China braces itself for new phase in Covid-19 battle

Published

2 years ago

January 9, 2023

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BEIJING – China braced itself for a new phase in its battle against Covid-19 on Monday and financial markets strengthened after Beijing dropped pandemic border controls in the latest easing of curbs that has let the virus loose on its 1.4 billion population.

Sundays reopening is one of the last steps in Chinas dismantling of its zero-Covid regime, which began last month after historic protests against curbs that kept the virus at bay for three years but caused widespread mental agony and severe damage to the worlds second-largest economy.

While Beijings move to drop quarantine is expected to also boost outbound travel, several nations are demanding negative tests from visitors from China, seeking to contain an outbreak that is overwhelming many of Chinas hospitals and crematoriums.

Life is moving forward again!, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, the Peoples Daily, wrote in an editorial praising the governments virus policies late on Sunday which it said had moved from preventing infection to preventing severe disease.

Today, the virus is weak, we are stronger.

Chinas state Xinhua news agency said the country had entered a new phase of its Covid-19 response, citing its virus prevention experience, the development of the epidemic and increased vaccination levels.

Chinas top health officials and state media have repeatedly said Covid-19 infections are peaking across the country, and they are playing down the threat now posed by the disease.

That is in stark contrast to the earlier regime of strict quarantines and lockdowns as China managed the virus as a Category A disease like the bubonic plague and cholera. Chinas management of Covid-19 was technically downgraded to Category B on Sunday, although many curbs have been dropped for weeks.

Officially, China has reported just 5,272 Covid-19-related deaths as of Jan 8, one of the lowest rates of death from the infection in the world.

But the World Health Organisation has said China is under-reporting the scale of the outbreak and international health experts estimate more than one million people in the country could die from the disease this year.

Shrugging off those gloomy forecasts, investors are betting that Chinas reopening will help revive the US$17 trillion (S$23 trillion) economy and bolster the outlook for global growth.

Those hopes lifted Asian shares to a five-month high on Monday while Chinas yuan firmed to its strongest level against the dollar since mid-August.

Chinas blue-chip index gained 0.7 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5 per cent and Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index climbed 1.6 per cent.

The ending of the zero-Covid policy is… going to have a major positive impact on domestic spending, Mr Ralph Hamers, Group Chief Executive Officer at UBS, told the banks annual Greater China Conference on Monday.We believe there is a lot of opportunity for those committed to investing in China.

Its a huge relief just to be able to go back to normal … just come back to China, get off the plane, get myself a taxi and just go home, Mr Michael Harrold, 61, a copy editor in Beijing told Reuters at Beijing Capital International Airport on Sunday after he arrived on a flight from Warsaw. More On This Topic Chinas international air travel resumes, but Covid-19 turbulence to delay takeoff Airlines lift China international flight capacity as border opens Mr Harrold said he had been anticipating having to quarantine and do several rounds of testing on his return when he left for Europe for a Christmas break in early December.

State broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday that direct flights from South Korea to China were close to sold out. The report quickly shot to the most read item on Chinese social media site Weibo.

However, a spike in demand from South Koreans, who make up the largest number of foreign residents in China, as well as others, will be hampered by the limited number of flights to and from China, which are currently at a small fraction of pre-Covid-19 levels.

Korean Air said earlier this month that it was halting a plan to increase flights to China due to Seouls cautious stance towards Chinese travellers. South Korea, like many other countries now requires travellers from China, Macau and Hong Kong to provide negative Covid-19 test results before departure.

Flight Master data showed that on Sunday, China had a total of 245 international flights, combining inbound and outbound, compared with 2,546 flights on the same day in 2019, representing a fall of 91 per cent.

Chinas domestic tourism revenue in 2023 is expected to recover to 70-75 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels, but the number of inbound and outbound trips is forecast to recover to only 30-40 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels this year, China News reported on Sunday. REUTERS More On This Topic China welcomes back international travellers on quarantine-free travel Excitement at Hong Kong's China border as quarantine lifted

Politics

SEC crypto trading roundtable to include crypto giants Uniswap, Coinbase

Published

3 hours ago

April 8, 2025

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SEC crypto trading roundtable to include crypto giants Uniswap, Coinbase

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has released the list of executives from US crypto and finance giants that will take part in a roundtable discussion on crypto trading regulation.

On April 7, the regulator said its upcoming April 11 roundtable will discuss how it should handle crypto trading rules, calling it “Between a Block and a Hard Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading.”

It will be the second in a series of discussions on crypto, headed by its recently-formed Crypto Task Force.

