CD Voice

Chinese sponsors are scoring goals at the ongoing UEFA European Championship by accounting for one-third of the 12 top-tier sponsors of the major soccer event, a move that industry experts said fully demonstrates the rising competitiveness of Chinese brands and their determination in going global.

▲ Sweden's Robin Olsen in action with Spain's Marcos Llorente during Group E match between Spain and Sweden of Euro 2020 on June 14, 2021. Photo/Agencies

"Chinese companies are actively carrying out soccer marketing, which fully demonstrates their growing competitiveness and their strong desire to better serve the world," said Wang Peng, an associate professor at the Hillhouse Research Institute of Renmin University of China in Beijing.

"The sponsorship is also a barometer of the changes in the global industrial and economic situation. Japanese and South Korean companies used to be major sponsors of such international sports events, but their presence has decreased, and even disappeared, in recent years," Wang said.

According to the Economic Observer newspaper, Japan contributed at least three sponsors to every World Cup from 1992 to 2004. In the UEFA European Championship 2016, Japanese companies were absent from top-level sponsorship.

Hisense became a top sponsor of the UEFA European Championship in 2016, marking it the first Chinese company to endorse the 56-year-old tournament at that time. In the 2018 World Cup in Russia, four Chinese companies were in the top two levels of sponsorship.

The UEFA European Championship, or Euro 2020, was postponed to this year due to the pandemic and kicked off on Friday night.

"Sports marketing, especially for world-class events, is an important method for brands from both home and abroad to expand their global influence," said Zhao He, senior vice-president of Social Touch, a Chinese marketing and branding firm.

According to UEFA's financial report for the Euro 2016 championship, it earned around 483 million euros ($570 million) from the sale of sponsorship rights. Some marketing consultancies predicted that this year's tournament will bring in similar or higher sales.

"Through our partnership with UEFA, we look to connect with and expand our widening user base of over 400 million people worldwide," said Spark Ni, senior vice-president of Vivo.

Vivo is the first-ever presenting partner of the Euro 2020 opening and closing ceremonies. It has also signed a four-year deal with UEFA under which the Chinese smartphone manufacturer will also become an official partner for the Euro 2024 championship.

"For Hisense, sponsoring the world's top sports events is not just an advertising and marketing activity. We hope to move the company into a higher level in terms of talents, research and development, manufacturing and management," Hisense President Jia Shaoqian said earlier in a speech.

Zhou Nan, secretary-general of the home appliances branch at the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, said: "In order to seize changing opportunities in the post-pandemic era, Chinese home appliance companies need to deploy in the overseas market in advance and further improve the global supply chain and brand building."

记者：程钰

Rescue operations are underway after a gas explosion in Shiyan, Hubei province, on Sunday.  Photo/China Daily 

President calls for concrete actions to protect people's lives and to uphold social stability

President Xi Jinping ordered all-out efforts to rescue the injured and asked the authorities to console the families of the casualties shortly after a gas explosion occurred in Shiyan, Hubei province, on Sunday morning.

The accident, which occurred at a marketplace near a residential community in the city of Shiyan, has left 12 people dead and 37 seriously injured.

In an instruction released on Sunday afternoon, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, required a timely investigation of the accident and that those responsible for the explosion be held accountable.

He mentioned that some workplace safety and campus safety incidents have occurred in various places nationwide, and he urged efforts to screen for potential safety risks and for caution to prevent major emergencies.

Concrete actions must be taken to safeguard people's lives and property and to uphold overall social stability, Xi said.

Premier Li Keqiang also made an instruction on Sunday, urging that the utmost efforts be made to reduce injuries and casualties. He also asked related departments of the State Council to take solid measures to intensify oversight of safety matters in key areas so as to resolutely reduce major accidents.

Acting upon the instructions of Xi and Li, a task force comprising officials and professionals from the Ministry of Emergency Management, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Health Commission has been sent to Shiyan to help in the rescue efforts.

Twelve people died and 138 were injured in the gas explosion in Shiyan on Sunday morning, according to the local information office.

