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Tapping populist shift, GOP labels Biden elitist (nationthailand.com)

Tapping populist shift, GOP labels Biden elitist

InternationalNov 28. 2020John Kerry enters a campaign event for then-presidential nominee Joe Biden at the South Slope Community Center in North Liberty, Iowa, on Feb. 1, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Carolyn Van Houten 

By The Washington Post · Toluse Olorunnipa · NATIONAL, POLITICS

WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden, a state-college graduate who was once the poorest man in the U.S. Senate, is facing accusations of elitism from Republicans after defeating a billionaire incumbent with an Ivy League degree – a sign of how the politics of populism have been upended and redefined by President Donald Trump.

In recent days, Republican lawmakers have sought to describe Biden’s early Cabinet selections as well-heeled and well-pedigreed but out of touch with the kinds of problems facing everyday Americans.

After Biden won the presidency in part by claiming a larger share of college-educated suburban voters, some of his GOP foes see his early moves as an opportunity to brand him as an elitist president catering to the nation’s coastal professionals at the expense of its heartland laborers. The burgeoning dynamic underscores how the battle over populism is likely to animate the nation’s politics even after Trump leaves the White House and is replaced by a man who has called himself “Middle Class Joe.”

While Trump’s populism often manifested in style rather than substance, he was able to appeal to a unique coalition of voters that politicians from both parties are now aiming to capture in a post-Trump era, said Amy Walter, national editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

“It’s this us-versus-them mentality – a belief system that there’s a real America, and we’re the only party fighting for it,” Walter said. “I think that’s where Trump was the most successful, and I don’t know how well anyone else is going to be able to do that.”

Biden’s initial Cabinet selections are giving some Republicans with national ambitions a first shot at trying.

His decision to nominate Harvard-educated Antony Blinken for secretary of state, Yale-educated Jake Sullivan for national security adviser and Yale-educated former secretary of state John Kerry as the special presidential envoy for climate sparked immediate backlash among Republicans aiming to take up the populist mantle.

“Biden’s cabinet picks went to Ivy League schools, have strong resumes, attend all the right conferences & will be polite & orderly caretakers of America’s decline,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wrote on Twitter. “I support American greatness. And I have no interest in returning to the ‘normal’ that left us dependent on China.”

Rubio’s missive was echoed by a handful of other GOP senators, including some who also have been floated as potential presidential candidates in 2024. Each tried to make an anti-elitist case against Biden’s team of educated, experienced officials with backgrounds in government and international diplomacy.

The attacks highlight the delicate balance Biden may have to strike to stand up a government capable of carrying out his policies without ceding ground to GOP contenders hoping to re-create Trump’s success with White working-class voters in 2016 and his modest improvements with working-class minorities in 2020.

Biden made direct appeals to those voters during his campaign, often using populist language of his own to describe his policies and approach to governing.

Branding himself a son of middle-class Scranton, Pa., Biden campaigned against Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations and tried to cast the presidential race as “Scranton versus Park Avenue.”

He repeatedly highlighted his University of Delaware education, noting that it would differentiate him from previous presidents who attended Ivy League schools.

“We’re used to guys who look down their nose at us, or people who look at us and think that we’re suckers, look at us and they think that we don’t, that we’re not equivalent to that,” Biden said during a CNN town hall in September.

He attacked “guys like Trump” for thinking “you must be stupid, if in fact you didn’t get to go to an Ivy school.”

In contrast, Trump has boasted about his Ivy League degree from the University of Pennsylvania while mocking Biden for his educational credentials.

“Don’t ever use the word smart with me,” Trump told Biden during the first presidential debate. “Don’t ever use that word. Because you know what? There’s nothing smart about you, Joe.”

Trump’s Cabinet was the wealthiest in modern history, filled with well-educated secretaries with resumes bearing such names as Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil and OneWest Bank Group. While the president touted their pedigrees, calling some of them “killers,” he also embraced a nationalist governing philosophy that resonated with working-class voters who welcomed his brash attacks on Washington’s elites and the ills of globalism.

Republican officials are hoping to build on that playbook by attacking Biden and his incoming team with a similar theme.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., took to Twitter to attack Biden’s preferred Cabinet as “a group of corporatists and war enthusiasts.”

“Take Tony Blinken. He’s backed every endless war since the Iraq invasion,” Hawley, who attended Yale Law School, wrote earlier this week. “Now he works for #BigTech and helps companies break into #China. He has no sense of what working Americans want or need.”

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., tweeted that Biden was “surrounding himself with panda huggers who will only reinforce his instincts to go soft on China.” Cotton, a Harvard Law graduate, accused another Biden nominee of “selling Green Cards to Chinese nationals on behalf of rich, democratic donors.”

