'Return our money!' Evergrande investors protest at office of Chinese developer

Protesters and police officers outside the Evergrande International

 Center in Guangzhou

Mon, January 3, 2022
By David Kirton

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Investors in financial products issued by China Evergrande Group protested outside the cash-strapped company's offices in Guangzhou on Tuesday, with many worried that their returns would be sacrificed to keep real estate projects afloat.

Members of the crowd of roughly 100 people shouted "Evergrande, return our money!", reprising a chant used by disgruntled investors and suppliers last autumn as the deterioration in its financial position became apparent.

On Friday, Evergrande announced a dial-back of plans to repay investors in its wealth management products, announcing that each could expect 8,000 yuan ($1,256) per month in principal payment for three months starting in January, irrespective of when their investment matures.

Once China's top selling developer but now reeling under more than $300 billion in liabilities, Evergrande had previously agreed to repay 10% by the end of the month when the product matured, without specifying an amount.

The change sparked investor fear that they won't get their money back.

"I think it's hopeless, and I'm scared, but if we don't fight for our rights, that's worse," said a retired woman surnamed Du who was among those outside Evergrande's offices in the southern Chinese metropolis and said she had invested one million yuan in Evergrande wealth management products.

"The economy's not good at the moment, these are ordinary people and they need this money for kids, for supporting their parents," she said.

China Evergrande did not respond to a request for comment on the protest or on the concerns of the investors.

By midday, about 60 of those protesting had been hemmed in by rows of security personnel. Videos circulating in WeChat groups showed several people being detained at the scene.

In the afternoon, a group of 20 remaining protesters were told to leave a street near Evergrande's offices, while security stopped and took the details of at least three people who tried to describe their experiences to a Reuters reporter.

HIGH YIELDS AND GUCCI BAGS

Lured by the promise of yields approaching 12%, gifts such as Dyson air purifiers and Gucci bags, and the guarantee of China's top-selling developer, tens of thousands of investors bought wealth management products through Evergrande. [L1N2QN2YG]

More than 80,000 people – including employees, their families and friends as well as owners of Evergrande properties - bought products that raised more than 100 billion yuan in the past five years, said a sales manager of Evergrande Wealth, launched in 2016 as a peer-to-peer (P2) online lending platform that originally was used to fund its property projects.

"We worry we will be sacrificed," said a 34-year-old protester who works in e-commerce and would only give her name as Sophie, for fear of reprisal from authorities.

"It's okay for younger people like me, we can still earn it back, but I’m worried about the older ones who put everything into this," she said.

Protesters and members of messaging groups of people owed money by Evergrande have said they had been told by police not to cause trouble, and had seen their chat groups blocked.

Sophie said police had taken her to the station four times since she joined protests at Evergrande's headquarters in the nearby city of Shenzhen in September.

"We don't know what happens to our money but we're expected to keep quiet, it's not right," she said.

($1 = 6.3718 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by David Kirton; Editing by Tony Munroe, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Chile Tensions Over Lithium Contracts Show Scope of Clean-Energy Task




James Attwood
Tue, January 4, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- Mounting opposition to new lithium contracts in Chile is the latest indication of just how difficult it will be for the world to churn out the building blocks of the clean-energy transition.

In the final months of its term, the government of President Sebastian Pinera is about to award new production quotas in an effort to tap more of the world’s biggest reserves. It comes as surging electric-vehicle demand sends prices of the battery metal to record highs.

Previously, such efforts would have met with little resistance given the abundance of lithium hidden under Chilean salt flats and how clean and easy it is to produce compared with the hard-rock mining practiced in top producer Australia. After all, winners of the new contracts will still have to undertake exploration work and go through all the usual permitting before they can develop projects. But politics -- and environmental and social sensibilities -- have changed.

Pinera, 72, is about to hand over power to 35-year-old left-winger Gabriel Boric, whose team accuses the outgoing government of trying to rush through the new contracts at a time when the country is reassessing its stance on natural resources in a process to draft a new constitution.

This week, a group of opposition lower-house members filed an injunction to halt the bidding process, accusing authorities of bypassing community consultation obligations in a fragile desert ecosystem. An umbrella union of copper mining workers slammed the process as extemporaneous.

The crescendo of criticism underscores the enormous challenge of getting societies on board to crank up supply of metals like nickel, cobalt and lithium in the transition away from fossil fuels.

Chile, the largest producer of lithium after Australia, has seen its share of the market dwindle in recent years, producing about 18,000 metric tons last year. The country is offering five contracts to produce as much as 80,000 tons apiece over 20 years.

