear from CAG, TUP, among others. Buckingham has its banking, cards and payments conference (any crypto commentary?). Citi is featuring Biotechs and Technology in conferences this week (two of some of the best performing sectors on the year).
Earnings is light, with earnings from Broadcom, furniture retailer RH, Gamestop and some tech names WDAY, PANW, MRVL and the deal-exposed Dell Technologies. Economic data will feature some key catalysts including monthly auto sales on Tuesday, ADP Employment data on Thursday (a day later than normal due to the Holiday week), and the much awaited Nonfarm Payrolls data Friday.
Notes From the Sell Side
Electronic Arts is getting a slight defense from one its largest bulls. Wedbush (has EA on its Best Ideas list) saw the surprise decision to delay its Battlefield V release date as the right decision in efforts to add extra polish to the game. Analyst Michael Pachter lowers units ests. for FY19, but keeps FY20 estimates for revenue and PT at $158 (implies 36% upside after Thursday’s near 10% downdraft).
Nutanix is getting multiple defenses after shares fell 6% post market. RBC’s Matthew Hedberg is a buyer on the weakness as the results were "strong". He sees the push towards a software-only model as a key highlight with high FCF margins. Piper’s Andrew J. Nowinski reiterates his overweight rating. Nowinski sees the cloud platform and storage provider’s new term-based subscription offering as outweighing the higher operating expense guidance.
By Brad Olesen
August 31, 2018, 9:32 PM GMT+10
Whatever your game plan was to close out what became one of the busiest Augusts in recent memory was likely rendered moot late Thursday on a Bloomberg report that Trump is seeking to move ahead on tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, subject to a public comment period that concludes Sept. 6. What was already a middling day hovering around the unchanged mark became markedly worse for the S&P 500, as this round of tariffs would be the largest thus far in the trade saga. Materials and the trade-sensitive industrial names like Caterpillar and Kansas City Southern were among stocks hit on the news, as money shifted to more defensive sectors like utilities and staples, with tobacco and food retailer sub-sectors the best performers on the day.
Worldwide markets are in the red early Friday as commerce and trade fears reemerge (Trump also threatened to pull out of the WTO), despite China PMI figures that were better than expected. S&P futures appear to be holding up rather well, poised to open below its newfound “support” at 2,900. Equity indexes have been resilient in the face of Trump shocks before, and today looks no different (on pace to post a weekly gain).
But What Happened Before the Bombshell?
It’s tempting to allow the Oval Office news to wipe away all of yesterday’s action, which featured Warren Buffett again singing the praises of equity markets. His commentary spurred a round of buying, especially in Apple (which also announced its next presumed iPhone unveiling for Sept. 12) as he admitted to buying more shares. This was timely as by the end of the day, the top four names pushing against losses in the S&P were, you guessed it, FAANG names (AAPL, AMZN, FB, NFLX). Rounding out the top five was Micron, mentioned in this column Thursday (its suppliers LRCX and AMAT were also higher, as the S5SEEQ index was among the top performing subsectors in an otherwise down-ish day).
AMZN and FB are now marginally lower in the pre-market (GOOGL ever so slightly post-market) after Trump singled the three out as a possible “antitrust situation.” China Internet names too (HUYA, BABA, IQ), are also down pre-market, likely on renewed tensions. Other parts of the interview touched on Trump’s rejection of the EU tariff offer on autos, leading all members of the EURO STOXX Automobiles & Parts index into the red. Watch U.S. names GM, F, GT and CTB for volatility.
There was also a bit of merger mania Thursday ahead of the long weekend in the U.S. (CPB asset sale plans, REXX, REIS/MCO, PARR, KTWO/SYK), which continued into this morning with Coca-Cola’s expansion into the coffee market in a $5.1 billion deal to buy U.K. coffee shop Costa from Whitbread Plc (watch KDP, DNKN, QSR, KKD, SBUX).
M&A led most of the names in the green, while discounters and dollar stores suffered (mainly DLTR). Closeout retailer Big Lots hit the tape with their earnings and early indications are for shares to open down 11 percent given a weaker-than-expected forecast.
And Wasn’t Today Supposed to Be NAFTA Day?
Friday was supposed to be about welcoming a deal from U.S. and Canadian officials on NAFTA, validating strength in equity indices earlier in the week while assisting the “melt-up.”
We were also supposed to be wary of contagion from emerging markets. The Turkish lira had resumed its downward move after a brief respite, giving up 11 percent of its value over the past four days (keep the ETF TUR in mind), while Argentina’s peso lost a third of its value in the two days since the government requested the IMF speed disbursements from a credit line (ETF ARGT had its worst day on Thursday in three years, and counts cult-ish name MercadoLibre as a top holding at 31 percent). This appears to be spreading with weakness in the Indonesian rupiah (weakest in 20 years) and the Indian rupee early (touched record lows).
We also wanted to take solace in knowing athleisure is alive and well, with Lululemon stock up 11 percent pre-market market with results. The COO said the demand in recent quarters was not slowing down. In a similar apparel vein we were to be curious if Abercrombie could recover from its worst day in more than a year after sales missed expectations.
And surely, cannabis was to be a topic of conversation as the news bombs keep driving this segment. Trump met his match with Citron Research’s Andrew Left, who waded into Cronos (previously unscathed from Wednesday’s report that the Administration was waging a "secret war" on marijuana), by cautioning on its valuation and placing a price target 70 percent below where it had then traded. Cronos extended its losses in the post-market after closing down 28 percent. It remains up 58 percent on the month despite the move. Fellow cannabis names TLRY, CGC fell in sympathy. Citron’s prior cannabis target, CV Sciences, staged a 27 percent recovery Thursday after it attempted to refute short seller allegations (and Citron claimed to have covered its short a day earlier).
Cloud software developer and new IPO Zuora is also due for an interesting day. Its lockup expiry today coincides with its second earnings report, which disappointed investors post market (-12 percent), as 3Q loss views came in worse than expected. This follows its last earnings report where it spiked 19 percent. In other earnings, American Outdoor Brands (formerly Smith and Wesson) spiked 29 percent post-market after its better than expected results -- now poised to erase much of its underperforming year (down 24 percent YTD).
On Tap for Next Week
A re-categorization of investor favorites will unfold with the heralded (?) creation of the Communication Services sector, which will include FAANG components FB, GOOGL and NFLX that were lumped into the Info Tech segment previously. These mega caps will now be part of a larger space that is comprised of other telecoms and media names and amount to ~10 percent of the S&P 500, according to Goldman Sachs.
Conference season is upon us. B Riley FBR Healthcare conference kicks off Tuesday in this abreviated holiday week, and the energy sector will be focus as the Barclays Energy Power conference gets underway Wednesday with crude up 16% year to date. Barclays is also running a Consumer Staples conference where we can hear from CAG, TUP, among others. Buckingham has its banking, cards and payments conference (any crypto commentary?). Citi is featuring Biotechs and Technology in conferences this week (two of some of the best performing sectors on the year).
Earnings is light, with earnings from Broadcom, furniture retailer RH, Gamestop and some tech names WDAY, PANW, MRVL and the deal-exposed Dell Technologies. Economic data will feature some key catalysts including monthly auto sales on Tuesday, ADP Employment data on Thursday (a day later than normal due to the Holiday week), and the much awaited Nonfarm Payrolls data Friday.
Notes From the Sell Side
Electronic Arts is getting a slight defense from one its largest bulls. Wedbush (has EA on its Best Ideas list) saw the surprise decision to delay its Battlefield V release date as the right decision in efforts to add extra polish to the game. Analyst Michael Pachter lowers units ests. for FY19, but keeps FY20 estimates for revenue and PT at $158 (implies 36% upside after Thursday’s near 10% downdraft).
Nutanix is getting multiple defenses after shares fell 6% post market. RBC’s Matthew Hedberg is a buyer on the weakness as the results were "strong". He sees the push towards a software-only model as a key highlight with high FCF margins. Piper’s Andrew J. Nowinski reiterates his overweight rating. Nowinski sees the cloud platform and storage provider’s new term-based subscription offering as outweighing the higher operating expense guidance.
Trump poised to cut all US funding for key UN Palestinian refugee programme - Guardian
Trump poised to cut all US funding for key UN Palestinian refugee programme
US administration to withdraw from services affecting 5 million people, reports say
Peter Beaumont and Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem
Fri 31 Aug 2018
Puplis gather in front of a school run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City.
Puplis gather in front of a school run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images
The Trump administration is planning to cut all remaining US funding for the main UN programme for Palestinian refugees, with potentially devastating impacts, and is lobbying other countries to follow suit.
The move, reported in several US media outlets, has been anticipated both by senior officials at the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and other Washington insiders, who told the Guardian the defunding could be announced as early as next week.
Speculation about the future of US funding for the agency, which provides services to more than five million Palestinians in the occupied territories as well as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, comes as European and Arab countries pledged to protect the agency and Germany promised a significant increase in financial backing.
The Guardian view on Trump’s Palestinian policy: setting fire to the ground
Read more
The threat emerged days after the US announced it was withdrawing $200mfrom its main development agency, USAid, for programmes based largely in Gaza where they help tens of thousands of people.
According to a report in the Washington Post, the Trump administration will use the announcement of its cessation of UNRWA funding to push for a huge reduction in the number of Palestinians officially registered as refugees.
US president Donald Trump. Photograph: Brian Cahn/Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
The reported aim was to reduce those designated as refugees from five million to around 500,000, representing only those who were physically displaced from their homes when the agency was created seven decades ago, thus excluding millions of their descendants.
The US has long been the largest individual donor to UNRWA, pledging about one third of the agency’s $1.1bn annual budget, but earlier this year the administration cut a scheduled UNRWA payment of $130m to $65m, saying the agency needed to make unspecified reforms and calling on the Palestinians to renew peace talks.
The move has been widely interpreted in both Israel and Palestine as a blunt move by the US to unilaterally sweep aside one of the main sticking points in peace negotiations – the right of return of Palestinians.
Asked on Tuesday if the US should “get the right of return off the table”, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said she thought it should.
“I do agree with that … I absolutely think we have to look at right of return.”
Yaakov Amidror, a retired major general and former national security adviser to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said closing UNRWA “in the long run, no question, is the right move to do”.
“Reduction in funds is one way to shut up and close UNRWA. How do you do it? By saying, ‘UNRWA, you don’t exist any more, with all due respect.’”
