Police: Suspect in east China blast among dead

Forensic experts work at the site of the explosion near a kindergarten in Fengxian County in east China’s Jiangsu Province, June 16, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

The suspected perpetrator in an explosion that happened on Thursday afternoon in east China’s Xuzhou City was among the eight people killed in the incident, police said on Friday.

Police identified the suspect as a 22-year-old man surnamed Xu, a local resident of Quanshan District, Xuzhou of Jiangsu Province.

Police said they have collected evidence and completed DNA matching tests to prove Xu’s identity.

Police have found materials for making explosives in Xu’s rental apartment, where there are words “death” and “killing” on the wall.

Police said Xu had been suspended from school after he was diagnosed with “vegetative nervous function disturbances.” He then found work and lived in the rented apartment.

The explosion left eight people dead, including Xu, and 65 others injured. Sources with the hospitals said Friday that among the eight severely injured, four have escaped life-threatening danger.

The blast occurred around 4:48 p.m. Thursday near the gate of a kindergarten in Fengxian County.

Interview with Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies – The Morning Show’s 10th Birthday Celebrations, The Morning Show, Channel Seven

KYLIE GILLIES:

Welcome to the show Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

PRIME MINISTER:

Happy Birthday. Good morning.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Thank you.

LARRY EMDUR:

Good morning sir, boss, your honour – it’s a very casual show this one!

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

Very casual.

LARRY EMDUR:

Want you to know that your mate Christopher Pyne always shakes in his boots when he comes on this show. He knows we ask the hard questions.

PRIME MINISTER:

Right – well hopefully I’m not as timid.

LARRY EMDUR:

Thank for you celebrating with us – first time we’ve had a world leader.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Yes, I do believe that’s the case.

LARRY EMDUR:

We’ve got a couple of things to talk about before we get to the bit where we dance and sing.

PRIME MINISTER:

Very good.

LARRY EMDUR:

The off the record leaks this week – are we expecting a response from Trump? Everybody’s heard this – are you expecting a response?

PRIME MINISTER:

Look, I think everyone has got a sense of humour. The Mid-Winter Ball, it is a great occasion. It is meant to be off the record but we send each other up, we send ourselves up, my speech was in that tradition. Very affectionate, very light hearted.

LARRY EMDUR:

Very Australian.

PRIME MINISTER:

Very Australian – yeah that’s right. Very Australian.

LARRY EMDUR:

I loved it.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Do you mind if we have a listen? We’re going to have a little listen. This is what we’re talking about.

RECORDING: We’re winning in the polls. We are. We are. Not the fake polls. Not the fake polls. They’re the ones we’re not winning in. We are winning in the real polls. You know, the online polls. They are so easy to win. Did you know? I know that. Did you know that? I kind of know that. I know that. They are so easy to win. I have this Russian guy. Believe me. It’s true. It is true.

LARRY EMDUR:

Okay, so the bonus here is, when you finish in politics, you get your own tonight show immediately. That’s the key.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well it’s good to know there is something else to do after politics. Mind you, I think just one audition, I don’t think it demonstrates that I’m up for Saturday Night Live yet, do you?

KYLIE GILLIES:

Well I was going to ask you to rate your performance – do you think you do a good Trump?

PRIME MINISTER:

I’ve had mixed reviews but look it entertained everyone in the room, helped them raise a lot of money for charity. It was a good night. We were having a laugh. Everyone says politicians are too serious, too scripted. So you’ve got to lighten up right?

LARRY EMDUR:

That’s exactly right.

PRIME MINISTER:

It’s Australia.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Are you more upset that it was recorded or that it has been played in the public? Or are you not upset at all?

PRIME MINISTER:

The deal is with the Press Gallery Ball, the deal is that everyone lets their hair down a little bit and you know I’m sure Bill Shorten wouldn’t want his speech to be broadcast. Look, everybody is relaxed. From my point of view my remarks, as you can see, I was sending up my own singular performance in opinion polls.

LARRY EMDUR:

Yep.

PRIME MINISTER:

And I was the butt of my own jokes. That is the deal.

