Telecom services still too expensive, industry minister says


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

Toronto-based Rogers Communications said Wednesday it would hike the cost of some of its wireless plans for non-contract customers. (Patrick Morrell/CBC - image credit)

Canadians are still paying too much for telecom services, the industry minister said Thursday, one day after Rogers Communications said it was raising the cost of some of its wireless phone plans.

Rogers said Wednesday it would hike the cost of some of its wireless plans for non-contract customers. Bell is also reportedly increasing some of its existing wireless phone plan prices in February, according to a report by MobileSyrup.

"Let's be clear, while some progress has been made to lower prices, Canadians still pay too much and see too little competition," Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement to CBC News.

"That is why, last year, I issued a policy direction to the CRTC to make sure that competition, affordability, and consumer rights would be at the core of CRTC decisions."

Nearly two dozen "enforceable" conditions were attached to Rogers's merger with Shaw Communications, including reducing costs for customers, when Champagne announced the deal's approval in 2023.

"While prices for some wireless plans have declined by more than 22 per cent over the past year, the planned price increases to certain month-to-month plans that have recently been announced go against the direction we set at a time when Canadians are struggling to make ends meet," Champagne said Thursday.

"I strongly urge companies and carriers to seriously consider customers over profits at this time."

The long-brewing deal, first announced in March 2021, was subject to a number of regulatory hurdles as opponents expressed concerns about decreased competition.

At the time, Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri pledged in an interview that prices would go down for customers.

Bell has not responded to a request for comment.

Shoppers in disbelief as man does a naked 'cannonball' dive into Bass Pro Shop aquarium

MEN AND THEIR NEED TO GET NAKED IN PUBLIC

Rebecca Rommen
Sat, January 6, 2024 

AP/Butch Dill

A 42-year old man got naked and dived into a Bass Pro Shop aquarium in Alabama.


He spent about five minutes in the water before police intervened.


The man was arrested on multiple charges, including public lewdness.

A 42-year-old man was arrested in Leeds, Alabama after diving into a Bass Pro Shop aquarium naked, according to local police, WAFF 48 News reports.

The man crashed his car, disrobed, and executed a daring plunge into the store's massive aquarium on Thursday night.

Leeds Police Chief Paul Irwin said the incident left shoppers in the town just outside Birmingham in disbelief.

Video taken by bystanders showed the man do a "cannonball" dive into the aquarium and later stand under the waterfall, reported AL.com

Irwin noted that the man spent about five minutes in the water before officers arrived on the scene.

He exited the water to confront two police officers, only to dive back into the aquarium.

Evedntually, the man climbed over the side of the aquarium, falling to the concrete floor below, where he appeared unconscious, said AL.com. Law enforcement swiftly apprehended him and handcuffed the naked man, who, when he regained consciousness, started to struggle with officers.

He was charged with public lewdness, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, assault on police, two counts of criminal mischief, and two counts of reckless endangerment.

Police Chief Irwin said the man suffered from mental health issues, according to his family, WAFF 48 News reported.

Business Insider has contacted the Leeds Alabama Police Department for comment.

Magnets, how do they work? Trump can't tell you.


Lloyd Lee
Sun, January 7, 2024 

Violent J of Insane Clown Posse (left) and Donald Trump (right)John Lamparski/WireImage and Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Years ago, the Insane Clown Posse proposed a thought-provoking question: Magnets, how do they work?


Donald Trump's recent rant at an Iowa rally shows that he sadly won't be able to tell you.


Miracles, right?

"Fucking magnets, how do they work?"

The rock-rap duo Insane Clown Posse posed that very question in their "Miracles" single in 2009, as they took in the everyday wonders of life: the stars, the trees, childbirth, "long neck giraffes," and most importantly — magnets.

More than a decade later, the miracle of magnets still appears to stump some people, including Donald Trump.

At a recent rally in Mason City, Iowa, the former president went on a rant about the frailty of magnets while complaining about the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.

Simply put: The ship has an electromagnetic aircraft launch system that relies on very large magnets.