The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said: “The loss of this organisation could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction.”
Berlin has pledged to significantly increase its funding to the agency.
Trump’s cut to funding for Palestinian refugees could lead to disaster
Mick Dumper
Read more
The issue of Palestinian refugees, and whether those abroad would be allowed to return to a future Palestinian state or be compensated, is one of the three key issues at the heart of the Middle East peace process, along with the status of Jerusalem and the borders of that state.
Trump has already unilaterally intervened on the Jerusalem issue in Israel’s favour by recognising it as the Israeli capital.
UNRWA was founded in 1949 after the first Arab-Israel war and the exodus of around 700,000 refugees who fled or were driven out of Israel on its founding as a state. Netanyahu has said UNRWA should be abolished and its responsibilities taken over by the main UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
There had been speculation for some time that the Trump administration had been moving in this direction, amid unconfirmed claims that senior officials had suggested to at least one host country that UNRWA funding for Palestinian refugees there could be replaced by bilateral US funding.
Trump cuts jeopardise lives of millions of Palestinian refugees, UN warns
Read more
Critics have suggested US threats to cut aid to persuade Palestinians to accept a peace plan is a crude form of leverage. Aaron David Miller, tje head of the Middle East programme at the Wilson centre thinktank and a former Middle East adviser to several US secretaries of state, told the Guardian he believed such an approach was in line with a “transactional” foreign policy embraced by Trump.
“This is part of a broader issue with a president who sees every alliance as a transaction. We have seen it with the Europeans with Nato and we have seen it with Syria as well. This is clearly a political campaign to pressure [the Palestinians] as well as to save money, and it’s a deadly combination.”
Miller, like many in the foreign policy establishment, argues that there will never be a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue that satisfies Palestinians, but said UNRWA “serves a need” acknowledged by many Israeli officials even as they have campaigned against it.
US administration to withdraw from services affecting 5 million people, reports say
Peter Beaumont and Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem
Fri 31 Aug 2018
Puplis gather in front of a school run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City.
Puplis gather in front of a school run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images
The Trump administration is planning to cut all remaining US funding for the main UN programme for Palestinian refugees, with potentially devastating impacts, and is lobbying other countries to follow suit.
The move, reported in several US media outlets, has been anticipated both by senior officials at the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and other Washington insiders, who told the Guardian the defunding could be announced as early as next week.
Speculation about the future of US funding for the agency, which provides services to more than five million Palestinians in the occupied territories as well as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, comes as European and Arab countries pledged to protect the agency and Germany promised a significant increase in financial backing.
The Guardian view on Trump’s Palestinian policy: setting fire to the ground
Read more
The threat emerged days after the US announced it was withdrawing $200mfrom its main development agency, USAid, for programmes based largely in Gaza where they help tens of thousands of people.
According to a report in the Washington Post, the Trump administration will use the announcement of its cessation of UNRWA funding to push for a huge reduction in the number of Palestinians officially registered as refugees.
US president Donald Trump. Photograph: Brian Cahn/Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
The reported aim was to reduce those designated as refugees from five million to around 500,000, representing only those who were physically displaced from their homes when the agency was created seven decades ago, thus excluding millions of their descendants.
The US has long been the largest individual donor to UNRWA, pledging about one third of the agency’s $1.1bn annual budget, but earlier this year the administration cut a scheduled UNRWA payment of $130m to $65m, saying the agency needed to make unspecified reforms and calling on the Palestinians to renew peace talks.
The move has been widely interpreted in both Israel and Palestine as a blunt move by the US to unilaterally sweep aside one of the main sticking points in peace negotiations – the right of return of Palestinians.
Asked on Tuesday if the US should “get the right of return off the table”, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said she thought it should.
“I do agree with that … I absolutely think we have to look at right of return.”
Yaakov Amidror, a retired major general and former national security adviser to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said closing UNRWA “in the long run, no question, is the right move to do”.
“Reduction in funds is one way to shut up and close UNRWA. How do you do it? By saying, ‘UNRWA, you don’t exist any more, with all due respect.’”
The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said: “The loss of this organisation could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction.”
Berlin has pledged to significantly increase its funding to the agency.
Trump’s cut to funding for Palestinian refugees could lead to disaster
Mick Dumper
Read more
The issue of Palestinian refugees, and whether those abroad would be allowed to return to a future Palestinian state or be compensated, is one of the three key issues at the heart of the Middle East peace process, along with the status of Jerusalem and the borders of that state.
Trump has already unilaterally intervened on the Jerusalem issue in Israel’s favour by recognising it as the Israeli capital.
UNRWA was founded in 1949 after the first Arab-Israel war and the exodus of around 700,000 refugees who fled or were driven out of Israel on its founding as a state. Netanyahu has said UNRWA should be abolished and its responsibilities taken over by the main UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
There had been speculation for some time that the Trump administration had been moving in this direction, amid unconfirmed claims that senior officials had suggested to at least one host country that UNRWA funding for Palestinian refugees there could be replaced by bilateral US funding.
Trump cuts jeopardise lives of millions of Palestinian refugees, UN warns
Read more
Critics have suggested US threats to cut aid to persuade Palestinians to accept a peace plan is a crude form of leverage. Aaron David Miller, tje head of the Middle East programme at the Wilson centre thinktank and a former Middle East adviser to several US secretaries of state, told the Guardian he believed such an approach was in line with a “transactional” foreign policy embraced by Trump.
“This is part of a broader issue with a president who sees every alliance as a transaction. We have seen it with the Europeans with Nato and we have seen it with Syria as well. This is clearly a political campaign to pressure [the Palestinians] as well as to save money, and it’s a deadly combination.”
Miller, like many in the foreign policy establishment, argues that there will never be a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue that satisfies Palestinians, but said UNRWA “serves a need” acknowledged by many Israeli officials even as they have campaigned against it.
Movie madness: Why Chinese cinemas are empty but full - BBC News
Movie madness: Why Chinese cinemas are empty but full
By Stephen McDonell
BBC News, Beijing
31 August 2018
Chinese movie theatres may appear to be sold out online, but in reality could be completely empty
For a country which will soon assume the mantle of the world's largest cinema audience, China comes out with a surprising number of big budget B-grade flops.
Some blame this on censorship, others on a lack of creativity but there are also those who see a more sinister force at work, which has nothing to do with film-making.
It also has nothing to do with selling tickets: at least not real ones.
Some investors are apparently financially backing movies with the sole goal of boosting their stock price that can shift on the perception of a movie's performance, irrespective of its true popularity.
Chinese film critic and industry observer Raymond Zhou has been digging into the darker side of film financing in his country.
"When you have a hit film, your stock price will go up several times in terms of market valuation compared with the grosses from the box office so some 'financial genius', came up with this idea: Why don't I have fake box office numbers so that I can make much more money from the stock market?" he said.
Box office manipulation is a growing problem in China, says one film critic
I asked if it could really be true that producers were seeking to make money in ways that had nothing to do with putting bums on seats in theatres; nothing to do with making beautiful films?
China's most expensive film bombs on debut
China puts limit on film stars' pay
"The natural way is to make a good movie and then your stock price will go up right?" he responded.
"But some people have reversed this equation. They have seen the rise of the stock price as the ultimate goal and have just used the making of the movie as an excuse."
Phantom tickets
So what is actually happening?
According to Chinese government investigators, certain production and investment companies have developed ways of faking box office results.
Then, if these publicly available figures appear to show that a film is doing well, people will buy shares in the companies which paid for the movie.
So a film might be on in the cinema and one of the companies which paid for it might buy out entire late night screenings. These will register as full houses when they are, in reality, entirely empty theatres.
The movie challenging China's cinematic gay taboo
Chinese animation blocked in France
Regulators have been catching onto this so producers have allegedly started just buying all the bad seats across many hours of screenings.
Yet the authorities have now worked out that if a showing is somewhat empty in the middle and for some reason all the seats around the walls have been purchased something must be amiss.
You might wonder, if box office manipulation has been a broad problem within the Chinese film industry, if it's still worthwhile financially.
How many hundreds of thousands of seats would a company need to buy to boost the figures enough to make a difference to its own stock price?
Well what if the cinema chain is also an investor? It can just sell itself the phantom tickets for free.
Asura (L) was China's most expensive film, and one of its biggest flops
Cinema journalist John Papish is an expert in the Chinese box office and says considerable conflicts of interests in this country would be illegal in, say, the United States.
"An owner of an exhibitor can also distribute their own movies and use their cinemas as a launching pad," he said.
"They can manipulate the number of screenings in their own cinemas. Often times the third party ticketing apps also have their hands in the promotion of the films so they can push a film that they have an interest in; that they have invested in themselves."
So, in effect, a company - or connected companies - can distribute the film, have ownership of the theatres and then maybe also involve those selling the tickets. Even those apps rating the film could potentially have a financial stake.
'Cook the books'
Some films are also suspected of being used as a method of getting around China's laws designed to restrict capital flight.
This country has an annual international transfer limit per person of $50,000 (£38,921) without official clearance.
But you can "cook the books", according to Mr Zhou, if your movie is hiring international actors or even set and costume designers.
For example, in your budget, you might say you are paying a Hollywood star $10m but you're really only paying them $2m.
The other $8m you can transfer offshore without questions. And most importantly without the need to collect official Chinese receipts.
"Inside China we have this very strict invoice system," says Mr Zhou.
"Receipts can be checked and double checked using the super computers of the tax bureau. But once a lot of overseas talent or overseas service providers are involved then the system doesn't work and money can legally be moved off shore."
He thinks the authorities must be onto this and are likely to be looking at ways of closing the loophole.
This is not to say that China no longer has honest, committed filmmakers producing quality work.
The low budget drama "Dying to Survive", about a group of hapless criminals trying to smuggle cheap cancer drugs, has been described as showing what's best about this country's cinema, as well as being hugely popular.
Dying to Survive has proven to be a box office hit
Yet the Chinese government knows there is something rotten going on which needs to be cleaned up.
The National People's Congress has introduced fines for misreported box office figures ranging from $7000 to $74,000 and the authorities are allowing the Motion Picture Association of America to use an accounting firm to audit box office data here.
Communist Party anti-corruption investigators say they are now chasing a high-profile producer, who they've accused of fraud, claiming that he is currently on the run in the United States.
