Jared Kushner is the architect of the Middle East peace plan Mr. Trump introduced when Bibi Netanyahu and Benny Gantz came to Washington. Kushner worked on the plan with Netanyahu and his pal Prince Salman in 2019. Mr. Kushner wanted to introduce the plan last June, but the military tension with Iran stopped Kushner from revealing the plan. Plus, Palestinians refusal to acknowledge the plan. That threw a monkey-wrench in what Kushner calls the most sensible Middle East peace plan to date.
Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas told the press his country will never agree to Kushner’s plan. According to Abbas, Palestine will never be able to claim their own state if Israel and the U.S. control the agreement. The plan calls for Palestine to pass certain tests before the Palestinians can achieve statehood. Mr. Trump and Kushner want to force Abbas to sign the agreement, but Abbas hasn’t even read the agreement. Mr. Trump wants Abbas to sign the plan so he can use the agreement as another accomplishment during his campaign.
Jerome Powell and the Feds didn’t cut interest rates at the January meeting. The Feds didn’t realize how fast the coronavirus would spread and how fast it would slow down China’s economy. The virus took a $393 billion bite out of China’s stock market, and the value of the yuan dropped 1.2% when markets opened after the holiday.
China closed businesses the week after Chinese New Year to reduce exposure to the virus, but more than 300 deaths and thousands of new cases continue to shake China’s economy. The government injected more than $170 billion into its economy to ease some economic pain. But that may not be enough to stop the virus from reducing Gross Domestic Product growth in 2020 by 2.0%.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told the press the coronavirus will create more jobs in the United States. But most economists disagree with that statement. The U.S. economy will also suffer growing pains thanks to the virus. Economists claim global economic growth will take a hit from the virus.
Boris Johnson wants a free trade agreement with the EU. The U.K. left the EU at the end of January, but the country will still follow EU rules until the end of 2020. That’s when Johnson expects a new trade deal. But the EU told Johnson its members need more time to work out a trade deal like the deal Canada got several years ago. It took Canada seven years to get a deal that covered good and services, but Boris wants a similar deal, and he wants it this year.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51351914
Dil Bole Oberoi