Sony reveals its EV market ambitions with the Vision-S 02 electric SUV

Mariella Moon
·Associate Editor
Wed, January 5, 2022, 12:13 AM·2 min read

At this year's CES, Sony has unveiled a follow up to the electric car it revealed at the same event two years ago. The new prototype is an SUV that the company is calling Vision-S 02. Sony took the sedan's EV and cloud platforms and put them in a new form factor to create the vehicle, which features a large interior that can seat seven.

The electric SUV has sensors all over its body, including CMOS image and LiDAR sensors for its driver assistance system. Sony says it's conducting tests in Europe as part of its efforts to release a Level 2+ driver assistance technology on public roads. Inside, there are Time-of-Flight sensors for driver authentication, as well as support for intuitive gesture and voice commands. The vehicle will also have 5G connectivity to enable over-the-air updates and remote operation, which Sony is currently working on with its partners.

While the Vision-S 02 is just a prototype at the moment, Sony has ambitions to become a player in the electric vehicle industry and sell its cars to the public. It will establish an operating company named "Sony Mobility Inc." this spring and will explore entry into the EV market. The company didn't reveal what other steps it's taking to achieve that goal, and it remains to be seen whether it'll truly be able to release its Vision-S vehicles. It's worth noting, however, that Sony has been testing its electric sedan on public roads in Europe since December 2020 and has also started verification tests of the safety and user experience of the vehicle's imaging and sensing technology.

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

Sony looks to electric cars for its next big hit

Tue, January 4, 2022
By Shinji Kitamura

(Reuters) - Japan's Sony Group Corp plans to launch a company this spring to examine entering the electric vehicle market, looking to harness its strengths in entertainment and sensors to play a bigger role in next-generation mobility.

The new company, Sony Mobility Inc, comes as the Japanese tech giant is "exploring a commercial launch" of electric vehicles, Sony chairman and president Kenichiro Yoshida told a news conference, speaking ahead of the CES technology trade fair in the United States.


"With our imaging and sensing, cloud, 5G and entertainment technologies combined with our contents mastery, we believe Sony is well positioned as a creative entertainment company to redefine mobility," he said.

Although its once-dominant position in consumer electronics has been eroded by Asian rivals like South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co, Sony still has an arsenal of sophisticated technology in areas such as sensors critical to autonomous driving.

It also remains one of the world's biggest entertainment companies, home to prominent video game and movie franchises. Audio and entertainment systems are increasingly a focus for next-generation vehicles.

Shares in Sony jumped 4.2% in Tokyo after the electric vehicle plans were announced, easily outpacing a flat Nikkei index.

Yoshida unveiled a prototype sport utility vehicle (SUV), the VISION-S 02, which uses the same electric vehicle platform as the previously announced VISION-S 01 coupe that began testing on public roads in Europe from December 2020.

He said the company saw mobility as an "entertainment space" where passengers could chose individual entertainment options and use 5G internet connection.

Wall Street is betting heavily on electric cars and the global auto industry has been upended by Tesla Inc, now the world's most valuable automaker. Many investors also expect Apple Inc to launch its own vehicle within the next few years.

Japan's Toyota Motor Corp in December committed $70 billion to electrify its automobiles by 2030.

(Reporting by Shinji Kitamura; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Kenneth Maxwell)

Federal judge refuses to toss University of Florida professors’ First Amendment lawsuit

Dara Kam
Tue, January 4, 2022

A federal judge on Monday refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by University of Florida professors challenging a policy that gives the school discretion in blocking faculty members from testifying against the state in legal cases.

Political science professors Sharon Austin, Michael McDonald and Daniel Smith filed the lawsuit after university officials denied their requests to serve as plaintiffs’ witnesses in a legal battle about a new state elections law (SB 90) that will, in part, make it harder for Floridians to vote by mail.

Previous coverage:

Judge set to hear arguments in University of Florida faculty dispute


Academic freedom: UF Faculty Senate study finds broad fear of reprisal for criticism


UF board chairman defends administration in academic freedom controversy

The professors turned to the court after university officials told them that going against the executive branch of the government was “adverse” to the school’s interests. Three additional professors later joined as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The professors contend that the university’s conflict-of-interest policy violates First Amendment speech rights and discriminates based on viewpoint and content.

Amid a national spotlight on the policy, University of Florida President Kent Fuchs walked back the decision on the professors’ testimony in the elections case, saying they would be allowed to be paid as plaintiffs’ experts if they did so on their own time and did not use school resources. Fuchs also quickly assembled a task force to review the conflict-of-interest issue and signed off on recommended changes to the policy.

