In terms of post-Covid recovery, China is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and has a good chance to double its GDP by 2035, according to Helen Qiao, head of Asia economics at Bank of America Global Research.
She told CNBC that some reform measures would help China get there. The doubling of China’s GDP would require an average annual growth of 4.7 percent for the next 15 years. “We think China would be able to achieve it,” Qiao said.
The economist predicted that, in addition to doubling its gross domestic product, the Asian nation will surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy in around 2027 to 2028.
The Chinese economy expanded by 2.3 percent last year, official data showed. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said China will grow 8.1 percent this year. Meanwhile, the United States contracted by 3.5 percent in 2020, according to the latest government estimates. The IMF expects the US economy to grow by 5.1 percent this year.
In a report published earlier this month, Qiao addressed the common concerns – such as aging population, high debt-to-GDP ratio, and the country’s investment-led growth model – that could prevent China from reaching its 2035 economic goals. Those concerns will slow, but not derail, China’s overall growth trajectory, Qiao said.
Myanmar riot police repeatedly opened fire and used stun grenades against anti-coup protesters on Sunday as part of a continuing crackdown. At least two people were reportedly killed and several more injured.
Law enforcers shot at protesters in Myanmar’s largest city of Yangon on Sunday, according to local media reports backed up by multiple videos circulating online. One man was brought to a hospital after the shootings, where he succumbed to a bullet wound to his chest, an unnamed doctor told Reuters.
Footage from the scene shows police aiming and firing various weaponry at protesters, as well as hurling stun grenades at them.
Multiple shootings were also reported in the southern town of Dawei, where at least one person was killed and several were injured, local politician Kyaw Min Htike told Reuters.
The unrest across Myanmar continues after the country’s military seized power and detained elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as many top members of her party, on February 1. The military alleges that the politician’s comfortable win in November’s election was fraudulent. The coup prompted mass protests across the country, with thousands demanding the release of detained politicians and a return to democratic rule.
The move by the military ended a nine-year period of civilian rule in the country. The military previously controlled Myanmar for decades from early 1960s until 2011. The army has imposed a state of emergency that it says will remain in place for one year.
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Czech President Milos Zeman says he has sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking for a Sputnik V vaccine shipment. Zeman said that Prague won’t insist on EU agency approval for use of the jab.
Speaking to CNN Prima News on Saturday, Zeman revealed that the letter to the Russian leader was penned in agreement with the country’s PM Andrej Babis. The Czech leader said that he expects Putin to approve the request.
“If I am properly informed, this request will be granted,” he told the channel.
Zeman noted that the jab will need to be certified by the local regulator, the State Institute for Drug Control (SUKL), before the Russian vaccine can be rolled out. He added that its seal of approval will be “enough” to launch the vaccination campaign.
Zeman’s statement appears to run contrary to that of his top health official, Jan Blatny, who has been health minister since October, representing Babis’ pro-EU Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) populist party.
Earlier this month, Blatny ruled out the possibility of the Czech Republic importing Sputnik V on his watch unless it is first greenlighted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Amid a spike in coronavirus infections, believed to be driven by a new, highly contagious variant, the Czech government extended a state of emergency on Friday, which will now run until March 28. Under the newly extended emergency, the authorities are expected to tighten curbs on the freedom of movement, including the imposition of bans on non-essential travel to other countries.
Interior Minister Jan Hamacek said the sweeping travel ban will be enforced by the military and the police.
The restrictions will also see nurseries and schools for disabled children shut their doors, and people will be banned from leaving their municipalities other than for essential purposes.
“We have to do it to prevent a total collapse of our hospitals,” Babis said on Friday, warning that if the lockdown is not properly enforced, “the whole world will watch Bergamo in the Czech Republic.”
The country, with a population of 10.7 million, has reported some 1.2 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, including 20,000 fatalities from the virus. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, its death rate per 100,000 people is currently the worst in the world.
Some 644,300 Czechs have already been vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca jabs.
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Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) doubled down on her call for embattled New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to step down “immediately” after another of his former staffers, the second one since December, accused him of sexual harassment.
