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  • China censors women modeling lingerie on livestream shopping — so men are doing it | CNN Business

    China censors women modeling lingerie on livestream shopping — so men are doing it | CNN Business


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Donning a sassy piece of silk lingerie, a male model grooves to the beat and forms a heart shape with his fingers during a livestreaming session on Douyin, one of China’s most popular video-sharing platforms.

    His modeling performance is the latest illustration of the kind of entrepreneurial innovation sometimes needed to bypass China’s rigorous internet censorship, a dragnet that can ensnare seemingly innocuous activities – in this case retailers selling women’s underwear online.

    China deploys one of the world’s most stringent censorship regimes, with a track record of blocking out not just politically sensitive information but images of women’s bodies deemed marginally racy.

    Several businesses specializing in selling lingerie through livestreaming have had their sessions cut short after they featured a female model and their brush with internet censorship came to light in January.

    Hence the use of men instead.

    On one of the sales channels, a man is seen dressed in black lingerie, standing next to a mannequin showing a similar outfit, in what appears to be a screenshot of a livestream broadcast on Alibaba

    (BABA)    ’s Taobao Live, a streaming platform for the e-commerce giant.

    In another image, a different male model put on a pink slip dress and silky shawl, accessorized with cat ear headbands.

    In one livestream clip, carried by multiple state media outlets, an owner of an online venture said he was simply trying to play it safe.

    “This is not an attempt at sarcasm. Everyone is being very serious about complying with the rules,” the man, who identified himself as Mr Xu, said.

    The emergence of male lingerie models has caused mixed views online in China, from merriment and annoyance to reluctant acceptance.

    “So what should I do if I want to promote and showcase lingerie in the live broadcast session? It’s very simple, find a man to wear it,” read one comment on China’s microblogging site Weibo.

    A man in a mini slip dress and velvet robe models beside a woman in pajamas in a video posted on Douyin on February 17, 2023.

    Livestreaming sales of products is a multibillion-dollar industry in mainland China, and was given a major boost during the three years of the country’s strict Covid lockdowns that battered many bricks and mortar businesses.

    As of June last year, the number of livestreaming e-commerce users in mainland China is over 460 million, according to the Academy of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, a body affiliated with Beijing’s commerce ministry.

    A 2021 report by iResearch, a Beijing-based firm specializing in measuring audience growth online, predicted the livestream sector would be worth as much as $720 billion this year.

    Male models are not the only workaround.

    On Douyin, the Chinese domestic version of TikTok, other female models have circumvented the censorship by showcasing the latest style of lingerie on themselves on top of a t-shirt they are already wearing.

    Others displayed the items on mannequins.

    In 2015, China led a crackdown on television shows exposing actresses’ cleavage, forcing some of the most popular costume dramas to zoom in on their faces to avoid getting into trouble with the broadcast authorities.

    Having male influencers promoting female-oriented products is not new in China, either.

    One of the industry’s most successful livestream shopping influencers is Austin Li Jiaqi, who made his name as the “Lipstick King” after selling 15,000 lipsticks in just five minutes in 2018.

    As one of China’s biggest internet celebrities, Li also peddles cosmetics, skincare products and fashion apparel, often applying products he’s selling to his own face.

    Even outside of China, platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have faced criticism for restricting the sharing of images involving partial nudity, especially of women.

    Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, restricts the sharing of breasts, although it says it intends “to allow images that are shared for medical or health purposes.” But even Meta’s own Oversight Board has called on the company to make its policy less confusing and more gender inclusive.

    YouTube says it prohibits “the depiction of clothed or unclothed genitals, breasts, or buttocks that are meant for sexual gratification,” but it may age-restrict other images or videos involving nudity.

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  • HSBC is buying SVB’s UK business for just over $1 | CNN Business

    HSBC is buying SVB’s UK business for just over $1 | CNN Business


    Hong Kong/London
    CNN
     — 

    HSBC has scooped up the UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank for £1 ($1.2), just days after its business in the United States collapsed in stunning fashion.

    SVB UK would have been placed into insolvency by the Bank of England following the failure of its parent, had a buyer not been found.

    In a statement, the Bank of England said it “can confirm that all depositors’ money with SVB UK is safe and secure as a result of this transaction.”

    Europe’s biggest bank announced the acquisition early Monday morning, saying the deal would be effective “immediately.”

    In a statement, HSBC CEO Noel Quinn said the deal means that “SVB UK customers can continue to bank as usual, safe in the knowledge that their deposits are backed by the strength, safety and security of HSBC.”

    “This acquisition makes excellent strategic sense for our business in the UK,” he said. “It strengthens our commercial banking franchise and enhances our ability to serve innovative and fast-growing firms, including in the technology and life-science sectors, in the UK and internationally.”

    As of last Friday, SVB UK had loans of approximately £5.5 billion ($6.7 billion) and deposits of around £6.7 billion ($8.1 billion), according to the statement. It also logged a pretax profit of £88 million ($106.5 million) in its last fiscal year ended December.

    SVB, a lender best known for providing financing to startups, had faced liquidity concerns in the United States, triggering a huge bank run last week. That ultimately led to its collapse, the second-biggest of a financial institution in US history, on Friday.

    US financial regulators reacted swiftly to concerns of contagion over the weekend, announcing that customers of the failed bank would get access to all their money starting Monday.

    Authorities have also guaranteed deposits for customers of Signature Bank, a regional US lender shut down by regulators because it had faced financial trouble in recent days.

    — This is a developing story and will be updated.

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  • Washington Post: Judge keeps plans for medication abortion hearing out of public view for now | CNN Politics

    Washington Post: Judge keeps plans for medication abortion hearing out of public view for now | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    A federal judge has set a hearing for next week in a blockbuster medication abortion case in Texas but took a series of highly unusual steps to delay making the public aware that such a hearing was being scheduled, The Washington Post reported.

    US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who is hearing the case, held a private call Friday with the case’s lawyers and scheduled the hearing for Wednesday, according to the Post. The call was not publicly noticed on the case’s docket, nor did the judge issue a public order announcing that Wednesday’s hearing had been scheduled. The case is not under seal.

    In the case, anti-abortion doctors are asking the judge – an appointee of former President Donald Trump – to undo the federal government’s 2000 approval of pills used to terminate a pregnancy. Such a move could cut off access nationwide to the most common method of abortion.

    Kacsmaryk told the lawyers on the call, according to the newspaper, that he would hold off on publicly announcing the Wednesday hearing until Tuesday evening, so as to limit disruptions and potential protests at the proceeding. He also asked that the attorneys on the call – which reportedly included the Justice Department’s lawyers who are defending the drug’s approval, lawyers for the anti-abortion activists who are challenging it, and lawyers for a company that distributes the drug and has intervened in the case – not to publicize the hearing plans before then.

    The judge’s efforts to limit transparency around Wednesday’s hearing comes in a case that has major implications for access to abortion and is arguably the biggest legal battle over the procedure since the Supreme Court overturned nationwide abortion protections in a ruling last June.

    Voicemails left by CNN on Sunday morning with the court’s clerk’s office and with Kacsmaryk’s chambers about the Post’s Saturday night report were not immediately returned.

    The case is unfolding in Amarillo – a far-flung court division in Texas’ northern panhandle that is a several hours’ drive from the state’s biggest cities and has only limited direct flight routes. Federal judicial proceedings typically play out in public.

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  • Record-strength Cyclone Freddy pounds Mozambique after making second landfall | CNN

    Record-strength Cyclone Freddy pounds Mozambique after making second landfall | CNN

    Cyclone Freddy battered central Mozambique on Sunday after making landfall for a second time in a month, breaking records for the duration and strength of tropical storms in the southern hemisphere.

    Communications and electricity supply in the storm area have been cut so the extent of the damage and number of casualties were not clear.

    More than 171,000 people were affected after the cyclone swept through southern Mozambique last month, killing 27 people in Mozambique and Madagascar. More than half a million are at risk of being affected in Mozambique this time, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

    UNICEF said in a statement that Freddy made landfall with sustained winds of nearly 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour), causing “severe damage and cutting off children and families from critical services.” After passing the port town of Quelimane, the storm continued inland towards the southern tip of neighboring Malawi, satellite data showed.

    However, the national power company Electricidade de Moçambique said that by mid-afternoon electricity had been restored in most areas, with the exception of Milange, Lugela, Maganja da Costa, Namanjavira and parts of the city of Mocuba.

    “The wind was very strong into the night … There is a lot of destruction, trees fallen down, roofs blown off,” Guy Taylor, the UNICEF chief of advocacy, communications and partnerships for Mozambique, told Reuters by satellite phone from Quelimane. He had no word yet on casualties or numbers of displaced.

    “It’s potentially a disaster of large magnitude, and additional support will be needed,” Taylor said, adding that heavy rains were continuing to fall.

    A tree lays across a street in Quelimane on Sunday after Freddy made its second landfall in Mozambique.

    In Malawi, authorities were bracing for the cyclone to pass near the southern tip of the landlocked country by evening, bringing torrential rains and flooding, the department of meteorological resources and climate change said in a statement.

    Freddy developed on February 6 off the northwest Australian coast, before tracking thousands of miles across the South Indian Ocean towards southeast Africa, affecting the islands of Mauritius and La Réunion on the way.

    The storm hit the eastern coast of Madagascar on February 21 before slamming into Mozambique a few days later, bringing torrential rain, destructive winds and flooding which has destroyed houses and affected nearly 2 million people.

