Friday 4 June 2021

1989 Lest We Forget Murderous Communism.

 Baltic Dry Index. 2472 -58   Brent Crude 71.19

Spot Gold 1870

Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000

Deaths 53,100

Coronavirus Cases 04/06/21 World 172,910,966

Deaths 3,717,300

Chinese crackdown on protests leads to Tiananmen Square Massacre

June 04 1989  

Chinese troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, killing and arresting thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The brutal Chinese government assault on the protesters shocked the West and brought denunciations and sanctions from the United States.

On June 4, 1989, however, Chinese troops and security police stormed through Tiananmen Square, firing indiscriminately into the crowds of protesters. Turmoil ensued, as tens of thousands of the young students tried to escape the rampaging Chinese forces. Other protesters fought back, stoning the attacking troops and overturning and setting fire to military vehicles. Reporters and Western diplomats on the scene estimated that at least 300, and perhaps thousands, of the protesters had been killed and as many as 10,000 were arrested.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/tiananmen-square-massacre-takes-place

Hong Kong cracks down on Tiananmen commemorations, arrests vigil organizer

Published Fri, Jun 4 2021 12:35 AM EDT

Hong Kong police arrested on Friday an organizer of annual vigils for the victims of China’s 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, in what activists see as a suppression of one of the city’s most powerful symbols of democratic hope.

The arrest of Chow Hang Tung, vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, comes as thousands of police are expected to patrol the city’s streets to prevent people from gathering.

The heightened vigilance from authorities was a marked departure from Hong Kong’s cherished freedoms of speech and assembly, bringing the global financial hub closer in line with mainland China’s strict controls on society, activists say.

The annual June 4 vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, the world’s largest, is widely seen as a symbol of the former British colony’s democratic aspirations and desire to preserve its different way of life from mainland China.

“She only wanted to go to Victoria Park, light a candle and commemorate,” Chiu Yan Loy, Executive Member of the Alliance, told Reuters, adding he believed the arrest was meant to strike fear into those planning to attend the vigil.

Senior superintendent Terry Law confirmed police arrested a 36-year-old member of the Alliance and a 20-year-old food delivery man for promoting an unauthorized assembly. It did not name the arrestees as per its usual practice.

---- The Alliance’s chairman Lee Cheuk-yan is in jail over an illegal assembly.

Police have banned the vigil for a second year in a row, citing the coronavirus. It did not say whether commemorating Tiananmen would breach a sweeping national security law China imposed in 2020 to bring its most restive city onto an authoritarian path.

City leader Carrie Lam has not commented on commemorations, saying only that citizens must respect the law, as well as the Communist Party (CCP), which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary. June 4 commemorations are banned in mainland China.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/04/hong-kong-cracks-down-on-tiananmen-commemorations.html 

The big economic news today comes later with the latest US employment figures for May.

In London, the G-7 finance ministers begin their first face to face, two day meeting since 2019. Up for discussion, the USA’s proposed minimum global corporation tax and everyone else’s wish to tax the giant technology tax cheats. Tomorrow’s final communique might be more interesting than most. 

But this morning we open with what threatens to become 2021s big story by years end. While it’s not impossible that Canada and the USA grain crops will save the day, a continuing western drought makes that difficult.

Global Food Costs Surge to Decade High as Drought Parches Crops

By Megan Durisin

3 June 2021, 09:01 BST Updated on 4 June 2021, 05:08 BST

·         UN measure of world food prices climbs for 12th month in May

·         ‘Very little room’ seen for any more shocks to supply balance

Global food prices have extended their rally to the highest in almost a decade, heightening concerns over bulging grocery bills at a time when economies are struggling to overcome the Covid-19 crisis.

A United Nations gauge of world food costs climbed for a 12th straight month in May, its longest stretch in a decade. The relentless advance risks accelerating broader inflation, complicating central banks efforts to provide more stimulus.

Drought in South America has withered crops from corn and soybeans to coffee and sugar. Record purchases by China are worsening the supply crunch in grains and boosting costs for global livestock producers. Cooking oils have soared too on demand for biofuel. The surge in food costs has revived memories of 2008 and 2011, when spikes led to riots in more than 30 nations.

