Chinese startup invents long-distance kissing machine

A Chinese start-up has invented a long-distance kissing machine that transmits users’ kiss data collected through motion sensors hidden in silicon lips, which simultaneously move when replaying kisses received. MUA – named after the sound people commonly make when blowing a kiss – also captures and replays sound and warms up slightly during kissing, making the experience more authentic, said Beijing-based Siweifushe. Users can even download kissing data submitted via an accompanying app by other users. The invention was inspired by lockdown isolation. At their most severe, China’s lockdowns saw…

Xi’s trip to Moscow didn’t impress the west – but his most important audience is at home

As Xi Jinping returns to Beijing after his first trip to Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine, the contradictory forces that dominate the Chinese leader’s relationship with Moscow are no closer to being resolved. Xi wants to be a strong ally to Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, and a global peacemaker. Both cannot be true. The red carpet and more – a brass band, Siberian salmon – was rolled out for Xi’s two-day visit to Moscow. Xi and Putin raised a glass to the “deepening of the Russian-Chinese…

Blinken: China’s Peace Plan Will Not End Russia’s Aggression in Ukraine 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told lawmakers Wednesday that China’s diplomatic and material support for Russia goes against the US interest in ending the Ukraine war. His Capitol Hill testimony comes ahead of a potential call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. State Department bureau chief Nike Ching has more. VOA

Zelensky Makes Morale-Boosting Trip to Bakhmut

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, made a rare and defiant trip near the front line on Wednesday, personally thanking soldiers who have been fighting in the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, which has become a potent symbol of Ukrainian resistance. The trip to the Bakhmut area came on a day when air- and seaborne drones attacked the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea and a Russian missile ripped into a nine-story apartment complex in Zaporizhzhia, in the south, killing at least one person and injuring more than 30 others. At…

China Watching World’s Response to War in Ukraine, Blinken Says

WASHINGTON —  China is very carefully watching how Washington and the world respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but has not yet crossed the line of providing lethal aid to Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday. Speaking on the heels of a visit to Moscow by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Blinken told a Senate hearing that if Russia was allowed to attack its neighbor with impunity, it would “open a Pandora’s box” for would-be aggressors and lead to a “world of conflict.” “The stakes in Ukraine…

Sister of imprisoned Tibetan businessman detained and beaten overnight

As she had done several times before, Gonpo Kyi went to the prison in Tibet’s capital of Lhasa on Monday to appeal for the release of her brother, former businessman Dorjee Tashi, who is serving a life sentence. When police told Kyi to stop, she refused. So they grabbed her and detained her overnight, during which she was beaten and tortured, two Tibetans with knowledge of the situation said.  Kyi was released on Tuesday, and her other brother, Dorjee Tseten – who has also repeatedly campaigned on his brother’s behalf…

Shanghai court jails blogger for seven years over ‘subversive’ posts

A court in Shanghai has handed a seven-year jail term to the author of a programming and politics blog who evaded government detection for around 12 years after finding him guilty of “incitement to subvert state power,” Radio Free Asia has learned. Ruan Xiaohuan, the 46-year-old author of the formerly anonymous blog ProgramThink on the Blogger.com platform, was detained by the authorities in May 2021 after publishing several posts on evading the Communist Party’s internet censorship and tracking protocols. The move comes after Apple removed a Twitter-like social media app…

Blinken pushes for $2 billion for US rival to China’s Belt-and-Road

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed the Senate on Wednesday to approve $2 billion in spending for infrastructure projects worldwide, but appeared to be rebuffed with a key Republican senator questioning the chances such money could be found. Amid a Republican-led push to cut spending and bring the U.S. federal budget into the black for the first time since 2001, it marked the latest roadblock in long-running U.S. government efforts to establish even a modest alternative to Beijing’s $1-trillion Belt and Road Initiative. Blinken said the State Department was…

Report Finds 119,000 Hurt Worldwide by Riot-Control Weapons Since 2015

salem, oregon —  More than 119,000 people have been injured by tear gas and other chemical irritants around the world since 2015 and about 2,000 suffered injuries from less lethal impact projectiles, according to a report released Wednesday. The study by Physicians for Human Rights and the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations, in collaboration with the Omega Research Foundation, took 2½ years to research. It provides a rare, partial count of casualties, compiled from medical literature, from these devices used by police around the world, including in Colombia, Chile,…