Category: Uncategorized

The number plummeted for a fifth consecutive year

Mainland China’s birth rate dropped to a record low in 2021, continuing a downward trend that prompted Beijing to allow couples to have up to three children, amending its long-running one-child policy.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics recorded 10.62 million births, or only 7.5 births per 1,000 people, last year – the lowest birth rate since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. 

The number of births barely outnumbered deaths, with the natural growth only 0.034%, a low not reached since 1960 when the great famine killed tens of millions of people and sparked a major population decline.

Births in 2021 dropped 11.6% from 12.02 million in 2020, though this was less dramatic than the previous decline of 18% from 14.65 million in 2019. The birth rate has now declined for five straight years, with the last significant growth recorded in 2016.

Demographic experts are concerned that the population is plummeting faster than expected and putting further pressure on officials to adopt new policies to improve the situation.

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Huang Wenzheng, a demography expert for the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization, said that birth numbers are likely to fluctuate in the 10 million range before declining further in the absence of more policy changes.

“Career advancements could be tied to whether you have children or not; economic incentives; or even direct cash payouts by society to meet the cost of raising a family,” Huang suggested to Reuters.

In the wake of the sinking birth rate and rapidly aging population, the Chinese government has been ramping up efforts to encourage people to have more children.

In addition to allowing couples to have up to three children in 2021, officials have also adopted policies aimed at reducing financial pressure on families and creating more beneficial conditions for raising children.

Last year, the government banned for-profit after-school tuition, while certain provinces amended their family planning policies and extended maternity leave up to 350 days. 

China abolished its decades-long one-child policy in 2015 and allowed families to have up to two children in an effort to stem the decline and shrinking workforce.

However, after a brief increase in 2016 the birth rate continued to decline and the government said it would allow families to have three children last year. 

Wendy Sherman has helped Democratic presidents negotiate now-failed deals with North Korea and Iran

Veteran US diplomat Wendy Sherman is the woman conveying Washington’s messages about NATO expansion in Europe to Moscow – but the ‘hard-nosed’ negotiator was previously involved in sealing security deals with Pyongyang and Tehran.

Neither the Clinton-era Framework Agreement with North Korea nor the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) acted as the enduring restraints on nuclear proliferation that they were meant to be.

Who is Wendy Sherman?

The 72-year-old diplomat heading the US delegation in recent talks between Russia and NATO is a veteran of the Democratic Party. She has held senior public offices and executive positions in political organizations associated with the party, including pro-choice PAC EMILY’S List. Sherman is currently the second-highest ranking diplomat at the Department of State, serving as deputy secretary under Antony Blinken.

Sherman and North Korea

In the Clinton administration, Sherman liaised with Congress on behalf of Foggy Bottom. After a short stint at the helm of finance giant Fannie Mae, she returned as an ambassador-ranked counselor to then-Secretary Madeleine Albright, a woman whom she credits for teaching her how to negotiate on behalf of the US as a woman.
During that period, Sherman was involved in negotiating the 1994 agreement with North Korea, which for a time partially froze its nuclear weapons program.

Downfall of North Korea deal

Under the so-called Framework Agreement, Pyongyang agreed to suspend production of weapons-grade plutonium from spent nuclear fuel rods in exchange for a number of concessions, like regular fuel aid and construction of light water reactors to meet its energy needs. The deal was only a partial success at best and ultimately failed, as neither party appeared committed to keeping its end of the bargain.
The Bush administration finally ended it in 2002, an act that Republican ultra-hawk John Bolton apparently took great pride in. Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test four years later. North Korean diplomats jokingly dubbed Bolton the father of their nation’s nuclear weapons program.

Sherman and Iran

In the Obama administration, Sherman was appointed an under secretary by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and led the US delegation negotiating a nuclear agreement with Tehran. The multilateral deal known under the abbreviation JCPOA offered Iran a relief of international economic sanctions and business rapprochement with the West in exchange for accepting restrictions on its nuclear industry. Touted as the best and most realistic way to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, the deal was considered by many as the crowning achievement of Obama’s foreign policy.

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However, the deal was denounced by Israel and many Republicans, with President Donald Trump later branding it the “worst deal ever made” before ultimately pulling Washington out of the agreement abruptly in 2018.
A year later, Tehran began gradually stepping back from its own commitments from the deal, branding the US as untrustworthy. The Biden administration has stated its intention to salvage the agreement, but after months of negotiations and now with a more hardline government in power in Tehran, it is unclear whether this can be achieved.

‘Doesn’t show weakness’

According to sources friendly to Sherman, she has been masterfully commanding the attention of the Russian delegation during this month’s talks on NATO expansion. Evelyn Farkas, who worked alongside her in various capacities, described her to The Hill as “tough,” “hard-nosed” and somebody who “won’t let the Russians get away with any baloney.”
“Certainly, the Russians, the North Koreans and the Iranians wouldn’t expect this from a woman, but she can go head-to-head with them and doesn’t show weakness and doesn’t show fear and doesn’t try to mollify her negotiating counterpart,” she said.

Paul Page, who served as a Royal protection officer for Prince Andrew, claims the British socialite regularly visited the Duke of York

In an ITV documentary scheduled to air Tuesday, Paul Page, who protected the Duke of York from 1998 to 2004, alleges that Maxwell was so close to Prince Andrew that she was allowed to enter and exit Buckingham Palace at will.

While working in the Royalty and Specialist Protection Command unit, former officer Page stated that a colleague of his “remembered her coming in four times in one day,” as she regularly visited the prince when he was living at the palace.

Maxwell visited Buckingham Palace in 2001, according to Page, the same year that Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre alleges Prince Andrew had sex with her at the British socialite’s London townhouse.

“I first met Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001. From the way she was allowed to enter and exit the palace at will, we realised and suspected that she may have had an intimate relationship with Prince Andrew,” Page told the documentary.

Page’s claim was supported by Euan Rellie, a banker who befriended Maxwell during their university years. Speaking to ITV, Rellie reportedly claimed that he “got the sense that Prince Andrew and Ghislaine had probably been girlfriend and boyfriend in the past” due to their “easy warmth around each other.”

In 2009, Paul Page was found guilty of a £3 million property investment scam.

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A lot of answers needed on Epstein-Maxwell saga – and not just from Prince Andrew

His comments will be broadcast after a US court ruled that the civil sex abuse lawsuit against Prince Andrew can proceed, leaving the senior royal potentially facing either having to settle or testify.

In the wake of the court’s ruling, Buckingham Palace announced that the Duke of York has returned his military affiliations and Royal patronages to the Queen and will cease using the title ‘His Royal Highness’.

Prince Andrew declined to comment on the allegations made in the documentary, according to ITV.

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Senior Taliban leader Zabihullah Mujahid says the group is looking to open classrooms for all girls by March 21.

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111 Telephone call to an out of hours Dr in Chichester, UK (20 hours ago) – When diagnosing this woman with an adverse reaction over the telephone, The Dr advises against taking any more and explains that she believes they are about to get pulled – due to new data on safety pic.twitter.com/HVG1dLbEws

— Rare  (@theysayitsrare) January 17, 2022