
By Gwynne Dyer – It seemed innocent enough at the start: just a surge in the number of boys coming to school with notes from doctors saying they were excused from playing contact sports. But pretty soon high schools all over China were having trouble finding enough willing young men to make up a football team.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday that US will keep tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by the Trump administration in place for now, but will evaluate how to proceed after a thorough review.

Good news for Chile. The price of the country's main export, copper, reached this week its highest international value in eight years and nine months, at US$ 3,81 the pound, according to the latest reports from the London Metal Exchange.

World Health Organization head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that all hypotheses on the origins of Covid-19 remain open and require further analysis and study.

The Chinese cable channel CGTN no longer has permission to be broadcast in Germany, a press spokesperson for the state media authority of North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed on Friday.

In recent years, scientists had been alarmed by a sudden unexplained rise in ozone attacking chemicals in the atmosphere. Higher levels of trichlorofluoromethane, also known as CFC-11, were showing up in air samples — despite being officially banned worldwide since 2010.

Chinese regulators have accused the UK's global broadcaster of breaking China's media code. The move follows the decision by UK authorities to revoke the license for China's global state TV network CGTN.

Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) on mission in China announced Tuesday that they found no conclusive evidence of the origin of a pandemic that continues spreading around the world.

A delegation of scientists probing the origins of the coronavirus are wrapping up a lengthy investigation in China and have found important clues about the famous Wuhan seafood market's role in the pandemic outbreak. Some initial findings are expected to be released this week.

Guyana has retreated from an agreement with Taiwan for the island to establish an investment office in the former British colony in South America. Beijing described Guyana's decision as a mistake that must be corrected, and it was.