    It then looped back out towards the Mozambique Channel, gaining energy from the warm waters, and headed toward the southwestern coast of Madagascar.

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  • Parisian streets littered with trash after wave of strikes | CNN

    Parisian streets littered with trash after wave of strikes | CNN


    Paris
    CNN
     — 

    The City of Lights has a garbage problem.

    Massive strikes in Paris against pension reform this week are affecting trash pickup services in the French capital, with piles of waste sitting on many of the city’s normally picturesque streets, including those just steps from monuments like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.

    As of Saturday, about 4,400 tonnes of trash were awaiting collection, a spokeswoman for the Paris mayor’s office said. The spokeswoman said that the problem is a blockage at trash incinerators caused by the strikes. Garbage trucks have thus been unable to pick up waste in much of the city because they have nowhere to put it.

    Not all neighborhoods have been equally affected. The municipal government is in charge of garbage collection in half of Paris’ 20 arrondissements. Private contractors are responsible for the other 10.

    Municipal services like trash collection in Paris have been affected since Tuesday, when strikes saw flights and trains canceled and delayed; oil refiners blockaded; schools shuttered; and left thousands without electricity. The French capital was the most affected, with nearly 60% of its primary school teachers walking out and the local metro forced to cut service to all but the busiest times.

    Massive protests have been staged regularly throughout France since January 19, with more than a million people coming out multiple to voice their opposition to the government’s plan to raise the official retirement age for most workers as part of reforms to the government’s pension system, one of Europe’s most generous.

    As of Saturday, about 4,400 metric tones of trash were awaiting collection on the streets of Paris, a spokeswoman for the mayor's office said.

    President Emmanuel Macron’s government says the changes are necessary to make the system financially stable.

    The trash buildup in Paris has been sparked health concerns among Parisians and local politicians. The mayor of the 17th arrondissement, Geoffroy Boulard, said in an interview with CNN affiliate BFMTV that he has asked Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo to hire a private service provider to intervene.

    “We can’t wait,” he said. “This is a matter of public health.”

    Boulard said he’s also worried about the proliferation of rats and rodents as well as Paris’ image.

    Another local mayor, Jean-Pierre Lecoq of the 6th arrondissement, asked Hidalgo to intervene in an open letter he published on Twitter.

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  • Treasury secretary rules out bailout for Silicon Valley Bank | CNN Politics

    Treasury secretary rules out bailout for Silicon Valley Bank | CNN Politics


    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday ruled out a federal bailout for Silicon Valley Bank following its spectacular collapse last week.

    “Let me be clear that during the financial crisis, there were investors and owners of systemic large banks that were bailed out, and we’re certainly not looking,” Yellen told CBS News when asked if there will be a bailout. “And the reforms that have been put in place means that we’re not going to do that again.”

    Also Sunday, Shalanda Young, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, stressed in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “State of the Union” that the US banking system at large was “more resilient” now.

    “It has a better foundation than before the [2008] financial crisis. That’s largely due to the reforms put in place,” Young said on “State of the Union.”

    Yellen said she’s been hearing from depositors all weekend, many of whom are “small businesses” and employ thousands of people. “I’ve been working all weekend with our banking regulators to design appropriate policies to address this situation,” the Treasury secretary said, declining to provide further details.

    SVB collapsed Friday morning after a stunning 48 hours in which a bank run and a capital crisis led to the second-largest failure of a financial institution in US history.

    California regulators closed down the tech lender and put it under the control of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC is acting as a receiver, which typically means it will liquidate the bank’s assets to pay back its customers, including depositors and creditors.

    Despite initial panic on Wall Street over the run on SVB, which caused its shares to crater, analysts said the bank’s collapse is unlikely to set off the kind of domino effect that gripped the banking industry during the financial crisis.

    But the collapse has prompted a bailout debate in Washington as lawmakers assess the fallout.

    Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina told Collins in a separate interview on “State of the Union” that she doesn’t support a bailout “at this time” but cautioned, “It’s still very early.”

    “We cannot keep bailing out private companies because there’s no consequences to their actions. People, when they make mistakes or break the law, have to be held accountable in this country,” she said.

    While relatively unknown outside Silicon Valley, SVB was among the top 20 American commercial banks, with $209 billion in total assets at the end of last year, according to the FDIC. It’s the largest lender to fail since Washington Mutual collapsed in 2008.

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  • Norfolk Southern balks at compensating homeowners in East Palestine | CNN Business

    Norfolk Southern balks at compensating homeowners in East Palestine | CNN Business


    Washington, DC
    CNN
     — 

    Jim Stewart was getting ready to sell his home in East Palestine, Ohio, and retire. Then came the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train on February 3, releasing toxic chemicals into the air and nearby water, and he fears crashing the value of his home.

    He and his wife hoped to put their three-bedroom home on the market this spring, as prices were still high and inventory was low. Alternatively, they talked about his son’s family buying a house that was on the market down the street from Stewart.

    But even though state officials are saying the water is safe to drink, convincing potential homebuyers otherwise is an uphill battle.

    “Since the derailment, I lost all those options,” he said. “Who is going to buy contaminated land? The older people are willing to stay and live it out. The younger bunch, they are smarter. They’re thinking of their families. I wouldn’t want my grandchildren here. We don’t know if the ground is going to be good enough to grow grass. There are too many unknowns.”

    Stewart, 65, recently voiced his fury and sadness about what he lost to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw on a February 22 Town Hall about the derailment on CNN.

    “You burned me,” he told Shaw. “We were going to sell our house. Our value went phoom,” pointing his hands down.

    Shaw was asked point blank by another resident if Norfolk Southern was ready to buy Stewart’s house, he replied only, “we’re going to do what’s right for this community.” That wasn’t satisfactory for Stewart or many of the other participants at the Town Hall.

    “I lost everything now,” Stewart says he told Shaw.

    Stewart works as a manager at a commercial baking company.

    “I worked hard. I’m still working,” he says he told Shaw. “I’m in the 44th year at my job. I wanted to get out. Now I’m just stuck.”

    Stewart fears he lost a tremendous amount of the value of his home, which he bought in 2016 for $85,000.

    The property was worth about $135,000 a month ago, according to an estimate from Zillow. Lack of transactions since then make a current estimate difficult.

    “I’ll never get that. I’ll be lucky to get what I paid for it, if that,” he said of the estimate. In addition, Stewart believes it would cost a lot to do the repairs and tests to ensure the home is safe.

    “At whose expense? That’s the biggest issue right now,” said Stewart. “At whose expense are we going to do things to make sure it’s okay?”

    Stewart isn’t the only one that was angry with Shaw and Norfolk Southern for the railroad’s refusal to offer to compensate the community for the property value that has been destroyed by the derailment.

    At Thursday’s Senate hearing on the crash, Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked Shaw four different times to commit to compensating homeowners, only to hear Shaw repeatedly reply, “Senator, I’m committed to do what’s right.”

    Markey said that wasn’t an acceptable answer.

    “Will you commit to insuring that these families, these innocent families do no lose their life savings in their homes and small businesses? The right thing to do is to say, ‘Yes we will.’” Markey told Shaw. “These families want to know long term are they just going to be left behind. Once the cameras move on, once the national attention dies down, where will these families be? I think they’re going to be in the crosshairs of the accountants of Norfolk Southern saying ‘We’re not going to pay full compensation.’”

    Paying the homeowners and businesses wouldn’t necessarily be difficult for Norfolk Southern.

    With a population of about 5,000 people, there are roughly 2,600 residential properties in East Palestine according to Attom, a property data provider. The average value of a property there in January of this year, prior to the derailment, was $146,000, according to Attom.

    Taken together, the value of all residential real estate in the town adds up to about $380 million, including single family homes and multi-family properties.

    Those values are only a fraction of the money that Norfolk Southern earns. Last year it reported a record operating income of $4.8 billion, and a net income of $3.3 billion, up about 9% from a year earlier. It had $456 million in cash on hand on its books as of December 31.

    It’s been returning much of that profit to shareholders, repurchasing $3.1 billion in shares last year and spending $1.2 billion on dividends. And it announced a 9% increase in dividends just days before the accident.

    A year ago its board approved a $10 billion share repurchase plan, and it had the authority to buy $7.5 billion of that remaining on the plan as of December 31.

    Asked by Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, at Thursday’s hearing, “Will you pledge to no more stock buybacks until a raft of safety measures have been completed to reduce the risk of derailments and crashes in the future,” Shaw again dodged the question by answering only with, “I will commit to continuing to invest in safety.”

    And the company also invests a great deal of money in lobbying, spending $1.8 billion on lobbying in 2022, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks lobbying and political contributions expenditures.

    Those lobbying expenses also came under attack by senators at the hearing, especially since Shaw would not commit to supporting the bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate since the derailment to improve railroad safety. Asked if he would support or oppose the legislation, Shaw wouldn’t endorse all of the provisions of the bill, but he responded “we are committed to the legislative intent to make rail safer.”

    A big payout probably isn’t what many in East Palestine are looking for, said Jim Warren, manager and co-owner of Kelly Warren and Associates Real Estate Solutions, in Boardman, which is about 15 miles away from East Palestine. They just want a home that’s safe to live in and to be made whole on its value, he said.

    “The people around here don’t want a lot,” he said. “We don’t chase the flashy items like other places in the world. We want to grow up, raise our kids, make a living, and have a nice place to live, that’s all we want.”

