EsadeGeo
EsadeGeo Daily Digest, 01/12/2022
South China Morning Post – Jun Mai and Kinling Lo / Chinese leadership mourns ‘insurmountable loss’ of Jiang Zemin as former president dies aged 97
- Former president Jiang Zemin, one of China’s most influential leaders who spearheaded the country’s accelerated opening up and growth into a global powerhouse, died on Wednesday in Shanghai. He was 96.
- Jiang, who oversaw China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 and cultivated warm ties with the United States, died of leukaemia and multiple organ failure at 12.13pm, according to state news agency Xinhua.
- An official obituary published by the news agency hailed him as a “highly prestigious and outstanding leader”.
- It continued: “Comrade Jiang Zemin’s passing is an insurmountable loss to our party, our military and our people.”
- Foreign Policy – Victor Shih / Jiang Zemin helped China become a global powerhouse
Financial Times – Javier Espinoza, James Politi, Cristina Criddle and Hannah Murphy / EU and US turn up the heat on Elon Musk over Twitter
- Elon Musk is under renewed pressure from the US and EU over his ownership of Twitter, as regulators clamp down on the billionaire’s push to transform the social network into a freewheeling haven of free speech.
- The European Commission on Wednesday threatened Musk with a ban unless Twitter abides by strict content moderation rules, as US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen indicated that Washington was reviewing his purchase of the social network.
- The warning from Brussels came in a video call between Musk and Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner in charge of implementing the bloc’s digital rules, according to people with knowledge of the conversation.
- Breton told Musk that Twitter must adhere to a checklist of rules, including ditching an “arbitrary” approach to reinstating banned users, pursuing disinformation “aggressively” and agreeing to an “extensive independent audit” of the platform by next year.
- Politico – Laura Kayali and Mark Scott / Europe tells Musk he’s top of their watch list
Financial Times – Colby Smith / Jay Powell signals Federal Reserve will slow pace of rate rises next month
- Jay Powell has sent a strong signal that the Federal Reserve will slow the pace of interest rate rises next month in an otherwise hawkish speech warning that the US central bank has a long way to go in its fight against inflation.
- “The time for moderating the pace of rate increases may come as soon as the December meeting,” the Fed chair said during an appearance at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday.
- The remarks from Powell suggest the Fed is preparing to “downshift” to a 0.5 percentage point increase when it meets in two weeks after it raised rates by 0.75 percentage points at each of its past four meetings.
- “My colleagues and I do not want to overtighten,” Powell said in a question-and-answer session following the speech.
Euractiv – Silvia Ellena / Commission recommends EU funds for Hungary remain frozen
- While recommending the freezing of EU funds under the rule of law conditionality mechanism, the European Commission gave a formal green light to Hungary’s recovery plan. However, the disbursement of the recovery money would be linked to 27 ‘supermilestones’.
- On Wednesday, the Commission decided to unblock the €5.8 billion recovery plan for Budapest, under the condition of Hungary fulfilling 27 so-called ‘supermilestones’ aimed at strengthening the independence of the judiciary, auditing rules and control of how EU funds are used.
- “No funds will flow until the essential milestones are properly implemented,” Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said during a press conference.
- Hungary will need to meet the conditions “in full” before issuing the first payment request. Moreover, the funds can be blocked again if the reforms are watered-down at a later stage.
Today’s longer reads:
- Project Syndicate – Josep Borrell / Why Europe and Latin America need each other
- The Economist / How the West’s price cap on Russian oil could roil energy markets