The decision by Rubio, Hawley and Cotton to focus on China indicate one way Republicans may attempt to constrict Biden after he takes office in January. Their strategy has been to draw a sharp line between global forces and American workers, then accuse Biden and his team of being too globally minded to make the right decision about where to stand.

“President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris just won an historic, landslide victory running on ‘Scranton versus Park Avenue,’ with a platform shaped by many of the very same advisers that puts the American middle class at the heart of this administration’s agenda,” Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “These are nominees who have lived the American Dream and earned their credentials through hard work and determination, including a Black woman who was educated in segregated schools and a Cuban American who came to this country as a refugee.”

Bates added, “The Biden-Harris ticket was also the first elected in decades on which neither candidate ever attended an Ivy League school. At the same time, as Senators Cotton and Hawley can attest, there’s nothing wrong with having an Ivy League degree. We look forward to working with these members in good faith.”

Biden has said he would take a tough stance against China, and he has attacked Trump for praising Chinese President Xi Jinping during the early weeks of the pandemic when Beijing was not cooperating with American scientists to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The president-elect has also sought to cast himself as a champion of populist policies while rejecting some of the more liberal ideas within his party that Republicans have branded as socialism.

Still, the coordinated attacks on Biden’s incoming administration threaten to complicate the early days of his presidency.

Biden has already faced calls to forgive billions of dollars in student loan debt through executive action. Republicans have lashed out against such a move, pointing out that its benefits skew toward those wealthy enough to attend college and graduate school.

Democratic leaders have also sought to use pandemic-response legislation to eliminate a cap on state and local tax deductions put in place by Trump’s 2017 tax bill. But the benefits of such a move would largely help wealthy homeowners in high-tax states, opening Democrats to charges of prioritizing the rich over the middle class.

The pandemic, which Biden has said would be his first priority when he takes office, also presents class-based challenges on both a public health and economic front. Poor Americans have been disproportionately harmed by the deadly virus, and the country is experiencing a K-shaped recovery in which wealthy people are prospering while jobless claims, layoffs and food lines grow.

In the middle of a pandemic in which Democrats have been more willing to push stay-at-home orders and other mitigation measures, Republicans have accused them of seeing the world through the eyes of a privileged class of workers able to conduct their work from home. Some Democrats including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have come under attack for not following their own virus guidelines.

After Trump campaigned by saying Biden wanted to shut down the nation’s economy – something that would disproportionately harm low-income workers – Biden has repeatedly had to declare that he would not favor such a move.

“I am not going to shut down the economy, period,” Biden told reporters last week at a news conference. “I’m going to shut down the virus.”

For emphasis, he repeated: “No national shutdown.”

For his part, Trump has never worried about being seen as too elitist – instead leaning into his businessman background and taste for the high life. He spent much of the Thanksgiving holiday playing golf at his private club in Virginia, which he has frequented throughout his presidency.

While flouting his wealth, Trump has often tried to bring his supporters along for the ride – casting himself as their champion against those traditionally seen as society’s elite.

During rallies, Trump has boasted about how he has “nicer houses,” “nicer apartments” and “nicer everything” than his foes.

“You know the way they talk about the elite?” Trump told a crowd of supporters at a September rally in Michigan. “I see them, they’re not elite, you’re the elite. . . . You’re the super-elite.”

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Federal appeals court rejects Trump request for emergency injunction to overturn certification of Pennsylvania vote (nationthailand.com)

Federal appeals court rejects Trump request for emergency injunction to overturn certification of Pennsylvania vote

InternationalNov 28. 2020President Donald Trump discusses his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic during a Nov. 13 briefing in the White House Rose Garden. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford 

By The Washington Post · Jon Swaine, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Robert Barnes · NATIONAL, POLITICS, COURTSLAW

A federal appeals court on Friday rejected President Donald Trump’s request for an emergency injunction to overturn the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results, delivering another defeat to the president’s attempts to overturn the outcome in a state that has already formalized President-elect Joe Biden’s victory there.

The Trump campaign, which has gained no substantial traction in its effort to undo the results in multiple states since Election Day, said it would take the case to the Supreme Court.

Trump’s campaign had filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit after a U.S. District Court last weekend dismissed its federal lawsuit against Pennsylvania election authorities and rejected the campaign’s request to be allowed to revise the suit to include more allegations.

The lawsuit sought to halt certification of Pennsylvania’s results on the grounds that Republicans were illegally disadvantaged because some Democratic-leaning areas allowed voters to correct administrative errors on their mail ballots.