    This area, like the rest of the country, saw the real estate market heat up over the past few years with multiple offers on homes and properties selling over the asking price. But, Warren said, unlike other parts of the country the market stays fairly steady in this part of Ohio.

    “Our area doesn’t move up as much and it doesn’t move down as much,” he said. “We don’t have the big swings.”

    Warren’s firm currently has two listings in the town.

    “That’s no more nor less than usual,” he said. There are only ever about ten properties on the market there, he said.

    But, he added, “if your property is contaminated, that is a concern for yourself and for any buyer.”

    As with any real estate purchase, an appraisal and tests for safety would need to be done for homes in East Palestine. But like Stewart, Warren said it is not yet clear who will pay for the additional tests on water and ground contamination for that peace of mind.

    “For all we know, the county might cover it, or the EPA or Ohio state government. That remains to be seen,” he said.

    Overall, Warren said, he expects homes to continue to be bought and sold in East Palestine.

    “We don’t foresee the market tanking, we foresee steady growth,” he said. “After all the hype is gone, we are still living here. We’re going to have to figure it out because this is our home.”

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  • SVB employees to receive 45 days of employment at 1.5 times pay, reports say | CNN Business

    SVB employees to receive 45 days of employment at 1.5 times pay, reports say | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation offered Silicon Valley Bank employees 45 days of employment and 1.5 times their salary, reports say.

    An FDIC official did not comment on the details to CNN, but said it is standard practice and one of the first steps the independent government agency takes after being named receiver.

    US workers also received their annual bonuses on Friday, just hours before FDIC took over the collapsed lender, Axios reported.

    SVB collapsed Friday morning after a stunning 48 hours in which a bank run and a capital crisis led to the second-largest failure of a financial institution in US history.

    California regulators shuttered the tech lender and put it under the control of the FDIC.

    The FDIC is acting as a receiver, which typically means it will liquidate the bank’s assets to pay back its customers, including depositors and creditors.

    Employees, except essential and branch workers, were told to keep working remotely, Reuters reported. The bank had more than 8,500 employees at the end of 2022.

    The FDIC said the main office and all 17 branches of SVB, located in California and Massachusetts, will reopen Monday.

    The FDIC, an independent government agency that insures bank deposits and oversees financial institutions, said all insured depositors will have full access to their insured deposits by no later than Monday morning. It said it would pay uninsured depositors an “advance dividend within the next week.”

    The FDIC took over in the midmorning Friday; usually it waits until markets close.

    “SVB’s condition deteriorated so quickly that it couldn’t last just five more hours,” wrote Better Markets CEO Dennis M. Kelleher. “That’s because its depositors were withdrawing their money so fast that the bank was insolvent, and an intraday closure was unavoidable due to a classic bank run.”

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  • What’s going on with all the runway close calls | CNN Politics

    What’s going on with all the runway close calls | CNN Politics

    A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.



    CNN
     — 

    There have been six close calls on US runways this year, which has led to a fair amount of news coverage, some alarm among the flying public and a lot of calls for answers – including from the acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration Billy Nolen, who testified on Capitol Hill this week.

    Unable to explain the spike, Nolen told lawmakers the agency wants to get to the bottom of things at a safety summit planned for next week. There are also specific investigations into each incident in Boston; Burbank, California; Austin, Texas; Honolulu; New York; and Sarasota, Florida.

    I talked to CNN’s Pete Muntean, who not only covers aviation but is also a pilot and flight instructor, for his perspective on what the heck is going on.

    Our conversation, conducted by phone, is below. Stick with it for an interesting bonus story on how low-flying planes are used to find poachers in Africa.

    WOLF: Six close calls in recent weeks. Are these all distinct events? Or should we view them as one larger issue?

    MUNTEAN: There’s definitely a constant theme because they’re the same type of event, which is officially known as a runway incursion. It is where two airplanes essentially get in the way of one another on or near the runway.

    These types of events can range from really minor to more egregious. What we saw at JFK in New York in January, that had to be one of the more egregious ones. The air traffic controller had to swoop in and stop a flight that was barreling down the runway toward a crossing, taxiing (Boeing) triple seven from taking off.

    That is a more extreme, severe example. There have been some examples where the airplanes get within a few hundred feet of one another, maybe as close as 100 feet. One of the cases like in Austin.

    But they’re not really caused, necessarily, by the same thing. That’s, of course, something that investigators will look at.

    (On Wednesday) the acting head of the FAA on Capitol Hill said that if there are dots to connect, they’ll connect them in this safety summit next week, although it doesn’t seem like there was any real common trigger. No common cause.

    RELATED: FAA to conduct sweeping safety review after multiple incidents

    WOLF: Who is supposed to keep these from happening? Is it the air traffic controllers? Is it the pilots? How is it supposed to work?

    MUNTEAN: There are multiple different layers of safeguards in place in the air traffic system, especially at these busy airports where there are a lot of airliners coming in and out in a lot of varying conditions, a lot of different times of day.

    Some of the responsibility falls on air traffic control. Of course, it’s their job to keep airplanes from running into one another. Some of the responsibility falls on the flight crew to keep it so that they follow the instructions of air traffic control, that they remain vigilant all the time, if they’re taxiing across runways or taking off from a runway that’s crisscrossing with another one as they’re about to land.

    The good news is that in commercial aviation in the US – which has a stellar track record, by the way – there are two trained pilots at all times. And there are a lot of eyeballs essentially making it so that these things don’t happen.

    The pilots can intercede at any point, and in some cases they have. They’ve just essentially called their own go-arounds to make it so that they don’t come in contact with an airplane. In some cases, the air traffic controllers will call it. The onus is on a few different layers here.

    I’m a pilot, but I just did a demonstration with a former NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigator at a busy airport, Dulles (in Virginia), and it begs pointing out that some of the safeguards are as simple as paint on the runway and taxiways to remind pilots not to taxi too close to the runway. Some of it is in the phraseology that’s used on the radio. Some of it is in the procedures and training the pilots get.

    I think every pilot that’s out there now – and if you talk to professional pilots this is something that weighs on them – this has been a chronic problem for aviation for a while. But now, because of these headlines, it’s especially top of mind for pilots and air traffic controllers and regulators and safety advocates.

    WOLF: You said it’s a chronic problem. Is there any indication or any data to suggest this is happening more often? Or are we in the media just paying attention to it?

    MUNTEAN: I think these events are getting more attention. No doubt that these six that we have seen so far this year are extreme. Usually they don’t happen with such severity, with such frequency.

    But the FAA, at every layer of aviation from commercial aviation on down to small airplanes and private airports, they’re always trying to remind pilots to remain vigilant. Something that pilots really train for in their first flying lesson is how to behave in and respect the environment around an airport.

    In some ways, it’s like flying with a loaded gun. You have to be really, really careful.

    The reason why these are happening, one pilot told me – who’s the representative for a large union of airline pilots and a major airline – he said the system is just under so much pressure right now. There’s a lot of corporate pressure for airlines to get back on their feet after the pandemic.

    There’s a lot of new pilots flying right now, who may have matriculated from regional airlines to larger airlines. A lot of the old guard have retired. Pilots have left just because they were given voluntary leave packages as a result of the downturn of the pandemic.

    There are a ton of different factors at play.

    The fact that we’re sort of paying attention to these more just sort of highlights that nobody can ever let their guard down.

    WOLF: Is the current air traffic system that we’re using technologically up to snuff?

    MUNTEAN: I think it is. And I think the FAA would say that it is, because they have added in so many layers of technology to make it so that these incidents are avoided.

    They have technology that can sense, at some larger airports, whether or not a pilot is lined up with the wrong thing, if they were aiming for a runway but instead aimed for a taxiway to land on – which has happened before.

    They have more lighting on the pavement that warns pilots, essentially like a stoplight, to make it so they don’t go rolling across a runway as they are taxiing across one.

    There are even systems that make it so that they can sense, using radar and other technologies, where airplanes are on the ground and not just in the air. Some of these runway incursions are caused simply by airplanes being in the wrong place as they are taxiing and not necessarily in the air.

    I think the system is up to snuff. I think the FAA would say the system is up to snuff. But they’re also using this as a moment to sort of reinspect and have some introspection on the matter and whether or not they could be doing more to make it so that these problems can be avoided.

    WOLF: You already pointed out that commercial aviation in the US is incredibly safe.

    MUNTEAN: The last time there was a fatality was 2018, which was kind of a freak accident, where a person got hit on a Southwest flight by a fan blade that broke up in a jet engine.

    We’re reporting on crashes that don’t happen. These are close calls, sure, but nobody’s been hurt. Nobody’s been killed. So it kind of shows, in a way, how safe the system is.

    WOLF: Is there a spot in the system that is particularly weak? Is it takeoff or landing? What is the thing that makes pilots most nervous?

    MUNTEAN: The common theme is having so many airplanes close together. That’s sort of the inherent flaw of an airport, right? You bring in airplanes and take off and land. You may be using multiple different runways at the same time. There’s a lot of demand in the air traffic right now.

    Every airport is different, right?

    Some airports may have a lot of runways that are parallel and a lot of taxiways that are parallel to one another, like at Dulles the other day, where we went. There are three runways lined up: one left, one center and one right. They’re all headed the same direction to the north. You have to be really careful that you’re lined up with the right one.

    There are a few different things that you can do in the airplane to mitigate that and make sure that you have a safeguard of your own. But I think it really varies by the airport. In some places, there are intersecting runways. There are taxiways that have confusing turns.

