SHANGHAI (AFP) – China Mobile shares ended with slight gains yesterday in their debut on the Shanghai stock exchange after the telecoms giant was delisted in New York as tensions soared between Beijing and Washington.
The stock had jumped as much as 9.4 per cent at the start of trading – edging toward the 10 per cent limit that triggers a trading halt in China – before steadily falling back through the day.
It ended at CNY57.88, a gain of 0.52 per cent.
The share issue is expected to raise USD8.8 billion after the company exercises an over-allotment option, Bloomberg News said, making it the largest on China’s domestic stock markets in more than a decade.
China’s biggest wireless carrier by revenue was removed from the New York Stock Exchange last year along with fellow state-owned telecoms firms China Telecom and China Unicom.
That followed an executive order by former president Donald Trump banning Americans from investing in a range of companies deemed to be supplying or supporting China’s military and security apparatus.
China Mobile has said funds raised through the flotation will go towards building 5G infrastructure, as well as “smart home” projects and other initiatives.
Some of China’s biggest tech and telecom firms listed on United States (US) stock markets in recent decades as they sought access to funding on more developed capital markets.
But the tide turned as tensions between Beijing and Washington soared in recent years.
China’s government has been encouraging companies to list on domestic exchanges as part of a push to keep big tech players closer to home and develop the country’s capital markets.
PARIS (AFP) – Lens will face Monaco in the last 16 of the French Cup after Lille’s Renato Sanches missed the crucial penalty when their game ended 1-1 after 90 minutes.
Cup holders Paris Saint-Germain will host Nice in the next round, scheduled for the end of this month, while record 10-time winners Saint-Etienne will head to fourth-tier Bergerac, after the draw was made on Tuesday.
In front of just 5,000 fans at the 38,000-capacity Stade Bollaert-Delelis due to coronavirus restrictions, the visiting Ligue 1 champions Lille dominated the first half of the northern derby against Lens.
Lille’s Amadou Onana opened the scoring after 28 minutes, heading home when Tiago Djalo’s cross was deflected to the midfielder by Kevin Danso.
Onana, 20, then claimed the maiden double of his senior career on the counter attack.
Turkey’s Yusuf Yazici broke down the left before feeding Jonathan Bamba who set-up Dakar-born Onana to make it 2-0 after 33 minutes.
Lille’s advantage was halved when Lens captain Seko Fofana claimed his sixth goal of the campaign following Arnaud Kalimuendo’s pass to the delight of the minimal home crowd.
ANN/ THE DAILY STAR – Lighting often becomes an afterthought when we embark on room makeover projects. It has the tendency to be glossed over even though it holds the capacity to be both harmonising and transformative.
Here are lighting trends to get behind to elevate or revamp any room.
STRIKING METAL
Rose gold has given way to brass in the world of interior design, and this is especially noticeable with lighting.
Brass has made its presence felt in the lighting world, with brass sconce and lamp shades rising in popularity.
Lamp shades and pendants crafted almost entirely of brass make great additions to rooms aspiring to incorporate more of an art-deco or industrial feel to it. Marble or wood bodied lamps with copper embellishments are a subtle alternative to full brass pieces.
ORGANICALLY NATURAL
Natural materials such as bamboo, wicker and rattan have become a desired option for both lighting and furnishing.
Dramatically sized rattan fixtures can add a beachy element to living rooms, making them appear more coastal and bohemian.
Less theatrical variations of this include rattan string lights or wicker floor lamps, which can make bedrooms feel more grounded and homely.
COLOUR BURSTS
With people spending more time indoors due to the ongoing pandemic, colourful bold lighting which has become more commonplace. When you stay in for too long, muted and uniform colour schemes can start to feel suffocating. Lighting fixtures and wall sconces with brightly painted finishes are a good way to add a burst of colour. Additionally, you can place smaller lamps adorned with patterned fabric shades throughout your room.
Be it a blue seashell pattern or muted florals, patterned fabric shades are a unique way to sprinkle in colour.
THE EMPIRE’S COME BACK
Sometimes a room just requires lighting which takes the backseat, and empire lamp shades are the perfect example of this. Empire shades go with almost every decor style, which helps it hold onto its staple label. If you want your lighting to appear grand-millennial, try pleated cream empire shades. For a glam twist to the classic lamp shade, go all black.
ECLECTIC FEEL
With a decline in the need of interior decor to be meticulously orchestrated and uniform, nostalgia inducing lighting is slowly picking up traction. Although lava lamps were once constrained to a teen’s wish list, they are more adored by older age groups at present. If your room feels like it could use a boost of personality, lava lamps are your go-to.
