EU okays billions in state aid to develop electric battery champion

18:47, December 09, 2019

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  US secretary of state under fire for withholding aid to Central American countries

  File photo: VCGWASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday came under fire from U.S. lawmakers for withholding aid essential for women and children in Central American countries."We believe that the Trump administrations counterproductive decision to cut off U.S. assistance to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras has damaged our standing in the Americas," two Democrat lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a letter addressed to Pompeo.The pair of lawmakers, committee chairman Eliot Engel and member Albio Sires, urged Pompeo to greenlight 48 million U.S. dollars of aid due in fiscal year 2017 and 527.6 million dollars due in fiscal year 2019.Engel and Sires said they were "extremely disappointed" by the withholding of aid, underscoring that the funds are "essential" to help children and families in the Central American countries.The letter also highlighted the intransparency of the decision process to release the aid.El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, a group of countries also known as the "Northern Triangle," was denied further U.S. aid earlier this year, as the Trump administration claimed they are not doing enough to curb the flow of immigrants into the United States.The Trump administration in October said it will partially restart the flow of U.S. aid to the three countries, but Engel said the move was too late.

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  All-electric passenger ship a first

  The all-electric passenger ship Junlyu sails on the Yangtze River. (Photo: China Daily)World-class technologies developed by Chinese engineers for Yangtze vesselChina State Shipbuilding Corp, a state-owned shipbuilding conglomerate, recently delivered the countrys first all-electric passenger ship to a company that transports passengers and runs sightseeing trips on the Yangtze River.The Junlyu has been in commercial operation since mid-November with Wuhan Tourism Development and Investment Group, a State-owned tour operator in Wuhan, Hubeis provincial capital, according to the Wuhan Institute of Marine Electric Propulsion, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp.The institute, which designed and built the vessels propulsion system, said in a statement on Thursday that Junlyu is the first fully battery-powered passenger ship in China.It said the ship is as quiet as a limousine and produces no polluting emissions. The ships technologies and capabilities, all developed by Chinese engineers, are world-class, the statement said.The institute, established in 1963, is the only developer of hydrogen and electric power systems in Chinas shipbuilding industry.It said Junlyu is 53.2 meters long, 13.4 meters wide, and has a displacement of 410 metric tons. The ship can carry 300 passengers and sail at speeds of up to 19 kilometers per hour. At speeds of less than 13 km/h, it can travel for eight hours.Before Junlyu, all Chinas passenger ships were powered by diesel-based engines or ones that combined diesel and battery power, the statement said, adding that the only fully electric vessels were some small boats used by parks for visitors entertainment.Gui Wenbin, the head of the institute, said Junlyu features a series of technological advances, including high-efficiency, variable-frequency drive technology.Eco-friendly propulsion is a direction of development for the shipbuilding industry and has become the institutes major researc...

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  'A masterpiece cultivated for billions of years'

  An explorer looks up from the bottom of the recently discovered sinkhole.(Photo: China Daily)An international team of cave explorers discovered a cluster of karst sinkholes in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region during an expedition from Nov 24 to 30.The 30-member team, which included cave explorers from China, France and Belgium, found two giant karst sinkholes and more than a dozen smaller limestone caves in mountainous Donglan county."The biggest one we discovered is more than 300 meters deep and can be listed among the worlds 50 largest karst sinkholes. We spent two days descending to reach the bottom," said Chen Lixin, leader of the Chinese explorers.Situated on the top of a 700-meter hill, the entrance of the sinkhole was hidden by dense forest. The cavers caught a glimpse of it by using a drone."Together with several French speleologists, we cut a path through the bushes on steep rock formations and descended on ropes like geckos," Chen said. "The hole is so unexpectedly deep that we had to suspend exploration on the first day since both the batteries of our drills and the ropes were used up."After descending on the ropes for seven hours on the second day, Chens team members reached the bottom of the sinkhole."The exploration of the world-class sinkhole is full of thrills and challenges. However it was worth it as we witnessed and learned extraordinary skills of cave exploration from the French cavers," Chen said.With the help of the drone, French speleologist Jean Bottazzi found another sinkhole. At the bottom of the sinkhole, which is about 270 meters deep, he was puzzled by some unusual things-a tomblike rock pile, some carved wood and unused firewood.Bottazzi estimated these objectives might be over 100 years old. He said he wondered how people could get there without the help of modern caving equipment, as no another entrance was found.The team also discovered a limestone cave filled with twisted a...