Category Archives: Macau

Haunted by the spectre of last years crisis, India is bracing for a deluge of Covid-19 cases, with authorities of various megacities bringing in restrictions in a bid to keep infections in check.

Case numbers have yet to match the enormous figures seen last spring, when thousands died each day and the Hindu holy city of Varanasi maintained round-the-clock funeral pyres for the mass cremation of virus victims.

But daily infections nearly tripled over two days this week to more than 90,000, a surge driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant that some experts worry could again see the countrys hospitals overwhelmed.

An overnight curfew has been imposed in the Delhi area that includes the capital,whereweekend movement restrictions will begin on Friday evening, with all non-essential workers asked to stay home.

Tech hub Bangalore has also declared a weekend curfew, while sprawling financial centre Mumbai introduced a night curfew.

Even a small percentage of a large number of cases translates to a largenumber in absolute terms, Gautam Menon, a professor at Indias Ashoka University who has worked on Covid infection modelling, told AFP.

This could potentially stress out health care systems to levels comparable to or worse than the second wave.

Doctors and nurses who spoke to AFP have so far been optimistic, with fewer severe cases among those patients admitted to hospital and with the benefit of experience.

Last year, we didnt know what exactly we were dealing with. I think now, mentally, its a little better, one frontline worker at a Delhi hospital said.

Suresh Kumar, director of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital in the capital, where cases have quadrupled from a handful at the start of the week to 20, said the rise was not a cause for panic.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis administration has so far shied away from the drastic nationwide lockdown introduced during last years catastrophic outbreak.

But local officials have watched the sharply rising case numbers with alarm and some of Indias biggest urban centres have moved to impose restrictions again.

Earlier virus lockdowns were a hammer blow to the Indian economy and many are worried about the financial impact of new restrictions.

I will be working onlyfor 15 days this month, said Delhi resident Tumul Srivastava, whose office is subject to the 50 percent occupancy limits imposed by the city.

My salary may be deducted. All this is adding to my anxiety.

India appears better placed to weather Omicron than it was ahead of the calamitous Delta wave it suffered last spring, when more than 200,000 people died in a matter of weeks.

Back then, hospitals ran out of oxygen and patients desperately scrambled to source medicine after a run on pharmacies.

In the time since, Indian health workers have injected nearly 1.5 billion vaccine doses, with government data showing nearly two-thirds of the country fully vaccinated.

That campaign, combined with last years Delta sweep of towns and villages around the country, may help lessen the impact of the latest spread.

Though we do not have data, this may give strong hybrid immunity against severe outcomes, University of Michigan epidemiologist Bhramar Mukherjee told AFP.

Preliminary studies have so far suggested the Omicron variant has led to less severe health consequences among those infected, despite its rapid spread.

Mukherjee warned however that an uncontrolled spread of new infections could still pose serious problems for India, even if the direct virus toll is a fraction of that seen last year.

As you are witnessing in the US and UK, a major chunk of the working population being sick is affecting the societal infrastructure and leading to chaos, she said.

I am afraid there may be a period in India when we see the same thing just the sheer volume may make the system crumble.

by Aishwarya KUMAR

Follow this link:

As cases rise, India fears another Covid catastrophe - Macau Business

A jacket equipped with sensors that let wearers feel hugs or even punches in virtual reality was among the innovations giving the metaverse a more realistic edge at the Consumer Electronics Show.

What is the metaverse if you cant feel it? asked Jose Fuertes, founder of the Spain-based startup Owo, which made the jacket. Its just avatars.

The metaverse a parallel universe where human, augmented and virtual realities are supposed to merge was a hot theme at the annual gadget extravaganza in Las Vegas, with startups showing off computers, headsets and other gear promising to enhance time spent in virtual worlds.

Owo touts its jacket as able to immerse wearers, whether in video games or in the metaverse, letting them feel a gunshot, the wind, someone grabbing your arm and even a hug from a loved one.

The tight-fitting jacket features bands that stick to the skin, with sensors that sync to a mobile application. Before donning a virtual reality (VR) headset, the wearer can choose the intensity of each sensation.

