The increased scrutiny on Manchester City comes at a time when financial fair play regulations in football are under increased focus and debate. With the growing disparity between the financial resources of clubs in European football, ensuring fair competition and financial stability has become a pressing issue for governing bodies like the Premier League.
In conclusion, the trend of young people embracing the banwei lifestyle is a positive development that signals a shift towards greater mindfulness and self-care. As we prepare to welcome the new year, let us all take inspiration from this trend and prioritize our well-being as we strive to create a more balanced and fulfilling life for ourselves. Here's to saying goodbye to exhaustion and hello to a brighter, more peaceful future.
Jeeno Thitikul makes late charge to catch Angel Yin in the LPGA finale
In a surprising turn of events, it has been officially confirmed that the former head coach of Barcelona, Ernesto Valverde, will be taking over as the head coach of Beijing Guoan. This announcement has sent shockwaves through the football world, as Valverde's appointment marks a significant coup for the Chinese Super League club.
In the heart of Hangzhou, a city renowned for its rich cultural heritage and vibrant sports scene, the annual awards ceremony celebrating excellence in badminton showcased a moment of sheer brilliance as the Liang Wang Duo was crowned as the Best Men's Doubles Team of the year. The prestigious accolade was the result of their outstanding performance throughout the season, marked by a string of victories and a display of unparalleled teamwork on the court.Richard Hogan: A primary-school child has no business with a smartphone
Coalition senator Matt Canavan says he is still unsure if he will support the Albanese government’s social media ban for kids under 16. The world-leading policy has received broad support in principle, but parliamentarians have had little time to scrutinise the legislation and privacy has emerged as a key concern for the opposition. Senator Canavan said on Tuesday he understood the need for the ban but did not think there was a need “to rush it”. “I certainly think the Bill needs major changes, and regardless of the changes, I remain unimpressed with this condensed timeframe to analyse the Bill,” Senator Canavan told the ABC. “There is widespread support across the parliament for something like this. “And given that, there’s just no real need, I think, to rush it. “I don’t think that support is going to somehow disappear over the summer break. “We can, I think, just pause here, come back and do this.” Senator Canavan also said the ban would affect social media users of all ages “because once you have to try and verify someone’s age under 16, you’re going to have to verify everyone’s age to check their age”. The Greens have also taken issue with the lack of scrutiny over the ban, with MP Max Chandler Mather saying there were “a lot of unresolved questions”. Meanwhile, independent MP Zoe Daniel said the legislation let social media platforms “off the hook”. She introduced her alternative proposal in a private member’s Bill on Monday. “We need to get the platforms to take responsibility for what is in their environment, and actually, it would make an age ban redundant if we were to put in this kind of safety by design and a duty of care and hold the platforms accountable for what’s happening in their spaces,” she told the ABC. “You wouldn’t actually need an age ban.”Percentages: FG .526, FT .625. 3-Point Goals: 5-14, .357 (Hicks 3-5, P.Johnson 2-3, Carter 0-1, Dilione 0-1, Dunn 0-1, Kern 0-1, Baldwin 0-2). Team Rebounds: 1. Team Turnovers: 1. Blocked Shots: 1 (Konan Niederhauser). Turnovers: 11 (Baldwin 4, Dilione 4, Carter, Dunn, Nzeh). Steals: 5 (Kern 2, Baldwin, Hicks, P.Johnson). Technical Fouls: None. Percentages: FG .481, FT .500. 3-Point Goals: 4-18, .222 (Dean 2-5, Tripp 1-1, Medor 1-2, Pettis 0-1, Smith 0-1, Richardson 0-2, Rivera 0-2, J.Johnson 0-4). Team Rebounds: 3. Team Turnovers: None. Blocked Shots: 1 (Smith). Turnovers: 14 (Tsimbila 3, Dean 2, J.Johnson 2, Medor 2, Richardson 2, Rivera 2, Tripp). Steals: 9 (Tripp 4, J.Johnson 3, Medor, Rivera). Technical Fouls: None. .
