Category: Sports

China is using the Winter Olympic Games to drive its efforts to improve the environment, but smog-prone capital Beijing is still preparing for the worst as the opening ceremony looms.

Beijing has improved its air quality since China won its bid to host the Games, but the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has said winter smog risks remained “severe.”

Ministry spokesman Liu Youbin told reporters last week that contingency plans were in place.

“When the time comes, Beijing and Hebei will be guided to adopt reasonable environmental protection measures in accordance with the law,” he said.

Rumors that polluting heavy industries in the area would be shuttered from Jan. 1 were “not true,” however, he said.

Critics warned in 2015 — when China won its bid — that the Winter Olympics could be overshadowed by hazardous smog in a region dominated by heavy industry. Chinese President Xi Jinping subsequently vowed to run a “green” Games, and Hebei promised to “transform and upgrade” its industrial economy.

Since then, China has planted thousands of hectares of trees in Beijing and surrounding Hebei province, built sprawling wind and solar farms, and relocated hundreds of enterprises.

In Zhangjiakou city, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Beijing and host to skiing and snowboarding events, 26-year-old amateur skier Deng Zhongping said he has already felt the difference.

“When I came to Beijing a few years back, I would suffer with rhinitis because of pollution, but the air quality in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei has improved a lot,” he said.

“I think the air quality at Zhangjiakou ski resort is even better than some foreign ski resorts.”

In 2016, average concentrations of PM2.5 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region stood at 71 micrograms per cubic meter and soared to more than 500 micrograms over winter. That compares to an average 40 micrograms from January to September this year.

The reading in Beijing was 33 micrograms in the first three quarters, meeting China’s 35-microgram standard, although exceeding the recommended World Health Organization level of 5 micrograms and likely to rise much higher over winter.

“China will win many medals at the Winter Olympics, but the smog … could plunge the Games into difficulties,” the Washington-based International Fund for China’s Environment said earlier this year.

Officials said during a government-organized tour this week that all 26 Olympic venues in Beijing and Hebei province would be 100% powered by renewable energy. More than 700 hydrogen-fueled vehicles will also be deployed, despite the government falling short of a hydrogen production target.

Preparations have included a tree-planting program that increased forest coverage in Zhangjiakou to 70%-80%, up from 56% previously.

China has also said it would make the Games “carbon neutral” for the first time. Environmental group Greenpeace, though, said without more data it would be hard to evaluate whether the goal was actually met.

Water scarcity is another concern, especially when it comes to creating artificial snow and ice.

Organizers said the Games would not put additional pressure on local water supplies and rely instead on cisterns that collected mountain runoff and rainfall during the summer — in line with China’s wider efforts to create a “circular” economy in which resources are fully utilized and recycled.

“We are all self-sufficient and ecologically circular,” said Wang Jingxian, a member of the 2022 Games planning committee.

Source: Voice of America

Former Empire actor Jussie Smollett was convicted Thursday on charges he staged an anti-gay, racist attack on himself nearly three years ago and then lied to Chicago police about it.

In the courtroom as the verdict was read, Smollett stood and faced the jury, showing no visible reaction.

The jury found the 39-year-old guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct — for each separate time he was charged with lying to police in the days immediately after the alleged attack. He was acquitted on a sixth count, of lying to a detective in mid-February, weeks after Smollett said he was attacked.

Outside court, special prosecutor Dan Webb called the verdict “a resounding message by the jury that Mr. Smollett did exactly what we said he did.”

Judge James Linn set a post-trial hearing for Jan. 27 and said he would schedule Smollett’s sentencing at a later date. Disorderly conduct is a felony that carries a prison sentence of up to three years, but experts have said if convicted, Smollett would likely be placed on probation and ordered to perform community service.

The damage to his personal and professional life may be more severe. Smollett lost his role on the TV program Empire after prosecutors said the alleged attack was a hoax, and he told jurors earlier this week that “I’ve lost my livelihood.”

The jury deliberated for just more than nine hours Wednesday and Thursday after a roughly one-week trial in which two brothers testified that Smollett recruited them to fake the attack near his home in downtown Chicago in January 2019. They said Smollett orchestrated the hoax, telling them to put a noose around his neck and rough him up in view of a surveillance camera, and that he said he wanted video of the hoax made public via social media.

Smollett testified that he was the victim of a real hate crime, telling jurors, “There was no hoax.” He called the brothers liars and said the $3,500 check he wrote them was for meal and workout plans. His attorneys argued that the brothers attacked the actor — who is gay and Black — because they are homophobic and didn’t like “who he was.” They also alleged the brothers made up the story about the attack being staged to get money from Smollett, and that they said they wouldn’t testify against him if Smollett paid them each $1 million.

In closing arguments Wednesday, Webb told jurors there was “overwhelming evidence” that Smollett staged the attack, then lied to police about it for publicity. He said Smollett caused Chicago police to spend enormous resources investigating what they believed was a hate crime.

“Besides being against the law, it is just plain wrong to outright denigrate something as serious as a real hate crime and then make sure it involved words and symbols that have such historical significance in our country,” Webb said.

Defense attorney Nenye Uche called the brothers “sophisticated liars” who may have been motivated to attack Smollett because of homophobia or because they wanted to be hired to work as his security.

Source: Voice of America

PARIS— France will not boycott the Beijing Olympics, French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Thursday.

“As for a diplomatic boycott … France will not do it … Sports is a world in itself, which must be protected from political interference, otherwise … we can end up by killing the competition,” Blanquer said on BFM TV.

He said violations of human rights in China must be condemned, but added that Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu would attend the Beijing Olympics. Paris is due to host the summer Games in 2024.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

JAKARTA– The Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI), has withdrawn its participation from the BWF Championship 2021, for fear of the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, an official said yesterday.

The badminton tournament is scheduled to take place in Huelva, Spain, from Dec12-19.

PBSI’s Executive Chairman, Alex Tirta, said in a press release that, the decision not to send any players to the event was directly made by PBSI’s General Chairman, Agung Firman Sampurna, after a long discussion with all coaches and PBSI’s Development and Achievement Head, Rionny Mainaky.

“The main reason of the withdrawal is because the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant is still uncertain, while the safety and health of our players should come first,” Tirta said.

Previously, PBSI planned to send 13 top-ranked badminton players, including Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, Jonatan Christie, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, to the BWF Championship 2021.

“We do not want to take any risk. We have also discussed this decision with all players and they have agreed not to participate,” he added.

Alex also said that the decision was in line with the government’s instruction, to restrict international travel as an effort to prevent the spread of the virus.

As of Tuesday, Indonesia confirmed 261 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 4,258,076, according to data from the country’s Health Ministry.

The death toll from the virus rose by 17 to 143,893, while 420 more people recovered during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 4,108,717.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

LONDON— Britain will in due course consider whether or not to impose a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said on Tuesday.

U.S. government officials will boycott the Olympics in Beijing because of China’s human rights “atrocities”, the White House said on Monday. Beijing says Washington is plotting to disrupt the Games.

“I was asked whether I will go, I will not go and we’ll consider that (the level of wider representation) in due course,” Raab said.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK