Days ago, a news from McDonald’s and Starbucks caught people’s attention.

McDonald’s will use the “strawless cup lid” in 10 pilot restaurants in Beijing and does not actively provide straws. Starbucks also announced in July that it will ban plastic straws in all stores worldwide by 2020, and will announce new cap designs without straws.

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People worry that the two’s no-straw policies will cause inconvenience, but do you know that the straw-free moves may protect your health because researches show that people ingest microplastics every day! Really horrible, right?

What is microplastic?

Microplastic, refers to the plastic particles and particle size of a small textile fiber, now in academia there is no general consensus about the size of the microplastic, that is generally considered to be the particle size of less than 5 mm plastic particles. 

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Microplastics is called a gentle killer because it can be broken down into small particles and debris, mixed with water and soil animals and plants in the body.

Bottled water contains microplastic

Researchers from the State University of New York (SUNY) did tests on 259 samples (brands from 9 different countries) of bottled water and found out that only 17 samples have no microplastics in plastic bottles.

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Researches said that the largest micro plastic has a diameter of hair, it means you can even see it with naked eyes.

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“We have tested all sample brands and we here are not going to give a biased test result to a certain brand, but we have found microplastic in every sample. The number showed in the research is not a disastrous one, but we should be warned and stay alert to the bottled water we drink every day,“  says the research leader. 

Microplastic in salt

A study published Tuesday (Oct. 16) in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found microplastics in more than 90% of the packaged food-grade salt—also known as table salt—for sale in stores.

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The team, from South Korea’s Incheon National University and Greenpeace East Asia, sampled 39 brands of salt harvested in 21 countries and regions. Only three of the samples had no detectable microplastics.

The 39 samples came from Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chinese mainland and Taiwan, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Senegal, Thailand, the UK, the US, and Vietnam.

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“The results indicate that not only is Asia a hot spot of global plastic pollution, as previous studies have suggested, but also that sea salt can be a good indicator of the magnitude of microplastic pollution in the surrounding marine environment,” the researchers write.

It is well known that Chinese children are increasingly competing to get into elite schools, and even elementary school students have to submit their resumes. Recently, an extensive resume by a 5-year-old kindergarten kid in Shanghai becomes the hottest topic on Chinese social media. 

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What’s on This 15-page Resume?

Coming in the form of a 15-page PDF document, the resume gives an incredibly comprehensive overview of the child’s awe-inspiring history.

The kid describes himself as “confident,” “considerate,” and “strong.” To give examples, he relates that: 

• He never cried over vaccine shots and that one and a half years after his birth. 

• He managed to stand up without help from others if he fell to the ground. 

 

“Everyone said praises about how I was so brave,” the kid says.

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He also explains how he excelled in four things — 

• Literature and history, 

• Science and math, 

• Arts, 

• Sports. 

 

“I write three English essays per week to express my feelings,” he says, adding that he has a variety of hobbies outside school, such as piano, hip-hop dance, soccer, and Go.

The kid’s daily schedule 

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A map that indicates every place he has traveled to. 

 

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He Read over 500 English Books 

in the Past Year

 

One admirable quality of the kid’s that really stands out is that the boy is a big reader. He says that he read over 500 English books in the past year. 

 

Reading List 

 

 

At the end of the resume, there are five pages listing all the English books he has read so far. On a related note, it’s worth mentioning that a recent study suggests that nearly two-thirds of all Chinese over the age of 18 read no books in their leisure time in 2017.

Social Media Users Were Unimpressed

“It seems that I can’t achieve more than this child in my lifetime,” read one top-rated comment on Weibo, while others wrote that the resume had put them off ever having children.

“Children get the same happiness out of playing with mud as they do with building blocks, and the same goes for setting fires in a rubbish dump and travelling abroad. It’s up to the parents to guide their child to do meaningful things,” read another comment with nearly 10,000 likes. 

 

“Don’t use the child’s happiness as a pretext – you think that it’s the differences between children but it’s actually you.”

CV Phenomenon in 

Chinese Education System

 

As the competition for elite kindergartens in first-tier Chinese cities heats up, the CV phenomenon is becoming increasingly common among so-called tiger parents, who feel increasing pressure to make sure their children achieve as much as possible at an early age.

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There are even templates online for creating resumes for children – Chinese graphics-sharing site 51miz.com, for example, offers hundreds of them.

The resume is undoubtedly remarkable. But let’s be real. The amount of effort and skill needed to put it together is far beyond the capability of a five-year-old. So it’s safe to say that the kid’s parents are the ones who deserve all the credit. Or as some internet users speculated, since the parents are executives with busy schedules, the resume was possibly written by their subordinates.

Whatever the case may be, this viral resume offers an intriguing glimpse into China’s hyper-competitive education system, where getting into an elite primary school has become more cutthroat than ever.

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc has apologized for printing what many describe as a sexist slogan on the company’s shipping boxes of cosmetics, after the slogan sparked widespread outrage.

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Photos of the boxes appeared on Tuesday morning on Weibo with a marketing slogan, which roughly translates to “Without applying lipstick, what’s the difference between you and a man?” Widespread condemnation and a consumer backlash quickly followed.

