*1984 in China | A Billion Dollars Isn’t Cool | Democracy Under Attack

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” – Harry Truman

“The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.” – Ibid.

1984 in China: A retired economics professor and civil rights advocate in his 80s was whisked away from his home by Chinese security forces Wednesday night. Sun Wenguang was on the phone with a Mandarin-language television show for Voice of America, a broadcasting service funded by the US government, when the police barged in and interrupted the broadcast. Sun is heard to say “What are you doing? What are you doing? … I have my freedom of speech!” Then the phone went dead. Attempts by Voice of America Mandarin to reach Sun afterward were unsuccessful.

Sun has a long history of acting as a thorn in the side of the government. Recently he had written an open letter to President Xi Jinping which said foreign investment and aid money should be spent to help the Chinese people. The letter was viewed as attacking Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, a monumental effort involving trillions of dollars directed toward construction of roads, power plants and ports in Africa, Asia and Europe. Already untold amounts have been spent in Africa as Xi works to spread Beijing’s economic and political influence abroad. Before being forcibly removed Wednesday evening Sun was heard to say: “People are poor. Let’s not throw our money in Africa… listen up, throwing money like this is of no good to our country and society.” The host of the show responded with: “This is the status quo of human rights in China.”

India and Pakistan’s Perilous Border: Kashmir, which sits on the border of India and Pakistan, is one of Asia’s most dangerous flashpoints. It is caught in the middle of the two nuclear powers, which are also divided by religion. Predominantly Hindu India has controlled most of the Kashmir Valley for 70 years. The valley itself is predominantly Muslim, as is Pakistan. Now that the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has risen to power in India, its Muslim minority feels alienated. In the Indian-administered parts of Kashmir new, harsher politics have spurred Kashmiris to turn against the government. Around 250 armed militants are operating in the Kashmir Valley, and the Indians can’t seem to eliminate them. (NYT)

China’s No Country for Coffins Policy: In several places in China, local officials have taken a “burial reform” campaign to the next level. The campaign is meant to reduce the use of land for graveyards and spending on expensive coffins. The Jiangxi provincial government had set a target date of September 1 for all the dead to be cremated. But officials in some rural parts of the province, located in southeastern China, jumped the gun, confiscating and destroying coffins that many older people had long saved to buy. Videos posted on social media showed police raiding houses, excavators crushing piles of empty coffins, and workers dismantling elaborate tombs. (NYT)

Trump Supports North Korea’s Leader: President Trump tweeted a lovely “thank you” message to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un early Thursday morning as the US military flew home what are believed to be the remains of more than 50 service members who died in the Korean War. The tweet also thanked Kim for sending Trump a “nice letter” and suggested a second meeting between the two leaders might be in the offing. At Thursday afternoon’s press briefing White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said: “there is not a second meeting that is currently locked in or finalized” but Trump is open to it. (WaPo)

Buddhists Gone Bad: The president of the Buddhist Association of China Xuecheng has been accused of coercing nuns into sex. Earning a reputation for being the modern founder a “tech temple,” with robot monks and teaching Buddhism through modern technology, Xuecheng has vehemently denied all allegations. (NBC)

The Pope Stands Against the Death Penalty: Pope Francis has decided that the death penalty is wrong in all cases. A change to what Catholics have believed and practiced traditionally, the new decision is likely to put many politicians in a difficult position and even complicate the lives of many Catholic judges. Pope Francis stands strong in his decision though, stating that any form of death penalty for any reason is “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” (NYT)

American Democracy Under Attack: Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) issued a stern warning about the complacency over ongoing Russian attacks on America’s political system. Burr was clearly frustrated that lawmakers and Trump administration officials have failed to acknowledge how dangerous foreign influence operations are to America. Referencing an internet meme entitled “This is Fine”, Burr said “Some feel that we as a society are sitting in a burning room, calmly drinking a cup of coffee, telling ourselves, ‘This is fine.’ That’s not fine. We should no longer be talking about if the Russians attempted to interfere with American society…they’re still doing it today.” Just one day before the hearing Facebook announced it had disrupted a new political operation involving more than 30 fake accounts, believed to be tied to Russia, that had put out 9,500 posts and 150 ads to an audience of 290,000 followers.

Experts at Wednesday’s hearing said efforts by agencies to put forth a coordinated government action to tackle the problem had been thwarted by a lack of forceful administration leadership on the issue. President Trump has repeatedly questioned the conclusions of the US intelligence community that Russia was behind the hacking and disinformation campaign. On Thursday top intelligence officials joined White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders for the press briefing. Each official opened with a statement on what their agency is doing ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Director of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen cautioned that election meddling efforts are real and pervasive, saying “our democracy is in the crosshairs.” But Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats tried to somewhat assuage fears, saying “Relative to what we have seen for the midterm elections, it is not the kind of robust campaign that we assessed in the 2016 election.”

– “Apple is Worth $1 Trillion; Twenty One Years Ago it was on the Brink of Bankruptcy.” From Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak’s humble beginnings in a Californian garage to Tim Cook’s massively wealthy tech empire – the trials of the first trillion dollar American company. “Apple’s $1 Trillion Milestone Reflects Rise of Powerful Megacompanies.” Or in Daily Pnut parlance, some of today’s biggest companies are techopolies and we are living in a technology gilded age. (NYT)

– Amazon isn’t that far behind Apple in getting to the $1 Trillion mark. Heck, Jeff Bezos’s net worth might hit $1 trillion one day. “Jeff Bezos’ $150 Billion Fortune Is a Policy Failure.” The world’s only hectobillionaire is a prime example of how the rich get richer while the poor stay poor. (Atlantic)

– “The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley: They have weaponized social media, and we are all paying the price.” Mark Zuckerberg has a net worth of just under seventy billion dollars. (NYT)

– “Keeping Zuckerberg Safe Now Costs an Extra $10 Million a Year: Facebook Inc. spent $7.33 million last year protecting its chief executive officer at his homes and during his tour across the U.S.” (Bloomberg)

– Zuckerberg’s billions is why San Francisco’s hospital is named after him. But despite the billions and trillions of dollars swirling in the electrons whizzing through the internet cables in San Francisco and Silicon Valley there’s still incredible and shocking “San Francisco Squalor: City Streets Strewn With Trash, Needles And Human Feces.” Reflect on this: our society enables a company to pay $10 million to keep a billionaire safe whose wealth and website imperils democracy but we don’t have a way to provide the many homeless in San Francisco a place to sleep. (NPR)

– The Fields Medal, often touted as the Nobel Prize of mathematics, has been stolen after its presentation to professor Caucher Birkar of Cambridge University. (NYT)

– Some future Field medalists just competed in the world’s hardest math contest. And America won. “The team, led by mathematics professor Po-Shen Loh of Carnegie Mellon University, is about as American as you can get. After all, its members celebrated their victory by going to McDonald’s. But in this time of charged debates about immigration, it is worth noting that many of the team members are second- or third-generation immigrants.” (WaPo)

– We might not all be math whizzes but we still need to be at the top of our mental game.  “Off Your Mental Game? You Could Be Mildly Dehydrated: Was it hard to concentrate during that long meeting? Does the crossword seem a little tougher?” It might be time to hydrate before you die-drate. (NPR)

– “Collusion Is Worse Than a Crime. To debate whether Trump acted criminally is to miss the greater point: He’s a national-security threat.” (Atlantic)

“In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.” – Harry Truman

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