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In April this year, the "List of Terrestrial Wild Animals in Beijing (2024)" was released at the launch ceremony of Bird Love Week. Data shows that the number of wild birds in Beijing has reached 519 species, with an increase of more than 80 species in the past ten years. Beijing has become a veritable "bird paradise". The peak period of bird breeding in Beijing is from May to July every year, when newborn baby birds need the most care from their "mother birds". If "Mother Bird" happens not to be around, who will help them?
The Beijing Wildlife Rescue Center (hereinafter referred to as the rescue center) has a group of "bird fathers". When the baby birds accidentally leave the nest or are in danger of life, they will arrive in time to rescue and feed them. Wait until the baby birds' wings have hardened before releasing them back into the wild. These "bird fathers" are the staff of the rescue center.
"The work of rescuing wild animals is risky and hard, so there are more men here." said Zhao Jingwei, head of the breeding team of the rescue management section of the rescue center. I saw him picking up a little bit of chyme with tweezers and feeding the "little meat balls" in his hand. A few days ago, the rescue center received 19 newly hatched sparrows.
Zhao Jingwei makes "baby food" for them every day: beef, chicken, eggs, carrots, bananas and other ingredients are mixed into chyme, and he has to feed them at least seven or eight times a day. "It's the same as raising a child. The most important thing is to be patient." The
rescue center receives an average of more than 4,000 birds every year and releases about 1,700 birds. As public awareness of wildlife protection gradually increases, the number of consultation or help calls reaches more than 10,000 times each year.
At a puddle by the Chaobai River, Zhao Jingwei, the leader of the breeding team, placed three first aid boxes on the grass. Three water birds that have been rescued and recovered to health will be released today, including a night heron, a pond heron and a heron. Zhao Jingwei opened the first aid box one by one, and the birds flew out, flew over the puddles, and disappeared in the woods.
Zhao Jingwei seemed very calm when he saw these "bird children" who had recovered from health and flew away without looking back. "Children must learn to let go when they grow up. They cannot be protected by adults forever." Read the full text >>>
Reporter investigation found that the "wool party" tried to use mechanisms such as delayed shipments and out-of-stock compensation to obtain additional compensation. In addition to "raising deposits" and "collecting return shipping insurance", they also use the "refund only" rule to "collect wool". At the other end of the Wool Party's "move" are those businesses that unfortunately became targets.
The project content posted by the "initiator" of the Wool Party in WeChat Moments. Social platform screenshot
html On June 15, reporters searched for "compensation items" on multiple social platforms and found that a large number of netizens shared their "no delivery compensation" and "refund only strategies" on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo. Wait for the tutorial. Just pay the tutorial fee ranging from 28.8 to 188 yuan to the "driver" to "get on the bus". Then, the other party will send you a tutorial, and you can obtain different amounts of compensation from the e-commerce platform merchants by using various reasons such as delayed delivery, questioning fake sales, and complaining about the merchant's attitude. You can also "get on the bus" for free, but each order needs to pay a commission ranging from 20% to 50% to the "sender". If you don’t get off the bus safely, that is, if you don’t get the corresponding compensation, the “sender” will change the link and place the order again.reporter added five "starters" on the grounds of "interest".One of the "shippers" is mainly engaged in "dead shopping", that is, those stores that have been neglected for a long time and are not very active may have untimely delivery. In the case of existing untimely delivery and need to pay compensation, he gave Opportunities for “woolies” to earn payouts.
On the other side of the "wool harvesting" operation carefully planned and launched by the "wool party" are those merchants who are unfortunate enough to be targeted.
Taobao store owner Lanlan opened a handmade clay store and a women's clothing store. Since the traffic of the women's clothing store is not good and there are no daily orders, she neglects to take care of it and does not often pay attention to the store's situation. At the end of May, Lanlan discovered that her Yu'e Bao had been deducted from multiple payments since April 20, ranging from 3 to 100 yuan. After inquiry, she found that these payments were compensation for overtime delivery of multiple orders from women's clothing stores. She immediately contacted the factory to ship the orders that had not yet expired.
