This is People's Daily Tonight, your news source from China.

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WTO chief calls for action to safeguard global trade order

Global trade is under threat and whether or not the current situation is a trade war, the first shots have been fired and this calls for action.

That’s according to World Trade Organization director-general Roberto Azevedo.

WTO data showed a marked escalation of trade restrictive measures over the last six months, according to an opinion piece he wrote released Tuesday by Swissinfo, the website of the Swiss national broadcaster.

He said he has been consulting with governments and leaders around the world, urging dialogue and exploring steps to unwind the current situation.

Azevedo said he has also been talking to a wider range of contacts across civil society including parliaments, businesses, think tanks and the media to raise awareness of what is at stake.

There is, he said, a wider understanding that higher tariffs mean higher prices and lower salaries in real terms, and that greater uncertainty risks investors pulling back and jobs being lost. (Xinhua)

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China allocates 220 mln yuan for flood relief

China's central government has allocated a relief fund totaling 220 million yuan (about $32 million) to flood-hit Shandong and Anhui provinces on Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management. 

The Ministry of Finance and the emergency ministry have given Shandong and Anhui 150 million yuan and 70 million yuan, respectively.  

The funds were dispersed from the central government's budget and will be used for relocation of the affected, emergency livelihood support, rebuilding of damaged homes and compensation for the deceased, according to the ministry. 

China's disaster relief authorities have launched a level IV emergency response for the severe floods in those two provinces, sending multiple workgroups and allocating disaster relief materials including 3,000 tents, 5,000 fold-away beds and 80,000 garments and quilts. 

As of Aug. 23, some 2.6 million people in Anhui had been affected by floods, with 12 dead and one missing. In Shandong, about 3.8 million people are affected, with six dead and 15 missing, according to local authorities. (Xinhua)

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Booming eSports market opens window into Chinese culture

For the first time ever, eSports has been included as a demonstration sport at this year's Asian Games in Indonesia. 

Arena of Valor (AoV), a game created by a Chinese developer, is one of the competition events. 

As eSports continues to boom, AoV has become an unlikely way for gamers worldwide to experience Chinese culture.

Gamers can play as Sun Wukong, the legendary Monkey King who is a household name in China and basis for the Dragon Ball character Goku, or Diao Chan, one of the four beauties of ancient China, among a legion of other heroes from Chinese culture or Western legends in the massively popular mobile multiplayer online battle arena game developed by Chinese tech giant Tencent.

According to market research company Newzoo, the eSports industry has generated $655 million worldwide, or a 33 percent growth year-on-year. 

Revenue is expected to break $900 million in 2018. In 2017, 588 major eSports events were held worldwide, generating approximately $59 million in ticket revenue.

A report by Chinese market research company iResearch, 71 percent of gamers have upgraded their desktop for the popular online battle royale game PlayerUnkown's Battlegrounds, and over 79 percent of all PUBG players have watched livestreams of the game. (CGTN)

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US Congress skeptical of Trump's Mexico trade deal

US President Donald Trump's trade deal with Mexico could struggle to win approval from Congress unless Canada comes on board, lawmakers from both parties said on Tuesday, saying support from Democrats would be needed to pass a purely bilateral deal.

Trump unveiled the Mexico deal on Monday and threatened to slap tariffs on Canadian-made cars if Canada did not join the revamp of the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement, which the president has long criticized.

A White House spokeswoman referred questions to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer's comments on Monday when he said the White House was ready to notify Congress by Friday of Trump's intent to sign a bilateral document, but that it was open to Canada joining the pact.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Tuesday started her first negotiating session at Lighthizer's office in several months and told reporters: "We are encouraged by the progress that the US and Mexico have made." (CGTN)

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Hurricane's death toll in Puerto Rico put at nearly 3,000

 

Puerto Rico’s governor raised the US territory’s official death toll from Hurricane Maria from 64 to 2,975 on Tuesday after an independent study found that the number of people who succumbed in the desperate, sweltering aftermath had been severely undercounted.

The new estimate of nearly 3,000 dead in the six months after Maria devastated the island in September 2017 and knocked out the entire electrical grid, was made by researchers with the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.

Tuesday’s findings are almost twice the government’s previous estimate, included in a recent report to Congress, that there were 1,427 more deaths than normal in the three months after the storm. 

The George Washington researchers said the official count from the Sept. 20 hurricane was low, in part, because doctors were not trained in how to classify deaths after a disaster. (AP)

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Chinese hotel data breach 'may have affected 130 million people'

Shanghai police have launched an investigation into an alleged massive data breach of Huazhu Group Ltd., one of China's largest hotel operators.

An online post emerged Tuesday, containing nearly 500 million pieces of information related to the hotel group's customers, including registration information, personal data and booking records of the group's wide range of hotel brands.

The company that first detected the data breach, Zpower Inc., said in a statement that it estimated more than 130 million people have been affected.

According to Changning District police on Tuesday evening, they received a report from the hotel group and will crack down on any illegal information transactions. The police also urged companies to strengthen their protection against data breaches.

Huazhu has also started an internal investigation and hired a technology company to verify the source of the information being sold online.(CGTN)

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Xiamen hosts China International Fair for Investment and Trade

And China's foreign investment success involves countries inside and outside the Belt and Road Initiative. 

Next month, an international fair will focus on how to improve inbound and outbound investment. 

To better promote China's two-way investment, the 20th China International Fair for Investment and Trade will kick off in the city of Xiamen from September 8 to 11. 

It will create a platform to promote international investment and discuss global trends in this field.

As the world's second largest economy, China relies heavily on foreign investment and trade. 

Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen on Wednesday discussed China's improving foreign capital at a press conference on the international fair. 

In the first seven months of 2018, China welcomed 35,000 newly established foreign-invested companies, with year-on-year growth of 99.1 percent. 

And the foreign capital in actual use was $76 billion, up 5.5 percent from a year earlier. (CGTN)

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

(Produced by David Nye and Wang Zi)