However there still seems to be no move to break up the vested interests in Chinese movie making, which many analysts believe will continue to pump out poor quality fare as long as there is money to be made - irrespective of how many actually people go to see the film.
By Stephen McDonell
BBC News, Beijing
31 August 2018
Chinese movie theatres may appear to be sold out online, but in reality could be completely empty
For a country which will soon assume the mantle of the world's largest cinema audience, China comes out with a surprising number of big budget B-grade flops.
Some blame this on censorship, others on a lack of creativity but there are also those who see a more sinister force at work, which has nothing to do with film-making.
It also has nothing to do with selling tickets: at least not real ones.
Some investors are apparently financially backing movies with the sole goal of boosting their stock price that can shift on the perception of a movie's performance, irrespective of its true popularity.
Chinese film critic and industry observer Raymond Zhou has been digging into the darker side of film financing in his country.
"When you have a hit film, your stock price will go up several times in terms of market valuation compared with the grosses from the box office so some 'financial genius', came up with this idea: Why don't I have fake box office numbers so that I can make much more money from the stock market?" he said.
Box office manipulation is a growing problem in China, says one film critic
I asked if it could really be true that producers were seeking to make money in ways that had nothing to do with putting bums on seats in theatres; nothing to do with making beautiful films?
China's most expensive film bombs on debut
China puts limit on film stars' pay
"The natural way is to make a good movie and then your stock price will go up right?" he responded.
"But some people have reversed this equation. They have seen the rise of the stock price as the ultimate goal and have just used the making of the movie as an excuse."
Phantom tickets
So what is actually happening?
According to Chinese government investigators, certain production and investment companies have developed ways of faking box office results.
Then, if these publicly available figures appear to show that a film is doing well, people will buy shares in the companies which paid for the movie.
So a film might be on in the cinema and one of the companies which paid for it might buy out entire late night screenings. These will register as full houses when they are, in reality, entirely empty theatres.
The movie challenging China's cinematic gay taboo
Chinese animation blocked in France
Regulators have been catching onto this so producers have allegedly started just buying all the bad seats across many hours of screenings.
Yet the authorities have now worked out that if a showing is somewhat empty in the middle and for some reason all the seats around the walls have been purchased something must be amiss.
You might wonder, if box office manipulation has been a broad problem within the Chinese film industry, if it's still worthwhile financially.
How many hundreds of thousands of seats would a company need to buy to boost the figures enough to make a difference to its own stock price?
Well what if the cinema chain is also an investor? It can just sell itself the phantom tickets for free.
Asura (L) was China's most expensive film, and one of its biggest flops
Cinema journalist John Papish is an expert in the Chinese box office and says considerable conflicts of interests in this country would be illegal in, say, the United States.
"An owner of an exhibitor can also distribute their own movies and use their cinemas as a launching pad," he said.
"They can manipulate the number of screenings in their own cinemas. Often times the third party ticketing apps also have their hands in the promotion of the films so they can push a film that they have an interest in; that they have invested in themselves."
So, in effect, a company - or connected companies - can distribute the film, have ownership of the theatres and then maybe also involve those selling the tickets. Even those apps rating the film could potentially have a financial stake.
'Cook the books'
Some films are also suspected of being used as a method of getting around China's laws designed to restrict capital flight.
This country has an annual international transfer limit per person of $50,000 (£38,921) without official clearance.
But you can "cook the books", according to Mr Zhou, if your movie is hiring international actors or even set and costume designers.
For example, in your budget, you might say you are paying a Hollywood star $10m but you're really only paying them $2m.
The other $8m you can transfer offshore without questions. And most importantly without the need to collect official Chinese receipts.
"Inside China we have this very strict invoice system," says Mr Zhou.
"Receipts can be checked and double checked using the super computers of the tax bureau. But once a lot of overseas talent or overseas service providers are involved then the system doesn't work and money can legally be moved off shore."
He thinks the authorities must be onto this and are likely to be looking at ways of closing the loophole.
This is not to say that China no longer has honest, committed filmmakers producing quality work.
The low budget drama "Dying to Survive", about a group of hapless criminals trying to smuggle cheap cancer drugs, has been described as showing what's best about this country's cinema, as well as being hugely popular.
Dying to Survive has proven to be a box office hit
Yet the Chinese government knows there is something rotten going on which needs to be cleaned up.
The National People's Congress has introduced fines for misreported box office figures ranging from $7000 to $74,000 and the authorities are allowing the Motion Picture Association of America to use an accounting firm to audit box office data here.
Communist Party anti-corruption investigators say they are now chasing a high-profile producer, who they've accused of fraud, claiming that he is currently on the run in the United States.
However there still seems to be no move to break up the vested interests in Chinese movie making, which many analysts believe will continue to pump out poor quality fare as long as there is money to be made - irrespective of how many actually people go to see the film.
Clock changes: EU backs ending daylight saving time - BBC News
August 31, 2018.
Clock changes: EU backs ending daylight saving time
The EU Commission is proposing to end the practice of adjusting clocks by an hour in spring and autumn after a survey found most Europeans opposed it.
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said millions "believe that in future, summer time should be year-round, and that's what will happen".
The Commission's proposal requires support from the 28 national governments and MEPs to become law.
In the EU clocks switch between winter and summer under daylight saving time.
A European Parliament resolution says it is "crucial to maintain a unified EU time regime".
However, the Commission has not yet drafted details of the proposed change.
In a consultation paper it said one option would be to let each member state decide whether to go for permanent summer or winter time. That would be "a sovereign decision of each member state", Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein explained on Friday.
He stressed that the proposal was "to no longer constrain member states into changing clocks twice per year".
The UK is one of the 28 nations, but is due to leave the European Union in March 2019. Any change would be unlikely to happen before then.
The Commission warns that uncoordinated time changes between member states would cause economic harm.
In the public consultation, 84% of 4.6 million respondents called for ending the spring and autumn clock change.
By far the biggest response was in Germany and Austria (3.79% and 2.94% of the national population respectively). The UK's response was lowest - 0.02% - but few Italians took part either (0.04%).
Some studies cited by the Commission point to adverse health impacts from the clock changes.
"Findings suggest that the effect on the human biorhythm may be more severe than previously thought," it says.
Clocks go forward by an hour on the last Sunday in March and switch back to winter time on the last Sunday in October.
Finland called for daylight saving to be abolished EU-wide, after a petition gathered more than 70,000 signatures from citizens calling for such a change.
The EU made the spring/autumn clock change the rule in all member states in 1996, based on the argument that it would reduce energy costs. But the Commission says the data on energy-saving is inconclusive.
There is also no reliable evidence that the clock changes reduce traffic accidents, the Commission says.
What are the EU's current time zones?
There are three standard time zones:
Three states apply GMT (the UK, Ireland and Portugal)
17 have Central European Time, which is GMT+1
Eight have Eastern European Time, which is GMT+2
The current seasonal clock changes are controversial partly because there is a big difference in daylight hours experienced by Scandinavia and by southern Europe.
Nordic countries have long, dark nights in winter and short nights in summer. The pattern in the south is more even across the seasons.
There are anomalies too. For example, neighbours Portugal and Spain are in different time zones, as are Sweden and Finland.
What is the situation in the UK?
The UK adopted Daylight Saving Time in 1916, along with many other nations involved in World War One, in order to conserve coal.
It followed years of pressure from William Willett, a great-great-grandfather of Coldplay singer Chris Martin.
But the UK has had its own debate about time zones.
In 2011, the government proposed a three-year trial of moving to Central European Time, so the time would be GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in summer.
The change would have meant lighter evenings but darker mornings, and one of the arguments was that it would reduce accidents. But it was abandoned after opposition from Scotland and northern England, where some areas would not have seen daylight until 10am under the proposal.
Clock changes: EU backs ending daylight saving time
The EU Commission is proposing to end the practice of adjusting clocks by an hour in spring and autumn after a survey found most Europeans opposed it.
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said millions "believe that in future, summer time should be year-round, and that's what will happen".
The Commission's proposal requires support from the 28 national governments and MEPs to become law.
In the EU clocks switch between winter and summer under daylight saving time.
A European Parliament resolution says it is "crucial to maintain a unified EU time regime".
However, the Commission has not yet drafted details of the proposed change.
In a consultation paper it said one option would be to let each member state decide whether to go for permanent summer or winter time. That would be "a sovereign decision of each member state", Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein explained on Friday.
He stressed that the proposal was "to no longer constrain member states into changing clocks twice per year".
The UK is one of the 28 nations, but is due to leave the European Union in March 2019. Any change would be unlikely to happen before then.
The Commission warns that uncoordinated time changes between member states would cause economic harm.
In the public consultation, 84% of 4.6 million respondents called for ending the spring and autumn clock change.
By far the biggest response was in Germany and Austria (3.79% and 2.94% of the national population respectively). The UK's response was lowest - 0.02% - but few Italians took part either (0.04%).
Some studies cited by the Commission point to adverse health impacts from the clock changes.
"Findings suggest that the effect on the human biorhythm may be more severe than previously thought," it says.
Clocks go forward by an hour on the last Sunday in March and switch back to winter time on the last Sunday in October.
Finland called for daylight saving to be abolished EU-wide, after a petition gathered more than 70,000 signatures from citizens calling for such a change.
The EU made the spring/autumn clock change the rule in all member states in 1996, based on the argument that it would reduce energy costs. But the Commission says the data on energy-saving is inconclusive.
There is also no reliable evidence that the clock changes reduce traffic accidents, the Commission says.
What are the EU's current time zones?
There are three standard time zones:
Three states apply GMT (the UK, Ireland and Portugal)
17 have Central European Time, which is GMT+1
Eight have Eastern European Time, which is GMT+2
The current seasonal clock changes are controversial partly because there is a big difference in daylight hours experienced by Scandinavia and by southern Europe.
Nordic countries have long, dark nights in winter and short nights in summer. The pattern in the south is more even across the seasons.
There are anomalies too. For example, neighbours Portugal and Spain are in different time zones, as are Sweden and Finland.
What is the situation in the UK?
The UK adopted Daylight Saving Time in 1916, along with many other nations involved in World War One, in order to conserve coal.
It followed years of pressure from William Willett, a great-great-grandfather of Coldplay singer Chris Martin.
But the UK has had its own debate about time zones.