LARRY EMDUR:

And it says something about Australia, where we know in Canberra it is a little bit different, or the pressure and spotlight is on but out there in greater Australia, and people watching that this morning, do you think they are possibly loving the larrikinism?

PRIME MINISTER:

Look, we are all larrikins. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. I mean, what other country has a term of affection ‘you old bastard’? I mean, we are unusual.

LARRY EMDUR:

Did you just say that to me? You were looking at me when you said that!

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

It is a term of affection in Australia.

LARRY EMDUR:

It’s not when say it to me, when you call me that it’s not a term of affection.

[Laughter]

KYLIE GILLIES:

Yes, I use it quite often.

PRIME MINISTER:

I guess it depends how you say it but as long as you’re saying it with a smile on your face. And look, without getting misty eyed about it, we are an extraordinary nation, we are unique and one of the great things about is we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We have a great sense of humour. And you know, everyone complains that politicians are too serious and stitched up and reading from scripts and talking points, so I think it is good to just relax and be yourself. And have a laugh!

KYLIE GILLIES:

Do you follow Mr Trump on Twitter? And have you been checking his feed just to see if he’s reacted to you?

PRIME MINISTER:

I think the whole world follows him on Twitter.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Okay.

LARRY EMDUR:

Do you – every morning when I wake up now, and I’ve never been totally devoted to American politics but every morning I just log straight on to check what he’s done overnight. Do you do the same?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, I do check Twitter. I don’t use Twitter as much as I used to actually – talking seriously about social media for a minute which will, everyone will switch off, but we tend to do more on Facebook and Instagram. I find Facebook has got a broader audience. It is amazing, just to give you an example, with a number of my colleagues, I have done Facebook chats with other Members of Parliament on their Facebook pages and they can, in their electorate, reach 10-15,000 people.

LARRY EMDUR:

Very powerful yeah.

PRIME MINISTER:

It is very powerful. And you are actually having a direct discussion with the community, so these social media platforms are extremely interesting particularly given how recent they are.

Anyway, back to being lighthearted on your 10th birthday! This is too serious!

[Laughter]

KYLIE GILLIES:

But on that point alarmingly some people, that is the only, the sole source of their news is coming on places like Facebook.

PRIME MINISTER:

Sure, absolutely it is. A friend of mine was teaching journalism students.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Yes.

PRIME MINISTER:

She was taking some time out of the workforce, she just had a baby and so she was just working part-time. She said ‘where do you get your news’? And these are young people, 18-19 I guess who wanted to be journalists and they all said Facebook – the whole lot of them.

LARRY EMDUR:

We are getting to the 10th anniversary celebration in a sec but there are a couple of things we have to talk to you about while you’re here on the couch relaxed and comfortable.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah, sure.

LARRY EMDUR:

It has been an alarming few weeks around the world, of course – the recent string of terror attacks in the UK and even at home in Melbourne.

PRIME MINISTER:

And a terrible fire in London just in the last, you know this is heartbreaking. Our condolences to the families and to the victims of that shocking fire.

LARRY EMDUR:

Of course.

PRIME MINISTER:

And we’ve seen terrible, you know we’ve seen the London Bridge attack, two beautiful young Australians killed, two other Australians injured. The Manchester Arena attack, a cruel attack on teenagers. And then, of course, the attack in Melbourne where a young Australian was killed.

LARRY EMDUR:

Do you worry about the sort of world that your grandkids will grow up in?

PRIME MINISTER:

I do, I do. And my job as Prime Minister is to do everything I can – and I am doing that – to make sure that the world they grow up in and everyone else’s grandchildren grow up in is safer. We do everything we can to keep Australians safe.

And you know, whether it is ensuring that our Australian Defence Force have the capabilities they need to keep us safe. Whether it is ensuring our police, our security services have the laws to enable them to deal with terrorism. Whether it is ensuring that we change the parole laws so that right around the country, we got an agreement to that a week ago, so that for people who have had a connection with terrorism, if they’re seeking parole or bail, the presumption is against them. Because you have got to be constantly agile and alert. I mean this is the point I keep on making. You cannot set and forget in this area. You have got to be constantly upgrading your laws. We have made numerous changes to the laws. You know, we have put $320 million of extra funding into the AFP for their special capabilities in this area. It is vital to be absolutely, constantly vigilant. Complacency, there is no place for it.

