News January 29, 2020

News Stories

• Trump’s defense team failed at their most important job

  SPEAKER: Jen Psaki

  (CNN) – On Monday, President Donald Trump’s defense team failed at their most important job — making a clear and compelling argument that there was no need to hear from former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

• Act Now to Prevent an American Epidemic

  SPEAKER: Scott Gottlieb

  (Wall Street Journal) – Quarantines, flu vaccines and other steps to take before the Wuhan virus becomes widespread.

• We need to prepare for US outbreak of Wuhan coronavirus

  SPEAKER: Scott Gottlieb

  (CNBC) – Even though there’s a lot that we don’t know about the novel coronavirus that’s burning its ways through China, there are some critical assumptions we should make about its continued spread.

• Crumbling Infrastructure – or Crumbling Cliché?

  SPEAKER: Todd Buchholz

  (Project Syndicate) – Democratic US presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg unveiled an infrastructure plan that magically settled on the same trillion-dollar price tag that candidate Donald Trump announced in 2016. But is America’s infrastructure really so bad?

• Vice President Pence’s big week

  SPEAKER: Newt Gingrich

  (Fox News) – As Vice President Mike Pence, his wife Karen, and their daughter-in-law Sarah got off Air Force Two in Rome this morning, it hit me what an action-packed week they have had.

• Annie Leibovitz Among 2020 Advertising Hall of Fame Inductees

  SPEAKER: Annie Leibovitz

  (Ad Age) – The American Advertising Federation announced today the eight individuals and one corporation that will be inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame this year.

• Auschwitz is something we should always remember — It is a grim reminder that evil is real

  SPEAKER: Newt Gingrich

  (Fox News) – Jan. 27 is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, one of the most extraordinary events of our time.

• Davos Man is cooling on Stockholm Girl Greta Thunberg

  SPEAKER: Niall Ferguson

  (The Times) – Delegates publicly praise the gloomy activist, but privately prefer dirty Don.

• The world is better prepared for the coronavirus threat. But we remain tragically vulnerable.

  SPEAKER: Scott Gottlieb

  (The Washington Post) – Health authorities’ concern about the new coronavirus in China, with cases spreading in Asia and as far as the United States, deepened Wednesday with news that the Chinese government plans to shut down transportation from Wuhan, a city of 11 million people that is considered ground zero of the pneumonia-like virus.

• Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale says impeachment “excites” the base

  SPEAKER: Brad Parscale

  (CBS This Morning) –  Trump 2020 Campaign manager Brad Parscale discusses their re-election strategy. 

• Tulsi Gabbard Sues for Attention

  SPEAKER: David Frum

  (The Atlantic) – Representative Tulsi Gabbard today filed a defamation lawsuit against Hillary Clinton in federal court.

• Professor Paul Romer: “It may take more than 10 years to resolve the US-China conflict.”

  SPEAKER: Paul Romer

  (economy) – In 2018, Paul Romer, a New York University professor at Stern School of Business, interviewed with the Korea Economic Daily. “It may take more than 10 years to resolve the conflict,” he said.

• Paul Romer: “Rising Interest Rates Risks Financial System”

  SPEAKER: Paul Romer

  (economy) – Last year, we interviewed Nobel Laureate in Economics, Professor Paul Romer New York University. It was for the New Year’s interview, and the article was published on January 1 in the Korea Economic Daily.

• Lifelong Republican on which Democrat she would vote for

  SPEAKER: Sheila Bair

  (CNN) – Lifelong Republican Sheila Bair says she has never voted for a Democrat for president, but she is now considering it.

• Brad Parscale: This president is a fighter and he’s going to win this election in 2020

  SPEAKER: Brad Parscale

  (Fox News) – Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale discusses the future of the Trump campaign and what he’s looking to improve this time around.

• Donald Trump must split up Putin and Xi, the new odd couple

  SPEAKER: Niall Ferguson

  (The Times) – The US can win the Second Cold War only by drawing apart the Russian and Chinese leaders

• Incredible revolution changed Iran from US friend to foe – We need to understand how and why

  SPEAKER: Newt Gingrich

  (Fox News) – As we watch the current tensions with Iran, I believe it is important to help explain how we got here. That’s why I wanted to focus this week’s episode of “Newt’s World” on Iran’s political history, the Iranian Revolution, and what the revolution meant for the Iranian people.

