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☆ Here's what we know about Hamilton 68, the Russian online influence tracker called into question by the 'Twitter Files'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Sonam Sheth | Michelle Mark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

A recent "Twitter Files" drop revealed deep concerns among Twitter executives about a database that claimed to track Russian propaganda in "near real time." The now defunct database, Hamilton 68, was widely cited by media outlets, including Insider, before it was shut down in 2018. He wrote that based on his analysis, Hamilton 68 "falsely accuses a bunch of legitimate, right-leaning accounts of being Russian bots." Berger and ASD did not respond to a request to provide Insider with the list of accounts Hamilton 68 tracked. Roth also claimed, after reverse-engineering the list of accounts that Hamilton 68 tracked, that they were "neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots."

☆ China says proposed U.S. ban on Chinese buying U.S. property violates market rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The United States is violating the principles of market economy and international trade rules in considering a ban on Chinese citizens buying property in the United States, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday. "Generalizing the concept of national security and politicising economic, trade and investment issues violate the rules of market economy and international trade rules," spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing. Mao was responding to a question when asked about Texas and Florida considering a ban on Chinese citizens in the United States from buying property. Over the years, Chinese enterprises have invested in the United States and made important contributions to promoting domestic employment and economic development in the United States," said Mao. The move comes as the United States proposes increased retaliatory measures after a Chinese spy balloon was shot down after entering U.S. airspace.

☆ China issues heavy fog warnings, some shipping suspended
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING, Feb 7 (Reuters) - China issued dangerous heavy fog warnings for many regions and shipping was suspended in the Qiongzhou Strait, an important economic transport hub near Hainan, according to state and local media on Tuesday. China has a four-tier, color-coded weather-warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue. Multiple areas in China's southeastern Fujian also issued alerts for heavy fog, with ferry crossings between Xiamen and Zhangzhou suspended, according to CCTV. Fog will continue in the mornings and evenings of Qiongzhou Strait until Friday, and conditions for navigation will be poor, CCTV reported citing the national weather forecast bureau. In December, one person was killed when more than 200 vehicles were involved in a pile-up on a bridge in China's central Zhengzhou city due to heavy fog.

Beijing condemned the shooting down of the balloon as an "obvious overreaction" and urged Washington to show restraint. Some U.S. Republicans have questioned why the balloon was not shot down before it was allowed to travel across the United States. Senior U.S. officials have offered to brief former Trump administration officials on the details of what the White House said were three China balloon overflights when Donald Trump was president. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China learned its balloon had drifted over the United States after being notified by Washington. On Sunday, Colombia's military said it sighted an airborne object similar to a balloon after the Pentagon said on Friday another Chinese balloon was flying over Latin America.

☆ U.S. military searches for balloon remnants as China urges restraint
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A successful recovery could potentially give the United States insight into China's spying capabilities, though U.S. officials have downplayed the balloon's impact on national security. A U.S. fighter jet shot down the balloon in the Atlantic off South Carolina on Saturday, a response China described as an "obvious overreaction". Brokerage ING said in a Monday note that the incident could exacerbate the "tech war" and would have negative near-term impact on China's yuan currency. "This new risk is more of a long-term risk than an imminent one," ING said. China's yuan fell to a low of 6.8077 per dollar in early Monday trading, touching the weakest level in nearly a month.

☆ China 'seriously concerned' about report U.S. has halted approvals of exports to Huawei
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BEIJING, Jan 31 (Reuters) - China is seriously concerned about a report that the United States has stopped approving licences for U.S. companies to export items to tech giant Huawei, a foreign minsitry spokesperson said on Tuesday. "We are closely following relevant developments," Mao Ning told a regular news briefing in response to a query on the export curbs. read moreReporting by Yew Lun Tian; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China foreign minister seeks stronger economic ties with Saudi Arabia
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Jan 31 (Reuters) - China's new foreign minister Qin Gang wants to build stronger ties with Saudi Arabia and set up a China-Gulf free trade zone "as soon as possible", according to a ministry statement published late on Monday. In addition, Qin pressed for continuously strengthening the China-Gulf strategic partnership and building "the China-Gulf Free Trade Zone as soon as possible". Prince Faisal said that Saudi Arabia regards relations with China as an important cornerstone of foreign relations, and that Saudi Arabia fully adheres to the one-China principle, according to the statement from the Chinese foreign ministry. Qin, who just wrapped up a tour to several African countries, also had telephone conversations with Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra and Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafierro, according to state media. Reporting by Liz Lee; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Himani SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China says COVID situation at 'low level' after holiday
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Travel domestically as well as in and out of China during the holiday period rose sharply as millions boarded planes, trains, buses and highways after Beijing abruptly dismantled an almost three-year zero-COVID policy in early December. China's sudden relaxation of COVID restrictions was followed by a wave of infections across its 1.4 billion population. Last week, however, the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention said there was no significant rebound in cases during the holiday, the number of severe COVID cases and deaths had dropped, and no new mutant strains had been identified. The CDC also said last week critically ill COVID cases in China fell 72% from a peak early this month while daily deaths among COVID patients in hospitals dropped 79% from their peak. Reporting by Ethan Wang and Bernard Orr; Editing by Jacqueline WongOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Atlanta protest against shooting death of activist briefly turns violent
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Cheney Orr | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Cheney OrrATLANTA, Jan 21 (Reuters) - A protest in Atlanta briefly turned violent on Saturday as demonstrators set a police car on fire and smashed windows of buildings. A Reuters photographer saw a protester who was carrying a banner being handcuffed by law enforcement. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), Teran shot a state trooper and was shot and killed by officers returning fire. On Friday, GBI released a photo of a handgun police say was in Teran's possession at the time of the shooting. Reporting by Cheney Orr in Atlanta, writing by Maria Caspani, Editing by David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/3] A medical worker helps a patient receiving treatment at the emergency department of a hospital, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China January 17, 2023. Some health experts expect more than one million people will die from the disease in China this year, with British-based health data firm Airfinity forecasting COVID fatalities could hit 36,000 a day next week. Hospitalisations rose by 70% on the previous week to 63,307, according to the WHO, citing data submitted by Beijing. China said last Saturday that nearly 60,000 people with COVID had died in hospital between Dec. 8 and Jan. 12 - a roughly 10-fold increase from previous disclosures. However, that number excludes those who died at home, and some doctors in China have said they are discouraged from putting COVID on death certificates.

China said last Saturday that nearly 60,000 people with COVID died in hospitals between Dec. 8 and Jan. 12 - a roughly ten-fold increase from previous disclosures. However, that number excludes those who die at home, and some doctors in China have said they are discouraged from putting COVID on death certificates. China's chaotic exit from a regime of mass lockdowns, travel restrictions and frequent COVID testing, has also prompted a run on drugs as people fend for themselves against the disease. To meet soaring demand, drugmakers in China are ramping up operations to triple their capacity to make key fever and cough medicines, the state-run China Daily reported on Thursday. Medical facilities are relatively weak in rural areas, thus prevention is difficult and the task is arduous," Xi said, adding that the elderly were a top priority.

☆ NHL roundup: Steven Stamkos nets No. 500 as part of hat trick
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY SportsJanuary 19 - Steven Stamkos recorded a hat trick that included his 500th NHL goal, leading the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-2 road win over the host Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday. With the three goals, Stamkos moves into a tie for 45th on the all-time goals list, joining Hall of Famer Joe Mullen with 502 career goals. 501 for Stamkos came less than 10 minutes later, and he completed the hat trick with an empty-netter late in the third period. Nick Bonino had a goal and an assist and Timo Meier, Steven Lorentz and Logan Couture also scored goals for the Sharks. Jason Robertson, Ty Dellandrea and Radek Faksa scored goals for Dallas, Miro Heiskanen added two assists and Jake Oettinger stopped 23 shots.

