In preparation for the summer Olympics in 2008, the authorities in Beijing, the host city and China’s capital, launched a campaign to teach English to residents likely to come in contact with foreign visitors. Police, transit workers and hotel staff were among those targeted. One aim was to have 80% Read more…
The CDC has confirmed the first case of severe bird flu in the United States. Louisiana health officials initially reported the infection last week, saying a person was hospitalized after being exposed to sick and dead birds in backyard flocks. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shared Read more…
U.S. authorities are investigating Chinese router manufacturer TP-Link over national security risks and considering banning its devices, citing sources familiar with the matter. The Commerce, Defense and Justice departments have launched separate probes into the company, which controls approximately 65% of the U.S. home and small business router market. Microsoft Read more…
Russia has reportedly cut some regions of the country off from the rest of the world’s internet for a day, effectively siloing them, according to reports from European and Russian news outlets reshared by the US nonprofit Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and Western news outlets. Russia’s communications Read more…
China’s high-speed rail network, which has tripled to nearly 30,000 miles under President Xi Jinping’s leadership, faces mounting financial challenges amid aggressive expansion plans. China State Railway Group, the national operator, has accumulated nearly $1 trillion in debt and liabilities, requiring $25 billion annually for debt service. Despite this, plans Read more…
United Nations members gathered this week in Busan, South Korea to negotiate the first treaty reducing plastic pollution. But Politico reports that “talks collapsed late Sunday after negotiators failed to resolve their differences and agree on a global plastic treaty. At the heart of the disagreement was a refusal by Read more…
Astronomers have discovered a supermassive black hole in the early Universe devouring matter at over 40 times the Eddington limit. Led by astronomer Hyewon Suh of Gemini Observatory and NSF’s NOIRLab, a team of researchers used JWST to take follow-up observations of a smattering of galaxies identified by the Chandra Read more…