KYLIE GILLIES:

In the wake of the Melbourne attack-

PRIME MINISTER:

Yep.

KYLIE GILLIES:

You came out very strongly about the parole laws. It seemed to me, watching you on that day, that there was something that triggered in you and you come out very strongly. Was there something very personal about that that fired you up on that date? Because I thought you spoke very strongly and to me from the outside, it looked like there was something, that it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. What was it?

PRIME MINISTER:

There is nothing that is more important to me as Prime Minister than protecting the safety of Australians. That is my number one priority. That is the number one priority of my whole government.

The killer, the terrorist, was out on parole, he had a long history of violence. He was a very violent man and he had a very considerable and very well-known, publicly known association with terrorism. He had been charged, as you know, on a terrorist offence. He had been acquitted. He had trained with terrorists in Somalia. He should never have been on parole. He should never have been on parole.

LARRY EMDUR:

We just heard you run through the list of changes and focus, and you’ve got to stay nimble, you’ve got to stay agile. Are you confident that with all of those moving parts that we are safe and we will remain safe in what we have always called ‘the lucky country’?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well there are no guarantees Larry. You have to keep on doing everything you can to protect us. So how do you protect ourselves against terrorism? Well, we are destroying ISIL and Daesh in the Middle East and destroying their so-called caliphate. You know that is very important. I have changed the laws to give our forces there the capacity, the legal ability to target the terrorist, whatever they are doing. Whether they are holding a gun or a knife, or whether they are you know plotting in a bunker somewhere, you know recruiting or raising money. So we have done that, we have given them the resources with our partners to destroy them in the field. And we’re winning. They are being rolled back.

At the same time, we have to resist their propaganda in the West and we have to work with, particularly with leaders in the Muslim communities, both internationally and locally, who stand up and say these terrorists, these extremists do not speak for us, they are blasphemers, they’re criminals, they’re maniacs and they’ve got to reject them and so they are very important partners.

LARRY EMDUR:

Yes.

PRIME MINISTER:

And also of course, we need the physical means, and the intelligence means to keep us safe.

LARRY EMDUR:

So many layers to it.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah, it is, yeah – it is very complex, but the overriding commitment is constant vigilance, never set and forget, never be complacent, always do everything to keep Australians safe.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Okay. Shall we move on to something a little lighter?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes, yes, that’s right, very good.

KYLIE GILLIES:

We have been looking back at the past ten years – this being out 10th birthday of the show. We’ve had a few laughs at our hairstyles and fashion trends. We have dug up some old pictures of you, Prime Minister. We’re going to show you – here is an oldie but a goodie!

PRIME MINISTER:

Well that is more than 10 years!

[Laughter]

KYLIE GILLIES:

Where is this? How old are you here do you reckon?

PRIME MINISTER:

I would say I would be in my late 20s, probably late 20s.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Looks like a law-

PRIME MINISTER:

I think maybe 30? Maybe 30 was then I was a lawyer. Yes, that’s when I was – I was pretty porky in those days.

KYLIE GILLIES:

No! I wouldn’t-

PRIME MINISTER:

Oh yeah, no, I would’ve been then about, I would have been then at least 10 kilos heavier than I am now I would think. But again that would be probably late 30s.

KYLIE GILLIES:

But you’re saying porky – I’m seeing the dimple? Who knew the Prime Minister had a dimple?

PRIME MINISTER:

Do you see it? Do you like that?

KYLIE GILLIES:

Yeah!

PRIME MINISTER:

Now I can tell you when that is – that is about 31 years ago because that is with little Daisy when she was a baby and [inaudible] the dog.

KYLIE GILLIES:

She’s a mum now herself isn’t she?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah. She’s a very strict schoolteacher I’m told because some of the girls she teach say to me ‘Oh you know you’re Mrs Turnbull-Brown’s father?’ And I go ‘Yes’. And they say, ‘Oh, she’s very strict!’

