Tag: life forms

What is Strep A, the common bacterium that has killed 6 children in the UK? | CNN

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London
CNN
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Health officials in the United Kingdom are advising parents and schools to watch for Strep A infections following the recent deaths of six children.

With Covid-19 restrictions such as masking and social distancing no longer required in the UK, infections such as Strep A are spreading more easily, with cases increasing over the past month.

Also known as Group A Streptococcus (GAS), Strep A can cause a range of symptoms varying from minor to severe but is not fatal for most people who become infected.

Strep A is a bacterium found in the throat and on the skin. It usually causes fever and throat infections, and many people carry it without any symptoms. However, they can still spread it to others through coughs, sneezes and close contact.

Symptoms of infection include pain when swallowing, fever, skin rashes and swollen tonsils and glands, with infection common in crowded settings such as schools and daycare centers, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says on its website.

“(Infection) tends to be fairly harmless,” Beate Kampmann, professor of Paediatric Infection & Immunity, and director of the Vaccine Centre at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said in a statement on Friday.

“(But) in very rare circumstances when the bacterium produces a toxin it can gain access to the bloodstream and cause really serious illness” such as sepsis, heart inflammation and toxic shock with organ failure, she said.

She advised parents to seek medical advice immediately if a child looks “very ill” with symptoms such as fever, vomiting, muscle aches or a rash.

To confirm a Strep A infection, clinicians usually either use a rapid antigen detection test (RADT) or a throat culture, according to the CDC. A culture is when a sample such as mucus or skin is taken from a person and tested to see if it contains a bacterial infection, like Strep A. Due to the varying sensitivities of RADTs, a throat culture is the preferred diagnostic test.

Similarly in the UK, infections are typically diagnosed with a culture taken from the infected site – for example, the throat, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

Invasive Group A Streptococcus (iGAS) is the term used when the bacteria invade the body, overcoming its natural defenses to enter areas such as the blood, and is more dangerous, the UKHSA explains on its website.

While there is no vaccine to prevent Strep A or iGAS infections, antibiotics are usually effective at treating them.

“We are seeing a higher number of cases of Group A strep this year than usual,” Colin Brown, deputy director at UKHSA, said in a statement on Friday.

The increase in iGAS this year has particularly been observed in children under 10, the UKHSA added. Five children have died in England. One death has been reported in Wales, according to Public Health Wales.

Data from UKHSA shows that there were 2.3 cases per 100,000 children aged 1 to 4 between mid-September and mid-November, compared with the average of 0.5 in the pre-pandemic seasons (2017 to 2019).

For children aged 5 to 9, there were 1.1 cases per 100,000, compared with the pre-pandemic average of 0.3.

The last period of high infections was between 2017 to 2018, with four children under 10 dying in the equivalent period, the statement added.

The UKHSA said it doesn’t believe a new strain is circulating, with the increase in infections likely a result of “circulating bacteria and social mixing.”

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December 5, 2022
Lost remains of last Tasmanian tiger found hiding in plain sight | CNN

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CNN
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For decades, nobody knew where the remains of the last thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, were located.

It turns out they were hiding in plain sight – at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), in the Australian island state, where they had been unidentified for more than 80 years.

About the size of a coyote, the thylacine disappeared about 2,000 years ago virtually everywhere except Tasmania. As the only marsupial apex predator that lived in modern times, it played a key role in the island’s ecosystem, but that also made it unpopular with humans.

European settlers on Tasmania in the 1800s blamed thylacines for livestock losses (although, in most cases, feral dogs and human habitat mismanagement were actually the culprits), and they hunted the shy, semi-nocturnal Tasmanian tigers to extinction.

The last known thylacine was an old female captured by a trapper and sold to a zoo in May 1936, according to a TMAG news release published Monday.

The animal died several months later, with its body transferred to the museum afterward. But the zoo kept no records about the sale because ground-based snaring was illegal – meaning the trapper could have faced a fine, the release said.

That meant researchers and staff at the museum were wholly unaware of the significance of the thylacine in their collection.

“For years, many museum curators and researchers searched for its remains without success, as no thylacine material dating from 1936 had been recorded in the zoological collection, and so it was assumed its body had been discarded,” said Robert Paddle, a comparative psychologist from the Australian Catholic University, in the news release.

After being brought to TMAG, the thylacine’s body was skinned and its skeleton taken apart as part of an education collection, used by museum teachers to explain thylacine anatomy to students, and often transported outside the museum, according to the release.

During that time, most of the world mistakenly thought another thylacine that died at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart on September 7, 1936 was the last known individual of its species.

The mistake wasn’t realized until recently, when an unpublished museum taxidermist’s report was discovered. The report, dated 1936-1937, mentioned a thylacine among the specimens worked on that year – prompting a review of all thylacine skins and skeletons at TMAG, where the last thylacine was finally identified.

“It is bittersweet that the mystery surrounding the remains of the last thylacine has been solved, and that it has been discovered to be part of TMAG’s collection,” said TMAG director Mary Mulcahy.

The remains are now on display in the museum’s thylacine gallery for public viewing.

In recent years, the Tasmanian tiger has reappeared in headlines due to ongoing – and controversial – efforts by scientists to bring back the animal through ancient DNA retrieval, gene editing and artificial reproduction.

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December 5, 2022
Antony Blinken says Biden administration supports zero-Covid protesters in China | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the Biden administration supports the zero-COVID protesters in China, explaining that he will address the topic when he visits the country early next year.

“Of course, we do,” Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” when asked about the US support for the protesters demonstrating against the Chinese government’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions. “We support the right for people everywhere, whether it’s in China, whether it’s Iran, whether it’s any place else, to protest peacefully, to make known their views, to vent their frustrations.”

Blinken said he would bring up the protests with Chinese officials in person next month.

“We will say what we always say and what President (Joe) Biden has said to (Chinese leader) Xi Jinping, which is that human rights and basic civil liberties go to the heart of who we are as Americans. And no American government, no American president is going to be silent on that,” Blinken said.

The demonstrations in China were triggered by a deadly fire on November 24 in Urumqi, the capital of the far western region of Xinjiang. The blaze killed at least 10 people and injured nine in an apartment building – leading to public fury after videos of the incident appeared to show lockdown measures had delayed firefighters from reaching the victims.

The city had been under lockdown for more than 100 days, with residents unable to leave the region and many forced to stay home.

As the protest numbers have swelled, many are also demanding greater political freedoms – and some have even called for Xi’s removal.

Protests on such a large scale are highly unusual in China. While demonstrations over local grievances occur periodically, the protests are the most widespread since the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement of 1989.

The Chinese government has cracked down swiftly, deploying police at key protest sites, calling protesters to warn them and tightening online censorship.

Blinken said Sunday that the US would take the same approach when the rights of protesters are repressed anywhere else: “We speak out against it, we stand up against it, and we take action against it.”

Demonstrations have rocked Iran for several months, sparking a deadly clampdown from authorities. The nationwide uprising was first ignited by the death of Mahsa (also known as Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in mid-September after being detained by the country’s morality police. Since then, protesters across Iran have coalesced around a range of grievances with the Iranian government.

Iranian Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said Thursday that Iran’s parliament and judiciary are reviewing the country’s mandatory hijab law, according to pro-reform outlet Entekhab.

Montazeri was also quoted as saying that Iran’s feared morality police had been “abolished,” but Iranian state media strongly pushed back on those comments, saying the interior ministry oversees the force, not the judiciary.

In an interview with CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday, Blinken wouldn’t say if the US believes that a move to abolish the morality police would end the protests in the country.

“That’s up to the Iranian people. This is about that. It’s not about us. And what we’ve seen since the killing of Mahsa Amini has been the extraordinary courage of Iranian young people, especially women, who’ve been leading these protests, standing up for the right to be able to say what they want to say, wear what they want to wear,” Blinken said.

In his interview with Tapper, Blinken pointed to US sanctions on those responsible for the crackdown on protesters in Iran, but he did not mention any cost that has been imposed on China for its crackdown on protests.

Blinken said that “fundamentally” the protests in China and Iran were not about the US.

“This is about people in both countries trying to express their views, trying to have their aspirations met, and the response that the governments are taking to that,” he said.

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December 4, 2022
Huge trade partner and ‘systemic rival.’ Europe has a China problem | CNN Business

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London
CNN Business
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Europe is becoming increasingly reliant on China for trade, and many of its top companies are eager to invest in the world’s second biggest economy despite the disruption caused by Covid lockdowns.

But a souring relationship with an increasingly unpredictable Beijing, regret about the price Europe has paid for getting too close to Russia, and rising geopolitical tension has some EU officials considering whether the bloc should start to reduce its exposure.

It’s a calculation EU Council President Charles Michel is weighing up Thursday as he visits Chinese leader Xi Jinping for talks aimed at shoring up diplomatic ties.

