Month: July 2022

More Chinese Companies Accused of Customs Fraud in India, OPPO May Face Severe Penalties

Following in the footsteps of Xiaomi and Vivo, another Chinese tech company has been accused of violating laws in India. The Chinese smartphone giant Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd. (OPPO) is accused of evading more than $571 million in import duties. On July 13, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), India’s anti-smuggling agency, issued…


EXCLUSIVE: CDC Says It Performed Vaccine Safety Data Mining After Saying It Didn’t

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is saying it has performed vaccine safety data mining and analyses since early 2021, a reversal from a recent letter. The CDC said in an operating procedures document dated Jan. 29, 2021, that it “will perform” a type of data mining analysis of vaccine safety data…


Samsung Seeks Tax Breaks on $192 Billion Potential Chip Plants in Texas

SEOUL—Samsung Electronics has begun applications for tax breaks for 11 potential chip plants in Texas adding up to investments of about $192 billion, according to documents filed with Texas authorities. Samsung’s applications were filed ahead of the December expiry the state’s Chapter 313 property tax incentives program. The South Korean tech giant already has a…


Psychologists Have Traditionally Focused on the Past but What If That’s All Wrong?

For more than a century, psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Rogers focused people’s attention on the past. And so when Mary struggles to maintain romantic relationships, she blames her past boyfriends for it. When Chris battles with addiction, he digs into his memories from childhood when he first felt humiliated. And when Saoirse doesn’t want to settle…


How to Invest in Postage Stamps

What we now call stamps were invented by Henry Bishop, London’s postmaster general, in 1661. Originally, a handstamp was used to indicate the postage had been paid to send a parcel or letter, coining the term “stamp.” In 1840, Sir Rowland Hill invented the first adhesive stamp, the forerunner of today’s postage stamps. We use…


Jumble Sunday

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Are We Free By Right or Not?

The COVID-19 response has raised questions regarding freedom in Western societies that we thought a few years ago were settled. Is freedom something we are allowed, or granted? Or is it something we are born with, which can therefore only be removed? What is the status, now or in the future, of a child born…


Biden Sick With Highly Contagious COVID-19 Strain, ‘Continues to Improve’

President Joe Biden likely has the highly contagious BA.5 variant of COVID-19, although his symptoms “continue to improve,” White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor wrote in a July 23 memo. “His primary symptoms, though less troublesome, now include sore throat, rhinorrhea, loose cough, and body aches,” O’Connor wrote in the memo, noting that Biden finished…


Biden Sick With Highly Contagious COVID-19 Strain But ‘Continues to Improve’

President Joe Biden likely has the highly contagious BA.5 variant of COVID-19, though his symptoms “continue to improve,” White House physician Kevin O’Connor said in a July 23 memo. “His primary symptoms, though less troublesome, now include sore throat, rhinorrhea, loose cough, and body aches,” O’Connor said in the memo, adding that Biden on Friday…


Thousand-Year-Old Buddhist Treasure Stolen from China, Repatriation Not Far Off

A thousand-year-old statue of a monk from southeastern China, which was stolen in 1995, was found in the Netherlands 20 years later. The process of returning it to China has been lengthy as international coordination is involved. According to the official website of the Datian County government in Sanming city in Fujian Province, on June…