Fresh Start: Podcast News (2/28/2020 Fri.)

06:28, February 28, 2020

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  Fresh Start: Podcast News (2/21/2020 Fri.)

  Welcome to Fresh Start.This is People’s Daily app.Here are today’s picks from our editors.China ensures medical supplies for frontline medicsKey supplies for medical personnel on the frontlines to fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic in Central Chinas Hubei Province are guaranteed, and the supplies of living materials are basically abundant.Lian Weiliang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission of China, announced at a video press briefing Thursday in Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic.On Wednesday, 336,000 N95 masks and 133,000 protective suits were collected across the country and supplied to Hubei, said Lian. (Xinhua)German gunman calling for genocide kills 9A 43-year-old German who posted a rant calling for the “complete extermination” of many “races or cultures in our midst” shot and killed nine people of foreign descent, most of them Turkish citizens, in an attack at a hookah bar and other locations in a Frankfurt suburb, authorities said Thursday.The alleged gunman was later found dead at his home along with his mother, and authorities said they were treating the rampage as an act of domestic terrorism.The alleged gunman attacked a hookah bar and a neighboring cafe in Hanau on Wednesday, killing several people, then traveled 2.5 kilometers and opened fire again, first on a car, and then at a sports bar, claiming more victims. (AP)S. Korea reports first coronavirus death as case number hits 104South Korea on Thursday confirmed 53 more cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), raising the total number of infections to 104.According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), 51 of the new patients were residents in Daegu, and its surrounding North Gyeongsang Province.One of the infected patients died of pneumonia on Wednesday. Health authorities have launched an investigation to determine the exact cause of death. (China Plus)US researchers map 3D structure of novel coronavirus key p...

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  Podcast: Story in the Story (2/28/2020 Fri.)

  From the Peoples Daily App.This is Story in the Story.Many may consider glass a mundane material of not much value, but the Boshan district in Zibo, Shandong province, could change ones views through its exquisite glass artwork.Since the 13th century, colored glaze, known to the Chinese as liuli, has been mass produced in Zibo and other places in China.On a cold winter’s day, a liuli artwork workshop at Jinxiang Glass Culture and Arts Co in Boshan is warmed by two brick, mud and metal kilns in which roaring fires melt glass materials. Dozens of craftsmen come to the kilns to dip the tips of blowpipes into molten glass.Then some hurry to their seats to shape the ball before it hardens. Some roll the ball on a thick sheet of steel that lies flat to create a cool exterior layer.To make good shapes, craftsmen need to dip their blowpipes into the kilns to get molten glass several times.Today’s Story in the Story looks at the emergence of the liuli glass artwork as a major source of revenue in Boshan.Sun Yunyi, a master in making colored glaze known as liuli, creates a product at a kiln in Boshan district of Zibo, Shandong province. (Photo: China Daily)"Liuli works are a kind of artistic beauty born from fire," said Sun Yunyi, a sophisticated liuli artist.Suns grandfather and father were also liuli craftsmen. Inspired by this family tradition, he began working on interior painting at Boshan Arts and Liuli Plant in 1983 when he was 16 years old."When I was young, every household in Boshan had a kiln in which they made liuli products," Sun said.Made from locally abundant raw materials such as silicon dioxide, calcium fluoride and potassium nitrate, Boshan liuli appear in a rich variety of colors, including yellow, scarlet, purple, black and green.Craftsmen in Boshan have been experimenting with different additives to produce glass of different types and higher quality.Sun has been experimenting persistently to restore the techniques used t...

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  Fresh Start: Podcast News (2/23/2020 Sun.)

  Welcome to Fresh Start.This is People’s Daily app.Here are today’s picks from our editors.Chinas water quality unaffected by epidemicThe ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak has not contaminated Chinas environment as the quality of urban air, surface water and drinking water sources are all kept stable, monitoring results from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) showed Saturday.Between Feb. 1 and Feb. 19, Chinese environmental authorities have monitored the countrys more than 6,900 drinking water sources and did not find any impact from the epidemic on the quality of the sources, the ministry said.The quality of drinking water sources in Hubei Province, where the epidemic first broke out with the largest number of infections, have all been up to standard, the MEE said. (Xinhua)Multiple airlines expected to resume China flights in late AprilInternational airlines are expected to resume their China flights in late April after extending the suspension period of their operations due to the coronavirus outbreak.Delta Air Lines has temporarily suspended its operations to China since February 6 and will relaunch them on April 30.United Airlines has pushed the resumption of its China flights back to late April. It originally said it would temporarily halt its flights to Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu until March 28.British Airways has also canceled all flights to the Chinese mainland and does not anticipate operating flights to either Beijing or Shanghai before April. (CGTN)2,700 Turkish military vehicles enter Syria in 19 daysAs many as 2,700 Turkish military vehicles have gone into Syria in the past 19 days, as part of a Turkish tactic to send military equipment to Idlib province in northwestern Syria and the northern province of Aleppo, a war monitor reported Saturday.The deployment of Turkish soldiers and vehicles is part of the Turkish plan to bring to a halt the progress of the Syrian army in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria. (Xinh...