But Lanlan discovered that after she shipped the goods, several buyers immediately applied for "refund only" and sent messages telling her to "return it." She could only contact the courier to intercept the package and pay for it. Pay a shipping fee. After looking through the addresses and products of the paid orders, Lan Lan suspected that she had met a malicious "wool party". After
Lanlan posted her experience on social media, it attracted many businesses with similar experiences. She established a rights protection group. To join the group, merchants need to provide screenshots of compensation orders to prevent "wool gangsters" from entering. Some merchants said that non-delivery is indeed their own problem, but merchants should also have the right to refuse transactions. "These cases of 'deposit withdrawal' have occurred frequently in the past two months, which means there are loopholes in the platform. First, tentative orders are placed, and then bulk card payment orders are placed online. This is a common routine used by criminal gangs." Read more >> >
This year’s 618 carnival seems to be much quieter. Although major e-commerce platforms are vigorously shouting for the 618 Shopping Festival as in previous years: Taobao will start a major promotion on May 20, claiming that this is "the largest investment in history." However, many small and medium-sized merchants reported to reporters that compared with 618 in previous years, store sales did not increase significantly during the big promotion period. Some merchants even said that they were trapped in the 618 rules of the e-commerce platform: the big promotion time has passed. Long-term sales have led to low traffic, forced binding of freight insurance has increased return rates and costs, and extremely low prices have caused merchants to sell at a loss - "it's too much to bear."
Taobao's original stationery store "Mars Little Devil" did not participate in this year's big promotion event . "The unit price of our store's products is usually around tens of yuan. Once we participate in cross-store discounts, we become a big customer." Cao Wen, the store owner, remembers that once, a customer placed nine orders of 29.8 yuan worth of goods in a row. I used it to make up for the order, but after a while I canceled it. "What he needs is discounts on other stores' products, and he uses our store as a backing. As a result, our return rate has increased significantly."
An increase in the return rate will not only lower the store's dynamic score and affect traffic, but also affect the store's Freight insurance rate: The higher the return rate, the higher the amount of freight insurance the merchant needs to pay, and the burden on the merchant will increase.
As long as you sign up to participate in the 618 promotion and discount event, the platform will require merchants to provide shipping insurance.
"The shipping fee for each order is only a few cents, but the volume of returns is too high. Not only do many orders not make any money, but they also have to pay for freight insurance. The larger the volume of returns, the higher the price of freight insurance, which is a bit too much." A Taobao owner said jewelry store owner Amy.
She remembered that on the first day of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday (June 8), the store’s sales amounted to more than 2,000 yuan, but upon closer inspection, she discovered that half of them were made by consumers in order to get cross-store discounts. I applied for a refund immediately after placing the order. "Usually the return rate is less than 20%. During the big promotion days, the return rate was almost 25%."
html On June 13, the founder of Guangzhou Huimei Fashion Group, the parent company of women's clothing brand Inman Fang Jianhua published an article on his personal public account, calling on relevant departments to intervene to crack down on "mandatory freight insurance." The article mentioned that the original intention of establishing return freight insurance was to alleviate freight disputes arising from returns and exchanges during online shopping, which is a good thing in itself. However, as platform competition intensifies and the return rate on e-commerce platforms is generally as high as 60%, opening freight insurance has become a mandatory requirement for merchants to participate in major promotion activities, which has brought a huge burden to merchant operations.Read the full text>>After experiencing the heavy rain in 2023, people in the mountains of western Beijing are particularly sensitive to weather changes. Since the beginning of summer, we have been inspecting flood drains, patrolling rivers, and preparing supplies. Gao Yanhui, the village party secretary of Weizishui Village, Yanchi Town, Mentougou District, feels that this year’s flood control is more intense and complicated than in the past, but it is also smoother and requires people to do it. Living and moving are much easier than ever.
Before the arrival of the flood season, villagers in Weizishui Village dredged and repaired the drainage pipeline. Photo provided by the interviewee
After summer, the flood season is approaching. Gao Yanhui took the young adults in the village to dredge all the flood drains. Although many places were newly built, they still checked them carefully. In addition, residential buildings close to cliffs and courtyard walls with hidden dangers must be inspected repeatedly. Those who can repair them are urged to repair them as soon as possible.
In Zhaitang Town, Mentougou District, Baiyu Village, located deep in the mountains, is a municipal-level geological disaster risk village. There are two important geological disaster risk points in the village. One of them has a family with only one person living there all year round. The other part is a channel with a risk of mudslides during heavy rains. Since May, the village party secretary Liu Yang has organized manpower to regularly inspect every hidden danger point. The two geological disaster risk points are places that must be inspected every time. Residents of the risk points, including the residents, have said hello in advance. Once there is a heavy rain, you must move in advance.
Starting from May 13, Mentougou organized a comprehensive flood control practical drill for five consecutive days, including self-propelled cam drainage pump truck drainage, salvage of river flood obstructions, flood control sandbag emergency water blocking, and lifting of slab gates. The drill simulated various situations such as road water accumulation, power outages, river hazards, etc. under extremely heavy rainfall. Most of these hazards occurred in the 2023 floods. Timely response and processing are the key to disaster prevention and reduction during floods.