    The FAA does granular looks at things like this, where they say something like this taxiway design isn’t all that great, there may be a blind spot here, as you’re taxiing you may approach this at a 45-degree angle or it could be a 90-degree angle where somebody in the cockpit can see more.

    Also when conditions are changing – we saw in the Austin incident the weather was abysmal at that time. It was very low cloud ceilings and very low visibility where the pilots were able to get an indication that there was somebody on the runway, an approaching FedEx flight and a Southwest flight that was still on the runway that hadn’t taken off yet.

    They weren’t necessarily able to see that (Southwest flight), so far as we know, by their eyeball.

    There are a lot of things at play. You can’t just say it’s any one different thing. And remember, these pilots are often going in and out of different places multiple times a day. The responsibility is on everybody.

    WOLF: Do pilots face the same sort of difficult lifestyle we’ve been hearing about for train operators?

    MUNTEAN: There’s a ton of regulation that protects pilots. We see that occasionally getting better. Even flight attendants have gotten longer rest rules recently, where they’re able to rest between trips for a longer period of time.

    There’s always friction between organized labor, work groups and the companies that they work for. A lot of times it comes down to regulators and what they are able to do for workers. Pretty much every major airline right now – their pilot groups, as well as a lot of major flight attendant groups – are going through contract negotiations with their companies.

    Some of the safety and protection, unions would say, comes from a good deal that protects not only their ability to work but also keeps pilots and passengers safe. Organized labor and unions have a lot to say about this, and they want to make sure that they are treated fairly to make it so that these incidents don’t happen.

    I just talked to Dennis Tajer, who’s the representative of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents all the American Airlines pilots, and he said this is something that we’ve kind of been pounding our fists on the podium about, we’ve said for about a year that the air traffic system and the aviation system and the airline system are just under too much pressure, and now you’re seeing the result of that.

    It’s on not only regulators like the FAA, the Department of Transportation but also companies to make sure that these major airlines – which are huge corporations – to make sure that their pilots are safe and doing the job properly with the proper amount of rest, with the proper amount of resources.

    WOLF: Right. It’s in nobody’s interest for there to be an incident.

    MUNTEAN: Everyone says safety is a top priority, of course.

    But depending on your viewpoint, safety can have a lot of different meanings.

    WOLF: It’s always been my sense that air traffic is one of the most, if not the most, government-regulated systems in the country. Unlike other areas where there might be a move toward deregulation, this is something the government controls and is going to continue to control.

    MUNTEAN: It’s super regulated because a lot of the rules are, frankly, written in blood.

    When you talk about this runway incursion issue, the landmark case is the Tenerife accident (in 1977), where KLM and Pan Am 747s that both diverted to Tenerife, an island near Spain, ran into one another and killed a bunch of people. There were some survivors, but it was a classic runway incursion incident.

    One of the airplanes was back taxiing down the runway, as the KLM crew essentially blasted off without regard for where the other airplane was. They couldn’t see it because the weather was poor.

    These regulations are often born out of horrible disasters. And I think the thing to point out here is that we have avoided disaster in these six cases, but in some cases came pretty close. It underscores why things were so regulated and also why the regulators are taking this so seriously.

    WOLF: What are you looking out for?

    MUNTEAN: I would point out these things are still under investigation. And the National Transportation Safety Board has tried to shed a lot of light on this issue. I asked Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the NTSB, why do you think these things are happening more?

    She said, well, it’s possible that these things are happening more. It’s also possible that these things are getting more attention. It doesn’t matter; it’s good that these things are being brought to the spotlight.

    That could ultimately have a huge impact on safety. Aviation is not waiting for another Tenerife. They’re taking these one-off scares and really trying to learn from them.

    WOLF: You sound very passionate about all of this.

    MUNTEAN: I love flying more than anything. The cool part of my job is I get to talk about aviation for a living, and it’s something I’m so passionate about.

    I also instruct and teach people. I just came back from this incredible trip in Kenya where I got to instruct for the Kenya Wildlife Service Airwing, flying with essentially rangers, who are also pilots, with an anti-poaching air force.

    And that was just incredibly cool, but the focus is safety. Maybe I’m a little biased, but aviation is just like something I always geek out on. It’s fun to talk about. …

    I was invited with a group of instructors to go there, and we were in a national park south of Nairobi, called Tsavo West. We flew with 19 different pilots. Three instructors from the States essentially go down and audit their flying ability and safety.

    They’re very, very good pilots. Because they fly at a few hundred feet, guarding against poachers and spotting wildlife, they don’t have a ton of margin for error. We did a lot of brush-up things with them, and they were all very appreciative, and it was a very cool and rewarding experience flying smaller airplanes.

    Those are the type of airplanes that are best suited for that mission, because they can fly low and slow and have a lot of visibility. You can’t do that in a jet.

    It’s sort of like flying into Jurassic Park, because you see elephants all the time, and we saw rhinos and more zebras than I can ever count, and giraffes. But these pilots do a really important job, and (it) was really cool to be a part of it.

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  • BBC’s flagship soccer show boycotted over Gary Lineker impartiality row | CNN

    BBC’s flagship soccer show boycotted over Gary Lineker impartiality row | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The BBC’s weekend soccer coverage has been plunged into chaos following its announcement Gary Lineker would “step back” from presenting, after he became embroiled in an impartiality row when he criticized British government policy on Twitter.

    The broadcaster now faces a boycott from pundits, presenters and even players of its flagship soccer show “Match of the Day,” while other soccer programs – Football Focus and Final Score – and some radio programming have been forced off-air as a result of the furore.

    Lineker criticized the government’s controversial new asylum-seeker policy on Tuesday and was subsequently relieved of his presenting duties this week since the BBC said his tweets breached their guidelines, specifically its commitment to “due impartiality.”

    The BBC’s decision has sparked controversy, leaving the organization under fire from opposition politicians, the Broadcasting Entertainment Communications and Theatre Union who represent BBC staff, and its former director general Greg Dyke.

    “The BBC will only be able to bring limited sport programming this weekend and our schedules will be updated to reflect that,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement Saturday.

    “We are sorry for these changes which we recognize will be disappointing for BBC sport fans.

    “We are working hard to resolve the situation and hope to do so soon.”

    In an interview with BBC News on Saturday, the broadcaster’s Director General Tim Davie was asked if he should resign over the crisis. He said he would not.

    “I honestly do not believe, despite a lot of the commentary, that this is about left or right,” Davie said. The BBC is a “fierce champion of democratic debate, free speech, but with that comes the need to create an impartial organization,” he added.

    When asked if he was sorry about the way he handled the situation, he said: “We made decisions, and I made decisions based on a real passion about what the BBC is and it is difficult – it’s this balance between free speech and impartiality.”

    On Tuesday, Lineker tweeted “Good heavens, this is beyond awful” to a video posted on Twitter by the British Home Office announcing the new proposed policy – an attempt to stop migrant boats crossing the English Channel from France which has been criticized by the United Nations and other global bodies.

    He added: “There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?”

    As Britain’s public broadcaster, the BBC is bound by “due impartiality” – a much debated term which the organization defines as holding “power to account with consistency” while not “allowing ourselves to be used to campaign to change public policy.”

    On Friday, the BBC announced Lineker would “step back from presenting Match of the Day until we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media,” adding it considered his recent social media activity to breach its guidelines.

    In response, first pundits, then commentators, and then even Premier League teams announced their intention to boycott the show in support of Lineker.

    BBC commentators Steve Wilson, Conor McNamara, Robyn Cowen and Steven Wyeth said in a joint statement issued late on Friday “in the circumstances, we do not feel it would be appropriate to take part in the programme.”

    A shortened version of the program did eventually air on Saturday. It opened with a BBC continuity announcer issuing an apology, instead of the usual title sequence and theme tune.

    It then showed highlights from Saturday’s English Premier League games with no commentary, only the background audio from the stadiums.

    The show aired for 20 minutes, an hour less than the originally scheduled time.

    Jermain Defoe, a former England striker, announced Saturday he would not appear as a pundit on the Sunday show.

    “It’s always such a privilege to work with BBC MOTD. But tomorrow I have taken the decision to stand down from my punditry duties. @GaryLineker,” Defoe tweeted.

    Defoe’s announcement appears to be the first sign the British broadcaster’s Sunday television programming will also be affected.

    Meanwhile, the Professional Footballers’ Association announced on Saturday “players involved in today’s games will not be asked to participate in interviews with Match of the Day.”

    “The PFA have been speaking to members who wanted to take a collective position and to be able to show their support for those who have chosen not to be part of tonight’s programme,” the statement added.

    “During those conversations we made clear that, as their union, we would support all members who might face consequences for choosing not to complete their broadcast commitments. This is a common sense decision that ensures players won’t now be put in that position.”

    Following his side’s 1-0 defeat against Bournemouth on Saturday, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was asked about the BBC issue.

    “I cannot see any reason why they would ask anyone to step back for saying that. I’m not sure if that’s a language issue or not,” the German told reporters.

    “If I understand it right, then this is about an opinion about human rights and that should be possible to say.

    “What I don’t understand is why everybody goes on Twitter and says something. I don’t understand the social media part of it but that’s probably [because] I’m too old for that.”

    The BBC’s former director general Greg Dyke said the broadcaster has “undermined its own credibility” by suspending Lineker because it seemed like it had “bowed to government pressure.”

    Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said the BBC had got “this one badly wrong and now they’re very, very exposed.”

    Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “As a strong supporter of public service broadcasting, I want to be able to defend the BBC. But the decision to take Gary Lineker off air is indefensible. It is undermining free speech in the face of political pressure – & it does always seem to be rightwing pressure it caves to.”

    Opposition Labour Party deputy leader Angela Rayner also lambasted the BBC’s decision in a tweet on Saturday.

    “The BBC’s cowardly decision to take Gary Lineker off air is an assault on free speech in the face of political pressure from Tory politicians. They should rethink,” she tweeted.

    Meanwhile Nadine Dorries, an MP with the governing Conservative party and former Culture Secretary, welcomed the BBC’s decision, tweeting: “News that Gary Lineker has been stood down for investigation is welcome and shows BBC are serious about impartiality.

    “Gary is entitled to his views – free speech is paramount. Lots of non Public Service Broadcasters can accommodate him and his views and he would be better paid.”

    For his part, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday issued a statement saying he hopes the situation between the BBC and its star soccer host can be resolved but it is not a matter for the UK government.

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  • Saudi oil giant Aramco becomes latest energy firm to post record profits | CNN Business

    Saudi oil giant Aramco becomes latest energy firm to post record profits | CNN Business


    Dubai
    CNN
     — 

    Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco on Sunday reported a record annual net profit of $161.1 billion for 2022, up 46% from the year earlier, on higher energy prices, increased volumes sold and improved margins for refined products.

    The profits follow similar reports in February from international peers BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron which have mostly posted record profits for last year.

    Oil prices swung wildly in 2022, climbing on geopolitical worries amid the war in Ukraine, then sliding on weaker demand from top importer China and worries of an economic contraction.

    “Given that we anticipate oil and gas will remain essential for the foreseeable future, the risks of underinvestment in our industry are real – including contributing to higher energy prices,” Aramco’s chief executive Amin Nasser said in the results statement.

    To address those challenges, the company is not only focused on expanding oil, gas and chemicals production, but also investing in new lower-carbon technologies with potential to achieve additional emission reductions, Nasser said.

    Aramco’s capital expenditure rose 18% to $37.6 billion in 2022 and the company said it expects this year’s spending to be around $45.0 billion to $55.0 billion including external investments.

    Aramco declared a dividend of $19.5 billion for the fourth quarter, an increase of 4% from the previous quarter.

    Its board also recommended to issue bonus shares, with eligible shareholders receiving one share for every 10 shares owned.

    Free cash flow reached a record of $148.5 billion in 2022, compared to $107.5 billion in 2021.

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  • China’s new defense minister is a general the US sanctioned for buying Russian weapons | CNN

    China’s new defense minister is a general the US sanctioned for buying Russian weapons | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    China on Sunday appointed a US-sanctioned general as its new defense minister.

    The country’s rubber-stamp legislature unanimously confirmed the appointment of General Li Shangfu, a veteran of the People’s Liberation Army’s modernization drive, during a session on Sunday.

    Experts said the appointment would be closely watched by Washington given Li’s background, even though the post is viewed as largely diplomatic and ceremonial.

    In 2018, the administration of former US President Donald Trump sanctioned Li and China’s Equipment Development Department – which he was in charge of at the time – for purchasing Russian weapons, including a Su-35 combat aircraft and a S-400 surface-to-air missile system.

    His appointment was one of a series confirmed by China’s National People’s Congress during its Sunday sitting. Other senior appointments included four new vice premiers – Ding Xuexiang, He Lifeng, Zhang Guoqing, and Liu Guozhong.

    Following their nomination by the new premier Li Qiang, all four will serve as vice premiers on the State Council, the body responsible for reviving China’s economy after three years of strict zero-Covid restrictions.

    The appointment of Li Shangfu as defense minister comes at a time of increasingly strained relations between Beijing and Washington.

    Defense experts told Reuters that his appointment likely reflected a reward for his work in modernizing China’s military.

    In 2016, Li was named deputy commander of the PLA’s then-new Strategic Support Force, an elite body tasked with accelerating the development of China’s space and cyber warfare capabilities. He was then appointed head of the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s governing defense body, headed by the country’s leader Xi Jinping, Reuters reported.

    Defense experts said Li’s history as a technocrat and aerospace engineer who worked in China’s satellite program would play a key part in his new role.

    “The operational and technological background of the next Chinese defense minister is especially pertinent given that the PLA aims to become a world-class military by 2049,” James Char from Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies told Reuters.

    “I think he has been elevated to this position because he’s delivered for Xi Jinping in key areas of modernisation,” Singapore-based security analyst Alexander Neill from Hawaii’s Pacific Forum think-tank told Reuters.

    “This is someone who will have to hold their own in front of an international audience.”

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  • Astronaut crew heads home after five-month stay on the International Space Station | CNN

    Astronaut crew heads home after five-month stay on the International Space Station | CNN

    Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.



    CNN
     — 

    The four astronauts who make up the Crew-5 team aboard the International Space Station began their return trip home Saturday morning, marking the end of a five-month stay in space.

    The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule disembarked from the space station at 2:20 am ET, beginning the final leg of the astronauts’ journey. The spacecraft is set to splash down off Florida at around 9:02 p.m. ET Saturday.

    Rescue ships will be awaiting the team’s arrival, ready to haul the capsule out of the ocean and allow the crew to disembark, giving the astronauts their first breath of fresh air in nearly 160 days. Shortly afterward, the crew will depart for NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.

    The four crew members — NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, astronaut Koichi Wakata of JAXA, or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of the Russian space agency Roscosmos — launched to the space station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule this past October. They’ve spent the past few months carrying out research experiments and keeping up with maintenance of the two-decade-old orbiting laboratory.

    And for the past few days, the four have been handing off operations to the Crew-6 team of astronauts who arrived at the space station on March 3.

    Mann, a registered member of the Wailacki tribe of the Round Valley reservation, became the first Native American woman to travel into orbit. Like the other astronauts, she devoted time on her journey to public outreach, some of which focused on inspiring Indigenous children. During one outreach event in November 2022, Mann showed off a dream catcher — a traditional totem for Native Americans meant to ward off bad dreams — that she took with her to the space station.

    “I am very proud to represent Native Americans and my heritage,” Mann told reporters before launch. “I think it’s important to celebrate our diversity and also realize how important it is when we collaborate and unite, the incredible accomplishments that we can have.”

    Kikina’s participation in this flight came as part of a ride-sharing agreement by NASA and Roscosmos in July 2022. Despite geopolitical tensions between the United States and Russia as the war in Ukraine has escalated, NASA has repeatedly said its partnership with Roscosmos is vital to continuing the space station’s operations and the valuable scientific research carried out on board.

    The journey marked the first trip to space for Mann, Cassada and Kikina.

    Wakata previously flew on NASA’s space shuttle flights and Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. This trip was the Japanese astronaut’s fifth spaceflight mission.

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  • ‘Y’all ain’t never been to Mexico.’ How a road trip over the border took a deadly turn | CNN

    ‘Y’all ain’t never been to Mexico.’ How a road trip over the border took a deadly turn | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Four South Carolinians in a white minivan pulled out the parking lot of a Motel 6 surrounded by palmettos and onto an expressway in Brownsville, Texas – zooming past strip malls lined with taquerias, auto repair shops and law offices with Spanish names – for the short drive to the Mexican border city of Matamoros.

    At one of the busiest border crossings in the country, the American citizens that Friday morning joined other motorists and pedestrians on trips for work or to see family, cheaper medical procedures and medications, or margarita lunches at brightly painted restaurants where menu prices are listed in pesos and dollars.

    About 9:20 a.m., LaTavia Washington McGee, a 33-year-old mother of six, and her three friends from South Carolina crossed the Brownsville and Matamoros Express International Bridge. They were already running late for Washington McGee’s appointment for a medical procedure.

    Around that time, the minivan moves along a rundown section of Matamoros, according to a livestream video taken by one of the minivan’s occupants that was obtained and analyzed by CNN.

    “Y’all ain’t never been to Mexico,” said one of the men inside the van. “Y’all don’t know what it’s like in Mexi.”

    Moments later, the man said, “Hola,” and there was laughter during a road trip that would soon take a deadly turn in the lawless border town.

    In broad daylight, at 11:45 a.m., the van was intercepted and fired upon. All occupants were shot except for Washington McGee. A Mexican woman was killed by a stray bullet about a block and a half away.

    Video showed the attackers, armed with rifles and wearing protective vests, tossing Washington McGee – “like trash” in the words of her mother, Barbara McLeod Burgess – onto the bed of a pickup.

    The gunmen, believed to be connected to the Gulf drug cartel, dragged the other victims onto the truck. Two appeared limp, leaving a trail of blood on the ground of the busy intersection. The abductors then drove away.

    Within days Mexican security forces found two of the Americans – Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown – dead in a small wooden shack on a desolate road leading to Playa Bagdad, near the spot where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico. Another man, Eric Williams, was wounded. And Washington McGee was found alive following a violent kidnapping that has become a flash point between neighboring countries and brought international attention to a Mexican border city where little-noticed killings and disappearances are part of everyday life.

    “If they were Mexicans this would not have happened with such speed,” Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, an expert on smuggling who is a professor at George Mason University and has lived and worked in near Brownsville border, said of the rescue. “It would not have happened at all. It doesn’t happen with Mexicans, particularly in that state.”