Our mission is to turn the virtual into reality with a second skin; to add the sense of touch in the metaverse or video games, Fuertes said as AFP tried out the jacket.

The Owo garb to be priced less than $450 when it hits the market late this year brings to mind the sci-fi novel-turned-film Ready Player One, in which people in a dystopian world live alternate lives in a virtual universe.

The science fiction future seems distant given a lack of full body suits and comfortable headsets for simulated experiences, or ubiquitous high-speed internet service to handle such rich data streams.

Nonetheless, the metaverse has become a popular topic since being endorsed by Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg so enthusiastically that the technology company was renamed Meta.

While companies such as Meta and HTC have invested heavily in virtual reality headsets, the equipment is still not light and comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time.

Im the biggest sort of augmented and virtual reality nerd, but I dont think we are anywhere close to anything exciting happening in the metaverse, said Paddy Cosgrave, head of Web Summit in Europe.

He expects it to take more than a decade for the metaverse to become real.

Nothing can stop it, Touchcast chief and founder Edo Segal said of the metaverse.

Touchcast showed off a platform for collaboration between companies in virtual reality, complete with .metaverse addresses akin to .com web addresses. But the domains will be registered on a blockchain database, instead of on servers.

In 1999, it was hard to believe people would buy things online, Segal said.

Look where we are today. Humanity is moving in this direction.

Industry trackers report that sales of virtual reality gear were boosted by the pandemic as people relied on the internet for games, work, learning and socializing.

As the year 2020 neared its end, the young Japanese entrepreneur focused on ways someones leg or torso movements can be mirrored by avatars and other ways of making visits to virtual worlds more realistic.

His startup Shiftall, a subsidiary of Panasonic, unveiled lightweight, high-resolution VR glasses at CES.

In the future, some of the special suits like in Ready Player One will contain every system, Takuma said.

Currently, metaverse users need to use different products, like a cyborg.

Israeli start-up Wearable Devices is working on a bracelet that detects the electrical signals sent by the brain to the hand. The wearer can control synced objects with a mere snap of their fingers a function that could prove useful if people use augmented reality glasses and need to select items displayed on the lenses.

But as the metaverse evolves, society will also need to be wary of dangers from online ills such as misinformation, harassment and losing touch with the real world, some experts warned.

Counterfeit goods are going to exist in the metaverse, as well. Counterfeit identities are going to exist in the metaverse, as well, said Dan Guenther, an extended reality specialist at Accenture.

And weve seen in many other evolutions of the internet that many times (there) are the portions of the internet that were uncomfortable with.

Read more here:

Metaverse gets touch of reality at CES - Macau Business

China will enhance reforms of the market-based allocation of production factors amid efforts to build a high-standard market system, according to a plan released by the General Office of the State Council.

Efforts will be made to fully leverage the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and give better play to the role of government, says the plan, adding that the institutional obstacles that hinder the free flow of factors will be eradicated.

China will promote market-based allocation of production factors including land, labor and capital, while accelerating the development of the technology market and data factors, it said.

The country will support qualified local authorities to explore reform paths that can be replicated and promoted by the nation, it said.

The country will advance pilot programs for reforms of market-based allocation of production factors in urban agglomerations, metropolitan areas and key cities with urgent reform needs, solid foundation and development potential, it said.

Meanwhile, the number and coverage of pilot programs should be controlled, it added.

By the first half of 2022, work related to the layout of pilot areas will be completed and the drawing of the implementation plan will be submitted for approval, it said.

Phased progress will be achieved in advancing pilot programs and significant breakthroughs in market-based allocation of key production factors are expected to be gained by 2023, it noted, adding that the task of advancing pilot programs will be basically completed by 2025.

Considering the varying development foundations and resource endowments in different regions, existing pilot reforms concerning the allocation of production factors can hardly meet the practical needs of pushing ahead with reform in a coordinated and efficient manner, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The plan will be conducive to mobilizing the initiatives of local governments, further advancing the reform of the market-based allocation of production factors, and making the reform more systematic, holistic and coordinated, the NDRC said.

