The year 2021 has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride for the Indian hotel sector, full of hope and opportunities but also uncertainty as new variants of the virus acted as temporary roadblocks on the road to recovery. While the year began on a positive note with a surge in domestic leisure travel fueled by a steady drop in active cases and the start of the country’s vaccination program, the recovery was quickly hampered by new restrictions and lockdowns imposed in response to the country’s second wave. However, it was not a case of the dreaded déjà vu, as hoteliers proactively focused on alternative customer segments and ancillary revenue streams to weather the storm, building on the learnings from the previous year and dealing with the pandemic that refuses to end. As a result, the Indian hotel sector has been recovering faster than expected. After a truly spectacular performance in the last quarter of 2021, the year 2022 has started on a challenging note, with subdued demand in the first few weeks of the year because of the emergence of Omicron cases in the country. This has been followed by the Ukraine-Russia conflict which is expected to have a negative impact on the country’s economic growth in the long run. However, we expect domestic travel demand will continue to be strong during the year as people have embraced the new ‘normal’ of travel in uncertain times. Download the report to know more. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/india-hospitality-industry-overview-2021/
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Remember the massive amounts of shit we lost when Dua Lipa went (mostly) blonde in 2019? The singer went back to dark brown in mid-2020 and has pretty much stuck with it since then. But any of the shit we’ve found since we originally lost it in 2019 has been re-lost since she showed up at the 2022 Grammy Awards, because Lipa’s lovely head is now topped off with super long blonde hair — and we have reason to suspect it’s not a wig. Decked out in black-and-gold Versace, Dua Lipa arrived to present and to impress with a stunning hair transformation. Last seen on Instagram with her long, dark brunette hair seemingly the night before the award show, it appears that hairstylist Chris Appleton turned her into a blonde day of. Not an easy feat, but with someone like Appleton at the helm, you know it’ll turn out more than alright — and it did. Appleton posted a photo to his Instagram Stories showing the telltale bowl and brush of a bleach job, and Lipa shared a sneak-peek with a super duper closeup in which her hair might have even been damp. Seems like pretty solid evidence that, while she might be wearing extensions to bring her length down to her waist, she actually lightened her hair dramatically. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/dua-lipa-went-from-dark-brown-to-platinum-blonde-just-hours-before-the-grammys/ In 2019, my commute involved a brief 15-minute walk from Victoria Train Station into the heart of Westminster. On a nice, sunny morning, I’d often grab a hot drink and take a longer route in to enjoy the pleasant surroundings of the area. An area full of tall, expensive buildings with absolutely no off-street parking. Because of this, every residential street was clogged up with endless rows of street-parked cars. Not just any cars, though. No, we’re talking old money cars. For those who haven’t heard the term before, ‘old money’ refers to upper-class families whose financial standing is largely rooted in inheritance. These are the families who live in Zone 1, Central London and they are also the families who would have purchased something like a W126 Mercedes Benz 500 SEL brand spanking new in 1979 and still own it today. There is a lot of this scattered all over London, and for a car guy it’s incredible. A living museum of automotive goods, calmly sitting there on the side of the street where your Average Joe doesn’t even clock it. Many of these cars have extremely low mileage, too. After all, why drive when you live in the city with the greatest public transport links in the world. I started taking photos of the cars I saw whilst getting about and sent them to a group chat with my two best mates who also worked in the city. They would always send me photos back of the cars they came across. We’d naturally find ourselves chatting about things like why, if we were alive in 1986, we’d have bought a 525i over the 525e we just saw in Pimlico. And so on… Within a week, we were sending each other five to 10 finds a day. Anything mildly interesting that we’d bump into whilst out and about would end up in this group chat. It was a lot of fun, but also a terrible distraction when actually trying to get anything done in the office. I’d often post these cars on my Instagram story and the interest in what I was spotting picked up. We decided