A lot has happened since the last time an EU president — appointed by the leaders of the 27 EU member states — met with Xi in person four years ago.

The Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and tit-for-tat sanctions between China and EU lawmakers have strained relations since. The United States, which imposed controls on exports of semiconductors to China in October, is reportedly exerting pressure on Europe to adopt a similarly hard line.

Michel’s spokesperson, Barend Leyts, said in a statement last week that Michel’s visit provides a “timely opportunity” for Europe and China to engage on matters of “common interest.” He did not specify which subjects would be discussed.

But some within Europe are growing wary of close relations with China. The bloc has been badly burned this year by its historic reliance on Russia as its main energy supplier, and diversification has shot up the political agenda.

Those concerns bubbled up last month when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz flew to Beijing with a delegation of top business leaders to meet Xi, a move intended to shore up Germany’s second biggest export market after the US.

The bloc is in a similar bind.

“Any problems you have from a political and strategic level [between the EU and China], they tend to spill over to the economic level,” Ricardo Borges de Castro, associate director at the European Policy Centre, told CNN Business.

Both sides have a lot invested in their partnership. The total value of the goods trade between China and Europe hit €696 billion ($732 billion) last year, up by nearly a quarter from 2019.

China was the third largest destination for EU goods exports, accounting for 10% of the total, according to Eurostat data. China is Europe’s biggest source of imports, accounting for 22% in 2021.

“The European market’s importance as a destination for Chinese exports is around double that of the Chinese market for Europeans,” Jörg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China (ECCC) wrote in a September report.

Overall, the relationship is simply “too big to fail,” according to Borges de Castro. Europe is not seeking to decouple from the lucrative Chinese market, he added.

“I don’t see [the EU’s strategy] as a decoupling strategy. I think the EU strategy, for the moment, is a diversification strategy… the lesson [from Russia] is that you cannot have a single provider,” he said.

Machinery, vehicles, chemicals, and other manufactured goods account for the vast bulk of goods traded between the two powers, according to Eurostat.

“European companies have done extremely well here and the overall long term outlook is very positive,” ECCC Secretary General Adam Dunnett told CNN Business, adding that he expects European company revenues to keep growing in China over the next decade.

There are areas where Europe is dependent on Beijing, namely for the supply of rare earth metals required to make hybrid and electric vehicles, and wind turbines. Europe’s solar panels are also mostly manufactured in China.

But those dependencies shouldn’t be exaggerated, Dunnett said.

“When you look at some of the broader things that China exports to the EU such as furniture and consumer goods, a lot of those things you can get elsewhere,” he said.

Even so, the United States may exert more pressure on Europe to pull away from China, Borges de Castro noted. In early October, Washington banned Chinese firms from buying its advanced chips and chip-making equipment without a license.

Benjamin Loh, the head of Dutch chipmaker ASM International, told the Financial Times on Wednesday that the US was “putting a lot of pressure” on the Dutch government to take a similarly tough stance.

The pressure may already be beginning to show. Germany last month blocked the sale of one of its chip factories to a Chinese-owned tech company because of security concerns.

Economic ties between Brussels and Beijing, though mutually beneficial, have frayed in other ways in recent years.

Last year, Chinese direct investment into the European Union dropped to its second lowest level since 2013, only behind 2020, according to analysis by the Rhodium Group, a research firm. It has fallen almost 78% since 2016.

“The level of Chinese investment in Europe is now at a decade low,” Agatha Kratz, director at Rhodium Group, told CNN Business, citing Beijing’s strict capital controls and greater scrutiny by EU regulators.

EU investment into China has also become more concentrated. Between 2018 and 2021, the top 10 European investors in China, including those from the United Kingdom, made up almost 80% of the continent’s total investment in the country, Rhodium Group data shows.

And just four German companies — automakers Volkswagen

(VLKAF), BMW, and Daimler

(DDAIF), and chemicals giant BASF

(BASFY) — made up more than one third of all European investment in those four years.

An investment deal between Beijing and Brussels was shelved last year after EU lawmakers slapped sanctions on Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses, prompting China to retaliate with its own penalties.

The deal, agreed in principle in 2020 after years of talks, was designed to level the playing field for European companies operating in China, who have long complained that Beijing’s subsidies have put them at a disadvantage.

EU diplomats said in April that a “growing number of irritants” were hurting relations, including China’s tacit acceptance of Russia’s war in Ukraine. They have described China as “a partner for cooperation and negotiation, an economic competitor and a systemic rival.”

The most pressing issue for European businesses in China, according to Dunnett, is its stringent zero-Covid policy.

“For the last year, it’s been the Covid carousel, [the] Covid rollercoaster,” he said. “Every time you think [it was] about to open up, something pulls us back,” he added.

Over the weekend, thousands of protestors took to streets across China in a rare series of demonstrations against the country’s strict Covid controls. Some restrictions have since been lifted in Shanghai and other major cities.

Beijing’s uncompromising approach is helping to further dampen foreign investment in the country, especially among smaller companies, Raffaello Pantucci, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a security research group, told CNN Business.

“The general business environment in China is perceived as becoming harder to navigate, and while companies still feel they have to engage given its size and potential, increasingly small to medium sized companies are giving up,” he said.

— Laura He contributed reporting.

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November 30, 2022
China’s security apparatus swings into action to smother Covid protests | CNN

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CNN
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China’s vast security apparatus has moved swiftly to smother mass protests that swept the country, with police patrolling streets, checking cell phones and even calling some demonstrators to warn them against a repeat.

In major cities on Monday and Tuesday, police flooded the sites of protests that took place over the weekend, when thousands gathered to vent their anger over the country’s tough zero-Covid policy – some calling for greater democracy and freedom in an extraordinary show of dissent against Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The heavy police presence has discouraged protesters from gathering since, while authorities in some cities have adopted surveillance tactics used in the far western region of Xinjiang to intimidate those who demonstrated at the weekend.

In what appears to be the first official response – albeit veiled – to the protests, China’s domestic security chief vowed at a meeting Tuesday to “effectively maintain overall social stability.”

Without mentioning the demonstrations, Chen Wenqing urged law enforcement officials to “resolutely strike hard against infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces, as well as illegal and criminal acts that disrupt social order,” the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The tough language may signal a heavy-handed crackdown ahead. While protests over local grievances do occur in China, the current wave of demonstrations is the most widespread since the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement of 1989. The political defiance is also unprecedented, with some protesters openly calling for Xi, the country’s most powerful and authoritarian leader in decades, to step down.

Some of the boldest protests took place in Shanghai, where crowds called for Xi’s removal two nights in a row. The sidewalks of Urumqi Road – the main protest site – have been completely blocked by tall barricades, making it virtually impossible for crowds to congregate.

Ten minutes’ drive away, dozens of police officers patrolled the People’s Square – a large plaza at the heart of the city where some residents had planned to gather with white paper and candles on Monday evening. Police also waited inside a subway station there, closing off all but one exit, according to a protester at the scene.

CNN is not naming any of the protesters in this story to protect them from reprisals.

The protester said he saw police checking the cell phones of passersby, and asking them if they had installed virtual private networks (VPNs) that can be used to circumvent China’s internet firewall, or apps such as Twitter and Telegram, which though banned in the country have been used by protesters.

“There were also police dogs. The whole atmosphere was chilling,” the protester said.

Protesters later decided to move their planned demonstration to another location, but by the time they arrived, the security presence had already been stepped up there, the protester said.

“There were too many police and we had to cancel,” he said.

On Tuesday, a widely circulated video appears to show police officers checking passengers’ mobile phones on a Shanghai subway train.

Another Shanghai protester told CNN they were among “around 80 to 110” people detained by police on Saturday night, adding they were released 24 hours later.

CNN cannot independently verify the number of protesters detained and it is unclear how many people, if any, remain in custody.

The protester said the detainees had their phones confiscated on board a bus that took them to a police station, where officers collected their fingerprints and retina patterns.

According to the protester, police told those detained they had been used by “ill-intentioned people who want to start a color revolution,” pointing to nationwide protests breaking out on the same day as evidence of that.

The protester said police returned their phone and camera upon their release, but officers had deleted the photo album and removed the WeChat social media app.

In Beijing, police vehicles, many parked with their lights flashing, lined eerily quiet streets on Monday morning throughout parts of the capital, including near Liangmaqiao in the city’s central Chaoyang district, where a large crowd of protesters had gathered Sunday night.

The demonstration, which saw hundreds marching down the city’s Third Ring Road, ended peacefully in the early hours of Monday under the close watch of lines of police officers.

But some protesters have since received phone calls from the police inquiring about their participation.

One demonstrator said she received a phone call from a man who identified himself as a local police officer, asking her whether she was at the protest and what she saw there. She was also told that if she had any discontent with authorities, she should complain to the police, instead of taking part in “illegal activities” such as the protest.

