Tensions in Taiwan, Zuckerberg’s “Deeply Illogical” Quote, Ali’s Art

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW NOW

• Tensions between China and Taiwan reach a new high: Tensions with China are at their worst in 40 yearssaid the Taiwanese defense minister who is urging lawmakers in the island nation to increase spending on armaments. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said he and Chinese President Xi Jiping agreed to abide by the “Taiwan Agreement”, under which the United States recognizes China rather than Taiwan.

• Facebook whistleblower c. Zuckerberg: Frances Haugen, former Facebook product manager, testified before a Senate subcommittee, after the publication of thousands of internal documents, and urged lawmakers to regulate the company that it said prioritizes profits over the safety of its users. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the accusations “deeply illogical.” (see our Textually below)

• COVID update: A new study reveals that the skin condition known as “COVID toe”, which affects teens and children more often, may be a side effect of the immune system response to fight against the coronavirus. Meanwhile, Russia reported 929 new deaths from COVID-19 in one day, a record since the start of the pandemic, with the Kremlin blaming the slowness of vaccinations.

• Australia will stop sending asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea: The Australian government has announced it will close controversial detention center in Papua New Guinea, where asylum seekers and refugees trying to reach Australia by boat have been sent.

• An oil spill in California pushes for a ban on offshore drilling: California lawmakers asked to stop all oil drilling off the coast of the state after a pipeline burst and spilled around 3,000 barrels of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean, killing wildlife.

• Nobel Prize in chemistry: This year Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to the German Benjamin List and the Scottish scientist David WC MacMillan “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis”, a new way of building molecules.

• The art of Muhammad Ali sells at a knockdown price: Twenty-six drawings by boxing legend Muhammad Ali auctioned in New York for a total of $ 945,524.

️ HOME PAGE

“Pain and shame”, headlines the French daily The cross, after a 2,500-page report revealed that 216,000 minors had been sexually abused by the clergy of the French Catholic Church since 1950.

# ️⃣ IN FIGURES

In the village of Ceyrat, in central France, church bells are ringing 564 times a day, according to a neighbor who asked for some quiet between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. The local movement now attracts national attention – but also faced with the opposition of other inhabitants worried about losing part of the “soul” of the village. Between church bells and roosters crowing all day long, not everything is as calm on the French countryside front as the postcards would have you believe.

STORY OF THE DAY

Zelensky’s Ukraine, where the Pandora Papers touched the most

The Global Investigation of the World’s Offshore Accounts strikes at the heart of the current Kiev government and the power structure of a ruling class that came to power on the promise of fighting corruption, including the star of the television who became president Volodymyr Zelensky, reports Iryna Lysohor on Ukrainian news site Livy Bereg.

💸 Volodymyr Zelensky’s successful career in show business was created in Ukraine thanks to a hidden financial network of offshore companies. Nine years ago, the popular Kvartal 95 went to the 1 + 1 TV channel. Their shows and programs were successful on the channel owned by Igor Kolomoisky, who would later support Zelensky and the team not only as artists but also as politicians. According to the Pandora Papers, millions of Kolomoiskys did not go only to the accounts of Ukrainian companies close to Zelensky and his associates. The money also went where the weather was warm and taxes were lower.

🔍 Cases involving senior officials are investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Office. NABU detectives are also investigating crimes related to money laundering. The investigation estimates that the former owners, in particular Igor Kolomoisky and Hennadii Boholyubov, could have caused billions in losses to the state. But the Ukrainian security service could not calculate the amount of damage and the case was blocked.

⚖️ What fate awaits Zelensky? And Kolomoisky? For the latter, this week Kolomoisky is in the United States, where his fate risks being the same as that of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko: ending up in an American prison. For Zelensky, no one wants to talk about the secret network of offshore companies. Only Borys Shafir, the co-founder of Kvartal 95, answered a few of our questions. He, unlike his partners, did not go into politics and now owns a significant part of Kvartal’s offshore activities.

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VERBATIM

The argument that we deliberately deliver content that angers people for profit is deeply illogical.

– CEO of Facebook Mark zuckerberg responded explosive allegations by former employee Frances Haugen that the company knowingly takes advantage of disinformation and hate content. After Haugen testified Tuesday before a consumer protection subcommittee of the US Senate Commerce Committee, Zuckerberg wrote a long post on Facebook:

“At the heart of these accusations is the idea that we prioritize profit over safety and well-being,” wrote the founder of Facebook. “This is just not true… The argument that we deliberately distribute content that angers people for profit is deeply illogical. We make money from ads, and advertisers constantly tell us that ‘they don’t want their ads to be next to harmful or angry content. “

LEXICON

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한류, pronounced “hallyu”, meaning Korean wave, is part of 26 Korean words which have just been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. The word describes the increase in international interest in South Korea and its popular culture, and reflects the global success of the country’s music, film, television, fashion and food.