that spamming the group chat was an inefficient way of tracking what we had and hadn’t yet seen, and we had a good bunch of friends who wanted to see what we came across. Instagram was the obvious answer, so at the end of 2019, Mildly Interesting Cars of London was born. We like to call it ‘Micol’ for short. The genres of interest grew. We progressed from fancy, old money Bentleys and started posting photos of abandoned Volvos. The grey 340 in Mayfair has less than 4,000 miles on the clock. It’s done 220 miles since 2006. The mystery behind some cars is so thick that you can taste it. Occasionally we’d even bump into a car with its owner by it. There are a few things I’ve learned through Micol, but one thing that stands out is how open the owners of these cars are for a conversation. A lot of the time they know what they have is special and they love it even more so for it. I’ve long found London to be the home of culture and passion for every niche of human interest, and I am glad to report this too stretches to everyday car ownership as well. Some lovely folk will even let you grab a photo of them with the car. Suddenly, you’re no longer just sharing a photo of a 190E Cosworth on the side of the street, you’re now sharing the story of someone’s fond memories of their loved ones that they experienced through the car 17 years ago. The green Celica you spot at your post office is no longer a funky alternative to a 3 Series, driven by a little lady. It’s now a present Shirley received from her late mother. The Pirelli GTI is not just driven on weekends; it belongs to Charlie who relies on it to get to work every day so he can pay his bills. Two and a bit years later, London still doesn’t fail to surprise me. Of course, there are a few places which are known to gravitate car activity, but as a whole these spots hit you when you’re not really looking for them. Last weekend though I went out looking for cool cars to share with you here, which is where I got my supporting images from. The day was a fair representation of what to expect: Rare, uncommon sports cars such as the Vauxhall VX220 lingering in the more colourful parts of London such as Soho and Shoreditch. Big, cushy Rolls-Royces mingling with tiny electric cars of the mid ’00s outside busy pubs. The odd, abandoned everyday car in a residential area, likely to have been killed off by local emission laws. Then of course, the extravagant supercar parked in the high-end streets of Mayfair. Micol went from being a photo-dump of mildly interesting cars we saw littered on the streets of London, to somewhat of a melting pot of everyday car culture. Everything of interest gets shared, and what was once a circle of our friends has grown into a micro audience of people tuning in to see what we find out in the wild. In the spirit of Speedhunting then, allow me to share with you my five favourite spots that we’ve hunted down for Micol over the last few months. As a bonus, I’ll attach five extra spots that I’ve not gotten around to sharing yet. One way to stand out in Knightsbridge, a bright green classic Citroën. 4: BMW 850 CSi An abandoned E31 on the outskirts of London. Yes, this is the V12 one. And yes, it did have a manual gearbox. And yes, it is Dakar Yellow… Filthy from use, this is the true Speedhunters way of using a true performance car. Parked on one of the most prestigious parts of Central London, too. It would be too predictable for me to put a rare supercar at pole position, even if it is in this dream movie spec. This shade of white is faster anyway. The pinnacle of small, barebones driving fun deserves the number one spot here. Here’s the bonus finds I promised… Rolls-Royce Phantom A car for a special occasion. I had a chat with the chauffeur of this one who told me the whole inner workings of the car have been replaced with a retrofitted modern setup. He was vague on the details, but once he got in the car shot off out of sight. Not a bad way to travel around the city. Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC There are so, so many R107s knocking around London. They are by far the most common classic, probably due to the fact that in true classic Benz spirit they don’t want to die. Super durable, super reliable and super usable, make them an easy-to-live-with classic, with many owners having theirs since they were new. This one is a little more special though, as coupes (C107) are not as easily found roaming the streets as their convertible counterparts, especially in this bigger engine specification. Honda Civic Coupe I know what you’re thinking of right now… Three black Civics chasing a lorry. And just like that, what was essentially an economical commuter car has become a car culture icon. Living in the heart of Westminster, the owner of this car pays both clean air charges. Chances are then that they don’t spend their free time street