“We have very little room for any production shock. We have very little room for any unexpected surge in demand in any country,” Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, said by phone. “Any of those things could push prices up further than they are now, and then we could start getting worried.”

The prolonged gains across the staple commodities are trickling through to store shelves, with countries from Kenya to Mexico reporting higher costs for food items. The pain could be particularly pronounced in some of the poorest import-dependent nations, which have limited purchasing power and social safety nets, at a time when they are grappling with the ongoing pandemic.

The UN index has reached its highest since September 2011, climbing almost 5% last month. All five components of the index rose during the month, with gains led by vegetable oils, grains and sugar. The Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index, measuring prices from grains to sugar and coffee, is up 70% in the past year.

BlackRock CEO Fink Sees Potential for ‘Big Shock’ From Inflation

The world’s hunger problem has already reached its worst in years as the pandemic exacerbates food inequalities, compounding extreme weather and political conflicts.

More

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-03/global-food-prices-surge-to-highest-in-almost-a-decade-un-says

Next up, G-7 finance minister news. Next weekend their bosses do it all again in sunny Cornwall, presumably to endorse what this lot cook up this weekend.

U.S. Treasury says G-7 expected to endorse U.S. global minimum tax proposal

Published Wed, Jun 2 2021  7:31 PM EDT Updated Wed, Jun 2 2021 11:13 PM EDT

The G-7 wealthy democracies are expected to endorse Washington’s proposal for an ambitious global corporate minimum tax when their leaders meet later this week in Britain, a U.S. Treasury official said on Wednesday. The official said in an emailed statement that the Treasury expects the meetings of the Group of Seven finance ministers on Friday and Saturday in London to provide momentum for advancing global corporate tax negotiationstoward a broader G-20 finance meeting in July in Italy.

A full endorsement is expected at the culmination of the G-7 meetings with the leaders summit, the official added.

The U.S. Treasury in May proposed a global minimum corporate tax of at least 15% to try to end a downward spiral of corporate tax rates and deter multinational firms from shifting profits to tax-haven countries.

The proposed minimum is lower than the Biden administration’s own proposals to raise the domestic corporate tax rate to 28% and impose a 21% minimum levy on overseas profits earned by U.S. companies.

----A number of other G-7 officials have raised expectations for the finance ministers’ meetings in London, the first face-to-face meetings for the group since the Covid-19 pandemic turned meetings virtual last year.

German Finance Minster Olaf Scholz told Reuters in an interview that he expects the group to make “significant progress” on corporate tax issues, which include the thornier problem of agreeing how to tax large global digital services companies such as Facebook, Amazon.com, Alphabet Inc’s Google, Apple Inc and Microsoft.

A number of countries have imposed unilateral digital services taxes targeting these firms, drawing threats of retaliatory tariffs from the United States.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/02/us-treasury-says-g-7-expected-to-endorse-us-global-minimum-tax-proposal.html

After Brexit, the UK looks likely to move to the Pacific. Hopefully we’ll get better winters.

 

Pacific Free-Trade Group Looks to Add U.K.

Japan has expressed hope that the U.S. would rejoin the group or find some way to link up with it

June 2, 2021 2:55 am ET

TOKYO—The 11-nation free-trade group known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership said Wednesday it would open talks about admitting the U.K. as a new member, potentially adding another U.S. ally while Washington itself stays away.

The group said after an online meeting that adding the U.K.—the first potential member outside the Pacific region—would “send a strong signal to our trading partners around the world” and “help to counter protectionism and the use of unjustified trade restrictive measures.”

The TPP, which includes U.S. allies such as Japan, Canada and Australia, was originally envisioned during the Obama administration as a U.S.-led bulwark against China. One of then-President Donald Trump’s first acts in office was to withdraw from the group and its proposed free-trade deal, which Mr. Trump said would be bad for American workers.

Under Japan’s leadership, the group completed a trade deal without the U.S., which went into effect at the end of 2018. The deal eliminated most tariffs on trade between members, allowing agricultural powerhouses such as Australia to export more to Japan, while helping Japanese exports of industrial goods such as auto parts and protecting intellectual-property rights.

