Cute parrot says "good morning" and gives everyone a kiss
Milo loves to say good morning as he greets his owner. He also enjoys giving kisses, and we can’t get enough!
Milo loves to say good morning as he greets his owner. He also enjoys giving kisses, and we can’t get enough!
Emerging Italian helmer Claudio Giovannesi, who made a splash in Berlin with his prizewinning Neapolitan teen mob drama “Piranhas,” is set to direct immigration epic “Vita,” set in New York’s early 20th century Little Italy. Based on Melania Mazzucco’s novel by the same title, winner of Italy’s prestigious Strega Prize, “Vita” is set in 1903 […]
Brazil set a daily record for COVID-19 deaths for a second straight day on Wednesday, as a raging resurgence of the virus led Sao Paulo state to shutter businesses and the government to try to close vaccine deals with Pfizer and Janssen. With a new coronavirus variant from the Amazon spurring more infections, according to studies, 1,910 people died from the virus in the past 24 hours, according to Health Ministry data. In a year, Brazil's death toll has nearly topped 260,000, the world's second-worst after the United States.
A new consensus is emerging among scientists about the course of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Reuters interviews with 18 specialists who track the disease or are working to curb its impact. The prevalence of COVID-19 infections in England has dropped since January, but the rate of decline has slowed and cases might be on the rise in some areas, researchers at Imperial College London said on Thursday. Interim findings for February compared to that of January shows estimated prevalence has risen in London and the South-East, as well as the East and West Midlands.
The two paintings that the actress shared online were wildly interpreted
Nepal’s government signed a peace agreement Thursday with a small communist rebel group widely feared because they were known for violent attacks, extortion and bombings. The government agreed to lift a ban on the group, release all their party members and supporters in jail and drop all legal cases against them, while the group agreed to give up all violence and resolve any issues through peaceful dialogue, the government said in a statement after peace talks. Details of the agreement would be made public at a joint ceremony Friday with Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli and the leader of the rebel group Netra Bikram Chand, who is better known by his guerrilla name, Biplav.
The keyboardist and music producer was pronounced dead after found unconscious at home
Since Kirsty Bell founded Goldfinch Entertainment in 2016, the company has funded over 200 film and TV projects over the past five years, including the acclaimed “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” Amazon’s “Le Mans: Racing Is Everything” and “Killers Anonymous” with Gary Oldman and Jessica Alba. She has also launched an online art gallery as well as a physical one in her hometown of […]
Murray, a three-time Grand Slam winner who claimed his first tour-level victory since August in the first round against Robin Haase, held his own against Rublev in a tight first set that lasted 62 minutes before the Russian raced away with the second. "I want to be playing at this level because I learn a lot from a match like this," Murray said. Murray's long-time rival Roger Federer is set to make his return to the court in Doha next week after two knee operations in the past 12 months and the Briton has backed the 20-time Grand Slam winner to hit top gear.
California will begin setting aside 40% of all vaccine doses for the state’s most vulnerable neighborhoods in an effort to inoculate people most at risk from the coronavirus and get the state’s economy open more quickly. Two officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration shared details Wednesday on condition of anonymity. Many of the neighborhoods are concentrated in Los Angeles County and the Central Valley.
After scouring a handful of locations, U.K.-based MSR Media producer Philippe Martinez has landed on the Caribbean island of Nevis to shoot six films back-to-back. With the pandemic still wreaking havoc in many countries, Nevis Island ticked all the boxes where stringent protocols have rendered few cases and no deaths. “One has to think outside […]
SpaceX has successfully landed one of its rockets in Boca Chica, Texas, at the end of a high altitude test flight.The Starship SN10 test model was developed by billionaire Elon Musk's company with the intention of carrying humans and 100 tons of cargo to the moon and Mars.It was the company's third attempt at a vertical landing, but it still ended in flames.The Starship exploded minutes after touch down.For Musk, it was mixed news.The rocket's two predecessors both crashed into the ground when they attempted landing.He tweeted: 'RIP SN10, honorable discharge.''Musk’s ambition is to make human space travel more affordable and routine with the ultimate goal to enable people to live on Mars.His private space company is planning the first orbital Starship flight for the end of this year.He's also promised a private lunar excursion in 2023 with the Japanese online fashion retail billionaire Yusaku Maezawa.On Wednesday, Maezawa launched a search for eight people to join him on the trip around the moon.
Hong Kong’s biggest international school group will have thousands of its staff undergo regular Covid-19 screening from this week to meet a prerequisite by education authorities to fully resume in-person classes, the Post has learned. But no exact date has yet been set for the full resumption of half-day classes at the 22 kindergartens and schools run by the English Schools Foundation. Schools which apply to education authorities to fully start classes will have to submit the request three days prior to the proposed date of commencement, according to officials. ESF has about 3,000 staff members and more than 18,000 students in Hong Kong.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China. “In ESF, we all share a common desire to have every one of our students back in the classroom every day,” the foundation’s chief executive Belinda Greer said in a letter to staff on Thursday. The foundation said it would pay for “spit test” kits which would be distributed among teachers through a private vendor to “ensure confidentiality and safeguard personal details”. Teachers would take the virus tests at home every two weeks and bring the kits into school for sample collection. It further said teachers who had concerns about being tested should speak to their school principals as soon as possible for “support or professional counselling”. Kindergarten teachers will be the first ones to be screened, starting this week, followed by their colleagues in primary and secondary schools. The move came after more than 200 parents demanded in a letter to the ESF management that schools start testing all teachers and staff regularly for the full resumption of face-to-face classes in the coming weeks. Few schools planning to resume all classes, with testing teachers for Covid-19 a stumbling block The parents, who accused the foundation of its “apparent inability and lack of effort” for the full resumption of in-person learning, also asked teachers and staff to put aside their “personal differences and keep students’ interest as the top priority”. “We expect the senior management and all teachers and staff, especially yourself [Greer], to meet the challenge and serve as role models for our children,” the letter addressed to the CEO read. It added: “While a [Covid-19] testing for all teachers and staff every 14 days may be an inconvenience, shouldn’t the unmeasurable benefits of resuming full face-to-face teaching outweigh any other concerns?” ESF schools, like most other city schools, have been bringing back up to one-third of the total student population on a half-day basis since the Lunar New Year holiday ended on February 22. Even though authorities said schools which could get all staff tested fortnightly might bring back all students on campus, few schools have so far opted for that amid administrative difficulties and concerns from some principals and teachers. Official figures as of last Friday showed only about 200 of the city’s more than 2,000 schools were either planning for a full resumption or had already done so, most of them kindergartens. Up to a third of pupils allowed to resume face-to-face classes after holiday In mid-February, Greer told parents in a letter that the group would “take time to explore” the option of testing all staff and consider the implications for its implementation, although a one-third resumption would be carried out first after classes resumed from the week of February 22. A parent of a child studying at one of the ESF schools, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she expected the foundation’s management to “do a better job”. “It’s not just this time but it’s [an] accumulated grievance,” she said, citing examples of some parents who were dissatisfied with a 45 per cent refund of one month’s tuition fee last year by the management amid the pandemic. In a reply to the Post, Greer did not say whether the foundation had made the decision because of the pressure from parents, but only added: “With the ongoing uncertainty of the current situation and the long-term view that some degree of disruption may continue for the remainder of the academic year, it is imperative that we now take forward plans to increase the time for our students to spend in school.”More from South China Morning Post:Hong Kong coronavirus fourth wave: up to a third of pupils allowed to resume face-to-face classes after holiday, Education Bureau saysCoronavirus: only handful of secondary schools in Hong Kong intend to test all staff and resume full classes after Lunar New Year, poll findsThis article Thousands of staff of Hong Kong’s biggest international school group to undergo Covid-19 screening from this week for full resumption of in-person classes first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
Spurs and Arsenal were both due to play their last-16 first legs away from home on March 11 and the second legs at home a week later. But European soccer's governing body UEFA on Monday swapped Spurs' first leg against Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb to home because of the rule that two clubs from the same city cannot play on the same day.
Two women died of their injuries. This article, Driver in fatal Malaysian highway collapse was on meth: Police, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company.
Autohome, an online platform for buying and selling cars, is seeking to raise up to HK$7.6 billion (US$984 million) through a secondary listing of its shares in Hong Kong. The Beijing-headquartered company, whose American depositary receipts (ADR) are already trading on the New York Stock Exchange, is selling 30.3 million shares at no more than HK$ 251.8 each. The Hong Kong public offering runs from Thursday until next Tuesday, with trading on the main board scheduled to start on March 15.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China. The company, which is backed by Ping An Group, is one of several technology, media and telecoms companies planning to raise funds in Hong Kong in the first half of the year. Another car-related digital platform, Dida, is aiming to raise up to US$500 million, according to people familiar with the transaction. Dida, an online carpooling and taxi-hailing service, is backed by venture capital firm IDG, and counts Nio Capital, the investing arm of electric vehicle maker Nio, among its investors. Autohome is 49 per cent owned by Yun Chen Capital, a subsidiary of retail finance services group Ping An Group. Yun Chen Capital is selling about 10.1 million of its existing shares through the deal, about a third of the total global offering. Overnight, Autohome shares fell 4 per cent to close at US$113.29, snapping three days of gains. Each Autohome ADR represents four ordinary shares. Autohome runs two websites, with the domain names “autohome” and “che168”. It claims to be the