“Governor Cuomo is a criminal sexual predator and he must immediately resign,” Stefanik said in a statement issued shortly after the New York Times published a detailed account of Cuomo’s former aide Charlotte Bennett, accusing the governor of unwanted sexual advances, on Saturday.
Stefanik noted that she “was one of the first and one of the only elected officials to call on the Governor to resign on Dec 14th” - when his former staffer Lindsey Boylan first accused Cuomo of sexually harassing her “for years” - and urged “other New York State leaders to grow a spine.”
“The New York Times article recounting Governor Cuomo’s sickening workplace sexual harassment and grooming of Ms. Bennett is so horrific it makes your skin crawl,” Stefanik wrote.
🚨🚨 My Statement on New York Times Story on Governor Cuomo’s Sexual Harassment Victim 🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/E8JhktPZpL
So far, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Cuomo’s old rival, has been the most prominent Democrat to call for “a full and independent investigation” into the allegations.
Speaking to the Times, Bennet, 25, claimed that she “felt horribly uncomfortable and scared,” when Cuomo repeatedly asked her about her sexual life, including whether she dated older men or is monogamous.
While Boylan went public with her allegations as far back as in December, they did not become the talk of the town on Twitter or in the mainstream media as was the case with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his accusers back in 2018. Calls for an investigation grew louder after Boylan came forward with details of Cuomo’s alleged misconduct several days ago, claiming that Cuomo invited her to play strip poker and kissed her without permission. But the bombshell did not spark an outpour of support from high-profile celebrities apart from a lone call by actress-turned-activist Rose McGowan to investigate “monstrous” claims. CNN, employer of Cuomo’s brother, Chris Cuomo, has been accused of shielding the governor. At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday, CNN’s Jim Acosta was grilled by The Federalist reporter on the network’s lackluster coverage of the recent spate of scandals involving Cuomo.
The Media Research Center, a conservative content analysis group, reported that CNN allotted 96 seconds to cover Boylan’s sexual harassment claims in two days. On Saturday, Cuomo announced an “outside review” into the allegations, refusing to comment on the accusations further until it is completed.
The allegations come at a time Cuomo is facing a seperate investigation by FBI and federal prosecutors into his administration underreporting the number of nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent, apparently to not give the Trump administration a political weapon against the Democratic party.
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Another former aide has accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, already facing allegations of sexual harassment, of improper advances. Charlotte Bennett, 25, said he asked her about her sex life and if she had ever dated ‘older man.’
Bennett, who joined Cuomo’s administration in early 2019, and was promoted from her entry-level position to that of a senior briefer and executive assistant to the governor in the span of several months, told the New York Times that she was constantly grilled about her sex life by her former boss.
Bennet said that she reported Cuomo’s alleged sexual overtures to his chief of staff, Jill DesRosiers, and special counsel to the governor, Judith Mogul, after one particularly disturbing encounter in June last year, during which Cuomo asked her about whether she was single and whether she had slept with older men. Cuomo reportedly lamented that he “can’t hug anyone,” but when Bennet wanted to change the topic, telling the governor that she also misses her friends and family due to the Covid-19 restrictions, persisted, reportedly saying: “No, I mean like really hugged somebody?”
The woman said that while Cuomo did not physically abuse her, she felt like the governor was wielding his power to hit on her.
“I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared,” she told the Times, adding that she thought that her refusal would mean “the end” of her job in the Cuomo’s administration.
Bennet said that when she only embarked on her work in the Cuomo administration, he deemed him a mentor and a father figure. Although she admitted that Cuomo would prod her about her romantic life from time to time, she did not think of it as something sinister until a meeting on May 15, which she described as a “turning point” in Cuomo’s conduct. After she brought some papers to his office at the Capitol that day, Bennet said that Cuomo grilled her about whether she was dating any members of his administration. As she told him about her upcoming university speech in which she wanted to relate her story of a sexual assault survivor, Cuomo fixatated on the topic. Bennet said that Cuomo stared her down and repeated several times: “You were raped and abused and attacked and assaulted and betrayed” - in a manner that Bennet said she found deeply unsettling, comparing it to “something out of a horror movie.”