"They had a $900 million cost over on these stupid electric catapults that didn't work. They had almost a billion dollar cost over on the magnetic elevators," he said. "Think of it, magnets. Now all I know about magnets is this: Give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that's the end of the magnets."

That is, of course, not how magnets work. They work just fine underwater.
But what do scientists know?

"I don't wanna talk to a scientist. Y'all motherfuckers lying and getting me pissed," the Insane Clown Posse rap in "Miracles." Trump's comments during the pandemic and on the climate crisis suggest that he doesn't much care for scientists either.

"I don't think science knows, actually," Trump once said, refuting the idea that climate change is driving some of the wildfires in California.

The clowns and Trump may have a lot in common outside bad makeup. However, it's hard to say who's joking and who isn't.

ICP's "Miracle" and the accompanying music video became a viral internet meme in 2010 and was parodied by "Saturday Night Live."

In an interview with The New York Times, rapper Violent J clarified: "Yeah, we know how magnets work. But they're still incredible."

He later said in the interview that the "good reaction" to "Miracles," was all "planned out" for a tour.

The Insane Clown Posse did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent during the weekend.

Carrier catapult claims

But Trump has yet to say he's joking, too. The former president has repeatedly brought up his fixation with the carrier, its electromagnetic catapult system, and the bizarre claim that magnets don't function with water.

"They want to use magnets to lift up the elevators," Trump said in a July 2021 interview with a Princeton professor. "I said magnets will not work. Give me a cup of water, throw it on the magnets, you totally short out the system. They said, 'How did you know that?' I said, 'Because I know that.'"

It's unclear where Trump might have got the idea that magnets don't work underwater, but it is a common myth that results in numerous debunking articles after a simple Google search.

To his credit, however, Trump was right that the electromagnetic catapults on the aircraft carrier would be unreliable.

An oversight report released in 2019 by the Defense Department's operational test office showed that the catapult system repeatedly failed to launch and land an aircraft. In 2020, Navy officials said they were unsure what was causing the system to malfunction. And the Pentagon still appears to be working out its kinks, The Maritime Executive reported in February.

If the scientists can't figure it out, maybe magnets are a miracle after all.

No pussyfooting here, bobcats in Calgary are adapting to urban life


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 at 11:52 a.m. MST·4 min read

Cathy Brodner was thrilled to capture photos of bobcat kittens in her Douglasdale backyard in the fall of 2023. (Cathy Brodner - image credit)

Bobcats are making Calgary, an urban city, their own — while giving experts pause.

Why? Because these animals aren't known for being bold and strutting city streets. In most other urban settings, bobcats are elusive. In Calgary, they're anything but.

"Sometime between the beginning of 2018 and 2020, bobcat sightings just kind of shot through the roof and they've stayed high ever since," said Vanessa Carney, a landscape analysis supervisor at the City of Calgary.

Sightings doubled from an average of about 1,000 a year to a steady 2,000 — and she said this wasn't just a pandemic effect as sightings have stayed consistently high.

One reason behind the spike? Seeing a wild cat can be thrilling.

Last fall, Cathy Brodner's neighbourhood chat lit up: there were unexpected visitors in her Douglasdale yard. She grabbed her camera and snapped away at a pair of kittens taking a cat nap on her fence.

"My adrenaline was going crazy. I was so excited to see them," Brodner said. "I was keeping an eye out for mom, making sure she wasn't coming around checking on her kittens."

These big felines are cute, photogenic, and increasingly common to see in Calgary.

A bobcat takes a break, and lounges in a Northwest Calgary yard.

A bobcat takes a break and lounges in a northwest Calgary yard. (Submitted by Frances Jablonca)

The city can tap into citizen reports, logged through 311, for long-ranging data that paints a picture of how wildlife is using urban spaces.

From what Carney has seen, these felines are using sidewalks, lounging on fence lines, settling in yards, and even peeking through windows on front porches.

No pussyfooting, walking around like they own the place.

Over the years, bobcats were a common sight in communities surrounding Fish Creek Park, Carney said. Recently, calls have started coming from those living in north Calgary, especially near Nose Hill.

