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  • Former head of national TCM administration indicted for bribery

    Former head of national TCM administration indicted for bribery

    China’s top prosecutorial body announced Friday that Yu Wenming, the former director of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NATCM), has been formally indicted for alleged bribery by prosecutors in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.

    The case against Yu follows a full investigation conducted by the National Commission of Supervision, China’s top anti-corruption watchdog. After investigators concluded their probe, the case was transferred to prosecutorial organs for formal review and indictment proceedings. The central authority assigned Tianjin’s prosecuting team to handle the case, and legal documents were recently filed with the Tianjin No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court to move the trial process forward.

    According to the indictment filed by Tianjin prosecutors, Yu abused his authority during his tenure as deputy head of the NATCM to secure improper benefits for multiple individuals and entities. In exchange for these favors, the former official accepted substantial sums of money and high-value valuables, prosecutors allege.

    Prosecutorial officials confirmed that the legal process has adhered to all required criminal procedures: Yu has been formally notified of his full legal rights throughout the review and prosecution stage, and legal representatives have accepted and reviewed arguments submitted by Yu’s defense team.

    A 62-year-old native of East China’s Shandong Province, Yu has a decades-long career rooted in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors. He began his professional career in August 1988, and joined the NATCM’s leadership as deputy director in April 2004. He was promoted to head of the national TCM administration in 2018, and was first placed under formal corruption investigation by supervisory authorities in June 2025. Yu is a member of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, one of China’s eight non-communist political parties that participate in state governance consultation.

    The indictment marks a key milestone in China’s ongoing national anti-corruption campaign, which has targeted officials across all sectors of government, including public health and regulatory agencies, since it was launched in 2012.

  • Former Myanmar president U Win Myint released under amnesty

    Former Myanmar president U Win Myint released under amnesty

    On the first day of Myanmar’s traditional New Year, a high-profile amnesty has freed more than 4,500 incarcerated individuals, including former national president U Win Myint, state-owned Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) confirmed in an official announcement on Friday.

    The pardon was issued by current Myanmar President U Min Aung Hlaing, who signed two separate executive orders to authorize the release. According to MRTV’s reporting, 4,335 domestic Myanmar prisoners and 179 foreign nationals held in Myanmar correctional facilities are included in the amnesty, which aligns with long-standing local traditions of marking the annual New Year celebration with acts of clemency.

    State media framed the large-scale pardon as a measure aligned with principles of peace and humanitarian values. The initiative is designed to foster social stability across the country, and to give the released individuals an opportunity to rejoin public life and contribute to national development efforts, the outlet added.

    The release of U Win Myint marks a notable development in Myanmar’s domestic political landscape, coming as the country observes its most important annual cultural holiday.

  • Wuhan University researchers return from five-month Antarctic expedition

    Wuhan University researchers return from five-month Antarctic expedition

    After five months of grueling, groundbreaking fieldwork in one of the harshest environments on Earth, five polar researchers from Wuhan University’s Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping have returned home, capping their contribution to China’s 42nd national Antarctic expedition. On Monday, the university hosted a press event welcoming the team back, bringing together regional and national media outlets to hear first-hand accounts of the expedition’s challenges, key scientific accomplishments, and unforgettable moments working on the icy southern continent.

    The five Wuhan University scholars were part of a broader 550-strong team of Chinese scientists that departed China on November 1 last year to carry out a full season of research across multiple Antarctic research stations. Each researcher was assigned to a different Chinese facility to conduct location-specific scientific work: Center professor Pang Xiaoping, associate researcher Zang Lin, and postdoctoral fellow Liu Mingliang were based at China’s first Antarctic research outpost, Great Wall Station; research assistant Hu Changhong carried out his duties at Zhongshan Station; and research assistant Yu Liang was posted to the relatively newer Qinling Station.

    According to official updates from Wuhan University, the team delivered meaningful progress on a suite of high-priority scientific and infrastructure projects during their five months on the ice. Core tasks included routine maintenance of tide gauges operated under the control of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), critical hardware upgrades to the on-site Beidou satellite observation network, and systematic long-term environmental monitoring of local Antarctic ecosystems. These projects not only advance China’s independent polar research capabilities but also contribute to global scientific understanding of Antarctic climate change, ice sheet dynamics, and satellite positioning accuracy in the polar region.

    The expedition comes as polar research has grown in global importance, with scientists around the world tracking rapid environmental changes in Antarctica that have far-reaching impacts on global sea levels and climate systems. Work like the upgrades to Beidou’s polar observation infrastructure also expand the coverage and reliability of Chinese satellite navigation services for international research and maritime operations in the southern ocean.

