November 25 marked the 70th anniversary of the death of Mao Anying (1922-1950). Mao Anying was the son of Mao Zedong. His mother, Mao Zedong's wife, Yang Kaihui (1901–1930), was executed in a Kuomintang prison.

In 1942, Anying wrote three letters to Stalin, in which he asked to be sent to the front. “Dear Comrade Stalin! - he wrote. - I am a Chinese youth. In the Land of the Soviets you lead, I studied for 5 years. I love the USSR as I love China. I can’t watch the German fascists trample your country. I want to avenge the millions of killed Soviet people. I am determined to go to the front. Please support my request. Author - Mao Anying (Seryozha), date - May 1942 ". In the end, Anying succeeded in being sent to the front as a lieutenant in a tank company. He fought across Poland and Czechoslovakia, and ended the war in Berlin. His fellow soldiers knew him as the captain of the Red Army, Sergei Mayev. They considered him a Buryat.

In 1946, Anying returned to China at the direction of his father. His father sent him to work as a farm laborer for some peasant. However, this did not last long, about three months. Only then did Mao praise his son: “Everyone should taste the bitter in his life. Before you ate bread, drank milk, and now you are in China and you need to try Shenbei plague, it is very good for your health! "

In 1950, when the Korean War broke out, Anying volunteered for the front. He served as an interpreter at the headquarters of the future Marshal Peng Dehuai (1898-1974). It is said that during the raid of American bombers, Anying was preparing his own food - rice and eggs, and therefore did not have time to hide in a bomb shelter. Others refute this story, saying that it was invented to cast a shadow on Anying - they say, according to legend, he cooked himself delicious food, indulging his whim, and therefore became a victim of the US napalm bomb. Anyway, Anying died. Peng Dehuai was shocked by what had happened and upon arriving in Beijing asked for forgiveness from the elder Mao: “Chairman, I did not save Anying, it is my fault. Please punish me. " To which Mao replied with an extremely characteristic phrase: “An ordinary soldier died, and one should not make a special event out of this just because he is my son. It is normal that despite he is my son, the son of the Chairman of the Party, he can die as any other man in the name of the common cause of the peoples of China and Korea! "

Walt Disney said late on Wednesday it would lay off about 32,000 workers, primarily at its theme parks, an increase of 4,000 from the 28,000 it announced in September, as the company struggles with limited customers due to the coronavirus pandemic. The layoffs will be in the first half of 2021, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Nice.

Parliament wants to boost sustainability by promoting reuse and repairs and by tackling practices that shorten the lifespan of products.

The resolution on a more sustainable Single Market was adopted with 395 in favour, 94 against and 207 abstentions.

MEPs call on the Commission to grant consumers a “right to repair” by making repairs more appealing, systematic, and cost-efficient, whether by extending guarantees, providing guarantees for replaced parts, or better access to information on repair and maintenance.

They also insist on increasing support for second-hand goods markets, call for measures to tackle practices that shorten the lifetime of a product, and endorse sustainable production. MEPs reiterate their demand for a common charger system to reduce electronic waste and want products to be labelled according to their durability (e.g. a usage meter and clear information on the estimated lifespan of a product).

Remove obstacles that prevent repair, resale, and reuse

To encourage sustainable business and consumer choices, MEPs push for more sustainable public procurement as well as responsible marketing and advertising. For example, when environmentally friendly claims are made in advertisements, common criteria should be applied to support such a claim – similar to obtaining ecolabel certifications. The resolution also calls for the role of the EU ecolabel to be boosted so that it is used more by industry and to raise awareness among consumers.

Finally, the adopted text proposes new rules for waste management and the removal of legal obstacles that prevent repair, resale, and reuse. This will also benefit the secondary raw material market.

“The time has come to use the Green Deal objectives as the foundation of a single market that promotes durable products and services by design. To achieve this, we need a comprehensive set of rules that facilitates clear and simple decisions in place of technical amendments that lack political courage and which confuse both consumers and businesses. By adopting this report, the European Parliament sent a clear message: harmonised mandatory labelling indicating durability and tackling premature obsolescence at EU level are the way forward,” said Rapporteur David Cormand (Greens/EFA, FR).

Background

According to a Eurobarometer survey, 77% of EU citizens would rather repair their devices than replace them; 79% think that manufacturers should be legally obliged to facilitate the repair of digital devices or the replacement of their individual parts.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20201120IPR92118/

It is staggering error to hope that bureaucrats who are being bough and sold by corporations and banks will come to your rescue. They won't. They are just very old prostitutes and behave like such.

They just want to fake it all.

For example this shits many years ago voted for prohibiting expensive inkjet cartridges (also citing Green things) but it resulted into nothing, instead all involved got big amount of money from manufacturers who made things even worse since the time of voting.

Present estimates is that NK has at least 15 missiles with thermonuclear warheads that can reach any point in US and around 45 missiles with nuclear warheads that can reach at least 35% of US territory.

Each year NK adds from 10 to 15 new long range missiles.