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Stock Up

Jack Ma founder of Alibaba warns 'If trade stops, war starts'

Executive chairman of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma.
© Sam Yeh / AFP
Executive chairman of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma.
Retreat from globalization will only result in trouble, warned China's second richest man Jack Ma during a visit to Australia.

"Everybody is concerned about trade wars. If trade stops, war starts," he said in Melbourne, where the e-commerce giant Alibaba opened its Australia and New Zealand headquarters.

"But worry doesn't solve the problem. The only thing you can do is get involved and actively prove that trade helps people to communicate," said Alibaba's CEO, as quoted by Business Insider Australia.

Black Cat 2

Taiwan bans euthanasia of stray animals in shelters

Animal euthanasia in Taiwan
© AFP/Sam Yeh
A protester holds a picture of dead dogs during a demonstration in front of the Taiwan government's agriculture council, in Taipei, in 2013.
Taiwan has banned euthanising animals in shelters, which follows the tragic suicide last year of a vet burdened with the task of putting down animals.

The law came into effect Saturday (Feb 4), two years after it was passed by parliament - a period meant to prepare shelters for the ban.

But during the wait, animal lover Chien Chih-cheng took her own life with euthanasia drugs, reportedly upset at having to kill animals at the shelter she worked at. Reports at the time said Chien was called a "butcher" by activists. Her death sparked calls for authorities to improve conditions for animals and staff at shelters.

An animal welfare group, Life Conservationist Association, estimated more than 1.2 million animals not adopted from shelters have been put down since 1999.

"Animal protection in Taiwan has moved towards a new milestone," the association's executive director Ho Tsung-hsun said in a statement. But Taiwan's Council of Agriculture warned the ban would lead to a deterioration in the quality of shelters through a surging intake or it may discourage the capture of strays.

Alarm Clock

Four Texas fraternities suspended under reports of hazing, party where 20-year-old student found dragged to death

Jordin Taylor
© Courtesy/Twitter
Jordin Taylor
Memorandums sent to four fraternities at Texas State detailing their suspensions — one for up to 5 years — shed new light on the events of an October party held at the same venue a female student was found dead under a bus.

A university investigation found Pi Kappa Alpha, Alpha Tau Omega, Kappa Alpha Order and Delta Tau Delta each participated in hazing and serving minors, among other violations including submitting false documents to Texas State, according to the memorandums obtained by mySA.com.

Local law enforcement agencies called to Cool River Ranch for the Oct. 28, 2016 party found vomit in the facility's bathrooms, and passed out party-goers throughout the area. Additionally, the university investigation revealed that EMS officials were called to the party the night before a 20-year-old was found dead.

"The investigation found that attendees were intoxicated to the point of being unconscious as they laid on the ground or being intoxicated to the point of throwing up," each memorandum states.

In the notice sent to Alpha Tau Omega, officials said the fraternity was found to have texted a chapter member to tell university officials that the party was not one of their events, drinks were not being served from the bar and that everyone had their own drinks. However, the investigation found the fraternities were responsible for serving beer and boxed wine at the event.

USA

South Carolina elects its first openly gay legislator

Rep. Jason Elliot
© Sean Rayford/AP
State Rep. Jason Elliott, South Carolina’s first openly gay lawmaker, represents a portion of Greenville that includes conservative Bob Jones University in the S.C. House.
South Carolina's first openly gay legislator hails from the unlikeliest of places: an ultra-conservative part of the state that is home to the Christian fundamentalist school Bob Jones University.

Republican Rep. Jason Elliott, a 46-year-old divorce attorney, said his sexual orientation was not an issue in his campaign and is irrelevant to his job at the Statehouse, as his focus will be on improving education, increasing jobs and repairing the state's crumbling roads and bridges. He expects his votes to align with his GOP colleagues.

"Every South Carolinian has equal rights, not special rights, and I believe each part of the constitution is equally important," he said. "In South Carolina, that means respecting other people's viewpoints and protecting religious freedom."

Elliott ousted four-term GOP incumbent Rep. Wendy Nanney, a Bob Jones graduate and daughter of the university's longtime academic dean.

Deeply Republican South Carolina is now the 43rd state to have an openly gay legislator. Elliott does not view his election as particularly significant.

Stock Down

Economic analysis shows income inequality growing in US, but not as the result of globalization

boy in camden nj
© Spencer Platt / Getty
A scene from Camden, NJ.
Boosting inclusive economic growth was one of the few issues on which Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at least purported to agree. Clinton said she wanted to build a "growth-and-fairness economy," emphasizing that "you can't have one without the other." Donald Trump argued that "no one will gain more" from his America First Economic Plan proposals "than low-and-middle income Americans." And Bernie Sanders based his entire campaign on the distributional battle between the very rich and the middle class.

Inclusive growth is a hotly debated topic in the global context as well. Consider Branko Milanovic and Christoph Lakner's famous Elephant Curve (so named because of its shape). It reveals strong growth at the mean of the global income distribution (in the neighborhood of $5 to $15 a day), and among the top 1 percent (the truly rich), but identifies stagnation in the 80 to 85 percent region (which is where the bottom half of residents of most developed countries would fall.)