“That night, the police mostly adopted a calm approach when dealing with us. But the Communist Party is very good at meting out punishment afterward,” the demonstrator told CNN.

She said she did not wear a face mask during the demonstration. “I don’t think Omicron is that scary,” she said. But her friends who wore masks to the protest also received calls from the police – some as late as 1 a.m., she added.

Still, the protester remained defiant. “It is our legitimate right (to protest), because the constitution stipulates that we have freedom of speech and freedom of congregation,” she said.

Another protester, who has not heard from the police, told CNN that concern she could be the next to be called upon weighs heavily on her mind.

“I can only seek consolation by telling myself that there were so many of us who took part in the protest, they can’t put a thousand people in jail,” she said.

Meanwhile, some universities in Beijing have arranged transportation for students to return home early for winter break and take classes online, citing an effort to reduce Covid risks for students taking public transportation.

But the arrangement also conveniently discourages students from gathering, following demonstrations on a series of campuses over the weekend, including the prestigious Tsinghua University where hundreds of students shouted for “Democracy and rule of law! Freedom of expression!”

Given the long history of student-led movements in modern China, authorities are particularly concerned about political rallies on university campuses.

Beijing’s universities have been the source of demonstrations which kicked off the May Fourth Movement in 1919, to which the Chinese Communist Party traces its roots, as well as the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, which were brutally crushed by the Chinese military.

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November 29, 2022
China’s Zhengzhou, home to world’s largest iPhone factory, ends Covid lockdown | CNN Business

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Hong Kong
CNN Business
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The central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, home to the world’s largest iPhone factory, has lifted a five-day Covid lockdown, in a move that analysts have called a much-needed relief for Apple and its main supplier Foxconn.

Zhengzhou is the site of “iPhone City,” a sprawling manufacturing campus owned by Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn that normally houses about 200,000 workers churning out products for Apple

(AAPL), including the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. Last Friday, the city locked down its urban districts for five days as Covid-19 cases surged there.

Foxconn’s massive facility is not part of the city’s urban districts. However, analysts say the lockdown would have been detrimental to efforts to restore lost production at the campus, the site of a violent workers’ revolt last week.

“This is some good news in a dark storm for Cupertino,” Daniel Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, told CNN Business, referring to the California city where Apple is based. “There is a lot of heavy lifting ahead for Apple to ramp back up the factories.”

Ives estimates the ongoing supply disruptions at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou campus were costing Apple roughly $1 billion a week in lost iPhone sales. The troubles started in October when workers left the campus in Zhengzhou, the capital of the central province of Henan, due to Covid-related fears. Short on staff, bonuses were offered to workers to return.

But protests broke out last week when the newly hired staff said management had reneged on their promises. The workers, who clashed with security officers, were eventually offered cash to quit and leave.

Analysts said Foxconn’s production woes will speed up the pace of supply chain diversification away from China to countries like India.

Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, wrote on social media that he estimated iPhone shipments could be 20% lower than expected in the current October-to-December quarter. The average capacity utilization rate of the Zhengzhou plant was only about 20% in November, he said, and was expected to improve to 30% to 40% in December.

Total iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max shipments in the current quarter would be 15 million to 20 million units less than previously anticipated, according to Kuo. Due to the high price of the iPhone 14 Pro series, Apple’s overall iPhone revenue in the current holiday quarter could be 20% to 30% lower than investors’ expectations, he added.

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November 29, 2022
Ancient giant sea turtle with never-before-seen features found in Europe, scientists say | CNN

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CNN
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Long ago, gigantic marine turtles swam the Earth’s seas. Until recently, these prehistoric giants, reaching lengths of over 3 meters (10 feet) from head to tail, had been thought to be found only in waters surrounding North America.

Now, scientists have discovered a previously unknown species — the largest European sea turtle ever to be identified.

Initially found by a hiker who stumbled upon the remains in 2016 in the Pyrenees mountains of northern Spain, the species has been given the name Leviathanochelys aenigmatica. “Leviathan” is the biblical term for a sea monster, an allusion to the creature’s large body size, while “chelys” translates to turtle and “aenigmatica” translates to enigma — in reference to the turtle’s peculiar characteristics, wrote the authors of a paper published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

The unusual animal’s presence in this part of the prehistoric world revealed that giant turtles were more common than previously thought, according to the study.

Before the discovery, the largest European species measured at just 1.5 meters (5 feet) in length, similar to today’s leatherback sea turtles, which weigh an average of 300 to 500 kilograms (660 to 1,100 pounds) and measure 1 to 2 meters (or between 3 and 6.5 feet), according to the Smithsonian Institute.

The bone fragments of this newly identified species, however, have led scientists to estimate that Leviathanochelys had a 3.7-meter-long body (12.1 feet), almost as big as an average sedan.

“We never thought it was possible to find something like this. After quite a long study of the bone fragments, we realized that there were some features that were totally different, not present in any other fossil of a turtle species discovered so far,” said Albert Sellés, coauthor of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona’s Miquel Crusafont Catalan Institute of Paleontology in Spain.

Originally, researchers believed the bones belonged to a different kind of animal, according to Sellés.

“It is quite common to find bone fragments, a lot of them. But most of them are uninformative,” Sellés said. “It is quite rare to discover something that really tells you a little bit of the life of the past.”

A local museum and Catalonia’s Ministry of Culture had originally collected the bone specimens, but they remained unstudied for nearly five years. When Sellés and the other researchers began their work studying the bones in 2021, they realized they were looking at a species of marine turtle completely new to science, and quickly went back to the Pyrenees site to perform more excavations.

There, more fragments of the specimen, including pieces of the turtle’s pelvis and carapace — the part of the shell that covered the creature’s back — were discovered. With these finds, the scientists observed more features not previously seen in any living or dead turtle species.

“The main differences of this new fossil are related to the pelvic region. More specifically, to a couple of bony bumps present in the anterior part of the pelvis, which we suspect are related to some kind of muscle that controls the movement of the abdominal region of the turtle,” Sellés said.

This feature or muscle most likely impacted the turtles’ breathing capacity, allowing them to hold their breath longer than other turtle species, in order to swim deep in the ocean to find food or escape predators, according to Sellés.

The research team estimated the ancient animal lived during the Campanian Age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch, making it at least 72 million years old.

The largest turtle on record, called Archelon, lived some 70 million years ago and grew to be about 4.5 meters (15 feet) long. Before this recent discovery, all prehistoric giant marine turtle discoveries were part of the same lineage as Archelon.

“We’re proving that turtles could achieve really gigantic proportions in different times, and also in different families,” Sellés said. “For the first time, we found a (giant) turtle that doesn’t belong to this family.”

The researchers hope to return to the fossil site again to look for more bones, as they are not certain that all fragments from this specimen have been discovered, according to Sellés.

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November 29, 2022
Twitter is no longer enforcing its Covid misinformation policy | CNN Business

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New York
CNN Business
—

Twitter said it will no longer enforce its longstanding Covid misinformation policy, yet another sign of how Elon Musk plans to transform the social media company he bought a month ago.

In 2020, Twitter developed an extensive set of rules that sought to prohibit “harmful misinformation” about the virus and its vaccines.

Between January 2020 and September 2022, Twitter suspended more than 11,000 accounts for breaking Covid misinformation rules and removed almost 100,000 pieces of content that violated those rules, according to statistics published by Twitter. The policy received acclaim from medical professionals: In an advisory to technology platforms, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy cited Twitter’s rules as an example of what companies should do to combat misinformation.

Twitter did not appear to formally announce the rule change. Instead, some Twitter users Monday night spotted a note added to the page on Twitter’s website that outlines its Covid policy.

“Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy,” the note read.

Musk has promised to restore many previously banned Twitter accounts as soon as this week. It is possible that among the restored accounts will be some of the 11,000 banned under Twitter’s former Covid misinformation rules.

The Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX CEO tested the limits of Twitter’s previous policy in the early days of the pandemic. In March and April 2020, Musk used the social network to downplay the magnitude of the crisis and express frustration with how the pandemic had been handled. He repeatedly urged the end of the stay-at-home policies, despite public health officials’ insistence at the time that social distancing remained necessary to avoid a wave of infections that could overwhelm hospitals.

On a Tesla earnings call with Wall Street analysts in April 2020, Musk went off script to rail against Covid policies.

“I would call it, ‘forcibly imprisoning people in their homes’ against all their Constitutional rights, in my opinion, and breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why people came to America or built this country,” Musk said on the call. “It’s an outrage.”

Musk says he has twice had Covid. Despite his skepticism of public health policy, he has said he supports vaccination, even if he doesn’t believe the shots should be mandated. Still, he said in a New York Times podcast interview with technology journalist Kara Swisher in September 2020 that he would not get vaccinated because, “I’m not at risk for Covid, nor are my kids.”