[Laughter]

So that’s good. But she’s got two kids. She’s got a little boy and a little girl.

LARRY EMDUR:

You know what I love about that shot where you said you were porky? You were wearing the flannelette shirt and guys all over Australia know that the flannelette shirt covers anything.

[Laughter]

It’s up to 12 kilo of camouflage easy.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Yeah, good.

LARRY EMDUR:

Now one of the many things that people admire about you is your partnership with wife Lucy. What is the secret to a fantastic long-term marriage, given that your life has been in the spotlight for so long?

PRIME MINISTER:

Okay, this is the advice I give to young people when they get married, invest in your relationships, spend time with your wife or your husband. It’s very easy, particularly when your children arrive, people get busy at work, it is very easy for the family time to get squeezed out. You’ve got to really focus on that. I mean Lucy and I, we got married pretty young by modern standards. You know, Lucy was 21 and I was a few years older. She was only a few days short, she was about a week short of being 22 so she often says she should have waited 10 days, she could’ve said she got married at 22.

[Laughter]

LARRY EMDUR:

Yeah right.

KYLIE GILLIES:

That’s funny – that’s exactly what I did.

PRIME MINISTER:

Did you?

KYLIE GILLIES:

I waited two days until I turned 22 because I didn’t want to get married when I was 21.

PRIME MINISTER:

Isn’t that sweet.

KYLIE GILLIES:

I share that with Lucy.

LARRY EMDUR:

You’ve got a lot in common.

KYLIE GILLIES:

No, it was really important to me.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, I always used to say, I asked Lucy to marry me pretty much I asked Lucy to marry me as soon as I met her.

KYLIE GILLIES:

You knew straight away.

PRIME MINISTER:

I did actually and she always said: “We’ll wait ‘til we grow up”.

[Laughter]

I’m not sure whether we did. But the important thing is – being slightly serious – both of our parents had been divorced and we were really focused, even as you know young people in our early 20s, focused on ensuring that our marriage would be a strong and enduring one. We recognised that we should always make that commitment to be with each other and we’re each other’s best friends. I mean, I have a stronger sense of ‘me and Lucy’, than I have just of I have of ‘me’. You know we are very, very tight little partnership.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Team. A, team.

PRIME MINISTER:

That’s right.

LARRY EMDUR:

Once those big gates close, who is the boss?

PRIME MINISTER:

Ah – well again it’s like a partnership, you know? We don’t – You couldn’t say anyone, either, is the boss. We literally work as a very tight partnership. We know each other so well, we sort of know what the other wants. I mean there are other areas, as in most marriages, where one person knows more, is accepted as the in-house expert.

LARRY EMDUR:

Have you ever –

PRIME MINISTER:

I am the tech butler in our house, so fixing devices and things like that.

LARRY EMDUR:

Have you ever been able to say, when she asks you to take the recycling out, have you ever been able to say: “I don’t have to do that, I’m the Prime Minister”?

PRIME MINISTER:

Are you kidding?

[Laughter]

KYLIE GILLIES:

We call you Prime Minister, what do your three grandchildren call you?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, the ones in Australia call me Baba.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Baba?

PRIME MINISTER:

Baba – well I don’t know, when Jack was the first one along, the first grandchild gets to name the grandparents. He calls me Baba and they call Lucy Gaga. So it’s Baba and Gaga. And then our granddaughter who lives in Singapore, Isla who is our son’s daughter, whose mum is Chinese, she calls me Yé-Ye, which is the Chinese word for father’s father. Because Baba is the Chinese word for father. So Alex is Baba, Isla calls Alex Baba and me Yé-Ye.

KYLIE GILLIES:

You need to repeat that later.

LARRY EMDUR:

So Yé-Ye, Baba and Gaga? It’s a new Disney Pixar movie coming up for Christmas.

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah, well for Lucy, Gaga is just completely invented. I don’t think that’s in any language.

LARRY EMDUR:

Do you spoil them? Because we have this vision of you spoiling them.

