Biodiversity meeting Facing alarming biodiversity loss that is threatening the survival of humanity, the international community should take bold action to promote harmony between humans and nature, senior U.N. officials said on Monday. “The costs of our suicidal war against nature are growing at an alarming rate,” said Inger Andersen, U.N. under-secretary-general and executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, in her opening speech at a biodiversity meeting held in China. The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, known as COP15, kicked off on Monday in Kunming, the capital of Southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Flood-hit provinces The Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) on Monday earmarked 80 million yuan (US$12.4 million) from the central natural-disaster relief fund to support relief work in the flood-hit provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi. More than 120,000 people were temporarily evacuated in Shanxi after continuous downpours triggered floods, the provincial department of emergency management authorities said on Sunday. ‘Double reduction’ Earlier this year, China’s Ministry of Education issued a set of “double reduction” policies to ease the burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring on students. Many students are happy about the change. “I used to take English courses on weekends, but now I have more time to relax and engage in sports activities,” said 12-year-old Liang Song, who started to play table tennis every weekend in Wuhan Fitness Center since the summer. Taiwan question President Xi Jinping said on Saturday that the Taiwan question arose out of the weakness and chaos of the Chinese nation, and it will be resolved as national rejuvenation becomes a reality. “This is determined by the general trend of Chinese history, but more importantly, it is the common will of all Chinese people,” said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, while addressing a meeting marking the 110th anniversary of the Revolution of 1911. Talks over trade Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chief of the Chinese side of the China-U.S. comprehensive economic dialogue, on Saturday held a video call with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. During the conversation, the two sides conducted pragmatic, candid and constructive exchanges on three issues related to China-U.S. economic and trade relations.(SD-Agencies) | 