Huawei named China’s MOST VALUABLE brand

A list released by Brand Alliance revealed that tech giant Huawei has become China’s most valuable brand, worth some 815.1 billion yuan ($117 billion). The total value of the top 20 Chinese brands reached 6.12 trillion yuan.

The report, seen by the China Daily, puts internet services company Tencent Holdings in second place, valued at 746 billion yuan ($107.13 billion). It is followed by Alibaba (671.64 billion yuan or $96.4 billion), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (588.15 billion yuan or $84.4 billion) and China Mobile (430.28 billion yuan or $61.7 billion).

Pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, electronics, internet, and food and beverages represented the majority of industries among the top 500 brands in the ranking.

A total of 55 brands came from the pharmaceutical and medical equipment sector as demand for masks, respirators, nucleic acid tests and vaccines has increased amid the coronavirus pandemic, driving up the brand value of the entire industry.

The list also revealed that 43 electronics brands entered the top 500 ranking, with Xiaomi (85.97 billion yuan or $12.3 billion) becoming the most valuable electronic enterprise.

This year, 41 brands on the list came from the internet sector, as the pandemic has driven more consumers online. The report said that online shopping, entertainment and offices have significantly benefited as a result of Covid-19.

https://www.rt.com/business/497588-huawei-china-most-valuable-brand/

"Financially Devastated" - 83% Of NYC Restaurants Unable To Pay July Rent

The state of the New York City restaurant industry is in dire straits. July proved to be another disastrous month for restaurants, bars, and nightlife establishments across the city with a majority unable to pay rent in July, a new survey found.

NYC Hospitality Alliance surveyed about 500 owners and operators of eateries in the city, with 83% of respondents indicating they couldn't pay the entire rent in July while 37% paid no rent at all.

"Restaurants and nightlife venues are essential to the economic and social fabric of our city, but they are struggling to survive and absent immediate and sweeping relief so many will be forced to close permanently," said Andrew Rigie, executive director of The Alliance.

"While complying with the necessary pause, our industry has been uniquely and financially devasted. Small businesses urgently need solutions from government leaders at the city, state, and federal level, inclusive of extending the moratorium on evictions, extending the suspension of personal liability guarantees in leases, pausing commercial rent taxes, providing landlords with needed support, and infusing small businesses with enough cash to weather the storm," Rigie said.

To make matters worse, 71% of owners and operators said landlords "would not waive portions of rent due to COVID-19." About 61% said, landlords "would not defer rent payments," while 90% of landlords "would not formally renegotiate leases."

Indoor dining in the city remains halted, "outdoor dining service is not generating sufficient revenue to cover rent and other expenses, small business owners in the industry continue to express significant concerns about surviving the pandemic and staying viable in the future," said The Alliance.

Through July, OpenTable restaurant data reveals foot traffic at eateries remains depressed.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/financially-devastated-83-nyc-restaurants-unable-pay-july-rent

Microsoft worked with Chinese military university on AI

Apr 10, 2019

One paper detailed new AI method which would have applications for surveillance

Microsoft has been working with a Chinese military-run university on artificial intelligence research that could be used for surveillance and censorship.

Three papers, published between March and November last year, were co-written by academics at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing and researchers with affiliations to China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDR), which is controlled by China’s top military body, the Central Military Commission.

Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at the New America think-tank and a China tech policy expert, said the papers raised “red flags because of the nature of the technology, the author affiliations, combined with what we know about how this technology is being deployed in China right now”.

“The [Chinese]government is using these technologies to build surveillance systems and to detain minorities [in Xinjiang],” she added.

The US government is currently debating whether research collaborations, particularly in sensitive areas such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality, should be subject to harsher export controls.

Adam Segal, director of cyber space policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank, said: “US-China academic partnerships are increasingly under the microscope as the FBI focuses on the threat of espionage from students and scientists, and the Defense Department [focuses]on the possibility that frontier technologies might eventually make their way to the PLA [the Chinese military].”

Cut ties

Last week, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology cut ties with telecoms group Huawei and launched an “elevated risk” review process for its Chinese collaborations.

Microsoft said its “researchers, who are often academics, conduct fundamental research with leading scholars and experts from around the world to advance our understanding of technology”.

It added: “In each case, the research is guided by our principles, fully complies with US and local laws, and…is published to ensure transparency so that everyone can benefit from our work.”