In a scathing 21-page opinion, the 3rd Circuit Court said that the Trump campaign’s challenge of the district court’s decision had “no merit.” The opinion was written by Judge Stephanos Bibas, who was appointed to the court by Trump. Bibas was joined by two other Republican-appointed judges in a unanimous vote by the three-member panel.

“Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” Bibas wrote. “Voters, not lawyers, choose the President. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections.”

Jenna Ellis, a legal adviser to Trump’s campaign, said after the decision that the case would be taken to the Supreme Court. “On to SCOTUS!” Ellis said on Twitter, using an acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States. President Trump had no immediate response.

It is unclear when the campaign plans to file with the Supreme Court or exactly what relief it might seek, as the 3rd Circuit’s decision addressed a technical matter about whether the Trump campaign could amend its lawsuit in federal court in Pennsylvania.

Legal experts have said the case has little chance of success at the Supreme Court, much like the numerous other GOP election lawsuits pending in battleground states. More than two dozen cases have been filed across six such states since Election Day, but nearly every judgment rendered has gone against the president’s team.

Any emergency request on the Pennsylvania case would go to Justice Samuel Alito Jr., who is the justice designated to handle such matters from the 3rd Circuit. On Nov. 5, Alito on his own ordered county officials in Pennsylvania to separate mail-in ballots received after Election Day. That is the subject of a separate lawsuit already at the high court, which challenges the authority of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to extend the period for receiving ballots.

But the number of such ballots are not enough to influence the outcome of Pennsylvania’s vote. And since Alito’s order Nov. 5, when he said he was turning the matter over to the entire court, there has been no action. It has even given the state’s Democrats additional time – until Monday – to file a brief in the case.

Trump’s declaration after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that a replacement had to be approved hurriedly in case the Supreme Court was deadlocked in post-election litigation has put the justices in a delicate political position. Ginsburg’s replacement, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, was pushed by Democrats in her confirmation hearings to recuse herself from hearing any lawsuits generated by the election, and she declined to make a declaration either way.

The sharply worded decision by the panel of 3rd Circuit judges appointed by Republican presidents – and written by a Trump appointee – did not bode well for the Trump campaign’s chances at the Supreme Court, some legal observers said.

Edward Whelan, a conservative legal commentator at the National Review who is sympathetic to the Trump administration, repeated a tweet from after the campaign’s first loss in federal court in Pennsylvania: “It’s over.” He added: “Ditto for any filing in the Supreme Court.”

Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who tracks voting rights litigation, said there is little chance the case would be taken up by the Supreme Court.

“At this point, this is zombie litigation – but it’s not one of those zombies anybody is afraid of. It’s just slowly rotting in the corner,” Levitt said in an interview. “It’s not that the Supreme Court doesn’t take strange cases. But they only take cases where the facts or the law – and usually both – present some sort of credible legal question, and that’s not even close to true here.”

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar certified the state’s results on Tuesday, making official Trump’s loss to Biden in the state. Biden beat Trump by more than 81,000 votes.

Since then, the president and his allies have asserted, without evidence, that fraud cost Trump a second term in office. But Bibas noted in the 3rd Circuit decision Friday that in its suit, Trump’s campaign “never claims fraud or that any votes were cast by illegal voters.” Bibas pointed to a remark made during a hearing on the lawsuit by Rudy Giuliani, a personal attorney for Trump, that it was “not a fraud case.”

The court ruled that granting Trump’s “grossly disproportionate” request to throw out the results would be “drastic and unprecedented, disenfranchising a huge swath of the electorate and upsetting all down-ballot races too.”

Friday’s decision by the appeals court technically dealt with the Trump campaign’s challenge of the lower court’s refusal to allow it to amend its lawsuit. Giuliani wanted to refile the suit, adding allegations that official Republican observers were not allowed to watch the counting of votes. (Trump’s lawyers had previously said in court that some were allowed to observe.)

But the appeals court’s opinion went further, stating in stark terms that Trump’s legal effort had no chance of succeeding. “The campaign cannot win this lawsuit,” it said.

“No federal law requires poll watchers or specifies where they must live or how close they may stand when votes are counted. Nor does federal law govern whether to count ballots with minor state-law defects or let voters cure those defects,” Bibas wrote.

The court’s decision came on a day that Trump began by repeatedly tweeting falsehoods about the election results and insisting anew that he had won. Official results show Biden defeating Trump by more than 6.1 million votes nationally – more than 80 million to just under 74 million – and leading in the electoral college, 306 to 232.

“Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous “80,000,000 votes” were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. When you see what happened in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Milwaukee, massive voter fraud, he’s got a big unsolvable problem!” Trump falsely asserted Friday.