In 2011, the government proposed a three-year trial of moving to Central European Time, so the time would be GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in summer.
The change would have meant lighter evenings but darker mornings, and one of the arguments was that it would reduce accidents. But it was abandoned after opposition from Scotland and northern England, where some areas would not have seen daylight until 10am under the proposal.
Trump threatens to pull US out of World Trade Organization - BBC News
August 31, 2018.
Trump threatens to pull US out of World Trade Organization
Mr Trump has been embroiled in tit-for-tat trade battles on several fronts in recent months
President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the World Trade Organization (WTO), claiming it treats his country unfairly.
"If they don't shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO," Mr Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
The WTO was established to provide rules for global trade and resolve disputes between countries.
Mr Trump says the body too often rules against the US, although he concedes it has won some recent judgments.
He claimed on Fox News earlier this year that the WTO was set up "to benefit everybody but us", adding: "We lose the lawsuits, almost all of the lawsuits in the WTO."
However, some analysis shows the US wins about 90% when it is the complainant and loses about the same percentage when it is complained against.
Mr Trump's warning about a possible US pull-out from the WTO highlights the conflict between his protectionist trade policies and the open trade system that the WTO oversees.
US-China trade row: What has happened so far?
Is Trump the WTO's biggest threat?
Is Trump right about trade?
Washington has recently blocked the appointment of new judges to the WTO's Geneva-based dispute settlement body, which could potentially paralyse its ability to issue judgments.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has also accused the WTO of interfering with US sovereignty.
It comes as President Trump set a Friday deadline for Canada to sign a new agreement with the US and Mexico. He has threatened to tax the country's automotive sector or cut it out entirely.
What's Trump's issue with the WTO?
The US president has been sounding off about unfair trade since even before he became president.
Mr Trump said on Thursday that the 1994 agreement to establish the WTO "was the single worst trade deal ever made".
The US has been embroiled in a tit-for-tat trade battle on several fronts in recent months.
The one creating the most interest is with China, as the world's two largest economies wrangle for global influence.
Mr Trump has introduced tariffs on a number of goods imported into the US.
Early victims of Trump's trade war
What is a trade war and should I worry?
Six ways China could retaliate in a trade war
A third round of tariffs on $200bn (£154bn) of Chinese goods could come as soon as a public-comment period concludes next week, according to a Bloomberg report citing various sources.
Asked to confirm this during the Bloomberg interview, President Trump said that it was "not totally wrong".
China has responded to US tariffs by imposing retaliatory taxes on the same value of US products and has filed complaints against the tariffs at the WTO.
China's commerce ministry has said it "clearly suspects" the US of violating WTO rules.
An initial complaint at the WTO was filed by China in July after Mr Trump imposed his first round of tariffs.
Donald Trump speaks with the Mexican leader on the phone through an interpreter
The WTO is at the heart of the system of rules for international trade. It is the forum for sorting disputes between countries about breaches of global trade rules and for negotiating new trade liberalisation.
The EU, meanwhile, is trying to steer the US towards reforming the WTO rather than abandoning it.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's trade committee, told Politico magazine that it would submit plans to overhaul the organisation in September. He said it would test whether the US was really interested in reform.
"This is certainly about calling [America's] bluff," he said.
What about other trade deals?
Mr Trump has not been a fan of multilateral trade agreements.
In a 2016 presidential debate with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Mr Trump described the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) with Mexico and Canada as "the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere" and a "killer" of US jobs.
Once in office he said he wanted to renegotiate - not scrap - the accord, triggering a year of talks.
On Monday, Mr Trump announced that the US and Mexico had agreed to revamp Nafta, calling it a "really good deal" that was "much more fair" for both countries.
Canada is yet to agree to the new terms.
Clock is ticking for Canada in US trade negotiations
What is Nafta?
What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
On Thursday, Mr Lighthizer held talks in Washington with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland aimed at reaching a new deal.
Following four separate meetings, which continued late into the night, Ms Freeland told reporters that a deal could not be reached, adding that talks would resume on Friday.
Also during his election campaign Mr Trump railed against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation trade deal that was a linchpin of former President Barack Obama's Asia policy.
Mr Trump said the deal was a "potential disaster for our country".
One of his first acts as president was to withdraw the US from the TTP, although he has since said he might consider rejoining if the terms were "substantially better".
Trump threatens to pull US out of World Trade Organization
Mr Trump has been embroiled in tit-for-tat trade battles on several fronts in recent months
President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the World Trade Organization (WTO), claiming it treats his country unfairly.
"If they don't shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO," Mr Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
The WTO was established to provide rules for global trade and resolve disputes between countries.
Mr Trump says the body too often rules against the US, although he concedes it has won some recent judgments.
He claimed on Fox News earlier this year that the WTO was set up "to benefit everybody but us", adding: "We lose the lawsuits, almost all of the lawsuits in the WTO."
However, some analysis shows the US wins about 90% when it is the complainant and loses about the same percentage when it is complained against.
Mr Trump's warning about a possible US pull-out from the WTO highlights the conflict between his protectionist trade policies and the open trade system that the WTO oversees.
US-China trade row: What has happened so far?
Is Trump the WTO's biggest threat?
Is Trump right about trade?
Washington has recently blocked the appointment of new judges to the WTO's Geneva-based dispute settlement body, which could potentially paralyse its ability to issue judgments.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has also accused the WTO of interfering with US sovereignty.
It comes as President Trump set a Friday deadline for Canada to sign a new agreement with the US and Mexico. He has threatened to tax the country's automotive sector or cut it out entirely.
What's Trump's issue with the WTO?
The US president has been sounding off about unfair trade since even before he became president.
Mr Trump said on Thursday that the 1994 agreement to establish the WTO "was the single worst trade deal ever made".
The US has been embroiled in a tit-for-tat trade battle on several fronts in recent months.
The one creating the most interest is with China, as the world's two largest economies wrangle for global influence.
Mr Trump has introduced tariffs on a number of goods imported into the US.
Early victims of Trump's trade war
What is a trade war and should I worry?
Six ways China could retaliate in a trade war
A third round of tariffs on $200bn (£154bn) of Chinese goods could come as soon as a public-comment period concludes next week, according to a Bloomberg report citing various sources.
Asked to confirm this during the Bloomberg interview, President Trump said that it was "not totally wrong".
China has responded to US tariffs by imposing retaliatory taxes on the same value of US products and has filed complaints against the tariffs at the WTO.
China's commerce ministry has said it "clearly suspects" the US of violating WTO rules.
An initial complaint at the WTO was filed by China in July after Mr Trump imposed his first round of tariffs.
Donald Trump speaks with the Mexican leader on the phone through an interpreter
The WTO is at the heart of the system of rules for international trade. It is the forum for sorting disputes between countries about breaches of global trade rules and for negotiating new trade liberalisation.
The EU, meanwhile, is trying to steer the US towards reforming the WTO rather than abandoning it.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's trade committee, told Politico magazine that it would submit plans to overhaul the organisation in September. He said it would test whether the US was really interested in reform.
"This is certainly about calling [America's] bluff," he said.
What about other trade deals?
Mr Trump has not been a fan of multilateral trade agreements.
In a 2016 presidential debate with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Mr Trump described the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) with Mexico and Canada as "the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere" and a "killer" of US jobs.
Once in office he said he wanted to renegotiate - not scrap - the accord, triggering a year of talks.
On Monday, Mr Trump announced that the US and Mexico had agreed to revamp Nafta, calling it a "really good deal" that was "much more fair" for both countries.
Canada is yet to agree to the new terms.
Clock is ticking for Canada in US trade negotiations
What is Nafta?
What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
On Thursday, Mr Lighthizer held talks in Washington with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland aimed at reaching a new deal.
Following four separate meetings, which continued late into the night, Ms Freeland told reporters that a deal could not be reached, adding that talks would resume on Friday.
Also during his election campaign Mr Trump railed against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation trade deal that was a linchpin of former President Barack Obama's Asia policy.
Mr Trump said the deal was a "potential disaster for our country".
One of his first acts as president was to withdraw the US from the TTP, although he has since said he might consider rejoining if the terms were "substantially better".
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Panasonic to move Europe headquarters from UK to Amsterdam - BBC News
August 30, 2018.
Panasonic to move Europe headquarters from UK to Amsterdam
Panasonic will move its European headquarters from the UK to Amsterdam in October as Brexit approaches.
The aim is to avoid potential tax issues linked to the UK's decision to leave the EU, said Panasonic Europe's chief executive Laurent Abadie.
In the run-up to March 2019, a number of multinational firms have said they plan to move jobs out of the UK.
Several Japanese financial companies have said they intend to move their main EU bases away from London.
Panasonic's decision was driven by a fear that Japan could start considering the UK a tax haven if it cuts corporate tax rates to attract business, Mr Abadie told the Nikkei Asian Review newspaper.
If Panasonic ends up paying less tax in the UK, that could render it liable for a bigger tax bill in Japan.
Brexit: Key dates and potential hurdles
At-a-glance: the UK's four Brexit options
Mr Abadie told the Nikkei Asian Review that Panasonic had been considering the move for 15 months, because of Brexit-related concerns such as access to free flow of goods and people.
The newspaper said employees dealing with auditing and financial operations would move, but those dealing with investor relations would stay in the UK.
Up to 20 people could be affected out of a staff of 30.
A spokesperson confirmed to the BBC that the registration of Panasonic's European headquarters would move in October.
However, the spokesperson said the firm could not comment on the numbers of people who would have to move to Amsterdam.
In 2016, the UK government pledged to cut corporation tax to encourage businesses to continue investing in the UK after the Brexit referendum.
Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, but with less than a year to go, the UK and the EU are struggling to reach consensus on the terms of the exit.
Japan is a major investor in the UK, where more than 800 Japanese companies employ more than 100,000 people.
However, financial firms including Nomura, Sumitomo Mitsui and Daiwa have already said they will no longer maintain their EU headquarters in London.
Panasonic to move Europe headquarters from UK to Amsterdam
Panasonic will move its European headquarters from the UK to Amsterdam in October as Brexit approaches.
The aim is to avoid potential tax issues linked to the UK's decision to leave the EU, said Panasonic Europe's chief executive Laurent Abadie.
In the run-up to March 2019, a number of multinational firms have said they plan to move jobs out of the UK.
Several Japanese financial companies have said they intend to move their main EU bases away from London.