largest online car advertising and “leads generation service provider” in revenue terms, with a 30 per cent market share, according to data from iResearch cited in the company’s preliminary filing. Its lead generation service enables car dealers using its platform to create their own online stores. Its net profit attributable to shareholders rose 6.4 per cent to 3.4 billion yuan (US$525 million) in 2020, from 3.2 billion yuan in 2019, data from the filing shows. Autohome plans to use the proceeds for product development, and upgrading the technologies it uses such as augmented reality and virtual reality. It will also seek expansion opportunities domestically and in Southeast Asian markets. CICC, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse are the joint sponsors of the deal. The secondary listing by Autohome has come amid a surge in fundraising by mainland tech, media and telecom (TMT) companies via listings on the Hong Kong bourse, as well as on the domestic Chinese stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen. Earlier in February, the record-setting IPO by Tencent-backed short video platform Kuaishou raised US$5.4 billion (prior to the exercise of an over-allotment option), locking up as much as US$1.3 trillion in subscription capital after its retail allocation was oversubscribed by some 1,200 times. Last year saw 164 IPOs by mainland Chinese tech companies, which together raised 346.8 billion yuan through onshore and offshore listings, twice the amount raised in 2019, data from PWC shows. “We expect that 2021 will be a big year for IPOs of TMT companies, with the possibility of setting new highs in both A shares and overseas markets,” said Jianbin Gao, mainland China TMT industry leader at PWC, in a press release on Monday. Other big IPOs in the sector that could kick off this month include the secondary listings of Chinese internet search giant Baidu, and short video platform Bilibili.More from South China Morning Post:JD Health plans to use part of Hong Kong IPO proceeds to buy offline pharmaciesChinese wealth management unicorn Lufax on path to biggest US listing by Chinese issuer this year, targets US$2.4 billion IPOKuaishou shares jump 161 per cent in debut as Hong Kong’s hottest IPO paves way for offerings from rival video-sharing app ownersThis article Chinese online car-selling platform Autohome targets US$984 million in Hong Kong secondary listing first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
Britain's medical regulator on Thursday said it would fast-track vaccines for coronavirus variants, adding that the makers of already-authorised shots would not need new lengthy clinical trials to prove their adapted vaccines will work. There is concern that some variants, such as those first found in South Africa and Brazil, may reduce the efficacy of the first generation of COVID-19 vaccines, and manufacturers are looking to adapt their shots. The accelerated process is based on that used for seasonal flu vaccines each year, the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said, and would be based on robust evidence that the shots create an immune response, rather than full clinical trials.
With U.S. policy toward North Korea in limbo as the new administration in Washington conducts a months-long policy review, former officials and experts are sparring over whether to shift focus from seeking the North's full denuclearisation. The administration of President Joe Biden says its review of North Korea policy will be finished in coming months, before announcing its plans for handling a rolling crisis that has bedevilled generations of U.S. presidents.
Saban Films has acquired North American rights to “Long Story Short,” written by, directed by and co-starring Josh Lawson. The romantic comedy also stars Rafe Spall, Zahra Newman, Ronny Chieng and Dena Kaplan. Studiocanal is handling international sales for the film, and is releasing it in Australia and New Zealand. “Long Story Short” follows Teddy […]
The Czech Republic has declined an offer to buy AstraZeneca Plc's coronavirus vaccines from an intermediary in the United Arab Emirates, Czech officials said on Wednesday. Health Minister Jan Blatny said the offer was not officially from the UAE but that it came from an unnamed third party. "It concerned a batch that does not have a permission for the European Union," he said.
Hong Kong has disappeared from an annual league table ranking the world’s freest economies, with compilers instead listing it under China in what they say is a reflection of Beijing’s “ultimate control” over the city. The city drops off the Heritage Foundation list published on Thursday a year after losing to Singapore the No 1 position it held for decades. Macau was also quietly removed from appearing under its own name and is listed with China. The Washington-based conservative think tank wrote: “The index this year measures economic freedom only in independent countries where governments exercise sovereign control of economic policies.”Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China. It went on to say that while Hong Kong and Macau residents benefited from policies offering greater economic freedom than in mainland China, “developments in recent years have demonstrated unambiguously that those policies are ultimately controlled from Beijing”. Hong Kong repeatedly led the list before it was toppled in 2020 by Singapore for the first time in 25 years, as the financial hub grappled with months of anti-government demonstrations in 2019. In response, Beijing imposed a national security law on the city, which prohibits acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. China comes 107th place in the list, after Uganda, and sits among economies rated as “mostly unfree”. Hong Kong’s latest index score is described as “not available”. Singapore took the top spot for the second year in a row with a score of 89.7. Rounding off the top five were New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland and Ireland. Researchers examined 184 economies across 12 areas: property rights, government integrity, judicial effectiveness, government spending, tax burden, fiscal health, freedom in business and labour, as well as monetary policy, trade, investment and financial freedom. The Post has contacted the government for comment.More from South China Morning Post:Hong Kong is not independent like Singapore and those who challenge Beijing’s authority are separatists, says CY LeungSenior state official Xia Baolong joins Shenzhen seminar to hear views on Hong Kong electoral reforms as part of push for ‘patriots governing city’This article Hong Kong disappears from Heritage Foundation’s ‘world’s freest economies’ rankings, as compilers list the city under China for first time first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.