Climate’s Too Hot in Chile for Trump-Xi Talks

(Bloomberg) --

The deepening crisis in Chile just went global.

What began as high school students jumping over metro station turnstiles to protest fare increases spiraled into mass rallies and widespread violence that forced the cancellation of next month’s APEC summit in Santiago, where U.S. President Donald Trump was due to sign a preliminary trade accord with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The world’s largest climate summit also has to find a new home.

The meetings were supposed to be a showcase for Chile, which has become one of Latin America’s most prosperous countries since a military dictatorship ended in 1990. But the worst civil unrest in a generation, organized largely on social media, has revealed profound frustration among the poor and middle-class with their living conditions — declining faith in billionaire President Sebastian Pinera to do anything about it.

Beyond the street clashes, reminiscent of protests in Hong Kong, Lebanon and elsewhere, new questions loom over the Trump-Xi talks, with Beijing today casting doubt on their long-term success. The irony is the Santiago meeting held out the hope of reducing trade tensions and spurring economic growth, possibly helping ease pressure on people’s pocketbooks that’s fueling the demonstrations.

While there’s little doubt a Trump-Xi tete-a-tete and the climate meeting will go ahead at some point, the world can ill afford delay.

Global Headlines

Key moment | House Democrats hold a historic vote today to affirm an impeachment inquiry of Trump that also will starkly illustrate the country’s political divisions. After weeks of testimony, Democrats and Republicans head into the Capitol firmly battened down for a fight over their opposing views of the president: That his actions in office at least merit an investigation or that he’s done nothing wrong.

• Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton has been asked to testify to the House committees leading the inquiry, Billy House reports.

Shaky foundation | Trump boasts that a robust economy will protect him from impeachment and ensure his re-election. But, as Mike Dorning and Catarina Saraiva report, middle-class Americans who are the main targets of Trump’s pitch aren’t sharing much in the gains of U.S. growth. Worse yet for Trump, wage growth has been slower in the counties he carried in 2016.

• Flush with cash, Trump’s re-election team envisions a greatly expanded campaign map in which he’ll challenge his Democratic opponent in blue states he narrowly lost in 2016.

• In trouble?: Democrat Kamala Harris plans to cut staff and restructure her presidential effort as her campaign fails to catch on with voters.

5G lead | As Trump digs in on a boycott of Chinese technology giant Huawei, China's three state-owned wireless carriers today rolled out the world’s largest 5G mobile-phone network. While U.S. operators have introduced 5G to parts of some cities, without using Huawei gear, and South Korea is providing its own services, China will quickly become the largest provider by virtue of its huge population and investment by the companies.

Debt blowout | A meltdown at South Africa’s power utility Eskom requiring constant bailouts and anemic growth are threatening to push Africa’s most industrialized economy into a debt trap. While the Treasury wants to move ahead with long-stalled plans to sell state assets to shore up the nation’s finances, it’s facing opposition from other government departments and labor unions, which are key supporters of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ruling party.

Pipeline politics | Denmark’s approval of Nord Stream 2 has repercussions far beyond energy matters. The regulatory nod for the undersea natural-gas pipeline from Russia to Germany is a win for Vladimir Putin and a relief for Angela Merkel, whose government faced criticism from Brussels over the project. Most of all, it’s a blow to Trump, who threatened sanctions on Nord Stream 2 as he pressured Europe to buy more U.S. LNG. It may now be too late to stop.

What to Watch

• Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has announced that the site will ban all political ads, delivering a jab to Facebook, which has come under fire for the way it’s handled advertising by candidates.
• Laura Codruta Kovesi becomes the EU’s first chief prosecutor today, beginning a seven-year, non-renewable term after a politically bruising contest for the job.

And finally … Today should have been Brexit Day, but instead, the U.K. faces a snap election as another deadline to leave the European Union comes and goes. The extended uncertainty is bringing out the worst on both sides of the debate, with death threats against MPs, abuse aimed at ministers’ children and bellicose language the norm. As Alan Crawford reports, the impression sent to the outside world is of a country bristling with Brexit-induced aggression, threatening the most bitter election campaign in memory.

--With assistance from Kathleen Hunter and Alan Crawford.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Halpin at thalpin5@bloomberg.net

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.