  • China launches high-precision greenhouse gas detection satellite

    China launches high-precision greenhouse gas detection satellite

    In a milestone for global climate monitoring efforts, China successfully launched a high-precision greenhouse gas detection satellite into its planned orbit on Friday, using a Long March 4C carrier rocket. The liftoff occurred at 12:10 p.m. Beijing Time at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, located in the Gobi Desert of Northwestern China.

    This mission marks the 638th flight operation of China’s Long March series carrier rockets, one of the most active and reliable rocket families in global space operations. The newly deployed satellite is designed to deliver accurate, large-scale measurements of greenhouse gas concentrations across the globe, filling critical data gaps that support climate change research and international emission reduction policy implementation.

    Unlike general atmospheric monitoring satellites, this new platform is equipped with advanced high-resolution detection instruments that can capture precise data on key greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane, enabling scientists to track emission sources, monitor absorption processes, and verify the effectiveness of climate action initiatives around the world.

    The launch comes amid growing global urgency to enhance climate observation infrastructure, as nations work toward meeting the carbon reduction goals outlined in the Paris Agreement. This new satellite capability is expected to contribute valuable open data to the global climate science community, supporting more informed decision-making for climate adaptation and mitigation strategies worldwide.

  • Chinese veto of Hormuz draft resolution helps de-escalate Iran tensions: envoy

    Chinese veto of Hormuz draft resolution helps de-escalate Iran tensions: envoy

    UNITED NATIONS – At a United Nations General Assembly meeting focused on Security Council veto practices this Thursday, China’s top permanent representative to the UN, Fu Cong, offered a clear, detailed defense of Beijing’s April 7 veto of a Gulf-backed Security Council draft resolution focused on the Strait of Hormuz, framing the move as a critical step that prevented already heightened tensions between Iran, the United States and Israel from boiling over into full-scale expanded conflict.

    Fu emphasized that in casting its veto, Beijing did not act out of narrow self-interest, but to uphold foundational international fairness and justice, defend the core purposes and principles enshrined in the UN Charter, and block dynamics that would have dragged more actors into the regional confrontation. Far from undermining stability, Fu argued, the veto created critical space for the temporary ceasefire that has since taken hold and opened a pathway to the direct dialogue and negotiations that all parties now need to resolve long-running disputes.

    “China’s vote was a choice made out of responsibility for regional peace and for the millions of people who call this region home,” Fu told the assembled delegates. “It stands on the right side of history, and it will withstand the test of time.”

    Fu went on to outline Beijing’s nuanced approach to the crisis, noting that China carefully considered the draft resolution and fully recognizes the legitimate, serious security concerns that Gulf Arab states hold regarding navigation security in the strategically vital waterway. Even so, Fu stressed that any action taken by the UN Security Council must be geared explicitly toward cooling tensions, not amplifying them. He argued that the draft resolution risked granting a false veneer of legitimacy to unapproved military operations by outside powers, opening the door to widespread authorization of the use of force that would only pour fuel on already smoldering conflict and drive full-scale escalation.

    Fu clarified China’s position on key issues at play: Beijing does not condone any Iranian attacks against Gulf states, and firmly supports the principle that unimpeded, safe passage for all international shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest and most economically critical maritime chokepoints, must be fully protected. He added that China calls on Iranian authorities to implement proactive, concrete measures to restore normal, uninterrupted navigation through the strait as quickly as possible.

    At the same time, Fu condemned the escalating military deployment and targeted economic blockade that the United States has implemented in the region, calling these actions deeply dangerous and irresponsible. He reminded delegates that the navigation crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is not an isolated conflict, but a spillover effect of broader escalating tensions across Iran and the wider Middle East. Only a full, lasting ceasefire across the region, he argued, can create the fundamental conditions needed to ease the crisis long-term.

    Fu welcomed the recent ceasefire announcement reached by relevant regional parties, and expressed Beijing’s backing for every diplomatic effort that moves the region closer to a permanent end to hostilities. He specifically highlighted the recent direct negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials held in Pakistan as a positive, promising step forward on the path to de-escalation.

    Moving forward, Fu said, all relevant parties must honor the terms of the existing ceasefire, remain committed to the path of dialogue and direct peace talks, stick to the principle of resolving all outstanding disputes exclusively through political and diplomatic channels, and take tangible, consistent actions to reduce regional tensions rather than inflame them. The international community, he added, must continue to ramp up its diplomatic engagement to push for peace talks, and must clearly and unequivocally reject any actions that seek to break the ceasefire or escalate confrontation between rival parties.