To ensure the implementation of the plan and the achievement of practical results in pilot programs, efforts will be made to improve the working mechanism to enhance coordination, urge local governments to fulfill their primary responsibilities, tighten supervision, and provide stronger legal guarantee, the NDRC said.

See the original post:

China to advance reforms on market-based allocation of production factors - Macau Business

Samsung Electronics expects operating profits for the fourth quarter to soar 52.5 percent, the South Korean tech giant said in a statement on Friday, spurred by record sales.

The worlds biggest smartphone maker forecast 2021 fourth-quarter operating profits at around 13.8 trillion won ($11.5 billion), up from 9.05 trillion won in the same quarter last year.

The firm was boosted by record sales in the quarter, estimated at 76 trillion won, up 23.5 percent on-year, according to the statement.

A spokeswoman told AFP annual sales in 2021 were also expected to be the highest ever.

While the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the world economy, it has helped many tech companies boom.

Pandemic-driven working from home has boosted demand for devices powered by Samsungs chips, as well as home appliances such as televisions and washing machines.

Analysts had also expected the firm to benefit from the traditionally lucrative holiday season.

Samsung Electronics is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung group, by far the largest of the family-controlled empires known as chaebols that dominate business in South Korea.

The conglomerates overall turnover is equivalent to around one-fifth of South Koreas gross domestic product.

Read the original post:

Samsung Electronics forecasts 52.5% jump in Q4 profits on record sales - Macau Business

The construction of the space station, a stronger supercomputer, new medicines and low-carbon tech are set to define Chinas science and technology sector in 2022.

SPACE EXPLORATION

This year, Chinese astronauts will see their single-room studio extended into a penthouse. After the launch of the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules, two cargo spacecraft and two crewed spaceships, Chinas new outpost in space will take shape.

More than a dozen experiment racks and an extravehicular experiment platform will be installed to support hundreds of research projects in fields such as astronomy, space life science, biotechnology, microgravity, basic physics and space materials. The nation is hoping to boost global collaboration in this regard.

Furthermore, Chinas first solar exploration satellite, launched into space in October last year, is sending data on solar flares back to Earth. It can help deepen our understanding of the sun.

Back on Earth, an observatory in southwest Chinas Sichuan Province is expected to reveal more secrets of the universe. LHAASO has already detected in 2021, its first year of service, ultra-high-energy cosmic accelerators within the Milky Way, a find that is rewriting our understanding of the galaxy. More finds are expected in 2022, fueled by the prospect of further international collaboration.

COMPUTING CAPACITY

China is mulling the launch of a faster supercomputer. The Chinese team that won the 2021 Gordon Bell Prize described in their winning paper a yet-to-be-published powerful machine that can achieve a sustained performance of 1.2 exaflops of single-precision computing power.

Such a device could be used to screen out therapeutical molecules and to simulate the chaotic planet climate which could help slow down global warming.

Although the quantum computer is still incapable of solving any problems in the real world, its performance continues to rapidly improve.

In 2021, Chinese scientists launched two superconducting quantum computing systems, Zuchongzhi and Zuchongzhi 2.1 within a half year, making China one of the world leaders in the field.

The global race to maneuver more entangled qubits will be intense in the new year.

BRAND-NEW MEDICINE

A pair of original drug candidates in China are currently in the pipeline. They are expected to produce inspiring results this year.

Two domestically developed anti-coronavirus candidates, VV116 and FB2001, have been approved for clinical trials respectively in Uzbekistan and the United States.Also, a medicine hoped to treat solid tumors developed by BeiGene, a Beijing-based pharma, is being tested clinically. It is a potential first-in-class candidate that uses a new and unique mechanism for treating disease.

It came after RemeGen, a Yantai-based pharma, obtained the marketing permit last year for its brand-new drug for treating systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Chinas sci-tech innovation board STAR was launched in 2019 and it funded Chinese biotechs with badly needed R&D investment. Today, these startups are starting to change the countrys pharmaceutical landscape.