PRIME MINISTER:

Oh, I don’t know if I spoil them. Their parents probably think that we do. We’re very fond grandparents, I love them, I mean, I love them. But one of the things I really love about being a grandfather, is that they make you feel young. You see when Jack came along, a little boy, the last time I had had a little boy crawling around and running around was when I was in my 20s, late 20s when Alex was born. And Lucy feels the same way. They are so invigorating, and you know, they are fantastic. We have a lot of fun.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Larry asked if you spoil them, but I reckon when they grow up a bit Baba is going to be good for a loan isn’t he? I reckon they’ll hit you up.

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

I’m sure he would be.

LARRY EMDUR:

I reckon grandpa will be okay for a loan.

PRIME MINISTER:

I think most grandparents are a soft touch and I think Lucy and I will be very much a soft touch.

LARRY EMDUR:

Now we know you have some important things to do like run the country, so just before you leave, we just want to give Australia a chance to get to know the real Malcolm Turnbull in a segment we like to call Question Time. It’s is a new thing for us.

PRIME MINISTER:

Oh, right!

KYLIE GILLIES:

So we are asking you one quick question, for every year –

PRIME MINISTER:

Well you want a quick answer actually.

LARRY EMDUR:

Yes.

KYLIE GILLIES:

For every year we’ve been on air. The aim of the game is to answer as quickly as possible. Are you ready? Let’s start. The most important quality in a world leader?

PRIME MINISTER:

Integrity.

LARRY EMDUR:

Well that was a much faster answer than we thought!

KYLIE GILLIES:

Just appreciate you haven’t had a chance to look at these questions.

LARRY EMDUR:

Hadn’t had a look down at the next question, if we come to your house for dinner, with Gaga and Baba, what do we get? What are you cooking for us?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well what am I going to cook for you?

LARRY EMDUR:

Yes.

PRIME MINISTER:

Okay, if I was cooking I’d probably make you a lovely pasta dish and I would make a beautiful passata. I mean look, Larry let’s be honest …

LARRY EDMUR:

You’re busy

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

No – I’ve got a limited repertoire. I mean I grew up, much of my childhood was brought up by my dad, single dad. So I’m quite domesticated by male standards. You know, I’m a good ironer, I’m a good cleaner and I’m an okay cook, but it is a limited repertoire.

LARRY EMDUR:

Okay so do I get an egg on toast?

PRIME MINISTER:

No, no, I’d make you a nice pasta dish and you know, if we find something in the fridge, there might be some sausage we can put into it or something like that. But you know, if you were coming to dinner Larry, if I were you, you would be wise to suggest that maybe Baba and Gaga do the cooking.

LARRY EMDUR:

Yes, it might be ‘baga ganoush’.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah, that’s right, that’s good ‘baga ganoush’

KYLIE GILLIES:

I don’t reckon you’re eating much pasta yourself though these days.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, it’s quantity. The way to lose weight is to eat less, it’s pretty simple.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Your karaoke song?

PRIME MINISTER:

I don’t have one.

KYLIE GILLIES:

You don’t have one?

PRIME MINISTER:

No, I’m the worst singer. In fact sometimes, if we’re in church or somewhere where we’re singing, everyone is singing their hymns, if I do more than do it at a very low level, I’ll get a gentle little elbow from Gaga.

[Laughter]

KYLIE GILLIES:

That’s okay because Melania Trump does that to Donald too as well. She’s been known to.

LARRY EMDUR:

She swats him. The biggest perk of being the Prime Minister of Australia?

PRIME MINISTER:

The biggest perk? Well look, I mean the whole job is just such a wonderful responsibility, because look; I love this country. It’s the best country in the world. I believe in its future, I believe our best days are ahead of us, but we’ve got to do the work to make sure they are. So every day, what I’m doing is trying to ensure that our kids and our grandkids are going to be safe and secure. That’s very important. And they are going to have those great opportunities to realise all their dreams and do even more wonderful things than their parents have.

LARRY EMDUR:

So the biggest perk is the opportunity.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah, that’s it, it really is.

KYLIE GILLIES:

I would have gone ‘room service’, but that’s just me. The biggest punish?