racing it. Mercedes-Benz 280 G Arguably the most hypebeast, Instagram-friendly car today (E30 in close second), the older G Wagons hold a special place in a lot of people’s hearts. Seeing one is still an occasion, and the cars naturally radiate class despite their rugged design and purpose. Volkswagen Polo Open Air To finish off, a cute little city car in its natural habitat: South Kensington. A rare model with a full roof-sized rag top that can be pulled back on a sunny day. The VW kids go crazy for these here in the UK, and often pinch the roofs for other models. This one has a rare, brown leather interior, too. A true, mildly interesting car of London. Michał Fidowicz Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/mildly-interesting-cars-of-london-speedhunters/ Management matters. Above all, managers matter. If nothing else, when managers fail, things have a tendency to go wrong. My first weekly column here was about the damning report into the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which said “overarching management failures” in the oil industry created the conditions for the fatal explosion and oil spill. This one — the last of some 500 I’ve written since 2011 — coincides with a probe into the needless deaths of babies at a UK hospital trust. Factors included a dysfunctional “culture of ‘them and us’,” staffing and training gaps, and a lack of psychological safety. All could have been corrected by better line management and governance. Bad management leads, at best, to unnecessary misery for staff, and at worst, as these two extreme cases suggest, to disaster and death. Yet if managers are in the public eye at all, they tend to be the focus of customer irritation (“Who’s your manager?”), the target of cuts (big companies are forever boasting about plans to remove “layers of management”), or the butt of satire: think Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers or Ricky Gervais or Steve Carell as the over-promoted bosses in the UK and US editions of The Office. No wonder few aspire to be middle managers, itself more often a term of disparagement, and many shy away from it. To focus on the negative, though, is to miss the essence of what good managers bring. They “add value”, not just in the arid sense of improving the overall results of a business, though they do that too, but by ensuring team members become the best they can be. I’ve been asked more than once recently whether the rapid acceleration of digital communication during lockdown made managers redundant. It did allow senior leaders to interact directly with more staff, and vice versa. It also exposed the actual redundancy of micro-managers whose authority was based on being able to see their team hunched over their keyboards. Without presenteeism to shore up their sense of self-importance, these managers were lost. But the crisis has also reinforced what good managers do. They encourage collaboration, they communicate clearly, they act ethically and with compassion, and they let those closest to the customer take the tactical decisions. When they intervene, it is mostly as coaches rather than as all-knowing commanders, posing non-judgmental, open questions rather than issuing orders. As I’ve written more than once here, this approach is not just the preserve of small start-ups. It is working at large, complex companies such as Ericsson, Microsoft, and Spotify. It is also one key to the success of the Ukrainian army, whose officers in the field have been trained to take decisions on the spot to outwit the inflexible, top-down Russian military behemoth.
Extensive research, both before and during the pandemic has shown that good management pays off. Unsurprisingly, better managed companies managed better during the crisis, switching more quickly to remote working and online sales. Given that the tools for improvement are simple — target-setting, performance reviews, training programmes — it is astonishing that more companies fail to apply them, relying instead on what the Chartered Management Institute has called “accidental managers”. What the past two years have also underlined is the all-important human side of good management. As management thinker Peter Drucker wrote, management is a “liberal art” because it combines practical results-based action with “moral concerns”. It “deals with people, their values, their growth and development”. Coping is a synonym for managing. There have been plenty of days since 2020 when I feel managers have deserved credit merely for pulling themselves and their teams through. Occasionally, that can be as easy as scheduling a short, regular chat with individuals based on the answers to two questions: “How’s it going? What can I do to help?” The great Victorian sage John Ruskin, who had a surprising amount to say about leadership, once wrote that workers’ happiness depended on three