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☆ Four Seasons Gresham Palace: Secrets of the grandest Budapest hotel of them all
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-13 | by ( Nathan Kay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Budapest CNN —For most of the last century, the story of the Gresham Palace closely mirrored that of the city in which it was built. This summer, the building – one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau design in Budapest – is celebrating two decades in its most recent incarnation, as the Four Seasons Gresham Palace, a luxury hotel with panoramic views of the mighty Danube river. Four Seasons Gresham Palace“Gresham Palace and its coffee house were famous among artists and collectors,” says Laszlovszky. “The Gresham Palace has been born again in wonderful unity, serving as a crown jewel of outstanding beauty that complements our magnificent Chain Bridge.”‘Extraordinary history’The palace was once a hangout for Budapest's intellectuals. Four Seasons Gresham PalaceSince its reopening in 2004, the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace has provided visitors with a well-appointed sanctuary, offering 179 rooms and suites with panoramic views of the Danube or the cityscape.

Persons: Gresham, “, József Laszlovszky, – it’s, Zsigmond, Countess Irma Széchenyi, Thomas Gresham, József Vágó, Miksa Róth, ”, Pál, Béni, József, István Szőnyi, Gabor Kruppa, Miklós Szenkirályi, ” Szenkirályi, ” Thibaut Drege, what’s, Chef Árpád Győrffy, that’s Organizations: Budapest CNN, Gresham, Budapest –, Central European University, CNN, “, Gresham Life Assurance Company, Nouveau, Venezia Café, Four, CNN Travel, Europeans, d’Or, Hollywood Locations: Budapest, Hungarian, Buda, Pest, Óbuda, “ Buda, Gresham, Vienna, Paris, d’Or Hungary

☆ Bitcoin miners at Donald Trump's closed-door event say he thinks bitcoin can help win AI arms race
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-13 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +17 min

Less than four hours after Trump's roundtable wrapped, the former president took to social media to extol the virtues of the bitcoin mining business. "Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against a CBDC," Trump posted shortly before midnight on Tuesday. "That's where you've got all these ancillary jobs; it's not just the bitcoin mining directly," said Cook. Enter bitcoin miners. Adding bitcoin miners to the portfolio of energy buyers has helped to improve the core economics of renewable power production.

Persons: Donald Trump, Eva Marie Uzcategui, —, New York —, Jason Les, Bitcoin, Bill Hagerty, David Bailey, Trump, Bailey, Sen, Elizabeth Warren, Les, Warren, Geoff Kendrick, bitcoin, Matthew Schultz, Jayson Browder, Brian Hughes, Biden, Harris, Andreessen Horowitz, Ron Conway, Fred Wilson, Cameron, Tyler Winklevoss, Schultz, Browder, CleanSpark, Coke, Chris Cook, Cook, There's, Amanda Fabiano, Fabiano, Marathon's Browder, We've, Exacore's Cook, you've, it's, Digital's Browder Organizations: U.S, Mar, Lago, Trump, Riot, Marathon Digital Holdings, Arkon Energy, Cholla Energy, Exacore, CNBC, Senate's Banking, Finance, China, BTC Inc, Radical Communist, Democratic, Trump —, solana, Internal Revenue Service, Libertarian National Convention, Standard Chartered, Circuits, Government Affairs, Federal Reserve, Biden, U.S . Treasury Department, Republican, NASDAQ, Fabiano Consulting Locations: Lago, West Palm Beach , Florida, New York, Palm Beach , Florida, bitcoin, China, Russia, U.S, America, Washington, San Francisco, Beijing, Marathon, United States, West Texas

☆ Russian warships enter Havana harbor under Washington's watchful eye
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-12 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Russian nuclear-powered submarine Kazan (L) and the class frigate Admiral Gorshkov, part of the Russian naval detachment visiting Cuba, arrive at Havana's harbour, June 12, 2024. Russian navy ships churned into Havana harbor on Wednesday, a stopover the U.S. and Cuba said posed no threat but which was widely seen as a Russian show of force as tensions rise over the Ukraine war. Cuba said last week that the visit was standard practice by naval vessels from countries friendly to Havana. "At no point have the ships or submarine posed a direct threat to the United States." "The visiting Russian warships are Putin's way of reminding Biden that Moscow can challenge Washington in its own sphere of influence," Leogrande said.

