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Sabtu, 20 November 2021

Peng Shuai appears at China tennis event, WTA still concerned - The Straits Times

SHANGHAI (REUTERS) - Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, whose whereabouts have been a matter of international concern for weeks, attended a tennis tournament in Beijing on Sunday (Nov 21), according to official photos published by the tournament organised by China Open.

Ms Peng can be seen among guests at the Fila Kids Junior Tennis Challenger, dressed in a dark blue jacket and white trousers, according to the pictures published on the event's official page on WeChat.

The former doubles world number had not been seen or heard from publicly since she said on Chinese social media on Nov 2 that former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli had coerced her into sex and they later had an on-off consensual relationship.

Neither Mr Zhang nor the Chinese government have commented on her allegation.

Ms Peng's social media post was quickly deleted and the topic has been blocked from discussion on China's heavily censored Internet.

World tennis bodies have expressed concern, with the Women's Tennis Association threatening to pull tournaments out of China.

The United States and Britain have called for evidence of Ms Peng's whereabouts and safety.

Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement on Saturday: "The Chinese authorities should urgently provide verifiable evidence of her safety and whereabouts.

"Everyone should be allowed to speak out without fear of repercussions. All reports of sexual assault, anywhere in the world, should be investigated."

The photographs and video footage of Ms Peng that emerged on Sunday remain "insufficient" and do not address the WTA’s concerns, a spokesperson for the group told Reuters by email.

The US and British embassies in Beijing did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on Ms Peng’s Sunday appearance in the Chinese capital.

The issue of Ms Peng’s safety and whereabouts has emerged as China prepares to host the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February amid calls from global rights groups and others for a boycott over its human rights record.

Mr Hu Xijin, the editor of state-backed newspaper Global Times, tweeted Ms Peng’s appearance at the tournament earlier on Sunday.

The Global Times is published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party.

Videos posted by Mr Hu and a Global Times reporter showed her smiling, waving and signing autographs for children.

Peng Shuai showed up at the opening ceremony of a teenager tennis match final in Beijing on Sunday morning. Global Times photo reporter Cui Meng captured her at scene. pic.twitter.com/7wlBcTMgGy
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) November 21, 2021

The 37-second video Mr Hu posted appears to show Ms Peng standing in a row of people being introduced to the audience.

An announcer says, "Two-time Grand Slam champion, former world number one in woman’s doubles - Peng Shuai!"

She waves, smiling, and acknowledges applause.

Video shot by my colleague Cui Meng at the National Tennis Center showing Peng Shuai signing signature on large-sized tennis balls at the opening ceremony of Junior Tennis Challenger Final, a way of inspiring more kids to play tennis as hobby and may also as career pic.twitter.com/Sbyj5V5a7Y
— Qingqing_Chen (@qingqingparis) November 21, 2021

Global Times chief reporter Chen Qingqing posted a 31-second video, apparently from the same event.

Ms Peng appears to sign oversized tennis balls for children and pose with them for pictures.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the authenticity of the images, which were both credited to Global Times staffer Cui Meng.

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2021-11-21 02:40:24Z
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Corals and cable cars: Vietnam tourist island Phu Quoc reopens with big dreams - CNA

FLOOD OF PLASTIC

Ahead of Saturday's reopening, staff at Vinpearl resort - where the arrivals are staying - swept beaches, arranged cutlery on tables and laid out sunbeds. Others busied themselves painting delicate flowers on conical hats.

"When we heard visitors were coming back, I was just so excited," said duty manager Ngo Thi Bich Thuong.

Before the pandemic in 2019, around 5 million people, including half a million foreigners - mostly from China, South Korea, Japan and Russia - holidayed on Phu Quoc.

Vingroup - the enormously powerful conglomerate behind the new complex - is pushing to make the island "a new international destination on the world tourist map".

To cater for the tourist boom, 40,000 hotel rooms have been built and planned, vice chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board Ken Atkinson told AFP - "that's more hotel keys than they have in Sydney, Australia".

Globally popular vacation spots such as Thailand's Phuket have given Vietnam something to aim for.

Atkinson took a group of senior Vietnamese government officials there in 2005 - but while Phuket's vibrant international tourist scene took years to build up, "Vietnam has a tendency of wanting to do everything all at once", he noted.

"Unfortunately I don't think there was enough attention given to what would be in the long-term benefit of the island," he added.