Panasonic's decision was driven by a fear that Japan could start considering the UK a tax haven if it cuts corporate tax rates to attract business, Mr Abadie told the Nikkei Asian Review newspaper.
If Panasonic ends up paying less tax in the UK, that could render it liable for a bigger tax bill in Japan.
Brexit: Key dates and potential hurdles
At-a-glance: the UK's four Brexit options
Mr Abadie told the Nikkei Asian Review that Panasonic had been considering the move for 15 months, because of Brexit-related concerns such as access to free flow of goods and people.
The newspaper said employees dealing with auditing and financial operations would move, but those dealing with investor relations would stay in the UK.
Up to 20 people could be affected out of a staff of 30.
A spokesperson confirmed to the BBC that the registration of Panasonic's European headquarters would move in October.
However, the spokesperson said the firm could not comment on the numbers of people who would have to move to Amsterdam.
In 2016, the UK government pledged to cut corporation tax to encourage businesses to continue investing in the UK after the Brexit referendum.
Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, but with less than a year to go, the UK and the EU are struggling to reach consensus on the terms of the exit.
Japan is a major investor in the UK, where more than 800 Japanese companies employ more than 100,000 people.
However, financial firms including Nomura, Sumitomo Mitsui and Daiwa have already said they will no longer maintain their EU headquarters in London.
Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 Maneuvering Is Getting Even More Aggressive - Daily Intelligencer ( New York Magazine )
August 30, 2018.
Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 Maneuvering Is Getting Even More Aggressive
By Gabriel Debenedetti
Warren hasn’t announced anything, of course, but it certainly looks like she’s setting up a presidential run.
Elizabeth Warren’s had a deceptively busy last few weeks. She dropped one longshot policy proposal that would try to remake corporate America, then another that aims to actually drain the Washington swamp. She put restrictions on her own fundraising practices and opened her financial books, and bid two staffers farewell as they shipped up to new jobs in New Hampshire.
Let’s play a game of connect the dots.
Alone, each dot can be read as an incremental, progressive political move. The overall picture, however, is yet more evidence that the Massachusetts senator is prepping for a 2020 presidential run – and moving significantly more aggressively than is widely recognized, by pundits and her potential opponents alike.
The late summer series of public-facing maneuvers comes with the 2020 race set to hit center stage in fewer than 70 days, as soon as the midterms pass. Warren’s fellow top-tier Democratic primary contenders Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are both planning to make politically resonant Labor Day appearances — Biden in Pittsburgh and Sanders in Manchester, New Hampshire — and her fellow Massachusetts hopeful, former governor Deval Patrick, on Wednesday launched a PAC intended to help him back allied candidates around the country.
But the potential front-runner’s moves stand out largely because they break beyond the serious groundwork she’s already laid — from raising gobs of campaign cash and ordering up waves of self-research to strengthening her ties to party power brokers and working to minimize her vulnerability on the touchy issue of her disputed Native American ancestry — further muscling her ahead of the rest of the potential field in terms of political preparation. The effort has also opened Warren to months of extra scrutiny from Republicans eager to define her for American voters before a potential general election matchup against Donald Trump, who used his “Pocahontas” nickname for her yet again in passing during a speech in Ohio last week.
“I would put her in the category of a few candidates — people who are, without running, doing whatever they can to be running in practical terms,” said leading party strategist Dan Kanninen, a Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaign veteran. “This last two weeks may put her at the front of that pack.”
The new push began in earnest two weeks back, when Warren announced new corporate accountability legislation — which would force large companies to consider stakeholders in top-level decisions, limit execs’ ability to sell their shares, and require the organizations to get shareholder and board approval for political spending — to some fanfare. One week later, she summoned the Washington media to the National Press Club for the unveiling of another bill, which she called “the most ambitious anti-corruption legislation proposed in Congress since Watergate,” proposing to ban members of Congress, the Cabinet, and the federal judiciary from owning or trading individual stocks, to ban foreign lobbying and lobbyist donations to campaigns, and to prohibit former members of Congress, ex-presidents and onetime agency heads from lobbying themselves.
Warren knows neither proposal is likely to become law anytime soon, but each could easily help form the backbone of an eventual nationwide platform, and introducing them to the party’s national conversation early effectively grants Warren ownership of the ideas, which other potential White House contenders may eventually embrace. Her timing could hardly have been luckier: just hours after she was done explaining her corruption legislation, Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance law violations and tax fraud, implicating the president, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted in his financial fraud trial, and Congressman Duncan Hunter was indicted for his own alleged improper use of campaign funds.
Yet it was a little-noticed passage of her reveal that may have presented the clearest signs that she’s stepping toward a run. Warren — who is up for re-election in November, but who is unlikely to face anything close to a real challenge — publicly said for the first time that she has now formally stopped taking not just corporate political action committee money — as other likely 2020 contenders and down-ballot candidates have done — but all PAC money, as well as funds from federal lobbyists. (This is a new policy for her.) Two days later, she pushed on, complying with one of her new proposals by publishing her tax returns — ten years’ worth — a move that provides a clear contrast with Trump, whose taxes remain shrouded in mystery, and also with Sanders, whose own tax returns were briefly a point of contention during 2016’s primary fight.
Warren’s recent moves haven’t been restricted to Washington. While the senator continues avoiding trips to the important presidential nominating states of New Hampshire and Iowa, turning down repeated invitations, according to local officials, two of her aides in recent weeks decamped to New Hampshire for new jobs with the state’s Democratic Party committee — one as its new communications director, and another as its political director. It’s a classic move for potential presidential hopefuls whose staffers are eager for facetime and connections in early-voting states. “If she decided to run in New Hampshire, it would be good to have access to people with New Hampshire experience,” explained Kathy Sullivan, a former chair of the state party. “It’s not an unusual thing for us to see people who may have been associated with candidates, in both parties, who come up to New Hampshire in the midterms” before a presidential race.
Warren has also recently stepped up her endorsements and fundraising for House and gubernatorial candidates across the country, including in some long-shot races where she has little obvious connection to the candidate: she raised eyebrows in Washington this summer for popping up at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee breakfast, and her list of endorsees — some of who could turn into powerful, and grateful, supporters next year — stretches into the dozens. Sometimes, she helps candidates far from the public eye. In July, for example, she headlined a D.C. fundraiser for New Mexico congressional candidate Deb Haaland, who is likely to become Capitol Hill’s first Native American congresswoman. But sometimes, Warren jumps into the center of the House news cycle: almost immediately after Hunter’s indictment this month, she started sending fundraising emails for his Democratic challenger.
The growing collection of dots are accumulating after months of preparation that’s already seen Warren actively work to build her political capabilities, strengthen her party connections in Washington and around the country, shore up her biggest weaknesses, and burnish her national profile.
Warren has yet to announce she’s running, of course, and she continues stumping in Massachusetts for her re-election bid with frequent town hall events. But add her recent flurry to her team’s previous work, and you unmistakably have the seeds of a national campaign that could spring together if Warren ultimately decides to say “go.”
And that’s been enough for Republican campaigners who’ve been working to solidify her as a phony in the public’s mind before she can introduce herself on her own terms.
National GOP leaders still point to their pre-2016 campaign work of poisoning Clinton’s image as a model for what they’re trying to do to Warren. That work has sped up in the last few weeks: Republican researchers have been combing through Warren’s newly released tax returns searching for new issues to which they didn’t previously have access in recent days.
“In her attempt to position herself, she’s brought herself to the forefront, and we’re happy to make the public aware of her record,” said Sarah Dolan of the GOP opposition research group America Rising, which has been tracking Warren for well over a year. “We know she’s running.”
Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 Maneuvering Is Getting Even More Aggressive
By Gabriel Debenedetti
Warren hasn’t announced anything, of course, but it certainly looks like she’s setting up a presidential run.
Elizabeth Warren’s had a deceptively busy last few weeks. She dropped one longshot policy proposal that would try to remake corporate America, then another that aims to actually drain the Washington swamp. She put restrictions on her own fundraising practices and opened her financial books, and bid two staffers farewell as they shipped up to new jobs in New Hampshire.
Let’s play a game of connect the dots.
Alone, each dot can be read as an incremental, progressive political move. The overall picture, however, is yet more evidence that the Massachusetts senator is prepping for a 2020 presidential run – and moving significantly more aggressively than is widely recognized, by pundits and her potential opponents alike.
The late summer series of public-facing maneuvers comes with the 2020 race set to hit center stage in fewer than 70 days, as soon as the midterms pass. Warren’s fellow top-tier Democratic primary contenders Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are both planning to make politically resonant Labor Day appearances — Biden in Pittsburgh and Sanders in Manchester, New Hampshire — and her fellow Massachusetts hopeful, former governor Deval Patrick, on Wednesday launched a PAC intended to help him back allied candidates around the country.
But the potential front-runner’s moves stand out largely because they break beyond the serious groundwork she’s already laid — from raising gobs of campaign cash and ordering up waves of self-research to strengthening her ties to party power brokers and working to minimize her vulnerability on the touchy issue of her disputed Native American ancestry — further muscling her ahead of the rest of the potential field in terms of political preparation. The effort has also opened Warren to months of extra scrutiny from Republicans eager to define her for American voters before a potential general election matchup against Donald Trump, who used his “Pocahontas” nickname for her yet again in passing during a speech in Ohio last week.
“I would put her in the category of a few candidates — people who are, without running, doing whatever they can to be running in practical terms,” said leading party strategist Dan Kanninen, a Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaign veteran. “This last two weeks may put her at the front of that pack.”
The new push began in earnest two weeks back, when Warren announced new corporate accountability legislation — which would force large companies to consider stakeholders in top-level decisions, limit execs’ ability to sell their shares, and require the organizations to get shareholder and board approval for political spending — to some fanfare. One week later, she summoned the Washington media to the National Press Club for the unveiling of another bill, which she called “the most ambitious anti-corruption legislation proposed in Congress since Watergate,” proposing to ban members of Congress, the Cabinet, and the federal judiciary from owning or trading individual stocks, to ban foreign lobbying and lobbyist donations to campaigns, and to prohibit former members of Congress, ex-presidents and onetime agency heads from lobbying themselves.