On Thanksgiving, Trump had vowed to keep fighting to overturn the election he lost, despite repeated defeats in the courts.

“It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede,” he told reporters. Aides have privately said Trump will never concede that he lost.

Asked whether he would attend Biden’s inauguration, he demurred. “I know the answer,” he said, though he declined to reveal it.

Even as most of his lawyers have quit and many campaign officials say the effort to overturn the election is going nowhere, Trump said it was going “very well.”

Trump continued Thursday to claim that there had been widespread voter fraud, without offering proof. And he again falsely said Republican poll watchers were not allowed to observe the counting of votes in Pennsylvania.

“I don’t think it’s right he’s trying to pick a Cabinet,” Trump said of Biden. Trump had blocked a presidential transition for several weeks but relented this week and allowed federal officials to cooperate with Biden’s team.

On Friday, Trump played golf at his club in Virginia before traveling via Marine One to Camp David. Biden, who is spending the weekend at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., made no public appearances.

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With Christmas coming, Cathedral grows online (nationthailand.com)

With Christmas coming, Cathedral grows online

InternationalNov 28. 2020Maria Mercedes Bejarano, 73, walks on her knees in prayer up the aisle of Washington National Cathedral during a special four-hour vigil on the day after Election Day. The District of Columbia cathedral has otherwise been closed to the public since the spring due to the pandemic. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Michelle Boorstein 

By The Washington Post · Sarah Pulliam Bailey · NATIONAL, RELIGION

WASHINGTON – During the month before Christmas, Washington National Cathedral typically transforms into a sparkling, bustling destination with choral performances and a live Nativity. But since coronavirus shut its regular services to the public earlier this year, its staff has been transforming its massive sanctuary into a digitally attractive space, and they’re having some success.

Like many houses of worship, the cathedral has seen a surge in online viewers, giving it even more national and global reach. On an average week, it has at least 6,000 people watch its Sunday service, sometimes twice the number that would fit in person. On any given Sunday morning, it will see people join from Ireland and Barbados. Its Easter service had 50,000 live views.

The burgeoning digital audience has also translated into an increase in online donations, which are up 260 percent this year. All that has eased somewhat the otherwise gaping loss – both spiritual and practical – created by the absence of in-person worshipers and visitors. Because the cathedral relies on outside groups to rent the space to support its staff and upkeep, it has taken a significant financial hit, facing a net $5 million shortfall in revenue and laying off 15 percent of its staff.

Christmas usually brings Washington National Cathedral its biggest foot traffic of the year, with families packing the nave for Messiah services and light shows with fake snow falling from 100-foot ceilings. This year, the only times its nave has been used for public use was for election prayer services, a handful of small weddings, school chapel services and funerals, as well as several American Red Cross blood drives. On Dec. 20, the cathedral will hold a virtual concert, and on Christmas Eve, it will hold an online nativity-themed service that will broadcast its animals from the Bishop’s Garden on its grounds.

“It’ll be more solitary and somber for many folks,” said cathedral Dean Randolph Hollerith. “Online worship is no substitute for being in person, but there is power in gathering together in a virtual community.”

The cathedral is the seat of the presiding bishop of the national Episcopal denomination, Michael Curry. Curry, who lives in North Carolina, typically visits the cathedral during the month leading up to Christmas, but he won’t be traveling this year.

Curry said he has been stalling before finalizing his Christmas cards this year because he has been wrestling with how the holiday season is typically joyful. This time, he wants people to remember a Bible verse from John in the Gospels where he writes, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

“We don’t pretend the darkness isn’t real. People are dead, people are sick, we are fragmented and polarized. But the lightness shines in the darkness,” he said. “That is a message of Christmas.”

Many churches won’t be adorned with poinsettias the same way this year, Curry said, but perhaps it’s a chance for people to reflect on the core meaning of the holiday.

“The truth of Christmas may be more profoundly true for us because everything else has been stripped away,” he said. “We are not helpless. We are not alone. There’s a God that cares enough to come into this world.”

Like many churches, the pandemic forced cathedral staff to make improvements in order to provide better online worship services, Hollerith said. Before the pandemic, the cathedral’s sound system was so dated that it relied on a VHS player, a recording system requiring tape instead of digital formats. But the pandemic has forced the 127-year-old cathedral to rethink its future as a local, national and international institution beyond its flying buttresses.

Now they offer coffee hour Zoom calls for people joining nationally or internationally. Hollerith said that on Sundays when he watches from home, he is delighted to see the people commenting on YouTube or Facebook, saying hello to each other from around the world.

“Now we’re going to need to pay as much attention and time and energy into the digital experience as we do the experience in person,” he said.

Last year for Thanksgiving, cathedral staff collected an estimated 20 tons of food to provide Thanksgiving dinners to local families. This year, it raised money to provide 1,400 families with gift cards to purchase Thanksgiving dinner. In December, it plans to provide Christmas gifts to 400 kids.

Historically, the country’s second-largest cathedral has played a central role in national ceremonies, including presidential inaugurations. Church officials plan to work with the incoming Biden administration, which is planning a scaled-back version.

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Johnson warns England not to relax after virus lockdown ends (nationthailand.com)

Johnson warns England not to relax after virus lockdown ends

InternationalNov 28. 2020

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Alex Morales, Emily Ashton · WORLD, EUROPE

Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned of “long months ahead” in the fight against coronavirus, as his government put most of England into the highest two tiers of new restrictions when a lockdown lifts next week.

London will be placed in tier 2, avoiding the toughest rules from Dec. 2 and allowing pubs, restaurants and bars to open — but restricting alcohol to being served as part of a meal. Cities including Birmingham and Manchester were placed in the toughest tier 3, in which pubs and restaurants must close except for takeaway. Households will not be allowed to mix indoors in either tier.

“What we want to avoid is relaxing now too much, you know, taking our foot off the throat of the beast now,” Johnson said in a televised news conference Thursday. “There is a substantial relaxation across all tiers but we’re not abandoning the fight yet, of course not, because we still, as I say, have long months ahead.”

The regional three-tier system is tougher than before England entered a four-week partial lockdown this month. Ministers want to make sure they have some control of the virus’s spread before people are allowed a further five-day relaxation of the rules during the Christmas holidays.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said Friday there’s a chance regions could move up or down the tiers on Dec. 16, when the categorizations will be reviewed based on the latest data. Speaking on BBC radio, he urged people to “abide by the rules and work hard at it” if they want fewer restrictions.

Johnson’s scientific advisers warned people not to take risks and to avoid endangering their elderly relatives over Christmas.

“Would I encourage someone to hug and kiss their elderly relatives? No, I would not,” England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said at the news conference. Don’t hug a relative “if you want them to survive to be hugged again.”

Johnson’s government is trying to balance the risks of the virus again getting out of control with the need to support an economy going through its worst slump in 300 years. Virus cases have surged across the U.K. in the fall, and the prime minister’s scientific advisers are trying to chart a course that prevents the state-run National Health Service from being overwhelmed.

But the premier also faces a rebellion from members of his Conservative Party angry about the restrictions imposed on their districts. Influential Tory MP Graham Brady said he will oppose the new measures when they are put to a vote in Parliament next week.

“The policies have been far too authoritarian,” he told the BBC on Thursday. “There has got to be a real danger that if these restrictions aren’t lifted very, very soon there will be a lot of businesses that simply won’t reopen.”

Some 41% of England — or 23 million people — will be in tier 3, including large swaths of the northeast, northwest, and the Midlands. Bristol, in the southwest, and the southeast county of Kent are also included.

Another 57% of England, or 32 million people, will be in tier 2, including much of southern England and the northwest region of Liverpool which has pioneered mass testing. Only Cornwall, the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly are in the lowest tier 1.

Johnson said he wants other parts of the country to “replicate” Liverpool’s success with testing, pledging to roll out the system to all tier 3 areas as fast as possible. He also suggested the goal is a system that allows people more freedom if they can show they don’t have coronavirus.

“Testing on this scale is untried, but in due course if it works, where people test negative it also may be possible for families and communities to be released from certain restrictions,” he said.

Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi later told the BBC that Johnson was referring to people who had been advised to self-quarantine because they’d been in close contact with a covid-19 case.

But the Telegraph newspaper reported this month ministers have asked companies that make passports to provide certificates showing travelers aren’t carrying the coronavirus. Bank note and passport-maker De La Rue Plc said Wednesday it’s in “early discussion” with governments “regarding COVID-19 immunity certification schemes.”

De La Rue Chef Executive Officer Clive Vacher told Bloomberg governments and companies are yet to make a final decision, declining to say if the U.K. is one of the countries.

Under the new three-tier system, the general requirement for people to stay home will end, and shops, gyms and hairdressers will reopen. But in all areas, people will be urged to continue to work from home if they can.

The announcement triggered an immediate push back from the hospitality industry, 98% of which is covered by the top two tiers in England, according to trade body UKHospitality. That will wipe out an estimated £7.8 billion of trading compared to last year if the restrictions last all of December, it said.

“We still have not seen any evidence that hospitality venues — which have invested great time effort and money to making their spaces Covid-secure — are a problem,” UKHospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said in a statement. The new system is a “huge blow” and “it seems unfair and arbitrary that hospitality is being dealt such a harsh hand,” she said.

