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May 3, 2018

GTA Online players will earn double the payout this week in Special Vehicle Circuit Races centered around air, land, and the wet stuff that keeps boats afloat.

Special Vehicle Circuit Races in GTA Online this week are centered around the Imponte Deluxo, Ocelot Stromberg, and Mammoth Thruster.

Here’s official word regarding the GTA Online event this week straight from Rockstar Games:

Imponte Deluxo Races

Stadium Flyover: The whole stadium is on its feet waiting for the all-American finale: a low-level flyover by levitating sports cars.
Raton Race: Raton Canyon is the kind of rugged terrain that makes any red-blooded adrenaline junkie reach for their climbing boots— or the keys to their flying car.
Cresting: Whether you’re driving, surfing the waves, soaring above the mountains, or doing all the above in your Deluxo – there’s nothing quite like the San Andreas coastline.
Techno: This is no edible-fueled night in Los Santos – when your car takes off and starts flying, that’s every bit as real as the psychedelic tunnels and rings of fire.

Ocelot Stromberg Races

Spindrift: As an underwater labyrinth strewn with naval mines gradually reveals itself, try to remember that every moment of paralyzed terror is a moment off your lap time.
The Kraken: Fair warning. If you’ve ever had bad calamari, this one is probably not for you.
Plunge: Every pro racer knows to keep a finger on submersible mode when there’s suddenly no more track and you’re soaring into the stratosphere with only the ocean as your landing pad.

Mammoth Thruster Races

Vinewood Air Tours: Welcome to the high life— the neon glow of the city, the Vinewood sign shining from the hills, 1,000 pounds of thrust roaring at your back and the prospect of horrifying mid-air collisions.
Chiliad Drop: One minute you’re soaring over the summit of Mount Chiliad, the next you’re strafing into a cliff with only some rocket fuel and the promise of bragging rights to cushion the blow.
FlyLo Challenge: The survival rate in a Los Santos road tunnel at rush hour could only get lower if road-raging maniacs ditched their cars and used jetpacks instead. But that would never happen.

Players will also earn double cash and RP through May 7 in all 30 Rockstar Special Vehicle Races, all 20 of the original Rockstar Special Vehicle Circuit Races. The latter includes the Blazer Aqua, Rocket Voltic, and Ruiner 2000.

Double goodness is also available for all Special Vehicle Work Missions throughout the week.

Of course there are nice discounts available this week in GTA Online as always, and those are posted below.

The Premium Race this week is Downtown Loop and locked to Supers. The Time Trial is Fort Zancudo.

May 3, 2018

Another hacker was given two years of probation.

South Korea passed a law near the end of 2016 criminalizing the creation and distribution of aimbots, wall hacks, and other software that isn't permitted by the terms of service of online games. Following a year-long investigation conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Police that ran from January to December 2017, 13 Overwatch cheaters were arrested; two of them, according to a statement by Blizzard Korea (via Kotaku), have now been sentenced.

The first offender was given two years of probation, with prison awaiting if he violates his terms. The second was hit with a fine of ₩10 million, which works out to about $9,300. It's a stiff punishment, but it could be worse. The maximum penalty allowed by law is $43,000, or five years of jail time. In a separate case in China, 15 people were recently fined $5.1 million for making and distributing cheats for PUBG, which works out to an average of $340,000 per person.

Blizzard Korea said it is "committed to creating a fair game environment for its players, and will continue to strive to maintain a fair environment" for players.

The remaining 11 cases are still under investigation.

May 3, 2018

Destiny 2 players will be able to jump into Warmind’s new Raid Lair during release weekend. Let’s hope the servers don’t catch fire.

Warmind releases alongside Destiny 2 Season 3 next week, and so will the new Leviathan Raid Lair.

In the past, players have sometimes had to wait a bit on a new raid releasing with new content. Not this time out.

Bungie said Firesteams of six will be able to conquer the new Raid Lair come Friday, May 11 at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm UK.

