Human heart structure beats 21 days in pig embryo in Chinese chimera study
The study, led by Lai Liangxue's team from the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was announced at the International Society for Stem Cell Research's annual meeting in Hong Kong on June 12.
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The Sun
13 hours ago
- The Sun
China detains principal over lead poisoning of 200 children
BEIJING: A kindergarten principal was detained after more than 200 children in northwestern China fell ill with potential lead poisoning from date cakes and corn rolls, state media said on Tuesday. Investigators found 'abnormal' levels of lead in the blood of 233 children at Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui city, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Of those, 201 of the children are being treated in hospital. Food safety scandals were once common in China, where tainted milk formula made hundreds of thousands of babies ill in 2008 and was linked to six deaths. City authorities investigated the head of the kindergarten last week after receiving reports that children were falling ill. A parent told state-run Jimu News tabloid last week that children had been experiencing stomach pain and nausea, and that some of their teeth turned black. Testing revealed that samples of three-colour steamed date cakes and corn rolls contained more than 2,000 times the national safety standard for food contaminants. The cake, served at breakfast, returned a reading of 1,052 milligrams per kilogram and the roll, served at another meal, was found with 1,340 milligrams per kilogram. The nationwide limit for lead in wheat and starch is 0.5 milligrams per kilogram, according to Chinese government records. CCTV said security footage shows kitchen staff adding packaged yellow colouring to a flour mix used in both contaminated dishes. The kindergarten's principal, surnamed Zhu, and an investor surnamed Li have been detained along with six other people, CCTV said. Two others are on 'bail pending trial'. Investigators found that Zhu and Li allowed kitchen staff to produce food using paint pigments purchased online that were later found to contain lead and were marked inedible. Testing among children attending other kindergartens linked with Peixin returned normal results. Food safety standards have generally improved across China but revelations last year that cooking oil had been transported in containers also used to carry fuel sparked outrage across Chinese social media. – AFP
The Star
14 hours ago
- The Star
China's Li, Brazil's Lula pledge joint effort to bring AI to farming
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chinese Premier Li Qiang agreed to cooperate on bringing artificial intelligence to improve agriculture in both of their countries, and Lula called on his counterpart to join an initiative aimed at saving the world's forests. In a statement issued from the sidelines of the annual Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro, the two sides also highlighted the 'excellent moment in bilateral relations' and reaffirmed their 'commitment to multilateralism and peace, underlining the role of BRICS in defending multilateral trade and climate regimes'. Plans for the centre, whose focus will be on farming in semi-arid regions, were initially agreed to in Brasília during a meeting last month between Luciana Santos, Brazil's minister of science, technology and innovation, and Lin Xin, China's vice-minister of science and technology and secretary for technological development. One of the centre's first projects will be the creation of an AI laboratory focused on supporting family farming, through a partnership between Brazil's National Semi-arid Institute (Insa) and the China Agricultural University. According to Insa Director José Etham Barbosa, the joint project aims to find ways to connect AI technologies to machinery commonly used on smaller-scale farms to improve environmental monitoring and soil quality. The Sertão region in Brazil's northeast is home to nearly 22 million people, making it one of the world's most populous and biodiverse semi-arid areas. Covering about 11% of the country's territory, it is characterised by heat, drought and sparse vegetation. 'We are bringing together various institutions to advance technology transfer, promote well-being, and embed these technologies into machinery for environmental and soil monitoring, so that we can transform the semi-arid region through this partnership,' Barbosa said at the time. The two sides will also set up a working group tasked with identifying what kinds of technology exchange would support industrial innovation in both countries, and where they could establish more research centres to support the effort. The announcement comes against a backdrop of trade tensions that Beijing is trying to work out with US President Donald Trump, who is holding American tech export restrictions as leverage in his effort to secure greater access to critical minerals for American firms. Last month, both nations said they reached a consensus on the issue, and the US eased limits on some chip design software exports to China. China