LOW-CARBON TECHAs China is aiming to peak its CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, technology reducing carbon emissions is in high demand.

While the countrys drive to develop renewable energy is in full swing, its smokestack and power-intensive industries are being overhauled to make them more eco-friendly.

Last year, a test project in northeast Chinas Liaohe oil field injected 3,200 tonnes of CO2 into a well to pump more oil while fixing the carbon into the soil.

Such win-win techniques will be applied more in the coming years, translating Chinas carbon-reduction promises into lucrative opportunities.

Read more from the original source:

What to expect from China's science, tech in 2022 - Macau Business

Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing

SIBU (Jan 3): Dudong assemblyman Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said more scam victims have come forward after he had recently exposed a Macau scam cheating case.

In a press statement, he said the victims here could have lost tens of millions of ringgit in losses to the scam.

This is a grave matter beyond our imagination. Although the victims have all lodged police reports, the cases have ended up nowhere.

I call on the police, particularly officers in the commercial crime unit, to leave no stone unturned in their investigation to calm down the public who are gripped by fear of the scam, he said.

Tiong added he had his statement recorded by police to help in the investigation of cases linked to Macau scams.

He said the police are answerable to the people, while claiming that Sibu has become a hotbed for Macau scam cases.

Therefore, there is a need for the police to handle these cases with top priority.

They must employ theAnti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001to immediately freeze bank accounts of the criminals and to probe the source of their income.

When a person opens a bank account, he has to furnish particulars such as his name and identity card.

Therefore, the police must probe to find out where the scammed amount has gone to, and not to drag their feet in their probe.

In the end, this only causes the victims to suffer heavy losses, he added.

According to Tiong, many individuals had posted messages in his Facebook account, expressing regret of the weakness of the police.

He said some victims did not want to lodge police reports as they believed their cases would end up nowhere.

I feel there must be a change in the police attitude. I have furnished all details concerning the scam cases to the police, including the messages I received from members of the public.

I hope the people will also cooperate fully with the police. Stand up courageously and lodge your reports. Let the police have more clues in their probes to rope in the scammers.

If we adopt such couldnt care less attitude, Sibu will become a hotbed for the scammers to increase their criminal activities here.

Facebook Messenger Twitter WhatsAppEmailPrint

The rest is here:

Tiong: 'More coming forward after I exposed Macau scam case in Sibu' - The Borneo Post

China wants to use the Beijing Winter Olympics to showcase its green credentials but there are concerns over the environmental cost of a Games relying on artificial snow in one of the driest places in the country.

It is difficult to independently verify Beijings claims around the Games, which begin on February 4, and environmentalists told AFP they fear a backlash from authorities if they analyse Beijings green targets.

This is what we know:

What is China promising?

China has pledged to power the Games using only wind, hydro and solar energy despite relying on coal to power nearly two-thirds of its economy.

The city of Zhangjiakou, one of the three Olympic hubs, has installed wind farms spanning hundreds of acres that can produce 14 million kilowatts of electricity similar to the power Singapore can produce.

Authorities have also covered mountain-sides with solar panels that they say will generate another seven million kilowatts.

The Beijing Olympics organising committee told AFP that China built a dedicated power plant that takes on power generated from renewable sources, stores it and transmits it to all venues.

This should ensure uninterrupted power supply, it said.

But Chinas economy has relied on decades of coal-fuelled growth and is still building more coal-fired power plants than the rest of the world combined.

Will smog affect the Games?

In an attempt to clear Beijings notoriously smoggy skies before the Olympics, coal stoves in 25 million householdsin northern China were replaced with gas or electric.Tens of thousands of factories were also fined for exceeding emissions limits.

Steel plants around Beijing have also been ordered to cut production by half.

The number of heavily polluted days in the Chinese capital fell to 10 in 2020 compared to 43 in 2015, according to the environment ministry but the citys air quality still regularly exceeds World Health Organization standards.

A 2015 assessment by Greenpeace said that the biggest lesson from the 2008 Olympic Games (also in Beijing) has been the realisation that merely moving dirty industries from Beijing to neighbouring provinces does not bring lasting air-quality improvements.