    By Friday, a week after the kidnappings, Mexican authorities announced that five people had been arrested for the attack. A day earlier, the Gulf cartel purportedly issued a letter of apology and handed over five members to local authorities, according to online images and a version of the letter obtained by CNN from an official familiar with the ongoing investigation. A sixth man, who authorities said had been guarding the hostages, was arrested when the Americans were found on Tuesday.

    The four Americans that Friday morning drove into a country where authorities have struggled for small victories in a long and deadly battle against drug cartels. The conflict has claimed the lives of thousands of Mexicans, from innocent bystanders to journalists to government officials and political candidates.

    It’s unclear how much the friends in the rented minivan knew about the crime-ridden border city, where factions of the powerful Gulf cartel have been warring for turf, along with control of human trafficking, kidnapping and extortion rackets. Matamoros is in the northeast state of Tamaulipas, where an explosion of homicides, kidnappings and disappearances rarely make international news.

    “I know her,” said Washington McGee’s best friend, Cheryl Orange, who traveled with the group from South Carolina to Texas on March 2 but stayed behind because she did not have proper identification to cross the border. “She’s not going to travel to danger.”

    The trip was Washington McGee’s second to Mexico for a medical procedure, according to her mother. She had surgery across the border two or three years ago, Barbara Burgess said.

    Matamoros, with a population of more than 500,000 people, sits just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville. The US State Department in October issued a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for US citizens visiting Tamaulipas, citing gun battles, kidnapping and forced disappearances.

    Cheryl Orange vpx 01

    Friend of Americans kidnapped in Mexico recounts the moments before they went missing

    On the day of the kidnappings, Tamaulipas authorities issued a warning to parents to keep their children home from school in Matamoros because of shootings. The US embassy and consulates in Mexico warned staff to avoid downtown Matamoros.

    The Americans are believed to have been targeted by mistake and were not the intended victims, according to a US official with knowledge of the investigation. Authorities believe cartel members likely mistook them for Haitian smugglers, the official said. US authorities have not identified any concerning criminal history on the part of the Americans.

    On Friday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador alluded to the purported “criminal background in the United States” of the Americans but did not elaborate on how that related to the deadly kidnapping. López Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” anti-crime policy – focusing on social programs rather than confrontation with criminal gangs – has come under fire at home and abroad.

    CNN is looking into López Obrador’s claims about the criminal history of the US citizens.

    US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar on Friday declined comment on the motivation behind the kidnappings.

    Asked what she wanted people to know about her friends, Orange said: “I want the world to leave us alone and stop being mean. I want them to have a heart because everyone has a past.”

    The disappearance of the four Americans has become an international incident.

    The FBI launched an investigation and announced a $50,000 reward for their return and the arrest of those involved. The White House and State Department condemned the abduction and killings. Some Republicans in Congress called for a US military invasion of Mexico to combat the cartels. Others called for the US to designate the cartels as “terrorist organizations.”

    Orange said she and the other four Americans embarked on their journey from South Carolina on Thursday.

    “It was a road trip,” she said. They tagged along with Washington McGee, who was scheduled to have a medical procedure across the border, Orange told Brownsville police when she reported her friends missing a day after the kidnapping.

    Mexico is the second most popular destination for medical tourism globally, with an estimated 1.4 million to 3 million patients traveling into the country for inexpensive treatment in 2020, according to Patients Beyond Borders, an international healthcare consulting company.

    Woodard, who was killed in the kidnapping, would have celebrated his 34th birthday on Thursday, according to his father, James Woodard.

    Washington McGee and Shaeed Woodard were cousins – “like two peas in a pod” – and she invited him on the trip to Mexico for an early birthday celebration, James Woodard said.

    “They loved each other,” he said of the cousins.

    Orange said the men were expected to drop off Washington McGee at the doctor’s officer in Matamoros and return to the hotel about 15 minutes later. She fell asleep after taking a shower at the Motel 6. “I was exhausted, you know, from the long hours, from the long ride,” she said.

    She woke up about 5 p.m. and they hadn’t returned. Orange told police she tried calling her friends but couldn’t get through.

    latavia mother mexico vpx

    Victim’s mom reveals what daughter told her about killings

    The four friends never arrived at the doctor’s office for Washington McGee’s 7:30 a.m. appointment. One of them called the office that Friday morning to say they were running late.

    At some point after 11 a.m. a gray Volkswagen Jetta is seen following their minivan, according to surveillance video obtained by Mexican prosecutors.

    About 40 minutes later several vehicles appear to be trailing the minivan and, at 11:45 a.m., the Americans were intercepted by gunmen.

    Burgess said her daughter later told her by phone that the minivan was struck by another vehicle before the shooting started.

    In video that circulated online after the kidnapping, McGee Washington is seen sitting on the ground next to the white minivan. A bullet appeared to pierce the middle of driver’s side window. Three other people can be seen on the road as cars on the busy intersection start steering away from the danger.

    McGee Washington is shoved onto the back of a pickup before her three friends were lifted and tossed beside her.

    “She said the others tried to run and they got shot at the same time,” Burgess said her daughter told her after the Americans were found on Tuesday.

    “She watched them die,” Burgess said of Woodard and Zindell Brown.

    Burgess watched the video, she said, and “I thought she was done,” referring to her daughter.

    In the wee hours after reporting her friends missing, Orange watched the widely circulated video of the abduction.

    “My body clenched up. I dropped the phone. My stomach was in knots and I just began praying for the return of them,” she said.

    James Woodard was also pained by the video he saw on television.

    “That was so hard for me to see,” he said. “He was a baby and for him to be taken from me like that was very hurtful.”

    The missing Americans' van at the scene where they were last seen. Video shows the four being loaded into the back of a pickup truck. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

    Shocking video shows moment kidnapped Americans were loaded into pickup truck

    In the days after the kidnapping, Mexican authorities combed through surveillance video from the downtown intersection. They contacted US authorities after discovering documents in the rented minivan with North Carolina plates, which were traced by officials across the border. Mexican investigators also managed to identify the truck used by the gunmen.

    Investigators processed vehicles, and obtained ballistics and fingerprint data. They also collected biological samples for genetic profiles, Mexican officials said.

    After identifying the truck used by the gunmen, several unsuccessful searches were conducted by heavily armed Mexican security forces from various agencies.

    The Americans had been moved to several places “to create confusion and avoid rescue efforts,” Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal said.

    Burgess said her daughter told her the abductors moved the four Americans “from place to place” and finally hid them in “a little place and it stank.”

    “All of them were hustled in and were staying together,” she said.

    At 10:15 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the Americans were found in a small red wooden shack in a field outside the city. Mexican authorities arrested a man who they said was guarding the house. Images from the scene showed McGee barefoot and covered in dirt, with streaks of blood on her left leg.

    Mexico dispatched hundreds of security forces to Matamoros in what the defense ministry said was a move to safeguard “the well-being of citizens.”

    The swift response by authorities to the Americans’ kidnapping raised eyebrows in a country where desperate relatives of people who have gone missing over the years have banded together to conduct their own investigations. More than 100,000 Mexicans and migrants have disappeared in the country over the years, with no explanation of their fate.

    After the frantic rescue, Orange said hearing Washington MaGee’s voice on the phone was “music to my ears.”

    “This lady was facing death damn near and she said, ‘I was worried about you,’” Orange recalled.

    The bodies of Woodard and Brown were turned over to US authorities on Thursday.

    Washington McGee told CNN Saturday she is grateful to be back home with her family in South Carolina.

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  • Snap stock surges as Congress renews efforts to ban TikTok | CNN Business

    Snap stock surges as Congress renews efforts to ban TikTok | CNN Business



    CNN
     — 

    Investors are betting that Washington’s mounting scrutiny on TikTok could be good news for rival Snapchat.

    Shares of Snapchat’s parent company surged nearly 10% on Monday and another 5% in early trading Tuesday following news that US senators are planning to introduce legislation that could make it easier to ban rival app TikTok.

    Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner is expected to unveil bipartisan legislation Tuesday afternoon that expands President Joe Biden’s authority to ban TikTok and other suspected information technology risks from the United States, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. The bill is expected to have nearly a dozen co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.

    The stock surge suggests some on Wall Street are taking the possibility of a TikTok ban more seriously, after years of chatter in the nation’s capital about cracking down on the short-form video app due to security concerns related to its Chinese parent company.

    It also highlights how lawmakers’ efforts to address the perceived threat of TikTok could ultimately benefit large US tech platforms, including dominant companies that some in Washington also want to rein in for other reasons.

    Angelo Zino, senior equity analyst CFRA Research, wrote in a note Monday that the “biggest beneficiaries of a TikTok ban” would be Snapchat, Facebook-parent Meta, and YouTube.

    “TikTok’s emphasis on short-form videos has increased engagement/time spent by consumers and has upended the entire industry, creating a headwind for META/SNAP,” Zino wrote. “Given TikTok’s growing engagement/user growth, it has been taking an increasing portion of the digital ad dollars pie from other social media players.”

    In recent years, TikTok’s popularity has led a number of major US apps to imitate some of its features, including the launch of Instagram’s Reels and YouTube’s Shorts.

    Shares of YouTube’s parent company Alphabet were essentially flat on Tuesday. Meta, which is up 50% so far this year thanks to its commitment to “efficiency,” was up slightly in early trading Tuesday, likely because of a report claiming it’s planning more layoffs.

    A TikTok ban, or the possibility of it, may just be one more positive for Meta’s stock this year.

    – CNN’s Brian Fung contributed to this report.

