Top News Stories for Today – Mar 5, 2019
Top News Stories for Today – Mar 5, 2019
US senators blast WH over Khashoggi case
US senators of both parties on Monday blasted the Trump administration’s response to the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Turkey last October, accusing the administration of defying a law requiring it to investigate and identify those responsible for the dissident Saudi reporter’s death.
Last year, lawmakers triggered the Global Magnitsky Act, which gave the White House 120 days to identify those responsible for the journalist’s killing, a deadline that expired last month. Persistent news reports have said the CIA concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the execution of Khashoggi, a Washington Post reporter who wrote critically about the Saudi kingdom. VOA
China sets economic policy for 2019
Tax cuts and increased defense spending are among the measures China will introduce this year to boost its flagging economy. Premier Li Keqiang announced the measures Tuesday on the opening day of China’s annual National People’s Congress in Beijing.
Li told the legislators that policymakers are targeting economic growth of 6 to 6.5 percent this year, a slight cut from last year’s target of 6.5 percent. The world’s second-largest economy recorded official growth of 6.6 percent in 2018, the slowest pace in nearly three decades, due to slow demand at home and abroad and a bitter trade war with the United States. The premier said the government will cut $298 billion in corporate taxes and social insurance contribution fees and lower the value-added tax for the manufacturing sector from 16 to 13 percent. Meanwhile, Beijing has approved a $177 billion military budget for this year, an increase of 7.5. percent. VOA
Zuckerberg’s wealth shrinks by $8.7b
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth has shrunk by $8.7 billion in the past year, according to the latest billionaire’s list compiled by Forbes. His shares in Facebook at one point lost a third of their value as the company battled privacy scandals.
The total combined net worth of this year’s billionaires’ list also fell from $9.1 trillion to $8.7t. But Amazon founder Jeff Bezos keeps his top position, increasing his net worth to $131bn, up $19b from 2018. Amazon’s share price has been good for Bezos’ bank balance and the gap between him and the number two, Bill Gates, is a little wider, even though Gates’ fortune has swelled to $96.5bn from $90bn last year. BBC
House demand documents from Trump associates
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced Monday the committee has sent letters requesting documents from 81 people and entities associated with President Trump. The move is an effort to “begin building the public record” in case the Justice Department chooses to “conceal the work of the special counsel’s investigation from the public,” Nadler said in a press release.
The requests went out to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, adviser Roger Stone, Donald Trump Jr., and dozens more, including Trump’s inaugural committee. Though many of those listed are already under investigation, the House probe is intended to mirror or back up Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation in case Attorney General William Barr doesn’t allow a public release of Mueller’s report. The Week
HIV cured in a 2nd patient
For just the second time since the global epidemic began, a patient appears to have been cured of infection with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The news comes nearly 12 years to the day after the first patient known to be cured, a feat that researchers have long tried, and failed, to duplicate. The surprise success now confirms that a cure for H.I.V. infection is possible, if difficult, researchers said.
The investigators are to publish their report on Tuesday in the journal Nature and to present some of the details at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle. The New York Times
Hillary Clinton rules out presidential run
Hillary Clinton has ruled out a second US presidential run in 2020. “I’m not running, but I’m going to keep on working and speaking and standing up for what I believe,” Clinton told New York’s News 12 TV channel.
As the Democratic candidate in 2016, Clinton was widely expected to become the first female US president, before a shock defeat by Trump. Asked by News 12 if she would run again for any public office in future, she said: “I don’t think so.” The interview is the first time Clinton has definitively rebutted speculation that she might take on Trump again in 2020. BBC
Ben Carson to leave Trump administration
House and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson announced during an interview with a conservative news outlet Monday that he will leave his post at the end of President Trump’s first term. “I will certainly finish out this term,” Carson told Newsmax TV, but he’s interested in “returning to the private sector, because I think you have just as much influence — maybe more — there.”
Under Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, the number of HUD properties cited for health and safety violations has increased, and he’s been called out for spending tens of thousands of dollars on office furnishings, including $31,000 on a dining set. The Washington Post via The Week