The revised policy says there is a “strong presumption” that the university will approve faculty or staff requests to testify as expert witnesses.

University leaders last month asked Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker to toss the lawsuit, arguing in part that the case is “moot” because administrators have changed the conflict-of-interest policy.

The defendants — Fuchs, UF Provost Joseph Glover, and the university’s board of trustees — also maintained that the professors lack “standing” as plaintiffs in the case because the university ultimately authorized their requests to serve as expert witnesses.
Judge rebuts defendants' claims that professors lack 'standing' and that changes in policy render case moot

But Walker on Monday refused to stop the case from advancing, finding that the professors face a “credible threat” that future requests will be denied.

Walker’s decision included lengthy excerpts of recent comments by UF Board of Trustees Chairman Morteza “Mori” Hosseini, which the judge said “leave this court with little doubt that the University of Florida intends to enforce its conflict-of-interest policy in the manner plaintiffs fear.”

During a board meeting last month, Hosseini said faculty members had “taken advantage of their positions” by using their university jobs “to improperly advocate personal political viewpoints to the exclusion of others.”

Mori Hosseini, chairman of the University of Florida Board of Trustees, address the board Friday during its session on the Gainesville campus.

“This will not stand,” Hosseini said. “It must stop, and it will stop.” Hosseini also said that state leaders are “fed up” with faculty “misusing their positions.”

“In short, plaintiffs’ activities anger Tallahassee, that threatens the university’s funding, and so the university must halt plaintiffs’ activities,” Walker wrote in Monday’s 23-page ruling.

Walker also rejected the defendants’ arguments that the case is moot because the school’s policy has been revised.

“This case is not about what has happened; this case is about what will happen,” he wrote. “Further, plaintiffs contend that the university reversed course on its earlier denials to try to ride out the firestorm of criticism those denials triggered.

“Once that storm is over, plaintiffs say, the university will pick up right where it left off. And that renewed application of the conflict-of-interest policy is what plaintiffs sue to prevent.”

University of Florida president Kent Fuchs delivers comments during the December meeting of the University of Florida Faculty Senate, at the chamber meeting room in the Reitz Union, in Gainesville Dec. 16, 2021. The faculty senate talked about academic freedoms for faculty members as well as other agenda items.

The university’s revamped policy also falls short, Walker wrote, because it does not set a time limit for administrators to respond to faculty requests. Plaintiffs argued that would allow the university to run out the clock before acting on requests.

“More to the point, the new policy does not repudiate the premise that the university may reject a request to testify not because testifying would interfere with the professor’s duties, but because the testimony the professor intends to deliver would so infuriate Florida’s political leaders that it would harm the university’s bottom line,” Walker wrote.

The chief judge’s ruling on the motion to dismiss came just days before a Friday hearing in the case. The hearing will focus on the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction to block the policy from being enforced.

University officials also argued that the case should be dismissed because the professors failed to follow proper grievance procedures required under their union’s collective bargaining agreement.

But Walker rejected those assertions as well, finding the agreement “explicitly specifies an exception … for ‘any alleged violation’ of a faculty member’s constitutional rights.”

©2022 The News Service of Florida. All rights reserved.

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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Judge refuses to dismiss UF professors’ free speech lawsuit

Deere says its robo-tractors are ready to till the fields



Tue, January 4, 2022
By Joseph White

DETROIT (Reuters) - John Deere & Co said on Tuesday it will start commercial delivery this year of technology that enables a tractor to till a field without an operator in the cab, a first for the top North American tractor manufacturer after years of effort to automate farm work.

Deere plans a low-volume launch this year delivering systems for 12 to 20 machines, and then scaling up, Jahmy Hindman, Deere's chief technology officer, told Reuters. The company is weighing whether to sell the technology, lease it, or offer it to farmers in a subscription package that could allow for upgrades as hardware and software evolve, he said.

The cameras and computers for automated tilling can be installed on an existing tractor and tiller machine in a day, Hindman said.

Deere and other equipment makers such as Caterpillar have invested heavily in technology to automate off-highway vehicles such as farm tractors and mining machines. In the farm sector, finding workers to operate tractors is a chronic problem made more acute by the pandemic.

For the farm equipment industry, Deere's commercial launch is a significant step in a journey that has been underway for nearly two decades, beginning with the use of satellite positioning and later hands-free operation with a driver still in the cab. Deere has been testing fully autonomous tractors for three to four years, Hindman said.