"One of the neat things about bobcats that we're keeping an eye on is that they seem to be changing their range in the city," Carney said.

This is something Sara Jordan-McLachlan, a Miistakis Institute conservation analyst, looked at in 2021. She used the city's 311 data from as early as 2005, alongside wildlife camera data from the Calgary Captured program.

"In my master's work, I referred to them as citizen bobcats because I do think that they're now part of the city," Jordan-McLachlan said, adding that wasn't always the case.

In the United States, bobcats were pushed out of some urban areas due to development but have since begun re-establishing in those old familiar haunts, though slowly.

A bobcat kitten hangs out on a roof in southeast Calgary.

A bobcat kitten hangs out on a roof in southeast Calgary. (Cathy Brodner)

Historically, bobcats were found in southern Alberta and the Rockies — places that Jordan-McLachlan noted weren't very populated. Relative to that, Calgary is a new habitat for the rural cat that seems to have cozied up to city life instead of shying away.

"They're an incredibly adaptive species and they're writing their own story in the urban environment here in Calgary," Jordan-McLachlan said. "It's a great opportunity for us to see how a carnivore adapts to the urban environment where they did not previously inhabit."

It's not clear why bobcat populations have made their way north through the province. They are a territorial animal, Jordan-McLachlan said, so if populations are going up, the animal would naturally seek out new home ranges.

And their bold attitude? Jordan-McLachlan said the cats may have found that people present more benefits than danger. Human-bobcat conflict, she said, is uncommon. And people could offer a sense of protection from other predators like cougars and coyotes.

This bobcat family has been making the rounds in the southwest Calgary neighbourhood of Haysboro.

This bobcat family has been making the rounds in the southwest Calgary neighbourhood of Haysboro. (Submitted by Katherine Reiffenstein)

Then, there's the endless buffet of birds, squirrels and mice people help lure into yards with things like bird feeders.

And yes, Jordan-McLachlan said, pets can become part of a bobcat's diet.

"So taking precautions, making sure that you are aware if there is a bobcat in your neighbourhood to not leave small dogs unattended for long periods, or keeping your cats indoors and obeying those bylaws that keep your cat safe," Jordan-McLachlan said.

A mother bobcat jumps down from a backyard shed. Fish and Wildlife officers say there are many ways to make them move out.

A mother bobcat jumps down from a backyard shed. Fish and wildlife officers say there are many ways to make them move out. (Submitted by Colin Lee)

Despite their urban tendencies, data does show that Calgary's bobcats still enjoy being close to green spaces. Jordan-McLachlan found barriers cutting off connectivity, such as Deerfoot Trail and a lack of green spaces in northeast Calgary.

These are signs the city needs to consider wildlife as it designs and builds the community, Jordan-McLachlan said. This would include creating safe passageways under major roads and exploring better green space connection.

Considering wildlife connectivity, Carney said, is something the city has worked to integrate into planning documents, like the municipal development plan.

American Iron & Metal gets another month to comply with national fire code at 3 N.B. sites


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

The American Iron and Metal scrapyard in Moncton, pictured here on Nov. 14, as well as the Fredericton and east Saint John sites, must meet National Fire Code limits on size and distance between scrap piles by Feb. 7 under the agreement. (Roger Cosman/CBC - image credit)

American Iron & Metal has been given an extra month to comply with national fire code requirements at three of its New Brunswick facilities and will stop accepting scrap material at those sites as of Friday, until they do, according to a new agreement with the province.

Under the consent order, AIM must bring the scrap piles at its Moncton, Fredericton and east Saint John sites to within National Fire Code limits on size and distance by Feb. 7 and "shall maintain these requirements thereafter."

The agreement, signed and filed with the Moncton Court of King's Bench late Wednesday, comes just as AIM was scheduled to challenge the fire marshal's orders that set mid-January as the bumped-back deadline for its sites to be in compliance.

AIM was originally given until late-December, based on inspections, following the massive fire at the west Saint John port site on Sept. 14 that burned for roughly 40 hours and prompted a city-wide shelter in place order because of hazardous smoke.