Warren knows neither proposal is likely to become law anytime soon, but each could easily help form the backbone of an eventual nationwide platform, and introducing them to the party’s national conversation early effectively grants Warren ownership of the ideas, which other potential White House contenders may eventually embrace. Her timing could hardly have been luckier: just hours after she was done explaining her corruption legislation, Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance law violations and tax fraud, implicating the president, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted in his financial fraud trial, and Congressman Duncan Hunter was indicted for his own alleged improper use of campaign funds.
Yet it was a little-noticed passage of her reveal that may have presented the clearest signs that she’s stepping toward a run. Warren — who is up for re-election in November, but who is unlikely to face anything close to a real challenge — publicly said for the first time that she has now formally stopped taking not just corporate political action committee money — as other likely 2020 contenders and down-ballot candidates have done — but all PAC money, as well as funds from federal lobbyists. (This is a new policy for her.) Two days later, she pushed on, complying with one of her new proposals by publishing her tax returns — ten years’ worth — a move that provides a clear contrast with Trump, whose taxes remain shrouded in mystery, and also with Sanders, whose own tax returns were briefly a point of contention during 2016’s primary fight.
Warren’s recent moves haven’t been restricted to Washington. While the senator continues avoiding trips to the important presidential nominating states of New Hampshire and Iowa, turning down repeated invitations, according to local officials, two of her aides in recent weeks decamped to New Hampshire for new jobs with the state’s Democratic Party committee — one as its new communications director, and another as its political director. It’s a classic move for potential presidential hopefuls whose staffers are eager for facetime and connections in early-voting states. “If she decided to run in New Hampshire, it would be good to have access to people with New Hampshire experience,” explained Kathy Sullivan, a former chair of the state party. “It’s not an unusual thing for us to see people who may have been associated with candidates, in both parties, who come up to New Hampshire in the midterms” before a presidential race.
Warren has also recently stepped up her endorsements and fundraising for House and gubernatorial candidates across the country, including in some long-shot races where she has little obvious connection to the candidate: she raised eyebrows in Washington this summer for popping up at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee breakfast, and her list of endorsees — some of who could turn into powerful, and grateful, supporters next year — stretches into the dozens. Sometimes, she helps candidates far from the public eye. In July, for example, she headlined a D.C. fundraiser for New Mexico congressional candidate Deb Haaland, who is likely to become Capitol Hill’s first Native American congresswoman. But sometimes, Warren jumps into the center of the House news cycle: almost immediately after Hunter’s indictment this month, she started sending fundraising emails for his Democratic challenger.
The growing collection of dots are accumulating after months of preparation that’s already seen Warren actively work to build her political capabilities, strengthen her party connections in Washington and around the country, shore up her biggest weaknesses, and burnish her national profile.
Warren has yet to announce she’s running, of course, and she continues stumping in Massachusetts for her re-election bid with frequent town hall events. But add her recent flurry to her team’s previous work, and you unmistakably have the seeds of a national campaign that could spring together if Warren ultimately decides to say “go.”
And that’s been enough for Republican campaigners who’ve been working to solidify her as a phony in the public’s mind before she can introduce herself on her own terms.
National GOP leaders still point to their pre-2016 campaign work of poisoning Clinton’s image as a model for what they’re trying to do to Warren. That work has sped up in the last few weeks: Republican researchers have been combing through Warren’s newly released tax returns searching for new issues to which they didn’t previously have access in recent days.
“In her attempt to position herself, she’s brought herself to the forefront, and we’re happy to make the public aware of her record,” said Sarah Dolan of the GOP opposition research group America Rising, which has been tracking Warren for well over a year. “We know she’s running.”
After surprise primary victory, can Andrew Gillum win the Florida governor's race? - MSNBC News
After surprise primary victory, can Andrew Gillum win the Florida governor's race?
He claimed victory in the primary — but the question facing both parties now is whether a Florida candidate who favors legalizing marijuana and impeaching Trump can repeat the result in the general election.
by Alex Seitz-Wald / Aug.30.2018 / 6:30 PM ET
Image: Andrew Gillum holds son, Jackson
Gillum is looking to become the first Democrat elected governor in Florida in nearly a quarter of a century.Steve Cannon / AP
WASHINGTON — It took just 12 hours and one word for the nation’s newly minted marquee governor’s race to devolve into accusations of racism and socialism.
Andrew Gillum won a surprise victory in crowded Democratic primary in Florida Tuesday. But before he had a chance to celebrate, he was mixing it up with the President of the United States on Twitter and responding to what the Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman called “racist dog whistles” and he called a “full bullhorn” from his Republican opponent.
It’s just a taste of what it will take for him to win what is already the most expensive race governor's race in history and become Florida’s first black governor in what’s shaping up to be a bruising base-on-base contest.
Racism & Polarization: Florida governor's race becomes most consequential of 2018
AUG.30.201808:40
Republicans say Gillum has no idea what he’s in for, while allies say his usual coalition of people of color, white progressives and billionaires can carry the day — though they acknowledge it won't be easy.
“We now have a very tough contest before us,” said Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., who is black and called Gillum’s win an “Obama moment.”
The Tallahassee mayor’s first day as his party’s nominee started with Trump blasting him on Twitter as a “failed Socialist Mayor.” Gillum responded with a taunt: “@ me next time.”
Andrew Gillum
✔
@AndrewGillum
What our state and country needs is decency, hope, and leadership. If you agree, join us at http://AndrewGillum.com . Also, @ me next time, @realDonaldTrump.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Not only did Congressman Ron DeSantis easily win the Republican Primary, but his opponent in November is his biggest dream....a failed Socialist Mayor named Andrew Gillum who has allowed crime & many other problems to flourish in his city. This is not what Florida wants or needs!
10:13 PM - Aug 29, 2018
Then his opponent, Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., a Trump ally who won his own primary Tuesday, used a Fox News interview to warn Floridians not to “monkey this up” by electing Gillum. He also called Gillum “articulate.”
Republicans, like everyone else, expected to be running against Gwen Graham, the politically moderate daughter of former governor and senator Bob Graham. They were thrilled to instead get Gillum, a Bernie Sanders-backed progressive who has been unable to shake associations to an FBI investigation in Tallahassee city government.
“Floridians do not want socialism, we do not want to abolish ICE, we do not want single payer [health care], we do not want Andrew Gillum and his radicalism,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News.
“So we are very excited about the results last night. Well done, Democrats,” McEnany added.
Even some Democrats have privately wondered if Gillum got lucky in the crowded primary and is in for a surprise in the general. His deep-pocketed opponents didn't attack him directly, and he won a narrow plurality.
But Gillum allies say he’ll beat the odds precisely because he’s willing to take bold stands, like offering support for legalizing marijuana, expanding Medicaid, and impeaching Trump.
“Andrew's whole life has been a test,” said Kevin Cate, a Gillum advisor who has known him for years. “Every odd and obstacle that could be placed in front of Mayor Gillum, from the time he was growing up in Richmond Heights in Gainesville, he's overcome.”
“He made history last night because he's authentic,” Cate added. “That's the same formula that we're going to use to win the general.”
Caputo: Dems taking a page out of GOP book for base politics in Florida
AUG.30.201802:45
Gillum was the fifth of seven children born to a construction worker and school bus driver who became the first person in his working-class family to graduate from college.
In high school, his potential political talent shone so bright that the Gainesville Sun profiled him as an “outstanding leader” and predicted a bright future. Now, he's hoping to become only the third black governor in history.
Both major party gubernatorial candidates are 39, but where Gillum’s resume tells a story of pluck, DeSantis’s is all polish.
Bernie Sanders-backed Democrat Gillum to take on Trump-endorsed Republican DeSantis in Florida gov race, NBC News projects
The congressman has degrees from Yale and Harvard, a Bronze Star for his service in the Navy as a legal adviser to the SEALs, and some local celebrity from playing for a team that went to the Little League World Series.
Trump, a known fan of Ivy League pedigrees, has touted DeSantis’s education three times on Twitter — including back in 2012, when DeSantis was making his first run for Congress. “Yale, Harvard Law,” Trump tweeted six years ago. “Very impressive.”
But Patrick Murphy, a Democrat who was elected to Congress the same year as DeSantis, said DeSantis can come off as “too cool for school.”
“He's one of the most arrogant members of Congress, and that's saying a lot,” said Murphy, who is no longer in Congress after losing his 2016 Senate bid. “The first time you meet him, I almost promise he will tell you where he went to college and what baseball team he played on within 10 minutes.”
In a state the size of Florida, however, just a fraction of voters will have a chance to actually meet either man. Many more will learn about them through TV ads.
Republicans are planning to hit Gillum hard and fast right out of the gate, hoping to define him early as a radical leftist with a mayoral record that saw rising crime rates and ethics issues.
To respond, Gillum will need money, and lots of it. He was was vastly outspent in the Democratic primary — $6.6 million, compared to a combined $96 million from the four other main candidates — but will have some help from liberal billionaires Tom Steyer and George Soros, who have taken unusual interest in the race.
Florida congressman facing backlash for 'monkey this up' comment about black opponent
AUG.30.201801:55
Small online donations are sure to pour in, too. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who held a rally for Gillum, took the rare step of tapping his massive online fundraising list Wednesday to ask supports to donate to Gillum. “We could not have done it without you, senator,” Gillum said on Twitter.
A Democrat hasn’t been elected governor in Florida since Lawton Chiles in 1994, and Gillum's approach looks and sounds nothing like his, nor that of the party’s 2014 gubernatorial nominee, former Republican Charlie Crist.
Democrats say they are encouraged by the turnout in Tuesday’s primary, which was up up almost 60 percent over the 2014 midterm showing.
But the state remains divided stubbornly 50-50, which means Democrats need to both energize their base and win over swing voters, said Steve Schale, a Florida Democratic strategist who backed Graham.
“It's still a state that is very evenly balanced,” said Schale — who, like Graham, quickly got behind Gillum. “Democrats that think Andrew's not going to be able to connect with suburban white women, and typical swing voters aren't paying attention to what's happening around the country.”
Gillum overwhelmingly won the mayorship in Tallahassee, which is about 57 percent white, 35 percent black, and 7 percent Latino. Statewide, however, whites are even larger majority at 77 percent, and midterm electorates tend to be whiter than the overall population.
"We are ready to double down, and Andrew Gillum is the path to getting there," said Maria Urbina, the political director for the liberal group Indivisible.
Trump, Angered by Growing Legal Troubles, Finds Ways to Make Them Even Worse - Daily Intelligencer ( New York Magazine )
August 30, 2018.