When Swisher confronted Musk with the possibility that many people could die if they didn’t follow public health recommendations, he replied bluntly: “Everybody dies.”

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November 29, 2022
China’s top health officials deflect blame over zero-Covid problems as they defend controversial policy | CNN

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CNN
—

China’s top health officials have pledged to rectify Covid-19 control measures to reduce their impact on people’s lives, while deflecting blame for public frustration away from the policy itself, in their first press briefing since protests erupted against the government’s stringent zero-Covid policy over the weekend.

Lockdowns to suppress the spread of the virus should be lifted “as quickly as possible” following outbreaks, said health officials at a National Health Commission press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, as they defended the country’s overall policy direction – which aims to stamp out the spread of the virus through hefty controls.

Cheng Youquan, a director at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said “some issues” reported recently by the public are not due to the measures, but their application by local officials taking a “one-size-fits-all approach.” He said some controls had been implemented “excessively,” with disregard for the people’s demands.

Protests against the country’s zero-Covid policy, which includes a combination of lockdowns, forced quarantines and tight border controls, flared across China over the weekend, with citizens taking to city streets and college campuses to call for an end to the restrictive measures.

While protests in several parts of China appear to have largely dispersed peacefully over the weekend, some met a stronger response from authorities – and security has been tightened across cities with police deployed to key protest sites in the wake of the demonstrations.

Officials at Tuesday’s press briefing did not directly address the protests, but commission spokesperson Mi Feng said governments should “respond to and resolve the reasonable demands of the masses” in a timely manner.

When asked if the government is reconsidering its Covid policies, Mi said authorities “have been studying and adjusting our pandemic containment measures to protect the people’s interest to the largest extent and limit the impact on people as much as possible.”

Earlier this month, China announced 20 measures that were meant to streamline Covid-19 controls and reign in “excessive policy steps” taken by local authorities – who are under pressure from Beijing to control the number of cases in their regions.

The protests – and the pledges to refine the policy implementation – come as the country faces its most significant surge of cases.

China identified 38,421 locally transmitted cases on Monday, according to the National Health Commission, ending six consecutive days of record infections.

Low vaccination rates among the elderly have long been cited by authorities as a reason why China must maintain tight controls over the virus. On Tuesday, officials also announced an “action plan” to boost vaccination rates among this high-risk group.

Raising that rate is seen as necessary to eventually reopening the country and relaxing tough measures.

As of November 28, around 90% of China’s total population had received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccination, but only roughly 66% of people over 80 had completed two doses, officials said Tuesday.

Reactions to the officials’ statements on Chinese social media suggested they had done little to assuage frustration and anger over the zero-Covid policy. On a state media livestream of the press conference, many users called for an end to Covid testing and centralized quarantine.

“We’ve cooperated with you for three years, now it’s time to give our freedom back,” said one top comment on the livestream, which was run by state media on the Weibo social media platform.

“Can you stop filtering our comments? Listen to the people, the sky won’t fall,” wrote another, referring to censorship on the platform.

In a separate briefing on Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry defended the Covid-19 control measures and civil rights in the country – where authorities regularly use far-reaching surveillance and security capabilities to quash dissent.

“China is a country under the rule of law, Chinese citizens enjoy various legal rights and freedoms that are fully protected by law,” spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, when asked about the protests in a regular briefing on Tuesday. “At the same time, any rights and freedoms should be exercised within the framework of the law.”

Asian shares rallied on Tuesday on signs that authorities had managed to contain protests, and then on hopes the health commission would announce an easing of Covid restrictions.

Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index ended the day more than 5% higher. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite Index and the Shenzhen Component Index both finished more than 2% higher, while the CSI300 Index, which tracks the largest listed stocks, closed more than 3% higher.

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November 29, 2022
As China grapples with rare protests, Shanghai Disneyland shuts over Covid curbs once again | CNN Business

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Hong Kong
CNN Business
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Shanghai Disneyland has been closed again because of China’s Covid restrictions, just days after reopening following a previous pandemic-related closure.

The theme park will close from Tuesday, November 29 “to follow the requirement of pandemic prevention and control,” Shanghai Disney Resort said in a statement on Tuesday. “We will notify guests as soon as we have a confirmed date to resume operations.”

Disneytown, Wishing Star Park and two resort hotels will continue to operate normally, Shanghai Disney Resort said, adding that it will provide refunds or exchanges for all guests impacted during this period.

Shanghai Disneyland had just reopened on November 25 after a pandemic-related closure on October 31, according to a notice from Shanghai Municipal People’s Government on November 26.

Disneytown, Wishing Star Park and Shanghai Disneyland Hotel reopened earlier on November 17, but November 25 marked the resort’s return to full operations after the closure on October 31, according to the notice.

At the time of the previous closure, which had come without any warning, all visitors were directed to stay in the park until they showed a negative test for the virus.

Shanghai Disneyland had also taken a three-month hiatus earlier this year. It was closed in March as China’s financial hub battled a steep rise in Covid cases. The city imposed a strict lockdown shortly after, confining millions of residents to their homes and forcing shops and restaurants to close.

The decision to close Disneyland once again comes following nationwide protests over the weekend in a rare show of dissent against the ruling Communist Party.

For the first time in decades, thousands of people have defied Chinese authorities to protest at universities and on the streets of major cities, demanding to be freed not only from incessant Covid tests and lockdowns, but strict censorship and the Communist Party’s tightening grip over all aspects of life.

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November 28, 2022
China’s lockdown protests: What you need to know | CNN

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Beijing
CNN
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China has moved quickly to suppress demonstrations that erupted across the country over the weekend, deploying police forces at key protest sites and tightening online censorship.

The protests were sparked by anger over the country’s increasingly costly zero-Covid policy, but as numbers swelled at demonstrations in multiple major cities, so too have the range of grievances voiced – with some calling for greater democracy and freedom.

Among the thousands of protesters, hundreds have even called for the removal of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who for nearly three years has overseen a strategy of mass-testing, brute-force lockdowns, enforced quarantine and digital tracking that has come at a devastating human and economic cost.

Here’s what we know.

The protests were triggered by a deadly fire last Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of the far western region of Xinjiang. The blaze killed at least 10 people and injured nine in an apartment building – leading to public fury after videos of the incident appeared to show lockdown measures had delayed firefighters from reaching the victims.

The city had been under lockdown for more than 100 days, with residents unable to leave the region and many forced to stay home.

Videos showed Urumqi residents marching to a government building and chanting for the end of lockdown on Friday. The following morning, the local government said it would lift the lockdown in stages – but did not provide a clear time frame or address the protests.

That failed to quell public anger and the protests rapidly spread beyond Xinjiang, with residents in cities and universities across China also taking to the streets.

So far, CNN has verified 20 demonstrations that took place across 15 Chinese cities – including the capital Beijing and financial center Shanghai.

In Shanghai on Saturday, hundreds gathered for a candlelight vigil on Urumqi Road, named after the Xinjiang city, to mourn the fire victims. Many held up blank sheets of white paper – a symbolic protest against censorship – and chanted, “Need human rights, need freedom.”

Some also shouted for Xi to “step down,” and sang The Internationale, a socialist anthem used as a call to action in demonstrations worldwide for more than a century. It was also sung during pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing before a brutal crackdown by armed troops in 1989.

China’s zero-Covid policies have been felt particularly acutely in Shanghai, where a two-month long lockdown earlier this year left many without access to food, medical care or other basic supplies – sowing deep public resentment.

By Sunday evening, mass demonstrations had spread to Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Wuhan, where thousands of residents called for not only an end to Covid restrictions, but more remarkably, political freedoms. Residents in some locked-down neighborhoods tore down barriers and took to the streets.

Protests also took place on campuses, including the prestigious institutions of Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Communication University of China, Nanjing.

In Hong Kong, where a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 has been used to stifle dissent, dozens of people gathered on Monday evening in the city’s Central district for a vigil. Some held blank pieces of paper, while others left flowers and held signs commemorating those killed in the Urumqi fire.

Public protest is exceedingly rare in China, where the Communist Party has tightened its grip on all aspects of life, launched a sweeping crackdown on dissent, wiped out much of civil society and built a high-tech surveillance state.

The mass surveillance system is even more stringent in Xinjiang, where the Chinese government is accused of detaining up to 2 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in camps where former detainees have alleged they were physically and sexually abused.

A damning United Nations report in September described the region’s “invasive” surveillance network, with police databases containing hundreds of thousands of files with biometric data such as facial and eyeball scans.

China has repeatedly denied accusations of human rights abuses in the region.

While protests do occur in China, they rarely happen on this scale, nor take such direct aim at the central government and the nation’s leader, said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University who studies Chinese politics and media.