The company planned to argue Friday that it could not meet the Jan. 11 and Jan. 13 deadlines because its Saint John port location is out of service and it has limited capacity to transport the material out of the province by truck or rail. But the Moncton hearing has been cancelled as AIM has withdrawn its appeals.

AIM must also meet and maintain the national code requirements regarding access for fire department vehicles by Feb. 7, according to the court document.

It's unclear what will happen if the company doesn't meet the new deadline.

The Department of Justice and Public Safety did not provide an interview or respond to questions from CBC Thursday.

In a news release issued later in the day, it said 10 salvage facilities were originally given until Dec. 21 to comply, "however several needed more time and extensions were given on a case-by-case basis."

Minister confident salvage dealers will comply

"We have been working with salvage dealers across New Brunswick to ensure they are operating within the parameters of the National Fire Code to reduce the risk of fires and ensure the safety of all New Brunswickers," said Public Safety Minister Kris Austin.

"I am confident all 10 will be in compliance."

AIM will not accept any further shipments of scrap from licensed dealers in New Brunswick until the three facilities in question have the capacity to receive new scrap without exceeding the National Fire Code limits.

In addition, AIM shall not accept shipments of scrap from outside New Brunswick "indefinitely," according to the department's news release, although the court order itself does not stipulate a timeframe.

Does not affect west Saint John port site

The "negotiated settlement" does not involve AIM's west Saint John port facility, the department noted. Austin revoked the company's licence for that site last week, saying that its response to a scathing task force report on the fire "does not substantively address the numerous community health, safety and environmental risks and impacts arising from AIM's operations at this location."

Department spokesperson Allan Dearing did not say whether that decision could be reversed or under what circumstances it could be.

The department previously said the minister's decision is final and cannot be appealed, but the company has 90 days to apply for a judicial review.

Crews are focusing on making sure the fire in one pile of scrap doesn't spread to other piles.

The task force that reviewed the Sept. 14 fire at AIM's west Saint John port site found the scrap piles were two to 2½ times what the national fire code prescribes. (Submitted by Ed Moyer)

Fredericton lawyer Romain Viel, who is representing AIM, declined to comment Thursday on behalf of the company.

Saint John Mayor Donna Reardon is satisfied with the agreement.

"AIM always has that opportunity to take its case to court. So you want to make sure that you are dealing fairly with them and that, you know, you're moving forward through a process, but that, you know, [AIM owner and CEO Herb Black] does at the end of the day … have to comply. There's no other way around it," she said.

"Hopefully that will be the last change in the dates so that by February the 7th we know that he's on track or else he's not going to be on track. I think that's fair ball to give him a little bit of time. But you know at the end of the day I still want to make sure that [it's] following the regulations."

The other seven salvage dealer sites subject to fire marshal orders include:

Arm & Sons Tire – 1620 Rte. 11, Alnwick (Barryville district).


Brown's Auto Salvage – 6041 Rte. 10, Grand Lake (Upper Salmon Creek district).


Gallant Enterprises – 200 Rossignol Rd., Edmundston.


Greer's Mountain Salvage – 32 Timothy Ave., Hanwell.


Flower's Salvage – 1554 Rte. 10, Capital Region rural district (Noonan district).


Neighborhood Recycling – 1635 Berry Mills Rd., Moncton.


Simpson Truck & Tractor Parts – 120 Paddy's Hill Dr., Saint John.

Mary Ann Shadd, abolitionist and first Black female newspaper publisher, included in 2024 Canada Post stamps


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

Mary Ann Shadd was an American-Canadian abolitionist, journalist and lawyer who was the first Black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada. Shadd will be among those highlighted in a Canada Post stamp this year.

 (National Archives of Canada - image credit)

Mary Ann Shadd, North America's first Black female newspaper publisher who lived in Windsor, Ont., will be featured on a stamp in 2024.

Canada Post said the stamp will be issued ahead of Black History Month as part of its 2024 lineup.

Irene Moore Davis is a historian and distant relative of Shadd. She said that Shadd's recognition as a significant Canadian figure was long overdue.