☆ Millions of Chinese workers on the move ahead of Friday travel peak
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Bernard Orr | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] A medical worker helps a patient receiving treatment at the emergency department of a hospital, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China January 17, 2023. Travellers bustled through railway stations and subways in Beijing and Shanghai, many ferrying large wheeled suitcases and boxes stuffed with food and gifts. The infection rate in the southern city of Guangzhou, capital of China's most populous province, has now passed 85%, local health officials announced on Wednesday. Clinics in rural villages and towns are now being fitted with oxygenators, and medical vehicles have also been deployed to isolated areas. Doctors in both public and private hospitals were being actively discouraged from attributing deaths to COVID, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

☆ Women living in states with abortion bans suffer greater economic insecurity
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Vanessa Yurkevich | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Women living in states that restrict or ban abortion face greater economic insecurity than those living in states where they have access, new research finds. “In many of these states, especially the states which have banned abortion, many of the women who are facing economic challenges already are also women of color,” she said. Raising the minimum wage is a powerful tool that has been known to have significant impact on closing racial income gaps. But nearly two-thirds of abortion restrictive states have a $7.25 minimum wage, the lowest legal hourly wage for most workers in the United States. The average minimum wage across the 26 states is $8.17, lower than the average $11.92 for states with no restrictions.

☆ China's Lunar New Year travel to boost economy after COVID crunch
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

While many analysts say a return to economic normality will be gradual as the impact of COVID weakens, some see the Lunar New Year as a welcome early consumption boost. But with so many people on the move, health experts fear a deepening of the COVID outbreak, leaving the elderly in rural villages particularly vulnerable. Reuters reported on Tuesday that doctors in both public and private hospitals were being actively discouraged from attributing deaths to COVID. State media reported that some 390,000 passengers were expected to travel from Shanghai train stations on Tuesday alone for what is known as the Spring Festival holiday - seen as the world's largest annual mass migration before COVID. As travellers moved through stations in Shanghai, China's largest city, some expressed optimism despite the risks.

☆ China's Lunar New Year travel offers spark of economic rebound from COVID crunch
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

While many analysts say a return to economic normality will be gradual as the impact of COVID weakens, some see the Lunar New Year as a welcome early consumption boost. But even as workers move out, health experts fear a broadening and deepening of its COVID outbreak, leaving the elderly in rural villages particularly vulnerable. The WHO earlier welcomed Saturday's announcement after last week warning that China was heavily under-reporting deaths from the virus. "This is especially important during periods of surges when the health system is severely constrained," the statement said on Monday. As travellers moved through stations in Shanghai, China's largest city, some expressed optimism despite the risks.

☆ Chinese foreign ministry welcomes visit by U.S. Secretary Blinken
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING, Jan 17 (Reuters) - China welcomes a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the country, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said at a regular news briefing on Tuesday. "China welcomes Secretary of State Blinken's visit to China. Politico reported that Blinken will meet in Beijing with his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, on Feb. 5-6. Both leaders had agreed that Blinken would visit China to follow up on their discussions, according to the White House, although no specific date was mentioned then. Last month, a delegation of senior U.S. officials held talks with China's Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng in Langfang, a city neighbouring Beijing, in order to discuss Blinken's visit, according to the U.S. State Department.

After three years of strict and suffocating anti-virus controls, China in early December abruptly abandoned its "zero COVID" policy, letting the virus run freely through its 1.4 billion population. Several experts forecast more than one million people in China will die from the disease this year. TRAVEL RUSHBeijing's main rail station has been packed with passengers leaving the capital in recent days, according to Reuters witnesses. Meanwhile, daily arrivals in the gambling hub of Macau exceeded 55,000 on Saturday, the highest daily arrivals since the pandemic began. China's transport ministry has said it expects more than 2 billion trips in the weeks around the holidays.

☆ China's exports, imports shrink again in Dec on weakening global demand
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

SummarySummary Companies China's Dec exports worst since Feb 2020, slightly better than forecastImports tumble by smaller margin amid lacklustre demandDomestic demand should slowly recover after zero-COVID scrappedExport outlook gloomy in 2023, major threat to China's growthBEIJING, Jan 13 (Reuters) - China's exports shrank sharply in December as global demand cooled, missing their typical year-end bounce, while imports tumbled again as surging COVID-19 infections and a property downturn weighed heavily on domestic demand. WEAK GLOBAL DEMAND COULD TEMPER ECONOMIC RECOVERYChina's commerce ministry said on Thursday that slowing external demand and the rising risks of a global recession are posing the biggest pressures to the country's trade stabilisation, leaving "arduous tasks." REBOUNDAnalysts polled by Reuters expect China's economic growth to rebound to 4.9% in 2023, before steadying in 2024, a Reuters poll showed. Jin Chaofeng, whose company in the east coast city of Hangzhou exports outdoor rattan furniture, said he has no market expansion or hiring plans for 2023 as he remains cautious about the global demand outlook. "With the lifting of COVID curbs, domestic demand is expected to improve but not for exports...," he said.