The new Raid Lair was announced during Bungie’s Destiny 2: Warmind livestream last month. It’s the final part of the Leviathan Raid from Curse of Osiris.

Called Spire of Stars, this Raid Lair will offer players “a great reward.” Details are rather non-existent as Bungie prefers players battle through and find out what awaits them – instead of spilling the beans early.

Destiny 2: Warmind releases on May 8 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

We expect to to be made available for pre-load sometime before launch. Probably on or around May 6.

May 2, 2018

'Are You Sleeping,' which was in development at the tech giant, is based on Kathleen Barber's book and has scored a 10-episode order.

Octavia Spencer is officially headed to Apple.

The tech giant on Wednesday handed out a 10-episode series order to Are You Sleeping, the drama starring Oscar winner Spencer (Hidden Figures, The Shape of Water) and produced by Reese Witherspoon. The news comes four months after the iPhone maker put the drama based on Kathleen Barber's true-crime novel in development.

Are You Sleeping offers a glimpse into America's obsession with true crime podcasts. It challenges viewers to consider the consequences when the pursuit of justice is put on a public stage. Nichelle Tramble Spellman (The Good Wife, Justified) created the project, penned the script and will serve as showrunner. Witherspoon will exec produce alongside her Hello Sunshine partner Lauren Neustadter, with Chernin Entertainment's Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and Kristen Campo overseeing for the recently launched Chernin/Endeavor Content banner. Spencer and Tramble will also exec produce. Sarah Koenig (Serial) was a consultant on the project during its development but is no longer attached to the series.

All told, this is Witherspoon's third series at Apple, joining the morning show drama in which she stars opposite Jennifer Aniston and the Kristen Wiig comedy series. The prolific producer also is an EP and stars in season two of HBO's Big Little Lies and has Little Fires Everywhere set at Hulu. In addition to exec producing the latter, Witherspoon will also star opposite Kerry Washington in the limited series that landed at Hulu following a multiple-network bidding war.

Are You Sleeping joins an Apple roster that also includes Amazing Stories, a Ron Moore space drama, See, a Damien Chazelle drama and more.

For her part, Spellman is also set to co-write HBO's controversial drama Confederate alongside her husband, Malcolm Spellman, and Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

May 2, 2018

The Lee Daniels and Danny Strong drama joins a returning slate that also includes '911,' 'The Gifted,' 'The Orville' and 'The Simpsons.'

Fox finally got the ball rolling on its 2018-19 renewals.

The network on Wednesday handed out a fifth season renewal for Lee Daniels and Danny Strong drama Empire.

The hip-hop series starring Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard is Fox's first veteran drama to earn a renewal for the 2018-19 season. It joins 911, The Gifted, The Orville and The Simpsons on the network's schedule for next season.

In keeping with its recent tradition, all of the early renewals are for series produced by studio sibling 20th Century Fox Television. That means that the network will continue to own the bulk of its lineup until regulators approve Disney's $52.4 billion deal to acquire Fox assets, which includes the studio. Once the deal is cleared — which is expected to happen — all of the above shows would become Disney properties.

While not the lightning rod it once was, Empire is Fox's second-most-watched drama behind Ryan Murphy's 911 in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic (2.9 with seven days of DVR). The renewal comes as Daniels has become increasingly important to 20th TV following Ryan Murphy's upcoming move to Netflix. Daniels' overall with the studio expires in June, with the prolific showrunner currently in the midst of negotiating a new pact.

The series, produced by Imagine Television's Brian Grazer, Francie Calfo, also counts Ilene Chaiken, Sanaa Hamri, Brett Mahoney and Dennis Hammer among its exec producers. This season, Chaiken stepped back as showrunner to focus on development — she has a drama starring Katie Holmes in contention at Fox — with Mahoney taking over day-to-day leadership of the series.

"Empire is as compelling, emotional and unpredictable as it ever was,” said Michael Thorn, Fox entertainment president. "We are so proud of our amazing cast, led by Terrence and Taraji, who deliver powerful performances week after week. We’d also like to thank our tremendous creative team — Lee, Danny, Brett, Ilene, Sanaa, Brian and Francie — whose inspired storytelling continues to create the unforgettable, jaw-dropping OMG moments that have always been signature to Empire."