Persons: Gorshkov, Nikolay Chiker, Biden, Russia —, William Leogrande, Leogrande Organizations: U.S, Reuters, U.S . Naval Air Station, Russia, American University, Washington Locations: Russian, Cuba, Havana's, Havana, Ukraine, United States, Key West , Florida, Moscow

CNN —A group of Russian Navy ships, including a nuclear-powered submarine, arrived in Cuba on Wednesday morning in a sign of strengthening ties between the two Cold War allies. The four Russian ships are now docked in berths usually occupied by cruise ships. The US has also deployed air assets, including a P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance plane, to circle overhead the Russian vessels. The rescue and tugboat Nicolay Chiker, part of the Russian naval detachment visiting Cuba, arrives at Havana's harbour, June 12, 2024. According to a Cuban Armed Forces Ministry statement, none of the Russian ships are armed with nuclear weapons.

Persons: Gorshkov –, Gorshkov, Adalberto Roque, Donald Cook, Joe Biden, Nicolay Chiker, ”, weathers Organizations: CNN, Russian Navy, Military, Kazan, Getty Images, Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian MOD, US Navy, Coast Guard, US, Pentagon, State Department, Russian, Cuba’s Foreign, Cuban Armed Forces Ministry, Soviet Union, Cuban Missile Locations: Cuba, Russian, Havana, Spanish, Kazan, Florida, Russia, Ukraine, Havana's, AFP, Caribbean, Canada, Washington, Moscow

☆ Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is given the rockstar treatment in AI-powerhouse Taiwan
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-07 | by ( Wayne Chang | Will Ripley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Taipei, Taiwan CNN —When Nvidia surpassed Apple this week to become America’s second most valuable company, its CEO Jensen Huang was being feted like a rockstar in his birthplace Taiwan. Taiwan media has dubbed the phenomenon “Jensanity.”He’s not the only celebrity CEO in town. The United States has imposed a number of restrictions on the export of AI chips to China. Late last year, Chinese tech giants like Tencent were rushing to stockpile AI chips before those curbs took hold. “Taiwan in particular is very important to the semiconductor ecosystem.”People attend Computex 2024 in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 4, 2024.

Persons: Jensen Huang, Huang, ”, gesturing, ” He’s, Lisa Su, Pat Gelsinger, Cristiano Amon, —, isn’t, Hwa Cheng, OpenAI, ” Christopher Miller, China’s, “, CNN Huang, Computex, Lai Ching, AMD’s Su, We’ve, Joe Biden Organizations: Taiwan CNN, Nvidia, Apple, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, Getty, “ Tech, Technology, CNN, Media, Communist Party, United, “, Chips Locations: Taipei, Taiwan, Computex, AFP, Beijing, United States, China, “ Taiwan, America, Asia

☆ T.D. Allman, Assertive Globe-Trotting Journalist, Dies at 79
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( Adam Nossiter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Allman, a free-spirited journalist who challenged American mythmaking in pointed, personal reporting over five decades on topics as varied as the Vietnam War and contemporary Florida, died on May 12 in Manhattan. In March 1970, as a 25-year-old freelance journalist, Mr. Allman, accompanied by two other reporters, walked 15 miles over the mountains in Laos to report for The New York Times about Long Cheng, a secret C.I.A. “At the end of the paved runway were three Jolly Green Giant rescue helicopters,” Mr. Allman reported. “Their presence is believed to be one of the reasons the United States tries to keep Long Cheng secret. The Jolly Green Giants are regarded as proof that the United States bombs not just the Ho Chi Minh Trail but northeastern Laos as well.”

Persons: T.D, Allman, Chengzhong Sui, Long Cheng, Jolly, Mr Organizations: The New York Times, United States, Jolly Green Giants Locations: American, Vietnam, Florida, Manhattan, Laos, United

☆ Biden’s D-Day visit may mark the end of an American era
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Geopolitical empires like Russia and China are, meanwhile, resurgent and threatening to obliterate the global system dominated by Western values that has prevailed since World War II. Trump’s “America First” philosophy has taken deep root in the Republican Party that once prided itself on winning the Cold War. For many years after World War II, D-Day commemorations lacked the fanfare and high diplomatic and political significance they carry today. The speech came at a particularly contentious moment in the Cold War with tensions high between Washington and the Soviet Union. The strength of America’s allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe’s democracies.

