People's Daily Tonight: Podcast News (12/26/2018 Wed.)
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This is People's Daily Tonight, your news source from China. 

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Japan announces IWC withdrawal, will resume commercial whaling

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Japan is withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission and will resume commercial whaling next year, a government spokesman said Wednesday, in a move expected to spark international criticism.

"We have decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission in order to resume commercial whaling in July next year," top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

"Commercial whaling to be resumed from July next year will be limited to Japan's territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. We will not hunt in the Antarctic waters or in the southern hemisphere," Suga added.

The announcement had been widely expected and comes after Japan failed in a bid earlier this year to convince the IWC to allow it to resume commercial whaling. (AP)

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3 students killed in a lab explosion at Beijing Jiaotong University 

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Three students were killed in an explosion occurred in the morning at a laboratory in Beijing Jiaotong University when they were conducting experiments on sewage treatment of landfill leachate, the Beijing Fire Department said on its official Weibo account.

Fire fighters arrived at the scene soon after getting a call at around 9:30 am, and put out the fire an hour later, according to the official release. (People’s Daily app)

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Brazil to seek Israeli help in desalination project: Bolsonaro

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Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday said he wants an agreement with Israel to build desalination plants in the parched north where droughts are frequent.

In a message on Twitter, Bolsonaro, who is to take office on Jan. 1, said his appointed Science and Technology Minister Marcos Pontes will travel to Tel Aviv in January to meet with his Israeli counterpart over the matter.

The president-elect said the idea is to begin building as soon as January "a pilot facility to draw brackish well water, desalinate it, store it and distribute it to family farms, expanding the project to more localities after trials and adjustments."

Bolsonaro said the two sides will also announce cooperation in a trial of Israeli technology to produce water from humidity in the air.

Brazil's northeast has been going through a prolonged severe drought. (Xinhua)

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S. Korea, DPRK hold groundbreaking ceremony for rail, road connection across border 

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South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday to modernize and connect railways and roads across the inter-Korean border.

The ceremony was held at Panmun Station in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong, attended by some 100 participants from each of the two sides, according to South Korea's unification ministry.

It started at around 10 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) as scheduled to celebrate the groundbreaking, which South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong-un agreed during their Pyongyang summit in September to hold before the end of this year.

Moon and Kim agreed at their first summit in April to modernize and eventually connect railways and roads along the eastern and western Korean Peninsula. (Xinhua)

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China vows to accelerate virtual reality industry growth 

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China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has circulated a guideline aiming to beef up the virtual reality (VR) industry on Tuesday.

The guideline aims to achieve the goal of mastering core technologies by 2025, honing the overall capability for the industry and becoming a leader in the world.

China's VR market expanded 164 percent year-on-year and reached 16 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) in 2017, data shows. The market is likely to exceed 90 billion yuan by 2020, according to the Ministry.

After ups and downs, the VR industry is expected to return to the spotlight. (People’s Daily app)

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Global oil prices struggle amid downward trend despite OPEC-led output curb

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Downside risks persist for crude oil amid an ongoing year-end rout in both benchmark prices, despite a pledge led by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut output next year.

Caution has grown among investors on fears of a slack market stuck in oversupply and weak demand. Amid the compounded concerns, crude has been trading close to its 18-month low, with both benchmark prices evaporating more than 40 percent since hitting their four-year highs in early October. (Xinhua)

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China unveils annual patent award 

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The National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA) announced recipients of the 20th China Patent Award, the nation's top award for patents on Tuesday.

Altogether 40 patents, including 30 patents for invention and utility model and 10 patents for industrial design won the gold award.

As of the end of 2017, products and projects related to the 40 gold award winners had created 83.5 billion yuan ($12 billion) of sales revenue, 13.9 billion yuan in profit and 18.6 billion yuan in exports.

More than 60 patents won the silver awards, which were included in this event for the first time to encourage more patent holders. (Xinhua)

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

(Produced by Qu Qiuyan)