The blast occurred at around 6 am in a two-story food market next to a residential area in the city's Zhangwan district. A preliminary investigation by the local emergency management department concluded it was caused by a gas pipeline leak.

The city and the provincial government immediately set up rescue and emergency response teams, and sent 173 local firefighters and 40 armed police to the site of the blast.

The information office reported on its social media account that those injured were taken to hospitals for treatment and Hubei has coordinated medical resources across the province to help the city.

According to a witness, some stores in the market were already open and a few people were buying groceries when the explosion occurred.

Images and video clips circulating on social media indicate that the blast packed a huge wallop－only the main structure of the building remains and debris is scattered everywhere.

Hubei Party Secretary Ying Yong announced after the blast that the government will strive to minimize the damage and to promptly publicly report related information.

"The province will organize a comprehensive examination of the pipeline and fire facilities in the province, especially in old residential areas, to ensure the safety of people's lives and property," Ying said.

Zhang Dong, a deputy manager of a local engineering company who voluntarily organized a 100-member team offering on-site logistics support, said he is calling on colleagues to donate blood after hearing of a shortage in local hospitals.

"We are supplying water and food to the rescue team at the site, and since there are many people in the designated blood donation station, we have suggested those who want to donate blood go there at different times," Zhang said.

There are currently four stations where city residents can donate blood.

The cause of explosion remains under investigation.

Wildlife experts have praised China's use of new technology and sympathetic conservation practices to protect a herd of wild elephants marching through Yunnan province.

▲ This photo shows the male elephant traveling with the herd before leaving the group. Photo provided by Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade

"China can have a new beginning as it can come up with its own model to deal with the elephant group," said Asian elephant expert Raman Sukumar, an honorary professor with the Center for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science.

With the resources it has, China can find a way to keep the elephants safe, create a new habitat for them or take them home, Sukumar said.

▲ This aerial photo shows the wild Asian elephant herd taking a nap. Photo provided by Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade

The herd of 15 wild Asian elephants has trekked 500 kilometers after leaving a designated protection zone in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in Yunnan. After a recent stop on the outskirts of Kunming, 14 of them are now roaming in Yuxi, according to authorities monitoring their migration. Initially, there were 17 elephants, including one born during the journey. As of Thursday, three males had broken from the group and are headed in separate directions, China Central Television reported. All the animals are safe and sound.

Local residents and officials have provided them with food and water. Drones and distance-imaging have been used to monitor the herd's movements and hundreds of emergency personnel and vehicles have been mobilized to keep the elephants safe and prevent conflicts with people.

Media coverage of the pachyderms' progress has aroused interest throughout the world, especially in Asian countries such as India, Thailand and Cambodia, which have strong cultural links to the animals. Photos and video clips of their march through towns and forests have been widely posted on social media as well as images of the sympathetic approach taken by wildlife officials and emergency workers to the elephants.

"The authorities are doing their best to use technology and to safeguard these elephants to the best of their ability, which is highly commendable," said Mark Rayan Darmaraj, country director of the Wildlife Conservation Society-Malaysia.

▲ This aerial photo shows a male elephant, which broke free from the herd on June 6, traveling alone. Photo provided by Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade

The challenge for authorities is working out what needs to be done next, Darmaraj said. This includes continuing to provide safe passage for the herd, guiding them toward the closest available safe haven and possibly relocating the entire herd back to their Xishuangbanna habitat. "Each of these comes with its own risk, uncertainty, cost and challenges which need to be evaluated further," Darmaraj said.

▲ Aerial photo taken on June 7 shows the wild Asian elephant herd in Xiyang Yi autonomous town of Jinning district of Kunming, Yunnan province. Photo provided by Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade

"The exact reason is still unclear," The Straits Times quoted Professor Sun Quanhui of World Animal Protection as saying.

"But it could be that, along with conservation efforts, the population of Asian elephants in the wild has grown and in a bid to find more territory and resources, elephants could be leaving (nature reserves)," he said.

Asian elephants are under the highest level of State protection in China, where they are mostly found in Yunnan. Thanks to enhanced protective efforts, the wild elephant population in the province has grown to about 300, up from 193 in the 1980s.

