Infostarr

BEIJING: China on Tuesday announced a slew of perks aimed at encouraging families to have more babies, as birth rates hit a record low and officials warned that the population will start to shrink by 2025.

The world’s most populous country has been grappling with a looming demographic crisis as it faces a rapidly ageing workforce, slowing economy and its weakest population growth in decades.

Although Beijing ended its draconian “one-child rule” in 2016 and last year allowed couples to have three children, birth rates have slipped over the past five years.

The policy guidelines issued by the National Health Commission Tuesday urge both the central and provincial governments to increase spending on reproductive health and improve childcare services nationwide.

They require local governments to “implement active fertility support measures”, including offering subsidies, tax rebates, and better health insurance, as well as education, housing and employment support for young families.

All provinces must also ensure they provide enough nurseries for children aged two to three by the end of the year in a bid to reduce a severe shortage of childcare services.

Richer Chinese cities have been doling out tax and housing credits, educational benefits and even cash incentives to encourage women to have more children, and the latest guidelines seek to push all provinces to roll out such measures.

China’s birth rate slipped to 7.52 births per 1,000 people last year — the lowest since records began in 1949, when Communist China was founded, according to National Bureau of Statistics data.

Higher costs of living and a cultural shift as people grow used to smaller families have been cited as reasons behind the lower number of babies.

China’s population will begin to shrink by 2025, health officials warned earlier this month.

A bus carrying personnel from India’s high-altitude border police rolled off a mountainous road and fell into a gorge in India-Occupied Kashmir on Tuesday, killing at least six officers, police said.

Kashmir police said on Twitter the injured were being flown to an army hospital in the Occupied Himalayan region’s main city of Srinagar, some 90 km (55 miles) from the accident site in Anantnag district.

A police officer told Reuters that 35 people survived the crash but some were badly injured.

The bus was carrying members of the Indo Tibetan Border Police Force, a federal force specialising in high-altitude operations, mainly on the Indo-China border.

In a road #accident near Chandanwari Pahalgam in #Anantnag district, 6 ITBP personnel got #martyred while as several others got injured, who are being #airlifted to Army hospital, Srinagar for treatment. Further details shall follow.@JmuKmrPolice

— Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) August 16, 2022

Pictures from the site showed mangled remains of the bus by a fast-flowing river.

A Chinese militANN(Asian News Network) survey ship docked at Sri Lanka’s Chinese-built port of Hambantota on Tuesday after a delay of several days because of opposition to the visit from India, which vies with China for influence in crisis-hit Sri Lanka.

India had opposed the docking of the Yuan Wang 5, which analysts describe as a high-tech ship for tracking objects in space, as it fears China could use the port, near the main Asia-Europe shipping route, as a militANN(Asian News Network) base.

Sri Lanka, which needs the support of both India and China as it struggles with its worst economic crisis in decades, initially granted the ship permission for a five-day replenishment stay in Hambantota, from Aug. 11.

It later asked China to delay the vessel’s arrival, citing the need for more consultations. read more

Yuan Wang 5 will now berth for only three days to stock up on fuel, food and other essentials, said an official at the port who declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

A Sri Lankan government minister said the island nation was working to ensure there was no friction between friendly countries.

“India had raised concerns and Sri Lanka requested a delay in the ship’s docking until discussions could be had to resolve these issues,” Media Minister Bandula Gunawardana told reporters.

“Even before this there have been ships from the U.S., India and other countries coming to Sri Lanka. We have allowed these ships to come. In the same way we have allowed the Chinese ship to dock.”

China Merchants Port Holdings signed a 99-year lease in 2017 to operate the deep-sea Hambantota port.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the Chinese ship was not interfering with any other country.

“Yuan Wang 5 conducting maritime research activities … does not affect any country’s security or economic interests and third-parties should not interfere with it,” he said in Beijing.

Foreign security analysts say the Yuan Wang 5 is one of China’s latest-generation space-tracking ships, used to monitor satellite, rocket and intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

The Pentagon says the Yuan Wang ships are operated by the Strategic Support Force of the People’s Liberation Army.

Before the arrival of the ship, India gave Sri Lanka’s air force a Dornier 228 aircraft for maritime surveillance.

At a handover ceremony, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe called it the start of cooperation in maritime surveillance between his country’s navy and air force and India’s navy.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) announced that its High-Water Usage Alert service has helped to reduce 217,370 tons of carbon emission since its launch three years ago and until 30 June 2022.

These reductions were from identifying 1,062,781 water leakage reports, 23,199 defects, and 11,566 cases of increased load. The service sends instant notifications to customers to quickly conduct the necessANN(Asian News Network) maintenance to reduce water wastage.

“As part of our vision to become a globally leading sustainable innovative corporation and our efforts to support the Smart Dubai initiative, we harness disruptive technologies and Fourth Industrial Revolution applications to provide smart and innovative services that make the customers’ life easy. These also help them raise the efficiency of their electricity and water consumption, detect leakage and repair interruptions without contacting DEWA.

Thanks to its smart and advanced infrastructure and smart meters that align with the highest international standards, we provide an opportunity for customers to monitor and manage their consumption proactively anytime and anywhere; without contacting DEWA. This contributes to the sustainability of resources,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.

DEWA provides the High-Water Usage Alert service as part of the Smart Living initiative to help customers detect any leakage in water connections after the meter. It sends instant notifications to customers in case the smart meter detects any unusual rise in consumption to examine the internal connections and fix any leakage in water connections with the help of a technician.

Customers can detect leakages through their bills or smart water meters. DEWA highlighted the efficiency of its systems in detecting any flaws in the external connections after the meter and noted that its responsibility is limited to connections and maintenance until the meter only, while the internal connections after the meters are the customer/owner’s responsibility. This applies to residential, commercial, and industrial sectors.