“This is a different type of protest from the more localized protests we have seen recurring over the past two decades that tend to focus their claims and demands on local officials and on very targeted societal and economic issues,” she said. Instead, this time the protests have expanded to include “the sharper expression of political grievances alongside with concerns about Covid-19 lockdowns.”

There have been growing signs in recent months that the public has run out of patience with zero-Covid, after nearly three years of economic hardship and disruption to daily life.

Isolated pockets of protest broke out October, with anti-zero-Covid slogans appearing on the walls of public bathrooms and in various Chinese cities, inspired by a banner hung by a lone protester on an overpass in Beijing just days before Xi cemented a third term in power.

Earlier in November, larger protests took place in Guangzhou, with residents defying lockdown orders to topple barriers and cheer as they took to the streets.

While protests in several parts of China appear to have largely dispersed peacefully over the weekend, authorities responded more forcefully in some cities.

The Shanghai protests on Saturday led to scuffles between demonstrators and police, with arrests made in the early hours of the morning. Undeterred, protesters returned on Sunday, where they met a more aggressive response – videos show chaotic scenes of police pushing, dragging, and beating protesters.

The videos have since been scrubbed from the Chinese internet by censors.

One Shanghai protester told CNN he was one of around 80 to 110 people detained in the city on Saturday night. He described being transferred to a police station, having his phone confiscated and biometric information collected before being released a day later.

CNN cannot independently verify the number of those arrested.

Hear protesters in China call for Xi Jinping’s resignation

Two foreign reporters were also briefly detained. BBC journalist Edward Lawrence was arrested in Shanghai on Sunday night, with a BBC spokesperson claiming he was “beaten and kicked by the police” while covering the protests. He has since been released.

On Monday, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said Lawrence had not identified himself as a journalist before being detained.

Michael Peuker, China correspondent for Swiss public broadcaster RTS, was reporting live when he said several police officers approached him. He later posted on Twitter that the officers took him and his cameraman into a vehicle, before releasing them.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson deflected questions about the protests on Monday, telling a reporter who asked whether the widespread displays of public anger would make China consider ending zero-Covid: “What you mentioned does not reflect what actually happened.”

He also claimed that social media posts linking the Xinjiang fire with Covid policies had “ulterior motives,” and that authorities have been “making adjustments based on realities on the ground.” When asked about protesters calling on Xi to step down, he replied: “I’m not aware of the situation you mentioned.”

State-run media has not directly covered the demonstrations – but praised zero-Covid, with one newspaper on Sunday calling it “the most scientifically effective” approach.

In recent days, vigils and demonstrations expressing solidarity with protesters in China have been held around the world, including in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

As news of the protests made international headlines, foreign government officials and organizations voiced support for the protesters and criticized Beijing’s response.

“We’re watching this closely, as you might expect we would,” said US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby on Monday. “We continue to stand up and support the right of peaceful protest.”

Why protesters in China are holding up white paper

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told reporters the Chinese government should “listen to the voices of its own people … when they are saying that they are not happy with the restrictions imposed upon them.”

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) also said on Monday that it condemned “the intolerable intimidation and aggression” directed toward member journalists in China, in an apparent reference to the foreign journalists who were detained.

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November 28, 2022
At the heart of China’s protests against zero-Covid, young people cry for freedom | CNN

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A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

CNN
—

For the first time in decades, thousands of people have defied Chinese authorities to protest at universities and on the streets of major cities, demanding to be freed not only from incessant Covid tests and lockdowns, but strict censorship and the Communist Party’s tightening grip over all aspects of life.

Across the country, “want freedom” has become a rallying cry for a groundswell of protests mainly led by the younger generation, some too young to have taken part in previous acts of open dissent against the government.

“Give me liberty or give me death!” crowds by the hundreds shouted in several cities, according to videos circulating online, as vigils to mark the deaths of at least 10 people in a fire in Xinjiang spiraled into political rallies.

Videos circulating online seem to suggest China’s strict zero-Covid policy initially prevented emergency workers from accessing the scene, angering residents across the country who have endured three years of varying Covid controls.

Some protesters chanted for free speech, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and other political demands across cities from the eastern financial hub of Shanghai to the capital Beijing, the southern metropolis of Guangzhou and Chengdu in the west.

CNN has verified protests in 16 locations, with reports of others held in dozens of other cities and universities across the country.

Protesters take to Hong Kong’s streets in solidarity with mainland

While protests in several parts of China appear to have largely dispersed peacefully over the weekend, some met a stronger response from authorities – and security has been tightened across cities in a country were authorities have far-reaching surveillance and security capabilities.

In Beijing, a heavy police presence was apparent on Monday evening, a day after protests broke out there. Police vehicles, many parked with their lights flashing, lined eerily quiet streets throughout parts of the capital, including near Liangmaqiao in the city’s central Chaoyang district, where a large crowd of protesters had gathered Sunday night.

When asked Monday whether “the widespread display of anger and frustration” seen across the country could prompt China to move away from its zero-Covid approach, a Foreign Ministry spokesman dismissed suggestions of dissent.

“What you mentioned does not reflect what actually happened,” said spokesperson Zhao Lijian, who added that authorities had been “making adjustments” to their Covid policies based on “realities on the ground.”

“We believe that with the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people our fight against Covid-19 will be successful,” he said.

In a symbolic protest against ever-tightening censorship, young demonstrators across China held up sheets of white paper – a metaphor for the countless critical posts, news articles and outspoken social media accounts that were wiped from the internet.

“I think in a just society, no one should be criminalized for their speech. There shouldn’t be only one voice in our society – we need a variety of voices,” a Beijing protester told CNN in the early hours of Monday as he marched down the city’s Third Ring Road with a thin pile of white A4 paper.

“I hope in the future, I will no longer be holding a white piece of paper for what I really want to express,” said the protester, who CNN is not naming due to concerns about repercussions for speaking out.

The United Nations on Monday urged Chinese authorities to guarantee people’s “right to demonstrate peacefully,” Secretary General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a daily briefing.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said China’s ruling Communist Party should “take notice” of the protests.

“Protests against the Chinese government are rare. And so when they do happen, I think it’s worth us taking note, but more importantly, I think it’s incumbent on the Chinese government to take notice of its own people,” Cleverly told reporters.

Throughout the weekend, censors moved swiftly to scrub videos and photos of the protests from the Chinese internet, though the startling images made headlines worldwide.

In online commentaries, Chinese state media made no mention of the protests, instead focusing on the strengths of Beijing’s anti-Covid policies, emphasizing they were both “scientific and effective.”

But to many protesters, the demonstrations are about much more than Covid – they’re bringing together many liberal-minded young people whose attempts to speak out might otherwise be thwarted by strict online censorship.

A Shanghai resident in their 20s who took part in the candlelight vigil in the early hours of Sunday said they were greeted by other young people holding white papers, flowers and shouting “want freedom” as they walked toward the makeshift memorial.

“My friends and I have all experienced Shanghai’s lockdown, and the so-called ‘iron fist’ (of the state) has fallen on all of us,” they told CNN, “That night, I felt that I could finally do something. I couldn’t sit still, I had to go.”

They broke into tears quietly in the crowd as the chants demanding freedom grew louder.

“At that moment, I felt I’m not alone,” they said. “I realized that I’m not the only one who thinks this way.”

In some cases, the protests have taken on an even more defiant tone and openly called for political change.

During the first night of the demonstrations in Shanghai, a crowd shouted “Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!” in an unprecedented, direct challenge to the top leader. On Sunday night, some protesters again chanted for the removal of Xi.

In Chengdu, the protesters did not name Xi, but their message was hard to miss. “Opposition to dictatorship!” chanted hundreds of people packing the bustling river banks in a popular food and shopping district on Sunday evening, according to videos and a participant.

“We don’t want lifelong rulers. We don’t want emperors!” they shouted in a thinly veiled reference to the Chinese leader, who last month began a norm-shattering third term in office.

According to the participant, the crowd also protested against revisions to the party charter and the state constitution – which enabled Xi to further cement his hold on power and scrap presidential term limits.

Much like in Shanghai, the gathering started as a small candlelight vigil for people killed in the fire in Urumqi on Thursday.

But as more people gathered, the vigil turned into a louder arena to air political grievances.

“Everyone started shouting these slogans very naturally,” the participant said. “It is so rare that we have such a large-scale gathering and demonstration. The words of mourning didn’t feel enough, and we had to shout out some words that we want to say.”

To her, the experience of suffocating censorship inevitably fuels desire for “institutional and spiritual freedom,” and mourning the victims and demanding democracy and freedom are two “inseparable” things.

“We all know that the reason why we have to keep undergoing lockdowns and Covid tests is that this is a political movement, not a scientific and logical response of epidemic prevention,” she said. “That’s why we have more political demands other than lifting lockdowns.”

The Chengdu protester said she felt encouraged by the wave of demonstrations sweeping the country.

