People's Daily Tonight: Podcast News (9/17/2019 Tue.)
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This is People’s Daily Tonight, your news source from China.

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China invited to send delegation to US for vice-ministerial level trade talks

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Upon invitation from the U.S. side, Liao Min, deputy director of the Office of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs and vice Finance Minister, plans to lead a delegation to the United States on Wednesday for trade consultations.

The visit will pave the way for the 13th round of China-U.S. high-level economic and trade consultations in October in Washington.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He had a phone conversation on September 5 with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The two sides have agreed to hold the next trade talks during the conversation. (Xinhua, CGTN)

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Iran's top leader rejects any talk with US

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Iran’s supreme leader announced on Tuesday that “there will be no talks with the U.S. at any level” — remarks apparently meant to end all speculation about a possible U.S.-Iran meeting between the two countries’ presidents at the U.N. Headquarter later this month.

There had been reports about a possible meeting between President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, during the upcoming U.N. General Assembly this month in New York.

But tensions roiling the Persian Gulf have escalated following a weekend attack on major oil sites in Saudi Arabia that the U.S. alleged Iran was responsible for — a charge Iran denies. (AP)

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Hong Kong MTR train derails during morning rush hour

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A Hong Kong MTR train derailed while carrying passengers on Tuesday morning.

The incident occurred near Hung Hom station on the East Rail Line.

The police said there has been no report of injuries. 

Video from the scene showed passengers lowering themselves onto the tracks after the accident.

The MTR Corporation said its staff were helping the passengers leave the scene, and the cause of the accident is being investigated. (CGTN, Xinhua)

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Navy, coastguard officials charged in Italy over migrant deaths

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Two high-ranking Italian officials were indicted for their alleged role in the deaths of hundreds of refugees who tried to reach Italy by boat in October, 2013.

Including at least 60 children, about 268 people died in the Mediterranean Sea on their way to Italy on October 11, 2013, because Italian and Maltese authorities allegedly waited hours to respond to emergency calls when the vessel housing the hundreds sank slowly.

It was one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks since the asylum-seeker crisis in Europe began in 2011.(CGTN)

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Carrie Lam vows to build open, transparent dialogue platform

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Hong Kong Special Administrative Region chief executive Carrie Lam said her government is working on building an open and transparent platform for dialogue. 

Lam noted that the dialogue is "way better than confrontation" and that the government will have direct dialogue with different walks of life.

She said the first open dialogue platform will be held next week.

Lam also said that the road to restoring peace will be longer if violent acts don't stop. (CGTN)

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Palace Museum, Tencent to build 'Digital Forbidden City'

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The Palace Museum in Beijing, also known as Forbidden city, and Chinese tech giant, Tencent recently said that they will use digitization for the conservation of cultural relics over the next three years.

According to the plan, about 100,000 cultural relics housed in the Palace Museum will have high-definition pictures taken for further restoration, which will also be supported by artificial intelligence and other hi-tech approaches.

For the project, the two sides will set up an industry standard for digitization of cultural relics and cloud-based management for Chinese museums. And international symposiums on the combination of cultural heritage conservation and modern technology will also be held. (China Daily)

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With almost 50,000 GM workers on strike, auto-maker shares slide

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And almost 50,000 U.S. auto workers went on strike on Monday in a pay dispute with General Motors.

It’s the largest industrial action to hit the car-maker in more than a decade.

Workers from 31 plants opted to walk out after talks between the company and the United Auto Workers Union hit an impasse as they tried to negotiate a replacement agreement when the manufacturer's four-year contract with workers expired.

On Wall Street, GM shares fell 4.3 percent. 

CNBC said the strike could cost the automaker 90 mil-lion dollars a day. (AFP)

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

(Produced by David Nye and Yang Yang)