Persons: Joe Biden, Adolf Hitler’s, Donald Trump’s, he’d, Biden, Vladimir Putin, Washington, autocrats . Biden, they’d, ’, ”, George H.W, George H.W . Bush, Trump’s, Trump, Charles Kupchan, “ It’s, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Volodymyr Zelensky, Hitler, Putin, Britain’s, Charles III, Queen Elizabeth II, Emmanuel Macron, Ronald Reagan, Reagan, ” Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, “, “ We’ve Organizations: CNN, NATO, Republican Party, GOP, District of Columbia, Council, Foreign Relations, Ukrainian, Soviet, US Army Rangers, Rangers, Soviet Communist Party Locations: Normandy, France, Ukraine, Russia, China, Germany, Japan, United States, Europe, British, Omaha Beach, “, George H.W ., Iraq, Afghanistan, Paris, Pointe, Omaha and Utah, Pointe du Hoc, Washington, Soviet Union, America

☆ Is This the End for Mandatory D.E.I. Statements?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( Jeremy W. Peters | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For years, conservatives condemned the use of diversity statements by universities, which ask job applicants to detail their commitment to improving opportunities for marginalized and underrepresented groups. Critics called such statements dogmatic, coercive and, in one lawsuit seeking to end the practice in California, “a modern day loyalty oath” that recalled when professors were required to denounce the Communist Party. But the use of diversity statements continued to grow, and eventually became a requisite when applying for a teaching job at many of the country’s most selective universities. That seems to be changing. Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have each recently announced that they will no longer require diversity statements as a part of their hiring process for faculty posts.

Persons: Critics, ” Organizations: Communist Party, Harvard University’s, of Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Locations: California, “

☆ Ex-OpenAI employee speaks out about why he was fired: 'I ruffled some feathers'
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewA former OpenAI researcher opened up about how he "ruffled some feathers" by writing and sharing some documents related to safety at the company, and was eventually fired. Leopold Aschenbrenner, who graduated from Columbia University at 19, according to his LinkedIn, worked on OpenAI's superalignment team before he was reportedly "fired for leaking" in April. The AI researcher previously shared the memo with others at OpenAI, "who mostly said it was helpful," he added. Related storiesHR later gave him a warning about the memo, Aschenbrenner said, telling him that it was "racist" and "unconstructive" to worry about China Communist Party espionage. He said he wrote the document a couple of months after the superalignment team was announced, which referenced a four-year planning horizon.

Persons: —, Leopold Aschenbrenner, OpenAI's, podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Aschenbrenner, OpenAI, Sam, Sam Altman Organizations: Service, Columbia University, Business, China Communist Party Locations: OpenAI

☆ India wants to be the new China. Modi's shock election result shows it won't be easy.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. The growth is in part thanks to a shift in supply chains and investment flows as companies try to stop relying solely on China. India's stock markets tanked on the shock election results, with the benchmark Sensex index crashing over 5% in one day on Tuesday following the news. Despite the knee-jerk reaction, most analysts are optimistic about India's economic outlook given that Modi is still in charge. He said India will do better to capitalize on its services industry, especially since so many Indians are English speakers.

Persons: —, Narendra Modi's, Modi, Atman Trivedi, China, Council's Trivedi, Vishnu Varathan, Raghuram Rajan, NPR's, It's, Rajan Organizations: Service, Indian, Business, Bharatiya Janata Party, —, Atlantic, Asia Center, Centre, Monitoring, Coalition, Albright, Group, Mizuho Bank, United Nations Population Fund, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Central Bank of India, International Monetary Fund Locations: China, India, Communist China, Asia, Japan

☆ Analysis: India wants to be the next economic superpower. Half of its population holds the key
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Diksha Madhok | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