One of the papers co-authored by Microsoft and researchers affiliated with the NUDT described a new AI method to recreate detailed environmental maps by analysing human faces, which experts say could have clear applications for surveillance and censorship.

The paper acknowledges that the system provides a better understanding of the surrounding environment “not viewed by the camera”, which can have a “variety of vision applications”.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/microsoft-worked-with-chinese-military-university-on-ai-1.3855553

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Microsoft Is on the Move, Will Relocate Development Center to New WeWork Offices in Tel Aviv

July 16, 2020

Microsoft’s development center in Tel Aviv is set to expand, a person with knowledge of the move told Calcalist on condition of anonymity on Wednesday. The Tel Aviv expansion is taking place in parallel to the completion of the tech giant’s new center in Herzliya.

The company’s employees, who currently work out of shared office space in the WeWork building on Dobnov Street in Tel Aviv will relocate to a 6,600 square meter (70,000 sq. ft.) space, occupying four stories, in WeWork’s midtown building by the end of the year. Microsoft’s development center currently employs more than 1,500 people, including those who came on board with its recent acquisition of CyberX.

The new facility was designed by WeWork tailored to Microsoft Israel’s R&D division’s needs. It will accommodate hundreds of employees from the company’s cloud security R&D department as well as from its Microsoft for Startups department, the Microsoft accelerator, and the Reactor — a new technological hub for developers. In addition, the space will feature a studio for the recording of podcasts, lectures and meeting halls, an innovation lab, a coffee shop, a convenience store, and more.

The Tel Aviv Reactor hub joins similar initiatives in six other global locations including San Francisco, Sydney, Seattle, Redmond, New York, and London.

Microsoft for Startups offers global support for small companies through various programs. The initiative’s ScaleUp program allows startups to receive access to Microsoft’s product teams, technology, and management of joint sales processes.

Microsoft’s accelerator has supported more than a hundred startup companies. A new cohort of AI for good recently got underway, aiding Israeli startups that are focused on social impact goals, such as environmental protection, accessibility, and health, and are based on artificial intelligence.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/07/16/microsoft-is-on-the-move-will-relocate-development-center-to-new-wework-offices-in-tel-aviv/

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond Says Trump Wants to Deliver Convention Speech in Gettysburg Because He Loves the Confederacy

Where do they get these clowns?

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond on Monday suggested President Trump wanted to deliver his convention speech in Gettysburg because he loves the Confederacy.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/wth-cnns-jeremy-diamond-says-trump-wants-deliver-convention-speech-gettysburg-loves-confederacy-video/

Israel deletes quirky COVID-19 ad after China offended

‘It’s unbelievable, they simply see everything, everywhere,’ says Health Ministry official, following a complaint from Beijing over irreverent campaign

Israel’s Health Ministry has removed a humorous ad from its official Facebook page on COVID-19 and social distancing, following a protest from the Chinese government.

The clip stars an angel identified as “Covid, Cupid’s step-brother,” representing the coronavirus, who says he’s “originally from” Wuhan, China, the cradle of the outbreak. The public campaign coincided with Tu B’av, which is celebrated as Israel’s Valentine Day.

“Made in China. But do I work properly or what?” says Covid at the start of the clip. The toga-dressed angel also has a bat clipped to his shoulder, in a nod to the source of the pathogen.

The Chinese embassy in Israel registered a complaint, prompting the Health Ministry to remove the ad from its Facebook page, though it was still available on YouTube and elsewhere.

“It’s unbelievable, they simply see everything, everywhere,” a source in the Health Ministry told Channel 12, referring to the Chinese complaint.

The ad was produced by Israel’s Government Advertising Agency, Lapam.

Though the ad remained on Lapam’s YouTube page through Wednesday, by Thursday afternoon it appeared to have been set to private.

Since the virus emerged in China late last year, over 700,000 people have died worldwide, including 565 in Israel.

For years, Israel has been working to dramatically expand trade with China, one of the world’s largest markets. It retains good ties with Beijing, though in recent months has faced pressure from the United States to diminish its relationship, amid an escalating US-China showdown.

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump told Chinese tech company ByteDance to sell its hugely popular TikTok app to an American company or see it shut down by mid-September. Washington says TikTok gleans massive amounts of personal data from hundreds of millions of users, which could be passed on to Chinese intelligence.

