Curling – and especially the men’s team – has been the big surprise for China, though the medal rounds are still several days away. The women beat Sweden, but lost to Denmark, to move their record to 4-3, and now have a day off on Sunday before two final round-robin games on Monday. The men beat Russia 9-6 and have a stunning 6-1 record, leading the table alongside Sweden. They face Canada (5-2) on Sunday evening....
The first in-person gathering of Quad leaders last Friday was described as a “historic occasion” in a joint statement released by Biden and prime ministers Narendra Modi, Yoshihide Suga and Scott Morrison. The leaders called their vision for the partnership “ambitious and far-reaching,” while China’s Foreign Ministry accused the group on Monday of “forming closed and exclusive cliques.” The post-summit communique didn’t mention the People’s Republic of China or include a direct rebuke of Beijing....
Yang Guang, a spokesperson for the Chinese State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, expressed “deep indignation and strong condemnation” Monday at recent petrol bomb attacks that struck several police stations across Hong Kong, which has been hit by months of demonstrations against the city’s Beijing-backed government. He praised the performance of police, some of whom were reportedly injured in the attacks, and escalated the official rhetoric against the protests....
The game has lost a lot of its glitz because Packers quarterback and reigning league MVP Aaron Rodgers will sit this game out after testing positive for COVID-19. Second-year quarterback will lead the Green Bay offense at Arrowhead and guide his team to an 8-1 record. The Chiefs have been uncharacteristically poor this season. They are currently 4-4 and both their offense and defense have played terribly this season. Patrick Mahomes leads the league in interceptions and has also fumbled the ball multiple times....
The four-time Pro Bowl linebacker will be a huge addition to Kansas City’s defense. Just two years ago, Houston had 22 sacks, which is just half a sack from the single-season record. His presence will be needed as the Chiefs look to slow down the Steelers’ potent offense. MORE: Predictions for NFL playoffs Although Reid didn’t mention a snap count, there’s a chance Houston will come in only on passing downs....
The number of child COVID-19 cases per 100,000 children was highest in several states across the Midwest and the southern and eastern regions, according to the April 29 report. Of the 319,601 new infections reported from April 22 to 29, children represented 22.4 percent (71,649 cases) of the total, according to the research, which is based on the “best publicly available data” on child cases at the state level....
Authorities said they were called after a man brandished a gun at McDonald’s drive-thru employees. The incident occurred on Monday, 1:30 p.m., at the McDonald’s located at 425 W. 7200 S in Midvale, according to a press release issued by the Unified Police Department. Authorities say the man pulled out a gun after workers got his order wrong. The drive-thru workers told the man to drive to the next window and called the police....
Citing both his own field research into ape community socialization and human-centered studies, Dr. Roman Wittig of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology argues that the term doesn’t accurately reflect how we should be protecting ourselves during the pandemic. We should keep a healthy and safe distance, Wittig believes, but still remain in touch with one another socially. “We were able to show in several studies that chimpanzees with no close friends are more susceptible to diseases,” Wittig said in an interview for Germany’s Max Planck Society, describing social interaction as “extremely important” for both chimpanzee and human health....
The accusation came as Washington and Beijing continue their public relations battle over the coronavirus pandemic, each blaming the other for its global spread and the resulting social and economic turmoil. At a regular press briefing on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Beijing was concerned about American research laboratories in former Soviet nations, supporting accusations made by Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Tuesday. “We took note of the statement made by the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman,” Geng told reporters, according to the state-backed CGTN news channel....
Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, did not name the American officials who had been blacklisted by Beijing, but said visa restrictions would be placed on those who had “concocted lies” about China’s human rights record. The sanctions were to “protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese officials,” Wang said at a regular media briefing in China’s capital on Thursday. The tit-for-tat move comes 10 days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced via the State Department punitive measures against individuals who the U....
The monolithic solid rocket motor, developed by a branch of the Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)—a state-owned contractor of the Chinese space program—is 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) in diameter and has a thrust of 500 tons, according to China’s state broadcaster CCTV, which described it as the largest in the world. The report said the rocket was independently designed by CASC’s Academy of Aerospace Solid Propulsion Technology with a “high-performance” fiber composite shell and a “supersized” nozzle....
The August 31 report containing its annual assessment of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) capabilities and ambitions was submitted to the legislature along with a proposal for an increase in defense spending in 2022. Taiwan says it is already a functionally independent country under the formal name the Republic of China, with the current government stressing there is no need for any other declaration. The People’s Republic of China claims Taiwan is part of its territory, but Beijing has never governed the island since its founding in 1949....
There’s certainly much scope for catch-up. China’s economy and stock market spent much of this decade running in different directions. While China has been emerging as a leading manufacturing power faster than anyone expected, the mainland market based in Shanghai has been stagnant, even as rivals from Moscow to Mumbai boomed. Today, while China constitutes 5 percent of the world economy, it accounts for a mere 1 percent of global equity-market investment....
Hua Chunying, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, accused the Trump administration of conducting “lying diplomacy,” after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo co-authored an op-ed for Newsweek criticizing Beijing for being the “least transparent” of the five United Nations Security Council members. The article, which Pompeo jointly penned with special presidential envoy for arms control Marshall Billingslea, was republished on the State Department’s website under the title “China’s Nuclear Madness....
Biden has so far given little indication of how he will approach the China challenge, though on the campaign trail tried to disarm allegations that he would be soft on Beijing by promising a tougher strategy. In an interview with The New York Times published Wednesday, Biden said the “best China strategy” was to make sure all American allies are “on the same page,” something he hopes to achieve “in the opening weeks” of his term....
China’s official Xinhua News Agency, state broadcaster CCTV and the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship publication People’s Daily all reported No. 3 official Li Zhanshu’s recent visit to Russia, which began with a face-to-face meeting with President Vladimir Putin on September 7 in Vladivostok in the far east. In the two days that followed, Li, who chairs the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, was in Moscow for meetings with senior members of Russia’s State Duma, its lowest house of parliament....
That meant she was completely written off by pundits ahead of the China Open. However, Marin is a fighter and she proved her mettle by defending her title at the China Open with a victory over Tai Tzu Ying. What made the victory all the more impressive was the fact that Tai was seeded second and had beaten Marin in their last 6 encounters. Much like the semi-final, Marin got off to a slow start and went into the break trailing 8-11....
After that strong showing, Sai will now have to deal with the pressure of expectations as he begins his campaign at the China Open 2019 - the last Super 1000 tournament of the calendar. The attention will be on him more for the fact that Kidambi Srikanth has pulled out of this tournament due to a knee injury while HS Prannoy is down with a bout of dengue. That has left him as the highest-ranked Indian in the men’s singles draw and just one of two Indian men’s singles specialists playing in Changzhou this week, with the other being Parupalli Kashyap....
According to new polling data by the Pew Research Center, the American public’s trust in China’s leader remains at a historic low. No more than 15 percent of U.S. adults said they had confidence in Xi “to do the right thing regarding world affairs,” the think tank reported on Wednesday, only marginally better than Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 6 percent. Among Americans who retained trust in Xi, 2 percent said they had a lot of confidence in his decision-making and 83 percent expressed little or no confidence in the Chinese president, including 41 percent who chose “none at all....
“Vladimir Putin laid out his principled assessment of the situation in Ukraine and the tasks being tackled during the special military operation,” Moscow said in its readout of the June 15 call, which took place on the occasion of Xi’s 69th birthday. “The President of China noted the legitimacy of Russia’s actions to protect fundamental national interests in the face of challenges to its security created by external forces,” the Kremlin said of the “warm and friendly” conversation....