New Delhi CNN —India, the world’s fastest growing major economy, is not firing on all cylinders. The engineering graduate started working at Finnish electronics manufacturer Salcomp’s factory in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu last year. Adnan Abidi/ReutersLike India, women in China were also relegated to subordinate roles for centuries. Factory jobsMuch of this change is visible in Tamil Nadu, India’s industrial powerhouse where companies such as Foxconn and Samsung have manufacturing plants. Employees test mobile phones on an assembly line of a unit of Foxconn Technology in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, on July 12, 2019.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Gunasri Tamilselvan, Tamilselvan, “, ”, It’s, Chandrasekhar Sripada, Adnan Abidi, Mao, ” Mao, Modi, Vishnu Venugopalan, Deepesh Nanda, Karen Dias, Parameshwari, Arun Roy, Roy Organizations: New, New Delhi CNN, European Union —, CNN, World Bank, Bank, McKinsey, Indian School of Business, Reuters, Communist Party, Apple, Samsung, Guidance, Tata Group, Tata Power, Foxconn Technology, Bloomberg, Getty, Tata, Tamil Locations: New Delhi, India, Tamil Nadu, South Asia, United States, China, Nongriat, Shillong, Meghalaya, Beijing, Washington, Guidance Tamil, Sriperumbudur, Tirunelveli, Zhengzhou, Tamil

☆ Taiwan celebrities Mayday, Jolin Tsai in crossfire of political battle as tensions with China rise
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Nectar Gan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

On Douban, a popular site for reviewing movies, books and music, users compiled a list of nearly 100 Taiwanese celebrities, detailing whether each of them had shared the post. On Saturday, CCTV publicly endorsed Taiwanese celebrities who shared its post, sharing the screenshots of 36 such reposts – fueling a further backlash against those who hadn’t. On Monday, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council weighed in, accusing the Chinese Communist Party of requiring Taiwanese artists to express a political stance. The remarks and retweets by Taiwanese artists of the CCTV unification post came against the backdrop of China’s largest show of force around the island in more than a year. “This is not the first time, and probably not the last, that Taiwanese artists are forced to make a political stand in China,” said the leader.

Persons: Mayday’s, Ashin, ”, –, Xi Jinping, Jolin Tsai, Edgar Su, China’s, Beijing’s, ’, Tsai, “, Lin Chen, ” Lin, Lai Ching, Ichiro Ohara, Lai, Zhu Fenglian, ” Zhu, Lin Organizations: CNN, Party, China, Democratic Progressive Party, Cardiff University, Facebook, Mainland Affairs Council, Chinese Communist Party, Communist, Yomiuri Shimbun, Taiwan Affairs Office, “ Locations: Beijing, Taiwan, China, Taipei, Taiwanese, “, Nanchang ”, Singapore, Weibo, ” Beijing

☆ Tiananmen Square: How journalists smuggled out the iconic ‘Tank Man’ photo
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Jessie Yeung | Mike Chinoy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The photo and footage of the so-called “tank man” became the defining image of the Tiananmen Square crackdown whose 35th anniversary passed on Tuesday. People hold candles at a vigil in Hong Kong to mark the Tiananmen Square anniversary on June 4, 2017. Jeff Widener/AP“I’m biking towards the Beijing Hotel and there’s just debris and charred buses on the ground,” he said. It went out.”A student protester before a burning armored personnel carrier that rammed through student lines, injuring many during an attack on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, on June 4, 1989. Several media outlets took a photo of “Tank Man,” but Widener’s shot was the most used.

Persons: Mike Chinoy, ”, Isaac Lawrence, Jeff Widener, Chinoy, Liu Heung, Widener, ‘, Kirk Martsen –, Jonathan Schaer, He’d, “, ” Schaer, “ I’m, ” Jeff Widener's, I’m, ” Liu, Liu, didn’t, ” Widener Organizations: University of Southern, China Institute, CNN, American Journalists, Chinese Communist Party, Getty, Associated Press, AP, of, People, Beijing, Widener, Sony Locations: University of Southern California’s US, Beijing, Asia, China, People’s Republic, Hong Kong, British, AFP, CNN’s Beijing, –, Bangkok, CNN’s, Tiananmen Square, Beijing –

☆ Inside China's plan for AI: shape reality and enforce its power
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In today's big story, we're looking at China's strict approach to overseeing its AI development and the threat it poses to the world. The country's history of censorship and surveillance is extending to its approach to AI , writes Business Insider's Linette Lopez. AdvertisementThe CCP's plan for AI is about shaping reality and enforcing its power, according to internal documents. What to do ahead of May's jobs report. Permabull Tom Lee said it's a great time to buy stocks — shocking — with a new jobs report set to drop on Friday.

