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Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific airline apologizes for in-flight “Family Guy” episode with Tiananmen Square scene
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific airline has apologized for offering passengers an episode of the American show “Family Guy” to watch that includes a scene and a joke referencing the notorious 1989 crackdown on protesters in the Chinese capital’s Tiananmen Square.
The episode, from the first season of the American animated series, shows father figure Peter Griffin standing next to the “Tank Man” in a recreation of an infamous photograph depicting a lone resistor to China’s military forces as they moved in to disperse a days-long pro-democracy protest. As the tanks approach, the cartoon dad says: “Ah screw this, I just came over to buy some fireworks,” before fleeing.
A spokesperson for Hong Kong‘s flagship airline told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday that it had apologized to customers after someone complained on social media about the episode being offered in-flight.
“We emphasise that the program’s content does not represent Cathay Pacific’s standpoint and have immediately arranged to have the program removed as soon as possible,” the airline was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
On June 4, 1989, Chinese soldiers ordered in by Communist Party hardliners opened fire on thousands of protesters who had occupied Beijing’s central Tiananmen Square.
The enduring “Tank Man” image has come to symbolize the bloody crackdown, which Chinese authorities have gone to great lengths to erase from history since it happened. CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer visited the square 30 years after the crackdown, in 2019, and found nothing there to commemorate the events, and when she showed photos of the crackdown, including the “Tank Man” picture, to young Chinese passers-by, none of them recognized the images.
After unprecedented pro-democracy protests swept across Hong Kong in 2019, authorities in the semi-autonomous Chinese region cracked down on dissent, rounding up hundreds of opposition and civil society figures and quickly adopting new national security legislation cementing Beijing’s control.
In November, a Hong Kong court charged 47 people, including some prominent pro-democracy activists, over their involvement in an unofficial primary to pick opposition candidates.
Cathay Pacific said it consistently briefs the third party company responsible for its in-flight entertainment to make sure the content offered meets airline standards, according to the South China Morning Post.
CBS News
Bitcoin price reaches $100,000-mark for first time ever
Bitcoin has topped the $100,000 mark as a massive rally in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency sparked by the election of Donald Trump rolls on.
The milestone comes just hours after the president-elect signaled a lighter regulatory approach to the crypto industry with his choice of Paul Atkins to be the next chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trump said Wednesday that he intends to nominate Atkins, a former SEC commissioner during the presidency of George W. Bush. In the years since leaving the agency, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation.
Bitcoin has soared to unprecedented heights since Trump won the election Nov. 5. The cryptocurrency has climbed dramatically from $69,374 on Election Day and rose as high as $101,512 Wednesday, just two years after dropping below $17,000 following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.
How long bitcoin will stay above the coveted $100,000 mark is uncertain. As with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is impossible to predict. And while some are bullish on future gains, other experts continue to warn of investment risks.
Current SEC chair Gary Gensler, appointed by President Biden, has been aggressive in his oversight of the crypto industry. Speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in July, Trump vowed to fire Gensler if elected, prompting a standing ovation. Gensler has since said he will step down Jan. 20 when Trump takes office, even though his five-year term runs through 2026.
CBS News
Trump to nominate Paul Atkins, a cryptocurrency advocate, for SEC chair
President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he intends to nominate cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation.
“He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated — Jan. 20, 2025.
Trump, once a crypto skeptic, had pledged to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin. Money has poured into crypto assets since he won. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, is now above $95,000. And shares in crypto platform Coinbase have surged more than 70% since the election.
Paul Grewal, chief legal officer of Coinbase, congratulated Atkins in a post on X.
“We appreciate his commitment to balance in regulating U.S. securities markets and look forward to his fresh leadership at (the SEC),” Grewal wrote. “It’s sorely needed and cannot come a day too soon.”
Congressman Brad Sherman, a California Democrat and a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, said he worries Atkins would not sufficiently regulate cryptocurrencies as SEC chair.
“He’d probably take the position that no cryptocurrency is a security, and hence no exchange that deals with crypto is a securities exchange,” Sherman said. “The opportunity to defraud investors would be there in a very significant way.”
Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt.
His work as an SEC commissioner started in 2002, a time when the fallout from corporate scandals at Enron and WorldCom had turned up the heat on Wall Street and its government regulators.
Atkins was widely considered the most conservative member of the SEC during his tenure at the agency and was known to have a strong free-market bent. As a commissioner, he called for greater transparency in and analysis of the costs and benefits of new SEC rules.
He also emphasized investor education and increased enforcement efforts against those who steal from investors over the internet, manipulate markets, engage in Ponzi schemes and other types of fraud.
At the same time, Atkins objected to stiff penalties imposed on companies accused of fraudulent conduct, contending that they did not deter crime. He caused a stir in the summer of 2006 when he said the practice of granting stock options to executives before the disclosure of news that was certain to increase the share price did not constitute insider trading.
U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Atkins has the experience needed to “restore faith in the SEC.”
“I’m confident his leadership will lead to clarity for the digital asset ecosystem and ensure U.S. capital markets remain the envy of the world,” McHenry posted on X.
Atkins already has some experience working for Trump. During Trump’s first term, Atkins was a member of the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum, an advisory group of more than a dozen CEOs and business leaders who offered input on how to create jobs and speed economic growth.
In 2017, Atkins joined the Token Alliance, a cryptocurrency advocacy organization.
Crypto industry players welcomed Trump’s victory in the hopes that he would push through legislative and regulatory changes that they’ve long lobbied for.
Trump himself has launched World Liberty Financial, a new venture with family members to trade cryptocurrencies.
CBS News
12/4: The Daily Report – CBS News
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