Premier Li Keqiang has called for efforts to promote innovation-driven development as a new round of technological and industrial revolution is to bring profound changes to the world.

China should grasp the opportunity to promote innovation-driven development in an effort to chase or stand at the world’s technological forefront, Li made the remarks Thursday while chairing a symposium on the new round of world technological and industrial revolution.

The Parliamentary email system has been the subject of a cyber attack. Yesterday I was able to get access to my Parliamentary emails and to answer them. Today the system has been closed, so I have no access. I am therefore unable to provide the same day reply service I usually offer, and will answer them as soon as I have access again.
Anyone with an urgent query should notify me through this website and leave me a contact so I can get back to them.

Some in the press and media wish to personalise the negotiation between the UK and the EU into a battle between Mrs May and Mrs Merkel. As always on the UK side there are those who want to portray it as a fight between a weak UK and a powerful Germany. They seem to think Mrs Merkel is in a strong position, whilst they wrongly allege Mrs May is in a weak position.

It starts with EU spin trying to suggest Mrs May is in a weak position owing to the recent election. That is an odd allegation to come from the continent. Mrs May and the Conservatives received 42.4% of the popular vote in June. Mrs Merkel and her party received 41.5% in the last German election. Mrs Merkel’s party currently stands on 38% in the polls, and has not been above that for two years and has often been well below it. Mrs Merkel won just 33% of the seats in the German Parliament with her party, Mrs May won 49% of the seats in the Commons. Mrs May need not face another election for five years. Mrs Merkel has to go to the polls in three months time and looks set to do worse than last time. Mrs May can govern as a single party. Mrs Merkel has to govern in coalition partnership with the SPD, the equivalent of Mrs May having to govern with the support of Labour. I would rather be in Mrs May’s position than Mrs Merkel’s.

The posturing by the EU in response to the UK proposal on reassuring UK and EU citizens resident in each other’s territories shows they are misjudging the strength of their position. It looks as if they think delaying and being difficult could lead to the UK giving up and staying in the EU. That would be a bad misreading of the situation, and of the recent election where voters decisively rejected the Lib Dems who offered just that approach.

If the EU wastes too much of their negotiating time on making silly claims for large sums of money, and on pressing for future freedom of movement as well as accepting past free movement, they will run out of time to secure tariff and barrier free access to our market. French dairy famers, Danish pig farmers, Dutch market gardeners, German car producers and many others who would face tariffs will not be amused if that happens. Maybe Mrs Merkel’s forthcoming encounters with the German electors will make her more realistic. It will certainly remind her of how she lost popularity over her migration policy since she last asked the voters to vote for her.

There are signs that business on the continent wants their leaders to get on with it to ensure smooth trade in 20 months time. It would be good news if the UK media started submitting the other EU governments to the barrage of difficult questions over how their businesses will fare in 2019 that they give us daily at the UK end.

Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin announced on Saturday that he will donate 20 million yuan (US$2.9 million) to help landslide victims rebuild their homes in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

According to Wang, the founder of Dalian Wanda Group, China’s largest real estate developer, he will donate the money through the Sichuan Charity Federation and that the remittance process began on Saturday afternoon.

As of Sunday morning, fifteen people have been confirmed dead in a landslide at Xinmo Village in Maoxian County early Saturday that buried around 120 people from 62 homes.

Rescuers work at the accident site after a landslide occurred in Xinmo Village of Maoxian County, Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, June 24, 2017. The landslide on Saturday morning smashed some 40 homes, where about 100 people are feared to be buried. (Xinhua/He Qinghai)

Fifteen people have been confirmed dead in a landslide in southwest China’s Sichuan Province early Saturday that buried more than 120 people from 62 homes.

Rescuers had retrieved 15 bodies from the debris by 10 p.m. Saturday, the rescue headquarters said.

The search and rescue operation was underway overnight and people have been sent to observe potential secondary disasters.

Rescuers were combing the area with life detectors and sniffer dogs but no new signs of life have been found.

“We won’t give up as long as there is a slim of chance,” said one rescuer.

Xu Zhiwen, executive deputy governor of the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba that the landslide stuck, said the identities of 118 missing will be soon made public on the government’s website.

Xu also cleared up worries that some tourists might be among the buried as the village is in a tourist site.

All 142 tourists that entered the site Friday have been reached, said Xu.

The landslide from a high part of a mountain in Aba prefecture hit Xinmo Village in Maoxian County at about 6 a.m., blocking a 2-km section of river and burying 1,600 meters of road.

The provincial government has launched the highest level of disaster relief response and sent rescue teams to the site.

Currently, more than 3,000 workers with life-detection instruments are engaged in the search for survivors.

The provincial department of land and resources said the landslide was caused by heavy rain. An estimated 18 million cubic meters of earth mass fell some 1,600 meters, engulfing half of Xinmo Village. Geological experts at the site said the chance of survival for the people buried was really slim.

Only three people from one family were rescued five hours after the landslide struck. They were taken to Maoxian County People’s Hospital and none suffered life-threatening injuries. Another three-year-old child of the family remains buried.

Qiao Dashuai, 26-year-old husband of the family, recalled that he and his wife woke up to cries of their one-month-old son at about 5:30 a.m.

“Just after we changed the diaper for the baby, we heard a big bang outside and the light went out,” said Qiao. “We felt that something bad was happening and immediately rushed to the door, but the door was blocked by mud and rocks.”

The husband and wife mainly suffered bruises and their one-month-old son was being treated for pneumonia as he inhaled muddy water.

“I arrived at the site at 7:30 a.m. and found that the whole area was buried by the landslide,” said He Dajun, a worker with Maoxian County Power Company.

Another 110 people living nearby in another part of the village were being evacuated to a township school on Saturday night, fearing there might be rain and secondary disasters.

The village was relocated to the current site in 1976 as their previous location was prone to landslides and since then, villagers have been living in two groups in nearby locations.