things: “They must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it.” Managers have a critical role in ensuring all three of those conditions apply, while still making certain that the job is done. The last of Ruskin’s precepts is particularly important, though, because grand victories are rare in the workplace. We advance, instead, through small achievements. So if you are a manager, I salute you for doing a vital, difficult job. In future, I’ll be writing more widely and at greater length for the FT, but, for now, to those of my readers — and managers — who have helped me feel that “sense of success” in the past 11 years: thanks. Twitter: @andrewtghill Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/why-being-a-manager-matters-more-than-ever/ LOS ANGELES — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar publicly criticized LeBron James once again Sunday, with the Los Angeles Lakers legend saying he believes the current Lakers star has a greater responsibility in how he conducts himself given his elevated platform. “Some of the things he’s done and said are really beneath him, as far as I can see,” Abdul-Jabbar said before the Lakers’ 129-118 loss to the Denver Nuggets. “Some of the great things that he’s done, he’s standing on both sides of the fence almost, you know? It makes it hard for me to accept that when he’s committed himself to a different take on everything. It’s hard to figure out where he’s standing. You’ve got to check him out every time.” Abdul-Jabbar, on hand to present James’ teammate, Carmelo Anthony, with the newly designed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Trophy to honor Anthony as the NBA’s Social Justice Champion for the 2020-21 season, has already voiced his disappointment in James several times this season. After James celebrated a late-game 3 in an overtime win against the Indiana Pacers by mimicking the dance that former NBA All-Star Sam Cassell made popular, accentuating his nether regions, Abdul-Jabbar was pointed in his disapproval. “For me, winning is enough,” Abdul-Jabbar said in a video posted through Substack, a subscription commentary website, in early December. “Why do you need to do a stupid, childish dance and disrespect the other team on the court? It doesn’t make sense. GOATs don’t dance.” Later that month, Abdul-Jabbar took aim at James once again after the four-time MVP shared a Spider-Man meme to his Instagram account showing three identical Spider-Man characters pointing at one another, affixed with the labels “COVID,” “cold,” and “flu.” Abdul-Jabbar wrote on Substack that the social media post was a “blow to his worthy legacy” because the “implication is that LeBron doesn’t understand the difference among these three illnesses, even after all the information that’s presented in the press.” Abdul-Jabbar referenced both of his prior critiques on Sunday in explaining his stance on the 19-year veteran. “Absolutely, [I have] a higher expectation for him because he understands the issues and spoken to them quite forcefully and eloquently,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “I think he has so much going for him in terms of respect and accomplishment and he shouldn’t stoop to those moments.” James dismissed Abdul-Jabbar’s criticism at the time. “I don’t have a response to Kareem at all,” James said. “And if you saw the post and you read the tag, you’re literally, honestly asking, ‘Help me out?’ Help me kind of figure it all out. We’re all trying to figure this pandemic out.” Anthony, asked if he would facilitate a meeting for the two to discuss their differences, said that while he’s not sure what the issue is, he would encourage a sit down. “In our community we need those tough conversations, we need those uncomfortable conversations,” Anthony said. “So if Kareem wants to sit down and talk, if Bron want to sit down and talk, I think that’s a conversation that needs to be had. I don’t think we need Kareem lashing out at Bron, and you haven’t seen Bron say anything about Kareem. … I think that would be a powerful conversation.” Abdul-Jabbar said his and James’ in-person interactions have only been brief, but he would also welcome a further connection. “If he would take the time, I definitely got the time,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “I admire the things that he’s done that have gotten all our attention. Sending a whole school to college? Wow. That’s amazing. His thoughtfulness and willingness to back it up with his wallet, you got to give him credit for that. So I’m not throwing stones. I just wish he wouldn’t — you know, some of the things he’s done, he should be embarrassed about. That’s just where I’m coming from.” Despite that standpoint, Abdul-Jabbar welcomes James’ pursuit of his NBA scoring record, which he has held for almost 38 years after he eclipsed Wilt Chamberlain’s previous career scoring total. “I’m all for him doing it,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “There’s no envy there. … Just — with the issues I was talking about, things that really affect the Black community, he should be careful. That’s all I’m asking.” Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/kareem-some-of-lebrons-actions-beneath-him/ Celebrity makeup artist Tonya Brewer took to Instagram Sunday night to share that her first move in making up Ashlee Simpson’s smokey red-carpet look involved none other than the green-hued JOAH Beauty Facial Cooling Globe ($13), which she likes to roll along facial contours to help “depuff and reduce the appearance of pores.” Following the roller move, Brewer applied the also-affordable JOAH Beauty Heal Me CICA Blurring & Cooling Primer ($13), which the company says plays a part in contributing to “chilling out” stressed skin via aloe vera and centella asiatica (CICA). JOAH also made up the full makeup breakdown with the blurring primer–infused Beauty Crystal Glow Primedation All-in-One Foundation ($16), the hydrating Beauty Perfect Complexion Serum Concealer ($12)—which Brewer calls a “shot of espresso for dull under eyes—and a solid mix of blush-bronzer-highlighers, eye and lip products. It’s PersonalAt NewBeauty, we get the most trusted information from the beauty authority delivered right to your inbox Find a DoctorFind a NewBeauty “Top Beauty Doctor” Near you Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/the-13-cooling-globes-used-to-prep-ashlee-simpsons-skin-for-the-grammy-awards/ Indonesia’s stocks are among the top picks of JPMorgan Asset Management and Goldman Sachs for 2022. In this photo from April 2019, the statue of a bull is standing at the lobby of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Dimas Ardian | Bloomberg via Getty Images Geopolitical tensions around the world have been on the rise, but Southeast Asia’s markets may offer relative safety to investors, according to top investment banks. As we enter the next quarter of 2022, CNBC asked analysts from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Asset Management which Southeast Asian markets were their top picks. Southeast Asian stocks have underperformed and been “largely ignored by global investors for a decade,” said Timothy Moe, Goldman’s chief Asia Pacific equity strategist. Indonesia is a top Southeast Asian pick for both Wall Street banks. Indonesia: Banking and commodity plays“In Indonesia, we are structurally positive on the banks as the majority of the population are still unbanked or underbanked. We are currently positioned in the leading private sector and also state-owned banks as they have been proactively driving digital adoption to accelerate financial penetration,” said Desmond Loh, a portfolio manager at JPMorgan Asset Management. Strong commodity prices have also been beneficial for export earnings in Indonesia as well as the country’s trade balance, and that’s set to support the Indonesian rupiah as well as the nearer term growth outlook in Indonesia, he said. Stock picks and investing trends from CNBC Pro:Global commodity prices have been on a rollercoaster ride since the war in Ukraine broke out after Russia’s invasion in late February. Russia is a major oil producer while Ukraine is a major exporter of other commodities such as wheat and corn. As of Monday morning in Asia, international benchmark Brent crude futures have risen more than 30% so far this year. Vietnam and SingaporeJPMorgan Asset Management also likes Vietnam, which Loh termed a “star performer in the past few years” in economic resiliency and growth. Vietnam is one of the few economies globally to have seen positive economic growth throughout the pandemic, he added. “To capitalize on the growth, we are positioned in high quality consumer proxies and banks,” he said, without naming specific stocks. Meanwhile, Singapore is the other Southeast Asian that Goldman Sachs likes. There are three main reasons why the investment bank likes Indonesia as well as Singapore, said Moe.
Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite has risen more than 7% this year, while Vietnam’s VN index is up about 1% in the same period. Singapore’s Straits Times index has gained more than 9%. In comparison, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan has dropped 6%. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 is down 4.6% so far this year, while the pan-European Stoxx 600 has dropped about 6%. Investors have in recent weeks been grappling with a range of concerns, from the commodity price spike triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to a rising interest rate environment as major central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve seek to fight inflation. Shelter from geopolitical tensionsSoutheast Asia is “relatively insulated” from rising geopolitical tensions in Europe, as Russia and Ukraine account for less than 1% of regional exports, according to Loh. “Escalation in geopolitical risks renders near-term tailwind for commodity prices to underpin the strength of ASEAN’s commodity-exporter markets,” he said, referring to the 10-member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. No ‘exodus of outflows’ expectedGlobal investors have been repositioning in the last few weeks in anticipation of more aggressive moves ahead by the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening, but the analysts expect the impact on Southeast Asia to be relatively smaller compared to before. In March, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since 2018, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell subsequently pledged to take tough action on inflation that is “much too high.” The prospect of more rate hikes ahead by the Fed has raised concerns of capital outflows and currency depreciation in Southeast Asia’s emerging markets, a phenomenon seen in 2013 during the “taper tantrum” that saw bond yields spike after the Fed hinted asset purchases could wind down. “We don’t expect an exodus of outflows [from ASEAN] as we saw in the last taper tantrum,” Loh said, explaining that country level balance sheets in Southeast Asia are “generally much healthier” now compared to a decade ago. Most of Southeast Asia’s central banks, with the exception of Singapore, have yet to tighten monetary policy. That’s in part due to an inflation situation regionally that is relatively less severe compared with developed economies in the West. Southeast Asian economies today are also more resilient compared to past cycles, according to Moe, who cited external balances that are in better shape as well as currencies that are attractively valued. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/here-are-3-hottest-markets-in-southeast-asia-for-2022-according-to-wall-street/ For decades, billionaire property developer Phillip Dong Fang Lee was a VIP at the Star Entertainment Group casino in Sydney’s glitzy Darling Harbour district, racking up millions of dollars playing baccarat shoulder to shoulder with other Chinese tycoons. But his fortunes have changed after being called as a witness in a high-profile investigation into Star’s Sydney casino that comes as Australian and Chinese regulators crack down on money laundering and junkets, where middlemen extend credit to lure high rollers from the mainland. The inquiry in Australia has revealed that about A$900mn ($674mn) of transactions have been processed in Star’s casinos using China UnionPay—China’s version of Visa and Mastercard — by gamblers. The use of the payment network for gambling contravenes both Australia’s anti-money laundering rules and Chinese capital outflow laws. Lee, who speaks Mandarin with an accent from the south-east region of Nantong, told the inquiry that Star’s staff advised him one night to use his Chinese card as he nursed a heavy loss. “He said, ‘Don’t be anxious, you can use a China UnionPay card to pay off the debt’. Of course, I was very happy,” Lee said through a translator in the online hearings. On one night in 2015, Lee swiped his Chinese cards 12 times to withdraw A$11mn. Cashiers who questioned the huge withdrawals said their concerns about money laundering were overruled by Star’s management, which did not want to jeopardise the casino’s relationship with a “A$20mn player” who spent a total of A$2.2bn at the casino over 15 years. The inquiry is expected to issue a report in July based on the evidence. Star, which has operated in Sydney since the 1990s, could lose its gaming licence or be forced to operate under the watch of an independent monitor. The probe is the latest setback for the country’s embattled gaming sector, which had enjoyed spectacular returns by working with junket operators in Asia to entice Chinese high rollers to gamble in their casinos. That lucrative relationship is becoming undone. Crown Resorts, Australia’s largest casino operator, was sued last month by the country’s financial watchdog for allegedly breaching money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws. A third company, New Zealand’s SkyCity which has a casino in Adelaide, is also set to be probed as part of an industry-wide investigation into money laundering.
