Month: May 2021

By Mark Glennon of Wirepoints.

How? If we could ask those we honor this Memorial Day how best to do it, what would they say? This year, I submit that they would answer differently than they might have in most years past.

I suspect many would say to forget their names and their deeds for now. They would ask us, instead, to see what they would no doubt see with clarity: that America, particularly Illinois, is allowing the slow undoing of the what they died for. They would ask us to honor them by committing ourselves to reversing course. They would ask us to consider the consequences that will come if we don’t.

Stated most simply, they died to protect a democratic republic, essential elements of which are likewise simple – democratic rule bounded by certain unalienable rights.

Both of those elements are being unwound today. Should that continue, Americans will gradually come to see that the foundations of government legitimacy are gone. That looming threat should be our primary concern today, for if Americans conclude that their government no longer derives its powers justly – in the manner articulated by the Founders – then division, strife and violence far worse than we have seen in the last few years will certainly come.

Is it exaggeration to say that the essential elements of legitimate government are being unwound?

As the Founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “let facts be submitted to a candid world:”

• Much of America no longer believes in freedom of expression and openly supports censorship. That means democracy cannot be real. Congressional hearings on tech censorship were filled with demands by many in both the House and Senate for more censorship. Only 53% of college students support freedom of speech. Universities provide endless examples of thought persecution that would have been unthinkable in decades past.

• Here in Illinois, incumbent officeholders are once again about to select who their voters will be, instead of the other way around. It’s Democrats who are drawing obscenely gerrymandered maps in Illinois, but Republicans are doing it in many other states. Blame the United States Supreme Court, which essentially punted two years ago on partisan gerrymandering, leaving incumbent politicians free to do as they want.

• Courts across most of America, particularly in Illinois, have looked away as emergency pandemic rules trampled the unalienable rights they are supposed to protect regardless of majority rule, including freedoms of association, travel, assembly, religion, property, equal protection and due process. Legislatures, too, have handed away their role as a third branch of government in favor of vastly expanded executive authority exercised through emergency rules.

• Young voters are coming of age who’ve been blinded by government K-12 schools that have been made into instruments of political indoctrination. A twisted version of “equity” is now woven into most every part of their curricula, then in turn woven into most every piece of new legislation and regulatory action. Officeholders, sworn to uphold the Constitution, somehow see no conflict embracing Critical Race Theory, which holds that the Constitution was designed to perpetuate slavery, and they force that teaching on schools.

• Voting means nothing unless it is informed vote, and media corrupted beyond recognition have unquestionably tipped countless elections. National media now openly distort news, suppress stories that don’t fit their narrative and often outright lie. In November’s election, 37 congressional races were decided by margins of 5% or less. Illinois alone had two House seats decided by margins of 2% or less. Media surely have an impact at least as big as those margins. Innumerable down-ballot, state and local races undoubtedly were also tipped by national media bias. Journalism schools now openly teach students to forget about objectivity and write, instead, to promote their own philosophies.

Now, incumbent politicians in Illinois have proposed a state constitutional amendment that would give public unions unprecedented power to advance their own “economic interest” by overriding all other forms of government.

And in Washington, the infamous, 800-page “For the People Act” was already passed by the House and now pends in the Senate. It would strip state and local government of control over elections, vastly expanding federal power to make elections universally partisan.

Disagree with some of the above if you want, but nobody can argue that large and growing numbers of Americans do not disagree, and that perceptions ultimately may be most important. Peace and stability require public confidence that the essential elements of legitimate government be present.

That confidence has been eroding quickly and is near a breaking point. If a large portion of Americans conclude that their government is no longer legitimate, and that their the power to fix it through a fair, democratic process has been eliminated, the consequences are almost too difficult to imagine.

This Memorial Day, when you visit or see the pictures of the graves, remember not just their names but why they are there, and consider what they would want. They would want to be remembered for dying to save a democratic republic. They would want America to reverse the course it is now on.

As concerns about China’s looming population decline intensify (stoked by news that the country’s birthrate fell to its lowest level in 2020 since CCP record-keeping began in 1949), Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Monday morning that the Politburo has decided to allow couples to have up to three children.

It’s not clear when the policy will take effect, but the meeting focused on policy changes that could be implemented in the period between now and 2025, and also included other important changes, like a commitment to “prudently lift the retirement age in a phased manner,” according to Xinhua.

The decision to lift the maximum number of births is the biggest shakeup to the CCP’s notoriously strict family planning policies since the Party abolished China’s one-child policy back in 2015. But it’s not exactly a surprise: Internal dissatisfaction with the population growth rate had led to top party officials openly discussing the shortcomings of the two-child policy with western media, a sign that a major rethink was likely on its way, as we pointed out back in January.

Source: FT

Now, that rethink has arrived just as China’s all-important credit impulse has turned negative and concerns about GDP growth, which had already begun to slow even before the pandemic (remember 2019 saw the slowest growth in a decade), are prompting the Politburo to shake things up.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that the decision to allow couples to have up to three children comes just weeks after Beijing published the results of China’s latest census, which set off additional alarm bells that China’s working-age population was shrinking relative to the size of its retired population. The census showed that China reported only 12MM births last year, the lowest annual reading since 1961, and down 18% from 2019.

Here’s more on the decision, which was made Monday during a Politburo meeting presided over by President Xi Jingping, from Bloomberg News. The decision was made to help improve the “population’s structure,” according to a statement from Xinhua.

China will allow all couples to have a third child, a surprise move aimed at slowing the nation’s declining birthrate as risks to the economy’s long-term prospects mount because of a rapidly aging population.

In a meeting presided over by President Xi Jinping Monday, the Communist Party’s Politburo decided to ease the current two-child restriction, saying “allowing every couple to have three children and implementing related support policies will help improve the population’s structure,” according to a report by the official Xinhua News Agency. It wasn’t clear when the move would take effect, although the meeting discussed major policy measures to be implemented in the period to 2025.

China has been gradually reforming its stringent birth policy that for decades limited most families to only having a single child, with a second child allowed since 2016. However, that reform did little to reverse the declining birthrate and further relaxation of the limits is unlikely to lead to a sustained increase.

At 1.41 billion, China’s population is the biggest in the world, but increasingly economists worry that the “pandemic effect” will cause it to start shrinking before 2025 (it was previously thought that the decline would begin around 2030).

“The Politburo probably saw the latest census results and with all the public consensus about a change, it’s easier now to make a decision,” said Henry Wang, president of the Center for China and Globalization, a think-tank linked to China’s government. “They probably need some time before they completely drop” the birth restrictions, he said. “If this adjustment doesn’t help, then that would help them make a future decision,” he added.

Bloomberg’s Eric Zhu, a China-focused economist, said the new policy is “a step in the right direction but it’s not enough to head off an inevitable demographic drag on the economy. Other steps, including birth- and parenting-friendly policies and an increase in the pension age, are needed as quickly as possible if China stands a chance of slowing a looming decline in its workforce and crunch from an aging population.”

Demographers expect that even with a looser birth policy, China’s population will likely continue to shift as Chinese citizens embrace the trend toward smaller family sizes that has taken hold in North America and Europe. “For those people who are rich, relaxing the policy will encourage them to have more children but for the common citizens, like the middle class or even the lower class, they don’t have enough incentive to make use of this new policy,” said Vivian Zhan, an associate professor of Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Shares of companies producing baby formula and other childcare and fertility-related products and services jumped on the news. Milk formula maker Beingmate Co. Ltd. rose as much as 10% in Shenzhen, while fertility clinic service provider Jinxin Fertility Group Ltd. surged almost 24% in Hong Kong. Shares of French food maker Danone climbed as much as 1.6% in Europe.

Over the long term, China’s aging population will contribute to rising prices while growth sputters, unless the state commits to expanding pensions and committing more resources to caring for the elderly, while continuing to ensure growth in China’s industrial and high-tech sectors as well. Last time around, when China lifted the one-child policy in 2013, the country’s population growth accelerated mildly during the following years, but that bump quickly faded as the pressures of modern life increasingly make small families more practical.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Elon Musk is again scrambling to appease the NHTSA and Consumer Reports.

After Consumer Reports dropped Tesla’s Model 3 from its “top pick” list as a result of the automaker removing radar (and the associated automated safety features that go with it) from the vehicle, Musk has reportedly told pro-Tesla rag electrek that “safety features” are active in new Tesla vehicles.

So once again, it’s all just a big misunderstanding, and Elon Musk can clear the whole thing up.

Electrek said late last week that “active safety features are in place in new Tesla cars and the NHTSA will test them next week”.

Elon Musk reportedly told the blog: “Just confirmed with the Autopilot team that these features are active in all cars now, including vision-only. NHTSA automatically removes the check mark for any cars with new hardware until they retest, which is happening next week, but the functionality is actually there. It will have all the safety features of prior vision+radar and then some. The software should be fully rolled out to all new vehicles within two weeks.”

He continued, stressing that once again the NHTSA and Consumer Reports just have no idea what they’re talking about: “The probability of safety will be higher with pure vision than vision+radar, not lower. Vision has become so good that radar actually reduces signal/noise”.

Ah, yes, just like how Autopilot makes cars safer. How could we have forgotten?