"It's about time," Davis said. "As someone who cares deeply about Black history in Canada, in the U.S., and especially in the Underground Railroad era, I just feel that she is one of the most important historical figures ever to have lived in this country. Not to mention this community where we are, Windsor-Essex."

"This is someone who really has been slept on, she's not been taught as adequately as she should be, she's not been as much a part of the conversation as she should be and it's about time."

Shadd was an influential abolitionist who lived in Windsor and published The Provincial Freeman, the third anti-slavery newspaper published in Canada. She was born in 1823 and in 1851, her family moved to Ontario, preparing to welcome Black people to Canada through the Underground Railroad.

She opened a school for Black and white students in Windsor on the grounds of what is now Windsor city hall.

Shadd died in June 1893 in Washington, D.C., according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.

A new statue of Mary Ann Shadd, an American-Canadian abolitionist, journalist and lawyer, who was the first Black woman publisher in North America, was unveiled in Windsor, Ont. this week. Pictured are descendants of Shadd who attended the unveiling.
(Jacob Barker/CBC)

The Canada Post stamp has been created in consultation with Shadd's living relatives for historical accuracy, as well as artwork approval.

Moore Davis was part of that process, and so was Adrienne Shadd, who is also researcher and historian.

"I was absolutely delighted about it," Shadd said. "She was such a formidable voice in the 19th century, against slavery and for trying to promote Canada as a place where Black people could settle and live in freedom, and equality."

"She was one of the dynamic forces at the time and, as a woman, that was no small feat."

A sculpture of Shadd was unveiled on the University of Windsor's downtown campus in May 2022.

A Canada Post spokesperson said an unveiling event for Shadd's stamp will be held in Chatham later this month.

Canada Post's offerings this year will also include:

The first stamp featuring a solar eclipse ahead of the eclipse on April 8.


A series of stamps featuring graphic novelists.


A wildflower stamp series in March.


Yet-to-be-announced stamps "honouring Great Canadians and popular culture icons."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

(CBC)

India’s new cadres of equality

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
the Monitor's Editorial Board
Thu, January 4, 2024 

In a year of consequential elections in many of the world’s major democracies, one of the most consequential may also be the least climactic. India appears poised to reelect Prime Minister Narendra Modi this spring.

That prospect fuels broad concern for the welfare of global democracy. Already in power for a decade, Mr. Modi has eroded many of India’s constitutional norms such as judicial independence, freedom of the press, and secularism. Along the way, however, he has also been nurturing – perhaps inadvertently – a new democratizing force in Indian politics: women.

Female voters are on course to outnumber their male counterparts within a few years, yet their growing political influence is more than demographic. It reflects a deepening claim by women to their dignity and equality, irrespective of social rank or entrenched patriarchal norms.

Casting a ballot is “the only occasion that a woman voter feels herself to be an equal citizen and takes pride in that,” Annie Raja, general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women, told Frontline, an Indian magazine. “She literally sees that equality with both men and women standing in lines.”

Two factors show how women are building political influence and independence. One is Mr. Modi’s promotion of initiatives based on a concept of service called seva. By equating politics to service, notes Anirvan Chowdhury, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, the prime minister has given political activism a more feminine hue. The local women’s wings of the Bharatiya Janata Party organize health care clinics, tree-planting projects, and cultural celebrations.

“The BJP has seemingly shed its traditional image embodying a muscular and masculine form of Hindu nationalism to gain a significant edge among women voters,” Mr. Chowdhury wrote Wednesday in The Indian Express. “The seva narrative aligns with traditional expectations of women as selfless and self-sacrificing, downplaying the potentially disruptive aspects of increased political agency.” Men, he noted, have been more apt to accept female political participation when it is framed as service.

The other factor relates to political quotas. Last September, India’s Parliament passed a law requiring that a third of all seats in the lower house be reserved for women. It mandates the same level of representation at the state level.

The new quotas must still be passed by the 29 state legislatures and won’t come into effect until at least 2029. A 1993 law that required that women lead local councils in a third of all villages nationwide, meanwhile, has had only a slow upward trickle effect. Women still hold just 14% of seats in Parliament and accounted for only 12% of the candidates in the five state races last month.