Sangduen Chailert, founder of the Save Elephant Foundation , said the reason why elephants choose to walk into public places can be complicated. Intrusions into urban areas have become more prevalent across Asia over the past five years, she added.

"In Thailand, what we found is that sometimes the elephants get lost, the habitat was not safe, or the baby elephant is captured," Sangduen said, adding that a lack of food and water and pregnancy can all be among the reasons.

记者：YANG HAN

如果你对可爱的袋熊有所了解，你会知道袋熊是地球上唯一能拉出方形便便的生物。多少年来，科学家一直无法弄明白袋熊为什么能拉出立方体的便便，而今他们终于找到答案了。 

[Photo/Unsplash] 

Despite having round anuses like all other mammals, bare-nosed wombats do not produce round pellets, tubular coils or messy piles; they are the only creature on Earth that poops cubes.

尽管和其他所有哺乳动物一样长着圆圆的肛门，但是毛鼻袋熊拉的便便却不是圆球状、螺旋状或乱糟糟的一堆，它们是地球上唯一拉方形便便的生物。

Wombats, marsupials native to the grassy plains and eucalyptus forests of Australia, are among the most adorable animals in the world, but to animal experts they have been a tough-to-solve mystery for a very long time. And it has all been because of their poop. You see, bare-nosed wombats have the unique ability to produce up to 100 distinctive, cuboid pieces of poop every day. Now, researchers say they have uncovered how the wombat intestine creates this unusually-shaped excrement.

居住在澳大利亚草原和桉树林里的有袋哺乳动物袋熊是世界上最可爱的动物之一，但是很长时间以来它们对于动物专家来说都是难解的谜。这都是因为它们拉的便便。要知道，毛鼻袋熊拥有一项独特能力，每天都能拉多达100个与众不同的立方体便便。现在，研究人员声称他们已经找到了袋熊便便如此特别的原因。

 Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology first started studying the wombat’s ability to poop cubes back in 2018, by analyzing the digestive tracts of wombats involved in car accidents. They compared the marsupial’s intestines to those of pigs, by inserting a balloon into the animals’ digestive tracts to see how it stretched to fit the balloon, and found regions of varied thickness and stiffness.

乔治亚理工学院的研究人员从2018年开始通过分析死于车祸的袋熊的消化道来研究袋熊为什么能拉方形便便。他们将袋熊的肠道和猪的肠道做了比较，将一个气球塞进两种动物的消化道，观察消化道为了容纳气球是如何伸缩的，结果发现不同区域的厚度和硬度都不同。

 Scientists then created a 2D mathematical model to simulate how these intestine regions contract and expand with the rhythms of digestion, over multiple days, shaping the poop into its cuboid shape. Softer intestinal regions squeeze slowly and mold the final corners of the cube, researchers found. Interestingly, in most mammals, the contractions of intestinal muscles occur in all directions, but in wombats, the grooved tissue and irregular contractions shape the poop differently.

接下来，科学家创建了一个平面数学模型来模拟袋熊肠道各区域是怎样随着消化的节奏收缩和扩张并经过数天时间将便便塑造成立方体的。研究人员发现，比较柔软的肠道区域会缓慢收缩并给便便塑形。有趣的是，大多数哺乳动物的肠道肌肉都是向各个方向收缩，但是袋熊带纹路的肠道肌肉组织和不规则的收缩方式却将便便塑造成了不同的形状。 

[Photo/Facebook]While this research may seem completely meaningless, or just meant to satisfy human curiosity, the scientists involved in the study say that these new revelations could have a big impact on human digestive health research and manufacturing technology. It would be a cool method to apply to the manufacturing process, how to make a cube with soft tissue instead of just molding it.

尽管这项研究也许看起来毫无意义，或者只是为了满足人类的好奇心，但是参与该研究的科学家表示，这些新发现可能对人类消化健康研究和制造技术产生重大影响。通过柔软的材料来塑造立方体而不是用模具来铸造，将这种方式应用于制造过程将会是一个很不错的方法。

Now that the mystery of how bare-nosed wombats produce cubical poop seems to have been solved, that only leaves the ‘why’. Scientists have some theories about this as well. One states that because wombats pick up their poop and stack it as a way of communicating between them, the cubicle shape helps them build higher poop towers.