Recall, days ago we noted that the Model 3 lost the “Top Pick” status after the automaker decided to no longer equip Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with radar sensors. Without the radar sensors, “vehicles may lack some key advanced safety features, including forward collision warning (FCW) and automatic emergency braking (AEB)”, according to Consumer Reports. This has caused these models to lose critical performance designations from testing organizations like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

David Friedman, VP of advocacy for Consumer Reports and a former acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, commented: “If a driver thinks their vehicle has a safety feature and it doesn’t, that fundamentally changes the safety profile of the vehicle. It might not be there when they think it would save their lives.”

Vehicles built on or after April 27, 2021 would no longer going receive the NHTSA’s “check mark” for FCW and AEB, we reported. The agency rescinded the check marks “after Tesla briefed the agency on production changes due to the transition to Tesla Vision from radar.”

“Because of the change, Consumer Reports no longer lists the Model 3 as a Top Pick, and IIHS plans to remove the Model 3’s Top Safety Pick+ designation,” CR wrote.

 

Jake Fisher, senior director of CR’s Auto Test Center, said: “It is extremely rare for an automaker to remove safety features from a vehicle during a production run, even temporarily, but this isn’t the first time that Tesla has done this.”

He continued: “With over-the-air updates, Tesla can add and remove features on their vehicles over time. We update our scores when key features are added or removed.”

Recall, we noted days ago when Tesla said it was ditching radar in favor of cameras. The company said it is going to do away with radar in favor of using a “camera-focused Autopilot system” and that the change is going to apply to both Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in North America, starting this month.

Nikkei in recent analysis noted that President Xi has “lost Europe” after his “hardline diplomacy” clearly backfired – on display after over a week ago the China-EU investment deal was suspended in a politically and symbolically resounding vote by European Parliament which has effectively put it in a deep freeze. The mood in Beijing was widely reported as collective “shock” given the marathon years-long negotiations that preceded the deal which was only concluded in December.

Brussels had moved to freeze talks until Chinese sanctions against individual EU lawmakers and scholars are dropped. Beijing is now on a diplomatic offensive to save the deal, with a flurry of recent top level meetings aimed at maintaining support for keeping the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) alive from Poland to Hungary to Serbia to France to Ireland.

Those prior sanctions on EU officials came in response to coordinated efforts led by the US and UK, and which brought in the EU, to call out and punish Beijing over its atrocious human rights record, particularly centering on Xinjiang and Uyghur Muslims. This despite it taking seven years of negotiations which wrapped up and finally materialized into a deal last December, just before Joe Biden took the White House. Many criticized at the time that China was being allowed to “rush” through the agreement, which would in the long-run compromise European security and sovereignty. 

And yet as Nikkei observes elsewhere, “Enthusiasm for China has cooled in much of central and eastern Europe, leaving Beijing alarmed as human rights concerns and stalled investments push disillusioned partners toward the U.S.”

It took a mere few months for Beijing’s “win” to unravel in the tit-for-tat hostilities with the West, ultimately led by Washington. The May 20 European Parliament vote to suspend the CAI was a landslide and hugely symbolic collective souring on Beijing as a European “partner”: 599 votes in favor of freezing ratification and 30 votes against (with 58 abstentions).

Bloomberg also weighed in on this theme of Xi losing Europe after making deep inroads especially in Eastern Europe and the Balkans: “The investment pact had been seen as proof of both Europe’s independence from the U.S. and China’s ability to collaborate with American allies who adopted a more moderate approach.” The weekend reports underscored additionally: “Attitudes in several European capitals have grown less favorable toward China since the coronavirus outbreak fueled a range of diplomatic disputes.”

With #Merkel 🇩🇪 soon leaving the political stage the Chinese Communist Party 🇨🇳 is turning to President #Macron 🇫🇷.

Let’s make sure he does not cave in and resuscitates the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment #CAI. #StopCAI #NotInMyName https://t.co/9TdqnaS8l5

— Andreas Fulda (@AMFChina) May 26, 2021

This past week Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi argued that a landmark seven years in the making investment deal should not be linked to what China sees as “separate issues”. 

“The investment agreement is not a one-sided favor; the Xinjiang-related issue bears on China’s sovereignty and security,” Wang told the Munich Security Conference on Tuesday in a remote call. “Attempts by some in the EU to link issues of different nature and turn trade issues into political ones are not acceptable and will lead nowhere,” he added, which appears a favored point of emphasis whether Beijing is addressing deteriorated relations and trade from Australia to the UK to Washington.

Authored by Rocco Loiacono via The Epoch Times,

As reported in The Epoch Times recently, the Oklahoma Legislature recently passed a Bill banning mask mandates in schools. In Germany, mask mandates in schools have also been under the microscope, in particular in an extraordinary judgment given last month.

A woman wearing a protective face mask reading ”dictatorship” protests against government restrictions, although the rally has been disallowed by a regional court, amid the CCP virus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bremen, Germany, on Dec. 5, 2020. (Fabian Bimmer/Reuters)

On April 8, the Weimar District Court banned two schools in that district from enforcing mask mandates, social distancing requirements, and rapid COVID-19 testing on their students. The court also ordered the schools to no longer conduct distance learning.