President Biden has shown little interest in revisiting the TPP issue, in part because free-trade deals remain unpopular among many of the swing voters whom Mr. Biden hopes to pull to his side. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in March that people such as himself who had advocated trade deals “didn’t do enough to understand who would be negatively affected.”

Japanese officials have expressed hope that the U.S. would eventually rejoin the TPP or at least find some way to link up with the group.

The U.K. could serve as a bridge. Having left the European Union, the country is looking to do a trade deal with the U.S. in addition to pursuing TPP membership.

It applied to join the TPP on Feb. 1. The U.K.’s secretary of state for international trade, Elizabeth Truss, said membership was a “key part of our trade negotiations program as a newly independent trading nation.”

The 11 members of the TPP group, formally known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership or CPTPP, are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pacific-free-trade-group-looks-to-add-u-k-11622616917?mod=mhp

Finally, in the still growing Greensill-Gupta scandal, Bloomberg goes in for the kill.

The Greensill Scandal Isn't Quite Done Yet

A parliamentary probe into the supervision of Greensill paints a worrying picture. It’s also missing some key testimony.

By Elisa Martinuzzi and Therese Raphael

June 2, 2021, 2:00 AM EDT

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson might be tempted to breathe more easily. A parliamentary inquiry — which was given reams of correspondence and hours of testimony from witnesses — has failed to determine a clear link between the lobbying efforts of Johnson’s predecessor, David Cameron, and Greensill Capital’s access to the U.K.’s pandemic loan schemes.

But we still haven’t seen the full picture. The committee of lawmakers has hardly turned over every stone in its investigation of the now bankrupt supply-chain finance firm and the related allegations of high-level cronyism in the Conservative government. Even without that, there are some troubling supervisory failings to consider. 

Senior officials at the Treasury and the Bank of England — guardians of the U.K. economy and financial stability — did little to prevent Greensill from tapping funds, some of which were funneled into dicey loans. The supervisors were aware of Greensill’s questionable operations and its links to troubled companies controlled by steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta. And one state-backed loan scheme did turn down Greensill on eligibility grounds.

Nevertheless, the firm was able to use a different government scheme to loan 400 million pounds ($568 million) of taxpayer-backed funds to Gupta’s companies that may never be repaid. The Department for Business and its lending arm, the British Business Bank, were responsible for disbursing these funds to Greensill, so it’s also a mystery why officials from these bodies weren’t called as witnesses by the Treasury Committee as part of the inquiry. 

Consider the facts in the run-up to Cameron’s lobbying campaign, which included 56 calls and messages to senior officials at the height of the pandemic in spring 2020. Already in late 2019 the Prudential Regulatory Authority (the BOE’s bank supervisory arm) had imposed lending restrictions on Wyelands Bank, a Gupta-controlled trade-finance specialist that directed a disproportionate chunk of customer deposits to parties related to Gupta. In his evidence to the inquiry, BOE Governor Andrew Bailey said the central bank also notified Britain’s National Crime Agency about Wyelands back in 2019. By February 2020 the case was referred to the Serious Fraud Office.

By early 2020, Gupta’s ties with Greensill were also firmly established, and not just by the media. Moreover, the BOE had been warned by Germany’s financial supervisor that Greensill’s German bank was also heavily exposed to Gupta. All of this happened well before Cameron began his barrage of lobbying.

Given all the red flags, you’d have hoped that that any activity related to Gupta’s companies and their financing would have been reviewed scrupulously by all U.K. government entities from that point forward.

More.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-02/the-lex-greensill-david-cameron-scandal-isn-t-quite-done-yet?srnd=premium-europe

The First Law of Economists: For every economist, there exists an equal and opposite economist.

The Second Law of Economists: They're both wrong.

Global Inflation Watch.           

Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.

Too much “money” to few goods. How long before we all become “Punk” Argentina?

Analysis: A 'tsunami' of cash is driving rates ever lower. What will the Fed do?

June 3, 2021  11:09 AM  By Jonnelle Marte

(Reuters) - Banks have too much cash on their hands - and they’re running out of places to put it.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the rising popularity of a Federal Reserve program that lets firms stash their cash overnight with the U.S. central bank in exchange for at best a small return. The payout these days: Zero percent.

