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BEIJING — China has dismissed White House criticism of its “Orwellian” demand that foreign airlines not refer to self-ruled Taiwan as a country, saying companies operating in China must respect its sovereignty.

“Whatever the U.S. says will never change the objective fact that there is only one China in the world and the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan regions are an inalienable part of China’s territory,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a statement Sunday posted online.

“Foreign enterprises operating in China should respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, abide by China’s law and respect the national sentiment of the Chinese people,” Geng said.

Unlike self-ruled Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are Chinese territories operating with some degree of autonomy.

Taiwan’s independence-leaning president, Tsai Ing-wen, weighed in with a tweet, saying, “We call on all businesses to resist #China’s efforts to mischaracterize #Taiwan.”

The government of Chinese President Xi Jinping has been increasingly assertive about its claims to Taiwan, which it has threatened to invade to bring under its control. Delta Air Lines, hotel operator Marriott, fashion brand Zara and other companies have apologized to China for referring to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet as countries on websites or promotional material.

The White House on Saturday condemned China’s efforts to control how U.S. airlines refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, saying the push to make them comply with Chinese standards is “Orwellian nonsense.”

China’s Civil Aviation Administration has demanded the change from 36 foreign airlines, including some American carriers, according to the White House.

President Donald Trump will “stand up for Americans resisting efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to impose Chinese political correctness on American companies and citizens,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.

“This is Orwellian nonsense and part of a growing trend by the Chinese Communist Party to impose its political views on American citizens and private companies,” Sanders said. She said the Trump administration is calling on China “to stop threatening and coercing American carriers and citizens.”

Australia called demand ‘inappropriate’

The harshly worded statement came as a high-level trade delegation led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin returned from negotiations in China and as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with a member of the Chinese Communist Party leadership.

In their telephone conversation on Saturday, Pompeo and Politburo member Yang Jiechi “affirmed the importance of a constructive, results-oriented bilateral relationship,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Australian carrier Qantas is among the airlines told to change how they refer to Taiwan, prompting comments from Foreign Minister Julie Bishop that any such pressure is inappropriate.

“The terms that private companies choose to list destinations are a matter for them,” Bishop said in comments provided by her office. “There should be no pressure from governments, whether ours or others, that threatens the ordinary operations of business.”

Bishop said she hoped the current understanding with China could continue and that her department would continue to liaise closely with Qantas.

It wasn’t clear what China had demanded Qantas do, or what the penalties for non-compliance might be.

As China leverages the power of its massive domestic market to bend foreign companies to its political will, its retribution has sometimes targeted those firms’ online presence.

Regulators ordered Marriott to close its China-based website and app for one week after criticizing the company for referring to Tibet and Taiwan as countries in a customer survey.

The moves come as China is stepping up efforts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically. The Dominican Republic switched its official recognition from Taipei to Beijing last week, leaving the island with just 19 diplomatic allies.

In a further move, the ministry spokesman Geng indicated Monday that Beijing is blocking Taiwan’s observer status at the United Nations’ World Health Assembly for a second straight year because of Tsai’s refusal to endorse the “one China principle” acknowledging Taiwan as part of China.

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Tim Hortons plans to renovate most of its Canadian restaurants over the next several years in what some franchisees say is another “ill-conceived” move that will cost individual restaurant owners about $450,000.

The coffee-and-doughnut chain and its restaurant owners will invest $700 million to gussy up almost all its Canadian locations over the next four years, the brand said.

The new restaurants will have lighter, more natural looking exteriors, and feature upgraded, open-concept seating, the Restaurant Brands International-owned chain said in a statement.

“The expectations of our guests are evolving,” said Alex Macedo, the brand’s president, in a statement explaining the design change.

Franchisee association urged members not to agree

The decision has generated more animosity between the chain and an unsanctioned franchisee group, the Great White North Franchisee Association.