The US is expanding its China-targeted Clean Network program to include Chinese-made cellphone apps and cloud computing services that it claims are security risks, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday. Pompeo said the US wants to ban untrusted Chinese apps from the app stores of US mobile carriers and phonemakers.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-deletes-quirky-covid-19-ad-after-china-offended/

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China's VP and Israel's PM co-host trade conference

October 24, 2018

JERUSALEM (AP) — China's vice president and Israel's prime minister on Wednesday co-hosted a high-profile trade and innovation conference and toured an exhibition of Israeli technology start-ups together as the two countries worked to cement their fast-growing trade ties.

A quarter century after establishing diplomatic relations, Israel and China have become important trade partners, with China emerging as an eager customer of Israeli technology.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Chinese government's choice to send Wang Qishan, a close confidant of President Xi Jinping, to co-chair this year's Israeli innovation summit "reflects the growing ties between our countries, our economies, our peoples."

Wang praised Israel as an innovation hub that China hopes to learn from as it modernizes its fast-growing economy.

"Israel leads the world in electronics, information technology, modern medicine, and agriculture," he said. "China is still striving to achieve modernization."

China has become Israel's second largest trading partner, trailing only the U.S. Israel exported $2.8 billion to China in the first half of 2018, an 80 percent jump from the previous year. In the last two years, Israel and China have signed a breakthrough visa agreement, opened direct flights, and conducted hundreds of joint research projects.

"Our bilateral relations are at a new height," Wang said in a speech at the summit's gala. "Our arms are wide open, for countries to innovate, to start businesses in China."

Netanyahu announced that the two countries will complete a free trade agreement next year, and that China plans to invest heavily in Israeli infrastructure, including new ports and a light rail.

"China and Israel are a perfect match," said Dale Aluf, the director of research for Sino-Israel Global Network & Academic Leadership, a think tank that promotes closer Israeli-Chinese relations. "China may be a huge market, but it has a lot of domestic problems–pollution, desertification, an aging population. Israel has the technology to solve those problems."

Netanyahu also said he and Wang pledged to create professional training programs in agriculture, entrepreneurship and public health, allowing Israeli tech companies to penetrate the Chinese market. He stressed that China has made breakthroughs in intellectual property protection, likely attempting to assuage start-ups concerned about the risks of working in China.

Wang called piracy worries "groundless," saying that China "has been working tirelessly to strengthen international protections."

The leaders made no mention about Chinese trade policies that have created friction with the U.S. and Europe. Major trade partners have accused China of discriminating against foreign companies and forcing them to hand over crucial technology.

Israeli defense experts also have expressed concerns that Chinese participation in massive national infrastructure projects may pose a security risk, given China's close relations with Israel's regional foes, such as Iran.

"We have to be cautious about the types of things we sell to China," said Aluf. "Defense technology is off the table. But we can sell health care and sustainable development so there's no reason for America to be upset," he said.

Wang is one of the most senior Chinese officials to visit Israel since the countries established diplomatic relations in 1992. Credited with orchestrating China's anti-corruption purge and shoring up support for the Communist party, he is widely considered to be the most powerful vice president in China.

Netanyahu and Wang toured exhibits by high-tech Israeli startups focused on self-driving cars, health care and agriculture. They also attended an evening gala where former Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke, touting Israel's innovative potential, and will open a new Israeli innovation center together Thursday.

https://www.live5news.com/2018/10/24/china-vice-president-kicks-off-innovation-summit-israel/

COVID KILL SWITCH | A FEW GOOD JEWS - DEM PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS AMBUSHED ON THE STREETS

Google Partner With Israel's Rise.ai

Google selected Israeli startup Rise.ai, the developer of AI-powered customer re-engagement solutions like gift cards, loyalty cards, rewards, and refunds, to help businesses offer digital gift cards through their public listing on Google My Business (GMB.)

The agreement with Google aims to help Rise.ai enable small and medium businesses to “survive and even thrive during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond,” Rise.ai said in a statement.

Through the integration, businesses can add a “Buy Gift Card” support link to their Google business page. The gift card option will appear every time a customer looks a participating business on Google Search.

“Since COVID-19 started to affect the market, we see tremendous need for advanced digital gift cards and store credit solutions like the one we are offering on Google My Business platforms,” said Yair Miron, CEO and founder of Rise.ai. “The fact that Rise.ai was selected by Google as a partner for offering digital gift cards is one the strongest votes of confidence that our solution can get, and will allow us to help unprecedented number of small and medium businesses.”

