The BBC is now voluntarily suppressing criticism of Donald Trump before it airs—and the reason is obvious: Trump threatened to sue them into oblivion, and they blinked.

Historian Rutger Bregman revealed this week that the BBC commissioned a public lecture from him last month, recorded it, then quietly cut a single sentence before broadcast. The deleted line? Calling Trump “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” Bregman posted about the capitulation, noting that the decision came from “the highest levels” of the BBC—meaning the executives dealing with Trump’s threats.

Well, at least we should call out Donald Trump as the most openly censorial president in American history.

This is the payoff from Trump’s censorship campaign against the BBC. Weeks ago, Trump threatened to sue the BBC for a billion dollars over an edit in a program it aired a year ago. The BBC apologized and fired employees associated with the project. That wasn’t enough. Trump’s FCC censorship lackey Brendan Carr launched a bullshit investigation anyway. And now the BBC is preemptively editing out true statements that might anger the thin-skinned man baby President.

Bregman posted the exact line that got cut. Here’s the full paragraph, with the censored sentence in bold:

On one side we had an establishment propping up an elderly man in obvious mental decline. On the other we had a convicted reality star who now rules as the most openly corrupt president in American history. When it comes to staffing his administration, he is a modern day Caligula, the Roman emperor who wanted to make his horse a consul. He surrounds himself with loyalists, grifters, and sycophants.

Gosh, for what reason would the BBC cut that one particular line?

The BBC admitted to this in the most mealy-mouthed way when asked by the New Republic to comment on the situation:

Asked for comment on Bregman’s charge, a spokesperson for the BBC emailed me this: “All of our programmes are required to comply with the BBC’s editorial guidelines, and we made the decision to remove one sentence from the lecture on legal advice.”

“On legal advice.” Translation: Trump’s SLAPP suit threats worked exactly as intended.

Greg Sargent, writing in the New Republic, nails why this matters:

There is something deeply perverse in this outcome. Even if you grant Trump’s criticism of the edit of his January 6 speech—never mind that as the violence raged, Trump essentially sat on his hands for hours and arguably directed the mob to target his vice president—the answer to this can’t be to let Trump bully truth-telling into self-censoring silence.

That’s plainly what happened here.

Exactly. The BBC’s initial capitulation—the apology, the firings, the groveling—was bad enough. But this is worse. This is pre-censorship. The BBC is now editing out true statements about Trump before they air, purely because they’re afraid of how he might react. That’s not “legal advice.” That’s cowardice institutionalized as policy.

Once again, I remind you that Trump’s supporters have, for years, insisted that he was “the free speech president” and have talked about academic freedom and the right to state uncomfortable ideas.

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Source: BBC Pre-Edits Lecture Calling Trump ‘Most Openly Corrupt President’ | Techdirt

BEIJING/AMSTERDAM, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Wingtech (600745.SS)

, opens new tab, the Chinese parent company of Netherlands-based Nexperia, accused its Dutch unit on Friday of conspiring to build a non-Chinese supply chain and permanently strip it of its control, escalating tensions between the two sides.

In a separate statement, Nexperia’s Chinese arm demanded the Dutch business halt overseas expansion, including in Malaysia. “Abandon improper intentions to replace Chinese capacity,” Nexperia China said.

Sign up here.

The accusations follow an open letter from Nexperia published on Thursday claiming repeated attempts to engage with its Chinese unit had failed.

Nexperia, which produces billions of chips for cars and electronics, has been in a tug-of-war since the Dutch government seized the company two months ago on economic security grounds. An Amsterdam court subsequently stripped Wingtech of control.

Beijing retaliated by halting exports of Nexperia’s finished products on October 4, leading to disruptions in global automotive supply chains.

The curbs were relaxed in early November and the Dutch government suspended the seizure last week following talks. But the court ruling remains in force.

The chipmaker’s Europe-based units and Chinese entities remain locked in a standoff. Nexperia’s Chinese arm declared itself independent from European management, which responded by stopping the shipment of wafers to the company’s plant in China.