Earlier this month, the company held a call with franchisees explaining they wanted each restaurant owner to spend about $450,000 to renovate their stores, the GWNFA’s board of directors said in a letter to its members.

The company said Tuesday that costs will be split with restaurant owners on the same proportions as has historically been the case, but declined to specify what those proportions are.

The board acknowledged many of its members “will have problems getting the finances in place to carry out these renovations” and called on the company to show a full costing of the renovation program.

It advised members, which make up about half of all of Tim Hortons Canadian franchisees, not to sign or agree to anything until more details are disclosed.

“This is just one more in the string of ill-conceived programs brought forward by a group of executives who do not understand foodservice, franchise operations or marketing,” the letter reads.

Restaurant Brands International, “wants to fix a problem it cannot solve, mainly lack of sales, by getting us to spend money while they contribute very little,” the letter said.

Tim Hortons recorded a fifth consecutive quarter of sluggish sales in mid-February, according to RBI’s most recent quarterly earnings report.

The GWNFA formed about a year ago to give a voice to frustrated restaurant owners and fight against what they say is mismanagement of the chain by its corporate parent, RBI, known for drastic cost-cutting measures at the fast-food outlets its acquires.

The two groups have taken their battle to the courts with multiple lawsuits, and most recently entered a showdown over how to handle Ontario’s roughly 20 per cent minimum wage increase. The GWNFA accuses RBI of failing to help franchisees offset the increased labour costs through a 10 per cent price hike on all menu items.

RBI did not agree to the price hikes, but called the actions of some franchisees in the province who clawed back employee benefits, like paid breaks, reckless and completely unacceptable.

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The December solstice happens at the same instant for everyone, everywhere on Earth – and this year the winter solstice occurs today, Friday December 21st 22:23 GMT in the Northern Hemisphere.

The winter solstice happens every year when the Sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees. In other words, it is when the North Pole is tilted farthest away from the Sun, delivering the fewest hours of sunlight of the year.

The Sun is directly overhead of the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere during the December solstice and is closer to the horizon than at any other time in the year, meaning shorter days and longer nights.

The shortest day of the year lasts for 7 hours 49…

You don’t really play a Dragon Quest game for surprises. This is a series built on tradition – and on traditions that you can trace back some 32 years – so it’s always going to be angling towards a more traditional brand of role-playing game. Indeed, Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age – which marks the first mainline release for a new game in Square Enix’s long-running series in the west for almost a decade – makes a virtue of that. There’s no DLC. There’s no online. There are no expansion packs or future amendments planned, and almost certainly no patches that might alter the story or introduce whole new chapters. This is a resolutely, almost aggressively old-fashioned game, one that feels like it’s stepped out fresh from another era entirely.

Dragon Quest 11

  • Developer: Square Enix
  • Publisher: Square Enix
  • Platform: Reviewed on PS4
  • Availability: Out September 4th on PS4

And that’s absolutely fine, especially when it’s a game as sumptuous as this. Just as Dragon Quest 8 dragged the series into the world of 3D, Dragon Quest 11 does a fine job of introducing it wholesale to the HD generation (indeed, so belated has its introduction to that world been that it’s also available in 4K on PlayStation 4 Pro, where it looks absolutely splendid). Those rich blues, greens and yellows that serve as the core part of Dragon Quest’s palette, that feed into that feeling of sun-parched days that stretch out endlessly for summertime adventures, have never looked better.

Neither has its world, with Dragon Quest 11’s kingdom of Erdrea full of exquisite detail. It’s the way the landscapes dip out towards the distance, selling the scale of a game that’ll happily consume 80 hours before you see its end; the way the treetops dance in an invisible breeze, selling Dragon Quest’s stately, blissed-out pace just as well as Koichi Sugiyama’s score. It’s how Akira Toriyama’s artwork has been expertly met by Square Enix’s modellers, selling the comic menace of bodkin bowyers and lump mages with an all-new level of fidelity. It’s about seeing familiar things presented to a level you won’t have seen before.

And, in its tale, it’s also about familiar tropes being wheeled out for the umpteenth time. Echoes of an Elusive Age is about a mute hero, orphaned soon after birth who slowly awakens to his innate powers and his destiny to do no less than save the world. It’s a tale of idiot princes, evil kings, sassy mages and wise-cracking thieves – nothing you won’t have seen before, essentially, but as ever it’s not about the tale so much as the telling, and this is complete with the charm that’s always defined Dragon Quest.

Thank the localisation team in part for that, the ample voice-over work nailing the regional British accents that have long been a part of Dragon Quest’s fabric (and introducing a voice-track that was entirely absent in the Japanese release). That team has done a wonderful job of preserving the character that provides Dragon Quest’s real pull – the quirks of character, or the godawful dad jokes (perfectly embodied in Hotto, say, a spring town that’s brilliantly on the nose in its naming and in which everyone speaks in clipped haiku). It’s a whimsical world throughout, often winningly so.

Even beyond the localisation, Echoes of the Elusive Age feels like it’s been set up as an entry point for the series and an attempt for Dragon Quest to emulate the phenomenal success it sees in Japan over in the west. This is a linear adventure, but it’s one that will go out of its way to lead you along its path (one that’s lined with sub-quests and side missions, of course, as well as the welcome distraction of horse racing and gambling), and one that presents a stripped back, simplified take on traditional RPG combat.

Encounters aren’t random – you’ll doubtless be pleased to learn – but battles are strictly turn-based, the option to move around when facing an enemy having no bearing on the combat itself. You can opt to play from Dragon Quest’s more traditional perspective, and even opt to set up your party to tackle battles themselves should you want to take some of the pain out of grinding. Dragon Quest 11, if you allow it, is a game that can play itself.

It’s a little like Final Fantasy 12, but without much of that game’s depth, and it’s not the only trace you’ll find here. Characters are levelled up via a builder that works like Final Fantasy 12’s Licence Board – or Final Fantasy 10’s Sphere Grid, if you prefer – with ability points unlocked upon levelling up exchanged for new skills. Combine that with the crafting system – fuelled by a cute mini-game in which you hammer away at a forge, but hampered by the fact you’ll need to have unearthed the recipe for any given item first by rifling through bookshelves and drawers – and you’ve got some scope for customisation.

It doesn’t quite have the depth of its predecessors, though, and coming off the back of the exquisite Dragon Quest 9 – the last numbered entry in the west, with the MMO that followed it never making it out of Japan – it can feel a little flat. There’s no job system in place, the only real wrinkle in combat provided by pep attacks that allow you to unleash more power, and in tandem with other party members. Indeed, Dragon Quest 11’s big addition to the series are the mounts that come in various shapes and sizes – skeletons that’ll help you scale a wall in a dungeon to obtain an item, or dragons that’ll help you fly to a new part of the map.

It’s a cute touch, but it pales in comparison to the quirks that previous games have introduced – Heavenly Bride’s recruitable monsters, say, or Chapters of the Chosen’s episodic approach. Dragon Quest might be a series anchored in its traditions, but the pleasure of playing a new one has often been seeing how they’re subverted, or played upon. Echoes of the Elusive Age is defined by its conservatism, and even given the number of twist and turns its plot throws at you it always ends up back on the straight and narrow.

And after the boldness of past entries – whether that’s the not-so-recent Dragon Quest 9, or even the perfectly executed Builders spin-offs – Echoes of the Elusive Age ends up feeling like it’s missing a trick. This is a pointed return to a different age of RPGs, a throwback to a golden era that shines brightly in its splendour. You’ll be hard pushed to find a more lavish production this year, or one that’s so generous, though you can’t help but wonder whether it’s too much of a backwards step.

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A three-year old girl is in critical condition in a New Delhi hospital where she was admitted over the weekend after allegedly being raped by her 40-year old neighbour.