Still to be determined is the fate of Empire sister series Star, which is considered likely to return as part of Fox's Wednesday night block.

On the pilot side, Strong has a legal drama pilot starring Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men) in contention and Daniels has his first comedy pilot in Beth Behrs vehicle Culture Clash both in contention at Fox and under their respective overall deals.

May 2, 2018

The film will focus on the president's rise to power.

Donald Trump is getting the big-screen movie treatment in a film called The Apprentice that will dramatize his rise to power, focusing on his early influences like attorney Roy Cohn.

Gabriel Sherman, special correspondent to Vanity Fair, who authored the book about the late Fox News founder Roger Ailes, The Loudest Voice in the Room, has been tapped to write the original screenplay for Amy Baer, who is producing the film through her Gidden Media.

"As a journalist, I've reported on Donald Trump for more than fifteen years," said Sherman in a statement. "I've long been fascinated by his origin story as a young builder coming up in the gritty world of 1970s and '80s New York. This formative period tells us so much about the man who today occupies the Oval Office."

Sherman already has some Hollywood credentials as his Ailes biography is getting the adapted for television. Showtime and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Television are developing the project with Oscar-winning writer/director Tom McCarthy executive producing.

Baer founded Gidden in 2012 and the company is currently readying Mary Shelley, a biopic of the author behind Frankenstein starring Elle Fanning, for a May 25 release by IFC Films.

“Gabe is an extraordinary storyteller as well as an impeccable journalist. The timeliness of this subject, combined with Gabe’s professional pedigree and integrity, makes this a rare alignment of talent and subject,” said Baer in a statement.

May 2, 2018

Nick Stoller, the writer-director behind films including 'The Muppets' and 'Neighbors,' wrote the live-action feature.

Isabela Moner will soon be saying "Vamos!" for Paramount.

The Transformers: The Last Knight actress has been tapped to play Dora the Explorer for the studio's live-action feature based on the character from the popular Nickelodeon TV series.

The Dora the Explorer movie will follow a teenage Dora – accompanied by her best friend, the monkey Boots and her cousin Diego – on (you guessed it) an adventure.

James Bobin will direct from a screenplay by Nick Stoller, the writer-director behind films including The Muppets and Neighbors, andDanielle Sanchez-Witzel. The movie hails from Paramount's new Paramount Players division.

"We are thrilled to have found our Dora in Isabela,” said Brian Robbins, president of Paramount Players. “Dora has long been a celebrated, strong heroine in animated television, and like Dora, Isabela has an incredible spirit and is an advocate for positive values. With our partners at Nickelodeon, we look forward to continuing Dora’s story for generations to come.”

Added Moner: “I’m honored and excited to bring Dora to life. I grew up watching the show, and for me, especially as a Latina, Dora was an amazing role model – she is a strong, adventurous and fun-loving girl. I can’t wait to put on the backpack and begin her next adventure!”

Dora the Explorer will shoot in Queensland, Australia and is scheduled for release Aug. 2, 2019.

Moner, who is repped by CAA and Peikoff Mahan, will star in the studio's upcoming family comedy Instant Family, starringalongside Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne.

May 2, 2018

Beijing sent the first messaging salvo ahead of the Steven Mnuchin-led delegation to China (which will engage in trade talks over May 3-4) overnight when the PBOC fixed the yuan sharply lower than many expected. The signal was clear: push us hard enough, and we may just launch another devaluation. Or worse.

A little while later, Beijing did its best attempt at managing expectations, when it said that it’s "unrealistic" to expect to solve all issues between the U.S. and China at a single meeting, given the economic sizes of the two countries and their complex economic and trade relationship, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying says at daily briefing.