All the eleven convicts sentenced to life imprisonment for gang rape and murders during the 2002 Gujarat riots have been freed, according to Indian media reports.

The 11 convicts walked out of Godhra sub-jail after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy, said the reports.

11 convicts sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of gangrape and murder of 7 members of #BilkisBano‘s family walked out of a Godhra sub-jail today. The Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. #2002GujaratRiots @TheQuint pic.twitter.com/u1dawz5zzm

— Himanshi Dahiya (@himansshhi) August 16, 2022

Bilkis Bano case

Bilkis Bano was gang raped and her three-year-old daughter Saleha was among 14 people killed by rioters on March 3, 2002, in Limkheda area of Dahod district in Gujarat.

More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the 2002 riots. Bano’s case was one of the most horrific episodes of the large-scale violence.

The trial in Bano’s case initially began in Ahmedabad. When Bano expressed apprehensions over witnesses being harmed, the top court, in August 2004, transferred the case to Mumbai.

On JanuANN(Asian News Network) 21, 2008, a special court convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 men for the incident. It, however, acquitted seven persons including the policemen and two doctors who were accused of tampering with evidence.

In April 2019, the Supreme Court had directed the Gujarat government to give Rs50 lakh to Bano as compensation, along with a job and accommodation of her choice.

European gas prices surged to a six-month peak on Tuesday, exacerbating recession fears as the region faces the prospect of rationing following cuts to Russia supplies amid the war in Ukraine.

Oil prices, meanwhile, extended losses a day after tumbling more than five percent on fears demand will subside due to recessions or slow growth in major economies such as China.

In Europe, the natural gas reference price Dutch TTF rallied more than 10 percent at one point to over 250 euros per megawatt hour — the highest level since the start of March, or not long after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Energy prices are soaring in Europe,” said market analyst Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and FOREX.com.

“Reduced Russian energy shipments of around only 20 percent of capacity through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline have increased the risk of rationing in the coming months,” he added.

Spiking gas prices would likely push European nations into recession, hitting demand for other goods such as oil.

“A slick of worry is growing about the darkening prospects for global growth as economies slow around the world, pushing down oil prices in expectation of lower demand,” noted Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst Hargreaves Lansdown.

Signs that Iran is moving towards a nuclear deal added to the downward pressure on prices, with an agreement seen as allowing the country to restart oil sales into the world market.

Analysts said Tehran could provide 2.5 million barrels a day, giving a much-needed shot in the arm to supplies, which have been hammered by sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

Libya has also boosted production, helping prices drop to six-month lows and wiping out the gains seen after the Ukraine war started.

But analysts warned that there might still be some way to go on an Iran agreement, owing to upcoming US elections.

“A deal with Iran would likely not be popular with US voters and so is hard to envisage before the November mid-terms,” said National Australia Bank’s Ray Attrill.

“Markets are currently prone to optimism, though, and hopes for a deal… have added to downward pressure on oil prices.”

– Walmart boost –
European stocks drifted higher despite dismal survey data from Germany, with the low value of the euro and pound providing a lift.

Wall Street opened mixed, with the Dow edging higher after Walmart beat expectations despite having earlier issued a profit warning.

Shares in the big-box retailer surged more than five percent as trading got underway.

Major markets have been buoyed in recent days on bets that the Federal Reserve would not lift borrowing costs by 75 basis points for a third straight time next month after decades-high inflation eased in the United States as well as data showing the economy to be cooling.

The recent drop in oil prices will help reduce inflation.

Key figures at around 1330 GMT

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.2 percent at $89.28 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $94.78 per barrel

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 7,546.48 points

Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.3 percent at 13,855.05

Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.1 percent at 6,577.35

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.1 percent at 3,793.94

New York – Dow: UP less than 0.1 percent at 33,942.48

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: FLAT at 28,868.91 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.1 percent at 19,830.52 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,277.88 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0157 from $1.0166 Monday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2057 from $1.2055

Euro/pound: DOWN at 84.25 pence from 84.29 pence

Dollar/yen: UP at 134.49 yen from 133.33 yen

American Airlines Group on Tuesday agreed to buy up to 20 jets from aircraft maker Boom Supersonic, becoming the second major US airline to bet on ultra-fast passenger travel in the last two years.

American, which also has an option to purchase 40 additional Overture jets, has made an unspecified non-refundable deposit on the initial 20 planes, each of which can carry 65 to 80 passengers, the companies said.

 

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Boom’s four-engine Overture jet can fly people from Miami to London in just under five hours, the company said, cutting the nearly nine-hour flight time between the cities by about half.

American spokesperson Matt Miller said it was too early to discuss ticket prices, given the aircraft isn’t expected to carry its first passengers until 2029.

The era of regular commercial supersonic flights appeared to have ended in 2003 when Concorde, flown by Air France and British Airways, was retired after 27 years of service.

But last year, United Airlines agreed to buy 15 Boom Overture aircraft subject to them meeting certain safety, operating and sustainability requirements. A similar condition is also part of the American Airlines’ agreement on Tuesday. read more

Supersonic jets have come under criticism from environmentalists for burning more fuel per passenger than comparable subsonic planes.

The Overture jet, being designed to run 100% on sustainable aviation fuel or a blend, will be rolled out of Boom’s Greensboro, North Carolina factory in 2025, followed by test flights in 2026.

The Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents pilots of American Airlines, criticized the deal, saying the carrier should instead focus on reducing cancellations and delays which have hit its operations this year. read more

“If there aren’t any changes to how management schedules this airline and its pilots, there will just be supersonic cancellations,” APA spokesperson Dennis Tajer said.