Founded in 2015, Rise.ai uses artificial intelligence to empower brands with an automated branded currency solution for gift cards, rewards, store credit, and incentives, which the company describes as a “currency of their own.” Rise.ai helps merchants retain customers and increase their average spending.Powered by artificial intelligence, Rise.ai helps merchants retain customers, increase retention and revenue, and drive new customers to the store.

Last year, Rise.ai conducted independent research of more than 3,000 businesses to uncover current behaviors regarding gift cards and store credit during the COVID-19 crisis.

In June, Rise.ai made its services available for purchase on Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram in a new partnership with the tech giant. The new feature will allow small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs/SMEs) to sell digital gift cards to their local community through Facebook and Instagram, using customers’ geo-location.

According to a recent survey by the Connected Commerce Council in cooperation with Google, small businesses without a pre-existing e-commerce presence were twice as likely (31 percent vs. 15 percent) to have temporarily stopped operating during the COVID-19 crisis.

Small businesses that were using e-commerce tools pre-crisis are 5.5x (11 percent vs. 2 percent) more likely to project increased revenue in 2020 compared to 2019, according to the company Seventy percent of those surveyed reported that digital tools were helpful, with fully 30 percent saying that they were essential during the ongoing crisis.

https://nocamels.com/2020/08/rise-ai-digital-gift-cards-small-businesses-google/

These 6 Israel-Based Initiatives Are Working to Help China

China has been grappling with the outbreak of a new coronavirus strain for nearly two months, placing millions of people on lockdown as it tries to contain it. The virus, currently known as 2019-nCoV and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), spread quickly since it first emerged in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province – home to over 50 million people – in late December.

As of February 19, over 75,000 people worldwide have been infected, nearly all of them in mainland China, and 2,012 people have died from the coronavirus, 2,006 of them inside the country, according to a live-updating map of the outbreak that draws figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies. The spread reached some 25 countries and has sparked global travel restrictions and emergency measures to reduce the risk of exposure amid a devastating social and economic toll.

This week, all eyes are on a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship off the coast of Japan that was carrying over 3,700 people from more than 40 countries as governments work to get their citizens home, fueling fears of a global contagion. Aboard the Diamond Princess docked off the Japanese port city of Yokohama since February 3, thousands of people were under mandatory quarantine, including several Israeli passengers. Japanese health authorities have been working to test those aboard and have registered over several hundred confirmed cases of coronavirus infection. Among those diagnosed were three Israeli nationals who have been transferred from the ship for medical treatment. The remaining 12 Israelis are set to disembark on Wednesday when the quarantine period ends after which they will be flown to Israel and placed in hospitalized isolation at the Sheba Medical Center. Other countries including the US, have also evacuated their citizens from the Diamond Princess as well as another cruise ship, the Westerdam, docked in the Cambodian seaport of Sihanoukville.

To help stem the spread, the WHO earlier this month announced a $675 million preparedness and response plan through to April 2020 to help support countries with weaker health systems deal with the outbreak. The organization has also hosted meetings in Geneva with leading health experts to fast-track and fund priority research on the virus. And international health experts are currently in Beijing as part of a WHO-led delegation to help investigate the novel coronavirus and understand its origin, spectrum, spread and impact, and to help inform countermeasures such as case isolation, contact tracing, and isolation.

More

https://nocamels.com/2020/02/coronavirus-6-israel-based-initiatives-help-china/

GOP Senators Press DOJ to Investigate Planned Parenthood

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) led more than two dozen Republican senators in letters Thursday that called upon the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Treasury, and the FBI to investigate both Planned Parenthood’s ability to obtain Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and its sales of the body parts of aborted babies.

In one letter, the GOP senators wrote to Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery Brian Miller of the Treasury Department urging him to “review the loans made to at least 43 Planned Parenthood affiliates” under the PPP.

The letter continued:

Specifically, we ask that you investigate how these affiliates were able to obtain PPP loans despite their ineligibility under the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) rules, whether any Planned Parenthood affiliates knowingly provided false information in their PPP loan applications, and to what extent the parent organization, Planned Parenthood for America (PPFA), was involved in the application process for said loans.