While Hua tried his best to pay the diplomatic "good cop", saying it was in the mutual interest of both countries to solve trade issues through consultation, just a few hours later, China's foreign minister Wang Yi was the bad cop, who warned that whereas China would welcome a successful outcome from upcoming trade talks with the United States, it is "fully prepared for all outcomes and will not negotiate on core interests."

Then the "worst cop" emerged in the form of yet another, unnamed official who according to Reuters said that talks must be held as equals and be mutually beneficial, echoing EU president Jean-Claude Juncker, saying that Beijing would not yield to any trade threats from Washington or accept any preconditions for talks.

He then uttered the most explicit warning yet: "In the event of a trade war, we have a much greater ability to endure (the consequences) than the U.S.," the official said.

As a reminder, the United States has asked China to reduce its bilateral trade surplus by $100 billion and as reported last night, targeted Beijing's "Made in China 2025" initiative, which aims to upgrade the domestic manufacturing base with more advanced products.

China - which last year had a record trade surplus of $375 billion with the United States - responded that Beijing would not accept talks with any preconditions.

* * *

Then, just moments ago, the WSJ reported that in response to this latest escalation, the US is considering executive action that would restrict some Chinese companies’ ability to sell telecommunications equipment in the U.S., based on national-security concerns.

As the WSJ points out, this move "would represent a significant escalation of a growing feud between the U.S. and China over tech and telecommunications." The affected firms likely would include Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. , two of the world’s leading telecommunications equipment makers. They have found themselves increasingly in an international crossfire.

Pentagon officials said this week that they are moving to halt the sale of phones made by the two companies on U.S. military bases around the world. U.S. officials are concerned that Beijing could order manufacturers to hack into products they make to spy or disable communications. Huawei and ZTE have said that would never happen.

This latest salvo could come in the form of a Trump executive order, possibly in the next few weeks. One possibility under consideration has been curbing the ability of companies doing business with the U.S. government from using network equipment made by companies that could pose a national-security risk.

* * *

While for now the escalating back-and-forth is nothing more than verbal foreplay, it will last at most three more weeks because the Treasury faces a May 21 deadline to report on restrictions on Chinese investment in the US, as part of the response to the recent Section 301 intellectual property investigation.

And, as Goldman writes this morning, enhanced investment restrictions have fairly broad support in Congress as well, raising the probability that restrictions will be implemented this year.

Goldman's conclusion: don't expect any good news until the 11th hour, and if anything, another batch of bad news may be next:

Unlike the NAFTA and steel issues, some additional market-disruptive policy moves regarding US-China trade seem likely. The most immediate focus will be the delegation of Administration officials set to meet with Chinese officials starting May 3 in Beijing. We believe a substantial breakthrough at this meeting is unlikely as the issues the US has raised—intellectual property policies, technology transfer, and the “Made in China 2025” strategy, in particular—are not the type of technical trade issues that can be resolved quickly.

For now, with neither China nor the US willing to back down and compromise, expect the war of words to escalate dramatically over the next 3 weeks as we reach the May 21 deadline.

May 2, 2018

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday that US troops will remain on the peninsula even if a peace agreement with the North is reached, saying their presence has “nothing to do with signing peace treaties.”

“US troops stationed in South Korea are an issue regarding the alliance between South Korea and the United States. It has nothing to do with signing peace treaties,” Moon’s spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom said at a press conference.

The statement came in response to a Foreign Affairs magazine article written by presidential adviser, Moon Cung-in, in which he stated that it would be “difficult to justify [US forces] continuing presence in South Korea,” if peace is concluded with the North. The spokesperson warned the adviser “not to cause any more confusion” with such comments.

The discussion regarding US troops in Korea follows Friday’s historic meeting between Moon and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, which resulted in the two signing an agreement in favor of the Korean peninsula’s “complete denuclearization.” The summit marked the first time leaders of the divided nation have met in 11 years, and the first time a North Korean leader has entered the South since 1953.

North Korea previously signaled its readiness to denuclearize at a meeting between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, noting that it would require a “security guarantee,” according to a report by the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. What the guarantee implied remains unclear, as North Korea reportedly dropped its long-held demand for US troop withdrawal, at least according to Moon’s public statement in late April.