Phu Quoc is a UNESCO biosphere reserve - surrounding waters are stuffed with coral reefs, and its beaches were once nesting spots for hawksbill and green turtles.

But no nesting has taken place in recent years, the United Nations body said in their last assessment in 2018.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has warned of "an almost unimaginable flood of plastic" that chokes rivers, canals and sea life.

Around 160 tonnes of trash - almost enough to fill 16 trucks - is generated every day, according to WWF, which says that the island's waste management is not fit to cope with the tourism explosion.

"More and more tourists are very conscious of the environment. They don't want to be going to places where beaches are littered or where effluent is going into the sea," Atkinson warned.

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2021-11-20 09:13:04Z
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Jumat, 19 November 2021

Tennis Star's Claims Strike at Heart of Chinese Political Power - Bloomberg

President Xi Jinping sent shockwaves through China in 2014 when he took down a former member of the Communist Party’s most powerful body. Now, a tennis star’s allegations against another top retired official threaten to undermine his authority and tarnish the nation’s image.

The disappearance of former women’s doubles No. 1 Peng Shuai, who earlier this month accused ex-Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of pressuring her to have sex, has prompted outrage by some of the world’s best-known athletes. Serena Williams has called for an investigation. Novak Djokovic has expressed shock. And the Women’s Tennis Association has threatened to suspend operations in China, at the cost of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in business.

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2021-11-19 10:42:52Z
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Singapore business events bounce back post COVID, Hong Kong flounders - Reuters

Visitors attend the Restaurants Asia and Cafe Asia trade conventions in Singapore November 18, 2021. REUTERS/Edgar Su

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SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Singapore is hosting top executives of big global companies this week at a host of conferences, marking its gradual return to normalcy and underscoring the contrast with long-time rival Hong Kong, which is sticking with some of the toughest quarantine rules in the world.

The Milken Institute's annual Asia Summit, run by billionaire Michael Milken's think tank, the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, and an event by sovereign wealth fund GIC attracted hundreds of executives vaccinated against COVID-19.

Participants were allowed entry only after clearing swab tests and were required to wear masks and comply with strict safe distancing measures, though enjoyed relatively more freedom than the country's general population in terms of eating together.

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The resumption of on-site events in the Southeast Asian hub comes as Singapore is allowing quarantine free travel to at least a dozen countries including Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Canada and the United States.

On Wednesday, UBS inaugurated the Swiss bank's largest office in Asia, an event attended by its chairman chief executive officer and others in the city-state.

"Things develop, things evolve but evolve fast here in Singapore. And even with the kind of semi lockdown situation that we are currently in, if you come here, you still feel the vibe," UBS CEO Ralf Hammers said.

Top officials from Goldman Sachs, HSBC, NYSE Group, Standard Chartered, Paypal and BNP Paribas spoke at the business events in Singapore, with many likely to be making their first trip to Singapore since authorities imposed restrictions early last year..

The two-day Milken event and an evening event by GIC was attended by about 550 people, including 150 overseas executives. The Bloomberg event had over 300 attendees, with 80% flying in.

Rooms at the plush 112-room Capella hotel in Sentosa island where a one-night stay costs at least $1,600 and which hosted the Bloomberg forum were sold out.

Later this month, Singapore singer JJ Lin performs at a two-day concert that organisers expect to be at near full capacity of about 2,000 people per night, the Straits Times daily said.

Over 100 exhibitors from 12 countries are participating in a food and beverages and supply chain event currently underway, with an international jewellery show and a martial arts event taking place in coming weeks.

Despite all this, compared to Europe, Britain and the United States, Singapore still has tight COVID-19 restrictions, with dining out largely limited to two people and mandatory mask-wearing in public.

TIGHTER RULES IN HONG KONG

By contrast, Hong Kong has followed Beijing's lead in retaining strict travel curbs to curb new COVID outbreaks, prompting warnings from international business lobby groups that the financial centre could lose talent and investment.

"When you restrict travel in and out, when you restrict the ability for people to come and visit and engage, for people to leave to go engage around the world, over time, that has an impact on your economic activity," Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told the Bloomberg event in Singapore on Wednesday.

Singapore's daily COVID-19 cases are hovering at more than 2,000 and the city-state still has strict restrictions on social gatherings, but with 85% of its 5.45 million population vaccinated, the government wants to open more for business.