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  • Camp toy store pleads for help after Silicon Valley Bank collapse | CNN Business

    Camp toy store pleads for help after Silicon Valley Bank collapse | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    A toy company based in New York has gotten caught up in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and is pleading with customers for help keeping it afloat.

    Camp, a venture-backed retailer, sent an email to customers Friday announcing it was slashing prices and would use sales to help fund its continued operations after much of its money was tied up in the bank failure.

    “Unfortunately, we had most of our company’s cash assets at a bank which just collapsed. I’m sure you’ve heard the news,” co-founder Ben Kaufman said in an email to customers.

    He urged customers to use the code “BANKRUN” to save 40% off all merchandise, in an apparent nod to the run on the bank that may have helped bring down the Silicon Valley lender. Camp also said customers could pay full price, which it said would be appreciated.

    Kaufman said the company was “hopeful that this will be resolved soon.”

    CNN has not confirmed if Camp had funds with Silicon Valley Bank when the bank collapsed.

    Silicon Valley Bank was put under control of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Friday, capping off a stunning 48 hour period during which fears of a liquidity crisis at the firm prompted some startups to weigh withdrawing funds.

    The sudden collapse of the Silicon Valley lender has pushed tech investors and startups to scramble to figure out their financial exposure to the bank, with founders worrying about getting their money out, making payroll and covering operating expenses.

    The rapidly unfolding fallout at Silicon Valley Bank comes at a challenging moment for startup and tech industries. Rising interest rates have eroded the easy access to capital that helped fuel soaring startup valuations and funded ambitious, money-losing projects.

    Kaufman, a former BuzzFeed executive, founded Camp in 2018. It has nine stores in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Texas.

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  • Takeaways from the February jobs report | CNN Business

    Takeaways from the February jobs report | CNN Business


    Minneapolis
    CNN
     — 

    February’s jobs report had a little something for everyone.

    For workers, there were jobs; for employers, there were workers filling shortfalls caused by the pandemic; for the Federal Reserve, there were indications that the labor market was loosening and wage pressures were easing.

    Then again, the total of 311,000 net jobs added was significantly higher than expectations of 205,000, and the unemployment rate surprisingly grew to 3.6%.

    The report was a “mixed bag” at a time when the Fed — which this week signaled a more hawkish approach after a strong batch of recent economic data — is weighing to go lighter or heavier on rate hikes.

    Here are some takeaways from Friday’s report:

    Economists were anticipating that January’s blockbuster 504,000 net job gain was an anomaly due to a combination of factors such as annual data adjustments, warm weather and employers hoarding workers.

    But the US labor market in February showed that, overall, it remained fairly resistant to the Fed’s yearlong barrage of interest rate hikes. The latest employment snapshot from the Bureau of Labor Statistics also showed only a slight downward revision to the January jobs total.

    “This report, it’s not about the Federal Reserve, it’s not about inflation, it’s about you; it’s about how workers are doing,” said Claudia Sahm, founder of Sahm Consulting and a former Fed economist. “And once again, we had a month in which we were adding jobs on net, and this is really good for workers.”

    There are also encouraging signs for employers, she said, noting some of the biggest gains were in industries that have been suffering from the deepest shortages since the pandemic.

    The leisure and hospitality industry added 105,000 jobs in February, accounting for 34% of the entire month’s total gains and putting the sector that much closer to matching its pre-pandemic levels. As of February, the leisure and hospitality industry was 410,000 jobs, or 2.42%, shy of February 2020 employment levels, a CNN analysis of BLS data shows.

    “Right now, we’re still in a phase of getting back to normal in terms of not having labor shortages, not having the costs of serving customers rise and rise,” Sahm said. “I would much rather see us get back to normal by workers coming back as opposed to customers going away.”

    Despite the Fed hammering out a succession of rate hikes during the past year, construction employment hasn’t yet faltered. In February, the construction industry added 24,000 jobs, marking 12 consecutive months of employment growth.

    “Contractors are continuing to work through existing backlogs that have grown over the past two years as new opportunities arose and supply chain issues extended construction timelines,” wrote Nick Grandy, construction and real estate senior analyst at RSM US.

    Notable sectors that recorded job losses during the month were in information, which was down another 25,000 jobs (-0.8%); transportation and warehousing, which was down 21,500 jobs (0.3%); and manufacturing, which was down 4,000 positions.

    While the headline job figure and relatively minimal losses show overall strength, there is an indication of a pullback across industries. The BLS’ employment diffusion index, which shows the percentage of 250 industries that added jobs, fell to 56, which is the lowest reading since April 2020.

    “That indicates that the impact of high interest rates is spilling over to more industries,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.

    The labor market has remained extremely tight and fairly out of whack for the past three years. Friday’s report showed that “a modicum of slack crept back into the jobs market,” wrote Wells Fargo economists Sarah House and Michael Pugliese.

    The unemployment rate moved to 3.6% from its 53-year-low of 3.4%. That increase was in part due to more people reentering the workforce and joining the ranks of the unemployed, which the BLS classifies as people without jobs actively searching for work.

    February’s employment report showed a 0.1 percentage point increase in the labor force participation rate to 62.5% — the highest it’s been since April 2020.

    The average workweek ticked down to 34.5 hours from a revised 34.6 hours, signaling a “significant overall drop” in labor demand, said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network.

    Still, with the prime-age employment to population ratio increasing to 80.5% — on par with early 2020 levels — there may be little space left for sustained labor supply gains, according to Matt Colyar, a Moody’s Analytics economist.

    “February’s figure, apart from early 2020 readings, is higher than any rate during the previous decade-long expansion,” Colyar noted. “Even in corners of the economy where demand has slumped, businesses have shown little appetite to lay off workers en masse. As other sectors continue to hire rapidly, an acceleration in wage growth will remain a looming threat.”

    A softening in average hourly earnings is helping fuel hopes for a soft landing.

    At 0.2% on the month, wage growth was below expectations and measured 4.6% year over year.

    “There were signs in today’s report that progress on inflation can be made without torpedoing employment,” the Wells Fargo economists noted.

    As of February, the annualized rate of wage growth during the past three months is slightly under 3.6%, a pace seen when inflation was below the Fed’s target, said economist Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

    “Perhaps most important from the Fed’s perspective is the slowdown in wage growth,” Baker wrote in a statement. “The 3.6% annual rate over the last three months can hardly be seen as posing a serious threat of inflation. This slowing in the average hourly wage, coupled with the 4% rate reported in the fourth quarter Employment Cost Index, should provide solid evidence that wage growth has slowed sharply.”

    A hot batch of January economic data helped to send the Fed into a more hawkish turn. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told members of Congress this week that the Fed is prepared to increase the pace of its rate hikes if warranted.

    “The latest economic data have come in stronger than expected, which suggests that the ultimate level of interest rates is likely to be higher than previously anticipated,” Powell told lawmakers.

    There’s still more data to come before the Fed meets for its two-day policymaking meeting on March 21-22, notably the Consumer Price Index, Producer Price Index and the Commerce Department’s retail sales report. However, Friday’s jobs report likely won’t spur a more dovish turn from the Fed, said Sean Snaith, an economist and director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting.

    “We didn’t go from a four-alarm fire to a five-alarm fire with this data report, but the inflation flames aren’t out either,” he wrote in a note Friday. “And nothing today indicates that the Fed needs to change its more aggressive approach to raising interest rates.”

    Still, economist Gregory Daco cautioned that the Fed shouldn’t fall into the trap of confirmation bias by letting the stronger-than-expected economic data influence the analysis of Friday’s jobs report and next week’s CPI report.

    The Fed may see the low unemployment rate and the robust job gains as fueling wage growth, said Daco, chief economist at EY Parthenon.

    “Our view, however, is slower job growth in the goods sector, easing hours worked and moderating sequential wage growth momentum and a rise in the labor force participation rate indicate a welcome easing of labor market tightness,” Daco noted. “While we acknowledge this report was by no means a weak one, we also observe that some of the job gains were in sectors where there has been a structural employment shortfall — health care and education in particular. Employment strength in those sectors may not be indicative of cyclical wage pressures, but rather easing structural constraints.”

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  • Pickleball is America’s fastest-growing sport. These people hate it | CNN Business

    Pickleball is America’s fastest-growing sport. These people hate it | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

    The sound and disruption from pickleball, America’s fastest-growing sport, is driving some neighbors, tennis players, parents of young children, and others crazy.

    Homeowners groups and local residents in dozens of towns and cities have rallied to limit pickleball play and block the development of new courts. They are circulating petitions, filing lawsuits, and speaking out at council and town hall meetings to slow the audible spread of pickleball frenzy across the country.

    The number of people playing pickleball grew by 159% over three years to 8.9 million in 2022, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, a trade group.

    The rapid spread has created dilemmas for public parks and recreation departments, which must balance competing interests with often limited space and funds. Retirement communities and country clubs also face challenges building space for people who enjoy the game, a scaled-down version of tennis with a smaller court, without antagonizing others.

    Pickleball can be noisier than tennis because the game can fit more players onto the same space as a tennis court. Hits during a pickleball rally are also more frequent than tennis. And it’s a more social sport, so the games tend to be louder with players bantering during and after points.

    Rob Mastroianni, a resident of Falmouth, Massachusetts, sold his house and moved after the town’s recreation department built pickleball courts 350 feet away from his home in a residential area.

    “It’s a percussive pop. It pierces the air and carries,” he said.