But quotas have helped cultivate a sense among women of their right to participate in politics by creating networks of activism that cross India’s social classes. Parties see an advantage to female political activism because women are able to talk more freely than men in more intimate social settings such as homes. That activism is changing perceptions.

“Women politicians need not change deeply entrenched beliefs to mobilize women into politics,” Tanushree Goyal, a political professor at Princeton University, wrote in a paper last fall. Their political activism, she noted, is shifting focus “on what women do when they are in politics, not only what women symbolize.”

Chrysler-parent Stellantis will not advertise in 2024 Super Bowl

Fri, January 5, 2024 

 The New York International Auto Show, in Manhattan, New York City


By David Shepardson

(Reuters) - Chrysler-parent Stellantis said on Friday it will not advertise in next month's NFL Super Bowl, citing the challenging U.S. automotive market.

In November, General Motors said it would not advertise during the heavily watched National Football League championship game as it cuts marketing costs. Stellantis said earlier this week it had opted not to take part in upcoming auto shows in Chicago and Washington.

"With a continued focus on preserving business fundamentals to mitigate the impact of a challenging U.S. automotive market, we are evaluating our business needs and will take the appropriate decisions to protect our North America operations," a Stellantis spokesperson said.

Earlier this week, Stellantis said U.S. sales fell 1% last year to 1.53 million vehicles.

The parent company of Jeep, Chrysler and Ram has often used the Super Bowl for major advertising including spots featuring Clint Eastwood, Eminem, Bruce Springsteen and Bill Murray. A 30-second ad in the 2023 Super Bowl went for about $7 million.

In November, Stellantis offered 6,400 U.S. salaried employees voluntary buyouts as it works to cut costs amid the transition to electric vehicles, and agreeing to a new United Auto Workers (UAW) contract.

Workers who elected buyouts had to depart by last week. The company declined to say how many had left.

In April, Stellantis said it was offering voluntary exit packages to 33,500 U.S. employees. That offer covered 31,000 U.S. hourly workers and about 2,500 salaried workers. It also offered some employees in Canada voluntary buyouts.

Under the UAW contract, the company agreed to offer $50,000 buyouts for veteran production and skilled trade members. It will also offer buyouts in 2024 and 2026.

Stellantis said on Oct. 31 it would seek to offset a significant financial hit from strikes in North America that led to big pay increases and added it was looking at cost cuts.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

UK

NatWest Chair Sparks Anger for Saying It’s Not Hard to Buy a Home


William Shaw
Fri, January 5, 2024 



(Bloomberg) -- NatWest Group Plc Chairman Howard Davies is facing backlash after saying he believed it wasn’t “that difficult” for UK consumers to obtain a mortgage.

The fact that consumers have to save more before purchasing a home is due, in part, to changes introduced to better protect consumers in the aftermath of the financial crisis, Davies said in an interview with a BBC radio program. Back then, he argued, it was dangerous for consumers to have “very, very easy access to mortgage credit.”

“I don’t think it’s that difficult at this moment,” to get on the property ladder, he said. “There are people who are finding it very difficult to start the process. They will have to save more but I think that is inherent in the change in the financial system as a result of the mistakes that were made in the last global financial crisis and we have to accept we are still living with that.”

In a subsequent statement, Davies said he didn’t intend to “underplay the serious challenges” that consumers face when buying a home and that he recognizes it “is tough for first-time buyers” to save up for a house.

Davies was previously chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority and deputy governor of the Bank of England.

The earlier comments to the BBC drew a barrage of opposition.

“Many, many people will find those remarks quite out of touch with the situation that they and their family face,” UK shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said in an interview with GBNews. “There are many people who are struggling to get on the housing ladder because of higher interest rates.”

Nigel Farage, the broadcaster and political pundit whose account with NatWest unit Coutts was closed last year, tweeted that Davies has “no idea about NatWest’s customers or the real world.” Richard Murphy, a professor of accounting practice at Sheffield University Management School, and Prem Sikka, an emeritus professor at the University of Essex and a lawmaker in UK Parliament, also criticized the comments.