remains heavily reliant on US technology in hi-tech sectors such as smartphones, semiconductors, software, pharmaceuticals, engines, AI, drones, cloud computing, and autonomous vehicles. Since 2022, Washington has tightened limits on the export of advanced technologies, especially semiconductors needed for AI training, in an effort to curb China's progress in developing military capabilities considered to be a threat to US national security. Chinese firms have been added to the US Entity Lists, restricting their access to high-performance chips from American companies, including Nvidia and AMD. The US has also pressured allies, including the Netherlands and Japan, to block exports of advanced chipmaking tools, notably from the Dutch firm ASML. In response, China has accelerated its push for tech self-reliance. Firms like Huawei and SMIC have registered some success, with Huawei developing its own chips and software, and SMIC producing 7-nanometre chips. However, challenges remain on attracting skilled talent and scaling up production. To overcome these hurdles, China has deepened tech ties with Russia, Malaysia and some other countries. In addition to AI cooperation, Lula and Li Qiang also pledged to expand collaboration on semiconductors and renewable energy, and to strengthen ties between shipyards in both countries. No further details were revealed on these efforts. China is the world's leading shipbuilder, accounting for 50% of global production and launching around 1,700 new vessels each year. The meeting also touched on other points of cooperation, including the development of geostationary satellites and the deepening of the memorandum on 'synergies' between national development programmes. The goal is to build on agreements signed during Xi Jinping's state visit to Brasília in November, when the two leaders pledged to identify projects from Brazil's Growth Acceleration Program, one of Lula's main campaign promises, that could be financed by China's Belt and Road Initiative. The framework was the solution found by Brazilian diplomats to cooperate with the BRI without joining the Chinese trade and infrastructure initiative as Beijing wanted. The leaders concluded their meeting with a request from Lula for China to join the Tropical Forests Forever Fund (TFFF) at COP30, which Brazil is also hosting in November. The Brasília-led initiative aims to mobilise around US$4bil (RM16.95bil) per year to be distributed proportionally to countries that preserve their forests by keeping deforestation below a defined threshold. – South China Morning Post
The Star
21 hours ago
- The Star
Cancer can't stop motivated PhD candidate
Compiled by C. ARUNO, SHYAFIQ DZULKIFLI and R. ARAVINTHAN DESPITE a long and arduous battle with lymphoma, 38-year-old Chia Chi Kuan is determined to complete his PhD studies in Education at Universiti Malaya, China Press reported. Chia was diagnosed in 2013, shortly after finishing his Master's degree. 'I found out I had cancer right after I finished my Master's degree, which was why I had yet to get insurance,' he said. His medical expenses have since been covered by charitable organisations, relatives, friends and Universiti Malaya. Since his diagnosis, Chia has undergone two bone-marrow transplants and numerous chemotherapy sessions, but he is yet to beat the disease. The disease also impacts his daily life. He requires 12 hours of sleep a day just to manage eight hours of work on his PhD studies. This has made it impossible for him to take on part-time work to support himself. 'I am relying on a student loan for my studies. My living expenses are paid by my parents and relatives.' Chia submitted his PhD dissertation in March. He plans to start looking for a job soon, but in the meantime, he is appealing to the public for RM225,600 to complete his cancer treatment. Chia said fighting cancer has taught him to face life's challenges head on with courage. 'If I hadn't gotten cancer, my life might have taken a different path. I might not have held so firmly to values like integrity and morality – things that many people tend to overlook.' Those interested in supporting Chia's journey can donate via China Press through the webpage > University students in Shandong province, China, are flocking to air-conditioned supermarkets to escape a severe heatwave, the daily also reported. According to an undergraduate, none of the student hostels are equipped with air-conditioning, making them unbearable during the scorching temperatures. 'It's so hot that we can only go to sleep at 2am. By 6am, we are woken up by the sweltering heat.' Photos showing rows of students squatting along supermarket aisles were widely shared online. However, a student said they had to return to their hostels by 9pm due to curfew. With temperatures in Shandong reaching 40°C last week, several undergraduates at the Yantai Nanshan University reportedly collapsed from heatstroke and were sent to hospital. When interviewed, a university spokesperson said the hostels had old electricity infrastructure and were not equipped to handle the demands from air-conditioning. The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a, it denotes a separate news item.