Officials on Monday said the girl’s condition was ‘serious’ following surgery and doctors were unsure whether the infant would survive.

“A three-year old girl has been brutally raped in Bindapur in Delhi. She is bleeding profusely and is very critical,” tweeted the Delhi Commissioner for Women Swati Maliwal.  

Police have arrested the suspect, who is a security guard living in the same building as the victim.  

They said he tried to flee after reportedly raping the child, but was apprehended by her father and beaten up by other neighbours in their tenement after he raised the alarm.

He was later arrested and admitted to the same hospital where the girl is undergoing treatment for injuries sustained in the beating.

Police said they were alerted to the crime on Sunday afternoon after the girl’s parents called their emergency number and said their daughter had not returned home after going out to play with her friends hours earlier.

One police officer said the girl’s father, a daily wage labourer, then went to a neighbour’s room in their tenement and found his daughter bleeding and unconscious on the floor with the security guard standing over her.  

“The guard allegedly tried to escape, but was overpowered by the girl’s father who also began shouting for help” the policemen said. Some neighbours arrived and thrashed the guard before handing him over to the police, he added. 

Police said initial inquires had revealed that the alleged culprit had lured the three-year old with sweets and taken her to his room before allegedly raping her. 

The brutal incident took place on the sixth anniversary of the fatal gang rape of a 23-year old medical student aboard a moving bus in New Delhi on 16 December 2012.  

The victim, who was christened Nibhaya or Fearless, later died in a hospital in Singapore from internal injuries sustained during the gang rape, but the vicious attack triggered outrage and protests across India, resulting in tougher anti-rape legislation.

It also led to tougher laws to curb voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks on women by spurned men and the trafficking of women for prostitution.

However, these measures do not appear to have lessened the numbers of rapes, especially of children, which have increased in recent years.

The number of reported child rapes has more than doubled from 8,541 cases in 2012 to 19,765 in 2016.

Officials numbers say that over 10,000 children were raped in 2015 and that some 50 per cent of rapists were either known to the victim or trusted by them in their capacity as ‘care givers’. 

Raul Castro has made a rare return to the public stage in Cuba, using celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the Revolution to warn that Donald Trump is taking the US down the "path of confrontation" with the Communist island.

Mr Castro, who stepped down as Cuba’s president in April, accused the US president of unjustified aggression, and of scapegoating Cuba for all the problems in the region.  

"Once again, the North American government is taking on the path of confrontation with Cuba," the 87-year-old said.

"Increasingly, high-ranking officials of this administration are trying to blame Cuba for all the region’s ills," he said, adding that they stemmed instead from "ruthless neoliberal policies".

US relations with Cuba have taken a significant turn for the worse after Mr Trump set out to undo the thaw begun by his predecessor, Barack Obama, who in March 2016 became the first US president to visit the island in 80 years.

Mr Trump has reimposed restrictions on tourism for US citizens, and prohibited commerce with Cuban businesses owned by the military and intelligence services.

His national security adviser, John Bolton, said in November that Washington would take a tougher line against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, calling them a “troika of tyranny.”

On Tuesday Mr Castro, clad in military fatigues, told the crowd gathered for a sombre sunset ceremony at the tomb of his brother, Fidel, in Santiago de Cuba, that Cuba had proven throughout six decades of revolution it could not be intimidated by threats.

He insisted, however, that Cuba remained open to a peaceful and respectful coexistence, and said that its battle was an economic one.

"We need first of all to reduce all non-necessary expenses and to save more," he said.

His successor as president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, told the country’s national assembly in December that the country was implementing increased austerity for the fourth year running in 2019, in the face of a cash shortage.

Some of Cuba’s closest allies, Venezuela and Nicaragua, are mired in political crises, which has hampered the country’s economy. Furthermore, Mr Trump’s tightening of the embargo on the island has sparked a shortage of funds.