“It really is that difficult to buy a house at the moment,” Dan Wilson Craw, deputy chief executive at Generation Rent, which advocates for private renters, said in a post. “Prices haven’t come down far enough to reflect higher interest rates, which mean you still need a high income to clear affordability criteria, and still need a large deposit.”

UK home prices have continued to soar as a shortage of available properties offsets painfully high mortgage rates. Last year, one measure of home affordability reached its worst level since the Victorian era as average house prices were nine times average income in the UK.

“Given recent rate movements by lenders, there are some early green shoots in mortgage pricing,” Davies said in the statement. “While funding remains strong, my comment was meant to reflect that, in this context, access to mortgages is less difficult than it has been. I fully realize it did not come across in that way for listeners.”

--With assistance from Aisha S Gani.

Bloomberg Businessweek

Troubled China Shadow Bank Zhongzhi Files for Bankruptcy

CAPITALI$M

WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS

Bloomberg News
Fri, January 5, 2024 

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese shadow banking giant Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co. filed for bankruptcy, cementing the rapid downfall of a firm that oversaw more than $140 billion at its peak before succumbing to the property crisis that has wreaked havoc on the world’s second-largest economy.

Zhongzhi said it “obviously” lacked the ability to repay its debts, according to a statement Friday from Beijing’s First Intermediate People’s Court, which accepted the case. An audit found Zhongzhi’s debts were as much as 460 billion yuan ($64.3 billion), compared with assets of 200 billion yuan, according to a letter to investors in November.

The downfall marks one of China’s biggest-ever bankruptcies, putting more stress on already fragile consumer and investor sentiment. The property slump, weak domestic demand and sluggish trade are all weighing on the economy, while its benchmark stock index has plunged three years in a row.

The Zhongzhi filing came just months after the lending giant first triggered concerns in the financial markets when one of its trust-company affiliates failed to repay customers on high-yield investment products, sparking protests in Beijing.

Chinese authorities in November said they opened criminal investigations into the money management business days after the firm revealed a shortfall of $36.4 billion, telling investors it was “severely insolvent.” The company didn’t respond to an email request seeking comment outside of business hours Friday.

While the firm’s creditors are mostly wealthy individuals rather than financial institutions — limiting the direct impact on the financial system — the collapse exposes potential cracks in the $2.9 trillion trust sector. The failure also highlights the risks of the rapidly growing global private credit market, where the lack of public disclosure on debts raised outside the banking system is one of its defining traits.

Read more: Zhongzhi Crisis Exposes the Perils of Private Credit: Shuli Ren

In recent years, even as rival trusts pared risks, Zhongzhi and its affiliates, especially Zhongrong International Trust Co., extended financing to troubled developers and snapped up assets from companies including China Evergrande Group. China’s housing market continues to flounder despite a slew of incentives from Beijing to revive sales, which have have now dropped in 20 of the last 24 months.

“The persistent decline in the real estate market, coupled with stringent policies and increased financial anti-corruption measures, has hindered timely asset collection,” said Zhao Jian, head of the Atlantis Financial Research Institute in Beijing, who estimates more than half of the group’s assets are linked to real estate. “Redeeming these assets has become exceedingly challenging.”

The filing also underscores Beijing’s unwillingness to bail out struggling financial firms. China Evergrande is among several high-profile developers that have defaulted in recent years amid the real estate crisis, with little direct support from the Communist Party government.

As recently as August, China had asked two of the nation’s biggest financial firms to examine the books of Zhongrong International, potentially paving the way for a state-led rescue of the troubled shadow lender, people familiar with the matter said at the time.

A twice-a-decade financial policy meeting attended by President Xi Jinping at the end of October stressed the need to effectively prevent financial risks and crack down on any illegal financial activities. In a following study session, the banking regulator, which also oversees trust firms, vowed to use “strong medicine” to tackle major risks.

