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Mexican president mounts campaign against social media bans
Mexico’s president vowed Thursday to lead an international effort to combat what he considers censorship by social media companies that have blocked or suspended the accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration is reaching out to other government to form a common front on the issue. “I can tell you that at the first G20 meeting we have, I am going to make a proposal on this issue,” López Obrador said. “Yes, social media should not be used to incite violence and all that, but this cannot be used as a pretext to suspend freedom of expression.” “How can a company act as if it was all powerful, omnipotent, as a sort of Spanish Inquisition on what is expressed?” he asked.
Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico is starting to build an international campaign around the issue. “Given that Mexico, through our president, has spoken out, we immediately made contact with others who think the same,” Ebrard said, noting they had heard from officials in France, Germany, the European Union, Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. “The president’s orders are to make contact with all of them, share this concern and work on coming up with a joint proposal,” Ebrard said. “We will see what is proposed.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is among those who have publicly criticized the action against Trump. Her spokesman said Monday the German leader found it “problematic” that corporate managers could deny someone access under rules not defined by law. Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, later called for new regulations that would govern the use of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the European Union. Without mentioning Trump’s case, he said that “the owners of corporate giants should not decide which views are right and which are not.”
LĂłpez Obrador has not said whether he is thinking of trying to regulate social media platforms or perhaps just switching to a new outlet. On Tuesday, he posted an invitation on Facebook — the platform he most frequently uses — for his followers to switch to Telegram. JesĂşs RamĂrez, the president’s spokesman, said the Telegram account has been open for a while, suggesting the switch was not related to Twitter, Facebook and other media platforms acting against Trump after a mob of his supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, accusing him of inciting the violence.
LĂłpez Obrador says private companies should not have the right to decide who can speak. But the issue also displays his closeness to Trump, and his off-again, on-again love of social media.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-marcelo-ebrard-mexico-media-social-media-a5303f532810447575ccf2af6692a2d4?amp;amp
looks like out of da gulag
SAM514 USAF C-40B State Dept. AC departed JBA sw
This AC departed Seattle Boeing Field on 0112 after an overnight
AF2 USAF VIP C-32A (the secondary AF2 AC) began it's descent for Charleston, W.VA
The ceremony for Mr. Yeager and family is set for noon Friday at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
https://twitter.com/Mike_Pence/status/1350101135164538883
SAM535 USAF G5 returning to JBA from a WVA fly-by ne of Charleston
VENUS35 USAF C-40B departing JBA west
02-5001 USAFSOC C-32B re-appears after a ground stop at Ft. Campbell on it's ascent-heading se
Figured someone would head on over and check.
Not worried.
Not working an hour or so ago
werks nao.
Exxon faces SEC probe over Permian Basin asset valuation
The U.S Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an investigation into Exxon XOM.N, following a whistleblower complaint that the oil major overvalued a key asset in Texas' Permian Basin, the Wall street Journal reported on Friday.
Several people involved in valuing the asset, during an internal assessment in 2019, said employees were being forced to use unrealistic assumptions about how quickly the company could drill wells there to arrive at a higher value, the report said.
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/exxon-faces-sec-probe-over-permian-basin-asset-valuation-wsj-2021-01-15
morning.
02-5001 USAFSOC C-32B back at Bragg after a trip to Ft. Campbell-started at Eglin and a ground stop at Bragg prior
SAM514 USAF C-40B State Dept. AC and VENUS35 USAF C-40B continue sw from JBA depart
JPMorgan trims loan reserves on hopes for recovery
JPMorgan Chase & Co reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday as it released some of the cash it had built up against coronavirus-driven loan losses, although the bank cautioned that demand for loans was likely to remain sluggish this year. For most of last year, Main Street lenders were grappling with the economic fallout of the pandemic, setting aside tens of billions of dollars to cover potential loan defaults by struggling businesses and households.
But speedy vaccine deployments and nearly $2 trillion in stimulus have raised hopes of a recovery from one of the worst downturn in decades, prompting banks to start unwinding some of their massive loan loss reserves.
“You will have a better economy in the second half [of the year] because we have the vaccine coming, we have fiscal stimulus and people have saved up a lot of money,” JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said.
“There will be a lot of pent-up demand and, hopefully, optimism because of the fact that we are getting through this mess. By sometime this summer you could have a very healthy economy.”
JPMorgan CFO Jennifer Piepszak said the bank had the ability to repurchase up to $4.5 billion of stock in the first quarter, according to regulatory income-based limits on capital reductions.
The pandemic has also caused a plunge in short and long-term interest rates that hurt interest income, but the Wall Street arms of the biggest banks have benefited from volatility in global financial markets, a rush for stock market listings and emergency corporate fundraising.
JPMorgan’s net income rose 42% to $12.1 billion, or $3.79 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31. Revenue rose 3% to $30.2 billion. During the quarter, it released credit reserves of $2.9 billion, adding 72 cents to its earnings per share.
Excluding the reserves, the bank reported net income of $9.9 billion, or $3.07 per share, which was well ahead of the average Wall Street estimate of $2.62 per share, according to Refinitiv.
About 70% of JPMorgan’s beat came from reserve releases and much of the benefit was already priced into its stock, Evercore ISI analyst Glenn Schorr estimated.
Analysts called the results solid, considering low interest rates and business challenges during the pandemic. “These were strong results and the economic outlook is improving,” Schorr wrote in a note to clients. In the latest quarter, JPMorgan’s numbers also received a boost from continued strength in its trading and investment banking units.
Investment banking revenue surged 37% to $2.5 billion, driven by higher advisory fees across all its products. Trading revenue rose 20% to $5.9 billion.
Looking forward, JPMorgan said in a slide presentation to analysts that it expects its non-interest expenses to go up in 2021 to about $68 billion from $65.5 billion, as it makes another $1.5 billion of investments in its business and spends another $900 million on its technology.
The spending plan continues JPMorgan’s practice of using its financial heft as the biggest U.S. bank to expand its business and take market share from other lenders as it fights to hold off non-bank competitors.
https://www.reuters.com/article/jpmorgan-results/update-4-jpmorgan-trims-loan-reserves-on-hopes-for-recovery-idUSL4N2JQ2PN
SAM514 USAF C-40B State Dept AC and VENUS35 USAF C-40B on approach for Atlanta Int'l from JBA depart
SAM535 USAF G5 departed JBA wn
had a quick trip out to ne of Charleston WVA earlier and back to JBA
This AC was VENUS65 on 0112 and had ground stop(s) at Memphis Int'l (twice) while squeezing in some fly bys at Clinton Airport in Little Rock, AR
On 0111 same over Little Rock then ground stops at Majors Airport and Austin Int'l then back to JBA
ssdd next door
doggo nao