After she confided in DesRosiers and Mogul, Bennet was appointed a health policy advisory and assigned work at a different part of the Capitol to where Cuomo’s office is located. She told the Times that she decided not to insist on the investigation into her former boss at the time, as she wanted to leave the experience behind. However, Bennet eventually resigned from her position and moved to another state, saying that her hope that she would “have distance” from Cuomo was dashed. “His presence was suffocating,” she said.
Cuomo has rejected the allegations, insisting he had “never made advances” towards Bennet, and argued that he never intentionally engaged in some “inappropriate” behavior in his interactions with the 25-year-old former stuffer.
In his statement on Saturday, Cuomo said that the situation “cannot be and should not be resolved in the press,” announcing “a full and thorough outside review” of the allegations.
Bennet became the second former staffer to come forward with such allegations against Cuomo. Earlier this month, his former aide Lindsey Boylan claimed Cuomo invited her to play strip poker and kissed her on the lips without permission. Bennet retweeted Boyland’s story earlier this week.
In addition to snowballing allegations of sexual harassment, Cuomo has been facing backlash from his handling of the nursing homes in Covid-19 pandemic after his secretary admitted that the Cuomo administration hid data on the nursing home cornoavirus death to not let the Trump administration score political points.
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Violent protests over the jailing of rapper Pablo Hasel resumed in Barcelona, reportedly leading to more than a dozen arrests as rioters torched a police van, threw objects at officers and damaged banks and other businesses.
Video footage posted Saturday on Twitter shows men in dark hoodies dousing a police van with flammable liquid to stoke a larger fire. El Mundo newspaper reported that a driver was inside the van as the rioters caused the fire to spread.
Video shot from another angle near the same scene shows people throwing bottles, flares and other objects at a group of police vehicles and spray-painting the vehicles with anarchist symbols.
A still photo by the Associated Press shows a hooded man spraying flammable liquid through the broken window of a bank to cause a fire inside to expand.
A protestor try to burn a bank branch after breaking the window following a protest condemning the arrest of rap singer Pablo Hasél in Barcelona, Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021. pic.twitter.com/hpt4D1HQ3u
Footage from another scene shows police moving quickly together to arrest a woman demonstrator in the street as she yells for help. The clip doesn't show what led up to her arrest.
Saturday's violence followed two relatively quiet nights in Barcelona, as the city got a break from the demonstrations. Protests began in Barcelona and Madrid after Hasel was arrested on February 16. The rapper, whose real name is Pablo Rivadulla, was jailed over a 2018 conviction. A court found that his social media posts and lyrics praised Spanish terrorist groups and mocked Spain's royalty, in violation of the country's so-called "gag law."
Facing public backlash over its alleged cancellation of Dr. Seuss on concern that his stories and illustrations are racist, a Virginia school district denied it banned the author but said it deprioritized his books.
The Loudon County Public Schools system near Washington, DC, clarified on Saturday that it merely downgraded Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) as the focus of annual "Read Across America Day" activities, brushing off reports that it cancelled the children’s author as “media rumour.”
Dating back more than two decades, the annual event falls on March 2, in recognition of the late Geisel's birthday. Dr. Seuss is the top-selling children's book author of all time.
Dr. Seuss books will continue to be available to students in Loudon County's libraries and classrooms, but the district said it has advised schools to "not connect Read Across America Day exclusively with Dr. Seuss' birthday." Research has revealed "strong racial undertones" in Dr. Seuss' writings and illustrations, which is contrary to the district's focus on "equity and culturally responsive instruction," Loudon County Public Schools said. The district added, "We continue to encourage our young readers to read all types of books that are inclusive, diverse and reflective of our student community."
The statement was issued after Fox News, the Daily Wire and other media outlets reported that the district had "cancelled" Dr. Seuss. While Dr. Seuss’ books have come under increased scrutiny in recent years, and have even been labelled “racist propaganda,” conservative critics of the revisionist agenda wasted no time in venting outrage at the rumoured ban on social media.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) alluded to a Dr. Seuss classic, "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" to take a jab at the progressives behind the crackdown. "One fish, two fish, red fish, really stupid left-wing censoring totalitarian asinine angry blue fish,” he tweeted on Saturday.
One fish,
two fish,
red fish,
really stupid left-wing censoring totalitarian asinine angry blue fish. https://t.co/Zz8z32hPJs
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, rolled out the red, blue and green carpet to disgruntled Virginians, suggesting they flee the Seuss-unfriendly state. "Hey, Virginia parents," Morrisey tweeted. "West Virginia welcomes you to move to our great state, where we don't ban Dr. Seuss books. Loudon County, Virginia, isn't far from the West Virginia line. Come over and check out the Mountain State."
Hey, Virginia parents: West Virginia welcomes you to move to our great state, where we don’t ban Dr. Seuss books.
Loudon County, VA isn’t far from the WV line — come over and check out the Mountain State! https://t.co/TT9EYY9Ya9
Conservative radio host Janet Parshall suggested that the move was an early sign spelling more censorship, imploring parents to speak out against the rumoured ban or be "silenced forever."
If parents don’t speak up now, they will be silenced forever...Virginia school system cancels Dr. Seuss, citing racial ‘undertones' in writings: report | Fox News https://t.co/Aex6YcP6jU
While Dr. Seuss remains hugely popular, boasting six of the 20 top-selling children’s books on Amazon.com, his words have become a source of controversy almost 30 years after his death.
Progressive activist group Learning for Justice, an offshoot of the Southern Poverty Law Center, has campaigned for schools to cancel Dr. Seuss. The group has cited research by Minnesota's St. Catherine University that alleged Dr. Seuss books are rife with "orientalism, anti-blackness and white supremacy." For example, the researchers speculated, the appearance of the Cat in "The Cat in the Hat" was influenced by "blackface performers," and he performed tricks for white children.
Scientists in the US and Italy claim to have created the world’s first temporary 'smart' tattoo using organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), which could revolutionize multiple fields, including sports science and food technology.
Researchers at UCL and the Italian Institute of Technology used the same basic principle as a temporary tattoo, which is transferred onto the skin by soaking and pressing, but combined it with OLED tech to produce the new devices.
When combined with other wearable technologies, the smart tattoos could emit light when an athlete is dehydrated or alert sunbathers of impending sunburn. They could also be used to alert when a product, such as food or medicine, has passed its expiration date.
"These could be for fashion–for instance, providing glowing tattoos and light-emitting fingernails,” says senior author of the research paper Professor Franco Cacialli (UCL Physics & Astronomy).
“In sports, they could be combined with a sweat sensor to signal dehydration.”
The prototype still needs work, the researchers acknowledge, including protecting it for longer-term use and preventing it from degrading too quickly.
They are also hoping to improve the device, which measures just 2.3 micrometers thick in total (one third the length of a single blood cell), with better batteries or super capacitors for longer life.
The device consists of an electroluminescent polymer, which emits light when stimulated electronically, situated between two electrodes. An insulating layer is then placed between the electrodes and the commercially-available tattoo paper.
“At the Italian Institute of Technology we have previously pioneered electrodes that we have tattooed onto people's skin that can be used to perform diagnostic tests such as electrocardiograms,” senior author Professor Virgilio Mattoli at the Italian Institute of Technology said, discussing the burgeoning smart-tattoo industry.
While other temporary ‘smart’ tattoo prototypes have been touted in recent years, they did not employ OLED technology which is more flexible and seamless.
OLED technology was first deployed in then-cutting-edge flatscreen TVs at the turn of the century and its use has since been greatly expanded.
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Ahead of his April boxing match with ex-UFC welterweight Ben Askren, internet prankster Jake Paul has teamed up with Evander Holyfield as the iconic ring veteran plots own path towards lucrative Mike Tyson rematch.
Paul, 24, will look to improve his professional record to 3-0 (without ever fighting a professional boxer, mind you) when he takes on respected mixed martial artist Askren on April 17, in what is the latest in a long line of 'celebrity boxing' matches to have captured the attention of the social media generation.
The YouTube star, whose brother Logan Paul is set to fight Floyd Mayweather later this year, has two knockouts on his record to date - the first coming against fellow YouTuber 'AnEsonGib' on what was Paul's professional debut. That was followed in November by a KO against former NBA star Nate Robinson on the undercard of the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones comeback fight.
And apparently eager to prove that he belongs in the ring with the best, Paul published a brief video to Instagram which shows him taking some notes from the legendary former heavyweight champion Holyfield.
Jake Paul training with former undisputed cruiserweight/ heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield ahead of his 3rd professional fight against Ben Askren on April 17th. @jakepaul@holyfieldpic.twitter.com/Oi1uOU5pqO
"Good luck [Jake Paul] on your upcoming fight," wrote the 58-year-old prizefighting great on Instagram.
Paul republished the footage, simply describing Holyfield as a "legend".
Holyfield is understood to be in talks to end his ring exile after a decade away from the sport ahead of a proposed third fight with former rival Mike Tyson.
The two most dominant American heavyweights of their era clashed twice in the 1990's - the second of which led to one of the most infamous moments in the sport's history when Tyson was disqualified for biting a chunk of Holyfield's ear off in 1997.
Now though, both men have mended fences and are eager to do battle one last time after Tyson ended his own 15-year hiatus from the boxing ring when he fought Roy Jones Jr. to an eight-round draw in an exhibition match in November - a fight which was reported to have generated somewhere north of $80 million pay-per-view revenue in the United States.
Dubai has been speculated as being the most likely host for the rumored fight.
Holyfield was also pictured in recent days training alongside another former world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko which prompted further speculation that details of his mooted Tyson fight will be released soon.
And as for Jake Paul, his own test in the ring comes in less than two months time - and he will no doubt be relying on some of the tricks he has learned from Holyfield to dispatch former US Olympia Askren, a fighter who boasts an exemplary grappling pedigree but whose striking has often been called into question by fans of mixed martial arts.
The largest US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which is getting ready to go public, has named bitcoin’s developer, known to the world as Satoshi Nakamoto, as one of the major risks to its business.
In its IPO filing sent to the Securities Exchange Commission earlier this week, Coinbase listed Nakamoto, an individual creator or a group of people thought to be behind the creation of the world's largest cryptocurrency, as one of the recipients of the document.
However, the same anonymous inventor could pose a risk to the entire “cryptoeconomy.” According to the filing, if the identity is revealed or if Nakamoto’s bitcoins are transferred, the prices of the most valued digital coins, bitcoin and ethereum, may deteriorate.
The creator, or a group of creators, are believed to hold around 1.1 million bitcoin, which account for around five percent of all bitcoins that can be ever mined. At bitcoin's current value, Nakamoto's fortune could exceed $50 billion, making him almost as rich as Chinese entrepreneur and the founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma.
Since Nakamoto published the white paper titled ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’ in 2008, various theories have emerged about his identity. However, little is still known about him.
A vast iceberg measuring 1270 square km, or roughly 20 times the size of Manhattan, has broken off the 150-meter thick Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica roughly a decade after a crack was detected.
Such ‘calving’ events are part of the normal life cycle of polar ice shelves and there is currently no evidence that climate change played a role, according to researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
Dramatic footage shot by a BAS surveillance aircraft shows the extent of the vast chasm that opened up and eventually broke through the shelf on Friday.
The BAS Halley Research Station, which is located on the vast ice shelf, is unlikely to be affected by the calving as they moved its location several years ago in anticipation of impending, large-scale calving events.
A 12-person team working at the station left in mid-February as the facility is now closed for the Antarctic winter, during which time it’s pitch black, and the temperature often falls below minus 50 degrees Celsius (or -58 Fahrenheit).
“We monitor the ice shelf daily using an automated network of high-precision GPS instruments that surround the station, these measure how the ice shelf is deforming and moving,” Professor Dame Jane Francis, the director of British Antarctic Survey, said in a press release, adding that researchers avail of advanced satellite data and imagery from the ESA, NASA and the German satellite TerraSAR-X to monitor activity across the ice shelf.
As for what’s to come, Francis says the picture is unclear and that the giant iceberg could go either way.
“Over [the] coming weeks or months, the iceberg may move away; or it could run aground and remain close to Brunt Ice Shelf.”
