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Good morning. Donald Trump cruised to victory in nearly all of the states holding Republican primaries on Super Tuesday, on a night that took him to the brink of securing his party’s presidential nomination to face Joe Biden in November.
According to the Associated Press, Trump won 14 of the 15 states voting on Super Tuesday, a pivotal date on the primary calendar. His main rival, Nikki Haley, won just one state: Vermont.
The former president’s dominance — which included wins in California and Texas, the biggest prizes of the night — will heap more pressure on his main rival, Nikki Haley, to abandon her bid.
Trump is rapidly approaching the 1,215 delegates needed at the Republican National Convention to seal the party’s nomination in July.
Meanwhile, Biden has been dominating the Democratic primary contests across all states that have held votes so far, overcoming challenges from Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson that never gained traction. Here’s the latest on the Super Tuesday contests.
How the night unfolded: Our live blog has the five key takeaways from last night.
Live results map: Follow our state-by-state guide to the primaries.
Swing states: The November election is almost certain to be a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump and will probably be decided in just six
key states.
Instant Insight: If there’s anything we’ve learned about US politics in the age of Trump it is that pollsters almost always get it wrong, writes Peter Spiegel. This time was no different.
For more analysis on the 2024 election race sign up for Swamp Notes, a twice-weekly newsletter from senior columnists Rana Foroohar and Edward Luce. It is also now available as a podcast.
And here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:
Congress: Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell’s semi-annual testimony to the House financial services committee will be closely followed for hints on the potential path and timing of potential interest rate cuts. Here’s what economists are saying about the timing of any rate cuts.
Economic data: Payroll provider ADP releases its national employment report for February ahead of government statistics due for release on Friday. Brazil’s statistics agency IBGE publishes industrial output data relative to January and Argentina’s government is due to release January industrial production data.
Monetary policy: The Bank of Canada announces its latest interest rate decision. Investors will pay close attention to governor Tiff Macklem’s press conference following the announcement.
Results: Jack Daniel’s maker Brown Forman, Campbell Soup and sneaker seller Foot Locker and Thor Industries release earnings.
International affairs: After his visit to the White House, Israel’s war cabinet member Benny Gantz will be in London for a meeting with the UK’s foreign secretary David Cameron.
Five more top stories
1. Republican and Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation that would ban app stores from distributing TikTok unless ByteDance, its Chinese owner, divests control of the popular video-sharing platform. One congressional aide said there was a “huge groundswell of bipartisan support” for the measure. Here’s more on the bill that could have implications for the outcome of the US election.
2. Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry has re-emerged in Puerto Rico after his whereabouts were unknown for days. Since Henry left Haiti on February 25 to attend a regional summit in Guyana, gangs have rampaged through the capital of Port-au-Prince, raiding two jails over the weekend and freeing thousands of inmates, while launching attacks on the country’s main airport, forcing the closure of schools, banks and hospitals. Here’s what we know about Henry’s plan to restore order.
3. Russia has aggressively relaunched its spy war with the west, with Moscow’s publication of a phone call in which senior German air force officers discussed sending cruise missiles to Ukraine being only the latest chilling example. Almost every week, it seems, another covert operation comes to light, showing how far Russia’s intelligence agencies have penetrated Europe.
4. PwC stripped three senior partners of their management roles and disqualified one of them from the race to run its US business after finding they breached leadership election rules. The Big Four firm found that Neil Dhar, who was a frontrunner, and his allies had committed “significant violations” of electioneering rules and firm policies, according to people familiar with the matter.
5. China has revealed little about how much the country will really be spending on the People’s Liberation Army. While its official budget will increase by 7.2 per cent this year, experts believe that the figure masks a much bigger boost for military capabilities, as leader Xi Jinping seeks to transform the PLA into a more potent force while lowering the cost of weapons acquisition.
News in-depth
PDD, the Chinese owner of ecommerce site Temu, is engaged in what might be the fastest and most ambitious retail expansion in history. The faster, leaner, cheaper version of Amazon has spread from China to 49 countries in under two years. Yet the site’s rapid rise raises more questions than it answers. Dan McCrum investigates.
We’re also reading and listening to . . .
Chart of the day
The rush into haven assets and riskier assets pushed gold and bitcoin to record highs yesterday. The price of the flagship cryptocurrency has soared 60 per cent this year, following the approval of its place in exchange traded funds. Yesterday it hit $69,200. The price of gold struck a new record as well yesterday of $2,141, as central banks and Chinese investors snap up the precious metal.
Take a break from the news
Refik Anadol watched Ridley Scott’s 1982 neo-noir classic Blade Runner at a tender age. A key scene between the film’s android leads imprinted what would become the Turkish artist’s life’s work: exploring the apparently infinite terrain of what a machine imbued with “deep learning” can do with the artefacts of both personal and collective memory.
Additional contributions from George Russell and Benjamin Wilhelm
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Source: Economy - ft.com