The decision followed a legal action by the mother of two students, aged 8 and 14 respectively, at one of the schools, who argued that such measures were causing physical, psychological, and pedagogical harm to her children, as well as constituting an infringement of her children and parental rights under German and international law.

The judge, Christian Dettmar, upheld this argument (pdf), noting that mask mandates and social distancing requirements for children, were not only causing the harm mentioned above, but were in direct violation of Articles 2 and 6 of the German Constitution, which guarantee the rights to freedom of individual development, education, and parental assistance.

Members of the police stand guard as people protest against the government measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as the lower house of parliament Bundestag discusses amendments to the Infection Protection Act, in Berlin, Germany, on April 21, 2021. (Christian Mang/Reuters)

Accordingly, the judge held that the anti-COVID measures deployed were not proportional to the threat posed. This was in accordance with proportionality principles enshrined in Articles 20 and 28 of the German Constitution.

The court also referred to an October 2020 WHO Bulletin which featured a study by renowned medical science expert John Ioannidis, who found the death rate for coronavirus was 0.23 percent, the equivalent of a moderate influenza epidemic.

In examining expert medical, scientific (including biological) and psychological evidence, the judge found the use of masks and social distancing had no effect whatsoever on reducing infection, and cast serious doubt on the ability of asymptomatic persons—particularly children—to spread the virus. This was the first time evidence was presented to a German court regarding the scientific reasonableness and necessity of the prescribed anti-virus measures.

Judge Dettmar found that the anti-virus measures posed a danger to the mental, physical or psychological well-being of the children to such an extent that significant harm could be foreseen with a high degree of certainty. He wrote:

“The children are not only endangered in their mental, physical, and spiritual well-being by the obligation to wear face masks during school hours and to keep their distance from each other and from other persons, but, in addition, they are already being harmed. At the same time, this violates numerous rights of the children and their parents under the law, the constitution, and international conventions.

This applies in particular to the right to free development of the personality and to physical integrity from Article 2 of the (German Constitution) as well as to the right from Article 6 of the (Constitution) to upbringing and care by the parents (also with regard to measures for preventive health care and ‘objects’ to be carried by children) …”

The judge agreed with the experts’ assessment that masks were not useful for viral protection, that PCR tests could not detect a disease-causing infection with necessary certainty, and that asymptomatic transmission played no detectable role epidemiologically with respect to coronavirus.

On the contrary, masks would have a negative impact on children’s health due to handling-related contamination. Testing in school classes would be unnecessary, harmful and also extremely problematic in terms of data protection.

In conclusion, he stated, “100,000 elementary school students would have to put up with all the side effects of wearing masks for a week in order to prevent just one infection per week. To call this result merely disproportionate would be a wholly inadequate description. Rather, it shows that the state legislature regulating this area has fallen into a factual disconnect that has reached historic proportions.”

Following this sensational decision, Judge Dettmar had his house, office, and car searched by police, and mobile phone confiscated.

The Weimar Administrative Court—a separate court with no jurisdiction over the District Court—issued a statement in response describing Dettmar’s decision as unlawful (without giving reasons), and reiterated the importance of the mask mandate.

Do the actions of the police, court, and authorities suggest that the edifice of virus restrictions could be exposed as lacking proper epidemiological foundations?

AfricArena has released a new report using Partech data which has forecast that virtual capital funding for African startups will amount to between $2.25 billion and $2.8 billion this year, a record high for the continent.

Africa’s VC investments reached an all-time high in 2019 when 234 tech companies raised $2.02 billion in 250 equity rounds, a 74 percent increase on the $1,163 recorded in 2018.

While the pandemic resulted in major setbacks in 2020 with growth declining 29 percent, Statista’s Niall McCarthy points out that the good news is that major improvements are expected. In 2022, VC investment is expected to climb sharply to between $3.8 billion and $4.7 billion while the upper range is expected to be $6.8 billion by 2023. By 2025, VC investment in Africa is forecast to exceed $10 billion.

This is thanks to a number of factors such as an increased allocation of capital from corporates to their corporate VC activities, acquisitions of African tech companies, intensified FDIs and major initiatives from Europe such as the Enrich in Africa program.

So given that African startups are on the upward trajectory, where is activity most heavily concentrated?

You will find more infographics at Statista

Currently, Nigeria and Kenya are the hotspots for African VC investment with $307 million and $305 million raised in 2020, respectively.

Egypt is also a major player with $269 million of funding recorded last year while South Africa had $259 million.

Rwanda has positioned itself as a hub for East Africa and it enjoyed great success with $126 million raised in 2019.

Unfortunately the pandemic halted its impressive progress and that figure tumbled 91 percent to just $11.6 million last year.