Similar drills are also being carried out in many villages. In Tanchang Village, Miaofengshan Town, Mentougou, villagers in the drill simulated the entire process of flood prevention and disaster relief, from forecasting to decision-making, rescue and transfer. For these villages, there is actually more than one drill. Every change in the weather is a drill. In Baiyu Village, whenever there is a thunderstorm, the standing forklift will drive to the village committee and park in the yard of the village committee, ready for use at any time. In Xiaqingshui Village, generators are flood-prevention equipment that must be checked and prepared every time. The village has prepared oil and is ready to start the generator before a heavy rain. In the event of a power outage, emergency power supply can be provided at any time. Read the full text >>>
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Current Affairs Weekly | Beijing Shangshui
On the Internet, many Shanghai residents recorded their experiences of encountering flying termites on the road, in restaurants, and even at home. Some people escaped overnight and stayed in hotels, some sprayed three bottles of insecticide, and some saw termite invasion for the first time after living in the same home for more than 20 years. Termites, one of the oldest insects on earth, are competing with humans for territory in the highly modern city of Shanghai. This is a secret and long-standing struggle.
Two kilometers away, a designer had just finished working in an old bungalow. When he closed the window, he saw a large number of termites crawling on the windowsill. A few minutes later, he walked to the intersection of Urumqi Road and Wuyuan Road. There were more and more termites. “The whole street was covered with them. It felt like there were hundreds of thousands or millions of them.”
Zhou Minrong is a family member in Shanghai. The general manager of a termite control company and the secretary-general of the Shanghai Termite Control Professional Committee said that in Shanghai, there are three main types of termites: S. yellow-breasted, S. black-breasted and Formosan termite.In March and April every year, the yellow-breasted termite and the black-breasted termite take flight; the Formosan termite takes flight from April to July.
Huang Qiuying, a professor at Huazhong Agricultural University, analyzed that there is no obvious evidence that the total number of Formosan termites flying in Shanghai this year is greater than in previous years. "In previous years, termites may fly in batches from the end of May, with small numbers and multiple times." This year's Formosan termites took off on June 11, making them appear "massive". Read the full text >>>
According to a report from Global Network citing Japanese media on June 18, multiple Japanese government sources revealed that Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa is discussing visiting Cambodia in early July. The Japanese media used this to mention China, claiming that Cambodia is one of the countries in ASEAN that has strengthened relations with China, and Kamikawa Yoko intends to confirm through the visit that the bilateral cooperation will be effectively promoted and "demonstrate Japan's presence."
▲Data map: Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa. Picture/ic photo
html On June 4, US Secretary of Defense Austin made a special trip to Cambodia after attending the 21st Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. This was the only additional visit on his trip. During his visit to Cambodia, Austin publicly expressed "concerns about China" on many occasions. His intention to alienate China-Cambodia relations and win over Cambodia to cooperate with the US Far East strategy was obvious. As we all know, the U.S.-Japan alliance is the cornerstone of the U.S. Far East strategy. Kamikawa Yoko’s planned visit to Cambodia, which is also scheduled during the sensitive Japan-Philippines “2+2” itinerary, inevitably raises the question of whether he intends to cooperate with the United States.2023 Cambodia has established diplomatic relations with Japan for 70 years, and they have profound historical roots. Although China surpassed Japan as Cambodia's main source of official development assistance in 2007, Japan is still an important player in Cambodia's domestic infrastructure.
Since 1994, Cambodia has received 210 Japanese investment projects, totaling US$3.1 billion. In 2022, Japan-Cambodia bilateral trade volume will reach US$1.95 billion. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2023, the two countries announced that they would upgrade their bilateral relations to a "comprehensive strategic partnership." As Jin Ping, director of the Institute of International Relations of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said, "Since the upgrade to a comprehensive strategic partnership, the relationship between the two countries seems to be deepening, and personnel exchanges have become increasingly frequent."
It should be noted that expanding the Southeast Asian market has been Japan's consistent national policy since the 1960s, and it is also the lifeblood of Japan's typical export-oriented and excess processing industry economy. It is wrong to simply regard it as "cooperating with the US strategy" One-sided.
Cambodia made it clear when Austin visited and lobbied before that Cambodia would not "choose sides" between China and the United States, but would develop friendly relations with other countries at the same time. Obviously, this principle will also apply to the other "triangle" of China, Japan and Cambodia.
It is not difficult for Japan to achieve its goal of expanding its market in Cambodia, but it will be difficult if it intends to poach China. Cambodia will also not alienate China by seeking assistance and investment from Japan. Read the full text>>>
Editor Sun Linzhi Design Zhu Jinghui Proofreading Zhang Yanjun
