Things that will never end: Midterms, Brexit, and Yemen
Plus, markets down again; and Trump cuts out the middleman, hires “Fox and Friends” star as his mouthpiece at the UN.
1. North Carolina’s 9th District Election
You’ll recall this race involves allegations of blatant election fraud, notably from Leslie McCrae Dowless, a political operative working for Republicans who turned in hundreds of absentee ballots (Mark Harris, the Republican, won by just over 900 votes.) The drama around this race has thickened quickly:
- The North Carolina Board of Elections has subpoenaed the Harris campaign, as well as two other local Republican campaign outfits over the allegations and will hold a hearing later this month.
- Dan McCready, the Democratic candidate, has withdrawn his concession in the race. The former Marine and solar entrepreneur believes Harris personally knew Dowless
- The executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party has said he is open to a new election.
- Republicans better be, because House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi has hinted that Harris may be denied his seat by the new Congress.
2. Brexit
On the third day of Brexit talks and the deal PM May negotiated with the EU is virtually on life support. Brexiteers, including those within Mrs. May’s Tory Party as well as her coalition partners, are under the impression that a deal whereby the UK gets all the privileges it wants and none of the regulations it doesn’t is out there if only May asks the EU hard enough. Both EU officials and members of the prime minister’s cabinet have reiterated this is nothing short of delusional. Meanwhile, the left-wing Labour Party, led by far-left leader and aspiring PM Jeremy Corbyn, are already planning for the deal’s failure to pass with propositions from everything from more concessions to a second referendum. For an overview of all outcomes after the vote next Tuesday, check out BBC’s diagram here.
3. Update on The War in Yemen
The world’s worst humanitarian disaster will look to get some reprieve this month. About 50 wounded Houthi soldiers will be evacuated from the country for treatment in neighboring Oman next week, a gesture of good hope which will hopefully lead to the beginning of talks in Sweden later this month. Both the Saudi-backed coalition and the Houthis have said they will participate in the talks, but the original timeline of this week is more than unlikely. This will be the second attempt at talks between the two sides. The world will be hoping it will the second time lucky for a conflict that has killed over 10,000 and caused the worst famine in decades.
4. Markets Down Again
Another day, another sign of an economic downturn. Markets dipped again, and were set for another day of big losses before a late day recovery. One research firm posited that the market is yielding the lowest returns since the Nixon era. A correction to an overheating economy seems to be in the making. Let’s hope that’s all it is.
5. This Just In! We Have a New Nicky Haley!
President Donald Trump has nominated Heather Nauert as ambassador to the UN. As a spokesman for the State Department for the past year and a half, Nauert comes in with a bit more foreign policy experience than the outgoing, though that is not saying much. It’s not her diplomatic chops that got her the job though. As a former “Fox and Friends” anchor (bonus points if you can pick her out of the Fox News female lineup), she comes right out of Trump’s central casting.
Expect Nauert to use her Fox News experience and toe the party line on issues such as North Korea, Israel, and Trump’s refusal to accept climate change.