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Welcome to Fresh Start.
This is People’s Daily app.
Here are today’s picks from our editors.
China reaps record bumper harvest in 2019
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday that China has achieved another bumper harvest year in 2019 with grain output hitting a record high.
Grain output stood at 663.84 million tons, up 5.94 million tons or 0.9 percent from last year, the NBS said in a statement on its website.
Grain output reached 5,715 kg per hectare, up 1.8 percent from last year, NBS data showed. (Xinhua)
China working on tax exemptions for US soybean, pork imports
China is working on tax exemptions on part of the soybeans and pork imported from the US in light of applications submitted by related enterprises, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council said Friday.
The commission will dedicate a range of goods to be excluded from tariff countermeasures against the US Section 301 measure, it said.
The enterprises are expected to purchase goods eligible for exemption on the basis of independent negotiation, import as they see fit, and bear the related profits or losses, the commission said. (Xinhua)
Saudi shooter kills three in US Navy base attack: media
A Saudi military trainee opened fire on Friday at a US naval base, killing three people before being shot dead by police, local media and officials said.
The shooting, which took place at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, left seven people injured including two sheriff's deputies who responded to the attack, one of whom was shot in the knee, the other in the arm.
Federal agencies are investigating, authorities said, including the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. (AP)
France hit by second day of massive strike over pension reform
Travelers across France endured a second day of chaos on Friday as unions vowed to keep up their strike until President Emmanuel Macron backs down on controversial pension overhauls.
Rail operator SNCF said 90 percent of high-speed TGV trains were again cancelled, and several airlines dropped flights including Air France, EasyJet and Ryanair.
Unions say Macron's "universal" pension system forces millions of people in both public and private sectors to work well beyond the legal retirement age of 62. (AFP)
Russia, Turkey working on new S-400 missile contract
Russia and Turkey are working on a contract for the delivery of a new batch of Russian S-400 missile systems, a US media cited a senior official at a Russian military cooperation agency as saying on Friday.
Moscow hopes to seal a deal to supply Turkey with more S-400 systems in the first half of next year, the head of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said last month.
Washington has been at loggerheads with Turkey over the decision. It claims that having a Russian missile system settled on Turkish soil would compromise the security of the F-35 project and is not aligned with the common interests of NATO. (CGTN)
Over 500 cultural relics unearthed at ancient poet's ancestral home
Over 500 cultural relics were unearthed at the former residence of ancient Chinese poet Su Dongpo in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, the residence museum said Friday.
After three months of excavation, 50 ash pits and nine ash ditches were found at San Su Ci, or the memorial temple of the Su Family. Among them, 24 pits and seven ditches are from the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
Located in Meishan in Sichuan Province, San Su Ci is the former residence of Su Xun and his two sons, three famous classic writers from the Northern Song Dynasty. (Xinhua)
Giant pandas to be released into the wild for first time outside Sichuan Province
China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda announced that three giant pandas will be released to a nature reserve located in east China's Jiangxi Province, as an important step in the animal's reintroduction research.
This will be the first-time for pandas to be released outside of their hometown of Sichuan Province.
The three giant pandas will be released in the Guanshan National Nature Reserve in Jiangxi Province. The forest coverage in the reserve is over 98 percent, and the climate is suitable for giant pandas. According to experts, there are also abundant water resources and woods. (Xinhua)
Thanks for listening and be sure to catch us tomorrow.
And now for the Question of the Day:
What is the name of the element with the chemical symbol ‘He’?
(Answer: Helium.)
Today’s quote is from Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
(Produced by Nancy Yan Xu, Ryan Yaoran Yu, Lance Crayon, Brian Lowe, and Elaine Yue Lin. Music by Eugene Loner.)