What about transport?

Some 655 hydrogen buses will be used to transport athletes and officials during the Winter Games, state news agency Xinhua said.

Organisers said 85 percent of vehicles used for the Games will run on either electricity or hydrogen.

Given that only domestic spectators will be allowed to attend due to the pandemic and even those numbers look like being very limited flight emissions are likely to be lower than the average Olympics.

The coronavirus has also greatly reduced the number of international flights to China.

Where will snow come from?

The events in the parched mountains of Zhangjiakou and Yanqing, north of Beijing, will completely rely on man-made snow.

Artificial snowhas been used to varying degrees since the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

China estimates it will need around 49 million gallons of water to make artificial snow for events such as skiing and snowboarding, according to a 2019 blueprint by the countrys national economic planner.

The water would come from reservoirs in Zhanjiakou, but would account for less than one percent of the water supply of the city, a member of the Beijing Olympics organising committee told state-run Global Times.

So-called snow-makers say the water used to make snow contains no chemical additives and when it melts the water will naturally re-enter the soil.

How viable are winter sports?

The city of Beijing is extremely water-stressed, with 185 cubic metres of water per person per annum for its 21 million inhabitants less than a fifth of the supply needed per UN standards.

When China won the bid to host the Olympics, one of the key propaganda lines was that it would help put 300 million people on the ice.

But environmentalists say promoting winter sports that rely on artificial ice and snow could worsen the water woes.

Carmen de Jong, of the University of Strasbourg, said:To have Games in a site or region without snow is unsustainable since it is water- and energy-intensive, damages soil health and causes erosion.

To create events without the primary resource it depends on is not only unsustainable, its irresponsible.

See the article here:

Will Beijing's 'green Olympics' really be green? - Macau Business

The hunt began even as the smoke was still clearing on January 6: dozens of federal agents went to work sifting through social media posts, analyzing scores of videos and analyzing anonymous tips as they scrambled to understand who did what that day in the temple of American democracy.

The effort represents one of the largest investigations the FBI has ever conducted, said Lorenzo Vidino, director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.

These extraordinary efforts have resulted, in less than a year, in the arrest and charging of more than 725 Donald Trump supporters who, after listening to the outgoing president repeatedly denounce what he claimed was a stolen election, stormed into the Capitol building as members of Congress were poised to certify the victory of Joe Biden.

That list has grown almost by the day, and it could ultimately double in length: while federal investigators originally estimated that 800 people took part in the siege of the Capitol, they now say the number is closer to 2,000.

The accused are predominantly men (87 percent), most of them white, and with an average age of 39 which is generally not the age of extremists, according to Vidino, whose center has compiled detailed data on those charged.

They come from across the United States, with varied socioeconomic profiles (including lawyers, landscapers, real estate agents); and those with military backgrounds or who have faced bankruptcy are significantly overrepresented.

The varied group includes far-right extremists and the conspiracy-minded, but also ordinary supporters of Trump convinced by his insistent claims that the election was stolen.

Most of the accused are not charged with any violence or vandalism but merely with having illegally entered the building; they generally face only misdemeanor charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct on restricted grounds.

Prosecutors appear eager to process members of the group as quickly as possible, often through plea bargain agreements that avoid the need for trial: 165 of the accused have already reached such agreements, and some 50 have been sentenced.

Most of those sentences have been relatively light: one young man, who admitted having stolen a beer from the office of House speaker Nancy Pelosi, was sentenced to 20 days in prison, to be served on weekends allowing him to keep his job.

But 34-year-old Jacob Chansley, who became instantly famous after pictures of him standing shirtless and wearing a horned fur hat inside the Capitol circulated worldwide, received a more serious sentence of 41 months.

His lawyer Al Watkins says the sentencing gap sends the wrong message. That perspective does not look right for those who believe that they are political prisoners, he told AFP.

The longer sentences are just beginning to be handed down, against those accused of the most serious crimes: the approximately 225 individuals accused of acts of violence, notably against Capitol police.