    Fu also emphasized the need for all actors to respect Lebanon’s full sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, warning that any escalation of tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border could unravel the existing ceasefire framework and destabilize the entire region.

    As a trusted, sincere friend and strategic partner to all Middle Eastern nations, Fu said, China has remained closely attuned to shifting regional dynamics, maintained a consistent objective and impartial stance, and carried out intensive, behind-the-scenes mediation with all rival parties to advance the cause of peace talks. Beijing stands ready, he concluded, to continue supporting efforts to reduce tensions, build positive relations between rival regional states, and play a constructive role in building a foundation for lasting, enduring peace and stability across the entire Middle East.

  • Shenzhou XXI astronauts complete third spacewalk

    Shenzhou XXI astronauts complete third spacewalk

    On April 17, 2026, the China Manned Space Agency announced a key milestone in China’s low-Earth orbit space program: the three-person crew of the Shenzhou XXI mission, stationed aboard the country’s operational Tiangong space station, has successfully completed its third extravehicular activity (EVA), more commonly known as a spacewalk.

    The outing, which concluded in the early hours of Friday Beijing time, saw two mission members — mission commander Senior Colonel Zhang Lu and spaceflight engineer Major Wu Fei — wrap up approximately five and a half hours of work outside the orbital outpost before re-entering the Wentian science module at 1:36 a.m. local time. The third member of the Shenzhou XXI team, payload specialist Zhang Hongzhang, an academic researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, remained inside the station throughout the EVA to coordinate operations and provide critical in-station support to his extravehicular crewmates.

    Working in tandem with ground control teams back on Earth and leveraging the station’s onboard robotic arm for maneuvering support, Zhang and Wu completed all pre-planned tasks scheduled for the spacewalk. These included the installation of protective space debris shields, designed to shield critical station components from micrometeoroid and orbital debris impacts, as well as comprehensive inspections of the condition of EVA support equipment stored outside the station.

    This spacewalk marks not only a routine operational milestone for the Shenzhou XXI mission but also a historic first for China’s human spaceflight program. It is the 27th spacewalk conducted by Chinese astronauts since the country began its extravehicular activity program, and it is the seventh spacewalk for mission commander Zhang Lu. At 49 years old, the Hunan Province native now holds the new national record for the most spacewalks completed by any Chinese astronaut. Zhang previously notched four spacewalks during his first mission, the six-month long Shenzhou XV expedition that launched in November 2022, demonstrating his extensive experience and reliability in leading complex extravehicular operations.

  • Tensions lift prices, reshape farm trade

    Tensions lift prices, reshape farm trade

    Global agricultural markets and everyday consumers across the world are facing growing strain from two overlapping sources of instability: escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and persistent uncertainty around United States trade policy, industry and policy experts warned during a recent media briefing held at the Port of Los Angeles. The event brought together top port leadership and international relations scholars to examine how regional conflict, disrupted shipping corridors, and unpredictable tariff policies are sending new ripple effects through economies far beyond coastal cargo terminals and port infrastructure.

  • It’s the posters who should pay when spreading malicious rumors online

    It’s the posters who should pay when spreading malicious rumors online

    Online sexual rumors, one of the most insidious forms of digital harm, can take root from the most mundane materials — a single ordinary public photo, and a fabricated caption never written or approved by the person pictured. This is exactly what unfolded in the case of Xiaoting, a victim whose experience lays bare the broken systems currently in place to address digital defamation.

    The playbook for spreading these malicious rumors is depressingly consistent: bad actors attach dehumanizing language and false pricing claims to an innocent image, frame the person’s life as a public proposition for strangers to judge, and let unchecked comment sections escalate the humiliation. Unlike accidental misinformation, the shame and damage inflicted are not side effects — they are the entire point of the post.

    When victims like Xiaoting try to fight back against this harm, they quickly hit a wall of bureaucratic barriers that shift the entire burden of proof from the perpetrators to the people they have harmed. Platforms hide behind formal procedures that demand victims prove they hold the rights to their own image, prove the post is defamatory, and prove the damage it has inflicted — all while the original poster hides behind anonymity, free to repost the rumor on other platforms and continue their abuse. Even when a single false post is taken down, the core problem remains unchanged: the incentives that reward bad actors for spreading harmful rumors are still intact, and the stigma attached to the victim lingers long after the content is removed.

