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☆ Miles Guo, the Chinese tycoon charged with defrauding his fans of more than $1 billion, once starred in a music video where he shadowboxed on a luxury yacht to lyrics like 'take down the CCP'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Guo, was arrested on 11 counts of fraud and money laundering. Guo, also known as Miles Guo, is credited on Apple Music and Spotify as the artist behind at least 14 hip-hop, pop, and lo-fi songs. One of the political activist's most well-known works is a music video on YouTube, titled "Fight For Hong Kong." Taking down the CCP, the evil CCP, is the only way for us to live without fear," Guo raps in Mandarin. Another video sees Guo hyping up Himalaya Coin, or Hcoin, a cryptocurrency that Guo and Bannon promoted.

☆ How Rivian went from Wall Street darling to another struggling EV startup
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Alexa St. John | Nora Naughton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Another Rivian customer told Insider they placed a reservation last July. A Rivian spokesperson told Insider that timing is "based on a number of factors, including delivery location, configuration and original preorder or reservation date." The Rivian spokesperson told Insider Scaringe's language refers to "how we deliver over the long term." An employee laid off in Rivian's first round of cuts last summer told Insider it felt like growing pains many other companies have experienced. Are you a current or former Rivian employee, Rivian vehicle owner, or Rivian order-holder?

☆ Investing in Space: Texts from orbit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

CNBC's Investing in Space newsletter offers a view into the business of space exploration and privatization, delivered straight to your inbox. Recently I woke up to a text message from a satellite, sent by Lynk Global co-founder and CEO Charles Miller. "I asked them to send that text message from one of our phones," Miller said. So far, the satellite operators of Globalstar , Iridium , SpaceX and AST SpaceMobile are also chasing this untapped market. It plans on "launching many more this year" and has an eventual goal of up to 5,000 satellites in orbit.

☆ Explainer: A year into Ukraine war, how has China stood by 'no limits' partner Russia?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Laurie Chen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Here are the implications for China as the war approaches its one-year anniversary on Feb. 24. While China has repeatedly called for peace, President Xi Jinping has stood by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, resisting Western pressure to isolate Moscow. China has sought to avoid providing support to Russia that would invite sanctions upon itself, including refraining from providing weapons. Beijing has repeatedly opposed any linkage between the Ukraine war and its intentions to "reunify" with the self-ruled island that it claims as its territory. "The result and the cost of the war show the Chinese that an invasion is Taiwan may not be prudent," said Sun.

☆ The Ohio train derailment is a mess for the US. The Twitter of China is reacting with glee.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

People on Weibo are relishing the chance to mock the US after a 50-car train derailed in Ohio. It's another example of inflammatory rhetoric that's left to simmer on China's version of Twitter. On Tuesday, four of the top 20 "hot searches" on Weibo, the Twitter of China, featured videos or news blog articles about the derailment. Widespread US media coverage and discussion of the Chinese balloon incensed Chinese state media and Weibo users. After all, anything can happen in a country that can arrest journalists reporting this," wrote blogger MaVision of the train derailment.

☆ M&Ms Super Bowl commercial: How ads have become weeks-long campaigns
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The Super Bowl commercial, billed as the conclusion to weeks-long drama surrounding the status of the “spokescandies,” left some viewers scratching their heads. But if you weren’t paying attention, the final commercial might be a head scratcher -— one risk a brand takes when it uses a weeks-long campaign ahead of its Super Bowl commercial. In a change for the decades-old Super Bowl ad wars, it’s actually become a commonplace strategy to use social media to tease, preview and create buzz ahead of their Super Bowl commercials. Companies spend millions just for a Super Bowl ad slot — reportedly over $7 million for some 30-second spots — before investing into the commercials themselves. Dance contests and bettingDespite the high cost of a Super Bowl commercial, companies are eager to nab a spot.

☆ Former Wall Street darling Rivian suddenly has a lot to prove
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Alexa St. John | Nora Naughton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

[1/4] Spectators watch after a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the coast in Holden Beach, North Carolina, U.S. February 4, 2023. Regional analysts and diplomats are closely watching China's response after a U.S. fighter jet shot down the balloon - which Beijing says was an errant weather-monitoring craft - in the Atlantic off South Carolina on Saturday. China on Sunday condemned the attack as an "over-reaction", saying it reserved the right to use the necessary means to deal with "similar situations", without elaborating. But while bilateral tension has risen in the past few days over the balloon incident, Beijing and Washington have been seeking to improve ties. Naval Postgraduate School in California, said any Chinese response would be limited.

REUTERS/Tingshu WangBEIJING, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Chinese state media defended on Wednesday the retaliatory measures against South Korea and Japan over their COVID-19 travel curbs as "reasonable", while Chinese tourists decried Seoul's "insulting" treatment on social media. South Korea, Japan, the United States and more than a dozen other countries imposed at the start of the year requirements for pre-departure negative test results from visitors from China. 'INSULTING'Chinese social media anger mainly targeted South Korea, whose border measures are the strictest among the countries that announced new rules. Global Times reserved a separate article for South Korea, saying the measures made Chinese people suspicious that Seoul was putting up a "political show." Annual spending by Chinese tourists abroad reached $250 billion before the pandemic, with South Korea and Japan among the top shopping destinations.

