- Roger Waters blames ‘Israeli lobby’ for alleged Argentina, Uruguay hotel ban The Times of Israel
- Roger Waters was denied hotel stays in Argentina and Uruguay over antisemitism allegations, report says The Associated Press
- Roger Waters reportedly denied hotel stays in South America over antisemitism allegations Euronews
- Roger Waters says he has no hotel in Argentina and Uruguay due to ‘Israeli lobby boycott’ Buenos Aires Times
- Roger Waters Faces ‘Israel Lobby’ Hotel Boycotts In Argentina And Uruguay – I24NEWS i24NEWS
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: lobby
Supreme Court Justice Alito denies NYT report that he leaked Hobby Lobby opinion
But the donor, Gayle Wright, told the Times that Schenck’s account was not true, and Alito issued a statement denying it as well.
“The allegation that the Wrights were told the outcome of the decision in the Hobby Lobby case, or the authorship of the opinion of the Court, by me or my wife is completely false,” Alito said.
“My wife and I became acquainted with the Wrights some years ago because of their strong support for the Supreme Court Historical Society, and since then, we have had a casual and purely social relationship,” the statement said. “I never detected any effort on the part of the Wrights to obtain confidential information or to influence anything that I did in either an official or private capacity, and I would have strongly objected if they had done so.”
In response to questions Saturday about the denials from Alito and Wright, Schenck confirmed in a statement “the extensive details and facts” he provided in the Times account and declined to comment further.
Schenck’s allegation comes after the unprecedented leak this spring of Alito’s draft opinion upholding a restrictive Mississippi abortion law and overturning the constitutional right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade nearly 50 years earlier. The leak was a shocking breach of the court’s secretive and closely held deliberations, and Alito recently denounced it as a “grave betrayal of trust.”
The episode added to growing debate over the legitimacy and behind-the-scenes operations of the Supreme Court at a time when public approval of the court has sunk to historic lows.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. announced an investigation into the origins of the leak soon after it was published in early May but has not provided any further information. Some justices have said in public appearances that they expect a report or updates, but they have not been specific.
According to the Times, Schenck sent a letter to Roberts in June volunteering the information about the 2014 dinner with the Alitos, which he did not attend. He wrote that the “series of events” that he was disclosing “may impinge on the investigation you and your delegates are undertaking in connection with the leak of a draft opinion.”
Schenck told the Times that Roberts did not respond. A court spokeswoman declined to provide the letter or comment on the progress of the leak investigation.
This is not the first time Schenck has publicly revealed what he describes as efforts by Christian conservatives to influence the direction of the court. Schenck in the past has told Politico and Rolling Stone about efforts he undertook on behalf of his nonprofit, Faith and Action, to ingratiate himself with the three justices who at the time were the court’s most conservative — Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas and the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
But the Times report, by Jodi Kantor and Jo Becker, said Schenck had not previously shared allegations about knowing in advance the outcome of the Hobby Lobby case, which held that family-owned businesses did not have to provide certain contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act’s insurance requirements.
“The evidence for Mr. Schenck’s account of the breach has gaps,” the reporters wrote. “But in months of examining Mr. Schenck’s claims, the Times found a trail of contemporaneous emails and conversations that strongly suggested he knew the outcome and the author of the Hobby Lobby decision before it was made public.”
Schenck provided an email from Gayle Wright, who along with her now-deceased husband, Donald, were major contributors to Schenck’s nonprofit. Schenck told the Times that when he learned the Wrights would be the dinner guests of Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, in 2014, he asked Gayle Wright to learn what she could about the pending Hobby Lobby case.
A day later, Gayle Wright wrote: “Rob, if you want some interesting news please call. No emails,” the Times reported.
According to the Times report, Schenck said Wright told him that the decision would be favorable to Hobby Lobby and that Justice Alito had written the majority opinion. Three weeks later, Alito delivered the court’s opinion.
Wright disputed Schenck’s account in an interview with the Times. She said she believed she fell ill during the dinner at the Alitos’ home in Alexandria that night and that the justice drove her and her husband back to her hotel. That might have been the news she wanted to share with Schenck.
“Being a friend or having a friendly relationship with a justice, you know that they don’t ever tell you about cases. They aren’t allowed to,” Wright told the Times “Nor would I ask. There has never been a time in all my years that a justice or a justice’s spouse told me anything about a decision.”