毛鼻袋熊拉出方形便便的谜题既然已经解开，现在只剩下一个问题：为什么袋熊要拉方形便便？关于这个问题，科学家也有几种理论。其中一种理论指出，因为袋熊会捡拾自己的便便堆起来，以这种方式来和同类交流，立方体形状有助于它们将便便堆成“高塔”。

[Photo/Facebook]

Another theory claims that because wombats tend to use their poop to mark their territory on rocks and logs, the cubical shape of the excrement ensures that it won’t simply roll off.另一种理论指出，因为袋熊倾向于在石头和原木上用自己的便便来划分彼此的领地，立方体形状的便便不会从石头和原木上滚下去。

Also fun fact, the poop of wombats in captivity isn’t as cubic as that of wild ones. The squarer the poop, the healthier the wombat, apparently.

还有一个有趣的事实是，圈养袋熊的便便不像野生袋熊的便便那么方。显然，便便越方，袋熊越健康。

翻译&编辑：陈丹妮英文来源：Oddity Central

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday reversed former president Donald Trump's executive orders that sought to ban downloads of the Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat in the US.

▲ The White House in Washington. Photo/Agencies

Biden replaced them with a review process to be done by the Commerce Department to determine whether apps controlled by a foreign adversary present risks to US national security and the security of Americans' sensitive personal data, the White House said. After the review, the government can "take action, as appropriate", the administration said. 

The order doesn't target any companies specifically.

The Biden order authorizes the Commerce Department to begin vetting companies and their services immediately, a senior official said, according to Bloomberg.  Two separate reports by the Commerce secretary on recommendations for actions and additional executive and legislative measures must be completed in 120 days and 180 days, respectively.

In attempting to ban the video-sharing platform TikTok and messaging app WeChat last year, Trump said apps owned by businesses in China "threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States".Trump ordered last August that the TikTok app, which lets users share video clips and is especially popular with young people, be sold to an American firm or face a ban in the US, but that sale effort failed.

Last year, federal judges said the administration hadn't shown those apps in particular posed a national security threat justifying a ban and blocked Trump's orders. TikTok had sued, saying that the administration hadn't proven that the app poses a national security threat because of its parent company's roots in China. Legal challenges followed and the app is still available. In February, the Biden administration asked a federal judge to pause litigation over the ban while the White House reviewed the ruling.

On a call with reporters Wednesday, Biden administration officials said Trump's executive orders weren't drafted "in the soundest fashion", according to The New York Times. The officials didn't say whether the Biden administration would attempt to pressure Beijing-based ByteDance, which owns TikTok, to move user data to a company based in the US, the Times said.

TikTok has nearly 700 million users. The messaging and payments app WeChat has more than a billion users worldwide and is owned by Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings Ltd.

TikTok had no comment butthe US WeChat Users Alliance, which successfully sued the US government over Trump's restrictions last year, said it welcomed the move to revoke the ban on WeChat.

Trump's "wrong-headed ban on WeChat" would have "led to the unprecedented shutdown of a major platform for communications relied on by millions of people in the United States," said Michael Bien, lead counsel for USWUA and other plaintiffs, in a statement, according to Bloomberg. "The courts did the right thing by preventing the ban from going into effect, but the whole episode creating enormous disruption and uncertainty never should have happened in the first place."

Administration officials said a review of TikTok by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in US companies, was still continuing and separate from Biden's order.

The president's action comes a day after the Senate passed the US Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, a bipartisan bill that aims to counter so called challenges from China in semiconductor production and the development of artificial intelligence and other technology.

A cybersecurity and privacy analysis of TikTok published in March by the internet watchdog group Citizen Lab found no evidence of malicious behavior and said TikTok's data collection practices were no worse than other major social platforms such as Facebook, according to The Associated Press.

"Our research shows that there is no overt data transmission to the Chinese government by TikTok," the analysis said.