Persons: —, Kiran Ridley, Stringer, Getty, Tyler Le, Insider's Linette Lopez, Linette, chatbots, Jinping, Xie Huanchi, we've, Ken Griffin's, Permabull Tom Lee, it's, Stocks, Keith Gill, It's, Amazon's, Alyssa Powell, boomer, Gen, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover, Grace Lett, Annie Smith Organizations: Service, Harvard, Business, Chinese Communist Party, of, People, Getty, Citadel Securities, BI, GameStop, Cloud, Prime, Apple, American Express, Research, Boomers Locations: China, Beijing, Xinhua, New York, London, Chicago

☆ China, Xi Jinping's Plan for AI Will Wreak Havoc on the World Economy
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-02 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +18 min

According to the CCP's plan, by 2020, China was supposed to have "achieved iconic advances in AI models and methods, core devices, high-end equipment, and foundational software." Censorship requirements may slow China's AI development and limit the commercialization of domestic models, but they will not stop Beijing from benefiting from AI where it sees fit. We're not seeing a huge gap between the models Chinese companies have been able to roll out. The current price war is a race to the bottom, similar to what we've seen in the Chinese technology space before. A race to the bottom may simply beggar China's AI ecosystem.

Persons: Xi Jinping, China doesn't, there's, Beijing's, Reva Goujon, We're, It's, ChatGPT, Xie Huanchi, couldn't, you'll, —, Kenneth DeWoskin, it's, Matt Sheehan, they're, chatbot, Sheehan, Ernie Bot, There's, Alibaba, ByteDance's, Paul Triolo, Albright, we've, haven't, DeWoskin, Sam Altman, Elon Musk Organizations: Chinese Communist Party, CCP, Intelligence, Cyberspace Administration, Getty, Freedom, University of Michigan, Deloitte, CAC, Carnegie Endowment, International Peace, Baidu, Bloomberg, Companies, Brookings Institution, Beijing, The Commerce Department Locations: China, Beijing, China's, Hong Kong, Xinhua, , Washington, Brussels, Berlin, Taiwan, US, Xinjiang

He also warned that the death of any Filipino citizen at the hands of another country in the South China Sea would be “very close” to an act of war. It is also a rare opportunity to hear from, and pose questions to, senior Chinese military leaders. Robert Ward, IISS Japan chair, told CNN he felt Dong’s tone was “more shrill” than he’s seen in previous speeches by Chinese defense chiefs at the gathering. “The strategic environment in Asia has actually got more tense and I think we saw that in the Chinese defense minister’s speech today,” Ward said. “Every year for three years, a new Chinese defense minister has come to Shangri-La,” the official told CNN.

Persons: Dong Jun, ” Dong, ”, Xi Jinping, Dong, Lloyd Austin, ” China’s, “, Lai Ching, China, Ferdinand R, Marcos Jr, Austin –, China “, Robert Ward, he’s, ” Ward, they’ve Organizations: Singapore CNN, Taiwan, National Defense, Communist Party, Democratic Progressive Party, China’s Defense Ministry, South China, Austin, International Institute for Strategic Studies, CNN, US Locations: Singapore, Beijing, Taiwan, United States, China, Taiwan Strait, East, South, South China, Philippines, ”, American, The Hague, Philippine, Ukraine, Dong, Russia, Asia, Pacific, Japan

The meeting, between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and China’s Minister of National Defense Adm. Dong Jun, is the first face-to-face talks between the two defense chiefs and Austin’s first such discussions with a Chinese counterpart since late 2022. The meeting, on the sidelines of an annual defense conference in Singapore, takes place against a fraught regional backdrop. Austin is expected to raise concerns with Dong about China’s support for Russia, US officials said ahead of the meeting. Talks between Austin and Dong are not expected to see substantive progress towards resolving many entrenched issues between them. Several weeks later, US and Chinese top generals spoke in a video call, paving the way for this week’s in-person meeting between the defense chiefs.

