SAM203 USAF G5 KAF AC of interdast (99th Airlift Squad high profile AC) departed JBA ne
SAM206 USAF G5 sw also from JBA
Guess we know why the Coast Guard AC went to LaGuardia and back to JBA last night
910pm EST Not AF1 Joe and Flauxtus arrive at LaGuardia Airport from JBA
https://factba.se/biden/calendar
morning
Blackstone drops $3bn takeover of property developer Soho China
US private equity group backs out after Beijing antitrust review drags on.
Blackstone has scrapped its planned $3bn purchase of Chinese property developer Soho China, with Beijing's antitrust authorities yet to give a greenlight to the deal.
The US private equity group had made its offer conditional on approval by the country's competition authorities and in a joint statement on Friday, Blackstone and Soho China said they would not be able to receive antitrust approval in the agreed upon timeframe.
The HK$5 a share offer made in June valued the Chinese real estate group at HK$26bn (US$3.3bn) but came before Beijing expanded its regulatory clampdown on the technology sector to other industries. News of the takeover this summer immediately caused consternation in China, with Soho China founders Pan Shiyi and wife Zhang Xin accused online of selling out and trying to flee the country with their money. The couple were once high-profile entrepreneurial stars in China with their futuristic office towers twisting across the skylines of Beijing and Shanghai. They have adopted a lower profile and spent more time outside the country as China has become less hospitable to its capitalist class.
Their relatively liberal ideals, a $15m donation to Harvard University and moves to invest in US real estate, including a stake in the General Motors building in Manhattan, also led to criticism. Now the pair will have to figure out a new way forward for the property group they set up more than two decades ago. Soho's portfolio of prime real estate in China's top cities had been set to be a centrepiece of Blackstone's expanding footprint in the country. Blackstone's co-founder Stephen Schwarzman has spent years wooing China's political elite, including pledging $100m to build a prestigious international education programme at Beijing's Tsinghua University that mints dozens of "Schwarzman Scholars" a year.
In recent years the US group has poured money into Chinese offices and residential property, as well as warehouses for ecommerce. Blackstone's logistics portfolio in China covers 53m square feet across 23 cities. In January the company announced the $1.1bn acquisition of a vast urban logistics park in the so-called Greater Bay area, close to Guangzhou on the country's south coast. The deal expanded Blackstone's Chinese warehouse footprint by a third. This year it completed the $1.1bn purchase of a 70 per cent stake in a logistics park in south China developed by Guangzhou R&F, a real estate developer that this week came under severe pressure in bond markets. China's real estate market has been shaken over recent weeks by liquidity pressures on Evergrande, the real estate developer, with the problem spilling over to other developers including Guangzhou R&F.
The issues have related to leverage restrictions from Beijing on big Chinese developers that primarily specialise in residential real estate, as the government attempts to bring the property sector under tighter control.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/Property/Blackstone-drops-3bn-takeover-of-property-developer-Soho-China
morning W
Qatar AF LHOB248 C-17 on descent for Al Udeid AB, Qatar from a Brescia, Italy overnight
Habs a few trips to that location and back to Al Udeid for these AC's
Hungarian AF HUAF672 Falcon 7X departed Doha Int'l after a ground stop wn and over SA at present
About 10 Afghan evacuation-seekers enter Pakistan to head for Japan
Some 10 Afghans — local staff at Japan’s agencies in Afghanistan or their family members — have left the country and entered neighboring Pakistan by land on their own, multiple diplomatic sources said Friday. The Afghans, who were among about 500 evacuation-seekers left in the war-torn country as the Self-Defense Forces dispatched to Kabul airport for an evacuation mission were ordered to withdraw on Aug. 31, will head for Japan on Sunday at the earliest, the sources said. Japan had evacuated just one Japanese and 14 Afghans at the request of the United States after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in mid-August after 20 years of warfare.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/09/10/national/japan-linked-afghan-evacuees/
White House scrambles to quell rising consumer prices as inflation surges
New White House competition council created in July to hold its first meeting on Friday. The Biden administration is rushing to tamp down rising consumer prices.
A new White House competition council created in July is slated to hold its first meeting on Friday, where participants are expected to highlight at least 18 actions taken to help consumers and potentially lower prices, according to the Associated Press, citing two people familiar with the matter. The goal is to ultimately create a more dynamic economy in which competition among companies leads to increased transparency, more choice and potential savings for customers.