Reporter：Ai Heping

President Xi Jinping has underlined developing more local specialty industries in Qinghai province and achieving better results through innovation.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks on Monday while visiting a company producing Tibetan carpets in Xining, the provincial capital, during an inspection tour of Qinghai province.

▲  President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks to local Tibetan residents while visiting a village of Shaliuhe Township in Gangcha county of Haibei Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Northwest China's Qinghai province, June 8, 2021. Photo/Xinhua

Xi learned about the production and design of the carpets when visiting the company's workshop and design department.

He said that Tibetan carpets have unique features and the locals have combined traditional and modern crafts very well and met individual and diversified market needs.

▲ President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with local people while visiting a residential community in Xining, Northwest China's Qinghai province, June 7, 2021. Photo/Xinhua

The Tibetan carpet industry helps people get out of poverty, boosts rural vitalization and promotes ethnic unity, Xi added.

In recent years, Xi has frequently spoken of developing specialty industries based on local resources during his inspection tours nationwide as he has encouraged the advancement of rural vitalization.

▲ President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, is briefed about the environmental protection efforts in the Qilian Mountains and Qinghai Lake, and inspects achievements made in comprehensively addressing environmental problems and protecting biodiversity at the lake, in Gangcha county of Haibei Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Northwest China's Qinghai province, June 8, 2021. Photo/Xinhua

During an inspection tour of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in April, he visited a food-processing zone for luosifen rice noodles, a local specialty in the city of Liuzhou. He called on local people to develop their small businesses into a major industry, saying that when they encounter difficulties, the Party and the government will give them support.

In April 2018, when he visited a village during an inspection tour of Hainan province, he stressed developing specialty industries in rural vitalization, and urged support for farmers to develop agriculture with local characteristics and rural tourism to increase farmers' incomes through various means.

Also on Monday, Xi visited a residential community in Xining, where he learned about its efforts in strengthening Party building at the grassroots level and public services.

He stressed that strong grassroots-level Party organizations are needed to provide good services in communities for the public. "Whenever I go on an inspection tour, I visit rural villages and urban communities to see how people's lives are going," Xi said.

记者：曹德胜

Students arrive to take the national college entrance examination on Monday, the first day of testing, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. [Photo by Zheng Erqi/Chinadaily.com.cn]

Record 10.78 million examinees begin taking key test nationwide on Monday

At around 8 am on Monday, Wu Ruifang and her husband sent their son to a test center in Beijing's Chaoyang district and wished him good luck on the national college entrance exam, or gaokao.

Wu wore a red, tailor-made, traditional qipao, a dress also called a cheongsam, to wish her son good luck, and her husband wore a red T-shirt printed with the Chinese phrase "success on arrival". Red is traditionally associated with good fortune in China, and the qipao shares a character that is used in the Chinese phrase "success at first attempt".

As parents, teachers and friends lined up outside the test centers to cheer the students on, a record 10.78 million young people around China began on Monday taking the all-important exam, which lasts for two to four days depending on their location.

Many parents and students said they now have a more rational attitude toward the gaokao and no longer view it as a make-or-break exam that defines students' futures.

However, they still believe that it is a fair system that gives students important opportunities to move up the social ladder by enrolling at good universities.

After the first Chinese language exam began at 9 am, Wu and her husband stayed outside the test center to wait for their son.

"We are more nervous than he is, but we try to stay calm in front of him," Wu said. The couple both took one week of leave from work to ensure that they could attend to their son's needs related to the important exam.

"The gaokao is not as important as when we took the test more than 20 years ago, as children now have more job opportunities that do not require an academic background," Wu said.

However, if he is able to be enrolled at a key university, he has better chances to live a good life, she said, adding that she and her husband are grateful for taking the gaokao and the opportunities that passing the exam has brought.

Huang Shuxin, a high school graduate who took the exam on Monday in Wuhan, Hubei province, said that although she had studied very hard for the gaokao, she does not believe it is an exam that will define who she is.

"My parents have not put too much pressure on me, and I have also tried to stay positive, as I have been getting high grades in mock exams," she said. "If everything goes well, hopefully, I will be admitted to Wuhan University or Huazhong University of Science and Technology."

