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☆ I Got My Name From Connie Chung. So Did They. - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Connie Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +21 min

In my freshman class alone, there was a Connie Zheng, a Connie Guo, a Connie Xu, a few Connie Chengs, and multiple Connie Wangs. That ayi was Constance Yu-Hwa Chung, or, as the world knows her, Connie Chung. Connie Chung hosting the “CBS Evening News” in 1991, the year after the author named herself Connie. Connie Wang Connie Koh Connie Yang Connie Tang Connie Jang Connie Chung Connie Moy Connie Huang Connie Kwok Connie Chang Connie Sun Connie Chung, center, surrounded by 10 members of Generation Connie. Clockwise from top right, Connie Yang, Connie Tang, Connie Moy, Connie Sun, Connie Chang, Connie Kwok, Connie Huang, Connie Jang, Connie Wang and Connie Koh.

More recently, he has tried to wrap Ukraine into that narrative, falsely depicting it as a Nazi redoubt. Image Smoke rising above a fuel depot in the Russian village of Volna, near the bridge linking Crimea to Russia, last Wednesday. In Russia, various regional governors have cited security concerns in canceling Victory Day events. “No neo-Nazi scum will be able to mar the great Victory Day. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov said the march was canceled as a “precautionary measure” against possible attacks.

More recently, he has tried to wrap Ukraine into that narrative, falsely depicting it as a Nazi redoubt. Credit... ReutersUkraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, staked his nation’s own claim to the holiday, with an address on Monday drawing a parallel between World War II and the current war against Russian invaders. In Russia, various regional governors have cited security concerns in canceling Victory Day events. Igor Artamonov, the governor of the Lipetsk region, which is also near Ukraine, said his decision should not be misinterpreted. “No neo-Nazi scum will be able to mar the great Victory Day.

☆ An ominous policy change is a sign Russia is preparing for a long, bloody war in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Recent changes to Russian conscription law indicate Moscow is preparing for a long war in Ukraine. Beyond a need for manpower, the changes may reflect the Kremlin's embrace of more heavy-handed rule. But Russian leaders appear to preparing for a long and bloody fight, judging by a series of new measures related to military conscription. The Russian government is "methodically stepping through a process to go over to a higher readiness and protracted war," Massicot added. Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications.

☆ Overlooked No More: James Sakoda, Whose Wartime Internment Inspired a Social Science Tool
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Elizabeth Landau | Ben Klemens | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times. Unlike most of the 120,000 Japanese Americans detained in internment camps in the United States during World War II, James Sakoda had a mission: to document the experience of incarceration. He took about 1,800 pages of notes, largely in private, lest he be accused of being a traitor or a spy. Those notes would form the basis of his 1949 dissertation on the dynamics of individuals and groups at one of these camps, the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Idaho. Tucked into Appendix B of the paper was possibly the first example of what is known as an “agent-based model” — a simulation of how individual actions can add up to large-scale patterns.

☆ The Forces Behind South Korea’s and Japan’s Thaw
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For years, the forces driving South Korea and Japan apart, deeply rooted in bitter history, had seemed too strong to overcome despite repeated efforts and the urging of their mutual ally, the United States. South Koreans say Japan never properly apologized or atoned for its brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. To the Japanese, South Korea has often been an untrustworthy neighbor that has broken several promises, including treaty agreements that were designed to salve historical wounds. But the advent of two new administrations in the neighboring countries — President Yoon Suk Yeol in South Korea, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Japan — has led to a rapid thawing of relations. In April, South Korea restored Japan’s status as a preferred trading partner, prompting Tokyo to start the process of restoring the same status for South Korea.

