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The sportswear giant found itself at the center of a social media backlash on Wednesday evening when China’s Communist Youth League drew attention to undated statements by Nike and Hennes & Mauritz issued roughly one year ago. “We are concerned about reports of forced labor in, and connected to, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” a notice by Nike read. “Nike does not source products from the XUAR and we have confirmed with our contract suppliers that they are not using textiles or spun yarn from the region....

This program allows internet users to report on others who spread “mistaken opinions” online in order to create a “good public opinion atmosphere,” the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a notice. “For a while now, some people with ulterior motives…have spread historically nihilistic false statements online, maliciously distorting, slandering and denying Party, national and military history in an attempt to confuse people’s thinking,” the notice said. “We hope that most internet users will play an active role in supervising society…and enthusiastically report harmful information....

Xie Fang, 51, who has been prevented from leaving Shanghai for six months, suggested she had been taken hostage by the state because of suspicions against her husband, former bookseller Yu Miao, 50. Yu was the last operator of Shanghai’s independent Jifeng Bookstore, which stocked political texts and hosted lectures by liberal scholars, whose room for expression has been squeezed under the autocratic rule of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Yu was forced to shutter the business in 2018 after local authorities refused to extend his lease....

Anal swabs work by inserting a cotton-tipped swab about 1 to 2 inches into the rectum, which is then sent to a lab to be tested for the virus. These swabs analyzed in the same way as the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) COVID-19 tests taken from the nose or throat. COVID-19 has been known to cause a range of gastrointestinal (GI) issues such as vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says genetic material of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been detected in the blood and stool....

The Pentagon’s 2020 Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China was released Tuesday, estimating the number of Beijing’s nuclear weapons in the low 200s. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Chad Sbragia told reporters: “We’re certainly concerned about the numbers, but also just the trajectory of China’s nuclear developments writ large.” Chinese state media dismissed such concerns. Global Times—a nationalistic newspaper owned by the People’s Daily, the official publication of the Chinese Communist Party—published an op-ed Wednesday claiming the report was designed to “weaken China’s nuclear deterrence....

Sindhu defeated Russia’s Evgeniya Kosetskaya in two straight games 21-13, 21-19 to surge ahead in the tournament. The first game began with both players earning alternate points till 3-3. Kosetskaya then started playing some aggressive badminton to take a 7-5 lead. But Sindhu came back strongly to take a bunch of points in succession. At the interval, the Indian led 11-7. When play resumed, Sindhu continued her aggressive approach game and won the first game 21-13....

The PLA Army conducted its strategic military-civil “deep fusion” exercises in conjunction with the municipal government of Chongqing in southwestern China, Beijing’s official military news site JS7tv reported the day after. Among the protocols simulated was a requisition order for large platform trailers. Automobile factories temporarily repurposed their equipment and staff in order to convert 20-ton semi-trailer trucks into wider, sturdier vehicles capable of transporting a 40-ton Type 59 main battle tank across China’s large, integrated network of highways, the report said....

What can be done? For starters, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) can move the 2022 Winter Olympics away from Beijing and immediately ban the participation of China’s athletes from Olympic competition. If the IOC does not make both of these moves, the U.S. and other countries should boycott next year’s Games in the Chinese capital. It is hard for many to fully conceive of the Chinese regime’s inhumanity. Uyghur women are routinely tortured and raped by government officials, clearly with the approval of the state....

Footage circulating on China’s main social media website, Weibo, showed mask-wearing members of the People’s Liberation Army Ground Force arriving in Russia by train last week. Rows of armored vehicles and trucks were also visible in the images, which confirmed Beijing’s participation in the Vostok—or “East”—exercise for the first time since 2018. Moscow’s quadrennial multinational drills were meant to start on August 30, but the Russian defense ministry said Monday the “Vostok 2022 strategic command and staff exercise” would instead run from September 1 through 7....

The two-day program features a list of 110 countries that are diverse in governance and varied in democratization. A painful point for Beijing was the decision to invite Taiwan, which the U.S. considers a successful democracy—and which China says doesn’t deserve a place on the international stage. In his opening remarks, Biden said the event wasn’t about asserting that any one country’s democracy was perfect, but about “renewing democracy” and discussing ways to strengthen democratic institutions....