Hong Kong has barely recorded any local coronavirus cases in recent months but the government hopes that its tight rules, including up to three weeks' hotel quarantine for visitors, would convince China to gradually open its border with the city.

"There's only a few cities where people want to congregate where you have that gateway of bringing global finance together and redistribute it. Hong Kong is one of those," BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told the Hong Kong FinTech Week earlier this month.

"I'm truly looking forward to physically being there in Hong Kong without a 21-day quarantine but that is a whole other story."

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Reporting by Anshuman Daga and Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Editing by Kim Coghill

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2021-11-19 06:10:00Z
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Panicked shoppers clear out grocery stores in flood-hit British Columbia - CNA

Shoppers in Canada's flood-hit province of British Columbia have emptied grocery shelves following catastrophic flooding, although the shortages are as much down to panic buying as disrupted supply chains, industry associations said on Thursday (Nov 18).

Even as flood waters start to recede, some parts of the province are expected to face to temporary shortages of dairy supplies, with retailers and officials calling for calm.

Canada's westernmost province declared a state of emergency on Wednesday after a phenomenon known as an "atmospheric river" brought a month's worth of rain in two days. The rainfall washed out roads and railways, cutting off Vancouver and the lower mainland region from the rest of the country, and blocking access to some towns entirely.

Pictures on social media showed empty shelves and refrigerators in grocery stores, reminiscent of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as shoppers scrambled to stock up. Photos of one store's produce section showed nothing left but lemons, limes and cranberries.

Save-On-Foods, western Canada's largest grocery retailer, and part of the Jim Pattison Group, appealed to customers to avoid hoarding.

"We understand that this is a very stressful and challenging time for many of our communities," the company said on Twitter. "Please - buy only what your family needs at this time."

Some three-quarters of BC's milk production was stranded for several days, amounting to a few million litres that farmers had to dump, said Holger Schwichtenberg, chair of the BC Dairy Association.

Collections are now resuming, but the region will see a temporary milk shortage before it can access supplies from other regions or provinces, he added.

Some of the worst-affected areas are in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver, where 63 dairy farms were ordered to evacuate. The city of Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley supplies half of the dairy, eggs and poultry consumed in British Columbia, with many farms situated on the fertile soils of the low-lying Sumas Prairie, a former lake that was drained a century ago to make way for agriculture.

The mayor of Abbotsford estimated damage to his city alone could be up to CUS$1 billion (US$793 million).

While some towns like Hope, 120km east of Vancouver, are facing food shortages because they were cut off by highway washouts and mudslides, others are seeing shelves picked clean by panic buying.

"In parts of the province, particularly the interior, there has been significant and not well-understood consumer panic," said Greg Wilson, director of BC government relations for the Retail Council of Canada.

"There are highways open between BC and Alberta and there is capacity in Alberta to supply the interior of BC."

Wilson said Vancouver and the lower mainland can access more food supplies from Washington state to the south, and the rerouting of supply chains was already underway.

(Reporting by Nia Williams in Calgary and Rod Nickels in Winnipeg; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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2021-11-18 21:46:00Z
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Kamis, 18 November 2021

Show proof that missing Chinese star Peng Shuai is safe, says Women's Tennis Association head - The Straits Times

BEIJING - Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) head Steve Simon on Thursday (Nov 18) called for proof that missing tennis star Peng Shuai is safe, after he received an e-mail allegedly from Ms Peng seeking to gag the professional organisation.

The former world doubles No. 1 player has not been seen in public since Nov 2, right after she supposedly accused former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of forcing himself on her three years ago.

The non-consensual act had purportedly happened after Mr Zhang, 75, invited Ms Peng, 35, to play tennis with him and his wife at his house. It also apparently rekindled an extramarital affair that ended only on Nov 2, after Mr Zhang started ignoring Ms Peng.

The two had been romantically involved before, when they first met seven years ago.

Her purported 1,500-word account that was posted on her official Weibo page on Nov 2 - based on screenshots seen by The Straits Times - can no longer be found. A search on Chinese search engine Baidu using Ms Peng’s and Mr Zhang’s names yielded no results.

Media reports noted that her Weibo post was taken down within 30 minutes.

In her supposed e-mail to the WTA, Ms Peng had sought to assure Mr Simon that she was not missing, nor was she in any danger. The screenshot of the e-mail did not carry a date.