But usage is soaring to record highs as money market funds and other eligible firms cope with what some analysts are calling a “tsunami” of cash.

The banking system is swimming in nearly $4 trillion of reserves, thanks in part to the Fed’s asset purchases, a fall off in Treasury bill issuance and a rapid drawdown in the government’s store of funds at the Fed. The Treasury General Account, or TGA, has dropped by nearly $1 trillion since last fall, mirrored by the surge in bank reserves.

All that cash is pushing down short-term rates and increasing expectations the Fed will need to respond with a technical adjustment at its June 15-16 meeting, if not earlier, in order to keep its key policy rate from sliding further.

The situation is also a headache for money market funds, which are absorbing much of the money and finding fewer options for investing it, a dynamic the Fed is watching closely.

“They’re getting cash in the door and aren’t able to find good places to invest it,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, a senior U.S. rates strategist for TD Securities.

Fed policymakers were briefed by staff on money market issues at their last meeting in April. A senior official from the New York Fed advised them they may want to consider making a minor technical adjustment to rates “in the coming months” if the downward pressure on overnight rates continued.

More

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-cash-analysis/analysis-a-tsunami-of-cash-is-driving-rates-ever-lower-what-will-the-fed-do-idUSKCN2DF0YI

Analysis-'Punk nation': Argentina inflation soars as hazy future drives price hikes

June 3, 2021 10:05 AM  By Hernan Nessi

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, put on the spot to explain a damaging and stubborn inflation rate that is soaring towards 50%, turned to the punk rock musical genre of Patti Smith and the Ramones for inspiration.

“Argentina is a punk nation,” the center-left president, who plays the guitar and named his dog after Bob Dylan, said in reference to the rebellious spirit of the musical movement born in the 1970s.

“Everything is today, there is no tomorrow. Everything is in the short-term because there is no future.”

The South American nation, he explained, had over years of runaway prices built up a national psyche so imbued with inflation that it had become a self-perpetuating vicious cycle. “People increase prices just in case,” he said.

The lyrical answer underscores a concrete and major issue for his Peronist government, which had set its sights on inflation under 30% this year but has been surprised by runaway prices that sap savings, wages and consumer spending power.

Taming inflation is key to restoring economic stability after three years of recession, heading off social upheaval as poverty levels rise and for the Peronist government to avoid painful defeat in midterm elections at the end of the year.

Argentines have, however, for decades assumed high inflation will devalue any savings and turned to safe-haven dollars, a trend economists, investors and officials have struggled to explain - or solve. Even local school children here learn to keep an eye on the inflation rate.

Other countries in the region have seen prices start to tick up this year, but nothing like Argentina. Brazil’s 12-month inflation made headlines in April hitting over 6%. Argentina’s was most recently clocked at 46.3%.

More

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-inflation-analysis/analysis-punk-nation-argentina-inflation-soars-as-hazy-future-drives-price-hikes-idUSKCN2DF0TT

If trivial pursuit were designed by economists, it would have 100 questions and 3,000 answers.

Ronald Reagan.

Covid-19 Corner                       

This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.

Australia’s Victoria state detects Delta Covid variant in latest outbreak

Published Thu, Jun 3 2021 11:20 PM EDT

Australia’s Victoria state authorities said on Friday genomic sequencing has detected for the first time the Delta Covid-19 virus variant among infections in the latest virus outbreak in state capital, Melbourne.

“That variant is the Delta variant, it is now infamous in India and increasingly found in the United Kingdom. It is a variant of significant concern,” Victoria state Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton told reporters in Melbourne.

Sutton said the new variant had not been linked to any sequenced Covid infections cases across Australia from hotel quarantine or elsewhere.

So far, two Victoria cases have the so-called ‘Delta’ variant of concern, which is likely the strain that caused the latest devastating wave of Covid in India.

“It is a concern that it is not linked to other cases but we are chasing down all those primary-case contacts ... and looking into where it might have been acquired,” Sutton said.

Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, is battling to contain its latest outbreak — 65 cases since May 24 — after more than three months of no cases, placing tough restrictions on movement of people and shutting down large parts of its economy. The government has linked all the cases to a single traveler released from quarantine after testing negative.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/04/australia-victoria-state-detects-delta-covid-variant-in-latest-outbreak.html

S. Korea confirms 5 more 'breakthrough' infections, total now at 9

15:08 June 03, 2021

SEOUL, June 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has confirmed five more cases of so-called breakthrough COVID-19 infections, bringing the total caseload here to nine, health authorities said Thursday.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said all the breakthrough infections were in those who had two doses of the vaccine by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.

By Kim Han-joo

SEOUL, June 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has confirmed five more cases of so-called breakthrough COVID-19 infections, bringing the total caseload here to nine, health authorities said Thursday.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said all the breakthrough infections were in those who had two doses of the vaccine by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.

A "breakthrough case" is when a person tests positive for COVID-19 between the first and second doses of a two-dose regimen or a person tests positive after full vaccination.

All of the five people are those aged between 70 and 80, with three of them being female and the two others male.

The KDCA said similar cases will increase as the country's vaccine rollout revs up, adding that those who are fully inoculated still need to wear masks.

The authorities said even after full vaccinations, a person can be infected with COVID-19. They also said that those who are classified as breakthrough infection cases have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic.

As of Thursday, a total of 6.74 million people, including 381,551 the previous day, have received their first shots of COVID-19 vaccines since the vaccine rollout on Feb. 26, taking up 13.1 percent of the total population, the KDCA said.

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20210603006900320?section=national/national

G7 health ministers meet in Oxford to address pandemic challenges

Benedikt von Imhoff  Jun 3, 2021

London (dpa) - Amid a debate about coronavirus relaxations in Britain, British Health Minister Matt Hancock is to receive his G7 colleagues for a face-to-face meeting on Thursday.

In the ancient university city of Oxford, about 80 kilometres north-west of London, the ministers want to discuss, among other things, joint protection against future pandemics.

The location has been chosen symbolically: Researchers at Oxford University developed a Covid-19 vaccine together with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

Britain has been concerned about the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus, which was first discovered in India. However, the number of new infections in Britain has only risen slightly recently and deaths have fallen.

EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides urged the use of the political momentum to strengthen global health structures. "We have no time to lose," Kyriakides said.

What is needed, she said, are better surveillance and stronger cooperation, especially in sharing data and pathogens, and added that global cooperation has never been more important. Kyriakides called on G7 countries to share vaccines with poorer countries.

The G7 group includes Britain, which holds the presidency this year, as well as Germany, the United States, France, Italy, Canada and Japan.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn also called for solidarity in the distribution of coronavirus vaccines.

"The European Union is helping to vaccinate the world right now. Fifty per cent of the vaccines produced in the EU are and have been exported because we know very well: We are not safe until everyone in the world is safe," Spahn told dpa in Oxford.

He was therefore determined to urge his colleagues to export more Covid-19 vaccines, the health minister said.

Britain and the US have so far exported almost no jabs.

Of course, Britain should be proud "of what has been developed here in Oxford," said Spahn.

However, the important issue was to make the vaccines, developed under international cooperation, available to the world, he added.

Meanwhile, the vaccine-sharing programme COVAX secured another 2.4 billion dollars from governments and foundations during an online event on Wednesday, the global vaccination alliance Gavi said.

The funds raised during the "One World Protected" summit brought the total amount to vaccinate people in over 90 of the poorest countries to 9.6 billion dollars, surpassing a target of 8.3 billion dollars.

The funds would suffice to buy 1.8 million vaccine doses and vaccinate about 30 per cent of the adult population in lower-income countries until the beginning of 2022, Gavi, which manages COVAX, said.

Several countries also promised to donate an additional 54 million already secured doses, raising the total number of doses gifted to the programme to 132 million, according to the alliance.

https://www.dpa-international.com/topic/g7-health-ministers-meet-oxford-address-pandemic-challenges-urn%3Anewsml%3Adpa.com%3A20090101%3A210603-99-848099

Next, some vaccine links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.

World Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccineshttps://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines

NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Trackerhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

Stanford Websitehttps://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132

Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine trackerhttps://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker

Some other useful Covid links.

