User blogs
Tag Search
Selecting Your Movie and Showtime The first step is to choose the film you want to watch. Websites like Fandango offer comprehensive listings of movies and theaters. Alternatively, platforms like wikiHow provide a step-by-step guide to help you through the process2. Once you’ve decided on the movie, it’s time to pick a showtime that fits your schedule. Most websites display showtimes as clickable links, making it easy to select the desired time.
Securing Your Seats After selecting the showtime, you’ll be prompted to choose the number of tickets and, if available, your preferred seats. This feature is particularly useful for theaters offering reserved seating, ensuring you get the best view possible.
Making the Payment The next step involves payment. Online ticket vendors accept various forms of payment, including credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets. Some even offer discounts or loyalty points, which can be redeemed for future purchases.
Receiving and Redeeming Your Tickets Once the payment is confirmed, you’ll receive your tickets electronically. They can be printed at home, saved to your phone, or, in some cases, simply shown from the email confirmation at the theater2. This not only saves paper but also time at the box office.
Tips for a Smooth Transaction To ensure a smooth transaction, always buy from reputable websites or directly from the cinema’s official site. Be wary of unauthorized sellers, as tickets purchased from them may not be accepted at the theater2. Additionally, consider signing up for newsletters or alerts from your favorite theaters to stay informed about upcoming releases and special promotions.
Conclusion Online movie ticket purchasing is a testament to the power of the internet to enhance our daily activities. It offers a convenient, time-saving solution that complements our modern lifestyle. So next time you’re planning a movie night, remember that a great cinematic experience is just a few clicks away.
The persistent threat of China invading Taiwan
That's what Admiral Lee Hsi-min, who used to head Taiwan's armed forces, told correspondent Lesley Stahl about China this week on 60 Minutes. Tensions between Taiwan and China have been ratcheting up recently. In August, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. China responded by carrying out its largest military drill ever.To get more China news, you can visit shine news official website.
For three days China subjected Taiwan to continuous sorties with over 100 warplanes, a barrage of ballistic missiles, and warships that encircled the island. The purpose was to deliver a loud and clear message: China could choke off Taiwan any time it wanted to.But even with that show of force, Stahl found many in Taiwan do not share Admiral Lee's sense of urgency.
People Stahl talked to told her over and over the military drill was "no big deal." China has been doing it since 1949, when Mao Tse Tung won China's civil war and the losing anti-communist side fled to the small, nearby island that is now Taiwan.
And while much of the world thought an invasion might be imminent, polls showed that a majority of Taiwanese think that is unlikely any time soon, if ever.
A big reason for that line of thinking comes from Taiwan's manufacturing sector. The country is a tech giant, particularly in semiconductors. Taiwan is practically the world's only source of the thinnest microchips, manufactured almost exclusively by one company: TSMC.
Perhaps because our company provides a lot of chips to the world, maybe somebody will refrain from attacking it," Chang told Stahl. "If that person's priority is for economic well-being, I think they will refrain from attacking."
"What if the priority is to come here and nationalize your company within'One China'?" Stahl asked."If there's a war, I mean, it would be destroyed. Everything will be destroyed," Chang said.
Wang Ting-yu, a parliamentarian from southern Taiwan, shared Chang's view.
"Some of their Chinese Communists say, 'Let's invade Taiwan and occupy TSMC, make it become [a] party-owned company. Then we will be [a] superpower. United States and Japan and Europe: We don't supply them chips, they will follow Chinese orders.' But that's naïve," Ting-yu told Stahl. "Not only chip company, even a sausage company: You need a recipe. You need human capital. You need to know how to manufacturer-- manufacturing that kind of products."
On top of cyber warfare, Ting-yu alleged that China is trying to sabotage Taiwan's thriving economy and intimidate politically-powerful groups, like the farmers and fishermen in Ting-yu's home district of Tainan, who have been hit hard with a series of export bans.