While automated tractors do not have to contend with pedestrians, the chaos of urban traffic or highway safety regulations, Hindman said self-driving tractors do need to be able to navigate accurately, avoid obstacles and precisely control equipment such as a tiller.

Deere's initial automated tractors will use stereo cameras in the front and rear, and can send images of what the cameras see via a smartphone app to a farmer or equipment operator. The operator can take the tractor to a field, swipe the smartphone screen and the machine will start on a programmed path.

The tractor's computerized vision system will monitor the tiller, which will have mirrors installed on the shanks that churn plant stubble into the ground. If one of the shanks hits a rock and gets tipped up, the change in the reflection from the mirror will be visible to a remote operator.

Deere is working on automating other farm operations, with spraying likely the next target for automation, Hindman said.

(Reporting By Joe White; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Deere unveils autonomous tractor to transform agriculture



Joann Muller
Tue, January 4, 2022

Deere & Company introduced the world's first autonomous tractor Tuesday, a technology breakthrough that could help farmers cope with a worsening skilled labor shortage.

Why it matters: Farmers are getting older — 55 years old on average — and with more than 80% of the U.S. population residing in urban areas, there aren't enough laborers to do the work or operate machinery.

So robots are the new farmhands as growers try to boost productivity to keep up with soaring global demand for food, biofuels and other agricultural products.

Driving the news: The giant green and yellow machine, which debuted at CES, the annual consumer electronic show in Las Vegas, represents a new era in agriculture.

"The last time agriculture was on the precipice of this much change was when we were on the cusp of replacing the horse and plow," Deere Chief Technology Officer Jahmy Hindman tells Axios.

For the first time, a farm tool can do the work without a human or animal providing the labor.

While Deere has had self-guided tractors since 1999, operators have remained in the cab. Now, its tractors can operate autonomously, 24 hours a day.

All the farmer has to do is transport the machine to a field and configure it for autonomous operation. Using a phone or tablet, the farmer then swipes left to right on Deere's app to start the machine.

The farmer can leave the field to focus on other tasks while monitoring the machine's status on a mobile device.

How it works: Deere’s 8R tractor is outfitted with a GPS guidance system and new advanced technologies including artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.

Six pairs of stereo cameras provide a 360-degree view around the machine.

Images captured by the cameras are passed through a deep neural network at a rate of 3 frames per second to determine if an obstacle is detected and whether the machine should keep moving or stop.

The tractor continuously checks its position relative to a so-called "geofence," to make sure it's operating where it is supposed to, within an inch of accuracy.

Data collected by the tractor can also help farmers make better strategic decisions in the future.

The bottom line: Deere has been adding automation to its farm machinery for 20 years, enabling precision planting, for example, and the spraying of fertilizer or pesticides on individual plants.

With its fully autonomous tractor, available later this year, farmers can now leave chores like tilling the soil to the machine.

The hot air surrounding cows and methane


Carlton Fletcher, The Albany Herald, Ga.
Tue, January 4, 2022

Jan. 4—TIFTON — It is not difficult to find somebody talking about methane these days. Simply turn on the TV, open your computers to your news affiliate of choice or log into any social media platform.

Over and over, we have been told that methane is a potent greenhouse gas, it contributes to global warming, and since ruminants (i.e., cattle) produce methane, they are destroying the world.

I am here to tell you that all of that is true, other than the last bit about cows destroying the world. On the contrary, cattle have a role in actually cooling the Earth's atmosphere.

It is true that cattle produce methane — the average beef cow can produce between 0.1 to 0.2 pounds of methane every day. This is a natural process that allows the animal to control the pH of their rumen by removing hydrogen, an element that impacts acidity.

Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, and we do need to do our part as humans to try to reduce the amount of methane produced. However, unlike carbon dioxide (CO2), which is in the atmosphere for approximately 1,000 years, methane has an atmospheric lifespan of only 10 years, after which methane is converted to CO2.

The other element that makes up methane is carbon. Let's consider where this carbon is coming from — the cow's diet, whether that be forage, supplement or a total mixed ration. For the most part, our cattle are consuming plants, either as forage, grain or byproducts.

Now, let's think back to fifth-grade science class and remember how plants grow.

Through a process called photosynthesis, plants pull CO2 from the atmosphere and peel off the oxygen (O2), using the carbon to produce energy for plant growth. This means that the methane produced from the rumen of cattle is formed from CO2 that could have previously been methane from the rumen of a grazing beef cow. This is the cycle of biogenic methane — methane that is produced by a living organism.