If you want a mature variation of lighting which still adds the novelty element, you can try blown glass pendants or fixtures in colourful shades. While they are better suited for living rooms and dining rooms, they make for safer options.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s Health Minister is advocating tougher curbs on contact between people as the country prepares for a new rise in coronavirus infections fueled by the Omicron variant.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the country’s 16 state governors are set to confer tomorrow on charting a way forward.
They’re likely to build on restrictions introduced just after the holidays that limited private gatherings to 10 people, among other things.
“Tightening will unfortunately be necessary to face the serious wave that is coming our way,” Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland newspaper group in comments published yesterday.
Lauterbach also renewed an appeal for vaccine holdouts to reconsider.
He said people who remain unvaccinated in Germany can’t expect contact restrictions for them to be lifted “in the short- or medium-term”.
MANILA (CNA) – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday he will never apologise for the deaths of suspected drug users and dealers killed in police operations under his war on drugs that has alarmed rights groups.
More than 6,200 drug suspects have died in anti-narcotics sting operations since Duterte took office in June 2016 until November 2021, government data shows.
“I will never, never apologise for the deaths,” Duterte said in a weekly national address. “Kill me, jail me, I will never apologise.”
Rights groups and critics said law enforcers have summarily executed drug suspects, but police said those killed were armed and had violently resisted arrest.
Duterte, in his first national address this year, vowed to protect law enforcers doing their duty, telling them to fight back when their life is in danger.
Duterte, 76, won the presidency by a wide margin in 2016 on a platform of anti-corruption and law and order.
The firebrand leader is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election next year. Analysts said an ally getting elected could protect Duterte from any legal action over his anti-narcotics programme.
Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in September approved a formal investigation into Duterte’s war on drugs. The ICC suspended the probe in November following a request by the Philippines, which cited its own investigations.
Duterte unilaterally cancelled the Philippines’ ICC membership in March 2018, a month after its prosecutor said a preliminary examination over the drugs war was under way.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaking during the annual state of the nation address at the House of Representatives in Manila, The Philippines. PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The storming of the United States (US) Capitol pushed social media platforms to crack down on those who peddled the “stolen election” claim that drove it, but the narrative has survived and flourished online, in right-wing media and among Republican politicians.
Donald Trump’s supporters acted on the baseless allegation that widespread vote-rigging robbed him of victory in the 2020 presidential election, with the January 6, 2021 violence ultimately leading Twitter and Facebook to suspend his accounts.
His claims were rejected by election officials and dozens of courts, but polling shows many Americans still believe the “big lie” that he defeated Joe Biden – a falsehood that has damaging consequences far beyond the riot.
“These persistent claims pose a threat to the sanctity and trust in our democratic system writ large,” said global fellow at the Wilson Center Nina Jankowicz.
False information about elections is not new – Trump made similar claims in 2016 before he defeated Hillary Clinton – but social media, which thrives on polarisation, offers a place for it to spread, and for people who believe it to organise and wreak havoc.
Trump – then Twitter’s most powerful user – warned his millions of followers of potential cheating before election day in 2020, told them the race was being stolen as ballots were counted, and repeated the accusation in tweets and in a speech before the tumult at the Capitol.
Trump supporters clashing with police and security forces. PHOTO: AFP
“The January 6 attack was a product of social media,” said resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab Emerson Brooking.
“The ‘Stop the Steal’ movement captured millions of people in an alternative reality and funnelled them from mass delusion to hysteria to collective violence against the US Congress.”
The movement, he said, “became the most important thing in the world for tens of thousands of Americans.”
Social media companies have taken steps to halt the spread of false information and conspiracy theories about Biden’s victory over Trump.
Facebook has removed content mentioning the phrase ‘stop the steal’, and Twitter suspended tens of thousands of accounts linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory, adherents of which played a prominent role in the unrest one year ago.
The companies have “generally been effective in their ban on election-related falsehoods”, Brooking said.
But people who believe the election was stolen are still active on both websites, and “election denialism relies more heavily on coded language and closed communities”.
Trump still has an online presence including a mailing list that has many subscribers, and has repeatedly released statements saying the election was “rigged”.
Echoing Trump, more than 100 Republican lawmakers voted against certifying Biden’s win, and members of the party at both the state and national level – eager for political and financial backing – continue to give credence to the former president’s unfounded claims.
He also has help from prominent pundits who amplify such messages.
“Trump is still generating a lot of noise, not through Twitter or Facebook anymore but through various right-wing media personalities such as Dan Bongino, Bill O’Reilly, and Candace Owens,” said post-doctoral fellow at George Washington University’s Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics Yunkang Yang.
Distrust in traditional media outlets means that people who think the election was stolen do not believe those reporting on evidence that it was not.
“Even though most mainstream media organisations have spent significant time debunking false claims about election fraud, their messages can no longer reach Republican voters to the extent they did,” Yang said.