The US has already expressed its intention to make North Korea take “irreversible” steps towards denuclearization, without guaranteeing any concession in relation to its military presence.

CIA Director and newly appointed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo identified the Trump administration’s “objective” with regard to North Korea as “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization” in an ABC News interview.

In a separate interview with Fox News, US National Security Advisor John Bolton stated that the 2003 agreement to eliminate Libya’s weapons of mass destruction program could serve as a model for the North Korea negotiations.

“We have very much in mind the Libya model from 2003, 2004. There are obviously differences. The Libyan program was much smaller, but that was basically the agreement that we made,” Bolton said.

Former Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi agreed to dismantle the country’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of imposed Western sanctions. In 2011, he was killed by a NATO-led bombing of the country, which led to a civil war and Islamist terrorism groups rising in the region.

At the historic Korean summit, Kim and Moon agreed to establish a direct telephone line between their executive offices, through which they will “hold frequent and candid discussions on issues vital to the nation,” according to the declaration they signed. President Moon is also set to visit Pyongyang this fall, months after US President Donald Trump’s anticipated meeting with Kim in the coming weeks.

May 2, 2018

The status quo, in all its various forms, is dominated by incentives that strengthen the centralization of wealth and power.

Capitalism

As longtime readers know, my work aims to 1) explain why the status quo -- the socio-economic-political system we inhabit -- is unsustainable, divisive, and doomed to collapse under its own weight and 2) sketch out an alternative Mode of Production/way of living that is sustainable, consumes far less resources while providing for the needs of the human populace -- not just for our material daily bread but for positive social roles, purpose, hope, meaning and opportunity, needs that are by and large ignored or marginalized in the current system.

One cognitive/emotional roadblock I encounter is the nearly universal assumption that there are only two systems: the State (government) or the Market (free trade/ free enterprise). This divide plays out politically as the Right (capitalism, favoring markets) and the Left (socialism, favoring the state). Everything from Communism to Libertarianism can be placed on this spectrum.

But what if the State and the Market are the sources of our unsustainability?What if they are intrinsically incapable of fixing what’s broken?

The roadblock here is adherents to one camp or the other are emotionally attached to their ideological choice, to the point that these ideological attachments have a quasi-religious character.

Believers in the market as the solution to virtually any problem refuse to accept any limits on the market’s efficacy, and believers in greater state power/control refuse to accept any limits on the state’s efficacy.

I often feel like I’ve been transported back to the 30 Years War between Catholics and Protestants in the 1600s.

I’ve written numerous books that (in part) cover the inherent limits of markets and the state, so I’ll keep this brief. Markets are based on two premises: 1) profits are the key motivator of human activity and 2) whatever is scarce can be replaced by something that is abundant (for example, when we’ve wiped out all the wild Bluefin tuna, we can substitute farmed catfish.)

But what about work that creates value but isn’t profitable? This simply doesn’t compute in the market mentality. Neither does the fact that wiping out the wild fisheries disrupts an ecosystem that is essentially impossible to value in terms that markets understand: in a market, the supply and the demand in this moment set the price and thus the value of everything.

But ecosystems simply cannot be valued by the price set in the moment by current supply and demand.

As for the state, its ontological imperative is to concentrate power, and since wealth is power, this means concentrating political and financial power. Once bureaucracies have concentrated power, insiders focus on securing budgets and benefits, and limiting transparency and accountability, as these endanger the insiders’ power, security and perquisites.

Both of these systems share a single quasi-religious ideology: a belief that endless economic growth is an intrinsic good, for it is the ultimate foundation of all human prosperity. In other words, we can only prosper and become more secure if we’re consuming more of everything: resources, credit, energy, and so on.

The second shared ideological faith is that centralizing wealth and power are not just inevitable but good. In other words, Left and Right share a single quasi-religious belief that centralization is not just inevitable but positive; the only difference is in who should hold the concentrated wealth/power, private owners or the state.