If we consider that the methane produced from the U.S. beef herd is biogenic and that this carbon is consistently being recycled through the system via grasslands and grain, the story we should be hearing is that cattle are not actually a negative source of greenhouse gases, but instead can actually act as source of carbon sequestration and short-term global cooling.

Today, if the global cattle herd does not grow in number of head, the amount of carbon released (i.e., methane) and sequestered (i.e., CO2 taken into soils and plants) is in balance. This is great news. What is even better news is that if we utilize novel technologies, such as feed additives, we have the opportunity to release less methane, which would lead to short-term cooling.

As producers, many may ask the obvious question, "If we are currently not significantly contributing to global warming with our cows, why would I want to spend more money to reduce methane?"

The answer to that is efficiency. When cattle produce methane, they do that at a cost and that cost is energy. Approximately 2 to 12% of the energy consumed by cattle is lost as methane, with cattle consuming forage-based diets producing three to four times more methane than their grain-fed counterparts. Therefore, by mitigating the release of methane from ruminants, the opportunity arises for that carbon to go into meat, milk or fiber production.

It is important for us to consider these aspects of methane production. It is easy for many of us to scoff every time we hear someone speak about the methane produced by cattle, but maybe it is time for us to consider that the story we need to be telling is that we have the ability to cool the planet with cattle while saving on our feed bills.

IVORY TOWER ARYAN SUPREMACIST

US is 'better off with fewer Asians, less Asian immigration,' says tenured UPenn professor



Sarah Yukiko
Tue, January 4, 2022, 11:14 AM·3 min read

University of Pennsylvania (Penn) law professor and second-generation immigrant Amy Wax made anti-Asian and xenophobic remarks following a conversation with fellow Ivy League professor Glenn Loury on his podcast “The Glenn Show” (“TGS”).

Anti-Asian remarks

After Wax appeared on “TGS,” Loury shared a response from one of his listeners, George Lee, on Substack. “I usually agree with Amy, but her views on immigration (which she had stated earlier elsewhere) disturbed me,” Lee wrote. “Again, no one is entitled to immigration. But do we want to do without, to give a dramatic example, key contributors to the Manhattan Project, like Edward Teller and John von Neumann, when, as it turned out, German physicist Werner Heisenberg was just one calculation error away from a Nazi atomic bomb? Amy herself did come from an immigrant Jewish family.”

Wax addressed Lee’s response by repeating Asian stereotypes and writing that Asians possess a “desire to please the elite, single-minded focus on self-advancement, conformity and obsequiousness.” She claimed that Lee is “is too optimistic about the influence of Asians and Asian immigrants on our polity and culture.”

She also wrote about Asians’ supposed “lack of deep post-Enlightenment conviction,” “lack of thoughtful and audacious individualism” and “indifference to liberty.”

She concluded her response by saying, “As long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration. There needs to be more focus on people who are already here.”

Social media outrage

Wax’s response drew outrage on social media, where many pointed out that she had previously used white supremacist rhetoric to promote anti-Black sentiment.

“What the sh*t in the f*ck,” blogger Angry Asian Man tweeted.

“Ah, it’s the yellow peril all over again,” one user wrote.

“Can’t believe remarks even exists [sic] in 2021 from a professor whom herself was a second generation immigrant,” another user said.

Penn Law School dean’s response

Dean of Penn’s Carey Law School, Theodore Ruger, released a statement on Jan. 3 both condemning Wax’s remarks and reaffirming her status as a tenured professor.

“Wax’s recent comments inflict harm by perpetuating stereotypes and placing differential burdens on Asian students, faculty, and staff to carry the weight of this vitriol and bias,” he wrote. “Yet Wax makes these statements as a faculty member with tenure.”

Ruger went on to defend the importance of tenure, stating: “The same academic freedom principles that permit current scholars to engage in critical and overdue analysis of this nation’s historical and structural discrimination – despite zealous efforts to censor such speech by some – also apply to faculty like Wax who voice xenophobic and white supremacist views.”

Wax, a second-generation immigrant whose parents originally come from Eastern Europe, has previously made overtly white supremacist remarks, and in 2019, she was prohibited from teaching core curriculum classes at Penn Law School. Based on Ruger’s recent statement, it is unclear whether or not she will face additional repercussions.

Penn Law professor said that the US is 'better off with fewer Asians' because they support Democrats


DeArbea Walker
Tue, January 4, 2022

University students walking on pedestrian road , near University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

Stock Photo/Getty Images


A Penn professor said the US would be better off with less Asian immigration.