“It turns out there are so many people who are wide awake,” she said. “I feel like I can see a glimmer of light coming through ahead.”

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November 28, 2022
China markets tank as protests erupt over Covid lockdowns | CNN Business

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Hong Kong
CNN Business
—

China’s major stock indices and its currency have opened sharply lower Monday, as widespread protests against the country’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions over the weekend roiled investor sentiment.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng

(HSI) Index fell as much as 4.2% in early trading. It has since pared some losses and last traded 2% lower. The Hang Seng

(HSI) China Enterprises Index, a key index that tracks the performance of mainland Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong, lost 2%.

In mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite briefly fell 2.2%, before trimming losses to 0.9% lower than Friday’s close. The tech-heavy Shenzhen Component Index dropped 1.1%.

The Chinese yuan, also known as the renminbi, plunged against the US dollar on Monday morning. The onshore yuan, which trades in the tightly controlled domestic market, briefly weakened 0.9%. It was last down 0.6% at 7.206 per dollar. The offshore rate, which trades overseas, dropped 0.3% to 7.212 per dollar.

The plunging yuan suggests that “investors are running ice cold on China,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner of SPI Asset Management, adding that the currency market might be “the simplest barometer” to gauge what domestic and overseas investors think.

The markets tumble comes after protests erupted across China in an unprecedented show of defiance against the country’s stringent and increasingly costly zero-Covid policy.

In the country’s biggest cities, from the financial hub of Shanghai to the capital Beijing, residents gathered over the weekend to mourn the dead from a fire in Xinjiang, speak out against zero-Covid and call for freedom and democracy.

Such widespread scenes of anger and defiance, some of which stretched into the early hours of Monday morning, are exceptionally rare in China.

Asian markets were also broadly lower. South Korea’s Kospi lost 1%, Japan’s Nikkei 225

(N225) shed 0.6%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell by 0.3%.

US stock futures — an indication of how markets are likely to open — fell, with Dow futures down 0.5%, or 171 points. Futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.7%, while futures for the Nasdaq dropped 0.8%.

Oil prices also dropped sharply, with investors concerned that surging Covid cases and protests in China may sap demand from one of the world’s largest oil consumers. US crude futures fell 2.7% to trade at $74.19 a barrel. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, lost 2.6% to $81.5 per barrel.

On Friday, a day before the protests started, China’s central bank cut the amount of cash that lenders must hold in reserve for the second time this year. The reserve requirement ratio for most banks (RRR) was reduced by 25 percentage points.

The move was aimed at propping up an economy that had been crippled by strict Covid restrictions and an ailing property market. But analysts don’t think the move will have a significant impact.

“Cutting the RRR now is just like pushing on a string, as we believe the real hurdle for the economy is the pandemic rather than insufficient loanable funds,” said analysts from Nomura in a research report released Monday.

“In our view, ending the pandemic [measures] as soon as possible is the key to the recovery in credit demand and economic growth,” they said.

Innes from SPI Asset Management said China’s economy is currently caught in the midst of a tug-of-war between weakening economic fundamentals and increasing reopening hopes.

“For China’s official institutions, there are no easy paths. Accelerating reopening plans when new Covid cases are rising is unlikely, given the low vaccination coverage of the elderly,” he said. “Mass protests would deeply tilt the scales in favor of an even weaker economy and likely be accompanied by a massive surge in Covid cases, leaving policymakers with a considerable dilemma.”

In the near term, he said, Chinese equities and currency will likely price in “more significant uncertainty” around Beijing’s reaction to the ongoing protests. He expects social discontent could increase in China over the coming months, testing policymakers’ resolve to stick to its draconian zero-Covid mandates.

But in the longer term, the more pragmatic and likely outcome should be “a quicker loosening of [Covid] restrictions once the current wave subsides,” he said.

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November 27, 2022
Biden faces a broad set of challenges at home this holiday season | CNN Politics

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CNN
—

This holiday season looks very different from the last for many Americans, when Covid-19 test shortages and an Omicron variant surge disrupted numerous family celebrations.

But the country is contending with a new set of complex challenges this late fall and winter. Even though Covid tests as well as an updated booster are largely accessible and Thanksgiving holiday travel nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, a slew of pressures on the global economy and a recent surge in respiratory illnesses are expected to continue to impact on Americans in the coming months, leaving President Joe Biden with the challenge of addressing how to quell national anxieties over matters sometimes outside of the executive branch’s control.

The latest data from the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index shows American consumers are still not feeling very confident about the state of the US economy this holiday season. Concerns remain, for example, about high costs across spending categories associated with the holidays, despite some moderation in inflation.

While prices on airfares, gas and hotel rooms are down from the record levels hit earlier in 2022, they’re still among the highest on record for this time of year. The ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving meal had been estimated to cost shoppers 13.5% more this year compared to last, the market research firm IRI predicted earlier this month, using data from October – although some food costs appear to have declined closer to the holiday.

The White House maintains that Biden remains laser focused on tackling inflation and lessening the impacts of high prices – a major strain this year that’s been felt globally as a result of a myriad of factors, including supply chain disruptions and Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“We are seeing signs of progress ahead of the Holiday season – grocery prices rose by 0.4% in October, a significant deceleration from the increases this summer, and the smallest increase since December of last year,” a White House official told CNN, adding that input costs (the cost to produce a good or service) “have declined for the last 2 months, which points to more progress on grocery prices in the months ahead.”

Other potential product shortages and price hikes could be seen as early next year, as concerns over a potential rail strike have resurfaced after the largest rail union recently announced its rank-and-file members rejected a tentative agreement forged in September.

Brian Dodge, president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, had told CNN that Christmas holiday inventories are not likely be broadly impacted by a strike. But he conceded that a rail strike in early December could disrupt the shipment of some larger and bulky items that are transported by rail this holiday season.

Biden got personally involved in discussions to reach the tentative deal that averted a strike with the nation’s major freight railroads earlier this fall. And White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had said he’s been directly involved in discussions once again. But on Thursday, the president appeared to contradict his top messenger, saying he is “not directly engaged” with railway and labor negotiators. “I can’t (comment) because it’s the middle of negotiations, still. My team has been in touch with all the parties… and I have – I have not directly engaged yet because they’re still talking,” Biden said.

Ahead of this week’s holiday, White House officials shared a new graphic highlighting the president’s accomplishments “for chatting with your Uncle at Thanksgiving.” The talking points led with lines on efforts to lower costs and contended that “despite global challenges, we’re making progress.” One bullet point, however, misstated that there would be “NO taxes on people making above $400k – he kept his promise.”

Along with deploying a messaging strategy aimed at highlighting existing accomplishments, as Biden heads into the new year, the White House is looking to highlight ways the Inflation Reduction Act will lower everyday costs, the official told CNN. Since getting back from his latest foreign trip, Biden has already touted several provisions in the law that go into effect on January 1 – including home energy efficiency tax credits and a $35 cap on the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare.

Home heating costs are also on the rise – up 18% nationwide on top of last year’s 17% spike, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.

Several factors are driving hikes in home heating prices, including the war in Ukraine, OPEC+ cuts, a surge in energy exports, lower energy inventories, and a high demand for natural gas in the US electric power sector, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The Biden administration in November announced the distribution of $4.5 billion in federal assistance to help lower many Americans’ heating bills this winter through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. However, advocates say additional funding is needed. This month the Department of Energy also announced the allocation of nearly $9 billion to states and tribes for home efficiency programs under the Inflation Reduction Act.

And just as Americans gather with loved ones across the country this holiday season, there have also been concerns about cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, influenza and Covid-19.

The administration is embarking on a new, six-week push to deliver more updated Covid-19 boosters into arms. More than 35 million people in the United States have already received the updated bivalent booster shot, but that’s just a fraction of those eligible to get it.

Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator, said on “CNN This Morning” Wednesday that he is confident that the US will get through the current influx of respiratory viruses that are going around the country.

When it comes to RSV, Jha said “certainly a problem, we have seen it now, looks like it has peaked nationally, starting to turn down.”

“In terms of hospital capacity, we have been in touch with every jurisdiction around the country, we have been very clear if you need extra help, the federal government is ready to help, ready to send in support staff, ready to support, send in additional supplies,” he said. “I am confident we’re going to get through this, particularly if people step up and protect their families by getting the Covid and flu vaccine.”

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November 27, 2022
China’s Urumqi to ease Covid lockdown amid public anger over deadly fire | CNN

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CNN
—

Chinese authorities said Saturday they would lift a months-long Covid lockdown in the country’s far western region of Xinjiang “in stages”, following protests over a deadly fire at an apartment building in the regional capital of Urumqi.

At least 10 people were killed and nine injured when the fire broke out on Thursday, according to the local fire department, and public anger over the tragedy has grown with the emergence of video footage that appears to show lockdown measures delaying firefighters from accessing the scene and reaching victims.