This ideology assumes a winner take most structure of winners and losers,with the winnings being concentrated in the hands of a few at the top of the Winners. Thus rising inequality and divisiveness are assumed to be the natural state of any economy.

This ideology underpins the entire status quo spectrum. The "growth at any cost is good" part of the single ideology underpinning the status quo is captured by the 1960 Soviet-era film Letter Never Sent; in its haunting, surreal final scene, a character envisions a grand wilderness untouched by human hands transformed into an industrial wasteland of belching chimneys and sprawling factories. This was not a nightmare--this was the Soviet dream, and indeed, the dream of the "growth at any cost is good" West.

Simply put, the status quo of markets and states is incapable of DeGrowth, i.e. consuming less of everything, including credit, "money", profits, taxes—everything that fuels both the state and the market. As I have taken pains to explain, it doesn’t matter if a factory is owned by private owners or the state: the mandate of capital is to grow. If capital doesn’t grow, the resulting losses will sink the enterprise—including the state itself.

What lies beyond "growth at any cost" capitalism and socialism? My answer is the self-funded community economy, a system that is self-funded (i.e. no need for a central bank or Treasury) with a digital currency that is created and distributed for the sole purpose of funding work that addresses scarcities in local communities.

I outline this system in my book A Radiocally Beneficial World: Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All.

Rather than concentrate power in the hands of state insiders, this system distributes power to communities are participants. Rather than concentrate the power to create currency for the benefit of banks and the state, this system distributes the power to create currency for the sole benefit of those working on behalf of the community, on projects prioritized by the community.

This community economy recognizes that some work is valuable but not profitable. The profit-driven market will never do this work, and the central state is (to use Peter Drucker’s term) the wrong unit size to ascertain each community’s needs and scarcities.

Clearly, we need a socio-economic-political system that has the structure to not just grasp the necessity of DeGrowth and positive social roles (work benefiting the greater community) but to embrace these goals as its raison d’etre (reason to exist).

Human activity is largely guided by incentives, both chemical incentives in our brains and incentives presented by the society/economy we inhabit. In the current system, concentrating power and wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many and wasting resources / destroying ecosystems are incentivized if the activity is profitable to some enterprise or deemed necessary by the state.

In the current system, the state incentivizes protecting its wealth and power and the security/benefits of its insiders, and markets incentivize maximizing profits by any means available.

As I have explained many times in the blog and my books, we inhabit a state-cartel economy: the most profitable form of enterprise is the quasi-monopoly or cartel that limits supply and competition in order to extract the maximum profit from its customers.

Monopolies (or quasi-monopolies such as Google, which holds a majority share of global search revenues, excluding China) and cartels quickly amass profits which they then use to secure protection of their cartel from the state via lobbying, campaign contributions, etc. The elites controlling the state benefit from this arrangement, and so the system inevitably becomes a state-cartel system dominated by the state and private sector cartels and incentives that benefit the wealth and power of these institutions.

Once we understand the inevitability of this marriage of state and cartel, we understand socialism and capitalism--the State and Markets--are the yin and yang of one system. Reformers may recognize some of the inherent limits of the state and the market, but they believe these problems can be solved by tweaking policies--in systems-speak, modifying the parameters of the existing subsystems of lawmaking, the judiciary, regulatory agencies, and so on.

But as Donella Meadows explained in her classic paper, Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System tweaking the parameters doesn’t actually change the system. For that, we must add a new feedback loop.

The status quo, in all its various forms, is dominated by incentives that strengthen the centralization of wealth and power, increase inequality and divisiveness and the permanent expansion of consumption and credit. That this path leads to implosion / collapse does not compute because the status quo is constructed on the fundamental assumption that permanent growth/expansion of consumption, credit, wealth and state power is not just possible but necessary.

As many of us have labored to show, the financial system has been pushed to unprecedented extremes to maintain the illusion that rapid growth of consumption and credit can be maintained essentially forever.

We need an alternative system that’s built on sustainable incentives and feedback loops so we have a new blueprint to follow as the current arrangement unravels in the next decade or two.

