Tag • #china

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Fast fashion retailer Shein more than doubles profits as it awaits IPO approval

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 1 April - 14:49

Figures suggest China-founded firm is among world’s most profitable fashion companies as it prepares for stock market listing

Shein, the online fast fashion retailer founded in China, has more than doubled its profits to more than $2bn (£1.6bn) as it awaits approval for a stock market listing in New York or London.

The company, which is growing rapidly around the world by using social media to promote its goods, recorded sales of about $45bn last year, according to a report in the Financial Times based on information from sources close to the company.

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Scientist who gene-edited babies is back in lab and ‘proud’ of past work despite jailing

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 1 April - 04:52

China’s He Jiankui, who used Crispr to edit genome, says he is working on genetic diseases and suggests human embryo gene editing will one day be accepted

A Chinese scientist who was imprisoned for his role in creating the world’s first genetically edited babies says he has returned to his laboratory to work on the treatment of Alzheimer’s and other genetic diseases.

In an interview with a Japanese newspaper, He Jiankui said he had resumed research on human embryo genome editing, despite the controversy over the ethics of artificially rewriting genes, which some critics predicted would lead to demand for “designer babies”.

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Tory immigration policies risk over-reliance on Chinese students, ex-universities minister warns

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Sunday, 31 March - 16:00

Exclusive: Chris Skidmore says restrictions on international students risk a funding crisis

Analysis: from boom to bust on international students

The Conservative party’s “scorched earth” immigration policies risk UK universities becoming increasingly reliant on students from China to avoid financial crisis, a former universities minister has said.

It comes as estimates suggest 25% of tuition fee income at leading British universities already comes from China.

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Western governments struggle to coordinate response to Chinese hacking

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 29 March - 04:30

Experts say UK-imposed sanctions will make no difference when hacking is part of ecosystem of dealing with Beijing

With the announcement that the UK government would be imposing sanctions on two individuals and one entity accused of targeting – without success – UK parliamentarians in cyber-attacks in 2021 , the phrase “tip of the iceberg” comes to mind. But that would underestimate the iceberg.

James Cleverly, the home secretary, said the sanctions were a sign that “targeting our elected representatives and electoral processes will never go unchallenged”.

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Super gonorrhea rate quickly triples in China, now 40x higher than US

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 28 March - 18:12 · 1 minute

A billboard from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is seen on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, on May 29, 2018, warning of a drug-resistant gonorrhea.

Enlarge / A billboard from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is seen on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, on May 29, 2018, warning of a drug-resistant gonorrhea. (credit: Getty | )

Health officials have long warned that gonorrhea is becoming more and more resistant to all the antibiotic drugs we have to fight it. Last year, the US reached a grim landmark : For the first time, two unrelated people in Massachusetts were found to have gonorrhea infections with complete or reduced susceptibility to every drug in our arsenal, including the frontline drug ceftriaxone. Luckily, they were still able to be cured with high-dose injections of ceftriaxone. But, as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bluntly notes: "Little now stands between us and untreatable gonorrhea."

If public health alarm bells could somehow hit a higher pitch, a study published Thursday from researchers in China would certainly accomplish it. The study surveyed gonorrhea bacterial isolates— Neisseria gonorrhoeae —from around the country and found that the prevalence of ceftriaxone-resistant isolates nearly tripled between 2017 and 2021. Ceftriaxone-resistant strains made up roughly 8 percent of the nearly 3,000 bacterial isolates collected from gonorrhea infections in 2022. That's up from just under 3 percent in 2017. The study appears in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

While those single-digit percentages may seem low, compared to other countries they're extremely high. In the US, for instance, the prevalence of ceftriaxone-resistant strains never went above 0.2 percent between 2017 and 2021 , according to the CDC. In Canada, ceftriaxone-resistance was stable at 0.6 percent between 2017 and 2021. The United Kingdom had a prevalence of 0.21 percent in 2022.

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Liu Cixin: ‘I’m often asked – there’s science fiction in China?’

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 28 March - 11:03

Author of sci-fi epic The Three-Body Problem – newly serialised by Netflix – on ‘the greatest uncertainty facing humanity’ and how finding a secret copy of a Jules Verne novel inspired his career

Chinese author Liu Cixin’s science-fiction novels have sold millions of copies all over the world, and have won him numerous awards, including the global Hugo award for science fiction in 2015. Now, the English translation of the first book in Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, The Three-Body Problem, is back in the Amazon bestsellers charts, after the release of a TV adaptation by the creators of Game of Thrones.

But a decade ago, few in the UK had heard of Liu and The Three-Body Problem, which begins as a contemporary murder mystery and gradually builds into a story of alien contact. When it was first published here, Nic Cheetham, managing director of Liu’s UK publisher Head of Zeus, remembers being unsure if anyone would turn up for a book signing with the author in a London bookshop.

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Why didn’t New Zealand impose sanctions on China?

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 28 March - 02:02

New Zealand did not follow the US and UK in imposing financial restrictions after accusing Beijing of links to cyber-attacks

Politicians, journalists and critics of Beijing were among those targeted by cyber-attacks run by groups backed by China, western intelligence services said this week.

The separate cyber-attacks hit the US, UK and New Zealand – all members of the Five Eyes alliance. The network of five countries, which also includes Canada and Australia, share security related intelligence.

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India left reeling by Afghanistan as World Cup hopes begin to fade again

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March - 12:06 · 1 minute

Expanded 2026 World Cup finals have given hope to Igor Stimac’s side but the Lions of Khorasan had other ideas

Perhaps the one positive for India from their shock 2-1 home defeat by Afghanistan in 2026 World Cup qualification is that the team have risen far enough for shock defeats to be a thing. It’s not much of a comfort, however, and once solid-looking dreams of getting to the final stages on the road to the World Cup for the first time are starting to hang by delicate threads of Assam silk.

On Thursday, fans in that state’s biggest city, Guwahati, were confident of a comfortable win against Afghanistan, a team ranked 158 in the world. The 0-0 draw between the two five days earlier in the south-west corner of Saudi Arabia, rather than in Kabul, was surely a blip. Qatar were streaking ahead in Group A of qualification, leaving India and Kuwait to fight for the second spot that also brings a place in the final 18 that will fight it out for Asia’s increased World Cup allocation of eight. India had four points from the first three games and could have moved four points clear of third with two games to go.

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UK watchdog secures changes from Asos, Boohoo, Asda on green claims; Xi Jinping meets US CEOs – business live

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March - 08:49

Regulator acts after identifying concerns of possible greenwashing during review of fashion sector

Shares in the British packaging group DS Smith rose after it announced that it is in discussions with a New York-listed paper producer over a £5.7bn takeover offer.

London-based DS Smith confirmed that it is in talks with International Paper , the largest paper and pulp company in the world, over an all-stock offer from the US company, which gatecrashed an agreed £5.1bn deal between DS Smith and Mondi , another London-listed group.

The board acknowledges the strategic merits and potential for value creation through a combination with International Paper. Accordingly, the board is progressing its discussions with International Paper regarding the proposal.