The Wrights were major contributors to the Supreme Court Historical Society, which Schenck has said is something he encouraged his donors to fund.
In his statement, Alito said that is the only way he knew the couple. “I have no knowledge of any project that they allegedly undertook for “Faith and Action,” “Faith and Liberty,” or any similar group, and I would be shocked and offended if those allegations are true,” his statement said.
A liberal group that has advocated increasing the size of the Supreme Court to offset its new conservative supermajority called on the Senate to look into the report.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee should immediately move to investigate the apparent leak by Justice Alito,” said Demand Justice executive director Brian Fallon. “The whistleblower in this report, Rev. Rob Schenck, should be called to testify about both the leak and the years-long lobbying effort he once led to cultivate Alito and other Republican justices.”
Fallon added: “It’s no wonder trust in the Court has hit a record low. Structural reform of the Court, including strict new ethics rules, is needed now more than ever.”
Private-equity lobby wins relief from tax hikes in Inflation Reduction Act
The package proposes hundreds of billions of dollars in fresh spending, financed in part through new taxes, including a corporate minimum tax that would require firms with more than $1 billion in annual profits to pay a tax rate of at least 15 percent. As originally written, the provision would have required private equity firms to tally profits from their various holdings and pay the tax if the total exceeded the $1 billion threshold.
Sinema, who for over a year has blocked Democratic ambitions to raise taxes, raised objections on Saturday, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks. The senator argued that, without changes to the bill, small and medium-sized businesses that happen to be owned by private equity firms would be exposed to the tax, violating a Democratic pledge to hike taxes only on the largest firms. A Sinema spokeswoman said several Arizona small businesses, including a plant nursery, had raised concerns.
The senator’s objections came days after she persuaded Democrats to abandon a different effort to raise taxes on private equity managers by closing the so-called “carried interest loophole,” which permits investment managers to pay lower rates on certain portions of their income.
In a statement, Sinema’s office said her goal is to “target tax avoidance, make the tax code more efficient, and support Arizona’s economic growth and competitiveness.”
“At a time of record inflation, rising interest rates, and slowing economic growth, Senator Sinema knows that disincentivizing investments in Arizona businesses would hurt Arizona’s economy’s ability to create jobs, and she ensured the Inflation Reduction Act helps Arizona’s economy grow,” the statement said.
The last-minute changes mark a significant victory for the private equity industry and an estimated savings of $35 billion over the next decade. Private equity represents a roughly $4 trillion industry in the United States, and as the sector has grown markedly over the past decade, it has flexed its considerable political muscle repeatedly in Washington.
From the start, the unusual way private equity businesses are structured posed a challenge for Democrats crafting the new minimum tax. Typically, large conglomerates are formed as “C corporations” under the tax code and pay corporate taxes. The new minimum tax would clearly apply to them. But private equity firms are legally formed as partnerships, which typically pay taxes on the individual returns of their owners. Senate Democrats say they crafted the legislation to ensure that wealthy investment managers who own numerous C corporations and other business entities collectively worth more than $1 billion would be subject to the tax.
But the tax was never intended to hit the smaller subsidiaries that make up private equity portfolios, said Ashley Schapitl, a spokeswoman for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who called industry claims to that effect “nonsense.”
Independent analysts largely agreed with that reading of the provision. “The language in the bill was intended to make sure they are treated the same way,” said Steve Wamhoff, a tax expert at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank. “The idea that billion-dollar private equity funds must be protected to save small businesses is absolutely absurd.”
Steve Rosenthal, a tax policy analyst at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, said his take is that “smaller firms would not be hit” by the original provision. “But it could be clarified,” he added.
Still, confusion over the provision touched off a late scramble to strip it from the bill. In recent days, private equity advocates circulated a document to lawmakers claiming the tax could hit 18,000 firms that employ 12 million people, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post. The document called the measure a “new stealth tax” that would put small firms owned by private equity at a “competitive disadvantage by subjecting them to the book minimum tax when their similarly sized competitors would not be subject.”
Republicans seized on the issue, and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) worked with Sinema to craft an amendment to clarify that profits from subsidiaries would not have to be tallied to determine whether a firm is subject to the new minimum tax. On Sunday, the Senate voted 57-43 to adopt the change. In addition to Sinema, six Democrats voted yes: Sinema’s fellow senator from Arizona, Mark Kelly; Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada; Jon Ossoff and Raphael G. Warnock of Georgia; and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.