Zhang Keji, a first-year undergraduate student at Beihang University in Beijing, went to a test center in Haidian district on Monday to wish younger high school students good luck.

When he took the gaokao last year, he and his parents did not set a specific goal, and his results turned out to be better than he had hoped, Zhang said.

"The gaokao can only determine which university we go to, and we still have to work hard to make sure that our lives keep getting better," he said. "It marks an end of 12 years of hard work and the beginning of new adventures."

Jiang Jiang, whose daughter was taking the gaokao in Shanghai, said that although the teenager sometimes felt anxious about the exam, she was able to cope with this with the help of her teachers and parents.

The gaokao is a good way for her to receive a good education, but it is not the only way, she said.

Hu Fang and her husband also sent their son to a test center in Beijing. He had chosen the science subjects of physics, chemistry and biology for all of his elective tests.

As she and her husband both work in the field of aerospace technology, they started very early to cultivate their son's interest in science-related fields, Hu said.

"He felt very confident going into the test center, and hopefully he can achieve a high score."

Cao Chen in Shanghai and Sun Fengyi contributed to this story.

A health worker prepares a dose of Sinovac vaccine at a vaccination site in Manila, the Philippines on March 31, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

China has provided more than 350 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccines overseas and is stepping up domestic production to further increase the foreign supply, especially to developing countries, a senior health official said on Sunday.

"The No 1 priority for the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is to expand and accelerate mass vaccination, which rests on boosting vaccine production and promoting equitable access," said Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health Commission.

"The country is now scaling up production to ensure smooth progress of its inoculation campaigns, while also exhausting all means to offer assistance to the international community, particularly those in the developing world," he said.

China has issued conditional market approval to four COVID-19 vaccines and granted authorization for emergency use to three candidates. As of Saturday, about 763 million doses had been administered in the country, according to the commission.

"It is clear from data that China has been striving to balance domestic vaccine rollouts and global supplies," Zeng said, adding that the stable epidemic situation has created favorable conditions for the country to achieve the balance.

More importantly, Zeng said, China is deeply committed to upholding the vision of "a community with a shared future for mankind," and honoring its promise made in May last year that all vaccines it develops will be for the public good.

"The pandemic has again underlined the significance of and the wisdom embedded in the vision," he said. "No country can conquer the virus or stay safe on its own. Global unity and coordination must be promoted.

"That's why we have been acting with a global mindset and in an altruistic manner, while rejecting narrow-minded nationalism and unfounded suspicion," he added.

In order to ramp up global vaccine coverage, strong vaccine production and sufficient supplies are a prerequisite. "In China, the speed and scale of capacity expansion have both exceeded our expectations thanks to concerted efforts from manufacturers and governments," Zeng said.

China's COVID-19 vaccines are gaining increasing recognition around the globe, according to Zeng.

Two domestic vaccines, developed separately by Sinopharm's Beijing Institute of Biological Products and Sinovac Biotech, recently gained emergency-use approval by the World Health Organization, which attested to their safety and efficacy, Zeng said. The approval allows the two vaccines to be included in COVAX, a major global vaccine-sharing platform.

Data from real-world use of Chinese vaccines has added to growing evidence of their effectiveness in reducing infections and death rates, he said.

In a town in Brazil with a population of 46,000, about 90 percent of residents age 18 or above were inoculated with doses donated by Sinovac Biotech. Compared with neighboring towns that had enforced the same disease control measures, but had not inoculated a large proportion of the population, the town reported a 95 percent reduction in the mortality rate and an 80 percent drop in symptomatic infections.

"The case in Brazil has showcased strong protection from Sinovac vaccines and has injected confidence into the global fight against the virus," Zeng said.

With growing confidence in the vaccines' role in curbing the spread of the disease, Zeng said it is worthwhile for the WHO to consider adjusting requirements on submitting data on third and late stage clinical trials when reviewing experimental vaccines for emergency use.

"Many enterprises around the world are confronted with difficulties in launching phase three clinical trials after completing all preclinical tests and earlier stages of trials, as well as passing manufacturing facility examinations as requested," he said.