Amy Wax said the US should limit Asian immigration because of their support for Democrats.

Wax is now facing backlash for her comments.

A University of Pennsylvania law professor is facing backlash after she said the United States would be "better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration."

In a letter obtained by DailyMail.com, Amy Wax doubled down on racist comments she made on The Glenn Show in December, saying that the US should be concerned about the number of Asian people immigrating to the US because they vote for Democrats.

"Maybe it's just that Democrats love open borders and Asians want more Asians here," The Penn Law professor wrote, according to DailyMail.com. "But as long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration."


During a December interview on The Glenn Show, Wax and host Glenn Loury engaged in a discussion about US immigration when the conversation turned toward Asian immigration.

"It's just harder to assimilate those people or to have confidence that our way of life will continue if we bring a lot of people in who are not familiar with it," Wax said. "These are not original ideas on the [political] right."

Wax went on to say that the US should be concerned about South Asian elites migrating to the US and its impact on American culture.

"[We] have to distinguish mass-immigration, which we're getting from the Hispanics, south of the border, which I think poses different questions and challenges from the Asian elites that we're getting," she said. "It doesn't mean that the influx of Asian elites is unproblematic. I actually think it's problematic... I think it's because there's this… danger of the dominance of an Asian elite in this country."

Wax is now facing backlash for her comments.

Penn Law School Dean Theodore Ruger said Wax's comments were "anti-intellectual" in a statement on Monday, calling them "xenophobic and white supremacist views."

"Like all racist generalizations, Wax's recent comments inflict harm by perpetuating stereotypes and placing differential burdens on Asian students, faculty, and staff to carry the weight of this vitriol and bias," he said.

"As we have previously emphasized, Wax's views are diametrically opposed to the policies and ethos of this institution," Ruger added. "They serve as a persistent and tangible reminder that racism, sexism, and xenophobia are not theoretical abstractions but are real and insidious beliefs in this country and in our building. This reality sharpens and deepens our commitment to support our community as we continue to work to advance equity and inclusion."

Former President Donald Trump's niece Mary Trump also criticized Wax's comments.

"It helps explain the situation this country finds itself in that an Ivy League university allows the morally and intellectually bankrupt racist #AmyWax teach the next generation of American lawyers," she said on Twitter. "There should be consequences for this kind of hateful rhetoric @pennlaw."

Wax has previously faced similar backlash for her views on the US' need to favor white over non-white people in the immigration system.

"Let us be candid: Europe and the First World, to which the United States belongs, remains mostly white for now. And the Third World, although mixed, contains a lot of non-white people," she said at the inaugural National Conservatism conference 2019, according to Vox. "Embracing cultural distance nationalism means in effect taking the position that our country will be better off with more whites and fewer non-whites."

Penn Law rebukes professor who said U.S. would be 'better off with fewer Asians'



Brahmjot Kaur
Tue, January 4, 2022

The dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School criticized comments by a professor at the school as "thoroughly anti-intellectual and racist" for suggesting that the United States is “better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.”

The dean, Theodore Rugers, was responding to comments made by Amy Wax, a white law professor, in an interview last month.

“Once again, Amy Wax has, through her thoroughly anti-intellectual and racist comments denigrating Asian immigrants, underscored a fundamental tension around harmful speech at American universities,” Rugers wrote in a statement.


“Like all racist generalizations, Wax’s recent comments inflict harm by perpetuating stereotypes and placing differential burdens on Asian students, faculty, and staff to carry the weight of this vitriol and bias.”

No punishment has been announced.

During a Dec. 20 interview on journalist Glenn Loury’s web show, Bloggingheads.tv, Wax criticized Asian immigration to the United States, warning of the “danger of the dominance of an Asian elite in this country.”

“If you go into medical schools, you’ll see that Indians, South Asians are now rising stars. In medicine, they’re sort of the new Jews, I guess, but these diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are poisoning the scientific establishment and the medical establishment now,” said Wax, who is Jewish.

Wax did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.

Loury, a professor of social sciences at Brown University, attempted to defend Asian Americans by invoking the model minority myth. “What would be wrong with having a lot of Chinese or Indian or Korean engineers, physicians, computer scientists, and whatnot, running around here creating value, enlivening the society?” he said.

Wax also said Asians in the U.S. should be more thankful. “Why should someone who emigrated from India, has taken advantage of everything our society has to offer, who is leading the good life, who’s part of the elite — why shouldn’t that person be objectively grateful? And, you know, recognize overtly all the wonderful things about our country?” she said.

On Sunday Loury published an email he received from a listener who was critical of Wax’s comments. He also allowed Wax to respond to the listener.

“Maybe it’s just that Democrats love open borders, and Asians want more Asians here,” she wrote. “Perhaps they (and especially their distaff element) are just mesmerized by the feel-good cult of ‘diversity.’ I don’t know the answer. But as long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.”

Wax’s comments quickly went viral on Twitter.

It’s not Wax’s first time facing backlash over racist or discriminatory remarks. In 2006, faculty at Penn Law rebuked her public advocacy against same-sex marriage. In a 2017 interview on the Glenn Show, Wax said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Black student graduate in the top quarter of the class, and rarely, rarely in the top half.” (Ruger denied that this was true and Wax was barred from teaching first-year law courses.)

And in 2019, students at Penn Law called for Wax’s termination after she was caught on camera saying the United States “will be better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites,” the Pennsylvania Capitol-Star reported.

"They [Wax’s views] serve as a persistent and tangible reminder that racism, sexism, and xenophobia are not theoretical abstractions but are real and insidious beliefs in this country and in our building. This reality sharpens and deepens our commitment to support our community as we continue to work to advance equity and inclusion,” Ruger said in this week’s statement.

ORWELLIAN POSTMODERN STALINISM
Hong Kong's Lam: Media closures unrelated to press freedom



 Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam listens to reporters' questions during a news conference in Hong Kong, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021. Lam on Tuesday said that the recent closure of two media outlets in the city cannot be associated with the state of press freedom in Hong Kong as the decisions were made by the outlets themselves. Her comments came almost a week after authorities arrested seven people associated with pro-democracy online news outlet Stand News over sedition, with the outlet announcing that it would cease operations. Days later, another online site Citizen News also said it would stop operating. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

ZEN SOO
Mon, January 3, 2022

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Tuesday said the recent closure of two media outlets in the city does not indicate a decline in press freedom as the decisions were made by the outlets themselves.

Her comments came almost a week after authorities arrested seven people associated with pro-democracy online news site Stand News for alleged sedition, with the outlet then announcing it would cease operations. Days later, another online site, Citizen News, also said it would stop operating.

“For none of the media outlets, we did not do anything. They were never approached by law enforcement agencies,” Lam said during a news conference Tuesday.

“But if they decided to cease operation out of their own concerns, I think this is nothing out of the ordinary." She added that Hong Kong authorities do "not seek to crack down on press freedom.”

Lam said the government follows the rule of law in Hong Kong, and that when she first assumed office, she opened up government news conferences to online sites and met with the Hong Kong Journalists Association.

In response to charges that the closure of the online media indicates the “extinction” of press freedom in Hong Kong, Lam said she “cannot accept that sort of allegations.”

“Nothing is more important than the rule of law,” she said. She also said that as long as news outlets do not engage in illegal acts, they can continue to report news in Hong Kong.

She said there was an increase of 5.4% in local news outlets registered in the city, and a jump of 9.4% for overseas outlets since a sweeping National Security Law was enacted in the city in June 2020.

“So you cannot say that the freedom of press is eroded due to the closing of the two media outlets,” Lam said.

Since the security law came into effect, over a hundred people have been arrested, including many pro-democracy activists and some journalists who previously worked for the now-defunct Apple Daily and Stand News.

On Tuesday, a pro-democracy activist and key member of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, Chow Hang-tung, was sentenced to 15 months in prison after being convicted of inciting people to join a banned vigil last year commemorating the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

She was told to serve an additional 10 months of top of a current 12-month sentence she is serving for her role in the vigil in 2020, which was also banned.

Separately, Lam said the city will tighten vaccine requirements to cover not only entertainment venues but also places such as libraries, schools and museums.

The requirement will be tightened from Feb. 24, and will require those entering such venues to have at least one vaccine dose against COVID-19.

The expansion of the vaccine mandate comes days after Hong Kong reported its first omicron COVID-19 cluster, linked to several Cathay Pacific crew members who broke isolation rules and visited dining spots and bars across the city before later testing positive for omicron.

The city was largely able to keep the delta variant from causing local outbreaks through strict quarantine rules. Hong Kong currently designates all countries with local omicron outbreaks as “high-risk” countries, requiring arrivals from those countries to serve a 21-day quarantine.

Hong Kong leader says she cannot accept claims press freedom faces 'extinction'


FILE PHOTO: Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks at a news conference in Beijin

Mon, January 3, 2022

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday she could not accept suggestions that press freedom in the city faces "extinction", just days after police raided an online media outlet and arrested seven people including senior editors.

Lam was speaking at a weekly news conference as another independent online outlet, Citizen News, ceased operations in the face of what it described as a "deteriorating" media environment in the Chinese-ruled former British colony.

"This morning I read news about, because of the closure of online medium, press freedom in Hong Kong faces extinction ... I just cannot accept that sort of allegations," Lam said, adding that nothing was more important than rule of law.


Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise that wide-ranging individual rights, including a free press, would be protected. But rights groups and some Western governments say freedoms have been eroded, in particular since Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020.

The government has repeatedly denied targeting the media and curbing freedoms in the global financial hub. China says rights advocacy is being used as an attempt to disrupt Hong Kong's progress after the national security law restored stability.

Officers raided the office of the Stand News online publication last week, froze its assets and arrested seven current and former senior editors and former board members. Two editors have been charged with sedition.

Lam has hit back at foreign governments demanding the release of the seven, saying such a move would be against the former British colony's rule of law.

The police operation against Stand News came a day after Hong Kong prosecutors laid an additional charge of sedition against jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 74, of the now-shuttered, pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.

On Monday, online publication Citizen News said its decision to cease operations from Tuesday was triggered by the closure and arrests at Stand News and to ensure the safety of its staff.

(Reporting By Edmond Ng and Donny Kwok, Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by)

USA

Established pension plans aren’t dying – they’re thriving, one study says

Alessandra Malito - Monday, JAN 3,2022

Corporate pension plans are not as common as they were decades ago, but some of the largest ones that still exist “improved significantly” in 2021, according to a new analysis.

Investment returns and rising interest rates drove funding status for the largest corporate defined-benefit pension plans to their highest levels since before the financial crisis in 2008, consulting firm Willis Towers Watson found. The researchers analyzed 361 of the Fortune 1000 companies. The Fortune 1000 list includes the U.S. companies with the highest revenue that year.

Pension plan assets equaled $1.67 trillion at the end of 2021, with an average 8.9% investment return, according to the analysis. The aggregate funding status for these companies’ pension plans was 96%, up 8 percentage points in 2021, and up from 77% in 2008. In 2007, the aggregate funding level was 107% – the last year these plans had been fully funded. Ideally, plans would always be fully funded.

“Since 2008, many sponsors have better positioned their plans relative to market risk, primarily through changes in investment allocation and settlement activity,” Joseph Gamzon, managing director of retirement at Willis Towers Watson, said in a statement.

See: Why are pension funds investing in hedge funds?

The funding deficit also diminished last year, Willis Towers Watson found. The deficit is now expected to have been $63 billion by the end of 2021, compared to $232 billion at the end of 2020.

Public pensions are also doing much better in recent years, another study found. The estimated aggregate level of funding for public pensions was 74.7% in 2021, up from 72.8% in 2020, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Lack of funding in a pension plan can spell trouble for workers, many of whom expect to rely on this money in their old age. There are safeguards to prevent catastrophes if a company can’t continue to support the retirement plan, however. When a corporation can no longer foot the bill for pensions, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation can fund a portion of the benefit promised to workers.

Foxconn India plant unlikely to reopen until Jan 7, says government official


Private security guards stand at the entrance of a closed plant of Foxconn India, near Chennai

Mon, January 3, 2022, 
By Sudarshan Varadhan

CHENNAI (Reuters) - Apple Inc supplier Foxconn is unlikely to reopen its shuttered iPhone manufacturing facility in southern India until January 7, a senior government official familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Foxconn plant, located in the state of Tamil Nadu, was closed on Dec. 18, following protests over 250 of its workers being treated for food poisoning. Apple has since placed the factory on probation after discovering that some dormitories and dining rooms did not meet required standards.

The company, officially known as Hon Hai Precision, had told the Tamil Nadu state government it was working to address Apple's concerns over workers' living conditions, the official said.

"Foxconn is still working with Apple to ensure compliance, which they expect to take up to two days. Bringing back workers could also more than a day," the official said, adding that the state government had cleared restarting the plant for production.

Foxconn and Apple officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Officials at two staffing agencies contracted by Foxconn to hire workers said the company had not communicated to them when production at the factory will resume.

Two workers at the factory said neither Foxconn, nor the staffing contractors had communicated the date of reopening.

The government official declined to be named as talks between the government and Foxconn were private. The staffing agency officials and workers declined to be named as they are not authorized to talk to the media.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)