PRIME MINISTER:

You know, it’s funny. A lot of people ask questions like that. I actually don’t find any of it punishing.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Ribbon cutting, cake cutting?

PRIME MINISTER:

No, I love it, I love getting out, I love being on public transport and walking down the street.

Like we saw some kids yesterday at Parliament. Some little kids who’ve got a really rare metabolic disorder. Which there is one drug, Vimizim, which is a very, very expensive drug, which essentially cures it. Or, doesn’t cure it – but it puts them a position where they can lead a normal life.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Manages it.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah. Now Greg Hunt and I met with the parents and these three little kids, a little boy, called Beau and Colton, and a little girl called Ivy. But you know Beau, you see him on television – little boy and he had a cowboy shirt on, like he’s a little cowboy. Now, making that drug available to them, subsidising that, through our health system. I mean that is – you are helping change their lives.

Now the only way you can afford to do it, of course, is managing the Budget properly. So that’s why we’ve had to you know raise some revenue, raise some revenue from the banks and so forth. Had to take tough decisions to manage all the finances. But putting life-saving drugs, whether it is on the PBS or the Life Saving Drugs Program, that’s a wonderful thing to do. It’s a wonderful opportunity on behalf of all Australians, an exercise in practical love.

KYLIE GILLIES:

That list is long.

PRIME MINISTER:

It is.

LARRY EMDUR:

Donald Trump turns 71 this week. What do you buy the President, the man who has absolutely everything? Do you give him the Pacific Ocean? What? I gave Kylie for her birthday a kangaroo testicle keyring. That was a good gift.

[Laughter]

KYLIE GILLIES:

Sorry Prime Minister.

LARRY EMDUR:

I mean that could work – but what you do get Donald Trump?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well when we went over to see him recently we took over an official gift, as you do, and it was a beautiful timber box to hold a dozen golf balls, so you know he is a big golfer. But it’s always hard buying presents, isn’t it?

KYLIE GILLIES:

Yes!

LARRY EMDUR:

Well, not for Kylie.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well it seems Kylie is definitely convinced that you should stop trying so hard. You know what? Larry, here’s the thing, let me a give you a bit of advice.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Please, please do.

PRIME MINISTER:

Just ask her what she wants.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Thank you!

PRIME MINISTER:

Just ask her!

LARRY EMDUR:

Now we’re going back to marriage advice.

PRIME MINISTER:

Good! It’s good marriage advice, ask her what she wants. It works.

LARRY EMDUR:

She can’t have that island in Bora Bora, that’s what I told her.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, do a budget. You know, realistic parameters, a frame of reference.

LARRY EMDUR:

Thank you. That’s great advice.

KYLIE GILLIES:

We’ve heard you’re a bit of an impersonator, we heard the tape earlier. Is there someone you are best at impersonating?

PRIME MINISTER:

I don’t actually, no –

KYLIE GILLIES:

Or was that a one off?

PRIME MINISTER:

I don’t actually do impersonations. I mean that was not an impersonation. I was speaking on my own behalf, but with perhaps a little bit of light-hearted and affectionate channeling.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Okay a channel.

PRIME MINISTER:

Channeling but – no, I’ve got some friends who are great impersonators, but I am not very good at them.

LARRY EMDUR:

We often think that if we had the power to ban things – the list would be long of things to ban, things like other morning shows on other networks, banned immediately.

PRIME MINISTER:

Sure.

LARRY EMDUR:

What would you ban if you wanted to ban something immediately?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well since we are being humorous, I mean there is a – I won’t get back into the serious discussion, look generally, no I can’t think of anything I want to ban. What would you like to ban, I mean leaving aside other morning shows?

LARRY EMDUR:

I’d like to ban Kylie from demanding huge presents for her birthday.

KYLIE GILLIES:

No. No, that’s not going to work.

PRIME MINISTER:

No, seriously politics is the art of the possible. You’ve got to be realistic.

LARRY EMDUR:

So is hosting a morning show.

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah, that’s right. You shouldn’t you know Larry, you set these unrealistic ambitions and you’ll always disappoint and then you’ll get a sense of failure. So you shouldn’t do that. Think of something else that you could ban that’s more realistic.