“This is truly naked sexism,” an online user commented on Tuesday. 

 

“Strangely, I have been kicked out of the women’s group just because I never applied lipstick,” another one wrote.

 

“A cosmetics website that wants to gain attention by making fun of women will not succeed,” wrote one Weibo user. “It doesn’t want any female clients then.”

JD.com Recognized that 

It Was A Mistake

 

While stopping short of calling it a sexist slogan, JD.com recognized that it was a mistake and that the company was going to take remedial measures to “minimize the negative impact.”

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The slogan had been printed on 300,000 boxes, with 1,000 of them already being shipped out, according to the JD.com statement.

It said it would immediately destroy the rest of the boxes and send a package of cosmetics to each of the customers who already received the boxes.

“JD.com’s cosmetics business is at a developmental stage and the inappropriate slogan was led by an incorrect attitude and a blind pursuit of marketing gimmicks,” the statement said, adding it would punish those responsible for the slogan and improve procedures.

Sexism Cases in China Recently

 

Women face deeply ingrained sexism in China, and that can surface in the most unlikely of places. 

 

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A bus accident in Chongqing, southwest China, on Sunday sparked sexist comments on social media demanding women be barred from driving after reports claimed that a woman “wearing heels” was driving her car in the wrong direction and forced the bus to veer off a bridge into the Yangtze River. Chinese media reported nine people died in the accident.

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The term “leftover women”, which has gained currency in China in recent years and is used to describe women who have reached a certain age and are still single, is yet another example of casual sexism in everyday life.

 

1

JUST HAPPENED! Bangladesh’s largest port has been paralyzed

Chattogram, the country’s largest container port, has been crippled by a nationwide transport strike in Bangladesh!!

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This is not the first time China’s ministry of commerce has warned about delays at the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh.

The daily star of Bangladesh reported on October 30 that freight traffic at the port of Chittagong has been halted due to a nationwide transport strike, exacerbating congestion in the port.

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Reports filed between the start of the strike on Sunday morning and 5:30 PM yesterday showed that no containers had been transported from the port to the inland container yard, and sources said two vessels, TR Aramis and A Idefix, had cancelled their planned departure from the port because they had not received the export containers.

All activities in and out of the port have been stopped! Shippers and forwarders should make preparations in advance for the shipment to Chittagong port, so as not to incur extra costs for delayed shipment.

2

Another ship and more than 10 crew members were hijacked

At 13:00 UTC on 29 October, two cargo ships were reportedly attacked by pirates in West African waters about 101 nautical miles west of Pointe Noire, Congo.

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One of the ships escaped and the other was unfortunately hijacked by pirates.

The latest news on 31 said the two vessels were liquefied petroleum gas carrier (IPG) BW FRIGG and fuel addition vessel ANUKET AMBER.

More than a dozen crew members from Latvia, the Philippines, Russia and Ukraine were on the boat. As of this morning, there is still no new information, no AIS signal.

3

New! MAERSK Launches Instant Booking Confirmation Service

With the launch of the instant booking confirmation service, Maersk customers can now get confirmation in seconds, compared with up to two hours previously.

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Maersk, the first company in the shipping industry to achieve instant booking confirmation service, is committed to eliminating previous delays because they create uncertainty and extra work in managing the supply chain for customers.

“From now on, it’s as easy for our customers to book a cabin at Maersk as it is to book a plane ticket,“ said Vincent Clerc, the chief commercial officer of Maersk.

Instant booking confirmation allows customers to interact with Maersk more quickly, easily and simply. This is a milestone in the development of the whole industry and a concrete example of our company’s strategy to enhance customer experience through seamless digital products.”

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Through this new solution, customers can have visibility into the voyage selection, be able to see the ship’s remaining shipping space and can select the relevant value-added services. More importantly, the customer’s booking information will not be cancelled due to the cabin status after confirmation.

4

Four World’s Largest grain Traders to Digitize Shipping

Four of the world’s largest grain traders are looking to digitize shipping deals

Archer Daniels Midland(ADM), Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus recently said they are looking at technological innovations using blockchain and artificial intelligence to standardize and digitize grain transport trade for the benefit of the industry as a whole.

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The four companies will initially focus on technology to automate the grain and oil trade. In the long term, they want to replace traditional contract, invoice and payment processes with more modern digitization, thus improving reliability, efficiency and transparency.

Juan Luciano, the ADM chairman and CEO, said: ” by co-designing and implementing digital transformation, we bring hundreds of years of collective knowledge and experience to streamline processes and reduce errors, and that will benefit the whole industry”

5

Shipping Market Recovery, But Still Has A Long to Go

The global trade barometer, released by DHL, a global logistics giant, is seen as a “bellwether” for global trade growth, showing sustained but weak growth in global trade.

In fact, after a bottoming out in 2016 and a modest recovery in 2017, the shipping market has remained resilient this year, but in the view of the industry, it is still a long way from resuming growth.

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Since the emergence of international trade in goods, maritime transport has been playing a major role in international trade, with advantages such as large volume, low cost and wide routes. Only speed and risk are the limiting factors.

With the development of economic globalization, countries in the world have closer economic ties, international trade continues to be diversified, and the demand for shipping is increasing.