The threat to business angered Tory MPs who had lobbied ministers to keep their areas out of the highest tiers.

The coronavirus restrictions are “destroying lives and livelihoods,” Conservative MP Richard Drax said in a statement. “We need a new strategy based on common sense, not fear and more fear.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government will review which region is in each tier on Dec. 16, based on infection rates and pressure on the National Health Service, and then every week after that.

Johnson said he’s “convinced” that with a vaccine on the way, “by April things genuinely will be much, much better.”

But Chief Scientific Officer Patrick Vallance injected a note of caution, warning that while three different vaccines have recently revealed positive trial results, they still need regulatory approval.

“This is going to take months into spring, before we start to get significant degrees of vaccination to create protection,” he said.

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Hong Kong integration with China is a ‘great thing,’ Lam aide says (nationthailand.com)

Hong Kong integration with China is a ‘great thing,’ Lam aide says

InternationalNov 28. 2020Bernard Chan. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Justin Chin 

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Karen Leigh, Kari Lindberg · WORLD, ASIA-PACIFIC

A top adviser to Hong Kong’s leader said integration with mainland China was a “great thing” for many people in the city, days after Chief Executive Carrie Lam spoke of a future tied to Beijing in her annual policy address.

“As a whole, Hong Kong needs China to retain our current status and Hong Kong can’t survive on our own,” said Bernard Chan, the convener of Lam’s advisory Executive Council, told Bloomberg TV on Friday. “We need China.”

“Economically Hong Kong is very much a part of China now,” Chan said. “We need China to help us under this very difficult time.”

His comments came after China earlier this month enabled the Hong Kong government to expel lawmakers deemed insufficiently loyal. That allowed Lam to immediately eject four pro-democracy politicians, a move that triggered the mass resignation of the entire opposition and led to criticism from foreign governments including the U.S.

Lam on Wednesday delivered a two-hour address to a legislative chamber in which she defended the central government’s moves to exert greater political control over the Asian financial hub in the wake of mass protests last year, including Beijing’s imposition of sweeping national security legislation that has all but stamped out what remained of the demonstrations.

“China has been repeatedly focused on those couple of red lines, so long as Hong Kong doesn’t pass these red lines they are more than happy and they are willing to leave Hong Kong alone,” Chan said. “And those red lines are clear — you don’t ask for Hong Kong independence and you don’t try to destabilize China, these are the red lines.”

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Christmas, covid imperil food supply in Brexit Britain (nationthailand.com)

Christmas, covid imperil food supply in Brexit Britain

InternationalNov 28. 2020A truck on the dockside at the major British port of Felixstowe, England. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Chris Ratcliffe 

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Deirdre Hipwell, Megan Durisin · BUSINESS, WORLD, EUROPE

A scarcity of warehouse space because of Christmas demand and the pandemic is putting Britain at risk of shortages of some food products as it prepares to leave the European Union’s single market.

Shelves stand almost empty in the pasta and sauces section of a Morrisons supermarket in on March 18, 2020.MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Simon Dawson

With five weeks to go before the end of the Brexit transition period, large manufacturers and industry groups are warning that the capacity of the food supply chain is at its peak and can’t withstand any further shocks.

Unilever, the maker of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, said it is building up stock of key lines but “warehouses are absolutely full.” Like rival Nestle, the maker of Kit Kats and Nescafe coffee, maintaining supply of finished products and ingredients is now the priority as talks between Britain and the E.U. on a trade deal remain deadlocked. Yet that’s “with stock building more difficult at this busy time of year,” Nestle said.

“The flexibility we had in March to respond to Covid-19 demands to move stock around doesn’t exist at this time of year,” Unilever said by email. “We need governments on both sides to do whatever is needed to keep the ports and roads open for smooth and consistent supply routes.”

There have been numerous warnings about potential Brexit disruption from companies and even U.K. ministers, such as lines of trucks on the highway regardless of whether there’s a trade deal or not. The trouble is that the latest contingency planning couldn’t come at a worse time as Christmas goods take up storage space.

People in the food industry say it’s likely there could be some shortages of key brands and ingredients made in the E.U., which supplies Britain with everything from tinned tomatoes and olives to wine and baby food in foil pouches. Even with an accord, some food prices are also likely to rise.

More companies are trying to recruit extra logistics workers to ensure ports can cope with increased demand for unloading and storing supplies. Others, including Unilever, have been beefing up U.K.-based manufacturing.

The Food and Drink Federation is concerned about the ability of businesses to stockpile at a time when “we don’t have an abundant amount of food safe warehouses,” said Dominic Goudie, head of international trade at the organization. Britain “won’t run out of food,” but there could be sporadic shortages of certain products and brands, he said.

