Washington Post (September 7)
“Mr. Xi’s two predecessors allowed China’s people more personal freedom and provided a rising living standard,” but he “is reversing that by putting more of an ideological stamp on society.” Aside from widely publicized new limits on video games and screen time, on September 2, the television regulator “banned effeminate men on the screen” out of “official concern that Chinese pop stars, imitating the sleek look of some South Korean and Japanese singers and actors, were failing to encourage China’s young men to be masculine enough.” Mr. Xi may know best “about everything, on behalf of everyone. But the more power concentrates in one man, the more brittle the system may become.”
Tags: Brittle, China, Effeminate, Freedom, Ideological, Japan, Masculine, Pop stars, Power, South Korea, Television, Video games, Xi
Tampa Bay Times (September 7)
“For weeks, the virus preyed on America’s illusion of a defanged Covid. Most people returned to a semblance of their former lives.” Then, harsh reality set in. “The fast-spreading Delta variant has flooded hospitals across the South. It’s killed more people in Florida and Louisiana than the darkest days of the pandemic winter, and left so many COVID-19 patients gasping for breath that some places face shortages of medical oxygen.”
Tags: COVID-19, Defanged, Delta, Fast-spreading, Florida, Gasping, Hospitals, Illusion, Louisiana, Oxygen, Pandemic, Patients, Reality, Shortages, Virus
Financial Times (September 5)
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has “lacked distinctive policies of his own or an independent political base. Going forward, “Japan needs a different kind of leader.” The next leader “requires communication skills and a compelling programme.”
Tags: Communication, Different, Distinctive, Independent, Japan, Leader, Policies, Political base, Prime minister, Skills, Suga
The Economist (September 4)
“By the age of seven months, most children have learned that objects still exist even when they are out of sight.” Understanding object permanence “is a normal developmental milestone, as well as a basic tenet of reality. It is also something that self-driving cars do not have. And that is a problem.” Though autonomous vehicles “are getting better,” they still are unable to “understand the world in the way that a human being does. For a self-driving car, a bicycle that is momentarily hidden by a passing van is a bicycle that has ceased to exist.”
Tags: Autonomous vehicles, Bicycle, Children, Developmental milestone, Hidden, Human, Object permanence, Reality, Self-driving cars, Seven months
NBC News (September 3)
“The weather records for the New York City metropolitan area fell almost as quickly as the rain Wednesday night. The National Weather Service issued its first flash flood emergency ever for the city, and in Central Park, 3.2 inches of rain fell in an hour, setting a record. Newark, New Jersey, matched it, getting 3.2 inches of rain in an hour. Wednesday was the wettest day on record in Newark, with total rainfall of 8.4 inches…. Both cities experienced 1-in-500-year rainfall events. The result was one of the deadliest and most destructive flash flood events to hit the tri-state area, with at least 41 people dead by Thursday evening.”
Tags: 1-in-500-year, Central Park, Deadliest, Destructive, Emergency, Flash flood, New Jersey, Newark, NYC, Rain, Rainfall, Records, Weather
New York Times (September 2)
“Only weeks after Arizona’s students went back to school, coronavirus infections are forcing thousands of children and teachers into quarantine. Outbreaks around Phoenix are surging. In one suburban district, so many drivers are sick that school buses are running 90 minutes late.”
Tags: Late
Institutional Investor (September 1)
“Most Chinese internet stocks will need to move their primary listings to Hong Kong or delist from the US” in light of *updated SEC rules regarding the audit of US listed China stocks” and recent actions by the Chinese government. “We don’t expect this to mean a disorderly unwind of VIE listed stocks listed in US,” but “it is unlikely stocks with data considered ‘sensitive’ can keep their primary listing in the US.”
Tags: Audit, China, Delis, Disorderly, Hong Kong, Internet stocks, Primary listings, SEC rules, U.S., Unwind, VIE
Bloomberg (September 1)
“European equities advanced the most in a month on Wednesday as investors bet the global economic rebound would persist even as central banks prepare to scale back support.” August marked the seventh consecutive month of advances for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, its “longest winning streak since 2013.”
Tags: Advanced, Central banks, Economic, Equities, Europe, Investors, Rebound, Stoxx 600, Winning streak
Wall Street Journal (August 31)
In a best case scenario, the withdrawal from Afghanistan “frees the U.S. from a costly distraction and enables us to focus more on China. Let Russia worry about fanatical jihadist warriors and missionaries fanning out across Central Asia…. Let China cope with the double-dealing, back-stabbing, perpetually indigent Pakistani government. Let Iran deal with newly empowered Sunni zealots, uncontrolled opium flows and a stream of refugees pressing on its frontiers.”
Tags: Afghanistan, Best case, China, Costly, Distraction, Iran, Jihadist, Opium, Pakistan, Refugees, Russia, Scenario, U.S., Warriors, Withdrawal, Zealots
