Tuesday, March 13

ByKevin Sheekey

Deadline Day for U.K.-Russia relations: Prime Minister Theresa May gave President Vladimir Putin until midnight tonight to say whether the Kremlin was behind a nerve-agent attack in Britain. She’s already briefed French President Emmanuel Macron, while U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson blamed Russia for the “egregious act.” –Bloomberg Balance of Power
May Plans Russia Reprisal for Ex-Spy Poisoning as Deadline Looms (Bloomberg)


The Cost of a Global Trade War: A full-blown trade war could cost the global economy $470 billion, according to Bloomberg Economics. The U.S. decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum may just be the beginning, with President Donald Trump warning of more levies and other economies promising to respond. Cecilia Malmstrom, the European Union’s trade chief, vowed on Monday to “stand up to bullies.” Trump’s Trade War and the $470 Billion Hit to the Global Economy (Bloomberg)


More Cabinet News:
Larry Kudlow Emerges as Trump Favorite to Replace Gary Cohn as Director of National Economic Council, Sources Say (Bloomberg)

Education Alarm: White House officials were alarmed by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ struggle to answer basic questions about the nation’s schools and failure to defend the administration’s newly proposed school safety measures during a tour of television interviews Sunday and Monday, according to two sources familiar with their reaction: White House Officials Alarmed at Education Secretary’s Performance on CBS 60 Minutes (CNN)


Photo of the day from 731 Lexington.

City Leadership Initiative

Advisers, deputy chiefs & senior leaders from U.S., Canadian, and UK cities are at Bloomberg’s New York Headquarters this week to discuss cross-sector collaboration at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.


For More on the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, read this: When City Hall Can’t Do It All: Building Stronger Cross-Sector Collaboration (Bloomberg Cities)


Safety for Anti-Smoking Activists: At last week’s World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Cape Town, the discussion of threats to anti-smoking activists was an undercurrent at the event, which was led by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization; Michael R. Bloomberg, who is the W.H.O.’s global ambassador for noncommunicable diseases; and South Africa’s health minister, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi. Bloomberg said a signature anti-smoking campaign called MPower had already cut smoking rates in some countries so much that 35 million early deaths will be prevented. In Poor Countries, Antismoking Activists Face Threats and Violence (New York Times)


Headlines from around the world.

Japan Times: Finance Minister Taro Aso fights for political survival as cronyism scandal threatens to divide ruling party

El Pais (Spain): Spain’s biggest renewable energy center languishing under fund freeze

Telegraph (UK): Boris Johnson warns Russia not to underestimate UK outrage as he fails to rule out cyber attacks against Moscow

China Daily: China announces cabinet reshuffle plan to streamline govt work


Best of late night.

“Trump announced that his 2020 campaign slogan will be ‘Keep America Great!’ Well, there were actually a bunch of other slogans he almost went with instead. I’ll show you what I mean: For example, Trump also considered, ‘I’m With Hair.’ He also thought about going with ‘I Mean, It Can’t Get Worse Than It Already Is.’ And finally he almost went with ‘Come On, Doesn’t Some Small Part of You Sort of Want to See Where This All Goes?’”
— Jimmy Fallon

“He encouraged his supporters in the crowd to quote ‘vote like crazy’ — which is really the only way you can vote for Donald Trump.”
— Jimmy Kimmel

“In a new interview, Elon Musk was asked who inspires him — and he said Kanye West. Kanye West was like, ‘What a coincidence! The guy who inspires me is also Kanye West.’”
— Jimmy Fallon

“On Friday, Marvel announced that there will be a ‘Black Panther’ sequel. Very cool, yeah, Marvel’s C.E.O. said, ‘It was a difficult decision, but ultimately we decided to make another billion dollars.’”
— Conan O’Brien

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