The resumption of student visa applications at U.S. missions in China got off to an acrimonious start this week when netizens took exception to an American embassy social media post they interpreted as likening Chinese students to dogs.Former U.S. President Donald Trump, whose time in office was marked by tense relations in Beijing, had in January last year barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who were in China from entering the United States after the coronavirus outbreak.On the Twitter-like Weibo service on Wednesday, the visa section of the U.S. embassy in China asked students what they were waiting for after the…
Author: Mike Harrison
The administrations of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) have announced to enforce a complete lockdown in their respective regions from May 8 to 15 to contain the spread of coronavirus during the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays in Pakistan, a media report said on Thursday.The announcements come as the country continues to witness a tremendous surge in the number of the coronavirus despite the measures being taken by the government, the Express Tribune reported.”The public transport, tourist destinations, parks, business and shopping malls and markets will remain closed during the eight-day lockdown,” Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid said.She said to…
Cascade Investment, the holding company created by Bill Gates, transferred stock in two of Mexico’s largest companies to Melinda French Gates, bringing the total amount she’s received in the past few days to more than $2 billion.Cascade moved stock worth more than $500 million in Coca-Cola Femsa and Grupo Televisa to her control, according to regulatory filings dated May 3, the same day the Gateses announced they were ending their 27-year marriage. Cascade shifted about $1.8 billion of shares in Canadian National Railway Co. and AutoNation Inc. this week to French Gates, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.Their separation is expected to involve…
The European Union is willing to discuss a proposal, now backed by the United States, to waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.The head of the EU executive said the bloc’s vaccination effort was accelerating, with 30 Europeans inoculated per second, while exporting more than 200 million vaccine doses to the rest of the world.”The EU is also ready to discuss any proposals that address the crisis in an effective and pragmatic manner,” von der Leyen said in a speech to the European University Institute in Florence.”That’s why we are…
Western brands, Nike and Adidas saw a principal decrease in sales in China. The sudden decline in the marketability of the sportswear companies was borne out of the Chinese consumer’s call to boycott them after they accused the Xinjiang region of producing cotton by forcing the Uyghur people into labor. German researcher Adrian Zens has claimed that slavery exists in the autonomous region. The satellite imagery shows that the textile factories are placed near the “re-education sites.” However, Beijing kept on refuting the claims after stating that the “move” was a part to alleviate poverty in the said place. Nike…
(Photo : Pixabay/Pexels ) Contrary to the common assumption that tech use is harmful to children, an Oxford research published on Tuesday says it is not factual. Contrary to the common assumption that tech use is harmful to children, an Oxford research published on Tuesday says it is not factual. Alarmingly, some laws or even as simple as household rules are derived from the said idea. According to the Oxford Internet Institute, there is “little evidence” to associate teen technology use with mental health problems. About 400,000 adolescents, aged 10 to 15, from the United States and the United Kingdom…
During the third day of the benchmark trial, Epic Games said that its imposed ban on rule-breakers is true which Apple finds shady. The Cupertino-based company has concluded that it was one of the reasons why it deleted the “Fortnite” in the App Store. In the video game company’s defense, Andrew Grant, Epic’s technical director admitted that the developers could not bring “Fortnite” for web users. Epic Confesses Rule-Breaker Ban During Antitrust Trial (Photo : Toni Cuenca from Pexels) According to a report by AppleInsider on Wednesday, May 5, the lawyers of Apple Inc. have interrogated Epic about the agreements…
China “indefinitely” suspended on Thursday all activity under a China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue, its state economic planner said, the latest setback for strained relations between the two countries.”Recently, some Australian Commonwealth Government officials launched a series of measures to disrupt the normal exchanges and cooperation between China and Australia out of Cold War mindset and ideological discrimination,” China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a short statement on the decision.The commission did not say in the statement what specific measures prompted the action.The Australian dollar fell sharply on the news, and was as low as 0.7701 to the…
If India is in dire straits, then the world is in dire straits, the head of a top business advocacy group has said, as the US corporate sector mounted an unprecedented effort to help India successfully fight the Covid-19 pandemic.“The speed with which the Covid crisis in India has escalated and ravaged the entire country, it has created a sense of urgency in the corporate community,” Nisha Desai Biswal, president of US India Business Council told PTI in an interview.She said that the US companies were probably the first to realise that things were moving in a perilous direction, as…
Urian B., Tech Times 06 May 2021, 01:05 am (Photo : Screenshot From Commons.Wikipedia.org) Blizzard Players Drop by 29% but Company Still Sees Rise in Sales: Why? Blizzard Q1 reports show a 29% drop in player base over the course of the last three years. Despite the drop in users, financially, the company was still able to grow and do well despite players leaving. Blizzard Increase in Sales According to the company’s financial report, Blizzard sales were able to hit $2.28 billion from the previous $1.79 billion in Q1 of 2020. With the new games coming out and a lot…