    Modern platform algorithms only amplify this cruelty, making the spread of malicious rumors far more efficient than ever before. Rumors do not organically reach audiences; instead, algorithms are designed to push them to the users most likely to engage with negative, salacious content — overwhelmingly men — until repeated exposure twists the lie into what many viewers accept as fact. Eventually, this online abuse bleeds into victims’ offline lives, where fabricated stories are treated as biographical fact, manifesting as offhand “jokes”, unwanted advances, and persistent teasing that erodes personal and professional reputations.

    While sexual rumors targeting people of all genders, including men who are often targeted in sexual blackmail schemes, this form of digital abuse disproportionately harms women. Sexualization and character assassination through false sexual claims remain one of the fastest and most effective ways to strip a woman of her dignity online, with long-lasting impacts on her personal relationships, career, and mental health.

    What makes Xiaoting’s story stand out is not a sudden shift in the toxic culture of many online spaces, but her deliberate rejection of the shame that perpetrators and systemic failures try to force on victims. Instead of withdrawing and giving up, as exhaustion and stigma push many to do, Xiaoting chose to treat her humiliation as evidence. She documented the abuse, named the harm, and refused to be silenced — making the case that instead of forcing victims to carry the burden of clearing their names, the people who create and spread malicious rumors should be the ones held responsible, and made to pay for the damage they cause.

  • Choosing evidence over shame

    Choosing evidence over shame

    In September 2023, six former college roommates gathered in the warm, humid air of Liuzhou, located in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, to mark a quiet milestone: half a decade of unbroken friendship after graduation. What started as a joyful, intimate moment captured in a single photograph shared publicly on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu would quickly transform into a 12-month battle to reclaim their dignity and hold a content creator accountable for digital exploitation.

    Weeks after the photo was posted, the unassuming snapshot was stolen and weaponized for online traffic. A Douyin short-video creator going by the username “Business Tycoon” republished the image, overlaid a digital price tag on the frame, and shared the altered post with his 330,000 followers alongside an inflammatory caption: “The bride price is 100,000 yuan. Which one would you pick as your girlfriend?”

    For Xiaoting — a pseudonym used by one of the women in the photo to protect her privacy — and her five friends, this marked the beginning of a traumatic, extended fight to remove the defamatory content and force the creator to face consequences for his actions. Their fight would ultimately conclude a year later, in September 2024, when the Guangzhou Internet Court issued a ruling ordering the creator, identified only by his surname Luo, to pay financial damages to the women and publish a formal public apology for fabricating the viral bride price rumor using a stolen photograph.

    Xiaoting first learned of the malicious post when an online contact messaged her to alert her about the content. She immediately searched for the video on Douyin, and was stunned by what she found: hundreds of comments engaging with the dehumanizing framing of the post, treating the six women like purchasable goods rather than real people.

    Comments on the post ranged from crude jokes to outright objectifying bids. “I’m not picky, I’ll take any,” one user wrote. Another joked, “I’ll take all six as a package deal — I can’t bear to split the sisters up.”

    “We had such a beautiful memory captured in that photo, and it got turned into this. It was completely absurd,” Xiaoting recalled in an interview.

    Initially assuming the post was the result of an innocent misunderstanding, Xiaoting reached out directly to the creator to demand he remove the content. When she checked back the following weekend, the post was still live — and it had been joined by multiple altered variations. One version numbered each woman from “first sister” to “sixth sister” and repeated the false bride price claim, prompting more users to weigh in with their “choices” as if the women were being auctioned off.

    Xiaoting and her friends flooded the creator’s inbox and the post’s comment section with repeated demands to take the content down, but their requests were met with total silence. Digging deeper into the creator’s account, the women quickly realized their photo was not a one-off target: the creator had a pattern of stealing other women’s public photos, spinning false sexualized rumors about them to generate clicks and engagement, and using the traffic to promote household goods he sold through the account.

    Further investigation revealed the creator also operated a paid “dating fans group” on the platform, and had reused Xiaoting’s stolen photo as the group’s official avatar. When the six women joined the group to set the record straight and clarify the entire story was fabricated, they were immediately removed from the group and blocked by the admin.

    The women filed formal complaints about the video with Douyin’s moderation team, but the platform only responded with a generic template message stating it could not confirm that copyright infringement had occurred or that Xiaoting was the legal rights holder of the photo. Complaints to other regulatory platforms similarly went nowhere. Even when a small number of posts were removed, the creator faced no other public consequences, and he quickly reposted the content to other areas of the platform.