    He and a group of neighbors eventually filed a lawsuit last year against the town’s zoning board of appeals, claiming that the pickleball courts violated town bylaws prohibiting “daily injurious and obnoxious noise levels.” Their suit said the noise from the game was “substantially impacting [their] quiet and peaceful enjoyment of their respective homes.” (They won a temporary injunction and the courts are currently closed.)

    “It’s a tough sell to be against pickleball,” Mastroianni said. “But at the end of the day it was creating mental and physical health problems with neighbors butting heads.”

    “The constant popping 12 hours a day 7 days a week is borderline torture,” one resident who lives next to a park in Vienna, Virginia, wrote to the town parks department. “We cannot use our outdoor space anymore due to pickleball and cannot open our windows.” The town voted to restrict pickleball from seven to three days a week at local courts last month.

    Some tennis players are also frustrated because pickleball is taking over tennis courts. The tennis industry has taken note and is working with parks and recreation departments and other facilities to make sure pickleball doesn’t slow tennis’ popularity, too. The number of tennis players grew 33% between 2019 and 2022, according to the United States Tennis Association (USTA).

    “I say if pickleball is that popular let them build their own courts :)” tennis great Martina Navratilova tweeted last year.

    USTA, the governing body for US tennis, has put out guidance with best practices to ensure the two sports can co-exist and keep up with demand for each.

    “In an ideal world, tennis and pickleball have their own spaces,” said Craig Morris, the USTA’s chief executive of community tennis.

    And some parents are pushing back because their kids have less space to play in the park as crowds of pickleball players grow.

    “Players now endlessly swarm the playground daily,” said a petition in New York City to ban pickleball at a local playground with more than 3,000 signatures. “The children have been squeezed out and many have stopped going altogether.”

    Pickleball, which combines elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, began in 1965, but only recently skyrocketed.

    It originally won a following in retirement communities where it was beloved for its social aspect and exercise benefits. The ball travels slower than in tennis and the court is half the size, so it’s easier to play. It’s also accessible for a wide range of ages and the rules are simple.

    The game became more popular during the Covid-19 pandemic as people looked for safe, socially distanced ways to exercise outside. Celebrity backers like Tom Brady and increased media attention have also propelled the sport’s rise, and gyms and parks have built new courts to accommodate demand.

    The game can be played in singles or doubles, inside or outside on a 20-foot by 44-foot court — approximately the size of a badminton court — and lasts until one side reaches 11 points. Many people play on tennis courts that have been modified with lower nets and additional lines.

    As the sport has grown, the number of places to play has also increased.

    There were 11,000 places to play Pickleball at the end of 2022, an increase of around 130 new locations a month, according to USA Pickleball, the sport’s national governing body.

    Players use a plastic perforated ball, slightly heavier than a wiffle ball, and wooden or composite paddles that are about twice the size of ping-pong paddles.

    Pickleball players love the “pop” of their paddles smashing the plastic ball, but that same sound can bother others.

    “Cities should not simply convert tennis courts to pickleball. If they do that without considering sound, they’re likely to have unhappy people,” said Bob Unetich, an engineer by training who started Pickleball Sound Mitigation, a consulting firm that advises municipalities, country clubs, and upset neighbors on reducing noises associated with the game. Unetich, who is a trained pickleball referee and avid player, has advised more than 100 clients.

    People play pickleball on what were once tennis courts at Allendale Park in Pasadena, CA, in 2022.

    If there are several games going on at the same time, there can be multiple “pop” noises every second, Unetich said. Cheap pickleball paddles and balls are often the loudest.

    The “pitch” of pickleball hits is also more annoying to people than a tennis racquet with strings colliding with a soft tennis ball, he said. Tennis and some other common sport sounds are usually lower pitched than pickleball.

    New and existing pickleball sites need to take background noise into account, Unitech said.

    If courts are built near homes, they should block sound with barriers, enforce the use of quieter paddles and balls, or restrict playing hours, he said.

    “I’m an advocate of pickleball, but if it’s right across the street from people’s homes it’s quite a problem,” he said. “The right solution is often to put the court someplace else.”

    Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

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  • Mental health startup exposes the personal data of more than 3 million people | CNN Politics

    Mental health startup exposes the personal data of more than 3 million people | CNN Politics


    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    A mental health startup exposed the personal data of as many as 3.1 million people online. In some cases, possibly sensitive information on mental health treatment was leaked, according to a company statement and a Department of Health and Human services filing.

    Cerebral, a California-based firm that connects people suffering from anxiety and depression with mental health professionals via video calls, said it discovered the “inadvertent” data exposure more than three years after it started using “pixels” – a common method that companies and advertisers use to track user behavior for marketing purposes.

    The company determined in January that tracking pixels had been sharing client and user data to “third-party platforms” and “subcontractors” that it didn’t name, according to a privacy notice near the bottom of its website.

    Cerebral said it was unaware of any misuse of the protected health information that was disclosed. But privacy advocates have for years warned that such data troves can be used to aggressively market products at consumers and infringe on their privacy.

    Some of the data potentially exposed in the Cerebral breach includes answers to online “self-assessments” about mental health that Cerebral asks prospective clients to fill out. That can include questions on whether someone is experiencing panic attacks, abusing alcohol or has a personality disorder, CNN’s review of the online assessments found.

    Cerebral said in a statement to CNN on Friday that it was “committed to correcting historical errors and leading the industry in privacy standards moving forward.”

    Cerebral notified the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which said in a filing this month that the breach affects over 3.1 million users. The department investigates potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a law that requires medical providers to safeguard patient data.

    Rachel Seeger, a spokesperson for the HHS Office for Civil Rights, said the office typically “does not comment on open or potential investigations.”

    Cerebral said in its public statement that it had disabled the tracking pixels on its platforms and stopped sharing data with subcontractors “not able to meet all HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] requirements.”

    “It is important to note that Cerebral never impermissibly transmitted clinician generated notes or clinician communications,” the company told CNN.

    Cerebral spokesperson Chris Savarese did not respond to emailed questions about which and how many platforms and contractors to which the company disclosed the client health information.

    Some analysts argue that the broader market for data tracking tools is out of control. A group of conservative Catholics has spent millions of dollars to buy mobile data that identified priests who used gay dating and hookup apps, the Washington Post reported this week.

    Andrea Downing, who has done extensive research on pixel tracking and privacy, said patients are often unaware of how much personal data health care startups collect and potentially transmit to other parties.

    “What is in the fine print or the details of how data is being shared for advertising is not apparent to us when we’re going through the trauma of a diagnosis and seeking knowledge,” said Downing, who is co-founder of Light Collective, a digital rights nonprofit.

    “The only thing that is incentivizing change right now is the threat of liability,” Downing told CNN.

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  • China appoints Li Qiang, a trusted ally of Xi Jinping, as premier | CNN

    China appoints Li Qiang, a trusted ally of Xi Jinping, as premier | CNN


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    China’s rubber-stamp legislature has appointed Li Qiang, a long-time aide of leader Xi Jinping, as premier, the man tasked with reviving the world’s second-largest economy after three years of zero-Covid restrictions.

    The National People’s Congress endorsed Li in a largely ceremonial vote at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Saturday morning. Li got 2,936 votes, with three votes cast against him and eight abstained.

    Li, 63, is one of the most trusted protégés of Xi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades. He will replace outgoing Premier Li Keqiang, who had been Xi’s second in command since 2013.

    Traditionally, the premiership is an influential role in charge of the economy, although over the past decade, its power has been eroded by Xi, who has taken almost all decision-making into his own hands.

    Even so, much of the new premier’s efforts are likely to be concentrated on trying to turn around the fortunes of the Chinese economy, which recently set a GDP growth target for this year of about 5% – the lowest in decades.

    That will be no easy task: China is in the midst of a historic downturn for the all-important housing market, consumer spending is sluggish, and unemployment remains high among the youth. And local governments are saddled by debt.

    Business confidence has plummeted following an unprecedented regulatory crackdown on the private sector and increased uncertainties about China’s future policy. Relations between the United States and China are at their lowest point in decades, leading to escalating tensions in technology and investment. Foreign investment in China has slumped.

    Xi identified Li Qiang, a former Communist Party boss of Shanghai who presided over the city’s chaotic two-month lockdown, as the man to take on these challenges during a leadership reshuffle in October.

    Born in the eastern province of Zhejiang, Li started his career as a worker at an irrigation pumping station. He received his undergraduate education in agricultural mechanization at a college in the city of Ningbo and then worked his way up through the provincial bureaucracy.

    His career took off after he served as Xi’s de facto chief of staff when Xi was the party chief of Zhejiang province between 2002 and 2007.

    Li is the first premier since the Mao era not to have previously worked at the State Council, China’s cabinet, as vice premier, analysts say.

    It was Li’s personal ties with Xi that appear to have clinched his promotion over more qualified candidates, Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics, said when Li was promoted last year.

    But some analysts said his tenure in Shanghai, particularly before last year’s Covid lockdown, pointed to a pragmatic, pro-business style.

    During Li’s time there, Tesla built its first gigafactory outside the United States in the city. Tesla has sole ownership of that factory, the first foreign automaker in China to wholly own its plant.

    “China’s business environment should turn more friendly, at least, in the coming two years” under Li, who is likely to support private companies and foreign investors, Citi analysts said in a research report.

    In 2019, Li also oversaw the launch of China’s Nasdaq-style stock market on the Shanghai stock exchange.

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