We know the United States faces challenges on the subject of inclusive growth. But how has the US performed compared to other rich countries? To answer these questions, we have to think about how we measure income growth. GDP per capita is usually the first metric people use for this purpose. Yet, growth in GDP per capita does not tell us anything about the extent to which growth is shared among the population.

Comment: This data would suggest then that it's been the government administrations (the Bush/Clinton/Obama dynasty) that have been in power in the US that have been contributing to the growing income inequality.


Light Sabers

Scott Adams: A thought experiment about republicans

democrats vs republicans states
The left has done a stellar job of demonizing Trump supporters and Republicans in general. Their excellent persuasion involves conflating the bad apples with the entire group. Both sides do it. The right calls everyone on the left selfish snowflakes, and the left calls everyone on the right racists. They do it because it works. The brain likes to conflate things. And if the shiniest object in our view involves headlines about racists, or lefty rioters, those images stick in our minds and taint our impressions of the entire group.

So let's try this thought experiment.

Comment: Takeaway message: Democrats are suffering a bad case of that "first criterion of ponerogenesis", i.e. they're totally blind to the presence and influence of pathological agitators in their midst. And that's a dangerous thing.


Heart - Black

World's worst dumps: Three no-go zones where garbage rules creating toxic cities (DOCUMENTARY)

Garbage dumps
© RT
Where does your garbage end up? Hopefully, it is recycled. But this relatively new tradition has not yet reached many places around the world, where hundreds of hectares of land are swallowed up by landfills and waste dumps.

'The Mine' of Guatemala City

An infamous rubbish dump just outside of Guatemala City is the biggest landfill in Central America, with 16 hectares of land covered with all sorts of trash. Known as Zone 3 or Basurero, which stands for 'dump,' it receives a third of the country's total waste.

It is also a source of income for thousands of impoverished locals who rummage through the rubbish in search of things that can be reused or sold for recycling, giving Zone 3 the nickname of 'the Mine.'

On one end, the dump neighbors the shacks of the 'miners,' and on the other - the city's cemetery, which is perched just outside the Basurero. When the family of someone buried in the cemetery can no longer pay for the spot, the coffin of the deceased is simply dug up and dumped into the pit - after all, Guatemala has no restrictions on things that can be dumped there. Some locals compare 'the Mine' to a wild beast, and many believe the place is haunted by evil spirits.

Briefcase

Man in Somerset, England found with two million child abuse videos, walks after judge forced to hand lenient sentence

Judge David
© Somerset Live / SWNS
Judge David slammed sentencing guidelines which meant he couldn't jail Brooks
Judge David Ticehurst freed monster Edward Brooks' who was hoarding vile videos of children on his computer

A judge slammed sentencing guidelines which he said left him no alternative but to free a pedophile found with over two MILLION child abuse videos.

Sickened police found Edward Brooks' vile hoard hidden on computers and hard drives in a cavity wall.

Prosecutor Nikki Coombe said it was so big officers were been unable to categorise them all.

The videos - downloaded over a ten-year period - mainly featured girls aged between 12 and 14, Taunton Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

Brooks, 50, was arrested and bailed by police after they discovered the stash last February.

But shortly afterwards he logged back on and downloaded a further 2,231 sexual photos and videos of girls aged between eight and 16.

Handcuffs

Handcuffed woman who fell out of moving police car fending off rapist cop awarded $3.5 million

Officers David Shin and Jin Oh

Officers David Shin and Jin Oh
Taxpayers of Los Angeles will have to pay for their police department's misconduct yet again, as a woman who fell out of a squad car in 2013 has been granted a $3.5 million settlement.

Kim Nguyen had been arrested for alleged public drunkenness, handcuffed, and put in the back of a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car. At speeds of around 30 mph, Nguyen leaned against one of the back doors — which turned out to be unlocked — in an attempt to escape a sexual assault by one of the officers, according to her lawsuit.

Reports My News LA:
"Officers David Shin and Jin Oh arrested Nguyen for public intoxication after they saw her run across the street about 3 a.m. on March 17, 2013. At the time, Nguyen was a graduate student in her last semester at Loyola Marymount University's MBA program.

"Nguyen was handcuffed and put in the back seat of a squad car off Sixth Street between Oxford and Serrano avenues, according to her court papers, which state that she 'was not seatbelted into the car and the manual door lock was not engaged.'

Quenelle

Nearly 70% want French presidential hopeful Fillon out of election race - poll

Francois Fillon
© Benoit Tessier / Reuters
Francois Fillon

Around 68 percent of respondents want French presidential hopeful François Fillon to withdraw from the election, a new poll shows. Fillon's popularity plunged following allegations that his wife was paid hundreds of thousands of euros for a fake job.

The blow to Fillon's reputation was measured by an Ifop poll conducted for Le Journal du Dimanche.

Only 23 percent of those who took part in the poll consider the conservative candidate, who was until recently poised to become France's next president, "honest," compared with 77 percent who think he is not.

"Francois Fillon is clearly paying the price for the affair," Frédéric Dabi, the deputy general manager of Ifop, said on Saturday, referring to the scandal - dubbed Penelopegate - which revolves around claims that his British wife, Penelope Fillon, was paid colossal sums of public money for doing a fake job as a parliamentary aid.