☆ Leaked docs show 'Putin's chef' is increasingly at odds with the Russian leader over Wagner mercenary deaths
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who leads the mercenary Wagner Group, appears to have turned on Vladimir Putin. On Thursday, Prigozhin vowed to withdraw troops from Ukraine, blaming Putin for their deaths. But his decades-long allyship with the Russian leader may be coming to an end. Prigozhin has compared the ongoing Bakhmut battle to a "meat grinder," Insider previously reported, with the mercenary leader acknowledging that his men were dying at extremely high rates due to the shortage. Prigozhin's relationship with Putin began in the 1990s after the business tycoon set up a catering company that frequently served the Russian leader and the Kremlin, eventually earning him the nickname "Putin's chef," Insider previously reported.

☆ Japan PM Kishida visits Seoul to forge closer ties amid N.Korea threats
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

South Korean officials are hopeful that Kishida will make some kind of gesture in return and offer some political support, although few observers expect any further formal apology for historical wrongs. But the historical differences between South Korea and Japan also threaten to cast a shadow over the blossoming ties between its two leaders. The majority of South Koreans believe Japan hasn't apologised sufficiently for atrocities during Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea, Lee said. "They think that Prime Minister Kishida should show sincerity during his visit to South Korea, such as mentioning historical issues and expressing apologies," she added. Still, South Korea is an "important neighbour that we must cooperate with on various global issues," Japan's foreign ministry has said.

☆ Bitcoin could rally 40% by the end of the year, according to a top blockchain founder
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A pile of Bitcoin slugs sit in a box ready to be minted on April 26, 2013 in Sandy, Utah. And bitcoin is front-running this scenario, pointing to a future that is effectively a return to relatively low rates. A big reason why bitcoin has performed so well was that it was just really oversold during the collapse of FTX. In such a scenario, all assets would have a correlation of one with each other, including bitcoin and even gold. Big gold buyers like HSBC and JPMorgan have shunned business with Moscow — leaving billions of dollars worth of gold in need of new landing spots.

☆ Pollution Reveals What Russian Statistics Obscure: Industrial Decline
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Josh Zumbrun | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A satellite monitoring pollution released by Russian factories can detect gases including nitrogen dioxide, ozone, formaldehyde and methane. Photo: European Space AgencyEver since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, questions have multiplied about the reliability of Russia’s economic data. Official Russian government reports have often suggested the economy is surviving Western sanctions better than Western governments had hoped. Yet with Moscow’s penchant for wartime propaganda, to what extent should anyone trust Russia’s economic information? So here is a data point that is hard for Russia to fake: pollution emitted by its factories and detectable by satellites in outer space.

☆ Ukraine's talking loudly about its coming counterpunch but holding key secrets tight because the stakes couldn't be higher. Here's what we know.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Insider spoke to military experts about the possible timing, location, and goals of the coming assault. Ahead of this specific offensive, Ukraine was also likely waiting for the ground to dry after a cold and muddy winter. But there's more than just military strategy to consider — politics plays a key role as well, military experts said. Military experts and analysts are betting the bulk of the offensive will be focused in Ukraine's southeast, particularly in the Zaporizhzhia region. The single most important aim for Ukraine's next push is taking back its territory, the military experts said.

☆ Why Warren Buffett is so keen on Japan's versions of Berkshire Hathaway
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Tim Hornyak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

But Warren Buffett added a spark in April when he visited Japan to announce that Berkshire Hathaway boosted its investment in Japanese trading houses to 7.4%. Buffett said the five — Itochu Corp., Marubeni Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui, and Sumitomo Corp. — are comparable to Berkshire itself. Samurai roots for Buffett's Japanese stocks The five trading firms that Berkshire has invested in are the biggest of Japan's so-called sogo-shosha, or general trading companies. Today, Japan's trading companies derive most of their revenue from non-trade activities. Shosha: The Big Five Mitsubishi The largest of Japan's trading companies is Mitsubishi Corp. , set up in 1954.

☆ Factbox: Old disputes overshadow visit by Japan's Kishida to South Korea
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

May 5 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be visiting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday in the latest effort to improve bilateral ties. - Relations between the two North Asian U.S. allies have been strained over disputes dating to Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea. - Relations deteriorated in 2019 when Japan restricted exports of high-tech materials for making chips and display panels to South Korea. - In late March, Japan's trade ministry lifted export curbs to South Korea on the high-tech materials, while South Korea withdrew its complaint filed at the World Trade Organization on Japan's export controls. Under Yoon, South Korea has resumed trilateral military drills and agreed to more intelligence sharing on issues like tracking ballistic missile launches from North Korea.

☆ Opinion: Why Britain is so weirded out by pledging allegiance to Charles
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Opinion Laura Beers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

In a break with tradition, the public will be invited to pledge allegiance to King Charles III during the coronation ceremony on Saturday May 6. While many Brits I’ve spoken to are simply indifferent to the proposed pledge, there has also been an unprecedent degree of public vitriol over the scheme. Yet, objections to the proposed pledge are as much about its content as its form. The proposed coronation pledge, in contrast, invites Britons to pledge their loyalty to the King, and to his “heirs and successors” – a positively undemocratic pronouncement. That complexity cannot simply be smoothed away by inviting people to pledge allegiance to the crown.

☆ Elite investors and fund managers at the legendary Milken conference warn of a recession and credit crunch
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Elite money managers overseeing trillions of dollars convened at the 2023 Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles this week. The consensus was clear: they think markets are mispositioned for a scenario where the central bank keeps rates higher for longer. "As our chief economist likes to say," Hunt said, "at higher rates, bodies will continue to float to the top over the course of the summer." And with yet another Fed rate hike officially in the books, financial conditions are only going to get tighter and more companies could be caught off-guard. On Wednesday, West Texas crude dropped more than 4.4%, the steep declines coming the same day as the Fed's rate hike.

☆ Kremlin Blasts Were Real. The Rest Is Hazy, Maybe Intentionally.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Michael Schwirtz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But whose outrage was real and whose was feigned? In this war, the battle over the narrative is as important as the battle in the field. While the Kremlin frequently lies and uses its powerful government-controlled media to craft alternative realities, Ukraine, too, has proved adept at bending the truth to serve its wartime agenda. Cutting through the competing narratives to get to the truth can prove to be a tricky thing, and that perhaps is the point. Was it a staged Russian provocation meant to justify still harsher attacks on the Ukrainian population, or perhaps against Ukraine’s leadership?

"We are now aiming to regain the tourism income from (Gulf Cooperation Council countries) to Syria. Some Arab states, including GCC members the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, are increasingly rebuilding ties with Damascus, reversing years of isolation over Assad's crackdown on protests in 2011 and the ensuing civil war. Machfej said Syria had 1.5 million visitors last year, a third of which were tourists. Tourism ministry data shows 385,000 visitors came to Syria in the first quarter this year, 40,000 of which were non-Arab foreigners. Gulf states along with Egypt, Iraq and Jordan have been discussing Syria's possible return to the Arab League, but no agreement has been reached.

SummarySummary Companies Japan, S.Korea must address geopolitical challenges - SuzukiS.Korea's Choo urges Japan to restore 'white list' statusResumption of dialogue underscores mending relationsINCHEON, South Korea May 2 (Reuters) - Japan and South Korea held their first bilateral finance leaders' meeting in seven years on Tuesday, a sign relations between the two are thawing amid shared challenges from geopolitical tensions and slowing economic growth. The resumption of bilateral financial talks comes ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's planned visit to South Korea next week for talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol. "As for geo-political challenges, we're experiencing incidents like North Korea's nuclear missile development and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Regular annual dialogue between the two countries' finance ministers has been suspended since 2016 due to disputes over wartime history. Suzuki said he hoped Japan and South Korea can continue with bilateral financial dialogue and that doing so would contribute to improving relations between the two countries.

