Learn English by reading news everyday. This is what I have read today.

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An interesting investigation report conducted by AP basically told a lot about what happened on the internet in 2020.

It all started from Wuhan, a bustling but low-profile city where a mysterious novel virus was discovered. Almost at the same time the narrative of the origin of the virus started to emerge and different variants of narrative went viral later and transmitted much faster than the virus itself.

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Finally, the first day the WHO experts team spent in Wuhan, if not includes the preceding 14 days spent in quarantine.

https://twitter.com/PeterDaszak/status/1355073411962138625

I'm interested in this case because of how much money has been involved in it. He is not even the biggest fish targeted by the DOJ's China Initiative, which is I think a kind of racist political policy by the previous Trump administration, solely judged from its name.

I remember one example is the chairman of Harvard's chemistry department, who was a prominent scientist in the academical world. But he was involved in far less money than Gang Chen's case.

Chen has also been granted more titles in China. For example in just one city Wuhan, my hometown, he was given the “Top Talent
Wuhan City Partner,” and “3551 Optics Valley Talent Plan” awards, and he has received huge amount of money from Wuhan under his own name, not related to MIT. Not mention that he has tight connection with Shenzhen Govt, and he helped MIT build the relation with the SUSTech university of Shenzhen. So how deep is this guy rooted in China?

Here is the criminal complaint of Chen:
https://www.wwlp.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2021/01/Chen-Gang-criminal-complaint.pdf

Here is a letter from his ~100 MIT colleagues:
https://twitter.com/zhigangsuo/status/1352584589445902336

An interesting finding: the country who started the trade war suffered more than the targeted country. A lesson from history can never be learned.

But the author didn't mention the wine industry in Australia, since China has also imposed a heavy tariff on it. I remember when the news appeared on social media, it incurred a firestorm, everybody seemed to support Australia wine. Also it was a pain for Chinese consumers because it meant the food safety issue is deteriorating.

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The headline image reminds me vividly of Wuhan in January. That month when everywhere in China were just preparing the lunar new year, then all of a sudden, a new pheumonia of unknown causes occurred in a big bustling city of Wuhan. The city was almost crashed by the novel coronavirus, and followed by a total lockdown. At first the hospitals were all occupied by urgent patients, people were asking and begging for help online. Then the municipal government set up some kinds of provisional hospitals, some were in the cabins, and some were in the stadiums. Even with all those, hospitals were still not enough. And doctors and nurses, as well as PPEs, were all desperately needed. So voluntary doctors and nurses were heading there from all provinces of China. Finally the number of volunteers were huge, but still people were dying. The fatality rate was high at that time, especially for the elders.

That was a big tragic moment of a city's history. But the exact number of how many people dead because of the coronavirus is still not clear. I mean the government has of course given the number. But you never know if it's the truth. How many were under-played, how many were buried at home, and how many were caused by the side effect of the lockdown.

Now the experts of WHO are ongoing their investigation of the origin the virus in Wuhan. I don't think they will care about the mortality number of Wuhan. After all science can never beat politics, right?

So Mongolian prime minister resigned, after the protest over a Covid19 infection of a mother and her newborn baby.

This article is trying to tell the US how dangerous the cult thinking and disinformation is. As Japan has its own painful example of a religious cult in the recent history. The group is called Aum Shinrikyo, who spread the disinformation of a rigged election and pretended to be the savior of the state. Sounds familiar?
Eventually this group used toxic Sarin nerve gas to commit the world's first indiscriminate terrorist attack in a subway station.

Interesting. First they tried to storm the capital. Now their base camp is stormed. And I learned a lesson that to guarantee free speech, first make sure to protect privacy.

All for the draconian nation security law.

Whoa, what's going on here? It's been delayed for more than a year, now it's canceled? Nowadays no country respects WHO any more? I am also very disappointed.

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Sorry, I know it's a bit of old news. But this is huge for me. I loved Opera browser for so many years, especially when Opera mini existed on Palm and Nokia times. RIP, Opera.
No wonder that I have submitted my extension on your platform for months now since October, and still waiting for reviews. Can anyone believe this?

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The Queen's Gambit

I wanna share a popular tv show with you, which can be a good choice to acquire new vocabulary. No need to say that the story is quite attractive.

It's suitable for English learning cuz those lines are causal overall so I don't have a problem understanding the story. After watching it with subs, I'll collect useful expressions based on the episode's transcripts.

Finally, nytimes starts to report about her. She has been crusading alone for a long time, now she has got attention. But is it too late?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl_Xy6lSf0Y&ab_channel=CBSNews

He died as he lived: wearing makeup and lying in front of all of us

How hilarious He is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDh4cNtY4gs

I am envious that a president could be humiliated on TV like this in the US.

From heaven to hell, Alibaba not just fucked up its biggest IPO ever in history, but also messed up with the world's largest and fiercest government. So pity, Alibaba. Is it still worth working as 996?

996 in Alibaba

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Zoom is great, revolutionary, the game-changer in the pandemic driven software industry. The only flaw is that it's censored in China. Actually Zoom has even disabled free calls in China. In so many countries Zoom works so perfectly except in China. China has been the Achilles' Heel of Zoom, which is ironic because it's projected to be a Chinese software, at least some are saying that.

A lot of places are out of electricity right now, people are suffering. Is it the backfire of the ban of Australian coal? Or is it just the regularity of power capacity? Idk.

A list of summary info:

Domestic coal industry price is soaring, while the global industry is declining. Some Australian coal cargo ships are floating on the sea. Some places in Zhejiang and Hunan are shot of power, some kind of usage curbs are imposed. There are even places out of Nature Gas. Govt says it's a regularity of electricity quota limitation, plus a tighter control of environment protection.

https://twitter.com/OhnoCN/status/1339411409742909442

https://twitter.com/OhnoCN/status/1339423309465755649

https://twitter.com/iaxuUy0B8hZ5lci/status/1339562509527728129

https://twitter.com/wuwenhang/status/1339218463504683014

https://twitter.com/zhuPanda1/status/1339507360977612806

https://twitter.com/big_ear_cat/status/1339196048108105733

https://twitter.com/ying32178493/status/1339625516928798720