“Many right-wing media organisations have spread doubt about the 2020 election – some blatantly claimed that it was stolen,” providing “an alternative space for Republican voters who turned away from mainstream media”, he added.
Fox News faces a USD1.6 billion defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems, which said the cable channel helped fuel false claims that votes were changed in favour of Biden.
A judge last month allowed the voting machine company’s action to proceed, ruling that it could be inferred that Fox “intended to avoid the truth”.
And despite Biden being in the White House, those who continue to believe Trump won in 2020 find ample affirmation for their views on independent websites as well as on social media platforms that thrive on the US’ political divisions.
With midterm congressional elections this year and presidential polls in 2024, when Trump may run again, there is no indication the problem will disappear.
“The disinformation and election denialism that struck 2020 nearly succeeded in its goal of overturning a democratic election,” said Brooking. “There is no reason to change a winning strategy.”
SYDNEY (AFP) – Some Qantas pilots are making mistakes as they return from long breaks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an internal memo reported by Australian media yesterday.
Among the errors listed in Qantas pilot reports: starting take-off with the parking brake on and misreading the altitude as airspeed, said a report by the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne’s Age.
It also cited switches in cockpit panels being in the wrong position, and crew looking back at an event and “not realising that they were overloaded or had lost situational awareness”.
The memo by Qantas’ fleet operations chiefs reportedly said the COVID-19 related disruption to flights meant pilots had less recent flight experience, a requirement known as “recency”.
As a result, the memo is quoted as saying, expert pilots “experienced a subsequent reduction in cognitive capacity”.
“Airlines around the world are working through the complex process of returning to pre-Covid operations, including bringing back pilots who experienced extended periods on the ground,” a Qantas spokeswoman said.
Qantas recognised very early that it needed to reassess pilots’ recent and current flight time requirements as well as its “refamiliarisation programmes”, she said.
“We designed an enhanced return-to-work programme fit for the unprecedented challenge facing our industry,” the spokeswoman added.
“Safety is our number one priority and all of the data shows that our pilots are coming back with the skills and confidence to do their job safely.”
ANN/ THE DAILY STAR – Matcha, a form of tea that has its roots in China and translates to “ground tea” in Japanese, is a proud representation of the shared love for tea in
Eastern Asia.
The speciality of matcha is of course its distinct taste, but also the fact that unlike most other teas, it is not strained.
The preparation of matcha is also different, where traditional methods involve whisking the green powder with hot water to attain a frothy mixture.
While this conventional method is still practiced in some parts of the world, especially being an integral part of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, matcha is not limited to making tea in modern cooking.
Matcha offers several health benefits as it contains high levels of antioxidants that protect cells from damage.
Matcha also retains therapeutic abilities – any tea lover would agree that the process of preparing matcha is indeed meditative.
MATCHA OMBRE CHEESECAKE
An unusual flavour, but this double-layered, no-bake cheesecake shall be the showstopper of your dessert table!
INGREDIENTS
– 10 – 12 biscuits
– 40 grammes molten butter
– 500 grammes cream cheese
– One tbsp matcha powder
– Quarter cup hot water
– 200 grammes condensed milk
– Four tsp gelatine
– Four tbsp cold water
– One tsp vanilla extract
– 400 millilitre whipping cream
METHOD
Bash the biscuits to fine crumbs and add melted butter. Combine the two to attain a sand-like mixture.
Line the sides of a spring-form pan and drop the mixture into it, pack it densely and put this in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Prepare the matcha by whisking it with hot water and leave it aside
to cool.
Soak the gelatine in cold water and keep that aside as well to bloom. Whip the cream to attain stiff peaks and let it chill in the refrigerator.
Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese until it is slightly airy and pour in condensed milk. Beat this again and then divide the mixture into two.
Dissolve the gelatine in a microwave oven for 10 seconds making sure it does not boil and add half of it separately to each of the divided mixtures.
Add in prepared matcha and vanilla to the desired set of cheesecake mixture.
Finally, divide the whipped cream into two parts and gently fold it into each of the mixtures. The resulting concoction should hold its shape when scooped.
Pour the matcha mixture over the biscuit base and then gently pour in the vanilla layer. Let this set in the refrigerator for at least two hours before slicing through.
MATCHA WHITE HOT CHOCOLATE
Matcha and white chocolate is a match made in heaven and certainly, a warm cup of hot chocolate can make your day so ‘matcha’ better!
INGREDIENTS
– Two tsp matcha powder
– Two cups milk
– Half cup hot water
– One-third cup white chocolate
– 10 – 12 large marshmallows
METHOD
Sift the matcha powder into hot water and whisk until it is dissolved and frothy. Heat milk and bring to a simmer before adding half a cup of chopped white chocolate or chocolate chips. Mix this until molten, and gradually pour in the matcha mixture. Combine everything until homogenous and serve warm, decked with marshmallows atop.