Trump, Angered by Growing Legal Troubles, Finds Ways to Make Them Even Worse
By Margaret Hartmann@MargHartmann
If you can’t beat ‘em, why not fire Sessions? Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Faced with his former campaign manager’s conviction, his former fixer implicating him in a federal crime, and the prospect of investigations by a Democratic Congress, President Trump should probably to find some top-notch lawyers and avoid making any more legal missteps. But of course, that’s not Trump’s style. Instead, he’s responded by hastening the departure of White House Counsel Don McGahn, and laying the groundwork to finally fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions – two moves likely to intensify the brewing legal storm, and ensure he’s ill-equipped to fight it.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Trump’s advisers and allies have been warning him that he needs to fortify his legal team and strategy for responding to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. They’ve even broached the topic of impeachment with Trump, though he calls it “the i-word” and sometimes dismisses the prospect angrily.
“We’ve talked a lot about impeachment at different times,” said Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. “It’s the only thing that hangs out there. They can’t [criminally] charge him.” Trump’s attorneys claim Mueller told them he’ll follow Justice Department protocols, which say the president can’t be indicted in office.
Though Giuliani added that he doesn’t know if Trump has thought about impeachment “in depth yet,” but McGahn and other aides reportedly invoked the possibility to keep the president from doing something rash, like firing Sessions or Mueller. (And when that strategy failed, McGahn just refused to carry out Trump’s order to dismiss the special counsel.)
McGahn, who has been working diligently to confirm more conservative federal judges, distanced himself from the Russia probe, and his relationship with Trump has grown increasingly strained, according to Politico. It was not helped by the controversy earlier this month over McGahn’s extensive cooperation with Mueller, but supposedly that wasn’t the final straw for Trump. The New York Times reports that Trump “blindsided” McGahn with a tweet announcing his imminent departure on Wednesday in response to an Axios story that said he’d leave after Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination:
Mr. Trump had grown tired of seeing reports that Mr. McGahn might leave, according to people familiar with his thinking, and decided to take away any wiggle room he might have. Allies of Mr. McGahn said on Wednesday that he believed the story was planted by his critics to force the president’s hand and hasten the timeline of announcing his departure.
McGahn’s exit exacerbates the shortage of competent lawyers advising Trump. The Post reports there are now about 25 lawyers serving in the Office of White House Counsel, down from 35 earlier in Trump’s presidency. Three of McGahn’s deputies have already departed for the private sector, and a fourth is leaving at the end of the week.
White House lawyer Emmet Flood, who represented President Clinton in his impeachment proceeding, is rumored to be the frontrunner to take over for McGahn, but that creates a key vacancy on the team handling Trump’s response to the Russia probe. The situation sparked talk among the president and his advisers of the need to bring on more attorneys experienced in white-collar defense and political scandals.
One name that’s come up is Abbe Lowell – though he’s already representing Trump’s son-in-law/adviser Jared Kushner. According to the Post, Trump has said he wishes he had competent attorneys, like those his advisers have been forced to hire:
“He wonders why he doesn’t have lawyers like that,” said one person who has discussed the matter with Trump.
Another adviser said Trump remarked this year, “I need a lawyer like Abbe.”
One explanation: Trump doesn’t seem to understand what he should be looking for in an attorney:
The president asked Rob Porter, then the staff secretary, several times last year if he would be willing to take over for Mr. McGahn, an idea supported by several of his aides and his children. But Mr. Porter told the president that he did not believe he was qualified for the role, felt it was the wrong fit for him and preferred focusing on policy, those briefed on the discussions said. He has since left the White House amid accusations of spousal abuse.
Another issue: many high-profile attorneys aren’t looking to get involved with a client known for ignoring his lawyers’ advice, then unceremoniously firing them via tweet.
Trump probably hasn’t helped matters by signaling in recent days that he’s gearing up to fire Sessions for refusing to help him thwart the Russia investigation. Politico reported that Trump spent the past ten days lobbying GOP senators on why they should support him if he fires Sessions. Some, like Senators Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham, signaled in recent days that they’re no longer opposed to confirming a new attorney general. Politico attributes this partly to Trump’s efforts, and partly to the senators’ annoyance over Sessions’s opposition to a criminal justice bill that they support.
Trump has also worn down what’s left of his legal team. Two Republicans close to the White House told Politico that they’re now convinced that Mueller has ample fuel to make a case for obstruction of justice, even Trump never goes through with firing Sessions.
“There’s the belief that if the president taking action with respect to Sessions is going to be an important part of the Mueller obstruction case, most of that case has already been made,” said one of the sources. “Things that the president has already done privately that have been reported, but also things that the president has done publicly that could be characterized as bullying or intimidating, all of that case is already there ready to be made, such that firing him is almost like an afterthought.”
If it’s too late for Trump’s lawyers to prevent him from committing impeachable offenses, why not have fun on the way out?
Trump, Angered by Growing Legal Troubles, Finds Ways to Make Them Even Worse
By Margaret Hartmann@MargHartmann
If you can’t beat ‘em, why not fire Sessions? Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Faced with his former campaign manager’s conviction, his former fixer implicating him in a federal crime, and the prospect of investigations by a Democratic Congress, President Trump should probably to find some top-notch lawyers and avoid making any more legal missteps. But of course, that’s not Trump’s style. Instead, he’s responded by hastening the departure of White House Counsel Don McGahn, and laying the groundwork to finally fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions – two moves likely to intensify the brewing legal storm, and ensure he’s ill-equipped to fight it.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Trump’s advisers and allies have been warning him that he needs to fortify his legal team and strategy for responding to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. They’ve even broached the topic of impeachment with Trump, though he calls it “the i-word” and sometimes dismisses the prospect angrily.
“We’ve talked a lot about impeachment at different times,” said Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. “It’s the only thing that hangs out there. They can’t [criminally] charge him.” Trump’s attorneys claim Mueller told them he’ll follow Justice Department protocols, which say the president can’t be indicted in office.
Though Giuliani added that he doesn’t know if Trump has thought about impeachment “in depth yet,” but McGahn and other aides reportedly invoked the possibility to keep the president from doing something rash, like firing Sessions or Mueller. (And when that strategy failed, McGahn just refused to carry out Trump’s order to dismiss the special counsel.)
McGahn, who has been working diligently to confirm more conservative federal judges, distanced himself from the Russia probe, and his relationship with Trump has grown increasingly strained, according to Politico. It was not helped by the controversy earlier this month over McGahn’s extensive cooperation with Mueller, but supposedly that wasn’t the final straw for Trump. The New York Times reports that Trump “blindsided” McGahn with a tweet announcing his imminent departure on Wednesday in response to an Axios story that said he’d leave after Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination:
Mr. Trump had grown tired of seeing reports that Mr. McGahn might leave, according to people familiar with his thinking, and decided to take away any wiggle room he might have. Allies of Mr. McGahn said on Wednesday that he believed the story was planted by his critics to force the president’s hand and hasten the timeline of announcing his departure.
McGahn’s exit exacerbates the shortage of competent lawyers advising Trump. The Post reports there are now about 25 lawyers serving in the Office of White House Counsel, down from 35 earlier in Trump’s presidency. Three of McGahn’s deputies have already departed for the private sector, and a fourth is leaving at the end of the week.
White House lawyer Emmet Flood, who represented President Clinton in his impeachment proceeding, is rumored to be the frontrunner to take over for McGahn, but that creates a key vacancy on the team handling Trump’s response to the Russia probe. The situation sparked talk among the president and his advisers of the need to bring on more attorneys experienced in white-collar defense and political scandals.
One name that’s come up is Abbe Lowell – though he’s already representing Trump’s son-in-law/adviser Jared Kushner. According to the Post, Trump has said he wishes he had competent attorneys, like those his advisers have been forced to hire:
“He wonders why he doesn’t have lawyers like that,” said one person who has discussed the matter with Trump.
Another adviser said Trump remarked this year, “I need a lawyer like Abbe.”
One explanation: Trump doesn’t seem to understand what he should be looking for in an attorney:
The president asked Rob Porter, then the staff secretary, several times last year if he would be willing to take over for Mr. McGahn, an idea supported by several of his aides and his children. But Mr. Porter told the president that he did not believe he was qualified for the role, felt it was the wrong fit for him and preferred focusing on policy, those briefed on the discussions said. He has since left the White House amid accusations of spousal abuse.
Another issue: many high-profile attorneys aren’t looking to get involved with a client known for ignoring his lawyers’ advice, then unceremoniously firing them via tweet.
Trump probably hasn’t helped matters by signaling in recent days that he’s gearing up to fire Sessions for refusing to help him thwart the Russia investigation. Politico reported that Trump spent the past ten days lobbying GOP senators on why they should support him if he fires Sessions. Some, like Senators Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham, signaled in recent days that they’re no longer opposed to confirming a new attorney general. Politico attributes this partly to Trump’s efforts, and partly to the senators’ annoyance over Sessions’s opposition to a criminal justice bill that they support.
Trump has also worn down what’s left of his legal team. Two Republicans close to the White House told Politico that they’re now convinced that Mueller has ample fuel to make a case for obstruction of justice, even Trump never goes through with firing Sessions.
“There’s the belief that if the president taking action with respect to Sessions is going to be an important part of the Mueller obstruction case, most of that case has already been made,” said one of the sources. “Things that the president has already done privately that have been reported, but also things that the president has done publicly that could be characterized as bullying or intimidating, all of that case is already there ready to be made, such that firing him is almost like an afterthought.”
If it’s too late for Trump’s lawyers to prevent him from committing impeachable offenses, why not have fun on the way out?
Vodafone in $11bn Australian merger - BBC News
August 30, 2018.
Vodafone in $11bn Australian merger
Vodafone's Australian operations will become part of a new telecoms giant.
Under a A$15bn ($11bn; £8bn) merger Vodafone Hutchison Australia and TPG Telecom will create a mobile, fixed-line and broadband provider with the scale to rival Telstra and Optus.
Vodafone Australia, owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison and Vodafone Group, will have a majority 50.1% stake.
TPG will hold the remainder of TPG Telecom Limited, which will be listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
"The combination of the two companies will create an organisation with the necessary scale, breadth and financial strength for the future," Vodafone Hutchison Australia's chief executive Inaki Berroeta said in a statement.