The Senate later voted 51-50 to make up the lost revenue by limiting “pass-through” companies — which can include private-equity firms — from claiming more than $250,000 in annual tax deductions.
Quavo and Takeoff Drop “Hotel Lobby” Video Under New Moniker Unc and Phew
Unc and Phew have officially arrived.
The rap duo, formed by Migos members Quavo and Takeoff, made their big debut this week with the release of “Hotel Lobby”—their first record release under the new moniker. The Murda Beatz-produced track was accompanied by a video that nods to the modern-day cult classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The visual was helmed by Hunco Films.
The name “Unc and Phew” is a reference to the ATL rapper’s family ties, as Quavo is Takeoff’s uncle. The two spoke about their relationship during a 2013 interview with The Fader, shedding more light on their experience of growing up together in Georgia.
“We moved from Athens to Gwinett when Takeoff was in elementary and I was in middle school,” Quavo said. “His momma took care of everything, and us. We always stayed in the same house. We share everything. He’s basically like a brother.”
Takeoff added: “I don’t look at him as my uncle, but more as my brother. But we always have clowned on each other. He is my uncle, so I gotta clown on him. You gotta be funny.”
You can stream “Hotel Lobby” now on all major DSPs, and check out its official video via YouTube above.
The track arrives amid Migos breakup rumors, which were fueled by Unc and Phew’s new track. The speculation began earlier this week, when fans noticed that Quavo and fellow Migos member Offset were no longer following each other on Instagram. The former was pressed about the whispers while leaving LAX on Thursday; however, he refused to speak on the issue, and simply used the opportunity to promote “Hotel Lobby.”
Despite Abuses of NSO Spyware, Israel Will Lobby U.S. to Defend It
JERUSALEM — Hacking software sold by the NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm, has been used to spy on journalists, opposition groups and rights activists. There have been so many accusations of abuse that the Biden administration slapped sanctions on the company last week.
But the company’s biggest backer, the government of Israel, considers the software a crucial element of its foreign policy and is lobbying Washington to remove the company from the blacklist, two senior Israeli officials said Monday.
NSO insists that the software — which allows governments to remotely and secretly penetrate a phone, monitor its location and extract it contents — is intended to help countries combat organized crime and terrorism.
But there has been a drumbeat of periodic revelations of abuse, with the company’s Pegasus software used to hack the phones of political opponents in dozens of countries.
The latest accusation came Monday, when international computer privacy experts said that Pegasus had been deployed against Palestinian rights activists, raising questions about whether the Israeli government itself was behind the hacking.
If the new claims are true, the case would be yet another instance of the software being used against rights advocates and the first known instance of it being used inside Israel and the occupied territories.
The Israeli prime minister’s office and the Defense Ministry denied that Pegasus had been used to hack the Palestinians’ phones. An NSO spokeswoman said that the company would not say who used the software and that it did not have access to information about whom the program was used against.
But the fact that such reports have led to a breach in relations with the United States alarmed the Israeli government, the senior officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss issues of national security and diplomatic relations.
In imposing the sanctions, the U.S. Commerce Department said that NSO had acted “contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.” If the United States is accusing NSO of acting against its interests, the officials said, then it is implicitly accusing Israel, which licenses the software, of doing the same.
Israel insists that it maintains strict control over the licensing, with a review process by the Defense Ministry that was established in part to assure that no commercial deals would jeopardize Israel’s relationship with the United States.
The campaign to remove the sanctions against NSO and a second company, Candiru, will seek to persuade the Biden administration that their activities remain of great importance to the national security of both countries, the officials said.
They also said that Israel would be willing to commit to much tighter supervision on licensing the software.
Aside from Israel’s Defense Ministry review process, the global market for spyware is largely unregulated. Those targeted by the Pegasus spyware in the past include people close to Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident and columnist murdered by Saudi agents in 2018; investigative journalists in Hungary; and lawyers in Mexico.
The investigation finding that the software was used against Palestinian rights activists, first reported by The Associated Press, did not definitively identify which government used Pegasus in this case.
“But it raises a lot of questions as to the role not only of NSO, but also of Israel,” said Adam Shapiro, a spokesman for Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based rights group that conducted the investigation along with Amnesty International and Citizen Lab, a cyber-watchdog affiliated with the University of Toronto.