A decade ago, as president, Mr Castro introduced a series of reforms to liberalise and boost the centrally planned economy, yet it remains heavily state-dominated and bound in red tape.

However, Mr Castro ended on an optimistic note, claiming that the Cuban revolution is on a secure footing thanks to the transition to a competent younger generation of leaders, such as the 58-year old Mr Diaz-Canel.

"It is opportune to express the fact that the Cuban Communist Party decidedly backs the words and actions of Diaz-Canel since he took office," he said.

"The revolution has not aged, it remains young."

 

Israeli jets struck reportedly struck Hizbollah targets outside Damascus on Tuesday, reasserting Israeli airpower in Syria after several months of restraint following the accidental downing of a Russian military plane. 

The air raid was the first since Donald Trump announced he was pulling US troops out of Syria, prompting Israel’s government to say it would continue and expand its fight against Iran and its proxies in the country. 

The Israeli aircraft hit three Hizbollah arms depots south of Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syrian state media said three Syrian regime soldiers were wounded in the attack. 

Israel’s military refused to comment, as is its custom with air strikes in Syria. However, it said that it fired air defence weapons in response to a Syrian anti-aircraft missile that was launched on Tuesday night. No injuries or damage was reported.  

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Iran, Hizbollah, and occasionally the Syrian regime as part of its campaign to prevent Iranian forces and their allies from entrenching in Syria.

However, Israel has been more muted in its attacks since September, when a Russian military aircraft got caught up in an aerial battle over Damascus and was accidentally shot down by Syrian air defence systems. 

All 15 Russian servicemen onboard were killed and Russia blamed Israel for their deaths, accusing Israeli pilots of maneuvering behind the Russian aircraft when they were fired upon by the Syrian regime. 

Israel denied that its pilots took cover behind the Russian plane and sent a senior delegation to Moscow to try to calm Russian anger over the incident. 

Tuesday night’s attack was the largest air raid since the downing of the Russian plane. It was also the first attack since Mr Trump alarmed Israel by announcing that he was pulling US forces out of Syria. 

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, vowed that he would continue to fight against Iran and Hizbollah even after the US withdrew.  

"We will continue to act very aggressively against Iran’s efforts to entrench in Syria,” Mr Netanyahu said last week. "We do not intend to reduce our efforts. We will intensify them, and I know that we do so with the full support and backing of the United States."

Analysts said Tuesday’s large strike was a sign of Israel’s intention to resume regular attacks in Syria. 

“Israel is signaling that from its perspective, it’s business as usual again: Despite Trump’s announcement and despite Russia’s fury about its Ilyushin plane getting shot down last September, Israel sees itself as free to continue attacking targets in Syria, when necessary,” said Amos Harel, a military analyst with the Haaretz newspaper.

Canada Goose Is Expanding To China

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

TORONTO — Canada Goose is flocking to China with a plan to open two stores in Beijing and Hong Kong, e-commerce operations in partnership with Alibaba Group and a regional head office in Shanghai.

The Toronto-based luxury retailer that is known for its high-end parkas says the stores and e-commerce operation will launch this fall.

Canada Goose President and Chief Executive Officer Dani Reiss says the company is expanding in the country because it has seen demand from Chinese consumers for years.

Watch: PETA urges Drake to ditch Canada Goose (story continues below)

The e-commerce operations will be launched in conjunction with Alibaba Group’s online business-to-consumer platform.

It will open bricks-and-mortar locations in Beijing and Hong Kong.

Canada Goose already has flagship stores in Toronto, Calgary, New York, London, Tokyo, Chicago and Boston.

A French TV news camera whirred as youths chatted outside the nondescript, low-rise housing estate of Hohberg in a western suburb of Strasbourg, eastern France.

Opposite stood a particularly rundown block, home to Cherif Chekatt, the terrorist who, shouting the words “Allahu Akhbar”, killed four in a frenzied attack on Tuesday near the city’s famous Christmas Market.