☆ Jared Kushner blocked Biden's access to COVID-19 planning in the final days of the Trump era, former aide says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Jared Kushner denied Biden's team access to COVID-19 plans in late 2020, a former aide said. Kushner said Biden's team should "absolutely not" be looped in, claimed Alyssa Farah Griffin. "Jared just said, 'Absolutely not,'" Farah Griffin told the panel. Biden officials complained at the time that the Trump administration was refusing them access to COVID-19 data in the weeks after the election. In the same speech, Biden pressed the Trump administration to provide more details about the allocation of COVID-19 vaccinations.

☆ The godfather of the inverted yield curve breaks down why his famous recession indicator with a perfect track record won't be accurate this time around
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The inverted yield curve has preceded the last eight recessions. Right now, short-term inflation expectations are much higher than long-term inflation expectations, which means the real-yield on longer-duration bonds are higher. "You've got an inverted yield curve — people know that that's got a very strong track record. The inverted yield curve's legacyThe inverted yield curve has come to be revered as an extremely reliable harbinger of economic pain. December 2022. ustreasuryyieldcurve.comDecember 2012. www.ustreasuryyieldcurve.comAs for what Harvey thinks for the future of the yield curve as a recession indicator?

☆ Trump fans who buy a $99 NFT of him as a superhero will be entered to win a 'priceless' meeting at Mar-a-Lago — but they'll have to cover their own travel and lodging expenses
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday announced digital trading card NFTs featuring him. Money from sales of the NFTs will not go to the Trump campaign, according to the website. The trading cards are being sold as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, for $99 each. The website also approximated the cash value of the prizes that include meeting Trump as "$0/priceless." Collect all of your favorite Trump Digital Trading Cards, very much like a baseball card, but hopefully much more exciting."

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged seven social media influencers with securities fraud, saying Wednesday that they were part of a $100 million scheme to use social media platforms Twitter and Discord, as well as podcasts, to manipulate the price of certain stocks. Discord is a private chatroom and messaging platform that is popular with gaming influencers and, more recently, financial influencers. According to the SEC, seven of the defendants promoted stocks to their hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers and in stock trading rooms on Discord since at least January 2020. They would then promote the stock to their followers and inflate the share price, announcing price targets and teasing upcoming news about the company. Those stocks are often ripe for manipulation because they receive less attention and have lower trading volumes.

[1/2] The seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seen at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2021. "Securities fraud victimizes innocent investors and undermines the integrity of our public markets,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. His attorney did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Rybarczyk and Deel did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Reporting by Chris Prentice and Nate Raymond; Editing by Mark Porter and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Changes continued Monday as authorities announced a deactivation of the “mobile itinerary card” health tracking function planned for the following day. But as the scrapping of parts of the zero-Covid infrastructure come apace, there are questions about how the country’s health system will handle a mass outbreak. Throughout the weekend, some businesses were closed in Beijing, and city streets were largely deserted, as residents either fell ill or feared catching the virus. Covid was “spreading rapidly” driven by highly transmissible Omicron variants in China, a top Covid-19 expert, Zhong Nanshan, said in an interview published by state media Saturday. Authorities recorded 8,626 Covid-19 cases across China on Sunday, down from the previous day’s count of 10,597 and from the high of more than 40,000 daily cases late last month.

☆ Why news organizations are largely skeptical of Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter Files’ theater
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

With the so-called “Twitter Files,” Elon Musk is openly engaged in a game of information warfare, one that is shining a spotlight on the fragmented and partisan state of the modern day media landscape. That was the case on Monday when the fifth installment of the Twitter Files were released revealing some of the behind-the-scenes debate that preceded Donald Trump’s ban. Gerard Baker, the conservative former top editor of The Wall Street Journal, wrote Monday: “The Twitter Files tell us nothing new. There is a downside, however, to newsrooms generally choosing to avoid the Twitter Files mess: doing so allows the saga to become defined by dishonest actors in right-wing media. When I searched Google for the term “Twitter Files,” the three top stories on Monday were from Fox News, the New York Post, and the Washington Examiner.

☆ China operates more than 100 secret 'police stations' in dozens of countries to monitor its citizens in exile, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

China has more than 100 "police stations" globally to monitor its citizens in exile, a report said. Some of these facilities are set up with the help of the host nations, Safeguard Defenders alleged. Many of these stations are set up through bilateral security agreements with host countries in Europe and Africa, the report alleged. Safeguard Defenders tracked forced disappearances in China by looking through open-source, official Chinese documents for evidence of alleged human rights abuses. They have also claimed that some of the stations were set up in response to the pandemic, but the Safeguard Defenders report claimed that the offices were opened several years before.

☆ China operating over 100 police stations across the world with the help of some host nations, report claims
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Nina Dos Santos | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Madrid-based human rights campaigner Safeguard Defenders says it found evidence China was operating 48 additional police stations abroad since the group first revealed the existence of 54 such stations in September. When approached by CNN last month about Safeguard Defenders’ original allegations, China’s foreign affairs ministry said the overseas stations were staffed by volunteers. However, the organization’s latest report claims one police network it examined had hired 135 people for its first 21 stations. The organization also sourced a three-year contract for a worker hired at an overseas station in Stockholm. The NGO determines Italy has hosted 11 Chinese police stations, including in Venice and in Prato, near Florence.

[1/2] Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen announces to resign as Democratic Progressive Party chair to take responsibility for the party's performance in the local elections in Taipei, Taiwan, November 26, 2022. REUTERS/Ann WangTAIPEI, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Attention is turning to Taiwan's next presidential election in 2024 after the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was thrashed at local elections on Saturday, with President Tsai Ing-wen's move to focus on China backfiring with voters. Speaking to reporters late on Saturday at party headquarters, its chairman Eric Chu said the KMT understood that only by uniting could it win. But Tsai's strategy failed to mobilise voters, who disassociated geopolitics from the local elections which traditionally focus more on issues from crime to pollution. Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said last week Taiwan was seeing less Chinese interference ahead of the local elections, possibly due to China's own domestic problems and its efforts to improve its international image.

☆ Taiwan says it sees less Chinese interference ahead of elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Speaking to reporters ahead of Saturday's elections in Taiwan for mayors and councillors, Wu said China was always a factor when Taiwan voted, but this time around Beijing was meddling less. "I would describe it as that the Chinese interference in our election is not as prevailing as previous elections," he said. China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment. While China's military activities have continued, they have been at a much reduced scale. Wu said the elections were important for China too as Taiwan was a model for democracy in the Chinese-speaking world.

☆ Beijing pushes back on FBI claims of Chinese ‘police stations’ in U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

China on Friday pushed back on claims it was operating ‘police stations’ on U.S. soil, calling the sites volunteer-run, after the FBI director said he was “very concerned” about unauthorized stations that have been linked to Beijing’s influence operations. Safeguard Defenders, a Europe-based human rights organization, published a report in September revealing the presence of dozens of Chinese police “service stations” in major cities around the world, including New York. The Embassy did not respond immediately to a Reuters request for a list of the sites. Members of the British parliament have also called for investigations into similar sites. Republicans in the U.S. Congress, including Representative Jim Banks, have requested answers from the Biden administration about the operations of the sites.

☆ China pushes back on FBI claims of Chinese 'police stations' in U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - China on Friday pushed back on claims it was operating 'police stations' on U.S. soil, calling the sites volunteer-run, after the FBI director said he was "very concerned" about unauthorized stations that have been linked to Beijing's influence operations. Safeguard Defenders, a Europe-based human rights organization, published a report in September revealing the presence of dozens of Chinese police "service stations" in major cities around the world, including New York. China's Embassy in Washington acknowledged the existence of volunteer-run sites in the United States, but said they were not "police stations" or "police service centers." Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, said such stations needed to be "stopped in their tracks." "By allowing the CCP to operate these types of institutions in their countries, international governments are complicit in Beijing's actions," Clifford said.

[1/2] Semiconductor chips are seen on a circuit board of a computer in this illustration picture taken February 25, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo/IllustrationTAIPEI, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has decried what she called "rumours" about the risk of investing in the island's semiconductor industry and said the government was working hard to ensure investments continued. But the Chinese military's menacing of the island to assert Beijing's sovereignty claims, especially after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in August, is causing the chip industry to rethink the risk surrounding Taiwan. Tsai, who met with ASML Holding's (ASML.AS) chief operations officer Frederic Schneider-Maunoury on Tuesday, praised the European manufacturer of chip-making equipment for its commitment to investing in Taiwan. Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Sarah Wu; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Edwina GibbsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Cramer's lightning round: I'm sticking with Nvidia
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

I think a year from now, the stock's going to be higher, and I'm sticking with Nvidia." Loading chart...Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc : "I don't like hyping phase 1, but I do think they have some interesting formulations." I don't recommend stocks that are losing money." Loading chart...SoFi Technologies Inc : "I'm willing to back [CEO Anthony Noto] right here, right now." Disclaimer: Cramer's Charitable Trust owns shares of Nvidia.

☆ The UN has said nuclear war is 'back within the realm of possibility.' Here are the places in the US most likely to be hit in a nuclear attack.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Alex Lockie | Abbie Shull | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier in the year that nuclear war is "back within the realm of possibility." A Russian nuclear attack would likely focus on high-value targets in North Dakota or Montana. Even if every single US intercontinental ballistic missile silo, stockpiled nuclear weapon, and nuclear-capable bomber were flattened, US nuclear submarines could — and would — retaliate. Brooke Buddemeier/Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryThe US has strategically positioned the bulk of its nuclear forces, which double as nuclear targets, far from population centers. Update: This article was originally published in 2017 but has since been updated and re-published amid concerns that the war in Ukraine could escalate to nuclear war.

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