“There are only so many options that could be plausible here,” Mr. Shapiro said, “and the previous actions of the Israeli government raise real questions about what’s going on here and serious doubts about any denials that the government makes.”
The latest accusations mark the convergence of what had previously been two separate diplomatic issues for Israel: its outlawing last month of six Palestinian rights groups it accused of being fronts for a banned militant group, which attracted widespread international criticism, and its longstanding support for NSO, which operates under state-issued licenses.
The analysis said that four of the six Palestinians whose phones were hacked were employees of the outlawed groups.
According to Israeli government policy, Pegasus cannot be used by a foreign government against Israeli phone numbers, such as those belonging to the Palestinians in the outlawed groups. An Israeli government agency, however, would have the authority to use the software against an Israeli number.
This policy, coupled with the accusations in the new analysis, raised questions about whether the Israeli government had used the spyware against the Palestinian rights advocates.
Last month, the Israeli government claimed that the six Palestinian groups raised funds for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and other countries.
The groups, which have been under Israeli investigation since early this year, collectively denied the Israeli allegations.
Citing secret evidence that it has not released publicly, the Israeli Defense Ministry said that the groups had taken donations from European countries and institutions that were meant to be used for humanitarian and rights-related activity, and instead funneled that money to the Popular Front. Officials said that the designation of the six organizations was based on extensive additional intelligence, including classified information that was presented to several intelligence services and law enforcement agencies in Europe and the United States.
The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, declined to answer questions regarding the content of this additional and classified information, or whether it was obtained with NSO spyware.
“Solid and unequivocal information was presented, linking the activities of the relevant organizations to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,” a Shin Bet spokesman said.
A Shin Bet document from May summarizing part of that investigation, obtained and verified by The New York Times, provided no conclusive evidence of a conspiracy between the groups and the Popular Front. However, an Israeli official said that this summary did not detail the main evidence against the six groups.
The Popular Front rose to prominence in the 1960s, when its members hijacked several passenger aircraft, and it went on to claim responsibility for attacks during a Palestinian uprising in the 2000s, including the assassination of Rehavam Zeevi, an Israeli cabinet minister.
Israel said that the Popular Front’s members controlled the finances of the six outlawed groups.
The six groups — Addameer; Al Haq; Bisan; Defense For Children International-Palestine; the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees; and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees — say they are being targeted to silence their work reporting infringements on human rights.
The six groups are variously involved in documenting abuses by Israel; by the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank; and by Hamas, which rules Gaza. They also represent Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and promote the rights of children, women and farmers.
Some of the groups provided evidence to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court who are investigating Israeli politicians and military officials, including the current defense minister, Benny Gantz, for possible war crimes. They have often shared material and testimony with leading international rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and have frequently been cited in the international media.
The document summarizing parts of the Shin Bet’s investigation was originally provided by the intelligence agency to the groups’ European donors and to American officials in an attempt to persuade the latter of their investigation’s legitimacy. A version of it was first leaked last week to two Israeli news outlets, +972 and Local Call, and an American partner, The Intercept.
But instead of detailing specific evidence against the six groups, the document focuses on allegations against a seventh organization, the Health Work Committee. It mainly contains allegations, obtained under Israeli interrogation, by two former accountants of the Health Work Committee who were fired from their posts in 2019.
The two accountants claimed that the other outlawed organizations were controlled by Popular Front members, but at times conceded that some of those allegations were based on conjecture.
The Irish and Dutch governments have said that Israel has not yet provided credible evidence of the links between the six groups and terrorism.
But an Israeli official said that the purpose of the leaked dossier was to persuade Europeans and Americans of the guilt of the Health Work Committee, not the six other groups, and that more conclusive and secretive evidence about the six organizations had been provided to American officials in recent weeks.
“We reject the claim that the material presented to various American entities is circumstantial and unsatisfactory,” a Shin Bet spokeswoman said.
Patrick Kingsley reported from Jerusalem and Ronen Bergman from Tel Aviv. Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting from Rehovot, Israel; and Myra Noveck from Jerusalem.
Meghan Markle cold-calls senators to lobby for paid parental leave using royal title
Senators from both parties received a surprising phone call from the Duchess of Sussex.
Meghan Markle has been personally reaching out to members of Congress to campaign for paid family leave, Politico reported on Wednesday. The news came weeks after the 40-year-old wrote an open letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., published by Paid Leave for All.