The UN agency said China was heavily under-reporting deaths from COVID, although it is now providing more information on its outbreak. China's foreign ministry said the country's health officials have held five technical exchanges with the WHO over the past month and have been transparent. Concerns over data transparency were among the factors that prompted more than a dozen countries to demand pre-departure COVID tests from travellers arriving from China. Tensions escalated this week with South Korea and Japan, with China retaliating by suspending short-term visas for their nationals. Still, traffic data and other indicators have not yet fully recovered to levels of just a few months ago.

☆ Factbox: Countries mandate COVID tests for China travellers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

SWEDENSweden will require travellers from China to show they have tested negative for COVID before they can enter the country, the government said. FRANCEFrance will require travellers from China to provide a negative COVID test result less than 48 hours before departure. INDIAThe country has mandated a COVID-19 negative test report for travellers arriving from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand. CANADAAir travellers to Canada from China must test negative for COVID-19 no more than two days before departure, Ottawa said. SPAINSpain will require a negative COVID-19 test or a full course of vaccination against the disease upon arrival for travellers from China.

That abrupt U-turn unleashed COVID on a 1.4 billion population which has been shielded from the virus since it first erupted in China's Wuhan city in 2019. The outbreak is now overwhelming hospitals and crematoriums as it rips through the population, where many elderly are still not fully vaccinated. "This is a very pertinent suggestion, return to the home town...or put the health of the elderly first," wrote one user. The country did not report COVID fatalities data on Tuesday and Wednesday. But concerns about China's outbreak has prompted more than a dozen countries to demand negative COVID test results from people arriving from China.

☆ China condemns Kabul attack, hopes Afghan govt can protect citizens of all countries
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BEIJING, Jan 12 (Reuters) - China strongly condemns the Kabul attack and hopes the Afghan government can protect citizens from all countries, including Chinese nationals, the Chinese foreign ministry said at a regular daily briefing on Thursday. According to Reuters, a suicide bomber killed at least five people outside the Afghan foreign ministry on Wednesday, police said, and a nearby hospital said over 40 people were wounded. "As far as we know there are not many killed or injured in this terrorist attack," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin when asked a question about the blast that reportedly was targeting a Chinese delegation. Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

REUTERS/Tingshu WangBEIJING, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Chinese state media defended on Wednesday the retaliatory measures against South Korea and Japan over their COVID-19 travel curbs as "reasonable", while Chinese tourists decried Seoul's "insulting" treatment on social media. South Korea, Japan, the United States and more than a dozen other countries imposed at the start of the year requirements for pre-departure negative test results from visitors from China. 'INSULTING'Chinese social media anger mainly targeted South Korea, whose border measures are the strictest among the countries that announced new rules. Global Times reserved a separate article for South Korea, saying the measures made Chinese people suspicious that Seoul was putting up a "political show." Annual spending by Chinese tourists abroad reached $250 billion before the pandemic, with South Korea and Japan among the top shopping destinations.

☆ Illinois bans semiautomatic gun sales, legal challenge expected
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 11 (Reuters) - Illinois has banned the sale of many common kinds of semiautomatic guns with immediate effect in response to a massacre at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park last year and other mass shootings. The new law, which Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed on Tuesday evening, bans selling many kinds of weapons that automatically load the next bullet after a shot, including semiautomatic rifles and pistols with detachable magazines. The law lists dozens of popular gun brands made by U.S. gun makers. Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said the law affects nearly 2.5 million gun owners in the state and his group would sue to reverse the ban. Brady, a national group advocating against gun violence, said the ban would save lives.

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