More than four years after the U.K. voted to leave the borderless market it joined in 1973, the country has yet to agree the terms of its future relationship with its biggest trading partner. The delays have left companies struggling to address the uncertainty.

For example, it’s hard to know how to stock supplies of the right packaging when labeling requirements post-Brexit are still not clear, Goudie said. That will particularly hit goods supplied to Northern Ireland, which will still be bound by the single market rules when the transition period ends, he said.

“Stockpiling of food packaging is a critical component of any supply chain,” Goudie said. “But we still have technical questions that need to be answered about what exactly you must put on the packaging.”

Business groups say failing to reach a new deal would be disastrous for the economy, whose parlous state because of the virus was laid bare by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak this week.

Goudie pointed to the current congestion of containers at the English port of Felixstowe as a worrying snapshot of what could lie ahead for food deliveries post Brexit. Some of his federation’s members have had goods rerouted to other ports in the U.K. and on the continent.

“They are now struggling to find road haulers to transport the products they need and are facing huge added costs to do this,” Goudie said. “Felixstowe is now directly impeding their ability to be ready for Jan. 1.”

Food and drink manufacturers, though, have shown their ability to adapt as consumer demand patterns changed with the coronavirus pandemic. The U.K. also produces 55% of the food it consumes, according to government figures, and ministers are working with the industry to ensure people have the supplies they need.

“The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain,” a government spokesperson said in a statement. “As a responsible government we continue to make extensive preparations to ensure we are ready for a range of scenarios at the end of the year, including mitigating the impact on border flows.”

Spanish foods importer Brindisa has placed orders for an extra $467,000 (350,000 pounds) of its best-selling items, including canned tuna and olive oil, said Heath Blackford, managing director of its wholesale division. The shipments will arrive in mid-December and should guard against potential disruptions in January.

Recruitment company Manpower Group Inc., meanwhile, is fielding inquiries from companies looking for staff to work in every part of their supply chains.

Demand for stock analysts, warehouse pickers and packers, and forklift truck and crane drivers to take containers off ships in ports is “through the roof,” said Jason Greaves, Manpower’s brand leader and operations director. “In every area there are skills shortages,” he said. “Who would have ever thought that Brexit, the pandemic and Christmas would hit us all at once?”

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

Facebook’s AI mistakenly bans ads for struggling businesses (nationthailand.com)

Facebook’s AI mistakenly bans ads for struggling businesses

InternationalNov 28. 2020

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Sarah Frier · BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY

New York-based businesswoman Ruth Harrigan usually sells her honey and beeswax products in souvenir shops. But with covid-19 pausing tourism, she’s been almost entirely dependent on Facebook ads to drive online sales. On Nov. 11, this new financial lifeline was abruptly cut when the social media company blocked her HoneyGramz ad account for violating its policies. She couldn’t imagine what about her tiny honey-filled gifts would have triggered the problem.

Friends told Harrigan to just wait a couple of days and the problem might resolve itself. She waited, until she lost an estimated $5,000 in revenue.

“I was getting a little anxious thinking, ‘Oh my God, Black Friday is around the corner, most of my sales for the year happen in November and December and that’s it,'” she explained. “I said, ‘If I’m shut down any longer than this, it’ll cripple me.'”

Harrigan is one of millions of small business advertisers who have come to rely on Facebook because the coronavirus has shut down many traditional retail channels. The social media giant has provided new sales opportunities for these entrepreneurs, but also exposed them to the company’s misfiring content-moderation software, limited options for customer support and lack of transparency about how to fix problems.

Facebook’s human moderators have focused on election and covid-19 misinformation this year, so the company has leaned more on artificial intelligence algorithms to monitor other areas of the platform. That’s left many small businesses caught in Facebook’s automated filters, unable to advertise through the service and frustrated because they don’t know why.

The same weekend Harrigan’s account went down, Ivonne Sanchez, who runs a permanent makeup clinic in Ottawa, found her ads were blocked too, for what Facebook said was a “policy violation.” Her business, which had to shut down between March and June for the pandemic, was relying on Facebook to recover financially. The account was restored the next day without explanation, but “in the middle of a crucial shopping season, it left us shaken,” she said. “This experience makes us very nervous about investing dollars into a system that is operated seemingly by a bot.”

Even if an ad account gets restored, businesses lose crucial momentum. Facebook’s advertising algorithm takes a couple of weeks to figure out which users may be interested in an ad, to refine the targeting. Jessica Grossman, chief executive officer of digital marketing firm In Social, said when her clients get hit, the hardest part is telling them their campaigns have to start over and their money won’t go as far.