One video that was widely circulating on Chinese social media on Friday evening shows a large group of people marching to a government building in Urumqi and chanting “end lockdowns,” while another shows some residents breaking through lockdown barriers and quarreling with officials.

The city, with a population of close to 4 million people, has been under a strict lockdown since August, yet despite the measures its daily Covid infections continue to hover around 100.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, local government officials promised they would lift lockdown measures “in stages” – allowing residents in “low risk” compounds to leave their buildings.

Sui Rong, the propaganda chief of Urumqi, claimed the city had “basically eliminated Covid cases in society” because of the lockdown measures.

But she did not acknowledge that there had been any protests and neither did she provide any clear time frame for the relaxation of the measures or specify how many residents would be able to leave their homes or compounds following the announcement.

Across China in recent weeks there has been a growing torrent of dissent toward the government’s unrelenting zero-Covid lockdowns, which officials insist are necessary to protect people’s lives against the virus.

In the central city of Zhengzhou this week, workers at the world’s biggest iPhone assembly factory clashed with hazmat-suited security officers over a delay in bonus payments and chaotic Covid rules.

And on Thursday, in the sprawling metropolis of Chongqing in the southwest, a resident delivered a searing speech criticizing the Covid lockdown in his residential compound. “Without freedom, I would rather die!” he shouted to a cheering crowd, who hailed him a “hero” and wrestled him from the grip of several police officers who had attempted to take him away.

Meanwhile, hopes that Beijing might be signaling a slight softening of its approach – after minor relaxations in some quarantine requirements – are beginning to fade amid an uptick in cases as China heads into its fourth winter of the pandemic.

This week, Covid cases in the country reached record highs, according to the National Health Commission.

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November 25, 2022
Apple has a huge problem with its supplier’s iPhone factory in China | CNN Business

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Hong Kong
CNN Business
—

A violent workers’ revolt at the world’s largest iPhone factory this week in central China is further scrambling Apple’s strained supply and highlighting how the country’s stringent zero-Covid policy is hurting global technology firms.

The troubles started last month when workers left the factory campus in Zhengzhou, the capital of the central province of Henan, due to Covid fears. Short on staff, bonuses were offered to workers to return.

But protests broke out this week when the newly hired staff said management had reneged on their promises. The workers, who clashed with security officers wearing hazmat suits, were eventually offered cash to quit and leave.

Analysts said the woes facing Taiwan contract manufacturing firm Foxconn, a top Apple supplier which owns the facility, will also speed up the pace of diversification away from China to countries like India.

Daniel Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, told CNN Business that the ongoing production shutdown in Foxconn’s sprawling campus in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou was an “albatross” for Apple.

“Every week of this shutdown and unrest we estimate is costing Apple roughly $1 billion a week in lost iPhone sales. Now roughly 5% of iPhone 14 sales are likely off the table due to these brutal shutdowns in China,” he said.

Demand for iPhone 14 units during the Black Friday holiday weekend was much higher than supply and could cause major shortages leading into Christmas, Ives said, adding that the disruptions at Foxconn, which started in October, have been a major “gut punch” to Apple this quarter.

In a note Friday, Ives said Black Friday store checks show major iPhone shortages across the board.

“Based on our analysis, we believe iPhone 14 Pro shortages have gotten much worse over the last week with very low inventories,” he wrote. “We believe many Apple Stores now have iPhone 14 Pro shortages … of up to 25%-30% below normal heading into a typical December.”

Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, wrote on Twitter that more than 10% of global iPhone production capacity was affected by the situation at the Zhengzhou campus.

Earlier this month, Apple said shipments of its latest lineup of iPhones would be “temporarily impacted” by Covid restrictions in China. It said its assembly facility in Zhengzhou, which normally houses some 200,000 workers, was “currently operating at significantly reduced capacity,” due to Covid curbs.

The Zhengzhou campus has been grappling with a Covid outbreak since mid-October that caused panic among its workers. Videos of people leaving Zhengzhou on foot went viral on Chinese social media in early November, forcing Foxconn to step up measures to get its staff back.

To entice workers, the company said it had quadrupled daily bonuses for workers at the plant this month. A week ago, state media reported that 100,000 people had been successfully recruited to fill the vacant positions.

But on Tuesday night, hundreds of workers, mostly new hires, began to protest against the terms of the payment packages offered to them and also about their living conditions. Scenes turned increasingly violent into the next day as workers clashed with a large number of security forces.

By Wednesday evening, the crowds had quieted, with protesters returning to their dormitories on the Foxconn campus after the company offered to pay the newly recruited workers 10,000 yuan ($1,400), or roughly two months of wages, to quit and leave the site altogether.

In a statement sent to CNN Business on Thursday after the protests had wound down, Apple said it had a team on the ground at the Zhengzhou facility working closely with Foxconn to ensure employees’ concerns were addressed.

Even before this week’s demonstrations, Apple had started making the iPhone 14 in India, as it sought to diversify its supply chain away from China.

The announcement in late September marked a major change in its strategy and came at a time when US tech companies were looking for alternatives to China, the world’s factory for decades.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that the company was looking to boost production in countries such as Vietnam and India, citing China’s strict Covid policy as one of the reasons.

Kuo said on Twitter that he believed Foxconn would speed up the expansion of iPhone production capacity in India as a result of Zhengzhou lockdowns and resulting protests.

The production of iPhones by Foxconn in India will grow by at least 150% in 2023 compared to 2022, he predicted, and the longer term goal would be to ship between 40% and 45% of such phones from India, compared to less than 4% now.

— Chris Isidore contributed to this report.

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November 25, 2022
FDA warns against consuming certain raw oysters distributed to 13 states after reported illnesses | CNN

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CNN
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The Food and Drug Administration is advising people in 13 states not to eat certain raw oysters from South Korea after at least one person in Las Vegas got sick with a virus that can cause diarrhea and vomiting.

The Southern Nevada Health District informed officials of two clusters of illnesses from a restaurant in Las Vegas, the FDA said. At least one person was confirmed to have sapovirus illness and nine others potentially had the same sickness. The oysters were served October 28 and November 5.

According to the FDA news release, sapoviruses cause a sporadic gastroenteritis and the most common symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach pain.

Symptoms usually show up within 48 hours, the FDA said.

“Consumers, especially those who are or could become pregnant, the elderly, and persons with weakened immune systems, who have recently consumed raw oysters in (13 states) and suspect they have food poisoning should seek medical care immediately,” officials said in the news release.

In addition to Nevada, the FDA advisory applied to consumers and sellers in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The oysters were harvested February 6 and were exported by Dai One Food Company, the FDA said.

“The Korean firm has recalled frozen half shell oysters, frozen oyster IQF (individually quick freezing), and frozen oyster block harvested from the same harvest area” on February 6, FDA officials said.

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November 24, 2022
French Bulldog wins top prize at National Dog Show | CNN

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CNN
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Who’s a good boy? This year, it’s Winston.

Winston the French Bulldog won Best in Show, the top spot, at this year’s 21st Annual National Dog Show presented by Purina. Winston is the first French Bulldog to ever win the competition’s top prize.

“They have cornered the market on energy, enthusiasm and just pure spunk,” show host John O’Hurley said of Winston and his handler, Perry Payson.

Winston beat out hundreds of dogs to win Thursday’s prize. The Kennel Club of Philadelphia’s dog show airs every Thanksgiving following the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and is the most-watched dog show in the country. The dogs sometimes train for years in an effort to win the national title.

Last year, Claire – a Scottish Deerhound – made history as the first dog to win the top title two years in a row.

Every year, the dogs compete against other dogs in their breed to determine the best in breed. Then, all those winners compete against each other at the group stage – Sporting, Hound, Working, Terrier, Toy, Non-Sporting and Herding. The seven very best dogs in their group then compete to win best in show.

This year is the first to feature the Mudi and Russian Toy, two newly recognized breeds.

But this isn’t Winston’s first bout with fame: He also competed in the Westminster Dog show earlier this year.

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November 24, 2022
Cristiano Ronaldo Fast Facts | CNN

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CNN
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Here’s a look at the life of professional soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo.

Birth date: February 5, 1985

Birth place: Funchal, Portugal

Birth name: Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro

Father: Jose Dinis Aveiro, a gardener

Mother: Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro, a cook

Children: with Georgina Rodriguez: Alana Martina, 2017; Bella Esmeralda and male twin (name unreleased, died in childbirth), 2022; via surrogate: Eva and Mateo (twins), 2017; with mother’s name unavailable publicly: Cristiano Jr., 2010

All-time leading male goalscorer in international football.

First male player in history to score a goal in five different World Cups.

Portugal’s all-time top international goalscorer.

