People's Daily Tonight: Podcast News (1/31/2019 Thu.)
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This is People's Daily Tonight, your news source from China. 

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China's manufacturing PMI edges up in January

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China’s purchasing managers' index for its manufacturing sector was 49.5 this month.

That’s slightly higher than the 49.4 in December.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below reflects contraction.

The slight increase ended month-on-month declines reported in the previous four months.

The sub-indices for production and raw material inventories both edged up from December, while those for new orders, employment, and supplier delivery time dropped. (Xinhua)

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China's forest coverage jumps to 21.66% in 70 years

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The forest coverage in China has jumped from 8.6 percent to 21.66 percent over the past 70 years as it continues to combat desertification and enhance afforestation. The area of its artificial forest reservation has reached 69.33 million hectares, the largest in the world.

The forest coverage has increased to 13.57 percent from 5.05 percent in 1977 in areas where the NASFP was implemented.

China’s wisdom of green efforts is quite simple: Just plant trees, and more trees. It planted sand-fixing forests in decertified regions to fight soil erosion and wind sand damage. The reduction in desertification over the past 40 years has dropped by 15 percent, thanks to precise planting. (People’s Daily app)

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US: Mueller evidence used in disinformation campaign

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US Federal prosecutors say confidential material from the Russia investigation was altered and released online as part of a disinformation campaign to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

The material had been handed over to defense attorneys for Concord Management and Consulting.

That’s a Russian company that Mueller has charged with financing efforts to meddle in the 2016 US presidential elections.

But the files, which prosecutors say were not sensitive, surfaced online last year in a link posted by a pro-Russian Twitter account.

They argue that the company’s request to have sensitive new evidence sent to Russia “unreasonably risks the national security interests of the United States.” (AP)

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Police: Photos soon of people of interest in attack on actor

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Detectives reviewed surveillance footage of "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett walking to his downtown Chicago apartment, but so far none of the video shows him being attacked by two masked men, although investigators have obtained images of people they would like to question, a police spokesman said Wednesday.

Spokesman said photos of the "persons of interest" were to be released later Wednesday evening.

Neither Smollett nor his publicist has spoken publicly about the attack. (AP)

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New lease economy to hit 10 trillion RMB in 2019: Report

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A report says deposit-free rentals have become popular compared with purchasing of products such as computers, phones, consumer electronics, cars and clothing among young Chinese adults.

The 2019 New Lease Economy Report, released by the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law, shows that China’s new lease economy is expected to reach 10 trillion yuan in 2019, with 100 million customers engaged in rental services.

It says the growth of rental with credit has exceeded 100 percent in the last year. 

With the approaching Spring Festival, this growth is expected to increase, and renting rather than buying will become a new trend among consumers. (People's Daily online)

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China's culture sector, related businesses maintain rapid growth in 2018

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China's culture sector and related businesses continued to grow rapidly last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

The total revenue of the culture sector and related businesses hit 8.93 trillion yuan ($1.33 trillion), up 8.2 percent year on year, according to an NBS survey over 60,000 enterprises of scale in China.

Specifically, seven of the nine culture-related sectors saw their business revenues rise last year, with three of them registering double-digit growth, the NBS said. (Xinhua)

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Belt and Road Initiative remarkable: Pakistani President

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And Pakistani President Arif Alvi says the most remarkable aspect of China’s opening up is the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

He says the corridor is a major communication throughway which will bring economic prosperity to Pakistan.

He adds that cooperation between Pakistan and China would not only bring peace and stability to the region, but also the world. (People's Daily app)

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And that's People's Daily Tonight. Thanks for joining us.

(Produced by David Nye and Cheng Weidan)