“I’m in my car. I’m driving. It says caller ID blocked,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told the outlet. “Honestly … I thought it was Sen. Manchin. His calls come in blocked. And she goes, ‘Sen. Capito?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She said, ‘This is Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.'”
“I couldn’t figure out how she got my number,” the 67-year-old added.
MEGHAN MARKLE, PRINCE HARRY VISIT ONE WORLD OBSERVATORY WITH NEW YORK GOV. KATHY HOCHUL, MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO
Meghan Markle resides in California with her husband Prince Harry and their two children.
(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, supported Capito’s claim.
“I was happy to talk with her,” said the 68-year-old. “But I’m more interested in what the people of Maine are telling me about it. Much to my surprise, she called me on my private line, and she introduced herself as the Duchess of Sussex, which is kind of ironic.”
According to the outlet, it was Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who gave the phone numbers to the former American actress. The 54-year-old has pushed her party to include paid leave in its social spending bill.
“I talked to each of the women senators and let them know that she’s going to reach out because she only completed two of the calls,” said Gillibrand. “She’s going to call some others, so I let them know in advance.”
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‘She’s going to call some others, so I let them know in advance,’ revealed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
“She wants to be part of a working group to work on paid leave long-term, and she’s going to be,” Gillibrand continued. “Whether this comes to fruition now or later, she’ll be part of a group of women that hopefully will work on paid leave together.”
A spokesperson for Markle didn’t immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
In her initial open letter, Markle argued for national paid leave. The duchess is a mother to 2-year-old Archie and 5-month-old Lili.
“I’m not an elected official, and I’m not a politician,” she wrote. “I am, like many, an engaged citizen and a parent. And because you and your congressional colleagues have a role in shaping family outcomes for generations to come, that’s why I’m writing to you at this deeply important time — as a mom — to advocate for paid leave.”
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their second child in June of this year.
(AP, File)
“Over the past 20 months, the pandemic has exposed long-existing fault lines in our communities,” Markle shared. “At an alarming rate, millions of women dropped out of the workforce, staying home with their kids as schools and daycares were closed, and looking after loved ones full-time. The working mom or parent is facing the conflict of being present or being paid. The sacrifice of either comes at a great cost.”
“For many, this sacrifice goes back further than the past 20 months; it’s 20 or 30 years, even longer — decades of giving time, body, and endless energy not just in the pursuit of the American dream, but simply the dream of stability.”
Markle and her husband, Britain’s Prince Harry, reportedly took 20 weeks of parental leave, which is in line with the policies of their Archewell Foundation.
“No family should have to choose between earning a living and having the freedom to take care of their child (or a loved one, or themselves, as we would see with a comprehensive paid leave plan),” the former “Suits” star wrote. “In taking care of your child, you take care of your community, and you take care of your country — because when paid leave is a right, we’re creating a foundation that helps address mental health outcomes, health care costs, and economic strength at the starting line.”
MEGHAN MARKLE SENDS PELOSI, SCHUMER LETTER ADVOCATING FOR ‘PAID LEAVE’: ‘FAIR, AND EQUAL, AND RIGHT’
Meghan Markle and her husband, Britain’s Prince Harry, reportedly took 20 weeks of parental leave, which is in line with the policies of their Archewell Foundation.
(Photo by Getty )
“Instead, as it stands now, we spend a fortune as a country paying into symptoms rather than causes,” she continued. “I understand that with everything going on these days, people might find it easy to be apathetic about what’s happening in Washington, D.C. And then equally, when it feels like your voice doesn’t matter, you tend to use it less often, but with stakes this high none of us can afford to let apathy win.”
Markle became the Duchess of Sussex when she married Harry, 37, in May 2018 at Windsor Castle. The couple’s departures from royal duties began in 2020 over what they described as the British media’s intrusions and racist attitudes towards the duchess. The family now resides in the coastal city of Montecito, California.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
China power crunch slams factories as coal lobby warns woes could stay until winter
SHENYANG, China, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Small firms caught in China’s prolonged energy crunch are turning to diesel generators, or simply shutting shop, as coal industry officials voiced fears about stockpiles ahead of winter and manufacturing shrank in the world’s no. 2 economy.
Beijing is scrambling to deliver more coal to utilities to restore supply as the northeast grapples with its worst power outages in years, particularly the three provinces of Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jilin, home to nearly 100 million people.