Winner of the Ballon d’Or footballer of the year award five times (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), and the European Golden Shoe four times (2007-08, 2010-11, 2013-14 and 2014-15).

One of his acts of charity was paying for the brain surgery of a 10-month-old boy. Other acts have included raising money for survivors of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami and paying for treatment for a 9-year-old cancer patient.

His father named him after US President Ronald Reagan.

Early 1990s – Joins local amateur team Andorinha.

Late 1990s – Joins Clube Desportivo Nacional da Madeira, one of Portugal’s leading professional football clubs.

Early 2000s – Signs with Sporting Clube de Portugal.

August 12, 2003 – Signs with Manchester United for £12.24 million ($19.7 million).

August 20, 2003 – Debuts for Portugal’s national team.

June-July 2004 – Represents Portugal in the UEFA Euro and scores a goal in the tournament opener. This is his first major international tournament.

July 2004 – Plays for Portugal during the Summer Olympics. Portugal is eliminated in the group stage.

2005 – Wins the FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year award.

October 2005 – Comes under investigation for an alleged sexual assault but is not charged.

June 17, 2006 – Scores his first World Cup goal against Iran. Portugal wins 2-0.

2008 – Wins the FIFA World Player of the Year award.

2009 – Transfers to Real Madrid. The deal includes an £80 million (more than $130 million) transfer fee.

December 15, 2013 – Opens a museum dedicated to his football career in his hometown of Funchal, Portugal.

January 6, 2014 – Scores his 400th career goal.

January 20, 2014 – Is named Grand Officer of the Order of Prince Henry.

October 17, 2015 – Officially becomes Real Madrid’s all-time leading goalscorer in the club’s 3-0 victory over Levante at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

November 9, 2015 – The documentary “Ronaldo” premieres in London.

November 8, 2016 – Signs a “lifetime” endorsement deal with Nike.

January 2017 – Is named the inaugural Best FIFA Men’s Player of 2016.

June 13, 2017 – Is accused of defrauding Spanish authorities of $16.4 million in tax between 2011 and 2014.

August 14, 2017 – According to the Spanish Football Federation, Ronaldo is banned for five games following his red card in Real Madrid’s 3-1 victory over rival Barcelona. On top of the one-game ban for the red card, he will miss four further games for pushing referee Ricardo De Burgos Bengoetxea as he was leaving the field.

October 23, 2017 – Wins the FIFA Best Men’s Player Award for the second year in a row.

December 7, 2017 – Claims his fifth Ballon d’Or, equaling the record set by eternal rival Lionel Messi.

July 10, 2018 – Leaves Real Madrid to join the reigning Serie A champion Juventus, based in Turin, Italy, on a four-year contract and a reported $117 million transfer fee.

September 27, 2018 – Kathryn Mayorga files a lawsuit in Clark County, Nevada, accusing Ronaldo of raping her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009. She seeks to void a settlement and nondisclosure agreement she says she was coerced to sign by Ronaldo and his legal team. Ronaldo denies the allegations.

January 10, 2019 – Las Vegas police spokeswoman, Officer Laura Meltzer, confirms that in the course of investigating a rape allegation against Ronaldo they have sent a warrant to authorities in Italy requesting a sample of his DNA.

January 22, 2019 – Ronaldo agrees to settle his tax fraud case with Spanish authorities by paying a fine of $21.6 million and accepting a 23-month suspended prison sentence. Under Spanish law, first-time offenders can avoid prison time if the sentence is under two years.

April 20, 2019 – Juventus defeats Fiorentina 2-1 to claim the Italian championship Serie A title. Ronaldo becomes the first player ever to win titles in the Premier League (with Manchester United), La Liga (with Real Madrid) and Serie A (with Juventus).

May 8, 2019 – The lawsuit filed in Clark County, Nevada, accusing Ronaldo of rape is voluntary dismissed by Mayorga. Larissa Drohobyczer, Mayorga’s attorney, tells CNN that “The state case was dismissed by us because we filed the identical claims in federal court due to federal court rules on serving foreigners, we basically just switched venues, but the claims remain.”

July 22, 2019 – The Clark County District Attorney’s office says that Ronaldo will not face sexual assault charges in Las Vegas. The office says the allegations, which were first made in 2009, cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

August 16, 2019 – Federal court documents reveal that following Mayorga’s 2009 accusation of rape, Ronaldo paid Mayorga $375,000 in a settlement and confidentiality agreement. Mayorga is asking the court to invalidate the agreement on the grounds that Ronaldo and his legal team took advantage of her fragile emotional state to coerce her into signing it.

September 8, 2020 – Scores his 100th international goal in Portugal’s Nations League match against Sweden, becoming just the second man in history to reach the milestone.

October 13, 2020 – Has tested positive for coronavirus, according to a statement by the Portuguese Football Federation.

September 1, 2021 – Breaks the men’s all-time international goalscoring record after scoring two goals against Ireland in the Group A World Cup qualifier in Almancil, Portugal.

October 6, 2021 – A federal judge recommends that the rape case against Ronaldo be dismissed, because Mayorga’s attorneys improperly obtained and used information from leaked documents. On June 10, 2022, the case is dismissed.

March 12, 2022 – Scores his 806th career goal against Tottenham, breaking FIFA’s all-time record for most goals in competitive matches in men’s football history.

April 18, 2022 – Ronaldo and his partner, Georgina Rodriguez, announce that one of their newborn twins, a boy, has died.

November 22, 2022 – Manchester United announce Ronaldo is leaving the English Premier League club with immediate effect. The announcement comes a week after Ronaldo gave an explosive TV interview about his frustrations at the club.

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November 24, 2022
Workers at the world’s largest iPhone factory in China clash with police, videos show | CNN Business

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Beijing/Hong Kong
CNN Business
—

Workers at China’s largest iPhone assembly factory were seen confronting police, some in riot gear, on Wednesday, according to videos shared over social media.

The videos show hundreds of workers facing off with law enforcement officers, many in white hazmat suits, on the Foxconn campus in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou. In the footage, now blocked, some of the protesters could be heard complaining about their pay and sanitary conditions.

The scenes come days after Chinese state media reported that more than 100,000 people had signed up to fill positions advertised as part of a massive recruitment drive held for Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant.

Apple

(AAPL) has been facing significant supply chain constraints at the assembly facility and expects iPhone 14 shipments to be hit just as the key holiday shopping season begins. CNN has contacted the company for comment on the situation at the plant.

A Covid outbreak last month had forced the site to lock down, leading some anxious factory workers to reportedly flee.

Videos of many people leaving Zhengzhou on foot had gone viral on Chinese social media earlier in November, forcing Foxconn to step up measures to get its staff back. To try to limit the fallout, the company said it had quadrupled daily bonuses for workers at the plant this month.

On Wednesday, workers were heard in the video saying that Foxconn failed to honor their promise of an attractive bonus and pay package after they arrived to work at the plant. Numerous complaints have also been posted anonymously on social media platforms — accusing Foxconn of having changed the salary packages previously advertised.

In a statement in English, Foxconn said Wednesday that “the allowance has always been fulfilled based on contractual obligation” after some new hires at the Foxconn campus in Zhengzhou appealed to the company regarding the work allowance on Tuesday.

Workers were also heard in the videos complaining about insufficient anti-Covid measures, saying workers who tested positive were not being separated from the rest of the workforce.

Foxconn said in the English statement that speculation online about employees who are Covid positive living in the dormitories of the Foxconn campus in Zhengzhou is “patently untrue.”

“Before new hires move in, the dormitory environment undergoes standard procedures for disinfection, and it is only after the premise passes government check, that the new employees are allowed to move in,” Foxconn said.

Searches for the term “Foxconn” on Chinese social media now yield few results, an indication of heavy censorship.

“Regarding violent behaviors, the company will continue to communicate with employees and the government to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” Foxconn said in a statement in Chinese.

The Zhengzhou facility is the world’s largest iPhone assembly site. It typically accounts for approximately 50% to 60% of Foxconn’s global iPhone assembly capacity, according to Mirko Woitzik, global director of intelligence solutions at Everstream, a provider of supply chain risk analytics.

Apple warned earlier this month of the disruption to its supply chain, saying that customers will feel an impact.

“We now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated,” the tech giant said in a statement. “Customers will experience longer wait times to receive their new products.”

As of last week, the wait time for those models had reached 34 days in the United States, according to a report from UBS.

Public frustration has been mounting under China’s unrelenting zero-Covid policy, which continues to involve strict lockdowns and travel restrictions nearly three years into the pandemic.

Last week, that sentiment was on display as social media footage showed residents under lockdown in Guangzhou tearing down barriers meant to confine them to their homes and taking to the streets in defiance of strictly enforced local orders.

— Michelle Toh, Simone McCarthy, Wayne Chang, Juliana Liu, and Kathleen Magramo contributed to this report.

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November 23, 2022