"Since we have accumulated a sufficient amount of data to prove that vaccination is an effective way to prevent COVID-19 infections, it is suggested that the WHO consider waiving third-stage trial results for emergency-use evaluations."

Zeng said the proposal, if implemented, has the potential to sharply increase global vaccine supplies, reduce costs and speed up the global vaccination process.

He added that public health measures, such as wearing masks and social distancing, should be deployed together with mass inoculations.

A herd of wild elephants strolls through a village in Yuxi, Yunnan province, on Wednesday. MENG ZHUBIN/FOR CHINA DAILY

Fifteen wild Asian elephants that left their habitat in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in Yunnan province have so far not caused any trouble in the provincial capital, Kunming, thanks to local authorities' contingency measures.

By Thursday afternoon, the herd had moved to Shuanghe county, Jinning district in Kunming's outskirts, according to the Yunnan Forestry and Grassland Administration, which has established a special work team under the guidance of the provincial government.

Provincial forestry police have followed the elephants' movements round the clock using drones and cameras. Experts from both the national and provincial forestry departments are advising on measures to control the elephants.

Police and firefighters in Kunming are working to prevent the elephants from coming into contact with residents. Trucks and digging equipment have been put in place at the entrances of villages to try to stop the pachyderms' entry.

A woman surnamed Li who is from Ganhe village, Shuanghe, where the elephants lingered for several hours on Thursday, told local media that they had received alerts from the village committee. "All my family members moved to the second floor of our house on Wednesday. We were very nervous last night, but luckily no one was hurt," she said.

Forest police in neighboring Yuxi, where the herd was on Wednesday, said the city is still on high alert for the possible return of the elephants.

Although it's not known when the herd left the Xishuangbanna reserve, experts believe they may have started roaming last year and are now approximately 500 kilometers from their home habitat.

The Asian elephant, which is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, enjoys Class-A protection status in China, the same level afforded the giant panda.

Yunnan is the sole habitat of wild Asian elephants in China and has 300 of the animals.

However, more than two-thirds of the population live outside nature reserves, said Chen Mingyong, a life sciences professor at Yunnan University who has been studying wild elephants for decades.

Although the reason for the herd's march north is not known, experts believe that wild elephants migrate from their natural habitat mainly due to a lack of food.

"Forest coverage has surged in recent decades in south Yunnan and areas of forests used for economic purposes by farmers have also expanded," said Wang Hongxin, head of the Academy for Global Development at Beijing Normal University. "Both have resulted in declines in the supplies of the elephants' favorite foods, such as plume grass. A well-protected forest is not the most favorable habitat for elephants."

Last year, Wang and his team visited Yunnan twice to conduct research into the living conditions of Asian elephants in the wild. Wang said the combination of limited food sources and isolated habitats has driven the elephants from the Xishuangbanna reserve and smaller ones to nearby villages and farms.

Since 2008, the reserve has built a "canteen" for wild animals, mainly elephants, providing them with bamboo, corn, plantain and sugar cane. A year later, another feeding center was built in Pu'er, a city north of Xishuangbanna, which is also an elephant habitat.

"These canteens provide elephants with additional food. But on the other hand, the 'delicious' food, together with corn and other agriculture products on farmland, make the elephants even harder to be sated by 'wild food'," Wang said.

Building a national park for the elephants as soon as possible would help solve the problem, he said. Xishuangbanna reserve is expected to remap the elephants' habitat with an improved classification system, which will limit human activities in the core protected area.

A scientific plan should also be implemented at the park to diversify wild plants species, while alert systems should be set up in major habitats and shared on an open platform to monitor the elephants' movements.

The rights and responsibilities on managing elephant protection should also be clearly stated, Wang said. "Although the wild elephants only live in Yunnan, it is a State-protected animal and should gain more financial support from the central government," he said.

Another herd of 17 wild Asian elephants in Yunnan recently broke into the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, a research institution under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one of the biggest botanic gardens in the country. The garden is renowned for its diversity of species, with 13,000 varieties of wild plants, of which 1,350 are endangered.

On Thursday, the herd moved to the eastern part of the garden where seeds are bred and developed and plants with important research value are kept.