Gao Lai, who runs an industrial laundry service in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning, said he was losing money after the power crunch forced him to hire a diesel generator.
“We can afford it for just four days, but if it’s for longer, then the costs are too much, so we can’t survive,” he told Reuters.
“We are willing to make it work because the country needs it, but if (power curbs continue) in the long run, we have to think of a way out.”
The curbs were triggered by shortages of coal, which fuels about two-thirds of China’s power generation.
Thermal coal futures closed Thursday up 4.2% on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange after hitting an all-time high of 1,408 yuan ($218) per tonne.
The contract surged 96% in the July to September period on tight supplies and strong demand, its biggest quarterly jump since the first quarter of 2017, spurring the exchange to adopt trading limits.
Official data separately showed China’s factory activity contracted in September for the first time since February 2020. read more
Since last week, more than 100 companies from electronic component manufacturers to gold miners have notified stock markets of production suspensions. Some have said they resumed production in the last two days, however.
The strain comes as the China Coal Industry Association warned it was “not optimistic” about supplies ahead of winter, the peak season for demand, and added that power plant inventories were now “obviously low”.
It urged companies to “spare no effort” to boost supply and focus on sales to smaller, high-energy consumers who have not signed long-term supply contracts.
Although coal production hit a record in August, analysts with Chinese investment bank CICC said a recent spate of mine accidents had made regulators more cautious about approving expansions in output.
They said imports, down 10.3% on the year in the January to August period, were unlikely to rise significantly over the rest of 2021 and more local production had to be “freed”.
SWITCH TO DIESEL
In Shenyang, staff at a steel parts factory that has been shut for the last few days said they had not yet rented a generator but might do so if rationing continued.
Zhai Junwang, manager of a company that rents standalone diesel-fired generators, said brisk business in recent days had led to a doubling in rates.
“There’s very limited stock,” he said, but added that he did not expect the situation to last, as most small factories using his generators were losing money.
The government has said its priority will be to guarantee household power and heating supplies over the winter, as state-run energy firm Sinopec pledged to boost imports of liquefied natural gas. read more
But Citi analysts said in a note they expected power shortages to persist in the peak winter season for heating, most of it coal-fired.
Experts are pressing for fundamental reforms to China’s energy system.
The crisis was caused not by supply shortages but an inflexible grid system, said Zhang Boting of industry research group the China Society for Hydropower Engineering.
“The solution … isn’t simply relying on increasing power generating capacity, but boosting the ability of the grid to adjust peaks and solve the serious mismatches between energy loads and energy supplies,” he said on the group’s website.
($1=6.46107 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Gabriel Crossley in Shenyang and Shivani Singh in Beijing; Additional reporting by Min Zhang in Beijing, Brenda Goh and David Stanway in Shanghai, Aizhu Chen in Singapore and Tom Daly; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Crocs sues Walmart, Hobby Lobby over trademark infringement
Post Malone gives 10,000 pairs of Crocs to frontline workers
Post Malone and Crocs are teaming up with nonprofit Musicians on Call to donate 10,000 pairs of Crocs to frontline workers.
unbranded – Entertainment, unbranded – Entertainment
Crocs Inc. has filed lawsuits against 21 companies, including Walmart and Hobby Lobby, alleging trademark infringement of the foam clogs’ “distinctively quirky design.”
In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, Crocs asserted that the footwear – first conceptualized during a sailing trip and originally presented as a boating shoe – has been “intentionally and frequently copied” by various companies.
The lawsuit was filed in various U.S. District Courts and seeks monetary damages.
“It is essential that we protect Crocs’ iconic DNA, and we will not tolerate the infringement of our rights or those who try to freeride on the investments we have made in our brand,” Crocs Executive Vice President and Chief Legal and Risk Officer Daniel Hart said in a statement last week.
The footwear reportedly went “back in style” in recent months. Crocs reported record quarterly revenue of $640.8 million in the second quarter, up 93% compared to the same period the year prior.
The July lawsuit filing builds upon a complaint filed with the United States International Trade Commission last month, which asks for an investigation of shoes unlawfully imported into the country in violation of Crocs’ registered trademarks.
The ITC last week agreed to initiate an investigation into more than 20 companies that are selling products that inference with the company’s trademarks.