    As the false rumor spread, the harassment eventually spilled out of the digital space and into the women’s everyday real lives. One of the roommates faced awkward teasing at her workplace, where a colleague joked, “Are you out recruiting a husband online?” Xiaoting also received repeated messages from acquaintances, half in jest and half in earnest, asking if she really was advertising herself for a 100,000 yuan bride price — forcing her to explain the situation over and over again to people she knew in real life.

    All six women experienced severe emotional distress as the saga dragged on. Even though a court would later formally rule they were the wronged victims of intellectual property rights infringement, some members of the group found themselves internalizing a sense of misplaced shame over ever sharing the original photo. Refusing to let the harassment stand, Xiaoting made the decision to file an official report with local police. According to Xiaoting, after hearing her account, an officer told her the posts had not caused “substantial harm” and declined to open a formal case.

    Using an alternate account, Xiaoting reached out to the creator once more to inform him she had filed a police report. This time, he replied, writing “Sorry, I deleted it” and claiming he had copied the photo from another user’s post he found via a search engine. When Xiaoting pushed back, explaining that deleting one post could not undo the damage from all the other iterations he had published across the platform, his response made it clear he felt put upon by her demands. “He didn’t think he’d done anything wrong at all,” Xiaoting said. Through their persistent pursuit of legal accountability, the women ultimately secured the ruling they had fought for, setting a small but important precedent for addressing digital sexual exploitation and image theft in China’s fast-growing online ecosystem.

  • International shipping under threat from blockade

    International shipping under threat from blockade

    Following the collapse of US-Iran diplomatic negotiations and the implementation of a sweeping US military blockade on all vessels entering or exiting Iranian coastal areas and ports, global maritime shipping faces unprecedented new disruptions at the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz, according to industry experts and global officials.

    The blockade officially entered into force on Monday, closing off the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the wider Arabian Sea. US Central Command confirmed that no commercial vessels have successfully passed through the US naval cordon in the first 48 hours of the operation. Despite the escalating tensions, the White House claimed in a televised interview Wednesday that the ongoing conflict in Iran is “very close to over.”

    Iran has issued a sharp retaliatory warning in response. The commander of Iran’s joint military command stated Wednesday that the country will shut down all commercial trade activity across the entire Gulf region if the US does not reverse the blockade immediately. Data from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a division of the UK Royal Navy, confirms the blockade is enforced by a fleet of at least 15 US warships deployed in the area.

    By Monday, the disruption had already stranded an estimated 20,000 seafarers and roughly 1,600 commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf, said Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization. The crisis has sparked urgent alarm across global shipping firms, international businesses, and commodity traders, with immediate ripple effects already visible in global energy markets. On Thursday, Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, climbed to $96.32 per barrel, a sharp jump from its pre-conflict average of roughly $70 per barrel.

    Mohammad Elahee, a professor of international business at Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University, noted the strait’s outsized role in global energy supplies: “Approximately 20 million barrels of oil, 20 percent of the world’s daily oil supply and one-third of all seaborne oil traded globally, pass through this narrow waterway that is effectively controlled by Iran.” Data from maritime analytics firm Kpler shows Iran exported an average of 1.84 million barrels of crude per day in March 2026, and has hit 1.71 million barrels per day so far in April, up from a 2025 average of 1.68 million barrels per day.

    The concept of US-escorted commercial shipping through the strait was previously floated by former US president Donald Trump, but experts warn the plan carries major practical and economic barriers. “The US Navy could, in theory, escort ships through there, but that would be expensive and slow,” explained Robert Kaufmann, an affiliate faculty member of the Boston University Global Development Policy Center.

    The United Nations has called on all parties to uphold the longstanding principle of freedom of navigation through the strait. “The secretary-general’s position has been consistent: No one should do anything that harms the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general. “That freedom of navigation is based on international law and years and years of custom.”

    Beyond energy markets, the crisis also threatens to upend global food systems, as the strait is a key transit route for global fertilizer trade. Delays and supply uncertainty have already pushed fertilizer prices higher, according to Luis Ribera, an extension economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University. “Slower shipments through the Strait of Hormuz make fertilizer prices increase more, both because of the slower shipments and the uncertainty,” Ribera said.

    The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has issued a formal warning that the ongoing crisis could drive up global food prices worldwide. William Wilson, a professor of agribusiness and applied economics at North Dakota State University, summarized the widespread risk: “Everything going on in Hormuz is very negative to agriculture — negative for the world economy and for the world food economy in particular.”