The Russian president said that U.S. attempts to “civilize” Afghan citizens by introducing American norms and standards into their politics and way of life ended in “sheer tragedies, sheer losses” for both sides and achieved a “zero result, if not negative.” “President Putin’s view should provoke some reflection in the U.S.,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference in Beijing. He repeated a recently popular line out of Beijing, suggesting the West’s description of democracy wasn’t the only working definition in the world....

Since the White House confirmed there would be no official U.S. representation at the Winter Olympics next year, Beijing has offered contradictory responses while seemingly caught between indifference and anger. On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said “no one would care” if American and other countries’ officials decided not to attend. The next day, however, he said the U.S. would “pay a price” for boycotting the games, which kick off in under two months....

As far as we know, no humans have ever had sex in space. “The act of having sex in zero gravity could be quite difficult,” Adam Watkins, an associate professor in reproductive and developmental physiology at the University of Nottingham, told Newsweek. “From the lack of privacy to the fact that getting an erection in space is more difficult than here on earth due to the blood pressure changes that occur....

“All parties concerned should stay calm, exercise restraint and avoid escalating tensions,” said Mao Ning, one of China’s Foreign Ministry spokespersons. China’s “consistent and clear” position on the war, she said, was that peace talks between Ukraine and Russia should resume. Beijing has yet to openly condemn Moscow for the invasion but said the U.N. Charter, including sovereignty and territorial integrity, should be respected. “The pressing priority is to have dialogue and negotiation and peacefully resolve the crisis,” said Mao, in what was a continuation of the Chinese government’s largely boilerplate response to escalations in the conflict....

That the U.S. Intelligence Community hasn’t disclosed a concerted Chinese military buildup – like it did before Russia attacked Ukraine – was further evidence that Beijing had yet to begin the necessary preparations for the largest amphibious assaults in modern history, according to Culver, who spent 35 years at the agency, latterly as its top intelligence officer for East Asia from 2015 to 2018. In commentary for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, Culver sought to tamp down popular speculation about the likelihood of a near-term Taiwan Strait conflict....

The key for Thursday night’s game will be the Raiders’ defense, which is allowing an average of 349.8 yards per game, trying to slow down the Chiefs’ offense, which remains No. 2 in the NFL with an average of 387 yards gained per game. Oakland quarterback Derek Carr, who has an average QB ratings of 68.1 in six career games against Kansas City, also needs to play well enough to earn just his second career win against the Chiefs....

The Line: Chiefs -7, Total: 42.5 Line movement: The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook and William Hill both were dealing Kansas City -6.5 on Sunday, but those numbers didn’t last long. Some books moved to -7 (-120). Totals were bet down from 42.5 to 43. For updated spreads and totals from around Vegas, visit our live odds page. Trends that matter: The Chiefs are 5-0 ATS in their last five games overall…....

If the Chiefs win, they will take a three-game lead in the AFC West with six games left — an almost insurmountable division lead. The Raiders, with a series sweep, would tighten things up to two games with a head-to-head tiebreaker. That Week 5 loss was Patrick Mahomes’ worst as an NFL starting quarterback. Conversely, it was a big moment for counterpart Derek Carr. Here’s breaking down the rematch in prime time including betting information you need to know for the game:...

Researchers found vaccine hesitancy was three times higher in people who had experienced four or more types of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) compared to those who hadn’t experienced any trauma as a child. “Adverse childhood experiences are strongly linked to poorer mental well-being and have been associated with lower levels of trust, including in health services,” Karen Hughes, lead researcher and professor of public health at Bangor University, told Verywell in an email....

Measuring only 230 x 502 x 507mm, it’s significantly smaller than a standard ATX case, making it tiny for a gaming rig. Its reduced size also requires a smaller motherboard, and in this case it’s a Mini ITX form factor GA-Z87N-WIFI from Gigabyte. As its name suggests, it comes with built-in Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth capabilities. Chillblast has installed a quad-core 3.4GHz Intel Core i5-4670K which has been overclocked to 4....