原文通读

*US election: TikTok in the firing line over Trump campaign fears of China influence
*

In addition to the struggling economy, deteriorating China relations and the rising number of Covid-19 cases, Trump faces critical policy decisions on cybersecurity and preventing foreign interference

A ban on TikTok in the US could be seen as a deliberate suppression of free speech for partisan reasons, triggering higher turnouts among young people more inclined to vote against Trump

With less than 100 days to go to the US presidential election, Donald Trump and his administration are at a critical point in their bid for re-election. It will not be easy. Trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the polls, Trump will need to address many issues in the coming weeks to prevent an embarrassing result in November.

TikTok, WeChat and many other Chinese social media platforms have become trending topics in the international media, yet the discussions are no longer restricted to the technology and finance spheres. After the White House implied that several Chinese social media platforms could be shut out of US cyberspace, their significance has come under greater scrutiny.

With its short videos, funny meme-style clips and algorithms to attract and retain users, TikTok is also becoming a tool to mobilise political movements. In Canada, New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh tried to reach young voters on the platform in the 2019 federal election. In the US, TikTok was used to help sabotage a Trump rally in Tulsa as users registered for tickets to falsely inflate attendance numbers.

The Trump administration should be looking to evaluate potential political gains and losses on any cybersecurity and social media policy changes. The most important question for officials is whether banning Chinese mobile apps in the US will get the president more votes – or fewer – in November.

经济学人：

MAY 25th police officers in Minneapolis responded to a shop assistant’s complaint about someone passing a counterfeit bill. They arrested George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, but instead of putting him in the back of a squad car, an officer pressed his knee to Mr Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes—almost three of which came after police failed to find Mr Floyd’s pulse. Mr Floyd complained that he could not breathe, called out for his late mother and eventually stopped moving.

Mobile-phone footage of Mr Floyd’s death emerged one day later, and for the ensuing four days, violent protests have wracked Minneapolis. Derek Chauvin, the officer who held Mr Floyd on the ground, was arrested on the afternoon of May 29th and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, and may face further charges for what certainly looks like excessive and unjustified force.

CNN:

Washington (CNN)Taylor Swift lashed out at President Donald Trump on Friday for his late-night tweet threatening violence against protesters in Minnesota, tweeting that the President has been “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism (his) entire presidency.”

“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? When the looting starts the shooting starts’???” the pop icon tweeted.

She tagged Trump in her tweet, adding: “We will vote you out in November.”

Within hours, Swift’s tweet had received more than a million likes, making it the singer’s most-liked post on Twitter.

Trump’s tweet came as protests erupted in Minneapolis in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, a black man who was heard on video saying he couldn’t breathe as a white police officer pinned him down with his knee.

“These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen,” the President tweeted early Friday morning. “Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Twitter said Trump and the White House’s official Twitter account, which posted the same message, violated the platform’s rules against glorifying violence. A warning label has been added to both tweets – the first time such a measure has been taken against the accounts.

第一段

Nasdaq-listed Luckin Coffee’s share price fell 75.57% to US$6.40 as of market close on Thursday, after the company submitted a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcing an internal investigation into the conduct of former chief operating officer Jian Liu, who is believed to have inflated revenues by 2.2 billion yuan (US$310.5 million).

第二段

Luckin also stipulated that law firm Kirkland & Ellis will provide independent counsel during the investigation, and advised investors to disregard financial results and guidance from 2019 until the full extent of misconduct can be identified.

第三段

The now-suspended Jian Liu served as Luckin’s COO since May 2018, having previously worked with CEO Qian Zhiya at Car Inc. from 2008 to 2017.

第四段

On January 31, questions about the legitimacy of Luckin’s financial results were first raised by diligence-based equity research firm Muddy Waters, which revealed their short position on Luckin via Twitter, citing an 89-page anonymous report supported by 11,260 hours of store traffic video footage. The specific reference to tracking in-store video suggested the embellishment of sales.

第五段

Just days later on February 3, Xiamen-based Luckin responded to the short attack, refuting the “misleading and false allegations” in another SEC filing, KrAsia reported. At the time, the on-demand beverage startup claimed that all of its “key operating data, including the number of items per store per day, items per order, and effective selling price, are tracked in real time and could be verified.”

第六段

About a month later on March 6, 10 US law firms announced they were prepared to file a lawsuit against Luckin on behalf of investors. Specifically, these American investigators were looking into the potential fabrication of certain financial and operating metrics, including per-store per-day sales, net selling price per item, and advertising expenses.

第七段

Luckin has performed well since its initial public offering that raised US$645 million in May 2019, climbing from an opening price of just over US$20 to a peak of around US$50 in January. The fallout from Thursday’s announcement erased what was a 54% gain since IPO, slashing the company’s market cap by almost US$5 billion.