Fox News’s Tucker Carlson Tonight revealed in May that affiliates of the abortion industry giant received $80 million in loans through the PPP coronavirus relief funds.

In response, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) led 27 of his Senate colleagues in a letter to Attorney General William Barr that called for the DOJ to investigate how Planned Parenthood applied for and obtained the funds.

The senators noted that, under the CARES Act, organizations such as the Planned Parenthood affiliates were prohibited from receiving PPP funds. The SBA also confirmed the affiliates were ineligible for the funds because the organization’s number of total employees exceeds the cap of 500 or less to obtain the loans.

Despite an order by the SBA to return the PPP funds, two Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas have refused to surrender the loans.

In another letter, the GOP senators wrote to Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray, requesting an update into the investigation of Planned Parenthood’s organ harvesting and sale of fetal tissue practices that supposedly was launched in December 2017.

The senators cited the undercover investigation of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) that exposed Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the sale of the body parts of babies aborted in some of the group’s clinics.

In July, CMP released unsealed video clips of the testimony of officials from Planned Parenthood and others in the abortion industry that revealed details of infants surviving abortion and either being left to die or having their organs harvested.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/10/gop-senators-press-doj-to-investigate-planned-parenthood/

Chinese Companies That Fail To Meet Accounting Standards Will Be Delisted From US Stock Exchanges, Mnuchin Says

Chinese companies that fail to meet certain accounting standards will be delisted from U.S. stock exchanges by the end of 2021, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Monday.

“As of the end of next year … they all have to comply with the same exact accounting, or they will be delisted on the exchanges,” Mnuchin said during a White House briefing.

The decision follows multiple accounting scandals involving Chinese companies listed on U.S. indexes. Beijing-based Luckin Coffee revealed in April that it inflated 2019 sales revenue by up to $310 million, causing the company to be delisted from the NASDAQ. After-school learning company TAL Education Group, along with video platform iQiyi, are two other U.S.-listed companies that have faced accounting scandals in recent months.

The move by the Trump administration is the latest attempt to put pressure on China. Trump criticized Beijing on Monday, saying China has not kept up with its import commitments under the “Phase One” trade agreement signed in January.

“We did a Phase 1 deal and it was a wonderful deal, and all of a sudden it means very little in the overall import of things,” Trump said during a press briefing.

The “Phase One” agreement requires Beijing to buy $200 billion in U.S. goods over the next two years. In response, the U.S. has delayed planned tariff increases on Chinese goods.

U.S. and Chinese negotiators are expected to meet in a video conference on Aug. 15 to discuss the progress of the “Phase One” deal.

https://www.ibtimes.com/chinese-companies-fail-meet-accounting-standards-will-be-delisted-us-stock-exchanges-3025973

US bans WeChat, Chinese turn to Signal—decentralization is the answer

Signal could help worried Chinese based in the US look for solutions to the ban. A decentralized platform could be the best option.

The US finally announced a ban on Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat.

People in China have been turning to Signal—which could provide a solution to the WeChat ban.

But a truly decentralized messaging service is the real answer, experts say.

President Donald Trump this week announced his intentions to ban US companies from transacting with Chinese payment and messenger app WeChat, leading to a spike in downloads for privacy-first messenger app Signal—and reigniting the debate on decentralized platforms.

The US President’s Thursday executive order is so far vague but “any transaction” with the platform from US companies will be prohibited. The order, which also bans such transactions with social media app TikTok will come into effect on September 20.

Talk of banning TikTok started this year because the Trump administration was worried about the app collecting users’ data and the potential links its parent company, ByteDance, has with the Chinese government.

The WeChat ban had also been on the cards for a while. The two countries continue to aggressively clash heads during the coronavirus pandemic.

But while the US government was warning of banning WeChat, downloads of private messaging app Signal were soaring in China, according to a CNBC report. Unlike other messaging apps—Telegram, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp—Signal isn’t banned in China.

So worried Chinese people living, studying, or doing business in the US can turn to the highly secretive app in place of WeChat to communicate with family and friends without fear of government snooping or being shut down—for now.

Signal downloads were also on the up in Hong Kong after Mainland China’s new security law hit the region. Despite WeChat’s popularity in China, it doesn’t have the same level of encryption as apps like Signal and WhatsApp.

https://decrypt.co/38083/us-bans-wechat-chinese-turn-to-signal-but-isnt-decentralization-the-answer