“We pride ourselves in creating iconic products that are distinctly Crocs and this decisive action further demonstrates our commitment to protecting our brand, our trademarks and other intellectual property,” Crocs CEO Andrew Rees said in a June statement. “By blocking the importation and sale of trademark-infringing footwear, we can ensure with confidence that our product DNA is fully protected while continuing to provide an authentically Crocs experience to our customers and consumers.”
Fashion: Wait, when did Crocs become cool again?
Crocs: Company giving away 50,000 free pairs of shoes to health care workers beginning May 10
Follow USA TODAY reporter Bailey Schulz on Twitter: @bailey_schulz.
Most wholesome Warzone clip ever? Entire lobby celebrates hero who killed hacker
The worst thing in Call of Duty: Warzone isn’t getting killed — it’s getting killed by a hacker. That’s why practically an entire lobby stayed behind to applaud a player who killed their game’s hacker in one of the most wholesome BR clips around.
You can learn a lot from dying in multiplayer titles. Maybe your opponent had a better angle or was more accurate with their shots, any lost fight can be an opportunity to learn and improve. But there’s usually no way to outplay a hacker and that’s why no death is as annoying than one to a cheater.
So it should be no surprise that after being killed by someone with illegal software, people stick behind to spectate and pray on their downfall. That was the case in one match of Warzone, where a hacker racked up 40-plus kills and 25 spectators hoping for them to somehow lose. And then they did, thanks to a mysterious stranger known only as… GoldenArm10.
In what’s become a viral clip on Reddit, a team shared their POV — from being killed by the hacker to the end of the game. And the results are top-tier camaraderie, as it turns out most of the rest of the lobby also stayed behind to watch and ultimately celebrate.
25 spectators congratulate the hero of the game for taking down a 46 kill hacker. Good gaming community moment! from CODWarzone
As you can see in the clip, posted by ‘rainisland90,’ the hacker isn’t exactly being subtle about their cheats, and easily racks up a ton of kills. After being killed, the team stays behind and hopes for revenge: “Come on bro, someone be the hero of the game.”
And like the Bat Signal getting lit, someone does heed the call: GoldenArm10. The player manages to kill the hacker and win the game and is immediately received with a flurry of congratulations in the end-game chat: “Good s**t, Golden” followed by variations of “let’s f**king go!”
It’s not uncommon for Warzone lobbies to be filled with multiple hackers.
And how does the heroic GoldenArm10 take these congratulations? The sudden hero stayed remarkably humble: “I got lucky … Sorry you guys got killed by a piece of s**t.”
While it would be easy to complain about the hacking situation in Warzone and rip on the hacker, this game’s positivity should be a lesson for all of us. Even hackers can bleed and we should gas up the heroes who defeat them.
Guilty Gear Strive’s second open beta test confirmed and lobby changes detailed
The new Developer’s Backyard gives out some insight after the previous beta
A second open beta test for Guilty Gear Strive following the game’s delay last month, and now we finally seem to have confirmation of the next iteration’s existence.
Arc System Works has now released the Developer’s Backyard 5 for Strive that dives more into the future beta as well as what changes they’re planning to implement for the game’s poorly-received lobby system.
“We are planning a second Open Beta Test based on the players’ feedback,” reads the bottom portion of the developer post. “The timing has yet to be determined, so please keep an eye out for future updates.”
Considering Strive’s new release date of June 11, the latest ArcSys would probably hold this bonus chance to get our hands on the game again is early May, so a date should be dropping at any time now.
The devs say they would like to conduct the beta once the planned lobby changes are complete.
Strive’s online lobby system was the lowest rated mode in the post-beta survey by far with over 50 percent of responders ranking it as bad or very bad.
To try and address the issues present in the last beta, ArcSys says they’re going to implement the following changes to the updated lobbies:
• Changing to a system where players select a visible area where they want to have a match
• After winning a match, the player stays where they are in a battle-ready state unless their rating changes
• Adding a rematch option
• Expanding the area in each lobby, adding an option to hide the news display, and adding a dash movement for avatars.
These adjustments are likely going to make the Strive lobbies function similarly to the developer’s previous titles though it sounds like they’re clearly sticking with the 2D, multi-level stages in the mode.
It wasn’t confirmed in the post here, but the release chart for Guilty Gear Strive appears to show that the second beta will once again only be available to PlayStation owners with digital pre-orders granting one day of early access.