Month: February 2023

BTS Member J-Hope Begins Process to Join South Korea’s Military

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Seoul, South Korea —  A second member of Korea’s BTS — the first K-pop band nominated for a Grammy — has begun the enlistment process for mandatory military service, a management official confirmed on Monday, two months after the group’s oldest member began his service. BTS members said last year last year they would join the military starting with Jin, who turned 30 and enlisted in December after postponing his service as long as permitted. An official at the band’s management, BigHit Music, said on Sunday that a second member,…

China approves biggest expansion in new coal power plants since 2015, report finds

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China approved the construction of another 106 gigawatts of coal-fired power capacity last year, four times higher than a year earlier and the highest since 2015, research shows. Over the year, 50GW of coal power capacity went into construction across the country – up by more than half compared with the previous year – driven by energy security considerations, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM) said on Monday. “The speed at which projects progressed through permitting to construction in 2022 was…

Popular Chinese-owned store in Kenya shuts doors after rival traders complain about prices

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China Square opened on January 29, offering a range of household items, from kitchenware to furniture and hardware. The mall was immediately popular but Kenyan traders claimed that China Square cut them out of the market by selling its goods at a deep discount. Advertisement The traders from various competing trading centres took their complaints to Kenyan deputy president Rigathi Gachagua last week, appealing for action and threatening to stage protests. “I have hosted representatives of small traders from Nyamakima, Kamukunji, Gikomba, and River Road for discussions on addressing challenges…

CIA Chief: China Has Doubt on Ability to Invade Taiwan

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Washington —  U.S. intelligence shows that China’s President Xi Jinping has instructed his country’s military to “be ready by 2027″ to invade Taiwan though he may be currently harboring doubts about his ability to do so given Russia’s experience in its war with Ukraine, CIA Director William Burns said. Burns, in a television interview that aired Sunday, stressed that the United States must take “very seriously” Xi’s desire to ultimately control Taiwan even if military conflict is not inevitable. FILE – CIA Director William Burns speaks at CIA headquarters in…

Big Buddha and funeral home rights: how China is tackling its massive debt burden

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In China’s Sichuan province, Leshan city has plans to sell the operating rights to the Big Buddha, a 71-metre tall Tang dynasty stone statue, in one of a series of creative methods cash-strapped local governments are using raise money. Having spent more than £42bn last year on Covid-prevention measures, and hit by falling tax revenues, by December 2022 local governments had accumulated 35tn yuan (£4.2tn) in debt, up from 30.5tn yuan the previous year. That means that China’s provincial debt burden is roughly 20% bigger than Germany’s total GDP. In…

Missing Chinese billionaire banker Bao Fan assisting authorities in investigation, company says

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The Chinese billionaire tech banker Bao Fan, who was reported missing 10 days ago, is cooperating with Chinese authorities conducting an investigation, a China-based boutique bank has said. It is the first time China Renaissance Holdings has given a reason for the disappearance of its founder and chairman, though no details about the investigation were shared. “The board would like to reiterate that the business and operations of the group are continuing normally,” the bank said in the exchange filing on Sunday. Reuters previously reported, citing sources, that authorities took…

Lab Leak Most Likely Caused Pandemic, Energy Dept. Says, as Spy Agencies Remain Split

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WASHINGTON — New intelligence has prompted the Energy Department to conclude that an accidental laboratory leak in China most likely caused the coronavirus pandemic, though American spy agencies remain divided over the origins of the virus, American officials said on Sunday. The conclusion was a change from the department’s earlier position that it was undecided on how the virus emerged. Some officials briefed on the intelligence said that it was relatively weak and that the Energy Department’s conclusion was made with “low confidence,” suggesting its level of certainty was not…

Covid-19 likely emerged from laboratory leak, US energy department says

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The virus which drove the Covid-19 pandemic most likely emerged from a laboratory leak but not as part of a weapons program, according to an updated and classified 2021 US energy department study provided to the White House and senior American lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The department’s finding – a departure from previous studies on how the virus emerged – came in an update to a document from the office of National Intelligence director Avril Haines. It follows an FBI finding, issued with “moderate confidence”, that…

Belarus Leader and Putin Ally Lukashenko to Visit China 

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BEIJING —  Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a close ally of the Russian leader, will visit Beijing this week, China’s Foreign Ministry said, as U.S. concerns grow that China is considering providing military aid to Russia. Spokesperson Hua Chunying said Lukashenko is due to visit Tuesday through Thursday, but gave no details about his agenda. Belarus has strongly backed Moscow and allowed its territory to be used as a staging ground for the initial invasion of Ukraine a year ago. Lukashenko has been Belarus’ only president since the…

INTERVIEW: ‘Freedom is worth dying for; Ukrainians are able to express this fully’

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Hong Kong freelance journalist Kaoru Ng has been reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine since it started a year ago, filming at the front lines in different regions of the country, and living with the danger and privations that come from living in a country at war, including a close shave with death. “Russian troops had already entered the city, and battle was under way,” Ng recalls of one particular incident that he says nearly cost him his life. “We wanted to get to where the fighting was to…