Fresh Start: Podcast News (2/18/2020 Tue.)

06:47, February 18, 2020

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  Fresh Start: Podcast News (2/11/2020 Tue.)

  Welcome to Fresh Start.This is People’s Daily app.Here are today’s picks from our editors.Xi vows to win peoples war against novel coronavirusXi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Monday stressed resolutely winning the peoples war against the pneumonia epidemic caused by the novel coronavirus.Wearing a mask, Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visited a residential community, a hospital, and a district center for disease control and prevention in Beijing.Xi said the situation at the moment remains very serious but expressed confidence that China can certainly obtain a full victory in the fight against the epidemic.Xi also called on medical staff to continue to improve the diagnosis and treatment plan, save patients at all costs, and reminded them to take good self-protection. (Xinhua)More medical assistance offered to virus-hit Hubei ProvinceThe National Health Commission (NHC), on Monday, said more medical assistance would be provided for virus-hit Hubei Province as part of the countrys sweeping efforts to fight the novel coronavirus.Other than the capital city of Wuhan, Hubeis 16 cities, prefectures, and county-level cities, will be paired with 19 provincial-level areas across the country including Chongqing, Heilongjiang, and Shandong, said the NHC.The 19 provincial-level areas will send medical staff and offer telemedicine services to help the province treat patients infected with the virus and mortality rates, said the NHC. (Xinhua)British Airways flight crosses Atlantic in less than 5 hoursA British Airways flight landed early Sunday morning at Heathrow Airport in London after leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York just four hours and 56 minutes earlier.For the first time in years, a commercial passenger plane has flown across the Atlantic in less than five hours.That set a new speed record for subsonic commercial aircraft to fly b...

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  Podcast: Story in the Story (2/18/2020 Tue.)

  From the Peoples Daily App.This is Story in the Story.China is aiming to reform rural customs of extravagant weddings and funerals.Many grassroots officials and governments have vowed to guide residents across China in changing extravagant weddings and luxury feasts for funerals as China begins curbing outdated conventions in rural areas.Officials have called for policies to fit local conditions and to avoid a "one size fits all" policy.Eleven ministries and departments, including Chinas Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs have jointly released a guideline on pushing for changes of outdated conventions and deeds in rural areas within three to five years.The guideline lists the general requirements for the efforts and expounds on major measures, including making sure primary-level Party organizations in rural areas fulfill their duties in guiding residents to change outdated conventions.Today’s Story in the Story looks at moves being made to make weddings and funerals more affordable for less affluent people in rural parts of China.Twenty-two couples have a group wedding without a bride price in Shangqiu, Central Chinas Henan Province in September, 2018. (Photo: VCG)Many villagers in Chinas rural areas have long been burdened by various cumbersome and costly customs, such as paying large sums of money for bride prices, holding funeral rites with hired strippers and luxury feasts. Villagers struggle, but participate to maintain their social standing, or risk losing mianzi - loosely translated to "face" in English, analysts said.Bride prices, a traditional prerequisite for marriage, are increasingly becoming a miserable burden for families in rural areas across China as it has spiked sharply in recent years.The grooms parents usually give money to their in-laws-to-be, either to secure a happy marriage or to display the familys wealth to others. In recent years, expectations for betrothal money have increased, impo...

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  Fresh Start: Podcast News (2/24/2020 Mon.)

  Welcome to Fresh Start.This is People’s Daily app.Here are today’s picks from our editors.Xi stresses orderly resumption of work, productionChinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday stressed orderly resumption of work and production, with specific requirements made to that end.Each region should adopt a precise approach when advancing resumption of work and production based on local health risks, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when delivering an important speech at a meeting in Beijing to advance efforts on coordinating the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus disease epidemic and economic and social development.Relatively low-risk regions should reorient their disease prevention and control strategies as soon as possible to focus on forestalling imported cases and comprehensively restoring the order of production and life, Xi said.Medium-risk regions should promote work and production resumption in an orderly manner based on local epidemic-control situations, while high-risk regions should continue to remain committed in doing a good job on epidemic prevention and control, he said. (Xinhua)Iran president orders formation of national headquarters to tackle coronavirusIranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday issued an order to form a national headquarters to cope with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country, state TV reported.The Health Ministry was ordered to form a national headquarters to organize sessions and employ the potentials of the ministry to help contain the disease.Since Iran announced the first cases of the coronavirus in the country on Wednesday, 43 Iranians have been confirmed infected by the virus, eight of whom have died. (Xinhua)Post-Brexit blue passports to be issued from March: UK governmentBritain is expected to re-introduce its blue passports from next month after almost three decades to mark its departure...