CHINESE PARENT WARNS OF RENEWED SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION

The escalating war of words casts doubt on the viability of a company-led resolution urged by China and the European Union this week.

Wingtech said on Friday that Nexperia’s Dutch unit was avoiding the issue of its “legitimate control”, making negotiations untenable.

“We need to find a way first to talk to one another constructively” a spokesperson for Nexperia’s European headquarters said on Friday.

Nexperia China said that the Dutch unit’s claim it could not contact its management was misleading, accusing it of stifling communication by deleting the email accounts of Nexperia China employees and terminating their access to IT systems.

The Chinese unit claimed that the Dutch side was engineering a breakup, citing a $300 million plan to expand a Malaysian plant, and an alleged internal goal of sourcing 90% of production outside China by mid-2026.

[…]

Source: Nexperia accused by parent Wingtech and Chinese unit of plotting to move supply chain | Reuters

Dutch chipmaker Nexperia has publicly called on its China unit to help restore supply chain operations, warning in an open letter that customers across industries are reporting “imminent production outages.”

Nexperia’s Dutch unit said Thursday that its open letter followed “repeated attempts to establish direct communication through conventional channels” but did not have “any meaningful response.”

The letter marks the latest twist in a long-running saga that has threatened global automotive supply chains and stoked a bitter battle between Amsterdam and Beijing over technology transfer.

“We welcomed the Chinese authorities’ commitment to facilitate the resumption of exports from Nexperia’s Chinese facility and that of our subcontractors, enabling the continued flow of our products to global markets,” Nexperia’s Dutch unit said in the letter.

“Nevertheless, customers across industries are still reporting imminent production stoppages. This situation cannot persist,” they added. The group called on the leadership of Nexperia’s entities in China to take steps to restore the established supply flows without delay.

In a statement, Wingtech Technology, Nexperia’s Chinese parent company, said on Friday that the Dutch unit’s open letter contained “a large number of misleading and untrue allegations.”

It said the “unlawful deprivation of Wingtech’s control and shareholder rights over Nexperia” was the root cause of the ongoing supply chain chaos.

“Combined with the recent series of actions by the Dutch government and Nexperia B.V., we believe their true intention is to buy time for Nexperia B.V. to construct a ‘de-China-ized’ supply chain and permanently strip Wingtech of its shareholder rights,” Wingtech said.

In this photo illustration, the logo of semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia is displayed on a screen.

Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

Nexperia manufactures billions of so-called foundation chips — transistors, diodes and power management components — that are produced in Europe, assembled and tested in China, and then re-exported to customers in Europe and elsewhere.

The chips are relatively low-tech and inexpensive but are needed in almost every device that uses electricity. In cars, those chips are used to connect the battery to motors, for lights and sensors, for braking systems, airbag controllers, entertainment systems and electric windows.

How did we get here?

The situation began in September, when the Dutch government invoked a Cold War-era law to effectively take control of Nexperia. The highly unusual move was reportedly made after the U.S. raised security concerns.

Beijing responded by moving to block its products from leaving China, which, in turn, raised the alarm among global automakers as they faced shortages of the chipmaker’s components.

In an apparent reprieve last week, however, the Dutch government said it had suspended its state intervention at Nexperia following talks with Chinese authorities. It was thought at the time that this could bring an end to the dispute and pave the way for a restoration of normal supply chains.

Rico Luman, senior sector economist for transport and logistics at Dutch bank ING, said it remains unclear how long the situation will last.

“The imposed measures to seize the Dutch Nexperia subsidiary have been lifted, but there are still talks ongoing about restoring the corporate structure and relation with parent company Wingtech,” Luman told CNBC by email.

“It’s not only about supplies of finished chips, it’s also about wafer supplies from Europe to the Chinese entity,” Luman said, adding that companies including Japan’s Nissan and German auto supplier Bosch are among the firms to have warned about looming shortages.

[…]

Source: Nexperia crisis: Dutch chipmaker issues urgent plea to its China unit