第八段

Despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Luckin’s 2020 outlook was positive, as analysts had expected a 170% year-on-year increase in sales before news of the investigation broke. In addition, at the end of the fourth quarter of 2019, 33 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in Luckin, an increase of 43% from the previous quarter.

第九段

Luckin chief financial officer Reinout Schakel said in an interview last November that the company is on track to become profitable by the third quarter of 2020.

第十段

The company has established the largest network of coffee stores in China as of the end of 2019, surpassing industry incumbent Starbucks. However, it might take some time for Luckin’s management to repair their credibility in the eyes of investors.

1. South Korean President Moon Jae-in called yesterday for a full investigation into a network of chat rooms at the heart of an operation to blackmail women and underage girls into sharing sexual images of themselves.

2. The National Police Agency announced 124 suspects have been arrested and 18 chat-room operators on Telegram and other social-media outlets detained as a result of sexual-crime investigations that began in September of 2019.

3. According to The Diplomats, among the suspects, the most prominent is known by the surname Cho and the Telegram nickname “Doctor.” He is thought to be the largest and most active distributor of illegal videos on the social-media outlets with more than 260,000 followers.

4. The perpetrators would attract victims through fake job advertisements and solicit compromising photographs. They would then threaten to release the photographs if the victims did not send images of increasingly degrading and violent acts, police said.

5. At least 74 women, including 16 underage girls, were “virtually enslaved” for several months, police said. In some cases, the victims were blackmailed into committing violent acts on themselves.

6. Public outrage hit critical mass yesterday as a petition gathered more than 2.3 million signatures — passing a threshold that requires the president’s office to respond.

7. The petition’s author urged authorities to disclose the identity of the network kingpin — who went by the user name “GodGod” — and release his picture.

8. The suspect allegedly lured victims into taking nude images of themselves and shared them in a Telegram chat room, a popular encrypted-messaging app.

9. The petition also criticized other participants who paid as much as 1.5 million won (US$1,187) to view the images.

10. Police said as a matter of policy they would not reveal any of the suspect’s names.

11. Presidential Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said Moon considered the alleged crimes “a cruel act that destroyed human life” and asked police to treat the case as a serious crime.

12. Moon also urged police to expand their investigation into chat-room members to change the perception of perpetrators who “hide behind anonymity.”

13. As digital sex crimes increase worldwide, South Korea has become the global epicenter of spycam pornography — the use of tiny, hidden cameras to film victims naked, urinating or having sex.

14. Last year, South Korean, British and American authorities said they arrested 337 people worldwide, including 223 South Koreans, after taking down a child pornography web site operated from South Korea.

Whether this week’s collapse of stock and oil prices will spiral into a much deeper economic crisis, perhaps even eclipsing that of 2008, depends on how the United States and other governments react.

美国股市和油价在本周的暴跌是否会演变成更严重的经济危机，甚至可能超过2008年的危机，取决于美国和其他国家政府如何反应。

The United States has now, belatedly, taken drastic actions on travel and announced some support for businesses. But these are too late to prevent the coronavirus from spreading and too little to stave off a deeper economic downturn.

美国政府现已严格限制旅行，并宣布会给予企业一些支持，不过这些姗姗来迟的举措对于预防新冠病毒的传播为时已晚，对于阻止经济进一步衰退也过于微不足道。

Swamping the markets with liquidity, as was done in 2008, is not going to resolve the problem this time. The markets are already awash in cash, and as was again demonstrated in early March, further cuts in interest rates no longer translate into growth. What is needed now is leadership that focuses on the domestic challenges and seeks to build international cooperation — rather than scapegoating other countries.

这一次的问题不像2008年那次危机，向市场大量注入流动性就能解决。现在的市场上资金早已充足，如3月初再次证明的那样，进一步降息已不再能刺激经济的增长。当务之急是需要专注于应对国内挑战并寻求建立国际合作关系的领导力，而非找其他国家作替罪羊。

Wide-ranging targeted interventions, including tax cuts for the lowest-income earners, would restore confidence and help working people and the businesses that could be devastated. However, national policies alone, adopted government by government, will not be enough to forestall a global catastrophe.

为低收入者减税等各类有针对性的干预措施将恢复人们的信心，并帮助可能因疫情而遭受“灭顶之灾”的劳动者和企业。然而，单靠各国政府采取的国家政策，还不足以阻止一场全球性灾难。

The world needs a coordinated economic response. Vulnerable governments that risk buckling under the strain of the pandemic require financial support to prevent the global health crisis from also becoming a financial crisis.

世界需要一个协调的经济应对措施。在“大流行”的压力下，一些较为脆弱的政府面临着经济崩溃的风险，它们需要财政支持，以防止这场全球卫生危机也演变成一场全球金融危机。