Star, whose shares have halved in value since early 2018 to give it a market value of A$3bn, has declined to comment on the evidence while the inquiry is being held. Matt Bekier, Star’s chief executive, resigned on March 28 following the revelations, saying in a statement that it was the “right thing to do”. Charles Livingstone, a senior lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne, called the behaviour of Star and Crown “a systematic pattern of rorting” — an Australian word for scam — as they looked to “cream off the top” of high rollers spending millions of dollars through junket operators. With Australian casinos forced to cut ties with junket operators, Livingstone said the “casino business model is truly broken”. The inquiry heard evidence from current and former Star staff who said that the China UnionPay transactions were disguised as hotel and entertainment services to deliberately mislead Chinese and Australian banks that had flagged the payments as suspicious. A fake hotel invoice was even attached to one email sent to a bank that took the explanations at face value. Macau junket operator Suncity, which has been forced to close its VIP gaming rooms in Macau, has been at the centre of the investigations into Australia’s two largest casino groups. Suncity operated the “Salon 95” exclusive VIP gaming room, situated off-site from Star’s main Sydney casino, as part of its agreement with Star. The inquiry was told that Salon 95 was operating an illegal “cage”, a room where chips are exchanged for cash. CCTV footage from inside Salon 95 shows Suncity workers picking up a backpack and sports bag and taking them into an enclosed room where “large bundles of cash” were unloaded. There was also footage of gamblers exchanging chips for brown paper bags “stuffed” full of cash. After seeing the footage, Star executives admitted to the inquiry that there was a clear risk of money laundering taking place. Star managers said that the risk of money laundering by gangs at the casino had been played down. Angus Buchanan, Star’s head of due diligence and intelligence, told the inquiry that he had previously worked at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, where he oversaw a report into the alleged links between Suncity’s founders and the 14K triad gang, a Hong Kong-based organised crime syndicate. That report was provided to Star’s management, but the group continued to work with the junket operator, allowing Suncity to operate an unbranded secret room even after it had publicly severed ties with the Macau company, said Buchanan. Hearings for the inquiry are set to wrap up this week but the fallout from the testimony has already begun, with Australian law firm Slater and Gordon launching a shareholder class action against Star last week, alleging the casino operator misled investors over its compliance with regulatory obligations. For Lee, his time as a high roller appears to be over after his assets were frozen, including his Star accounts, following a dispute with the Australian tax office. “Last year, [I was] given a notice that I could not go and gamble,” he said. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/australian-casino-inquiry-puts-spotlight-on-chinese-money-laundering/ Hong Kong’s reputation as an international financial centre has been damaged by the resignation of two UK judges from the city’s top court, senior businesspeople and lawyers have warned. The Chinese territory’s common law legal system, which it shares with the UK, distinguishes it from mainland China, where the ruling Communist party plays a direct role in the country’s courts. The city’s legal system offered reassurance to Hong Kong-based foreign companies that the courts were free of political interference and a guarantee of the ability to enforce contracts against Chinese state-owned enterprises. But the territory’s government has used the introduction of a tough national security law almost two years ago to enforce a broad crackdown on civil freedoms promised to Hong Kongers after the handover from the UK to China in 1997. Lord Robert Reed, president of the UK’s Supreme Court, and Lord Patrick Hodge, who also sits on the UK’s top court, resigned last week as non-permanent judges on Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, citing the implementation of the security law. “The judges of the Supreme Court cannot continue to sit in Hong Kong without appearing to endorse an administration which has departed from values of political freedom and freedom of expression,” said Lord Reed. Lord Nick Phillips, Lord Leonard Hoffmann, Lord David Neuberger, Lord Lawrence Collins and Lord Jonathan Sumption, retired UK judges who sit on the Hong Kong court, said in a joint statement that they would remain, along with their Australian, Canadian and local colleagues. Senior figures in Hong Kong’s legal and business community said that while the presence of foreign judges on the court mitigated the effect of the resignations, there was no doubt that its reputation would suffer. “Many business people are concerned about the remaining judges’ decisions, if all judges go away, there is [a risk] to prudent common law management and that affects Japanese businesses,” said Masakazu Yagyu, secretary-general of the Hong Kong Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Despite the remaining foreign judges, Yagyu feared “a misinterpretation that Hong Kong’s