LARRY EMDUR:

I would like to ban other drivers on the road.

PRIME MINISTER:

Oh yeah, sure that’d be easy.

[Laughter]

KYLIE GILLIES:

Finally, we need to know, as we wrap up the questions in quick question time which actually didn’t turn out to be that quick.

LARRY EMDUR:

Those one-word answers were great!

PRIME MINISTER:

It’s been as disciplined as Question Time. What we need is Tony Smith, the Speaker, where is he? We need him.

KYLIE GILLIES:

With a big gavel!

PRIME MINISTER:

He would have chucked all three of us out.

LARRY EMDUR:

Gone.

PRIME MINISTER:

But then there would be no Morning Show.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Finally, your favorite Morning Show segment ever, in ten years?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, I think it must be this one.

KYLIE GILLIES:

Absolutely.

PRIME MINISTER:

Very relaxed, very relaxed.

LARRY EMDUR:

Because in the morning he’s just relaxing on the couch watching TV! Now before you go, this is very special for us. As you know, 10 years of politics is a long time, 10 years on TV is a long, long time and we’re glad that you’re here, but can you help us officially cut the birthday cake?

PRIME MINISTER

I would love to do that.

[ENDS]

A business friendly Brexit

I have good news for you all. Despite all the noise and disagreement, most people and political parties want the same things from Brexit. No-one wants it to damage business or lose us jobs. Most in the debate think more free trade rather than less free trade is a good idea. The Labour Manifesto spent time setting out the kind of free trade deals they would like a UK outside the single market and customs union to be able to negotiate.

Business has some legitimate questions of government that need answering. Where we currently receive grants and subsidies from the EU budget, business needs to know what the UK government will do back in control of the contribution money which currently funds those payments. This is particularly important to farming businesses where government payments and subsidies are an important part of farm incomes. IT is also important to those parts of the UK that qualify for extra grants for economic development. I look forward to more detail from the Treasury.

Business would like to know how and when the UK can expand its free trade agreements with non EU countries. The Department for International Trade is working away with options for early trade deals with a number of countries. The sooner we can make progress with these the better, bearing in mind we cannot sign the deals until we leave.

Business also of course wants to know what will be the basis of future trade with the rest of the EU. The UK is offering a continuation of current free trade with no new barriers. It is also saying it will translate into UK law all the present rules and regulations to allow continuity. The UK Parliament will in future be able to improve or repeal individual measures, but would not of course seek to block business being EU compliant for all their exports to the continent, which they are currently. Parliament will take into account the EU business needs when legislating in future, but may wish to allow different arrangements for non EU and domestic business.

The sooner we discuss the future relationship with the EU the sooner we will be able to clarify these matters. Whilst there will be more tough talk and posturing from some EU officials, many in the other member states will want easy access to the UK market and will see that has to be reciprocal.

Some say there is not time to negotiate a free trade agreement with the EU. That would be true if we had lots of barriers to remove and discuss. Instead we already have free trade with the EU, so it is simple to confirm it if there is the will on both sides to do so. If the EU really does want to impose barreirs on their trade with us they will need to set out what these are, and we can then consider what barriers we would need to place in return. All of course would have to be complaint with WTO rules, which limits the ability of the EU to do damage. The main sector which could end up with high tariffs is agriculture, where they sell us twice as much as we sell them. We also have the option on that scenario of sourcing much more food cheaper from outside the EU, where we could lower tariffs where it suited us, or produce more at home where we can.

I note that after a media barrage about staying in the Customs Union the government has not changed the policy set out in the White Paper and approved overwhelmingly by the Commons to send the lettter. I also note the Chancellor still supports government policy despite press briefings to the contrary. We will leave the single market and the Customs Union when we leave the EU, as the rest of the EU also intends and as the Conservative and Labour Manifestos made clear.

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China’s quantum satellite establishes photon entanglement

A team of Chinese scientists have realized the satellite-based distribution of entangled photon pairs over 1,200 kilometers. The photon pairs were demonstrated to be still entangled after travelling long distances.