As the lens zoomed in, a furious resident rushed out waving his hands.

“We don’t want you here. This is not a salafist area, you TV stations mix everything up,” he shouted.

Toufik Elkiri, 33, a taxi driver whose colleague had been held hostage by the gunman, said: “He was a thug who smoked too much pot but there was nothing religious…

TORONTO — The Toronto real estate market appears to be stabilizing following months of payback after last year’s frenzied pace of sales and skyrocketing prices, but home sales sunk to their lowest level since 2009 last month.

The Toronto Real Estate Board revealed Thursday that the market saw 7,792 transactions in April, a 32.1 per cent drop from the same period last year when 11,468 homes were sold. Observers believe last April may have been the peak of the market as activity soared ahead of the Ontario government’s package of measures to cool the market that included taxes on vacant properties and a non-resident speculation tax.

Sales were also down 1.6 per cent from March, while home prices fell 0.2 per cent compared to the month before.

The price decline was much larger on a year-over-year basis. The average home fell by 12.4 per cent from last year, to $804,584 in April.

TREB described the month-over-month changes as “minimal” and said sales trends have “flattened out” from the steeper drop-off seen in January and February — an indication that the market could be slowly climbing out of the sluggish state it was in at the start of the year and correcting the overheated conditions that pushed the province and mortgage regulators to introduce cooling measures last year.

Activity dropped off in the opening months of the year after cooling pressure at the federal level, including a financial stress test for buyers implemented Jan. 1 for federally-regulated lenders and increases in both variable and fixed-rate mortgage rates as a result of moves by the Bank of Canada and fluctuations in the bond markets.

“While average selling prices have not climbed back to last year’s record peak, April’s price level represents a substantial gain over the past decade,” said TREB president Tim Syrianos.

Watch: Legalized cannabis could have some surprising effects on the housing market

However, he said the MLS home price index composite benchmark, which strips out the impact of changes in the mix of home sales, was down 5.2 per cent compared with a year ago and the number of new listings in April had plunged to 16,273, a 24.6 per cent decrease from the 21,571 listings seen last year at the same time.

BMO Economics analyst Priscilla Thiagamoorthy declared the market “soggy,” but she said the balance between sales and new listings “looks roughly stable.”

Sales in Canada’s priciest market, Vancouver, also fell significantly last month.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said Wednesday that this was its weakest April for single-family home sales in nearly 30 years. Only 171 detached homes in the city were sold that month and regional sales fell to a 17-year low for April. The board said 2,579 detached properties, townhouses and condominiums sold last month in Metro Vancouver, down 27.4 per cent from April 2017.

In the Greater Toronto Area, York Region took the most significant hit. TREB numbers show the region saw the biggest year-over-year price declines in April.

Those kinds of drops “mask the fact that market conditions should support moderate increases in home prices as we move through the second half of the year, particularly for condominium apartments and higher density low-rise home types,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis.

His comments are in line with the rising prevalence of condo sales, which are increasingly being eyed by prospective buyers, searching for moderately-priced housing options in a market where affordable housing is more of struggle to find than in other Canadian cities.

Tax relief for homebuyers?

TREB pleaded for parties running in the Ontario’s June election to turn their attention to housing, despite the Liberal government’ newly-enacted measures last April that included taxes on vacant properties and a non-resident speculation tax, as well as the introduction by mortgage regulators of a stress test for uninsured borrowers at the start of the year.

“We believe the next step should be tax relief, especially from land transfer taxes, both provincial and the Toronto land transfer tax, and efforts to facilitate an increase in the supply of missing middle housing that fills the gap between single family homes and high rises,” said Syrianos.

“Furthermore, we believe that any attempt to increase the Toronto land transfer tax should require approval from the provincial government, given the significance of Toronto’s economy to the province and the connections between the Toronto real estate market and that of the broader GTA.”

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