This is People's Daily Tonight, your news source from China.
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China slams US for passing act to support HK radical protesters
China deplored and strongly opposed the passing of the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 by U.S. Congressional committees on Wednesday.
It urged the US to stop interference in Hong Kong affairs.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the Act confuses right and wrong in total disregard of facts, brazenly bolsters violent radicals in Hong Kong, and grossly interferes in China's internal affairs.
The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council also expressed strong condemnation and opposition over the Hong Kong-related bills.(Xinhua, CGTN)
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China makes important contributions to global poverty reduction: report
China has made important contributions to the sustainable development goal of poverty reduction worldwide, according to a report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
With implementation of the precise poverty alleviation strategy, China has achieved remarkable results in the tough battle against poverty, the ministry said in a report titled China's Progress Report on Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2019).
From the end of 2015 to the end of 2018, the number of people living in poverty in rural areas decreased from 55.75 million to 16.6 million, with their per capita disposable income rising from 7,653 yuan (about 1,093 U.S. dollars) to 10,371 yuan. (Xinhua)
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US, Japan sign limited trade deal, leaving autos for future talks
U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signed a limited trade deal on Wednesday that cuts tariffs on U.S. farm goods, Japanese machine tools and other products, while further staving off the threat of higher U.S. car duties.
Trump said the deal would open up Japanese markets to some seven billion U.S. dollars worth of American products annually, cutting Japanese tariffs on U.S. beef, pork, wheat and cheese. (CGTN)
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6 killed, over dozen wounded as 6.5-magnitude quake hits eastern Indonesia
Six people were killed and more than a dozen others injured as a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's eastern Maluku province earlier on Thursday.
The quake triggered panic, forcing residents to flee home and take shelters in several spots.
So far there was no potential for tsunami, according to Indonesian geophysics agency. (Xinhua, CGTN)
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British PM faces mounting pressure as parliament reconvenes
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced enormous pressure as the parliament re-opened Wednesday after the Supreme Court ruled his act to suspend the parliament for five weeks was unlawful.
Johnson faced MPs in the House of Commons hours after the opening of the parliament, as both the main opposition Labour Party and the Scottish Nationalist Party called for him to resign.
Johnson accused opposition politicians of attempting to sabotage Britain's exit from the European Union. (Global Times)
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Netanyahu given first chance to form new Israeli gov't
Israel's president on Wednesday requested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to assemble the next government, tasking the decade-long leader with solving a political stalemate following inconclusive elections.
Netanyahu will have up to six weeks, beginning Thursday, to form a majority coalition.
He is facing struggles as his right-wing Likud faction won 32 seats in last Tuesday's voting, far cry from the needed 61 seats to form a majority coalition in the 120-seat parliament. (Xinhua)
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Alibaba unveils new AI chip for machine learning
And Chinese conglomerate Alibaba released a new artificial intelligence chip on Wednesday that specializes in machine-learning tasks.
This, as China steps up efforts to integrate emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and 5G into its economy.
The homegrown AI inference chip was unveiled during Alibaba Cloud's annual computing conference in Hangzhou, as the company strives to make its e-commerce platform more efficient using AI.
The chip is currently being used in optimizing consumers experience such as product search and automatic translation on e-commerce sites, personalized recommendations, advertising, and intelligent customer services. (China Daily)
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And that's People's Daily Tonight. Thanks for joining us.
(Produced by David Nye and Yang Yang)