"The equal terms of the combination preserves the competitive strengths of the two businesses, meaning a sustainable long-term fixed/mobile competitor to Telstra and Optus."
Australia bans Huawei and ZTE 5G networks
Telstra to slash 8,000 jobs
Mr Berroeta will be the managing director and chief executive of the new merged group. David Teoh, who is currently the CEO and chairman of TPG, will become the new group's chairman.
TPG is one of Australia's largest internet service providers.
Vodafone Hutchison Australia is the country's third largest mobile operator which is jointly owned by Vodafone Group and Hutchinson Telecommunications Australia. It has a mobile customer base of approximately 6 million subscribers.
Shares in Hutchison Telecommunications Australia surged 44%. Stocks in TPG Telecom jumped 18%.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it will soon begin a public review of the proposed merger to identify any competition concerns.
Vodafone in $11bn Australian merger
Vodafone's Australian operations will become part of a new telecoms giant.
Under a A$15bn ($11bn; £8bn) merger Vodafone Hutchison Australia and TPG Telecom will create a mobile, fixed-line and broadband provider with the scale to rival Telstra and Optus.
Vodafone Australia, owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison and Vodafone Group, will have a majority 50.1% stake.
TPG will hold the remainder of TPG Telecom Limited, which will be listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
"The combination of the two companies will create an organisation with the necessary scale, breadth and financial strength for the future," Vodafone Hutchison Australia's chief executive Inaki Berroeta said in a statement.
"The equal terms of the combination preserves the competitive strengths of the two businesses, meaning a sustainable long-term fixed/mobile competitor to Telstra and Optus."
Australia bans Huawei and ZTE 5G networks
Telstra to slash 8,000 jobs
Mr Berroeta will be the managing director and chief executive of the new merged group. David Teoh, who is currently the CEO and chairman of TPG, will become the new group's chairman.
TPG is one of Australia's largest internet service providers.
Vodafone Hutchison Australia is the country's third largest mobile operator which is jointly owned by Vodafone Group and Hutchinson Telecommunications Australia. It has a mobile customer base of approximately 6 million subscribers.
Shares in Hutchison Telecommunications Australia surged 44%. Stocks in TPG Telecom jumped 18%.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it will soon begin a public review of the proposed merger to identify any competition concerns.
Trump accuses China of stalling progress with North Korea - BBC News
August 30, 2018.
Trump accuses China of stalling progress with North Korea
'It's all China's fault' says Mr Trump
US President Donald Trump has lashed out at China for undermining its work with North Korea, as criticism over progress on denuclearisation mounts.
In a series of tweets he also said he saw no reason to resume the joint war games with South Korea that have angered North Korea.
Days ago his own defence secretary said military exercises might continue.
China has accused Mr Trump of "shifting blame" in his comments on its relations with North Korea.
A summit between Mr Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June ended with a pledge from the North to work towards "the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula". Soon after Mr Trump announced there was "no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea".
But since then many observers say North Korea is not moving fast enough to dismantle its nuclear or rocket sites.
What are the US-South Korea war games?
Mr Trump's tweets appear to place the blame for these challenges squarely on China, but he also goes on to praise his personal ties with the leaders of both North Korea and China.
The confusing blend of criticism, praise and veiled threat comes as Washington faces mounting pressure to deliver results following those unprecedented talks.
Problem solved - according to Mr Trump after his June summit with Kim Jong-un
N Korea 'making missiles' despite US thaw
Tears and joy as Korean families reunite
Just days ago, Washington called off a trip to North Korea by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with the president arguing that insufficient progress had been made in dismantling the North's nuclear programme.
Why take aim at China?
In his latest comments on Twitter, Mr Trump says North Korea was "under tremendous pressure from China because of our major trade disputes with the Chinese government".
Beijing is Pyongyang's only significant ally and is thought to have significant influence over its decisions. Beijing is also Washington's most powerful long-term strategic rival in the region.
The US and China are locked in an increasingly tense trade battle and each side has imposed tariffs on one another's goods.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
STATEMENT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
President Donald J. Trump feels strongly that North Korea is under tremendous pressure from China because of our major trade disputes with the Chinese Government. At the same time, we also know that China is providing North Korea with...
7:23 AM - Aug 30, 2018
Mr Trump has complained about the size of the US trade deficit with China and what Washington sees as other unfair trade practices.
Despite his strong words, Mr Trump's latest tweet concluded with some optimism, saying the trade issue could be resolved by himself and China's "great President Xi Jinping".
China has attacked Mr Trump's remarks as "irresponsible" and difficult to understand.
"To solve the problem, it should look at itself instead of shifting blame," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
China to respond 'resolutely' to US tariffs
US-China trade row: What has happened so far?
Why the US-China trade dispute has experts worried
What progress has been made on denuclearisation?
Since the June summit, North Korea has halted its missile tests, claimed to have dismantled a nuclear testing site and returned the remains of US soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.
But Mr Trump has called out Pyongyang for what he said was insufficient progress on their broad agreement on denuclearisation.
A recent report by Vox suggests that Pyongyang is reluctant to proceed because Mr Trump failed to live up to his alleged promise to Mr Kim that he would sign an official declaration to end the Korean War.
After a UN report found that North Korea was continuing to work on its nuclear programme, the US urged the international community to maintain sanctions and economic pressure on Pyongyang.
North Korea carried out a series of long-range missile tests in 2017
In his latest series of tweets, Mr Trump accused Beijing of providing North Korea with "considerable aid", suggesting China was softening the blow of sanctions.
"This is not helpful!" Mr Trump said.
Will war games resume?
The joint military exercises between Washington and Seoul have long angered Pyongyang.
Following the summit in June, Mr Trump made what has widely been seen as a concession to Kim Jong-un and agreed to cancel the drills.
In his latest tweets, US president insisted his personal relationship with Mr Kim remained "a very good and warm one" and that there was no reason to restart the "war games" with the South.
But he added that if they did restart, the exercises would be "bigger than ever".
US and South Korean troops practice a beach landing
Mr Trump's tweets appear to contradict his defence secretary, who on Tuesday said the suspension of several joint exercises was a "good faith measure" and that "we have no plans to suspend any more."
Since the end of the Korean war, when Washington fought alongside Seoul against the North, the US has had troops stationed in South Korea.
About 29,000 US soldiers are based in the South, under a security agreement reached after the war ended in 1953.
Trump accuses China of stalling progress with North Korea
'It's all China's fault' says Mr Trump
US President Donald Trump has lashed out at China for undermining its work with North Korea, as criticism over progress on denuclearisation mounts.
In a series of tweets he also said he saw no reason to resume the joint war games with South Korea that have angered North Korea.
Days ago his own defence secretary said military exercises might continue.
China has accused Mr Trump of "shifting blame" in his comments on its relations with North Korea.
A summit between Mr Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June ended with a pledge from the North to work towards "the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula". Soon after Mr Trump announced there was "no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea".
But since then many observers say North Korea is not moving fast enough to dismantle its nuclear or rocket sites.
What are the US-South Korea war games?
Mr Trump's tweets appear to place the blame for these challenges squarely on China, but he also goes on to praise his personal ties with the leaders of both North Korea and China.
The confusing blend of criticism, praise and veiled threat comes as Washington faces mounting pressure to deliver results following those unprecedented talks.
Problem solved - according to Mr Trump after his June summit with Kim Jong-un
N Korea 'making missiles' despite US thaw
Tears and joy as Korean families reunite
Just days ago, Washington called off a trip to North Korea by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with the president arguing that insufficient progress had been made in dismantling the North's nuclear programme.
Why take aim at China?
In his latest comments on Twitter, Mr Trump says North Korea was "under tremendous pressure from China because of our major trade disputes with the Chinese government".
Beijing is Pyongyang's only significant ally and is thought to have significant influence over its decisions. Beijing is also Washington's most powerful long-term strategic rival in the region.
The US and China are locked in an increasingly tense trade battle and each side has imposed tariffs on one another's goods.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
STATEMENT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
President Donald J. Trump feels strongly that North Korea is under tremendous pressure from China because of our major trade disputes with the Chinese Government. At the same time, we also know that China is providing North Korea with...
7:23 AM - Aug 30, 2018
Mr Trump has complained about the size of the US trade deficit with China and what Washington sees as other unfair trade practices.
Despite his strong words, Mr Trump's latest tweet concluded with some optimism, saying the trade issue could be resolved by himself and China's "great President Xi Jinping".
China has attacked Mr Trump's remarks as "irresponsible" and difficult to understand.
"To solve the problem, it should look at itself instead of shifting blame," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
China to respond 'resolutely' to US tariffs
US-China trade row: What has happened so far?
Why the US-China trade dispute has experts worried
What progress has been made on denuclearisation?
Since the June summit, North Korea has halted its missile tests, claimed to have dismantled a nuclear testing site and returned the remains of US soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.
But Mr Trump has called out Pyongyang for what he said was insufficient progress on their broad agreement on denuclearisation.
A recent report by Vox suggests that Pyongyang is reluctant to proceed because Mr Trump failed to live up to his alleged promise to Mr Kim that he would sign an official declaration to end the Korean War.
After a UN report found that North Korea was continuing to work on its nuclear programme, the US urged the international community to maintain sanctions and economic pressure on Pyongyang.
North Korea carried out a series of long-range missile tests in 2017
In his latest series of tweets, Mr Trump accused Beijing of providing North Korea with "considerable aid", suggesting China was softening the blow of sanctions.
"This is not helpful!" Mr Trump said.
Will war games resume?
The joint military exercises between Washington and Seoul have long angered Pyongyang.
Following the summit in June, Mr Trump made what has widely been seen as a concession to Kim Jong-un and agreed to cancel the drills.
In his latest tweets, US president insisted his personal relationship with Mr Kim remained "a very good and warm one" and that there was no reason to restart the "war games" with the South.
But he added that if they did restart, the exercises would be "bigger than ever".
US and South Korean troops practice a beach landing
Mr Trump's tweets appear to contradict his defence secretary, who on Tuesday said the suspension of several joint exercises was a "good faith measure" and that "we have no plans to suspend any more."
Since the end of the Korean war, when Washington fought alongside Seoul against the North, the US has had troops stationed in South Korea.
About 29,000 US soldiers are based in the South, under a security agreement reached after the war ended in 1953.
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