EDITORS DESK Last week, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) posted a notice of public auction for two high profile hypercars that were seized early this year. The cars in questions are two Bugatti Chiron hypercars that managed to evade customs and were plying Philippine roads for some time. Quite puzzlingly, these two vehicles were able to be registered, acquire plate numbers, and even gated village stickers. For the uninitiated, the Bugatti Chiron is one of the world’s most expensive performance vehicles. The vehicle is one of only a handful capable of producing over 1000-hp in stock form and on to a top speed of over 420-km/h. These performance figures are quite high, even for cars in this caliber. Naturally, they’re also quite limited and very expensive. Also, this vehicle is already discontinued, further limiting its availability. Each car is valued at least as much as ₱165 million each, when brand new. Of course, if it were imported legally into the country, with our web of vehicle taxes, excise taxes, tariffs and shipping dues, the cars can easily double in price to as much as ₱330 million when brand new. Not surprisingly, the BOC set the floor price for these vehicles at a hair above ₱300 million. Take note however that these vehicles are already used. One is a 2017 model and another is a 2019 model. As such, the appropriate vehicle depreciation should have been taken into account. Nonetheless, it shouldn’t be too much, putting their price still above the ₱250 million range. A few days later, the BOC declared the auction a failure as no bids were submitted for the two vehicles. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the agency as these prices are already quite high as far as supercars go. Not the price but the seller However, it’s not the price itself that’s the problem. There are many millionaires who will willingly drop ₱100-M on the latest set of Porsche, Lamborghini, or Ferrari models. Rather, it is about who is selling them. Any buyer that does have the ₱300-M lying around to buy one likely won’t want to transact with the government for fear that their name, recent purchases, and source of income might come under scrutiny. If they truly want to sell the vehicles for that hefty sum, perhaps hiring a third party auctioneer, such as Salcedo Auctions, would be more successful. Just don’t ask who the buyer is, give the auctioneer their cut, and simply put the funds to better use. After all, this new price already includes the taxes. Everything should then be in order so long as the price is paid. Use them as an example Of course, there’s also the possibility that such cars that have graced multiple broadsheet and news program headlines are already deemed tainted goods by any prospective buyer. Who would want to be seen driving a vehicle once labeled as smuggled? Rather than simply crush the cars for what little media mileage and good governance press that is worth, why not take the cars on a nationwide tour. There’s no better proof of the sheer greed and brazenness of smugglers than these vehicles. As such, why not take these cars on a nationwide tour around the country’s cities. Put them on display in public spaces, along with panels that break down just how many schools, ambulances, or relief goods that properly paid taxes from these cars could have bought. Illustrate why high tariffs are placed on cars like these in the first place — to generate revenue for the country from the wealthy that want to spend on flashy personal vehicles rather than charitable institutions that help their countrymen. Emphasize that these taxes and tariffs are slapped on to also protect the local and regional vehicle assemblers that give jobs to Filipinos and Asians. High taxes paid for cars like these are what allow the government to lower taxes on more affordable and locally built vehicles like the Toyota Vios, Innova, and soon, the Tamaraw. With such a nationwide tour, we can educate our countrymen on the value of properly documenting imported goods, taxes, and tariffs. It’s not about giving the government more money, but protecting our own industries and those businesses that do pay the proper taxes. Perhaps then our countrymen will be better informed on why these duties are imposed in the first place. (Iñigo S. Roces is the Motoring Editor of Manila Bulletin)
‘MP’ leaves north ‘govt’, brings ‘parliamentary’ majority down to six
In a shocking turn of events, a well-known Thai female singer has been left paralyzed after receiving three massages within a short span of time. The tragic incident has sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry and serves as a stark reminder of the potential dangers associated with unchecked massage practices.LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - In the 1979 disaster movie “The China Syndrome”, a design flaw at a nuclear power plant threatens a catastrophic meltdown in which the reactor core will burn all the way through to the other side of the earth. Investors in Chinese equities have lately been enduring a China Syndrome of their own. Over the last three-and-a-half years, the benchmark CSI 300 Index has lost nearly a third of its value, even as the S&P 500 Index (.SPX) , opens new tab basket of leading U.S. stocks has soared to new all-time highs. With Donald Trump set to return to the White House backed by a Republican-controlled Congress, should investors brace for Chinese stocks to shrivel further – or is now the moment to take a contrarian view? It is not hard to find reasons to steer clear. Having averaged 9% a year in the two decades leading up to 2019, China’s economic growth rate has roughly halved since 2020. Even in the boom times, the link between equity returns and growth was weak . But the cracks run much deeper than that. China’s investment-led growth model, funded by successive waves of credit expansion, appears to have run out of steam while leaving the economy loaded with sky-high debts. The country’s once-booming real estate sector has