MATCHA BUBBLE TEA
This bubble tea is refreshingly delicious and also fulfilling, where every sip will reach right to your soul and replenish it!
Ingredients
– One tsp matcha powder
– One-third cup hot water
– One tsp honey
– One cup milk
– Quarter cup tapioca pearls
– Half cup soft whipped cream
METHOD
Prepare the tapioca pearls by boiling them in hot water for five minutes followed by straining. Make the matcha concoction by whisking it with hot water until fully dissolved. Pour this into a mason jar, along with the tapioca pearls, milk, and honey. Let this cool in the refrigerator and top with soft whipped cream before drinking.
MATCHA-MISU
If coffee lovers can have their dedicated dessert, it is only fair that tea lovers receive the same. Thus, presenting a matcha rendition of tiramisu!
INGREDIENTS
– 24 pieces ladyfinger cookies
– Two cups hot water
– Three tbsp matcha powder
– Quarter cup plus two tbsp white sugar
– Four egg yolks
– Three-quarter cup milk
– 250 grammes mascarpone/cream cheese
METHOD
Beat egg yolks with two tablespoons sugar and one tablespoon matcha powder. Bring milk to a simmer and gradually add it to the egg mixture until fully incorporated.
Next, whisk in cheese to get a smooth mixture. Alongside, whip the cream to stiff peaks and gently fold it in with the cheese mixture.
Prepare two tablespoons of matcha with hot water and sugar by whisking them until
fully dissolved.
Dip ladyfingers into this while still warm and layer them, alternatively adding a layer of the cheese mixture to attain two layers of each. Allow this to chill for four hours before serving.
(AFP) – With new versions forcing vaccine makers to re-test jabs, the virus that causes Covid-19 has proven highly unpredictable.
But the latest variant to sweep the globe has persuaded some experts that long hoped-for collective immunity is in sight, and that the virus may be evolving into a relatively benign seasonal illness.
Omicron has proven particularly contagious, infecting people thought to have immunity conferred by vaccines or a bout with the disease itself.
But while Omicron it driving a record number of cases in countries around the world, the illness is generally less severe, compared to previous variants.
More people getting Omicron and recovering, combined with more vaccinations, could be the key to boosting collective defences against almost any form of Covid, some experts have said.
Lower rates of hospitalisation due to Omicron also suggests Covid-19 might evolve into a weaker form, similar to coronaviruses long circulating in the general population.
“Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of an evolution towards a more banal virus like the others we know,” said Alain Fischer, who coordinates France’s pandemic vaccine response.
Clinical virologist Julian Tang reacting to a UK study on Omicron’s lesser severity, said he imagined one day repeat vaccination and other measures would only be necessary for the most vulnerable.
“I am still hopeful that the virus will eventually become more like the other common cold coronaviruses – perhaps over the next one to two years,” he said.
These conjectures have been embraced by public health officials. Speaking before the legislature this week, French Health Minister Olivier Veran said “maybe this will be the wave that allows us to acquire a kind of immunity”.
Even if Omicron leads to fewer severe cases per million people, a larger proportion of the population infected means that hospitalisations are bound to increase overall.
The World Health Organization (WHO) ahead of the holidays stressed the danger of many people getting infected with Omicron while the more severe Delta variant is still circulating.
In the absence of herd immunity worldwide, Omicron is unlikely to be the last Covid variant, experts warn. “We aren’t there yet,” said Fontanet. “We can expect new variants to emerge, but as our immunity strengthens over time – either through natural infection or with booster doses of the vaccine – their ability to lead to serious consequences will diminish.”
For epidemiologist Antoine Flahault, who heads up the Institute of Global Health in Geneva, all scenarios remain on the table.
“If we want to start learning lessons from the recent past of this pandemic, let us remember that it is largely unpredictable,” he told AFP.
A 47-year-old woman suffering from respiratory problems due to COVID-19 passed away, raising the number of deaths related to the virus in the country to 58.
“By the will of Allah the Almighty and with a heavy heart, the Ministry of Health (MoH) would like to inform the public that one COVID-19 confirmed case has returned to the grace and mercy of Allah the Almighty,” said Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar during the daily press conference yesterday.
He said the woman had been receiving treatment at the intensive care unit.
The minister said. “The Ministry of Health as well as the people of Brunei Darussalam, would like to express its deepest condolences to the family and pray that her soul will receive blessings and is placed among the pious.”
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Aminuddin Ihsan bin Pehin Orang Kaya Saiful Mulok Dato Seri Paduka Haji Abidin was also present.