• Ocean Photography Awards to launch March 2020

  SPEAKER: Paul Nicklen

  (Oceanographic) – This March, the Ocean Photography Awards will launch as the first awards to focus exclusively on celebrating the best amateur and professional ocean photography.

• Korea’s income-led growth model “risky”: Nobel laureate Paul Romer

  SPEAKER: Paul Romer

  (Pulse) – South Korea’s income-led economy is a risky model that could backfire if companies are discouraged to add new hires, warned Paul Romer, co-winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Economics.

• Niall Ferguson: ” Trump Unleashed”

  SPEAKER: Niall Ferguson

  (Die Weltwoche) – New York Times bestselling author, Emmy award winning documentarist, and celebrated conservative intellectual — predicts this year’s newest conflict zones and examines President Donald Trump, the most controversial guest attending the upcoming World Economic Forum.

• After Iowa Democratic debate, party could get its nightmare: Trump’s reelection

  SPEAKER: Newt Gingrich

  (Fox News) – It took a while for me to understand the nagging feeling I got from the Democratic debate in Iowa Tuesday night. I kept grappling with my dissatisfaction and could not find the right words.

• The Trump family and the Corleone Doctrine

  SPEAKER: Niall Ferguson

  (The Boston Globe) – It is certainly no cause for glee that the most powerful man in the world should aspire to be a mafioso. Yet there may be worse figures to imitate than Vito Corleone.

• Matt Bai joins Washington Post Opinions as politics contributing columnist

  SPEAKER: Matt Bai

  (The Washington Post) – Matt Bai will be joining Post Opinions as a politics contributing columnist.

• ‘Better the Russian trolls help fund education’: Maryland looks to pioneer taxes on digital advertising

  SPEAKER: Paul Romer

  (The Washington Post) – Two powerful Maryland politicians want that ad chasing you around the Internet to pay the state for the privilege of collecting your data.

• Trump Broke It. Now He Owns It.

  SPEAKER: David Frum

  (The Atlantic) – The president withdrew from a flawed deal with Iran, but had no realistic alternative. With that choice comes responsibility for what ensued.

• Tens of thousands of Americans are dying each year from this horrific epidemic

  SPEAKER: Newt Gingrich

  (Fox News) – However, what if I told you the deadliest terrorists we face lived right over our southern border and are using drugs – not explosives – to kill tens of thousands of Americans every year?

• We’re Just Discovering the Price of Killing Soleimani

  SPEAKER: David Frum

  (The Atlantic) – No American paid a price for President Donald Trump’s decision to kill Iran’s Qassem Soleimani. But it looks like 176 other people did, including 63 Canadian citizens and many more Iranian nationals en route to Canada.

• Niall Ferguson: Liberal democracy will not survive the 21st century

  SPEAKER: Niall Ferguson

  (National Post) – Although I regret it very much, I believe that liberal democracy as we know it won’t survive the 21st century.

• Americans Aren’t Rallying to Trump

  SPEAKER: David Frum

  (The Atlantic) – A president who writes off half the country can’t expect to garner support from a crisis of his own making.

• I am a Republican, and I hope the Democrats pick a candidate I can vote for

  SPEAKER: Sheila Bair

  (The Washington Post) – Over the past 40 years — about as long as I’ve been of age to vote — the country has seen a downward spiral in the qualifications of the individuals we have elected as president.

• In Asia, Disruptive Technonationalism Returns

  SPEAKER: Evan Feigenbaum

  (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) – Technonationalists, whatever their nationality, take a strategic view of industry and technology. They view it as fundamental to national security and economic competitiveness and take on faith that economic policies must have strategic underpinnings.

• The FDA got it partially right on e-cigs. Here’s what else needs to be done.

  SPEAKER: Scott Gottlieb

  (The Washington Post) – Responding to the worsening epidemic of e-cigarette use by kids of middle-school and high-school age, the Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it will ban, within 30 days, flavored e-liquids other than menthol and tobacco — but only when they’re packaged into cartridges to fit on popular devices such as those marketed by Juul.

• Civil war in Iraq? Quite possibly. World War III? Forget about it.

  SPEAKER: Niall Ferguson

  (Boston Globe) – The United States may now face pandemonium in Iraq, but Iran will not necessarily be the beneficiary.

• Can aging be reversed? Incredible new research may let us grow younger instead of older

  SPEAKER: Newt Gingrich

  (Fox News) – It’s a seemingly fundamental truth that aging is inevitable. But what if everything we’ve been taught to believe about the aging process is wrong?