Persons: Lloyd Austin, Dong Jun, Austin’s, China’s, Austin, Dong, Nancy Pelosi, Li Shangfu, Li, won’t, Xi Jinping’s, Xi, Joe Biden Organizations: Singapore CNN, US, National Defense, South China Seas, Communist Party, Coast Guard, Defense, Washington, Russia, America, East, Communist, Central Military Commission Locations: Singapore, Asia, Pacific, Taiwan, Beijing, East, South, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, China, South China, American, Russia, Ukraine, Austin, Asia –, San Francisco

☆ Trump’s conviction: The former US president is trending on Chinese social media, and many are rejoicing
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Nectar Gan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

And as China woke up Friday to the news of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, the country’s heavily censored social media lit up. Under leader Xi Jinping, China’s most assertive leader in decades, the country’s social media platforms have become increasingly dominated by anti-American, nationalistic voices. Second, can he still run for president?”But analysts say Trump’s conviction could be a tricky topic for Chinese state propagandists to navigate. So far, Chinese state media outlets have yet to publish the kind of blistering commentaries that previously appeared alongside news coverage of Trump’s legal entanglements. Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said China’s state media is unlikely to play up the coverage in the days ahead.

Persons: Donald Trump, it’s, Communist Party —, China’s, “ Trump’s, ”, Trump, Chuan Jianguo, “ Trump, influencers, Xi Jinping, –, Hu Xijin, “, Bill Bishop, Alfred Wu, Lee, they’re, Wu Organizations: CNN, Communist Party, Xinhua, Washington, Global Times, Lee Kuan Yew, of Public, National University of Singapore Locations: China, United States, Weibo, Beijing, America

☆ ‘Not Everything Was Bad’: Saluting the Mercedes of Eastern Europe and a Communist Past
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Christopher F. Schuetze | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

As the beige car bounced up to the former Soviet barracks, the rattling of its half-century old motor overpowered the din of people setting up for the day’s festivities at a temporary fairground. The driver of the little sedan, once considered the Mercedes of Eastern Europe, slipped the clutch, jolting the car forward. The lapse earned a rebuke from a costumed parking attendant. now,” he yelled with mock anger, referring to the extinct East German state. “Leave your Western manners behind!”

Persons: ” Organizations: Mercedes Locations: Wartburg, Eastern Europe

☆ Fast-fashion behemoth Shein is preparing for an IPO. Here's an inside look at the challenges it could face.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Its peak $100 billion valuation once made it the world's third largest privately-held company, behind TikTok owner Bytedance and Elon Musk's SpaceX. Estimates have pegged Shein's IPO valuation at around $90 billion, Bloomberg reported last year. AdvertisementTo gauge what happens to some Shein items once they're returned, BI reporters in the UK put two AirTag trackers on Shein garments and sent them back. Shein is more directly involved in production and focuses on clothes, but Temu's popularity "could affect the valuation," Swartz said. In a November statement following the news of Shein's IPO, chairman Mike Gallagher urged investors and banks underwriting the move to "carefully examine Shein's regulatory and compliance programs."

Persons: —, Bytedance, Sky Xu, Yangtian Xu, Chris, Shein, confidentially, David Swartz, Swartz, Lululemon, JADE GAO, Stephanie Benedetto, Queen, Benedetto, they're, Shein's, Morningstar's Swartz, Temu, Mike Gallagher Organizations: Service, Elon, SpaceX, Business, Reuters, Authentic Brands, Wall Street, CNBC, Bloomberg, Morningstar, Zurich Insurance Group, Guardian, BI, Coventry Airport, SEC, Street, Financial Times, London Stock Exchange, Chinese Communist Party, Nike, Adidas Locations: China, —, Singapore, Sequoia China, London , Hong Kong, York, London, Canary Wharf, Coventry, Walsall, Northern Ireland, England, Kent, Washington, Xinjiang, Dublin, Shein

☆ A viral canned water company is giving away a $400,000 fighter jet, poking fun at Pepsi's notorious failed joke prize
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Blake Stilwell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But perhaps Pepsi's most memorable disaster (in the US, anyway) was when it was nearly forced to buy a McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II fighter jet for one of its consumers. He never got it, but the memory of his attempt has long outlived the Pepsi Points campaign. A pile of Liquid Death cans at a festival. All you need to do is visit the giveaway site and start a text chain, buy a Liquid Death product from a physical store, and text a photo of the receipt. The company swears entrants to the jet contest will not have to take them to court to get the prize.

