Fresh Start: Podcast News (11/22/2018 Thu.)
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Welcome to Fresh Start.

This is People’s Daily app.

Here are today’s picks from our editors.

Chinese president back home after APEC meeting, visits to Papua New Guinea, Brunei, Philippines

President Xi Jinping returned to Beijing on Wednesday after state visits to Papua New Guinea, Brunei, and the Philippines, and attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting at Papua New Guinea's capital city of Port Moresby.

During his stay in Papua New Guinea, Xi also met with leaders from the Pacific island countries that have established diplomatic ties with China.

When Xi left Manila for Beijing Wednesday afternoon, senior Philippine officials saw him off at the airport.

Before heading home, Xi also met with representatives of Chinese nationals and Chinese Filipinos living in the Philippines, encouraging them to make new contributions to the country's development and Sino-Philippine friendly cooperation. (Xinhua)

S. Korea to dissolve Japan-funded foundation for wartime sex slavery victims

South Korea decided on Wednesday to dissolve a Japan-funded foundation for the domestic victims of sex slavery during World War II set up in defiance of the victims and their bereaved families.

Historians say as many as 400,000 women from Asian countries, including the Korean Peninsula, were forced into sex slavery at Japanese military brothels during WWII.

The victims demanded the Japanese government's sincere apology and its acknowledgement of legal responsibility for the wartime atrocities.

The Japanese government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has refused to do it. (Xinhua)

UAE sentences British academic to life in prison for spying

A British academic was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday in the United Arab Emirates on charges he was spying for the U.K. 

Britain said the verdict was shocking and urged the Middle Eastern country to reconsider.

Matthew Hedges, a 31-year-old doctoral student in Middle Eastern Studies at Durham University was arrested at the Dubai Airport on May 5.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May said, "We are deeply disappointed and concerned at today's verdict. We are raising it with the Emirati authorities at the highest level."

Britain had until now been reticent over the case, citing ongoing legal proceedings. (AP)

Russia calls US sanctions on oil supplies to Syria ‘awkward’

New US sanctions targeting an Iranian-Russian network that shipped oil to Syria are "awkward," the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

"Attempts to indict oil supplies to Syria, whose armed forces have been fighting terrorists for eight years, look like a statement of support for terrorists and also a wish to prevent the restoration of a ravaged country with a large population deprived of electricity and heat," it said in a statement.

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on an Iran-Russia network shipping "millions of barrels of Iranian oil into Syria," with some of the revenue going to Hamas and Hezbollah. (Xinhua)

Pentagon says troops at US border to cost about $210 million

Using thousands of military troops to help secure the Southwest border will cost an estimated $210 million, the Pentagon told Congress on Tuesday.

The total includes $72 million for approximately 5,900 active-duty troops providing support to Customs and Border Protection, plus $138 million so far for 2,100 National Guard troops who have been performing a separate border mission since April, according to a report sent to Congress on Tuesday.

The movement of the Central American migrants into Mexico in October was the stated reason that US President Donald Trump ordered the military to provide support for Customs and Border Protection. (AP)

Hospital gunman fired at least 30 times before killing self

As investigators tried to piece together the Mercy Hospital shooting that ended with the deaths of the doctor, a police officer, a hospital employee and the gunman, they were able to fill in details about the attack.

Once inside the medical center, the gunman, Juan Lopez, kept firing at officers.

At one point, Lopez turned and fired at Dayna Less, a first-year resident in the hospital’s pharmacy as the doors of the elevator she was in, opened.

During the shootout Lopez fired 30 rounds before he was struck in the abdomen.  It was then that he reloaded his firearm, pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Tuesday.

Investigators said they found nothing to indicate that Lopez had a criminal record. (AP)

Facebook's Zuckerberg says he is not considering resigning

Embattled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday he has no plans to resign, sounding defiant after a rough year for the social platform.

Facebook has stumbled from one mess to another as it grappled with continuing fallout from Russia's use of the platform to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election, the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which user data was harnessed in a bid to help then-candidate Donald Trump, and a security breach involving millions of accounts.

Zuckerberg also defended Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who has drawn criticism over her handling of the problems that have emerged throughout the year. (CGTN)

Thanks for listening and be sure to catch us tomorrow.

And now for the Question of the Day:

Whose ship was the first to sail around the world?

(Answer: Ferdinand Magellan.)

Today’s quote is from Roman poet Ausonius (310 - 395).

“Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself.”

(Produced by Nancy Yan Xu, Ryan Yaoran Yu, Lance Crayon and Brian Lowe.)