The US: Conflicts of interest
Also: South Korea, China, Israel, Palestine, and Libya.
The five things you need to know today:
UNITED STATES. As markets react to rates, other fears come into view.
SOUTH KOREA. Yoon’s aloofness from legal process poses risks.
CHINA. The geopolitics of a social media lawsuit.
ISRAEL. PALESTINE. Another truce attempt hits against political reality.
LIBYA. Turkey and Russia take their rivalry to North Africa.
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UNITED STATES. Conflicts of interest
As markets react to rates, other fears come into view.
The S&P500 fell 2.95% Wednesday as the Federal Reserve signalled a slower pace of rate cuts. California declared a state of emergency over H5N1 as a Louisiana bird owner was hospitalised. More drones were seen above New Jersey.
INTELLIGENCE. There are good reasons for Americans to worry, especially the half who didn’t vote for Donald Trump. For the Fed, inflation remains the core concern, with the risk of Trump’s tariffs weighing on the interest rate outlook. Yet beyond monetary policy, the bugbears of the past five years – fiscal impasse and pandemics – still feature. Risk of a government shutdown has returned. Bird flu, while competently managed, is spreading. And then there’s drones.
FOR BUSINESS. A funding bill was no sooner agreed in Congress than Donald Trump weighed in, causing Republicans to retract support. Concerns raised by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump's advisers on government efficiency, were allegedly at play. Waste is real, and the package was far from perfect, but shutdowns are often worse. Likewise, fiscal consolidation is needed but will hit GDP (and much of the share market). The medicine voted for could be bitter.
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SOUTH KOREA. Ignoring is no defence
Yoon’s aloofness from legal process poses risks.
Yoon Suk-yeol failed to appear at a corruption hearing Wednesday. The investigating authority said it was considering issuing an arrest warrant. A shaman with alleged ties to the president attended a separate graft hearing Thursday.
INTELLIGENCE. Yoon is by no means the first president to face corruption charges. And judging from the legal woes of his key