Zhongzhi’s filing is unusual in that China’s highest-profile debt failures in recent years have tended to go through debt restructurings first, avoiding formal bankruptcy. HNA Group Co., the conglomerate that collapsed with billions of dollars of debt, completed its restructuring work in 2022. China Evergrande, whose default in 2021 accelerated the country’s property crisis and which has some $327 billion of liabilities, is still struggling to avoid liquidation and hasn’t filed for bankruptcy.

“Authorities have accumulated quite some experience from handling earlier cases such as HNA Group and Anbang Insurance, so they’re well prepared for risk events like Zhongzhi and more confident they can keep it under control and avoid wider fallout,” said Shen Meng, director of Beijing-based investment bank Chanson & Co.

Shadow banks like Zhongzhi are loosely regulated firms that pool household savings to offer loans and invest in real estate, stocks, bonds and commodities. China’s trust industry is a key alternative funding source for weaker borrowers unable to get regular bank loans such as developers and local government financing vehicles. China has been cracking down on shadow banking since late 2017.

Founded in 1995, Beijing-based Zhongzhi expanded into a sprawling empire that had more than 1 trillion yuan in assets at its peak. The group holds shares in six licensed financial institutions including Zhongrong International, five asset managers as well as four wealth management firms, according to its website. It also has controlling stakes in a string of listed firms across sectors from semiconductors to health and consumption.

The firm said in November that the death of its founder Xie Zhikun in 2021 and the subsequent departure of senior executives had led to a failure of internal management. Previous efforts at a “self-rescue” didn’t live up to expectations, Zhongzhi said in the letter. At the time, lawyers and analysts estimated more than three quarters of investor cash would be lost, with just 100 billion yuan recovered from debt of as much as 460 billion yuan.

--With assistance from Zheng Li and Amanda Wang.

Bloomberg Businessweek





Chinese wealth manager Zhongzhi files for bankruptcy liquidation


Reuters
Fri, January 5, 2024 at 3:39 AM MST·2 min read

BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese wealth manager Zhongzhi Enterprise Group has filed for bankruptcy liquidation after failing to repay debt, as the firm grapples with a deepening property market downturn.

Zhongzhi applied for bankruptcy on the grounds it could not pay its due debts and its assets were insufficient to pay all its debts, a court in China's capital Beijing said in a statement on Friday.

The court said it accepted Zhongzhi's bankruptcy liquidation application in accordance with China's enterprise bankruptcy law.

The worsening woes at Zhongzhi, a major player in China's $3 trillion shadow banking sector - roughly the size of the French economy - add to worries that the country's property debt crisis is spilling over into the broader financial sector.

The company, which has sizable exposure to China's real estate sector, apologised to its investors in a letter in November that said it was heavily insolvent with up to $64 billion in liabilities.

Police in Beijing, where the firm is based, later launched an investigation into suspected crimes committed by Zhongzhi and said it was looking into "many" suspects involved with the company.

Zhongzhi did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

China's highly indebted property sector has been reeling from a liquidity crunch since 2020. Defaults by developers since late 2021 have impeded economic growth and rattled global markets.

Shadow banking-linked wealth managers in China typically operate outside many of the rules governing commercial banks and mainly channel the proceeds of wealth products sold to retail investors to real estate developers and other sectors.

Signs of Zhongzhi's problems emerged in July when Zhongrong International Trust Co, a leading trust company controlled by Zhongzhi, missed payments on dozens of investment products.

In August, Zhongzhi told investors it faced a liquidity crisis and would conduct a debt restructuring. The management said the plan is for "self-rescue" through restructuring, with a focus on debt collection and asset liquidation, but bankruptcy is also an option.

The latest development would help the group to speed up asset liquidation, said Ying Yue, a lawyer at Leaqual Law Firm.

Yet the court process is expected to be slow, and investors will likely incur hefty discount in the repayment plan and may only be able to recover 30% of their money, based on precedent cases, said Ying.

Last month, Hywin Holdings Ltd., a smaller wealth manager whose products are primarily invested into real estate, said that it has been unable to promptly fulfil client redemption requests.

($1 = 7.1562 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Ziyi Tang, Ryan Woo and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Ros Russell)