Persons: Kendall Jenner, McDonnell Douglas, Douglas, Jerod Harris, John Leonard, that's, it's, Joseph Okpako, Andy Pearson, Liquid, Adweek Organizations: Service, PepsiCo, Pepsi, McDonnell, Getty, Netflix, Pepsi Points, Warsaw Pact, Albatros Locations: America, Philippines, Czech, Los Angeles, Czechoslovakia, Warsaw

The Hong Kong and Beijing governments have repeatedly denied the national security law is suppressing freedoms, arguing it has ended chaos and “restored stability” to the city. Since the national security law came into effect in 2020, civil groups have disbanded, and independent media outlets have been shut down. They are the first defendants to be acquitted in a national security law trial in Hong Kong. But that strategy is in doubt after another local national security law enacted earlier this year curtailed access to reduced sentences for guilty pleas. “It’s absolutely clear that the national security law reduced the independence and the autonomy of the judiciary.

Persons: Hong Kong’s, Hong, Gwyneth Ho, Leung Kwok, ”, Lawrence Lau, Lee Yu, –, “, Joshua Wong, Benny Tai, Claudia Mo, Eric Lai, John Burns, Hong Kong Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Beijing, British, Hong, Hong Kong’s Legislative, Georgetown Center, Asian Law, Communist Party, city’s, University of Hong Locations: Hong Kong, Hong, Beijing, Hong Kong’s, China, University of Hong Kong

☆ Chinese ships spend record amount of time near Japan-controlled islands, Tokyo says
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Brad Lendon | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The Japanese government chief spokesperson did not say how often Chinese ships entered Japan’s territorial waters, though foreign ships are allowed “innocent passage” through such waters. A contiguous zone extends another 12 nautical miles beyond a country’s territorial waters, the area that stretches 12 nautical miles from the shore. Foreign warships are allowed into contiguous zone waters – so the Chinese Coast Guard hasn’t broken any international agreements – but the continuous presence of the Chinese vessels there is seen as a provocation. It has frequently dispatched China Coast Guard and other government vessels to the waters around the islands to assert those claims. Hayashi, the Japanese government spokesperson, said Monday that Tokyo is answering the Chinese presence around the islands with vessels of its own.

Persons: Tokyo’s, “, Yoshimasa Hayashi, Hayashi, Fumio Kishida, Li Gongmin, ”, ” James Brown, ” Hayashi, Lai Ching, China’s, Thomas, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Thomas Shoal, CNN’s Himari Semans Organizations: South Korea CNN, China Coast Guard, East China, Chinese Coast Guard, Ministry, Temple University, CNN, Coast Guard, Communist Party Locations: Seoul, South Korea, East, Japan, China, Tokyo, Japanese, China’s, Beijing, United States, Washington, Taiwan, Philippines, South China, Philippine, Singapore

☆ Why Lawmakers Are Brawling and People Are Protesting in Taiwan
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Amy Chang Chien | Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The legislation proposed by Mr. Lai’s opponents gained passage only a little over a week after he took office, highlighting the challenges he will face in pursuing his agenda without a legislative majority. In elections in January, the opposition Nationalist Party and Taiwan People’s Party together secured more seats in the 113-seat legislature than Mr. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party. Mr. Lai’s supporters have accused the opposition of overreach and of serving the interests of the Chinese Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as its territory. Nationalist and Taiwan People’s Party legislators have rejected those accusations, and Mr. Lai’s officials have not offered proof of allegations that Beijing orchestrated the legislation. Politicians jostled and fought, and members of Mr. Lai’s party covered the floor and walls of the chamber with protest placards.

Persons: Lai Ching, Lai’s, jostled Organizations: Nationalist Party, Taiwan People’s Party, Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party, Chinese Communist Party, Nationalist Locations: Taiwan, Beijing

☆ Business-First Hong Kong Now Comes With a Catch: Beijing Politics
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Doing business in Hong Kong increasingly comes with a new risk: the political cost of upsetting Beijing. A former Wall Street banker was muzzled for writing a “Hong Kong is dead” column. In all areas of life, Hong Kong is hewing closer to mainland China, blurring distinctions that once cemented the city’s status as mostly free from the politics of Beijing. Legal rulings echo the courts in mainland China. The city’s transformation is being driven by a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 and additional legislation passed by Hong Kong lawmakers in March.

Organizations: Wall Street, Google, Communist Party Locations: Hong Kong, Beijing, Chicago, China, Britain

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