common law is ending” would be the message business leaders back in Japan heard. Hong Kong’s image among foreign companies has already been damaged over the past two years as the territory was forced to fall in line with Beijing’s tough pandemic policies, which effectively closed its borders to the mainland and the rest of the world. A local banker said that from the financial market point of view, the effect of the judges’ withdrawal was a matter of perception “rather than the immediate effect of erosion on Hong Kong’s judicial system” that could lower confidence among international investors. “And the perception has indeed become worse,” the banker added. The British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong called on the remaining foreign judges to stay, adding that they were “greatly valued” by business and insisting the opportunities in the Chinese territory “remain very significant”. After the vaguely worded security law was introduced in 2020, Hong Kong’s political system, educational institutions and civil society were overhauled to expel anyone disloyal to Beijing. More alarming for lawyers was the use of threats, arrests and prosecutions to intimidate those seen as sympathetic to the 2019 anti-government protest movement. Forty-seven opposition activists were arrested in dawn raids in early 2021. Most are still in jail waiting for their cases to be tried. While the foreign non-permanent judges were highly unlikely to have sat on a security law case, campaigners such as the UK’s Baroness Helena Kennedy argued they had given a veneer of respectability to the authorities’ actions. “The senior courts will increasingly be expected to dance to the tune of China,” she said. A senior legal figure said the UK supreme court judges would have wanted to avoid appearing party to potentially embarrassing rulings by their Hong Kong colleagues in national security cases. “I’m a little surprised they have stayed as long as they have,” the person said. Such a view, however, was rejected by many in Hong Kong’s legal community, where the resignations have been met with dismay. “I am personally devastated . . . Someone has just taken a giant sledgehammer to the value of Hong Kong law,” a commercial solicitor said. The legal community argued that the judges’ exits removed the final barrier protecting ordinary Hong Kongers from the mainland’s influence. “Why not stay along with your colleagues who you deem to be independent and fight the good fight,” a leading local barrister asked. Hong Kong officials accused the UK government of political interference in its judiciary after the judges’ announcement was applauded by Liz Truss, UK foreign secretary. Beijing’s hardliners, however, have also seized on the resignations as an opportunity. “The pulling out of judges . . . will only further minimise Britain’s interests and influence in Hong Kong,” said Tian Feilong, from the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, a semi-official think-tank. Lau Siu-kai, his colleague, said it was a chance for Hong Kong to develop a judicial system with national security as a priority. “It’s another step down the slippery slope,” a top commercial lawyer moaned. “It can’t be helpful . . . [but] a lot of the damage is already done.” Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/hong-kongs-reputation-as-a-financial-centre-hit-as-uk-judges-quit-top-court/ NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Bodies wrapped in black tarp lie in a mass grave on the outskirts of Kyiv as Ukrainian troops assess the destruction after Russian troops withdrew from the area. In another village, the bodies of a mayor, her husband and son, and of a man believed to be a Ukrainian serviceman, also lie in a muddy pit behind a plot of land with houses where Russian forces had slept. MSNBC’S ALI VELSHI CALLS FOR ‘DIRECT MILITARY’ ACTION FROM NATO, THE WEST IN UKRAINE A lifeless body of a man with his hands tied behind his back is discovered on the ground in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv. Ukrainian authorities accuse Russian forces of committing war crimes and leaving behind a “scene from a horror movie.” The charred remains of destroyed Russian tanks leave behind a layer of black dust covering the streets of Bucha. ZELENSKYY SAYS MINES AFTER RUSSIAN RETREAT THREATEN KYIV In southern Ukraine, residents walk as clouds of dark smoke billow into the air after Russian forces launched missiles on the Black Sea port of Odessa. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP People gather to cook on an open fire outside their apartments. They’ve lived without electricity, water or gas since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Via https://www.oneday-deals.com/ukraine-war-photos-horrific-findings-after-russian-retreat-from-kyiv-outskirts/ |
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