People's Daily Tonight: Podcast News (8/28/2019 Wed.)
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This is People's Daily Tonight, your news source from China.

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Brazil's president demands Macron apology before mulling G7 aid

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro demanded that French President Emmanuel Macron apologize before considering an offer of financial aid to help put out fires raging in the Amazon rainforest.

The diplomatic spat between the two came to a head after Macron, who was hosting the G7 summit over the weekend, proposed that the group of major economies take action to put out the fires devastating large swaths of the Amazon.

This included an offer of 20 million dollars in aid.

Macron floated the idea of giving the Amazon some type of international status.

But Bolsonaro saw the international scrutiny as a threat to Brazil's sovereignty over the region. (Xinhua)

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HK dialogue doesn't mean condoning violence

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Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday the government would spare no efforts in establishing a platform to conduct dialogue with the people of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, regardless of their ideological stances, in order to find a way out of the political impasse.

Speaking to journalists before the weekly Executive Council meeting, Lam emphasized that the initiative should not be seen as condoning the violence, which escalated during protests over the weekend. The government has zero tolerance for violence regardless of the circumstances and political motives, and it is committed to bringing perpetrators to justice, she said.

"Starting a dialogue does not mean we should condone violence. Just imagine under the pretext of communication that we tolerate all forms of violence in Hong Kong. That would be the end of the rule of law in Hong Kong," Lam said. (China Daily)

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UN climate action summit aims to boost ambition of fighting climate change: envoy

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The forthcoming UN Climate Action Summit aims to increase the level of ambition to combat climate change.

That’s according to summit special envoy Luis Alfonso de Alba.

He said the level of ambition of member states needs to be raised further because "we are still quite below compared to what is needed to keep the temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius.”

De Alba highlighted "political will," "ambition" and “action" in the fight against climate change. (Xinhua)

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Highest-level landslide, flood alerts issued for western Japan

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Japan's weather agency on Wednesday issued its highest-level landslide and flood alerts as regions in western Japan were being pummeled by torrential rain.

The JMA said it expects downpours to inundate regions covering wide swathes from western to northern parts of Japan's archipelago.

The weather agency said the special warnings were issued because of a low atmospheric pressure system in the Sea of Japan moving along a northeasterly trajectory.

Local police said a man may have been killed after being found in his vehicle after it was swept away on a road by floodwaters. (Xinhua)

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Fatal tunnel accident caused by fire

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Local authorities said a road accident which killed five people and injured 31 in China's Zhejiang Province Tuesday was caused by dense smoke from a truck that caught fire in a tunnel.

Preliminary investigation showed that the accident occurred at 6:27 p.m. when a tire of a truck caught fire in a tunnel on the Shenyang-Haikou expressway.

The flames quickly engulfed goods on the truck and triggered a large amount of smoke, resulting in vehicles and people getting trapped in the tunnel.

Further investigation of the accident is underway. (Xinhua)

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Brazil struggles to fight Amazon fire

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Brazil's Environment Minister, Ricardo Salles, said that the federal government is considering issuing a decree to ban the use of fire during the dry season in the country. According to him, although it is already a "very concrete" possibility, the decree may be restricted to the area of federal environmental conservation units. "We want to do it, but we need to have a legal basis."

So far this year, the world's biggest rainforest lost 1,114.8 sq km, according to preliminary data from the government's satellite monitoring agency. There have been more than 80,000 fires in Brazil, more than half of them in the Amazon rainforest, or an 84 percent increase compared to the same period in 2018, according to the National Space Research Institute (INPE). 

The Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest, 60% of which is in Brazil, retaining many unique species of plants and animals. Scientists believe 15-17% of the entire Amazon has been destroyed. Researchers say if 20-25% of the rainforest disappears, 200 billion tons of carbon dioxide would be released into the atmosphere, making it harder for the world to keep temperature rises below 1.5 to 2 degrees. (People's Daily app)

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Tu Youyou nominated for China's Medal of the Republic

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And Chinese scientist Tu Youyou, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for the discovery of artemisinin, was nominated for China's Medal of the Republic.

The selection of candidates for the national medals and honorary titles was held for the first time to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Seven others, including scientists and veterans, were also nominated for the medals of honor. (Xinhua) 

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

(Produced by David Nye and Han Xiaomeng)