She said that the sexual assault allegations were not true, and that Mr Simon and the WTA should check with her first before running any news about her.

“I’ve just been resting at home and everything is fine,” she added.

Mr Simon said in a WTA statement that he doubted the origins of the e-mail he received, which was first shared by Chinese state broadcaster CGTN on Twitter at 1.36am on Thursday.

Mr Simon said that CGTN’s tweet in the wee hours “only raises my concerns” about Ms Peng’s safety and whereabouts.

“I have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the e-mail... or believes what is being attributed to her,” he said.

“The WTA and the rest of the world need independent and verifiable proof that she is safe. I have repeatedly tried to reach her via numerous forms of communication, to no avail,” he added.

On Sunday, Mr Simon had called for Chinese authorities to investigate Ms Peng’s allegations against Mr Zhang, who was China’s first-ranked vice-premier and a member of China’s most powerful Politburo Standing Committee between 2013 and 2018 under President Xi Jinping.

He told The New York Times that the tour would consider stopping its business in China if it did not see “appropriate results” .
Grand Slam champions Novak Djokovic, Naomi Osaka and Chris Evert have also expressed similar worries about Ms Peng’s safety earlier this week.

The e-mail that Mr Simon received marks the latest development in the mystery surrounding China’s most high-profile sexual assault allegation to date, involving the highest echelons of the Communist Party of China.

Mr Zhang has yet to respond to Ms Peng’s allegations. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday that he was unaware of the matter, and that it was not a diplomatic issue.

Former Chinese vice-premier Zhang Gaoli has yet to respond to Ms Peng Shuai's allegations. PHOTO: AFP

Photos of Ms Peng wearing a pendant bearing the letter "Z" during matches from years ago quickly began circulating after screenshots of her allegations went viral on messaging app WeChat.

Before the photos were taken down, media reports have also questioned whether the pendant was a gift from Mr Zhang.

Snippets of earlier interviews showed Ms Peng responding coyly to reporters when asked her then if the pendant was significant, and that she did not provide a clear reply to their queries.

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2021-11-18 12:58:41Z
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Selasa, 16 November 2021

Explainer-Delta dominates the world, but scientists watch for worrisome offspring - Yahoo Singapore News

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus now accounts for nearly all of the coronavirus infections globally, fueled by unchecked spread of the novel coronavirus in many parts of the world. So far, vaccines are still able to defend against serious disease and death from Delta, but scientists remain on alert.

Here is what we know:

DELTA - STILL DOMINANT

The Delta variant, first detected in India in December 2020, remains the most worrisome version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The World Health Organization classifies Delta as a variant of concern, a category that means the variant is capable of increasing transmissibility, causing more severe disease or reducing the benefit of vaccines and treatments.

Delta's "superpower" is its transmissibility, according to Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in San Diego.

Delta is more than two times as contagious as previous SARS-CoV-2 variants, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Studies suggest it may be more likely to put infected people in the hospital than prior forms of the virus.

Delta also can cause symptoms two to three days sooner than the original coronavirus, giving the immune system less time to mount a defense.

People infected with Delta carry around 1,200 times more virus in their noses compared with the original version of the coronavirus. The amount of virus in vaccinated individuals who become infected with Delta is on par with those who are unvaccinated, and both can transmit the virus to others.

In vaccinated people, however, the amount of virus drops more quickly, so they likely spread the virus for a shorter time.

According to the WHO, Delta makes up 99.5% of all genomic sequences reported to public databases and has "outcompeted" other variants in most countries.

A key exception is South America, where Delta has spread more gradually, and other variants previously seen as possible global threats - notably Gamma, Lambda and Mu - still contribute to a significant proportion of reported cases.

DELTA OFFSPRING

Given Delta's global dominance, many vaccine experts now believe that all future variants will be offshoots of Delta.

One notable Delta "grandchild" is known as AY.4.2 and is concentrated largely in the UK, where it makes up roughly 10% of sequenced virus samples.

AY.4.2 carries two additional mutations in the spike protein, which the virus uses to enter cells. Scientists are still studying what advantage, if any, these mutations confer.

The UK Health Security Agency has designated the AY.4.2 a "Variant Under Investigation." A preliminary analysis suggests it does not significantly impair vaccine effectiveness compared with Delta, but there is some evidence that it could be slightly more transmissible, the agency said.

According to the WHO, AY.4.2 has spread to at least 42 countries, including the United States.