Society's ChildS


Footprints

Chinese companies retreat from US market, fastest pace since 2015

Street in China
© China Daily
Chinese companies are ditching their U.S. listings at the fastest pace since 2015 as they grapple with rising tensions between Beijing and Washington.

The latest is China's biggest online classified firm 58.com, which on Monday agreed to a buyout deal led by private equity firms Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic. An investor group backed by Chinese tech tycoon Pony Ma's Tencent Holdings said last week it will take Bitauto Holdings private in a deal valuing the car-listing website at $1.1 billion.

So far this year, U.S.-listed Chinese companies have announced four go-private deals with a combined value of $8.1 billion including debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That's up from zero during the same period last year. It's also the highest value for any full year since 2015, when $29.8 billion of such buyouts were announced.

The uptick comes as President Donald Trump weighs tighter scrutiny on Chinese companies after a string of accounting scandals including Luckin Coffee that have burned some of Wall Street's biggest names. Nasdaq is planning new rules that would make initial public offerings more difficult for some Chinese firms, potentially curtailing their access to the world's biggest capital market.

Burka

Norway: Integration report shows significant skepticism towards Islam

burka person
© Look Press/Alexander Widding
A recent survey conducted in Norway found that the majority of respondents were skeptical of Islam and immigration, with many blaming immigrants themselves for a lack of integration into Norwegian society.

The 2020 Integration Barometer, commissioned by the Norwegian Integration and Diversity Directorate (IMDI), recently published the results from its ninth survey since 2005 and they make for unsettling reading for immigration advocates.

Only one fifth of respondents said that immigration worked 'very' or 'quite' well, while 79 percent of Norwegians argued any shortcomings of integration are due to lack of effort from immigrants themselves.

Some 52 percent believe the values of Islam are incompatible with Norwegian society, with 56 percent are skeptical of having a Muslim son-in-law or daughter-in-law, 45 percent are skeptical of Muslims overall, while 70 percent were skeptical of those with a "strong Muslim faith."

However, many also expressed wariness towards those with strong Christian beliefs (54 percent) which was a higher degree of reticence than towards those of a "moderate Muslim faith" (34 percent). "We thus see that skepticism about religious beliefs is not just about specific religions, but also about how strong the beliefs are perceived," the report said.

Beer

How to bankrupt your company: Airlines take alcohol off the in-flight menu as part of COVID-19 response

flight attendant
Alcohol sales may have boomed during lockdown, but our return to air travel will be an altogether more sobering experience.

Airlines including Easyjet and KLM in Europe, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines in the United States, and Asia's Virgin Australia, are suspending all or part of their alcoholic drinks service in response to COVID-19.

It's part of a widespread revision of the industry's food and drink service to minimize interaction between crew and passengers and to ensure a safer journey for all.

With face masks already mandatory on pretty much all flights around the world, and new legislation introduced in January 2020 to curb anti-social behavior on flights, it's another in a line of barriers — literal and legal — to getting high in the sky.

Many airlines are limiting drink options to water only. As face masks must be kept on other than when passengers are eating and drinking, it's a way of ensuring passengers are lingering over their refreshments for no longer than necessary.

Propaganda

NBC News' attempt to demonetize the Federalist website is illiberal insanity

NBC building
© Reuters / Mike BlakeNBC offices
NBC News reported today that two sites, ZeroHedge and the Federalist, had been banned from generating revenue through widely-used Google Ads. A Google spokesperson initially told NBC News that "took action after determining the websites violated its policies on content related to race."

I don't know much about ZeroHedge, but the contention that the Federalist (where I worked as a senior editor from 2013 to 2019) is "far-right," as reporter Adele-Momoko Fraser claims twice in her piece, is utter nonsense. The Federalist publishes a wide variety of opinions. Some pieces are more provocative than others. Some are very provocative. So what? NBC News is trying to make the site sound like the Daily Stormer, when in fact it has contributions from well-known mainstream libertarians, social conservatives, and moderate Republicans. All of the content falls well within normal parameters of contemporary political discourse — which is exactly what outlets such as NBC News are trying to shut down.

Comment: Senior Federalist journalist Mollie Hemingway fires back:


Wider commentary reported by RT:

Google confirmed the Federalist was never actually demonetized in a tweet after NBC updated its article. However, the original version of NBC's article cited a Google spokesperson clearly stating "we've removed both sites' ability to monetize with Google," explaining that both sites "violated its policies on content related to race."


While it's impossible to tell without a link, the Federalist specifically called out NBC for directing its reporters not to use the word "riot" to describe the violent unrest unfolding in Minneapolis in the days following George Floyd's killing - an act which might have triggered the network's wrath.

The deplatforming raised more than a few eyebrows on social media as commenters wondered when it became acceptable journalistic practice to rat out one's competitors for insufficient wokeness.



Some questioned when Google had begun demonetizing sites over the content of their comment sections - a policy that would seem to fly in the face of Section 230 protections, which don't only apply to giant tech platforms.


A handful of threats ominously suggested the Daily Caller was "next."


The conservative outlet filmed and reported on Washington DC rioters' attack on an NBC news crew just after midnight on June 3 - something the channel itself conspicuously avoided doing, going out of its way to avoid mentioning the violent interruption to what was otherwise reportedly a peaceful night.



Cut

Tired of hypocrisy: Orthodox Jewish activists use bolt cutters to reopen New York park closed under Covid-19 lockdown

locked gate, Orthodox Jews
© Reuters / Murad Sezer; Reuters / Shannon StapletonFILE PHOTOS.
Growing restless under New York City's ongoing coronavirus lockdown, a group of Orthodox Jews have taken matters into their own hands, using a pair of bolt cutters to forcefully reopen a park shuttered as part of the restrictions.

Led by activist Heshy Tischler and a number of state assemblymen, the group was seen in videos shared to social media on Monday breaking the lock off a gate barring the entrance to a park in Williamsburg, allowing a crowd gathered outside to enter, to cheers of "Heshy!"


Comment: Update:

Protests good, playgrounds bad? NYC mayor chews out locals reopening kids' parks after cheering on George Floyd marchers
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had harsh words for parents and neighborhood groups "taking the law into their own hands" by cutting locks on city playgrounds, but has continued to defend the protesters who crowd city streets.

The mayor scolded New Yorkers for busting open padlocked playgrounds, during a press conference on Tuesday at which he reminded reporters that the sites are set to remain closed until "Phase 2" of post-coronavirus reopening.

We're not going to allow people to take the law into their own hands. It just doesn't work.
Insisting the continued closure of children's play-spaces is "for a reason," de Blasio insisted he'd been "very sympathetic" and tried to "make it work," but blamed parents for not following the rules. He also threatened to postpone Phase 2 or even return to full lockdown if city residents refused to cooperate, hinting that any suggestion the virus was spreading would push any hoped-for playground reopening into the distant future.

De Blasio's recriminations were playground-specific for a reason, however. The mayor was photographed marching with protesters in East Harlem on Sunday, and has repeatedly defended the George Floyd protesters' flouting of the Covid-19 social distancing measures he insists on applying elsewhere with an iron fist, proclaiming that "an extraordinary crisis seated in 400 years of American racism" trumps "the understandably aggrieved store owner or the devout religious person."

A Hasidic Jewish group was filmed cutting the lock on Williamsburg's Middleton Playground on Monday, presumably reasoning that with the massive protests that have thronged the streets over the past three weeks, the logic that children must be barred from climbing on play equipment for the sake of "social distancing" has been utterly shredded.



Hardhat

Vandalism is POP now: Popular Mechanics under fire for science-friendly advice on 'how to topple statues' & not hurt anyone

topple statues Popular Mechanics
© Popular Mechanics
The hit science magazine Popular Mechanics has sparked backlash online after embracing the violent side of the ongoing protests in the US, giving step-by-step instructions on how to safely raze monuments to historical figures.

Eager to commit an act of vandalism but have little experience and want to make sure you don't accidentally hurt your co-conspirators in the process? Rest reassured, Popular Mechanics is here to lend a helping hand and a piece of expert advice.

In its article published on Monday, the science magazine provided elaborate step-by-step guidelines on how to "bring that sucker down without anyone getting hurt." Rallying behind the rampant destruction of historical monuments across the US amid allegations that they celebrate a legacy of racism, the magazine said that it asked "scientists for the best, safest ways to bring it to the ground without anyone getting hurt - except, of course, for the inanimate racist who's been dead for a century anyway."

Star of David

Israeli analyst ponders why there are so many wars in the Middle East, misses the main point

Israel's IDF
© CC BY 2.0The IDF on patrol
Since the Second World War, there have been over two dozen major armed conflicts and prolonged insurgencies in the oil-rich region, with Israel alone involved in about a dozen of them.

The Middle East is easily the most conflict-prone region in the world, and there's no sign the violence is going to end any time soon, says Seth J. Frantzman, a Middle East affairs analyst at the Jerusalem Post.

In an article for the newspaper on Monday, the observer asked why the region has so many more wars than any other place on Earth. The answer, he believes, is the region's complexity, its home to great power competition, and the sense of "impunity" that some regional powers have "to traffic weapons and send their armies across borders."

Comment: None so blind as those who will not see.


NPC

Aunt Jemima brand to change name, remove image that Quaker says is 'based on a racial stereotype'

Aunt Jemima
© PAUL TAGGART—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
The Aunt Jemima brand of syrup and pancake mix will get a new name and image, Quaker Oats announced Wednesday, saying the company recognizes that "Aunt Jemima's origins are based on a racial stereotype."

The 130-year-old brand features a Black woman named Aunt Jemima, who was originally dressed as a minstrel character.

The picture has changed over time, and in recent years Quaker removed the "mammy" kerchief from the character to blunt growing criticism that the brand perpetuated a racist stereotype that dated to the days of slavery. But Quaker, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, said removing the image and name is part of an effort by the company "to make progress toward racial equality."

"We recognize Aunt Jemima's origins are based on a racial stereotype," Kristin Kroepfl, vice president and chief marketing officer of Quaker Foods North America, said in a press release. "As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers' expectations."

Comment: The absurdity of the outrage mob continues.


Bad Guys

Cuomo's New York: 250 inmates freed from prison have already been rearrested 450 times

Andrew Cuomo
© Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty ImagesNew York Gov. (D)
At least 250 convicted and accused criminals freed from New York's Rikers Island prison have been rearrested 450 times thanks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's (D) jailbreak directive.

New York Police Department (NYPD) data reported by NBC New York's Melissa Russo reveals that since Cuomo issued a statewide order demanding jails and prisons release inmates to abide by social distancing measures in late March, at least 250 inmates from Rikers Island have been rearrested.

Comment: Just one example of Cuomo's mishandling of the "pandemic". One would wonder if such ineptness isn't deliberate.


Eye 2

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman accused of fueling false 'revenge porn' allegations against CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou

northrup grummon defence contractor building
Northrup Grummon headquarters
Northrop Grumman, the third largest military contractor in the world, was allegedly involved in falsely accusing CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou of "revenge porn."

The false accusation allegedly resulted in his arrest, improper charges, and a police raid that violated his privacy rights.

A civil lawsuit further claims the false accusation contributed to the "loss of contact" with his three children, who are eight, 13, and 15 years old.

He seeks damages from Northrop, John Bamford, an Arlington County police detective, and his ex-wife Heather Kiriakou.

Comment: