Ottawa will impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in response to President Donald Trump’s decision to restore a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian aluminum imports.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the measures Thursday evening hours after Trump said he would impose the tariffs during a campaign speech at a Whirlpool factory in Ohio, citing national security concerns.
Freeland, in a statement, said Canada “intends to swiftly impose dollar-for-dollar countermeasures” in response.
China made another breakthrough in battling the coronavirus pandemic, with China National Biotec Group (CNBG) announcing Wednesday that an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine production workshop of its affiliated Beijing institute of biological products, the first and largest of its kind in the world, has passed national examination.
The facility was granted a production certificate and it is now available for use, CNBG, an affiliate of the state-run China National Pharmaceutical Group, said in a statement sent to the Global Times.
The Beijing institute took only two months to finish building the facility on April 15. Related government departments conducted a thorough biosecurity examination of the production workshop in July, and concluded the facility met national standards, and could go into operation for mass production of COVID-19 vaccines, read the statement.
After the Beijing manufacturing workshop and another production facility belonging to CNBG’s Wuhan institute of biological products begin operations, CNBG will be capable of ensuring an annual capacity of 220 million doses of vaccines, according to its developer.
The 220 million doses are large to first immunize medical staff and personnel working at airports and border checkpoints, Tao Lina, a Shanghai-based vaccine researcher, told the Global Times Wednesday.
“It is possible that China could have a COVID-19 vaccine as early as the end of October as some domestically made COVID-19 vaccines have entered phase three clinical trials and needs about a month to observe their effects on samples,” Tao said.
After securing a certain amount of vaccine for China’s strategic reserves, exports can be considered, Tao noted, adding countries such as the Philippines and Brazil are potential destinations.
Sinopharm is launching the fourth major COVID-19 vaccine trial in Brazil and will seek regulatory approval soon, Reuters reported on July 30.
The company’s candidate vaccine is already being tested in the United Arab Emirates with 15,000 local volunteers, including UAE nationals and expatriates there, since middle July.
In another major step, German firm BioNTech and its Chinese partner Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical announced Wednesday that 72 trial participants have been dosed with BNT162b1, a COVID-19 vaccine candidate based on BioNTech’s mRNA technology, following the Chinese regulators’ examination and approval. The two firms are jointly developing the coronavirus vaccine candidate in China too.
In another sign of progress, scientists from the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions announced Monday a breakthrough in the development of a recombinant COVID-19 vaccine, envisioning the vaccine’s mass production to be feasible at a low cost in the future.
A spokesperson for Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in late July that China has 13 firms that have begun capacity building for COVID-19 vaccines, and nine have been approved to start clinical trials.
Four of the nine firms are pushing for an inactivated vaccine technical route, three are focusing on nucleic acid vaccines, one is based on adenovirus vector vaccines and one has opted for recombinant protein vaccines, media reports say.
The nation’s advances in the research and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines have been translated into remarkable gains in vaccine-related stocks on the A-share market.
Shares in the Shanghai-listed Fosun Pharmaceutical soared by the 10 percent daily trading limit to close at 74.01 yuan Wednesday, having rallied 182 percent for the year.
In another sign that the nation’s capital market is expected to fund its biotech capability, Hong Kong-traded CanSino Biologics is set to debut in the STAR Market tech board in Shanghai , making the vaccine maker the first dual-listed vaccine company in China .
CanSino Biologics revealed in late June that a recombinant novel COVID-19 vaccine it developed with a military research team has been granted a special one-year military drug approval.
Swan: “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the US is really bad. Much worse than Germany, South Korea, et cetera.”
Trump: “You can’t – you can’t do that.”
Swan: “Why can’t I do that?”
Trump: “You have to go by, you have to go by – look. Here is the United States – you have to go by the cases. The cases of death.”
Swan: “Why not as a proportion of population?”
Trump: “What it says is when you have somebody, where there’s a case, the people that live from those cases.”
Swan: “Sure. It’s surely a relevant statistic to say if the US has X population and X percentage of death of that population, opposed to some-”
Trump: “No, because you have to go by the cases.”
Swan: “In South Korea, for example – 51 million population, 300 deaths. It’s like, it’s crazy compared to other countries.”
Trump: “You don’t know that. You don’t know that.”
Swan: “I do. You think they’re faking their statistics? South Korea?”
Trump: “Ahhhhh, I won’t get into that, because I have a very good relationship with the country. But you don’t know that. They have spikes.”
Swan: “Germany, low 9000s?”
Trump: “Here’s one right here, United States. The number of cases – have a look. We’re last. Meaning we’re first.”
Mr Trump was brandishing another chart at this point.
Swan: “Last? I don’t know what we’re first in.”
Trump: “Take a look, it’s cases. And we have cases because of the testing.”
Swan: “I mean, a thousand Americans are dying a day. But I understand, on cases, it’s different.”
Trump: “No but you’re not reporting it correctly, Jonathan.”
This is the first country in Europe that will adopt this complex, which experts compare in parameters with the American “Patriot III”. The information is contained in the company’s annual report and was first noticed by the local media Balkanska bezbednosna mreza.
According to the report, these are 3 batteries from this complex, which has a range of 100 km and hits targets at an altitude of 50 to 27 thousand meters.
FK-3 is the export option of the Chinese medium-range system HQ-22, which was first shown in 2016 at the Zhuhai Air Show.
中国FK-3防空导弹系统是红旗-22的外贸版本
The U.S. Embassy in Belgrade issued a warning that “purchasing defense equipment is supposed to be a sovereign decision of a country, yet the Serbian government should understand the ‘short- and long-term risks and costs of doing business with Chinese companies.'”
”The content of Serbia’s defense procurement should be consistent with the Serbian side’s previously announced broader policy goal of EU membership,” the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade added, adding that “defense suppliers from countries other than China are well positioned to provide alternative equipment and, in terms of both quality and cost, are It can be compared to Chinese weapons.”
Sichuan Chengdu Hua Xi Insect Museum curator Zhao Li recently found a giant katydid 螽（音“中”）斯 with a body length of 8cm in Qingcheng Mountain 青城山, which is twice as big as the common katydids of Sichuan past, refreshing the record of Sichuan’s largest katydid.
”Its wings look very broad from the front and back, more like a leaf,” The katydid is the largest katydid in Sichuan, and the largest katydid in China is the giant leaf katydid 巨拟叶螽
giant leaf katydid 巨拟叶螽
from Xishuangbanna 西双版纳 , which can be more than 12.5cm in length.
Zhao Li introduced, this katydid belongs to the subfamily Pseudophyllinae of Arabidopsis katydids, belongs to the insectoid Insecta Orthoptera Orthoptera katydids Tettigoniidae. currently the world records 19 families 260 genera (subgenera) 998 species (subspecies), mainly distributed in the neotropics, paleotropics and subtropics. “A total of 16 genera and 39 species (subspecies) have been recorded in the Chinese subfamily Orthoptera Tettigoniidae.” “All the katydids found in the Sichuan region in the past were small and medium-sized species, the largest being the large katydid that is no more than 7cm in length,” Zhao Li said, “This mountain subleaf katydid has a very fat abdomen, while the abdomen volume of the large katydid with a length of 7cm is only a fraction of its size.” Compared to the carnivorous katydids, the mountain subleaf katydid is a ‘gentle giant’ that is vegetarian and catches insects.” Zhao Li said that when reared so far, it has been found that it not only feeds on the leaves of the Nanmu tree 楠木树 , but also the leaves of plants in the chitin 壳斗科 family.
Nocturnal katydids lay eggs on tree trunks.
”This mountain subleaf katydid is nocturnal and hides in the canopy layer during the day and only goes to the trunk at night to lay its eggs, so its presence is rarely known.” When Zhao Li found it, it was on the trunk of a Nanmu tree , using a spawner to burrow into the bark to lay its eggs.
Nanmu is a very tall tree, reaching up to more than 30 meters in height and up to 1 meter in diameter at breast height. “Because this katydid mimics the leaves of the Nanmu tree, it hides in the tree during the day and won’t be noticed.”
Zhao Li lamented that the giant katydid has not been found because it is too rare, “I’ve seen its limbs before in Jiulonggou九龙沟 and Xiling Snow Mountain 西岭雪山 . All of them are wings or heads left over from being eaten by birds.”
The head of a mountain subleaf katydid. Chengdu Huaxi Insect Museum for a picture of the head of a mountain Asian leaf katydid .
It is known that katydids lay their eggs on the shallow surface of the soil and some larvae die if they can’t get out of the soil, so will the mountain leaf katydid survive if it lays its eggs in the bark of a tree?