Among the matters the council plans to discuss are a new report about airlines that wrongfully denied refunds to customers whose flights were changed or canceled; an inquiry into excessive fees charged by ocean carriers; and a nearly 20-fold increase in fines for hospitals that fail to disclose their prices to the public. The council – led by White House economic adviser Brian Deese – also intends to tackle corporate mergers, landlords who prevent renters from shopping around for internet services and removing requirements by companies such as John Deere that stop independent repair shops from fixing broken tractors and other machines, the AP reported.
The administration's supply chain disruptions task force is having conversations with businesses across the food supply chain to identify possible bottlenecks in the supply chain, a White House official told FOX Business. "We are committed to working with all industry participants to identify ways we can help alleviate those bottlenecks," the official said.
Deese previewed the administration's efforts to tamp down skyrocketing meat prices, which he blamed on profiteering by major industry players, rather than economy-wide inflation. During the White House press briefing on Wednesday, Deese noted that beef and veal prices are up 15% since January 2020, while pork is up about 14% and poultry up 12.%. By comparison, the broader category of food to be eaten at home is up just 6.5%. The meeting comes in light of a new Labor Department report released Friday morning, which showed that inflation at the wholesale level surged at the highest known level since August 2010. The producer price index, which measures inflationary pressures before they reach consumers, climbed 0.7% last month to 8.3%.
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation jumped 5.4% in July compared to the previous year. Still, month-over-month, the consumer price index climbed 0.3% in July – well below June's increase of 0.9%, a sign that inflation could be plateauing.
Inflation has accelerated as the economy recovers from last year's brief, but extremely severe, recession. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has largely attributed the spike in consumer prices to pandemic-induced disruptions in the supply chain, a shortage of workers that's pushed wages higher and a wave of pent-up consumers flush with stimulus cash. Still, he's maintained the rise in inflation is like "transitory" and has warned about the dangers of the Federal Reserve acting superfluously to lower the benchmark federal funds rate.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/white-house-consumer-prices-inflation
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kek
AF2 USAF C-32A back to JBA from Newport News Int'l Airport after...
Kneepads visits Hampton University for National HBCU Week
https://www.13newsnow.com/video/news/local/mycity/hampton/vice-president-harris-visits-hampton-university-for-national-hbcu-week/291-9efdf64c-8e5b-442f-b2b2-1abd000bce7e
HERO96 USAFSOC C-32B departed LaGuardia Airport after ground stop sw
GLORY5:5 US Navy E-6B Mercury from Pax River currently off-shore on da track se of NYC
He-Man is black nao
Mattel dusts off He-Man, with a nod to diversity
When Mattel introduced the brawny superhero He-Man in 1982, he was an instant hit. Four years later, at the peak of its popularity, sales of the sword-and-sorcery toy line soared to $400 million in the U.S. Now, nearly four decades after their first appearance, He-Man and the rest of the Masters of the Universe are looking to conquer the toy aisles again.
But Mattel is trying to revive a dormant franchise for a new generation of consumers — ones who expect content that reflects their world. To help, the toymaker has teamed up with Netflix to produce two new animated series to go along with two toy lines that have already hit retailers’ shelves. And Mattel is expanding the Masters of the Universe’s roster of muscled heroes with the introduction of Sun-Man, a Black character created in 1985 by a New Jersey mother who wanted to create a role model for her son. “My son said he couldn’t be a superhero because he was Black. He was 3,” said Yla Eason, an assistant professor of professional practice at Rutgers University. So she started her own company, Olmec Toys, to make Sun-Man and other toys for Black, Hispanic and Native American children. “The intention was to give positive Black presentation in imagination and creativity,” she said. That concept resonates more powerfully today, said Ed Duncan, a senior vice president at Mattel who is overseeing Sun-Man’s official introduction into the lineup. “Reintroducing a Black hero for today’s kids not only feels good, it feels important,” he said in an email. “Sun-Man is such an aspirational character, from his aesthetic design to his character traits and powers.”
In the two Netflix series — “Masters of the Universe: Revelation,” (developed by Kevin Smith, who created raunchy films like “Clerks” and “Jay and Silent Bob”), and “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,” (aimed at younger audiences) — some characters were reimagined as Black. Children need to see themselves represented in the world around them, said Rob David, the vice president of creative content for Mattel Television and an executive producer for the two animated series. “The TV screen is a window and also a mirror,” he said.
The Masters of the Universe revival is part of a larger expansion strategy under Mattel’s chief executive, Ynon Kreiz, to dust off aging franchises. “We have a treasure trove of brands, some that were shelved for whatever reason,” including the Magic 8 Ball, the Major Matt Mason action figure and the card game Uno, said Richard Dickson, the president and chief operating officer of Mattel.
https://washingtoninquirer.com/mattel-dusts-off-he-man-with-a-nod-to-diversity/