Security and prosperity are worthy goals, but the means to achieve them, as well as the definition of security / prosperity, must be reworked from the ground up. We need to include positive social roles and meaningful work as essential components of security/prosperity.

My conception of a Third / Community Economy does not replace either the state or the free-enterprise market; rather, it does what neither of the existing structures can do. It adds opportunity, purpose, positive social roles and earned income for those left out of the state/cartel/market economy.

May 2, 2018

The Hong Kong Financial Services and Treasury (FSTB) released a report yesterday, April 30, on the status of money laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (TF). The report concluded that virtual currencies (VC), like Bitcoin (BTC), are not particularly involved in either type of financial crime.

The FSTB notes that “although there is inherent ML/TF vulnerability related to VCs”:

“There does not seem to be any visible impact affecting the overall risk in Hong Kong so far. The risk of VCs is assessed as medium-low.”

The report does mention the use of cryptocurrencies in Ponzi schemes and cybercrimes – specifically mentioning the WannaCry attack – citing 167 Bitcoin (BTC) related police reports from 2013-2017.

The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment Report also mentions that the FSTB, Hong Kong financial regulators, and law enforcement agencies are working together to look into risks associated with Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) and cryptocurrencies in general as well:

“While we have not found substantial risks in these newly developing payment methods or commodities, this is a rapidly developing area requiring continued monitoring.”

According to the report, cryptocurrencies are not considered legal tender in Hong Kong. The FTSB suggests that because Hong Kong “is one of the world’s freest economies with a vibrant foreign currency exchange market and no capital controls [...] VCs are therefore not as attractive as in economies where people may try to circumvent currency controls or seek refuge from a high inflation rate”:

“The exchange of Bitcoin in person is not popular [...] Domestically, the use of Bitcoin remains at a negligible level.”

The report writes that the Bitcoin ATMs in Hong Kong are also “not popularly used by people in Hong Kong.”

As a comparison, in Venezuela – a country whose economy is currently experiencing hyperinflation – many citizens have begun to rely on Bitcoin as a more stable store of value as compared to their national currency.

In February of this year, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) warned potential crypto investors that they would keep “policing” cryptocurrency and ICO markets. In mid-March, the SFC halted an ICO in Hong Kong and made the company return the money raised, on the grounds that it was an unregistered investment scheme. More recently, in mid-April, the SFC said that the type of fundraising done through ICOs is better suited to venture capital funds.

May 2, 2018

The European Union will not accept threats from the United States in the talks to secure a permanent exemption from US tariffs on steel and aluminum, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said.

“I would like to reiterate the call that this exemption be made unconditional and permanent,” Juncker said as he presented the EU's budget at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday.

Donald Trump’s decision in March to impose a worldwide 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum “cannot be justified on the basis of national security,” he said as cited by AP. The situation in which Washington and Brussels find themselves on the brink of a trade war “should not happen between allies,” the Commission’s head stressed.

"We will continue our negotiations with the US, but we will refuse to negotiate under threat," Juncker said. The statement came a day after Trump prolonged the temporary exemption for the EU for another month, until June 1.

EU hopes of a swift resolution to the tariff standoff with the US will most likely be in vain, Jeffrey Tucker, editorial director at the American Institute for Economic Research, told RT.

“Trade war is what he [Donald Trump] intended from the moment he put his hand on the Bible and took the oath of office,” Tucker said, adding that the US President is only interested in creating new conflicts instead of resolving the old owns. He described Trump as “a convinced economic nationalist, who really believes in his heat that if he can create an American national machinery production that’s not dependent on Europe, Canada and the rest of the world – that this will somehow be good to America.”

“Donald Trump believes in zero sum kind of world – it’s like either America wins or America loses,” the expert said. However, according to Tucker, if the trade war between the US and EU breaks out producers and consumers on both sides will be among the losers.

The European Commission said in a statement on Tuesday that the US decision of just a month-long extension “prolongs market uncertainty, which is already affecting business decisions.”