Taking part are Uniswap Labs chief legal officer Katherine Minarik, Cumberland DRW associate general counsel Chelsea Pizzola and Coinbase institutional product vice president Gregory Tusar — all firms that had once been in the regulator’s scope.

Under the Biden administration, the regulator sued Cumberland DRW in October and Coinbase in June 2023 for alleged securities law violations, but both lawsuits were dropped this year under the Trump administration.

The SEC also started an investigation for possible enforcement action into Uniswap Labs in April 2024, which was dropped in February with no further action.

Also taking part in the roundtable are New York Stock Exchange product chief Jon Herrick, crypto brokerage FalconX business lead Austin Reid, securities tokenizing firm Texture Capital CEO Richard Johnson and the University of California, Berkeley finance chair Christine Parlour.

Dave Lauer, co-founder of the advocacy group We the Investors and Tyler Gellasch, CEO of the not-for-profit Healthy Markets Association, will also take part, while law firm Goodwin Procter partner Nicholas Losurdo will moderate the discussion.

Representing the SEC will be acting chair Mark Uyeda, Crypto Task Force chief of staff Richard Gabbert and Commissioners Caroline Crenshaw and Hester Peirce.

The roundtable is the second crypto-focused discussion in a series of five that the SEC dubbed the “Spring Sprint Toward Crypto Clarity.” The first was on March 21, regarding the legal status of crypto, while three future discussions will cover custody, tokenization, and decentralized finance (DeFi).

SEC’s Uyeda orders review of staff crypto comments

The roundtables come as the SEC, under President Donald Trump, works to revamp its oversight of the crypto industry, with its latest action being to review staff statements on crypto so they can possibly be changed or withdrawn.

Uyeda said in an April 5 statement shared by the SEC on X that due to Trump’s executive order on deregulation and recommendations from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, he was reviewing seven staff statements, five of which concerned crypto.

“The purpose of this review is to identify staff statements that should be modified or rescinded consistent with current agency priorities,” Uyeda said.

The first on the list was an April 2019 analysis from the Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology on how crypto sales could be investment contracts under the securities defining Howey test — an argument the agency had made to sue multiple crypto firms for legal violations.

Also up for review are two Division of Investment Management statements, one from May 2021 asking investors to consider the risks of funds with exposure to Bitcoin futures and a November 2020 statement asking for feedback on whether state-chartered banks meet standards to be qualified custodians.

The SEC will also look into a December 2022 Division of Corporation Finance statement that urged SEC-regulated companies to evaluate their disclosures to mention if a slew of crypto firm bankruptcies and collapses at the time impacted their business.

Finally, the agency will review a Division of Examinations alert from February 2021 that said, “a number of activities related to the offer, sale and trading of digital assets that are securities present unique risks to investors.”

Legal Panel: XRP win leaves Ripple a ‘bad actor’ with no crypto legal precedent set

Politics

Spanish police arrest six over $20M AI-powered investment scam

Published

4 hours ago

April 8, 2025

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Spanish police arrest six over M AI-powered investment scam

Authorities in Spain have arrested six people who helped operate a global AI-powered investment scam that stole over $20 million from at least 208 victims.

The scammers would swindle victims up to three times. After stealing an initial sum through the investment scam, the fraudsters contacted victims twice more, masquerading as investment managers and then as authorities, offering to recover the stolen funds for a fee, Spanish police said in an April 7 statement.

The scammers used deepfake ads of “national personalities” promising high returns on crypto investments, and would occasionally pose as financial advisers or even feign romantic interest to lure in victims.

Experts have been warning of a rise in AI-enhanced scams. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said in its Feb. 13 Crypto Scam Revenue 2024 report that generative AI is making “scams more scalable and affordable for bad actors to conduct.”

🚩Detenidas seis personas por estafar más de 19 millones de euros usando #inteligenciaartificial

🔴Engañaban a las víctimas a través de anuncios manipulados con #IA para que realizaran inversiones con #criptomonedas en productos supuestamente muy rentables pic.twitter.com/rMrdgBpOYz

— Policía Nacional (@policia) April 7, 2025

“Victims were not selected randomly; instead, algorithms selected those whose profiles matched the cybercriminals’ searches,” Spanish police said.

“Once they selected their victims, they placed advertising campaigns on the websites or social networks they used, offering them cryptocurrency investments with high returns and zero risk of asset loss — investments that, obviously, turned out to be a scam.”

When victims could not withdraw the funds, most realized it was a scam, according to Spanish police; however, the ruse didn’t end there.