This satellite-based technology opens up bright prospects for both practical quantum communications and fundamental quantum optics experiments at distances previously inaccessible on the ground, said Pan Jianwei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The achievement was made based on the world’ s first quantum satellite, Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS), also dubbed Micius, launched by China on August 16, 2016, and was published as a cover article in the latest issue of academic journal Science.

This experiment was made through two satellite-to-ground downlinks with a total length varying from 1,600 to 2,400 kilometers. The obtained link efficiency is many times higher than that of the direct bidirectional transmission of the two photons through telecommunication fibers, said Pan, who is also the lead scientist of QUESS.

Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in quantum physics, which is so confounding that Albert Einstein described it as “spooky action at a distance” in 1948.

Scientists found that when two entangled particles are separated, one particle can somehow affect the action of the far-off twin instantly.

Scientists liken it to two pieces of paper that are distant from each other: if you write on one, the other immediately shows your writing.

The mystery of quantum entanglement has been puzzling scientists since it was detected.

Quantum physicists have a fundamental interest in distributing entangled particles over increasingly long distances and studying the behavior of entanglement under extreme conditions.

In theory, this bizarre connection can exist over any distance, but scientists want to see if there’ s some physical limit. “If you want to explore new physics, you must push the limits,” Pan said.

Previously, entanglement distribution had only been achieved at a distance up to 100 kilometers due to photon loss in optical fibers or terrestrial free space.

One way to improve the distribution lies in the protocol of quantum repeaters, whose practical usefulness, however, is hindered by the challenges of quantum storage and readout efficiency, Pan said.

Another approach is making use of satellite-based and space-based technologies, as a satellite can conveniently cover two distant locations on Earth. The main advantage of this approach is that most of the photons’ transmission path is almost in a vacuum, with almost zero absorption and de-coherence, Pan said.

After feasibility studies, Chinese scientists developed and launched QUESS for the mission of entanglement distribution. Cooperating with QUESS are three ground stations: Delingha Observatory in Qinghai, Nanshan Observatory in Xinjiang and Gaomeigu Observatory in Yunnan.

For instance, one photon of an entangled pair was beamed to Delingha and the other to Gaomeigu. The distance between the two ground stations is 1,203 kilometers. The distance between the orbiting satellite and the ground stations varies from 500 to 2,000 kilometers, said Pan.

Due to the fact that the entangled photons cannot be amplified as classical signals, new methods must be developed to reduce the link attenuation in the satellite-to-ground entanglement distribution. To optimize the link efficiency, Chinese scientists combined a narrow beam divergence with a high-bandwidth and a high-precision acquiring, pointing, and tracking (APT) technique.

An accurate transmission of photons between the “server” and the “receiver” is never easy, as the optic axis of the satellite must point precisely toward those of the telescopes in the ground stations, said Zhu Zhencai, QUESS chief designer.

What makes it much harder is that the satellite flying over the Earth at a speed of 8 kilometers per second can be continuously tracked by the ground station for just a few minutes.

“It is like tossing a coin from a plane at 100,000 meters above sea level exactly into the slot of a rotating piggy bank,” said Wang Jianyu, QUESS project’s chief commander.

The highly sensitive QUESS could make visible from the Earth a match being lit on the Moon, Wang added.

By developing an ultra-bright space-borne two-photon entanglement source and the high-precision APT technology, the team established entanglement between two single photons separated by 1,203 kilometers.

Compared with the previous methods of entanglement distribution by direct transmission of the same two-photon source — using the best performance and most common commercial telecommunication fibers respectively — the effective link efficiency of the satellite-based approach is 12 and 17 orders of magnitude higher, Pan said.

He said the distributed entangled photons are readily useful for entanglement-based quantum key distribution, which, so far, is the only way to establish secure keys between two distant locations on Earth without relying on trustful relay.

QUESS is also designed to establish “hack-proof” quantum communications by transmitting uncrackable keys from space to the ground, as well as test quantum teleportation with a ground station in Ali, Tibet.

Pan revealed they also want to see if it’ s possible to distribute entanglement between the Earth and the Moon in future.