Tech woes, worsening tensions with China sink U.S. stocks
NEW YORK — Stocks fell sharply on Monday as investors responded to rising trade tensions between the United States and China and mounting scrutiny of big technology companies from consumers and politicians.
China imposed $3 billion of tariffs on U.S. farm goods and other exports, bringing the world’s two largest economies closer to a full-on trade conflict.
Amazon sank following weekend broadsides from President Donald Trump on Twitter, while Facebook tumbled as a widening privacy scandal continued to weigh on the company’s stock.
The looming threat of tighter regulation of the tech sector in Europe and the U.S. prompted investors to pull money out of high-flying companies, such as Netflix, Microsoft and Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
U.S. Rep. Esty won’t seek re-election amid harassment queries
HARTFORD, Conn. — U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty announced Monday she will not seek re-election this year amid calls for her resignation over her handling of the firing of a former chief of staff accused of harassment, threats and violence against female staffers in her congressional office.
Esty, a Democrat from Connecticut and an outspoken #MeToo advocate, was accused of not protecting female staffers from the ex-chief of staff. Esty has said she regrets not moving along an internal investigation into the allegations, which revealed more widespread allegations of abuse, and regrets providing “even the slightest assistance to this individual as he sought a new job.”
Esty said she determined “that it is in the best interest of my constituents and my family to end my time in Congress at the end of this year and not seek re-election.”
Her announcement came hours after she asked the House Ethics Committee to review her actions.
“Although we worked with the House Employment Counsel to investigate and ultimately dismiss this employee for his outrageous behavior with a former staffer, I believe it is important for the House Ethics Committee to conduct its own inquiry into this matter,” Esty said in a written statement, acknowledging “it certainly was far from a perfect process.”
U.S. opens door to possible Trump-Putin White House meeting
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration opened the door to a potential White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, raising the possibility of an Oval Office welcome for Putin for the first time in more than a decade even as relations between the two powers have deteriorated.
The Kremlin said Monday that Trump had invited the Russian leader to the White House when they spoke by telephone last month. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded that the White House was among “a number of potential venues” discussed. Both sides said they hadn’t started preparations for such a visit.
If it happens, Putin would be getting the honor of an Oval Office tete-a-tete for the first time since he met President George W. Bush at the White House in 2005. Alarms rang in diplomatic and foreign policy circles over the prospect that Trump might offer Putin that venue without confronting him about Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election or allegations that Russia masterminded the March 4 nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent.
“It would confer a certain normalization of relations and we’re certainly not in a normal space,” said Alina Polyakova, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Nothing about this is normal.”
Much has happened since Trump and Putin spoke in the March 20 phone call. Trump said afterward he hoped to meet with Putin “in the not too distant future” to discuss the nuclear arms race and other matters.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela dies at 81
JOHANNESBURG — Even the name given to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at birth — Nomzamo, “one who undergoes trials” — foretold a life of struggle.
During her nearly 38-year marriage to Nelson Mandela, she fought for black majority rule even as she vowed to escape the shadow of the great man.
And although many South Africans called her the “Mother of the Nation,” she would become engulfed in criminal convictions and scandals.
Madikizela-Mandela died Monday in a Johannesburg hospital at the age of 81 after a long illness, her family announced. She will be honored with a state funeral on April 14, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday evening after paying a condolence visit to Madikizela-Mandela’s home in Johannesburg’s Soweto township.
Over the years, Madikizela-Mandela became a symbol of the suffering caused by South Africa’s system of white minority rule known as apartheid and became a force against it, ultimately serving as a member of parliament.
By wire sources