Will the US be more active in Venezuela after Juan Guaido attended the State of the Union as a guest of Trump?
The answer is: not really. Guaido was dissed, didn't meet with President Trump in Miami, could have a one on one. That looked really bad. The fact that he's at the State of the Union means that he's not in disgrace in the US, but he's lost a lot of influence in Venezuela. His popularity is about 50 percent of what it was, opposition getting divided. And Bolton, of course, is near the top of Trump's crap list. He was the guy that was driving a more assertive policy. Romney's probably on top of that list, right now though.
What's the coronavirus update? Is it a pandemic?
Clearly getting worse. Impact on the Chinese economy is growing. The fact that we don't trust the data and the quarantine continues to expand. Plus, most importantly, China's economy is so much greater. Majority of global growth comes from China as the second largest economy in the world. Vastly different than when we had the SARS pandemic. Which means impact on the global economy: potentially half a point, maybe even a point of global growth. Could be the thing that knocks us into a global recession. I really hope not.
What's the story in Lesotho?
Well, the prime minister's wife apparently killed his ex-wife, who was first lady. They were getting divorced, but she didn't want a divorce, even though they were living separately because she wouldn't be first lady. She'd lose all the resources that came with that. Now, it says that the new first lady killed her. 40 years younger than the actual prime minister, never looks good. You got Lesotho in the news; how do you like that?
