world’s largest casino closes

Today’s News: Pope Sees China-Vatican Deal On Bishops Less Ideal, But Hopes It Will Be Renewed; Japan Develops Smartphone App That Automatically Removes Underage Nudity Images; Vietnamese police arrested famous blogger and activist Nguyen Lan Thang; between Tehran and Moscow a “discount war” on oil is brewing; in Sri Lanka they cook with firewood again.

MACAU – CHINA

Macau closes the grand lisbon, the largest casino in the world, due to an outbreak of Covid. Dozens of positives registered yesterday, the virus is spreading rapidly throughout the peninsula. Another 16 buildings of the special administrative region in confinement, with entry and exit prohibited, 13 thousand people in quarantine. In mainland china Mass testing and the specter of restrictions return, including Shanghai.

SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis forces more and more citizens to go back to using firewood for cooking. The change began at the beginning of the year, when more than a thousand kitchens exploded killing seven people. The accidents were caused by increasing propane to save costs, but that raised the pressure to dangerous levels.

JAPAN

A smartphone app created in collaboration between Fujita Health University and Smartbooks Inc automatically removes child nude photos and videos. And it sends an alert message to the children’s parents and guardians. The application will be ready for use at the end and its objective is to combat the phenomenon -growing in the country of the Rising Sun- of the sexual exploitation of minors.

VIETNAM

Police yesterday arrested a prominent political activist and blogger. Nguyen Lan Thang He will have to answer for the accusation of “propaganda” against the State, in a climate of growing repression in Hanoi against dissenting voices and critics of the communist leaders. His friends consider him a “democracy fighter” and leader of the protests against Chinese “imperialism”.

CHINA – VATICAN

The agreement between China and the Vatican on the appointment of bishops is not “ideal”, but the hope is that it can be “renewed soon”, at the latest in October, because the Church looks to the long term. This was stated by Pope Francis in an interview with Reuters where he talks about the pact signed in 2018, which must be renewed by the parties every two years. Details were never made public.

IRAN – RUSSIA

Tehran has launched a “discount war” with Russia, a country sanctioned like the Islamic Republic, in the export of oil to destinations other than Western ones. Until now, the product of the Russian company Urals seemed to be the most suitable for Asian buyers, but the Iranian Light and the Iranian Heavy are leveling the game.

CENTRAL ASIA

The Caspian region has become one of the crucial areas for the world economy from the point of view of oil and gas extraction and export. As the academic Fakhreddin Gadirov warns, the exploitation of these resources is causing geo-ecological threats, with the drop in water levels and the risk of a drought similar to that of Lake Azov.