• Vancouver Island’s Paul Nicklen given Order of Canada, inducted into International Photography Hall of Fame

  SPEAKER: Paul Nicklen

  (Victoria News) – It was a big year in 2019 for Paul Nicklen, who was recently given the Order of Canada and earlier inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame.

• Scott Gottlieb: We must reduce access and appeal of flavored vapes to kids

  SPEAKER: Scott Gottlieb

  (CNBC) – Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner and board member at Pfizer, joins CNBC to discuss a report from the New York Times released late on New Year’s Eve that indicates the White House is reportedly planning to ban most e-cigarette flavors but menthol and tobacco. 

• Order of Canada: Stephen Harper, Donna Strickland, Xavier Dolan among new appointments

  SPEAKER: Stephen Harper

  (The Globe and Mail) – The twice-yearly announcement of one of the country’s highest civilian honours elevates Stephen Harper to the award’s highest tier: Companion of the Order of Canada.

• Frates family: final Plunge for Pete ‘beyond expectations’

  SPEAKER: Nancy Frates

  (Salem News) – Hundreds of people stood on the shore’s edge at Good Harbor Beach Saturday in nothing but bathing suits, all in support of a man who had made waves in the classroom, on the baseball field, and in the fight against ALS.

• In 2020, these 5 things will make big news

  SPEAKER: Newt Gingrich

  (Fox News) – Don’t let the headline of this piece fool you. There are far more than five things that we need to watch closely in 2020. It’s probably closer to 40 important things we need to watch and plan for – and a great many of those would be impossible to predict now.

• A Gangster in the White House

  SPEAKER: David Frum

  (The Atlantic) – Amid a two-day binge of post-Christmas rage-tweeting, President Donald Trump retweeted the name of the CIA employee widely presumed to be the whistle-blower in the Ukraine scandal.

• The vaping black market is hiding in plain sight

  SPEAKER: Sanjay Gupta

  (CNN) – From the outside, the store is clearly marked. Inside, rows of colorful products are on display. As far as any average shopper on this street in California can tell, this is a legal cannabis shop. But it’s not.

• Access For 21st Century Cures: Updating Medicare’s Approach To Coverage And Payment

  SPEAKER: Scott Gottlieb

  (Health Affairs) – In recent years, considerable bipartisan Congressional action, leadership from both Democratic and Republican administrations, and broad-based multistakeholder collaborations have focused on improving the tools and regulatory processes at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), other government agencies, and public-private collaborations to support more efficient and timely development of new medical technologies.

• George Washington experienced America’s first Christmas miracle – And it changed our history

  SPEAKER: Newt Gingrich

  (Fox News) – I thought about the most important Christmas moments in American history. My mind immediately went to the first – George Washington’s victory at the Battle of Trenton on Dec. 26, 1776.

• Can America and China Be Stakeholders?

  SPEAKER: Robert Zoellick

  (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) – The daily news about China reports deals on and off, sales off and on, more and steeper tariffs on and off…and who knows what’s next?

• The Real-Life Lady of Downton Abbey Shares How Similar Her Life Is To The Show

  SPEAKER: Lady Fiona Carnarvon

  (Woman’s Day) – You likely don’t know Lady Fiona Carnarvon, eighth Countess of Carnarvon. But you probably know a little bit about her life and her home of Highclere Castle thanks to a not-so-little show called Downton Abbey. Or at least you think you do.

• We’re letting China win the 5G race. It’s time to catch up

  SPEAKER: Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

  (The Washington Post) – But today, with the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, the United States is falling behind.

• It’s One Nation under Boris Johnson’s populist groove

  SPEAKER: Niall Ferguson

  (The Times) – The PM’s cheerful version of national conservatism swept him to victory.

• Carly Fiorina: It is “vital” Trump be impeached

  SPEAKER: Carly Fiorina

  (CNN) – Former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina says President Trump should be impeached, but stopped short of calling for his removal from office and did not rule out voting for him again in 2020.

• Bankers Are Playing With Fire, Once Again

  SPEAKER: Sheila Bair

  (The Washington Post) – As 2019 draws to a close, there’s more than a whiff of banking deregulation in the air. The U.S. has relaxed its lender stress tests and made it easier again for Wall Street to trade using its own funds. In Europe, capital requirements are being softened.

• Trump’s Trade War Was Futile

  SPEAKER: David Frum

  (The Atlantic) – The president’s clash with Beijing accomplished little—and bodes ill for the growing conservative movement to confront the world’s second superpower.