☆ My grandfather hid the emotional toll of World War II from his family for decades
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Chloe Melas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

CNN —For decades after returning home from World War II, my grandfather did not talk about his wartime experiences. Frank Murphy, the grandfather of CNN's Chloe Melas, after he was captured and taken a prisoner of war by the Nazis in 1943. Everyone could see the physical toll of war on his body, but we didn’t know about his invisible wounds. After World War I, it was “shell shock”; post-World War II it was known as “combat fatigue,” and after Vietnam it was called “post-Vietnam syndrome.” In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association officially recognized it as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. “When your grandfather and my grandfather served in World War II, they didn’t talk about it,” Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told me.

☆ Biden to reassure Philippines' Marcos as China tensions flare
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] U.S. President Joe Biden listens during the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington, U.S., April 29, 2023. Marcos, who became president last year, has sought warm relations with both the United States and China, who are vying for influence in the Asia-Pacific region. "Some of the steps that China have taken have concerned (Marcos), probably even surprised him," said one senior Biden administration official. Experts say the United States considers the Philippines a potential location for rockets, missiles and artillery systems to counter a Chinese amphibious assault. "We're standing shoulder to shoulder in the South China Sea, where our alignment has never been stronger," said one U.S. official.

☆ Russia’s battered wartime economy is still chugging along as it taps its wealth fund, raises taxes, and ramps up imports
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Shares of First Republic dropped more than 40% in pre-market trading today, while JPMorgan stock ticked 2.9% higher. Let's check in on Russia's wartime economy. To the surprise of many forecasters, Russia's economy has held up better than expected as it carries on into the second year of its war on Ukraine. And leaked documents, first reported by the Washington Post, suggest that Russia can fund its war for at least another year. Specifically, US intelligence says Moscow can rely on its sovereign wealth fund to help pay for its war efforts, as well as higher corporate taxes and ramped-up imports.

☆ After a year of heavy losses, Ukraine's military is juggling a 'very uneven' force as it prepares for major fighting, expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Ukraine's military is gearing up for offensives against Russian forces in spring and summer. Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesWhen Russia invaded in February 2022, Ukraine's military had about 196,000 active personnel and 900,000 in reserve, according to the International Institute of Strategic Studies' 2022 Military Balance report. The Western approachAn instructor briefs Ukrainian soldiers at a training center near Yavoriv in April 2017. The training they provided accompanied other efforts by Kyiv to reverse two decades of post-Cold War decay that weakened the Ukrainian military. "This is a continuous struggle in the Ukrainian military," Kofman said.

☆ China investment consensus cracks as politics fuel fears
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

It is unlikely to be resolved quickly even if the markets keep rallying and China economy keeps global growth ticking. Data paints a murky picture, but supports brokers' analysis that the bid from long-only money managers is absent. Allocation analysis from data firm EPFR shows a broad downtrend, especially to U.S.-domiciled China funds. EPFR figures show allocation to China funds outside the U.S. has increased for two years and mainland markets' recent performance has also been encouraging. "Our reservations about China's long-term investment prospects are based on our outlook for returns to capital."

☆ These indicators tell us the housing market is hitting the brakes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Before we rush into the weekend, let's check in with the slowing pace of the housing market, and what that means for the rest of the year's outlook. Another sign pointing to a softer housing market is lumber. But that's going to reverse in the decade ahead as Boomers age out of the housing market and post-Millennial generations shrink. What are you seeing in the housing market in your part of the country? In other news:A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 9, 2020.

☆ Documents Reflect Persistent, if Unfounded, Speculation on Putin’s Health
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Now, a document among the trove of leaked classified materials offers the latest example of the fascination with Mr. Putin’s health. It describes a conversation between two Ukrainian officials about what one claimed was a conspiracy among Mr. Putin’s internal opponents to challenge his rule at a moment when he was said to be undergoing chemotherapy. No evidence has emerged to substantiate the claim, or many earlier ones, and the leaked document gives no indication that the United States finds it credible. dismissed speculation about Mr. Putin’s health, and many Russia experts find no reason to doubt him. Analysts called the public discussion of Mr. Putin’s well-being unsurprising.

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