The heaviest sentence so far has gone to Robert Palmer, a 54-year-old Florida man accused of attacking police with boards and a fire extinguisher. He received a five-year sentence.

Some 40 people are being charged with criminal conspiracy, which implies a pre-organized attack.

This serious charge has been levied primarily against members of far-right groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters.

These defendants, some of whom have been held in preventive detention for months, are expected to face jury trials beginning as soon as February.

One member of the Proud Boys, a New York man in his 30s, has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence.

So far, no one is being accused of sedition or insurrection serious charges mentioned early in the investigation but which are difficult to prove.

Vidino said prosecutors have been trying to be as imaginative as possible in framing charges. In the United States, he noted, investigators can pursue foreign extremist groups but not American organizations that may have radical or violent ideologies.

A key question remains: Who, among key figures not at the Capitol building that day, may have incited or orchestrated the assault. For now, investigators are leaving that matter up to the members of Congress pursuing their own investigation.

Even if Republican senators saved Trump from conviction in his impeachment trial in February, he is not yet in the clear.

The House of Representatives created a select committee to cast light on the role of the former president and his advisors. If it finds sufficient grounds, nothing would prevent prosecutors from filing charges.

And that would open a weighty new chapter in the already sprawling investigation.

by Charlotte PLANTIVE

Read the rest here:

After the US Capitol riot, a sprawling inquiry continues to grow - Macau Business

A record number of women are due to make up the next Dutch government after the incoming coalition published its list of ministers and secretaries of state on Sunday.

An unprecedented 14 of the 29 ministers and secretaries of state will be women, including 10 of the 20 ministers.

The four-party coalition will be sworn in on January 10 after reaching a deal in December a record 271 days after elections in March handing Prime Minister Mark Rutte a fourth term in office.

Previous finance minister and centre-right leader Wopke Hoekstra, known for his hawkish stance on spending, will become foreign minister. Former foreign minister Sigrid Kaag will replace him in the exchequer brief.

The finance ministers appointment is closely watched as the Netherlands is seen as one of the European Unions frugal four member states alongside Austria, Denmark and Sweden that clash with other nations over the EUs budget.

Ernst Kuipers, who was responsible for moving coronavirus patients around the country, will replace Hugo de Jonge as health minister.

Continued here:

New Dutch government to have record number of women - Macau Business

A major coalition of Malian political parties on Sunday rejected the military-dominated governments plan for a transition lasting up to five years before the country returns to democratic rule.

The army has dominated landlocked and conflict-wracked Mali since August 2020, carrying out two coups and postponing elections it had previously committed to hold next month.

Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop submitted the new plans to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Saturday, following a national reform conference boycotted by political parties and social organisations.

The plans are for a five-year prolongation of the transition period, starting from January 1.

The coalition, representing around 10 parties, said the timetable violates the transition charter, has not been discussed in Mali and cannot in any way be the deep desire of the Malian people.

Consequently, the group rejects this unilateral and unreasonable timetable, it added in a statement.

Coalition spokesman Sekou Niame Bathily told AFP the parties dissassociate themselves from the military governments plan and want to proceed with quickly organising elections.

ECOWAS, which has threatened to impose sanctions on Malis ruling junta for postponing the elections, will hold an extraordinary summit on Mali in Ghanas capital Accra on January 9.

Colonel Assimi Goita has led Mali since an August 2020 coup ousted former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, after weeks of street protests over perceived corruption and Keitas handling of a bloody jihadist insurgency.

Under pressure from France and Malis neighbours, Goita pledged that Mali would return to civilian rule in February after holding presidential and legislative elections.

But he staged a de facto second coup in May 2021, forcing out an interim civilian government and disrupting the timetable.

The junta cited persistent insecurity in Malis restive north in its decision to postpone the elections.

Two-thirds of the countrys territory is out of the governments control as self-defence militias and armed men affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State group mete out violence on civilians and soldiers.

Read more:

Mali parties reject army's five-year democratic transition - Macau Business