This is People’s Daily Tonight, your news source from China.  

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Deaths rise to 6 in China steel factory blast

The death toll has risen to six after a gas pipe exploded at a steel factory in Nanchang, the capital of eastern China's Jiangxi province.

Nanchang's emergency management bureau said two more people succumbed to serious injuries, adding to the previously reported four deaths, and four other injured were still receiving treatment.

The accident happened on May 29 at the Fangda special steel company, when an exploded pipe caused an outburst of burning coke, killing one person on the spot.

Jiangxi's safety watchdog has criticized Fangda for neglecting its duty to ensure the safety of its employees and the public. (Xinhua)

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PBOC to issue 30-bln-yuan bills in Hong Kong

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said Wednesday that it will issue 30 billion yuan (2.9 billion US dollars) worth of central bank bills in Hong Kong on June 26.

The issuance includes 20-billion-yuan one-month central bank bills and 10-billion-yuan six-month bills, according to a brief statement on the PBOC's website.

The move, which is aimed at improving the yuan yield curve in Hong Kong, follows three rounds of such issuance since November last year.

To help expand the range of yuan-denominated financial products with high credit ratings in the region, the PBOC first issued bills in Hong Kong in November 2018 when 20 billion yuan was raised.

It issued the same amount of bills in February and May this year. (Xinhua)

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Trump formally kicks off 2020 re-election campaign

US President Donald Trump formally kicked off his 2020 re-election campaign at a rally in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday night.

Trump touched upon a wide range of topics, including the nation's economy, the administration's immigration policies and trade approaches, and his efforts to re-make federal courts.

He also lashed out at his political opponents, some mainstream media, and the Russia probe, which concluded in March. (Xinhua)

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15 injured after quake strikes off NE Japan

A 6.7-magnitude earthquake striking Japan's northeastern region late Tuesday left at least 15 people injured with thousands forced to take shelter at evacuation centers, officials said Wednesday.

According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, of those injured, nine were in the hardest-hit region of Yamagata, four were in Niigata, one in Miyagi and another in Ishikawa prefecture.

The quake struck at 10:22 pm local time at a depth of 14 km.

Its epicenter was located off Yamagata and the quake caused a tsunami warning to be issued which was lifted hours later, the Japan Meteorological Agency said (JMA).

Thousands of people in the city and surrounding regions had to take shelter at temporary evacuation centers, local officials said. (Xinhua)

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Boeing wins massive 737 Max order, 3 months after global grounding

Boeing said it has signed a letter of intent with International Airlines Group to sell 200 737 Max airplanes.

It’s the first order since the now infamous jet model was grounded globally since March.

The new deal is viewed as a boost to Boeing's efforts to win back customers' confidence in 737 Max jets after two 737 Max 8 planes crashed in two separate deadly incidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia in October and March.

The IAG now is operating almost exclusively a fleet of Airbus A320 family aircraft for its single-aisle jets. (Xinhua)

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China sees substantial growth in refinery capacity

China's oil refining capacity has increased significantly over the past few years, with annual refined oil output standing at 360 million tonnes at the end of 2018, statistics showed.

As production ramped up, China has become the world's No. 2 refinery country, next only to the United States in capacity, industry insiders and experts said at the ongoing 2019 Asia Downstream Technology & Markets Conference held in Lianyungang, eastern China's Jiangsu Province.

China currently has more than 210 oil refineries. Twenty-three of them are large refineries that have an annual refining capacity of 10 million tonnes as of end of 2017.(Xinhua)

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San Francisco moves closer to nation's 1st e-cigarette ban

And San Francisco supervisors moved a step closer to becoming the first city in the US to ban all sales of electronic cigarettes to crack down on youth vaping.

In a unanimous vote, supervisors approved a ban on the sale and distribution of e-cigarettes. 

They also endorsed a ban on manufacturing of e-cigarettes on city property.

Most experts agree that e-cigarettes are less harmful than the paper-and-tobacco variety because they do not produce all the cancer-causing byproducts found in cigarette smoke. (AP)

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

(Produced by David Nye and Wang Zi)