Earlier, the block warned that it may retaliate against the US tariffs by imposing its own $3.5 billion tax on American goods, including jeans, motorcycles and orange juice.

May 2, 2018

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is facing criticism for plans to spend billions on space travel as his workers sleep in tents to save money and pee in bottles to avoid missing their daily work targets.

Bezos, the world’s richest man, recently told Business Insider that the “only way” he sees how he can spend so much money is by converting his “Amazon winnings” into space travel. But Twitter has some other ideas about how Bezos could use his “winnings” to help improve the planet he actually lives on first.

Some users suggested that Bezos could spend his money on schools, roads, healthcare and other public services before throwing billions at space travel.

Amazon has repeatedly been criticized for poor treatment of its workers and failure to pay a real living wage. A 2017 investigation by an undercover reporter for the Daily Mirror found that workers at the retail giant are treated “like animals” and forced to work to the point of physical collapse.

Another exposé found that some of Amazon’s warehouses lacked air-conditioning and the company “arranged to have paramedics parked in ambulances outside” in the hot summer months for workers who fainted during their grueling work.

Recent figures show the median income for an Amazon worker is $28,446 while at Facebook it is $240,430 and $197,274 at Google.

But, according to Bezos, who is worth $131 billion, his space company Blue Origin, which plans to send humans into space as early as this year, is the “most important work” he is doing.

May 2, 2018

Just four out of 128 Eurofighter jets operated by the German Air Force are ready to fly real combat missions due to dysfunctional self-defense systems and lack of air-to-air missiles, Spiegel magazine has revealed.

Spiegel’s Wednesday report said the problem with a critical device installed in the tips of the jet’s canard delta wings makes most of German Eurofighters unfit for service.

The device, known as Defensive Aids Sub-System (DASS), is designed to detect a missile attack and warn the pilot of the inbound threat. It also serves as chaff and flare dispenser and has an optional laser warning. About half a year ago, technicians discovered that the device is not properly cooled, causing significant damage to sensitive electronics, Spiegel said.

DASS is said to be a crucial part that ensures the pilot’s survival, and it must be active during all flying missions. Therefore, a number of combat-ready jets dropped drastically. In the meantime replacing defective pods proved difficult due to a specific spare part, needed to fix the cooling system, is currently unavailable as the manufacturer has been sold to another company.

This appears to be not the only problem gripping the German Air Force. Eurofighter-compatible air-to-air missiles are also in short supply, the report said. The military is said to be unable to quickly procure the required number of projectiles.

Consequently, only four jets out of the entire Eurofighter fleet are ready to fly combat missions at any time. Notably, it leaves Germany unfit for meeting its NATO obligations, such as carrying out in-flight interceptions.

A spokesman for the German military told Spiegel the combat-readiness statistics for the Eurofighter fleet “looks better than in 2017,” but said the exact number of available jets is classified.

The Air Force reportedly lists all Eurofighters that are able to fly as available – even those without functioning DASS devices. While they can be used during military exercises or for training rookie pilots, these jets still can’t be considered ready for NATO missions.

Germany has declared 82 Eurofighters for the alliance’s High Readiness Forces (HRF) and Forces of Lower Readiness. Contributors are given 90 to 180 days to deploy ready-to-use-jets in case of crisis. However, given that there are no requests for such deployments, the Bundeswehr “can claim they meet all current operational obligations,” Spiegel writes.

“We can say with good conscience that most of our troops are ready for use because there are currently no missions,” a military source told the magazine.

This is not the first time German media uncovers a seemingly dire state of the country’s military. Earlier in April, it emerged that of the 97 Panavia Tornado jets currently in service, only 10 meet NATO requirements because of several equipment flaws that make it vulnerable and no longer suitable for duty.

In 2016, German contribution to the US-led coalition strikes in Syria came under question when Tornados’ cockpit instruments turned out to be too bright for pilots flying night missions in night-vision gear. The fleet was later grounded after monitors in cockpits started losing screws during flights.

May 2, 2018