”It has a very specific way of laying its eggs and I think the purpose of laying its eggs in the bark is to keep them moist. Also the bark effectively protects its eggs from being damaged by other things.” Zhao Li said the insects have a low survival rate, so they use a strategy of laying large numbers of eggs. “Most katydids have a short lifespan, hatching in the spring and dying at the end of October. However, with artificial warmth, some species of katydids can live until the following spring.”
The Space X Starship SN5 prototype completed its first ever 150-meter-high test flight in South Texas, US, on Wed. “Mars is looking real” Elon Musk tweeted after the flight. Looks like a fake, a large empty shell powered by a single engine, it is not carrying any weight.
Authorities have traced to a 2,750-ton stash of explosive ammonium nitrate in a warehouse by the port (certainly not an Israeli missile, Lebanese and Israeli authorities as well as Hezbollah have stressed).
Though rumors and speculation of a potential foul play swirled on social media following the explosion, both the Israeli military and the Hezbollah militant group have denied any involvement, while Lebanese officials have also brushed aside suggestions of an Israeli rocket attack. Instead, the head of the country’s General Security Directorate, Abbas Ibrahim, said an “incident” at a chemical depot set off the blast, suggesting it was accidental.
Some 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate – a chemical commonly used in fertilizers, but also in explosives – had been improperly stored at the port warehouse since 2014, President Michel Aoun said in a tweet, calling it “unacceptable” while vowing that those responsible would face the “most severe penalties.” President Trump has claimed the blast that rocked Beirut was likely an “attack,” citing US military officials who “seem to believe” the explosion was not accidental.
The US consulate in Hong Kong and Macao tops social media polls on the “US consulate in China most likely to be closed,” after the US asked the Chinese consulate in Houston to close, which observers said reflects the Chinese public’s anger over US meddling in Hong Kong affairs and a warning to American “intelligence hegemony.”
Although the chance of closing the consulate in Hong Kong as a countermeasure may be remote, analysts noted that it would be perfect timing for China to clean up “redundant employees” in the US consulate doing intelligence work.
Observers estimated the US consulate has more than 1,100 employees. In 2019 during the peak of Hong Kong riots, the number of employees was estimated to top 1,600, while employees of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region were fewer than 200.
政府宣布因應新冠肺炎疫情押後立法會換屆選舉至明年9月舉行。惟在宣布押後選舉前，有12名參選人被選舉主任裁定提名無效，取消參選資格(DQ)，其中包括公民黨4名參選人。有讀者提供片段，顯示在今日(4日)下午約3時，美國駐港澳總領事館總領事史墨客 Hanscom Smith ，到訪公民黨主席梁家傑位於中環太子大廈的律師樓，而該黨立法會議員楊岳橋亦有出席會面。在此敏感時刻，實在惹人遐想。
Huawei has ordered more than 120 million chips from MediaTek.
It is a win-win move, as Huawei’s chip subsidiary HiSilicon may risk “finding nowhere to produce high-end chips,” so the Chinese firm has to diversify its chip supplies. It happens that MediaTek’s 5G chips are “not bad,” a Huawei follower surnamed Jiang told the Global Times Tuesday.
On the other hand, MediaTek will also stand out among competitors with orders from such a big customer as Huawei, Jiang said.
If the deal is true and assuming that Huawei could ship about 180 million mobile phones this year, MediaTek’s market share is more than two-thirds, far better than its US counterpart Qualcomm, media reports estimated.
The move also comes as Huawei has reached a deal with US chip firm Qualcomm to settle a patent dispute last week. Huawei will pay Qualcomm $1.8 billion for back royalties owed for 2019 and for the first six months of this year under the new global patent license agreement. The new deal also includes a cross license granting back rights to certain Huawei patents, covering sales beginning January 1, Qualcomm said.
Chinese battery maker CATL announced on Wed it will become a major battery supplier for MercedesBenz’s next generation of electric powered vehicles.
Mercedes-Benz and Chinese battery manufacturer CATL today announced a “major” partnership to “create cutting-edge battery technology” and supply batteries for the upcoming EQS electric car.
Over the last few years, CATL has emerged as the leading battery supplier for electric automakers, not just in China, but around the world.
Now they are adding Mercedes-Benz to the long list of global auto partners.
Mercedes-Benz and CATL announced that they have entered “the next stage of their strategic partnership and will create cutting-edge battery technology in support of the high-volume electrification of the Mercedes-Benz model portfolio.”
The two companies say that the agreement covers “the full range of battery technologies, from cells across modules for Mercedes-Benz Cars to entire battery systems for Mercedes-Benz Vans in promising innovative technology configurations.”