“Facebook almost doesn’t realize the impact of their own algorithm and what that means,” Grossman said. There seemed to be no logic to the account bans imposed on In Social’s clients, she added. A pizza vending machine company, a reusable water bottle company, a coffee delivery service, a business coach and a hair weave company were all suspended.

“We know it can be frustrating to experience any type of business disruption, especially at such a critical time of the year,” Facebook said in a statement. “While we offer free support for all businesses, we regularly work to improve our tools and systems, and to make the support we offer easier to use and access. We apologize for any inconvenience recent disruptions may have caused.”

Facebook often touts its commitment to small businesses, as it defends its ever larger hold over their economic future. On a recent earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said this was a “major focus” that’s “more important now than ever” as covid-19 shifts commerce online. During a July ad boycott by major brands, Facebook’s revenue still grew, bolstered by small businesses rushing online to try to survive. The company added more tools this year for small businesses to sell directly to customers through its site, hoping these virtual shops become advertisers, too.

But while business owners agree that Facebook is a lifeline during the pandemic, they say it’s also an unreliable partner. Facebook’s ban on political ads around the U.S. election, for instance, affected companies that have no connection to politics, like a business selling bracelets to benefit refugees. A seed company was also blocked for sharing a picture of Walla Walla onions — which were “overtly sexual,” according to Facebook’s AI.

The company’s policies against cryptocurrency frequently trapped ads from a solar roof company, Human SOLR, because some of the acronyms used by the business are similar to cryptocurrency tokens. After that issue was resolved, Human SOLR’s ads were banned again for using phrases like “see if your roof qualifies.” Facebook’s software guessed the company was selling financial products, which are more regulated. After enough flags on the account, Brett Lee, who runs the business, gave up on Facebook ads. “My business is at a complete standstill,” said Lee, based in St. George, Utah. “My employees’ lives are at a standstill.”

GFP Delivered, a Chicago-based produce company advertising a way for people to avoid the grocery store during covid-19, had its Facebook ads shut down for two months without clear explanation, according to owner George Fourkas. He said he was able to fix the problem only after reaching out to old college friends who work at Facebook.

Yaniv Gershom, co-founder of digital marketing firm 4AM Media, said he had to cut 12 jobs partly because of Facebook ad account bans, which have lasted almost six months. “They give you zero feedback,” he added. “The only people who are OK are massive spenders who get a Facebook rep that can escalate issues and find out what’s wrong.”

In some cases, the business impact is hard to quantify. Matt Snow, co-founder of an apparel business called Boredwalk, said Facebook’s automated systems inadvertently flagged 40% of his company’s product catalog as unsafe late last month. That left Snow targeting the wrong products to potential customers. He eventually noticed and quickly resolved the issue with a Facebook sales manager, but Snow doesn’t know how long the products were banned, or even which other items were being advertised in their place. “Facebook is very black box about all their internal machinations,” he said.

Facebook has been automating content moderation for years, a transition it highlights in a quarterly report detailing how much content the company removes. In more nuanced categories such as “hate speech,” Facebook removed almost 95% of violating posts automatically in the third quarter, up from just 53% two years ago.

But that increase comes with more corrections. Facebook removed 22 million posts for hate speech in the third quarter, more than 3 times as many as a year earlier. The number of posts it later restored jumped by 40%.

Advertisers have been particularly hurt by these automated decisions in recent months. “It just exploded. They turned up the AI recently — somebody changed something — and all of the sudden everybody was getting shut down,” said Justin Brooke, founder of Adskills.com, which teaches businesses how to market on Facebook. “What are these small businesses going to do? They’ve got families to feed.”

One of Brooke’s own Facebook ads has a small written disclaimer saying it wasn’t open to those trying to sell adult content. That got flagged and taken down. Facebook’s automated explanation? The post didn’t follow the company’s community standards on “nudity/sexual activity.”

The over-reaction by Facebook’s AI is a side effect of the company taking more responsibility for the content on its platform, according to Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity. “As we take more action, we remove more content, there’s more opportunities also for those to be in error,” he said during a recent press call.

That’s what HoneyGramz’s Harrigan was told happened to her account. She eventually got desperate enough to Google names of Facebook employees who might help. She found Rob Leathern, the company’s director of ad products, and sent him a message on Twitter. Miraculously, he responded. A few hours later, Facebook sent an email restoring her account.

“They just said they turned it off in error,” Harrigan said. “They didn’t give me any feedback. They just reset the whole thing as if it never happened.”

But Harrigan won’t forget. She printed off the email and pinned it to her office whiteboard. “It was really, really scary,” she said.