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource centre

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Rt Covid-19

https://rt.live/

Centers for Disease Control Coronavirus

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)

https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national

Technology Update.

With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.

Dispatch from Shenzhen: China’s booming drone industry

China dominates the global business of consumer and commercial drones, and the buzzing center of this new industry is Shenzhen. SupChina went to this year’s drone expo in the southern city, and this is what we found.

Chang ChePublished May 25, 2021

On Saturday, in the heart of Shenzhen’s central business district, the world’s largest drone conference and expo hummed under leaden skies. 

A total of 369 exhibitors showcased some 2,000 drone products of an amazing variety. Mini drones the size of a wristwatch hovered next to cargo drones the size of four-seater planes. On the conference floor, drone makers and suppliers mingled and exchanged WeChat contacts. At the booths themselves, some presentations were quite austere, touching on the finer points of public safety and crisis management. Others were purely recreational: At the corner of the exhibition hall, kids played “3v3 drone soccer” to a crowd of adoring parents.  

Shenzhen is widely regarded as China’s Silicon Valley. It draws more than a third of its GDP from its burgeoning tech sector and is home to global tech giants such as Tencent and Huawei, along with China’s largest electric vehicle maker, BYD. In recent years, with the global success of homegrown drone maker DJI, it has also earned the title of the world’s “drone capital.” The 6th Shenzhen International UAV Expo, held in a 20,000-square-foot exhibition hall, offered a bird’s-eye view of this fast-growing sector, one that already boasts significant customers in the U.S. Here are some key takeaways.

1. China is and will be the leader in commercial drones 

At a modest booth in the middle of the exhibition hall was Shenzhen-based drone behemoth DJI. Despite its commercial roadblocks with the U.S. last year, the $15 billion company continues to control 80% of the global nonmilitary drone industry. (Its closest competitor, Intel, by contrast, holds 4% and does not sell consumer drones but focuses on light shows and other limited uses.) 

Among the consumer models on display on Saturday was the DJI Air 2S, a hand-sized metallic gray drone that captures video in 5.4k resolution, more than quadruple that of an average HD movie.

“It’s not just that DJI is the dominant player,” writes 36Kr, a tech blog (in Chinese), “its success is significant in that it’s the first Chinese company to truly lead the world in technology.” Indeed, DJI’s dominance — a first for Chinese enterprises — is not a fluke. Through the 2010s, DJI drones left its competitors in the dust; they were significantly cheaper (estimated at 10% to 20% the cost of U.S. drones), more technologically capable, and more elegant than their American competitors GoPro and 3D Robotics. DJI drones are “by far the most compact drone now available,” writes The Verge. “You can put the [GoPro] Karma into your average backpack, but you can slip the Mavic into something as small as a purse, a water bottle carrier, even a large pocket.” 

More

https://supchina.com/2021/05/25/dispatch-from-shenzhen-chinas-booming-drone-industry/?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=wired&utm_mailing=WIR_Daily_060321_FastForward&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5cc9e09a3f92a477a0e84d6d&cndid=52110326&esrc=Wired_etl_load&source=EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_TRANSPORTATION_ZZ&mbid=mbid%3DCRMWIR012019%0A%0A&utm_term=WIR_TopClickers_EXCLUDE_Transportation

Another weekend and the start of the Atlantic hurricane season. Usually this early on, hurricanes form in the southern Caribbean before heading north across Cuba or the Yucatan peninsula, then turning west into Mexico or east towards Florida.

Hurricane experts are forecasting an active season this year with about 20 named storms though not all of them becoming hurricanes.  Have a great weekend everyone.

Two leading economists took a small plane to the wilderness in northern Canada to hunt moose over the weekend. The last thing the pilot said was, “Remember, this is a very small plane and you will only be able to bring ONE moose back.” But of course, they killed one each and come Sunday, they talked the pilot into letting them bring both dead moose onboard. So just after takeoff, the plane stalled and crashed. In the wreckage, one of the economists woke up, looked around and said, “Where the hell are we.” The other economist replied, “Oh, just about a hundred yards east of the place where we crashed last year.”

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