Scammers would trick victims again with follow-up scams

The cybercriminals would then contact victims again, posing as investment managers, claiming the stolen funds were frozen and could be recovered if they paid a deposit.

“The victims, hoping to finally recover their money, made the deposit without realizing they had been scammed again,” Spanish police said.

The scammers would then contact victims a third time, this time posing as Europol agents or lawyers from the United Kingdom, offering to return the stolen funds if the victim paid the corresponding taxes in the country where it was blocked.

Spanish authorities arrested six people involved in the syndicate, charging them with fraud, money laundering and falsifying documents in a criminal organization.

During a raid on the alleged leader behind the scam, Spanish authorities seized numerous cell phones, computers, hard drives, a simulated weapon and extensive documentation.

Several people linked to the plot have also been identified in other countries, and the syndicate allegedly created a large number of fake companies to channel the stolen funds.

“Furthermore, the members of the organization used multiple false identities. In the case of the leader, for example, he used more than 50 different identities,” Spanish police said.

Magazine: Bitcoin heading to $70K soon? Crypto baller funds SpaceX flight: Hodler’s Digest, March 30 – April 5

Environment

World surges past 40% clean power in record renewables boom

Published

4 hours ago

April 8, 2025

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World surges past 40% clean power in record renewables boom

Renewables and nuclear provided 40.9% of the world’s power generation in 2024, passing the 40% mark for the first time since the 1940s, according to a new global energy think tank Ember report.

Renewables added a record 858 TWh in 2024, 49% more than the previous high in 2022. Solar was the largest contributor for the third year running, adding 474 TWh to reach a share of 6.9%. Solar was the fastest-growing power source (+29%) for the 20th year in a row.

Solar has doubled in just three years, providing more than 2,000 TWh of electricity in 2024. Wind generation also grew to 8.1% of global electricity, while hydro – the single largest renewable source – remained steady at 14% of global electricity.

“Solar power has become the engine of the global energy transition,” said Phil MacDonald, Ember’s managing director. “Paired with battery storage, solar is set to be an unstoppable force. As the fastest-growing and largest source of new electricity, it is critical in meeting the world’s ever-increasing demand for electricity.”

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Ember’s sixth annual Global Electricity Review, published today, provides the first comprehensive overview of the global power system in 2024 based on country-level data. It’s published alongside the world’s first open dataset on electricity generation in 2024, covering 88 countries that account for 93% of global electricity demand, as well as historical data for 215 countries.

What drove the rising power demand

The analysis finds that fossil fuels also saw a small 1.4% increase in 2024 due to surging electricity demand, pushing global power sector emissions up 1.6% to an all-time high.

Heatwaves were the main driver of the rise in fossil generation, accounting for almost a fifth (+0.7%) of the increase in global electricity demand in 2024 (+4.0%), mainly through additional use of cooling. Without these temperature effects, fossil fuel generation would have risen by only 0.2%, as clean electricity generation met 96% of the demand growth not caused by hotter temperatures.

“Amid the noise, it’s essential to focus on the real signal,” continued MacDonald. “Hotter weather drove the fossil generation increase in 2024, but we’re very unlikely to see a similar jump in 2025.”

Aside from weather effects, the increasing use of electricity for AI, data centers, EVs, and heat pumps is already contributing to global demand growth. Combined, the growing use of these technologies accounted for a 0.7% increase in global electricity demand in 2024, double what they contributed five years ago.

Clean power will grow faster than demand

Ember’s report shows that clean generation growth is set to outpace faster-rising demand in the coming years, marking the start of a permanent decline in fossil fuel generation. The current expected growth in clean generation would be sufficient to meet a demand increase of 4.1% per year to 2030, which is above expectations for demand growth.

“The world is watching how technologies like AI and EVs will drive electricity demand,” said MacDonald. “It’s clear that booming solar and wind are comfortably set to deliver, and those expecting fossil fuel generation to keep rising will be disappointed.”

Beyond emerging technologies, the growth trajectories of the world’s largest emerging economies will play a crucial role in defining the global outlook. More than half of the increase in solar generation in 2024 was in China, with its clean generation growth meeting 81% of its demand increase in 2024. India’s solar capacity additions in 2024 doubled compared to 2023. These two countries are at the forefront of the drive to clean power and will help tip the balance toward a decline in fossil generation at a global level.

Professor Xunpeng Shi, president of the International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS), said: “The future of the global power system is being shaped in Asia, with China and India at the heart of the energy transition. Their increasing reliance on renewables to power demand growth marks a shift that will redefine the global power sector and accelerate the decline of fossil fuels.”

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