The herd tried to cross the river surrounding the garden, but failed due to quickly rising water levels caused by heavy rain. "Some of the plants have been destroyed," garden management said in an announcement released on Thursday. "We've asked for help from elephant experts on how to guide the herd from the garden."

Museums are not only a feast for our eyes, hearts and minds. Today, they also satisfy our appetites.

博物馆用纷繁的展陈丰富着我们的视觉体验，滋养着我们的心灵。现如今，博物馆还跨界美食区，试图挑动我们的味蕾。

As the days become hotter, museums across the country are competing for a new title -- the museum that offers the most delicious ice cream flavors.

这不，夏日炎炎，博物馆们也纷纷推出了自家的文创雪糕，立志做雪糕界最有历史和文化的，文博界最懂雪糕的。

▲ 这只小怪兽来北京展出过哟

Several museums have launched various flavors of ice cream in the shape of architectures and artifacts at their respective museums.

这些不同口味的雪糕多以博物馆的建筑和馆藏为模板。

▲ 抹茶和巧克力yyds~

Photos of the ice creams went viral to give an extra boost to the unofficial competition.

文创雪糕一经推出就频上热搜，网友们的打卡、晒照又让这场甜(fa)食(pang)battle越发战况激烈。

▲ OMG，吃它吃它吃它！

Relic-inspired ice creams aren't a new novelty. National Museum of China's stores sold two flavors last year: One modeled on the Western Han (206 BC-AD 24) bronze rhinoceros zun vessel, one of the most important artifacts at NMC, another depicts a rapping pottery performer from the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220), a popular object at NMC.

自制文创雪糕对一些博物馆来说并不是新鲜事了，比如国博在去年就推出过两款雪糕，一款以国博镇馆之宝之一的、西汉犀牛尊为模板，另一款以广受大家欢迎、多次出镜的东汉说唱俑为模板。

This year the ambassador and ice-cream icon for NMC's frozen dessert is an exquisite eagle statue that's around 6,000 years old.

今年为国博雪糕“带盐”的是这只肉乎乎滴鹰酱。鹰酱虽然看着萌萌哒，实际有六千多岁了呢。

This tripod pottery ding vessel stands as an example of the creativity of people from the neolithic Yangshao Culture.

鹰酱的大名是鹰形陶鼎，它融合实用性和动物的美感为一体，体现了新石器时代仰韶文化的创造力。

The vessel shows a masculine eagle, and is supported by its two powerful feet and the tip of its tail.

这是一只健硕的雄鹰，它有力的双脚和垂地的尾部构成了这件陶鼎的三个支点。

▲ “你瞅啥？”

It was found in a woman's tomb in Huaxian county, Shaanxi province, together with several jade pieces, stone axes and other types of vessels, which are thought to have been used in ceremonies.

鹰酱来自陕西华县的一座成年女性的墓葬，一同出土的还有一些玉器、石斧和其他器皿，推测应该是祭祀仪式上所使用的。

The eagle vessel, for its big round eyes, pointed beak and chubby body, is one of the most recognizable artifacts at the permanent Ancient China exhibition.

鹰酱常驻于“古代中国”展区，它大大的眼睛，尖尖的喙和圆乎乎的身子，萌萌惹人爱，是妥妥的C位。

It is the only one of its kind among the potteries belonging to the Yangshao Culture. The reasons why it was made to resemble an eagle and what it was used for remain a mystery to this day.

鹰形鼎是仰韶文化陶器中唯一一件以鸟类为造型的。远古的先民们为什么把它做成鸟的样子、具体用途又是什么，因为缺少类似的器物做参考，至今仍没有明确的答案。

▲ 大肚吃八方

While you take a bite of this ice cream, you may find the inspiration to solve this mystery of history.

也许你一边啃着鹰酱牌雪糕，一边就有了揭开这千年历史谜题的灵感呢。

▲ 一起月半吧 (*^ω^*)

Photos courtesy of National Museum, Shaanxi History Museum, Capital Museum and Shenyang Palace Museum

图片致谢国博/陕历博/首博/沈阳故宫博物院

Have a nice weekend~

记者：林琦