Good Morning, Afternoon, and Evening wherever you are,
Here are the honorable mentions of news for August 2023. For those who are new, these are articles that do not make it in this month’s roundup but deserves a mention in my opinion.
Fitch, one of the three main credit ratings agencies, downgrades the US’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ citing “a steady deterioration in standards of governance.” The quote is probably referring to the debt ceiling debate that happened a few months ago. According to CNN, Fitch representatives told officials of the Biden administration that the Capitol riots that happened in January 6th were also a factor in their assessment. US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen disputed the credit rating saying that it was arbitrary and that it came from “outdated data” from 2018 to 2020. Credit ratings are important for investors as they are benchmark for them to judge how risky it is to lend money to the government.
Poland has ordered an increase of soldiers near its border with Belarus after two Belarusian helicopters violated it’s airspace according to the Polish Ministry of National Defence according to the AP. The Polish Defence Ministry says that the helicopters were carrying out military exercises. The Defence Ministry also confirmed that NATO was informed of what had happened. Worries surrounding Belarus, a country which has allied with Russia since it’s invasion, has grown since July when troops from the mercenary group, The Wagner Group, arrived in the country after the coup attempt in the month prior. Poland a member of NATO, has been known for being one of the biggest allies for Ukraine as the country has provided both military and humanitarian aid.
Kenya sends a delegation to meet with leaders of Haiti’s police force to discuss the potential of a UN backed fighting force to help police fight against gang violence. In a statement, Kenya’s ambassador and head of bilateral and political affairs, George Orina, said “We are here to assess the needs of Haiti's national police, better understand the situation and do our best to help the Haitian people.” Haiti, a country located in the Caribbean and borders the Dominican Republic, has been experiencing a rise in gang violence throughout the country since the assassination of the country’s previous president of Jovenel Moise back in 2021.
Gangs have overpowered the government in large parts of the country including the country’s capital, Port au Prince, Haitians are struggling with food shortages, as well as having to deal with, kidnappings, killings and sexual assaults according to Reuters. The UN estimates that over 2,000 people have been killed and over 200,000 people have been internally displaced. Many of the refugees from the conflict have fled to the US and Canada. UN Secretary general, Antonio Guterres has called for a UN multinational police force to disarm the gangs, however countries such as Canada have been reluctant to send one due to the instability in the country and wariness to back the unelected government of acting president Ariel Henry, who has been suspected to have been involved in the assassination of Moise.
US, Japan and South Korea signed a pact to increase both military and economic ties. The agreement was signed at Camp David, Maryland, along with Japan’s prime minister. Fumio Kishida and South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol. The pact is seen as a way to counter China. The pact sees an increase cooperation in military exercises, and a three way crisis hotline. While US President, Joe Biden tried to calm fears with China by saying that the summit was not “anti-China”. However, that did not quell fears from China as its President Xi Jinping accused the US of leading Western countries in the “all-around containment, encirclement and suppression of China.”
The agreement is significant as it sees South Korea and Japan, two countries which have had a tense past with each other since the end of the second world war, are now going to work with each other against a common foe in their region, which is China.
Spain’s king proposes, leader of the conservative, Popular Party, Alberto Feijoo to try and form a government. In accordance to protocols of the Spanish constitution, King Felipe IV proposed Feijoo given that his party won the most seats in the election that happened last month (you can read more about it here). However, there will be trouble for Feijoo in trying to form a government as both him and the party he intends to be coalition partners with do not have enough seats alone to form government.
Meaning they will need to rely on support from smaller parties. While they have the support of two smaller parties, the party they need to get support from the Junts party, a pro-Catalonian independence party, whose main point for negotiations is a referendum for independence of the province of Catalonia. This will be a non starter for Feijoo as his party has been known for being strongly against Catalan independence.
If Feijoo’s party fails than that gives a chance fore the current prime minister and leader of the centre left Socialist party, Pedro Sanchez, to give a go at trying to form a government, although just like Feijoo, Sanchez will face the same challenge of trying to convince the Junts party to support them even though he is also against the proposal of a second referendum. There is some hope for Sanchez as many of the smaller parties including Junts along with his left wing allies SUMAR, supported his candidate for speaker. If neither Feijoo or Sanchez can get the majority of seats needed to form government with in two months, then the king dissolves parliament and another election will be called.
Former US President, Donald Trump vows massive Tariffs if elected according to Washington Post. In a dinner at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump was joined by former White House advisors Larry Kudlow and Brooke Rollins, along with outside advisors, former Republican house speaker, Newt Gingrich and Stephen Moore to discuss how his campaign can attack the current President Joe Biden on the economy.
One of those ideas was a universal baseline tariff on virtually all imports coming into the United States. Trump has described this idea as putting a ring across the US economy. However, this policy could be a major escalation from the previous tariff policy that was implemented under his presidency. In an interview with Kudlow on Fox Business, Trump says he is considering to set this tariff at 10 percent “automatically” for every country. Trump’s policy received backlash from economists such Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who described the idea “lunacy” and “horrifying”. “You would be depriving American families of an enormous amount of choice, making their lives much more expensive, and putting millions of people out of work,” he told the Post.
However, one of Trump’s advisors, Jason Miller, pushed back on the criticism saying that tariffs under the Trump Administration coincided with low inflation. In an email to the Post, Miller said, “The globalists who push false claims of economic disaster have been proven wrong time and again, no amount of fear mongering from special interests and establishment hacks in Washington will stop him from defending American workers and fighting to return millions of manufacturing jobs to the USA.”
Love reading these updates.