3-child policy approved China’s lawmakers on August 20 passed a law amendment that allows each couple to have three children and stipulates supportive measures for the new policy. The amendment to the Population and Family Planning Law was passed at a session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee. It cancels relevant restrictive measures, including fines for couples who violate the law to have more children than they are permitted. Mars rover finishes tasks China’s Mars rover Zhurong has accomplished its exploration and detection tasks as planned, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on August 17. As of August 15, Zhurong had worked on the surface of Mars for 90 Martian days, or about 92 days on Earth, with all scientific payloads having started to work on detection tasks, said the administration. The rover has traveled 889 meters as of August 15, and its scientific payloads have collected about 10 Gb of raw data. Now the rover runs stably and operates in good condition with sufficient energy. Police to target crimes threatening Yellow River The Ministry of Public Security has ordered police across the country to strictly enforce the law and crack down on crimes damaging the ecological environment in the Yellow River basin. The crackdown, as part of the special operation “Kunlun 2021,” aims to promote environmental conservation and high-quality development in relevant areas, the ministry said in a statement on August 17. The ministry has ordered police along the river to strictly deal with criminal acts harming ecological elements at the water source areas, as well as illegal sand excavation, mining, fishing and poaching. Effective vaccines Inactivated COVID-19 vaccines developed by China curbed the spread of the Delta variant during a May outbreak in Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong Province, a study has shown. Led by reputed epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan, researchers from the Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that two shots of the vaccines provided an efficacy of 59 percent against COVID-19 caused by the Delta variant, 70.2 percent against moderate form of the disease, and 100 percent against severe cases. Meng’s extradition hearing Huawei Technologies’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou’s extradition hearing in Canada closed on August 18. The judge will set a date to announce the decision in October. The court case presented by the prosecution revealed contradictory statements, according to media reports on the ground. (SD-Agencies) | 