succumbed to an epic bust, shrinking the value of most households’ main asset and stranding local government finances. Meanwhile, broad measures of domestic Chinese prices have been sliding for more than two years, completing a toxic circle and raising the spectre of debt-deflation. No wonder the bears say its economy is structurally impaired. Yet alongside these well-known handicaps, investors in the People’s Republic benefit from some equally notable tailwinds. It is the world’s second-largest economy, it is the undisputed leader in global manufacturing and trade, and - according to , opens new tab the Australian Strategic Policy Institute - the global champion in research and innovation in no fewer than 57 of 64 critical technologies. Indeed, the European Union is now considering asking Chinese companies to transfer technology in return for subsidies, the Financial Times reported this week. Financially, meanwhile, China is the world’s largest external creditor economy, with an excess of foreign assets over liabilities of some $4.3 trillion. Its annual current account surplus has dipped below $100 billion only once in the last two decades and added a cool $250 billion last year. Such economic and financial fundamentals give the Chinese authorities a degree of flexibility over economic policy that few other governments can match. China bulls can take further heart from valuation and sentiment. Even after a 25% jump since authorities in Beijing announced monetary stimulus measures in mid-September, the CSI 300 Index still trades at just over 15 times earnings. India’s BSE Sensex Index (.BSESN) , opens new tab trades at 22 times, while the S&P 500 Index is valued at a multiple of 27. It’s only four years since the planned $37 billion initial public offering of Jack Ma’s Ant Financial attracted orders of $3 trillion from prospective investors – equivalent to nearly 3% cent of global GDP at the time – shortly before regulators cancelled the offering. Investors evidently weren’t too bothered by the Middle Kingdom’s structural challenges back then. If ever there were a case of prices making opinions, China’s boosters argue, this is it. Yet even if technical considerations make a short-term punt look tempting, the case for the People’s Republic as a longer-term investment is a trickier matter. The GOP clean sweep in Washington ironically makes it more likely that the world’s two superpowers will be able to strike an economic deal. That’s because on its central contentious issue – China’s management of its exchange rate – the incentives of both sides are increasingly aligned. An agreement under which Beijing agrees to revalue the yuan against the dollar in return for averting an all-out trade war would meet the key demand of Trump and his advisers for an end to what they see as an artificial currency advantage which has brought American manufacturing to its knees. Such a deal - call it a “ Mar-a-Lago Accord ”, after the Plaza Accord which saw U.S. trade partners agreed to devalue the dollar in the mid-1980s – would also align with China’s reluctance to reflate its economy through demand-side stimulus, in favour of attempting a more controlled recovery via a supply-side transition to new drivers of growth built on more advanced industry and technology. It would support China’s long-held ambitions for the yuan’s emergence as a genuine international reserve currency as well. For Chinese equities, such a détente might sound like unequivocal good news. It would be anything but. While it would free China’s stock markets from their current burden of geopolitical risk, it would imprison them in Beijing’s deflationary restructuring strategy instead. Absent the looser monetary conditions and higher inflation that a weaker currency would permit, corporate and local government balance sheets would have to sweat off their excessive debts over time. Growth in corporate revenue and earnings would suffer a prolonged slowdown until the economy had worked out its imbalances. Such a scenario would not disappoint all investors. A strong-yuan, sound-money strategy would be music to the ears of holders of Chinese bonds. Well-targeted venture capital investments in China’s industrial upgrading, meanwhile, could pay off handsomely. But for asset allocators exposed to most constituents of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, the period after a “Mar-a-Lago Accord” would be a long, hard slog. There is of course an alternative possibility. China might opt to ditch its controlled approach and plump for radical reflation instead. That would require a devaluation of the yuan, killing any currency accord. Such a volte-face would supercharge Chinese stock markets – at least in local currency terms. But the resulting disruption to global trade and capital flows would almost certainly be extreme. In that scenario, equity investors well beyond China will need to don their radiation suits as well. “Today, only a handful of people know what it means...” warned the original movie poster for “The China Syndrome” of the meltdown at the heart of its plot, “Soon you will know”. Follow @felixmwmartin , opens new tab on X For more insights like these, click here , opens new tab to try Breakingviews for free. Editing by Peter Thal Larsen and Streisand Neto
As a result of the altercation, Lewandowski found himself ostracized by his teammates, with reports suggesting that he was left out of team meetings and excluded from group activities. The situation deteriorated further as the Polish striker struggled to find his form on the pitch, leading to a drop in his performance and morale.The spokesperson emphasized that Yao Ming remains grateful for the recognition and support from fans, fellow players, and basketball enthusiasts around the world. While the Hall of Fame nomination is a significant honor, Yao Ming is committed to ensuring that his legacy is celebrated in a manner that aligns with his values and principles.
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