Day: November 24, 2022

China Reports Another One-Day COVID Case Record, Tightens Curbs

Chin@Strategy

SHANGHAI, china —  China on Friday reported another single-day record-high number of COVID-19 infections, as cities across the country enforced measures and curbs to try to control outbreaks. Excluding imported infections, China recorded 32,695 new local COVID-19 cases on Thursday, of which 3,041 were symptomatic and 29,654 were asymptomatic, up from 31,144 a day earlier, which was the previous record. Big outbreaks are numerous and far-flung, with the southern city of Guangzhou and southwestern Chongqing recording the bulk of the new cases, although hundreds of new infections have been reported…

Chinese team develops world’s first ceramic material that can bend like metal

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“There has been research on plasticity of ceramics around the world since I started my career 30 years ago. It can be said that today we have finally achieved a breakthrough on that topic,” Chen said. The researchers used silicon nitride to make nanopillars containing two types of crystal structures. When subjected to external force, one type of crystal structure can transform into the other, allowing the material to bend then resume its original shape. The researchers used silicon nitride to make nanopillars containing two types of crystal structures, shown…

China threat looms in Taiwan’s local elections as voters weigh island’s future

Chin@Strategy

On Sunday afternoon 150,000 people gathered in front of the Taipei city hall. Harley motorcycles, giant floats, balloons and mascots led the parade to a soundtrack of music banned in China. It looked like a concert, but on this day the main act was a politician. The crowds were there to support Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung, a former minister of health with the governing Democratic Progressive party (DPP). Supporters excitedly waved flags and screamed “win the election!”. One of Chen’s main rivals for the seat, which is considered a…

China imposes new lockdowns as local Covid cases hit record high

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China has imposed a fresh series of Covid lockdowns, including in a city where workers at the world’s largest iPhone factory clashed with police this week, as a record daily high in Covid cases tested its commitment to follow the rest of the world in easing pandemic restrictions. The national health commission reported 31,444 new locally transmitted Covid cases on Wednesday, the highest daily figure since the coronavirus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. The government responded by tightening Covid restrictions in cities…

Food of Emperors: China’s Appetite for South African Abalone 

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Abalone has been a luxury food in China since imperial times. Poachers are feeding the country’s appetite for the pricy little mollusk resulting in a drop in the abalone population in South Africa’s once-large natural reserves. Reporter Kate Bartlett visited one abalone aquaculture farm in Hermanus, South Africa with more. Camera: Gianluigi Guercia VOA

To boost hygiene, North Korea bans outhouses, orders public toilet construction

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In an effort to improve hygiene, North Korean authorities are ordering residents outside the capital to demolish their private outhouses and upgrade or construct public toilets – at their own expense, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia. But people are complaining that the plan makes no sense because communal toilets are less hygienic than outhouses, which each family maintains, and that the government should instead focus on tackling more basic needs, like improving living conditions and repairing homes damaged by natural disasters such as typhoons, the sources say.…

Mick Lynch says RMT no closer to calling off rail strikes as transport minister states there is ‘deal to be done’ – UK politics live

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From 3h ago Mick Lynch says meeting with transport secretary ‘positive’, but RMT no closer to calling off rail strikes Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, has been speaking to the media after his meeting with Mark Harper, the transport secretary. He said that it was a “positive meeting” and that Harper said he would set out in writing what steps might be taken towards a resolution of the dispute behind the rail strikes. He said one issue was that it has not been clear what scope the Rail Delivery…

The lawyer ‘who never won a political case’ changes careers

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Choung Chou Ngy hopes his political career is more successful than his legal one has been.   As an attorney, Choung Chou Ngy was given some of the hardest cases in Cambodia, a country that under strongman Hun Sen routinely stifles dissent. Courts appointed him to represent opposition political leaders, social activists and poor landholders who had run afoul of the autocratic government.   It was a tough job. So much so, that Chou Ngy jokingly refers to himself as the “lawyer who never won a political case” — a…

China’s slowdown is hurting the young

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CHINA’s economy is in grim shape. Much of the pain is being felt by the young. Unemployment among Chinese aged 16-24 is running at 18%. That number is an undercount: it misses rural youngsters and those out of work for more than three months. The crisis is hurting even relatively privileged youths, including nearly 3.5m who earned undergraduate university degrees this year. Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. Your browser does not support the <audio> element. Listen to this story Save time by listening…

China’s response to a surge in covid-19 cases is muddled

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At the end of the 19th century, bold officials and a young emperor tried to reform China’s last imperial dynasty. They made sweeping changes in education, the armed forces and the economy to help the creaky Qing empire catch up with Japan and Western powers. They failed. The “hundred-day reforms”, as they became known, were scrapped by the emperor’s conservative aunt, the Empress Dowager. China’s recent attempts to ease its draconian “zero-covid” controls were so ill-fated that some have dubbed them the “seven-day reforms”. They began on November 11th, when…