The Taiwanese believe if China ever invaded, the U.S. would protect them, and three weeks ago on 60 Minutes, President Biden vowed that the Americans would. The White House later clarified to 60 Minutes that is not the official U.S. position. Officially, the U.S. maintains what it calls "strategic ambiguity" on whether American forces would defend Taiwan.
Beijing has promised that if there were re-unification, Taiwan could maintain many of its freedoms. But, in 2019, China broke a similar promise to Hong Kong. Protests led to beatings, arrests, and the stripping of democratic rights Hong Kong residents previously enjoyed. The democratic roll-back in Hong Kong, now a "Special Administrative Region" of China, hit home in Taiwan and led to President Tsai Ing-wen, leader of the aggressively anti-reunification party, winning re-election in a landslide.
Shanghai says water supplies 'normal' after shortage scare sparks hoarding
A wave of panic buying has swept Shanghai in recent days, as rumours swirled of drinking water shortages despite assurances from local authorities that supplies remained normal.To get more Shanghai news, you can visit shine news official website.
Record-breaking droughts in China dried up parts of the Yangtze River, and prompted saltwater intrusions into the estuary and depleted reservoirs feeding Shanghai, which sits at the mouth of the crucial river. Caixin media reported on Tuesday that Shanghai authorities had taken emergency measures to secure water supply after the intrusions contaminated two of Shanghai’s four primary reservoirs and forced their temporary closure.
The news report, combined with government announcements of routine maintenance shutdowns to small parts of the city, led to a rush of people stockpiling bottled water in fear of citywide shortages, according to social media posts.Shanghai city’s government later said the saltwater issue had been occurring since early September but water suppliers were closely monitoring the situation, and “scientifically” making adjustments to water flows.
“Tap water production and supply are normal, and water quality standards have been reached,” it said.
But people appeared determined not to take any chances. One photo shared across social media showed a man riding home with at least seven cardboard cases, four plastic pallets, and a water cooler-bottle attached to his scooter. Another showed a supermarket floor filled with shopping baskets of bottled water. The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the photos.
“Just ordered four buckets of water, the water delivery guy said that he will work overtime tonight to deliver water, everybody is ordering water,” said one person on Weibo.
“The [news] article says that a number of emergency measures are being taken to ensure water supply,” said another. “I’m afraid that people’s current mentality is that they have been bitten by snakes and for the 10 years are afraid of rope.”
Earlier this year Shanghai endured a months-long Covid-19 lockdown with widespread food shortages and waves of panic buying. “Those who have not experienced the closure of Shanghai cannot understand their fear of shortage of supplies,” said one commenter.The water crunch rumours also came amid growing fears of more Covid lockdowns, and just days out from the beginning of the ruling Communist party’s congress. The twice-a-decade meeting is the most important on the CCP calendar, and officials have been under pressure for months to ensure that all aspects of governance are at least appearing to run smoothly, leading to some suspicion of government statements.
One commenter joked that they were not worried about storing water until the Shanghai government offered reassurances. “I originally had two boxes left in stock, but when you refuted the rumours, it made me think that these two boxes are not enough?”
shots such as Sinopharm and Sinovac prevent 'severe hospitalisation' from Omicron
Covid-19 vaccines such as Sinopharm and Sinovac will protect against "severe hospitalisation" as a result of the Omicron variant, Dr Abdi Mahamud, the World Health Organisation’s incident manager for the pandemic, said on Tuesday.To get more news aboutsinopharm news today, you can visit shine news official website.
More evidence is emerging that Omicron is affecting the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms than previous variants, Dr Mahamud added.
"We are seeing more and more studies pointing out that Omicron is infecting the upper part of the body. Unlike the other ones, that could cause severe pneumonia," Dr Mahamud told Geneva-based journalists, saying it could be "good news".
However, he said Omicron's high transmissibility means it will become dominant within weeks in many places, posing a threat in countries where a high portion of the population remains unvaccinated.
Asked whether an Omicron-specific vaccine was needed, he said it was too early to say but stressed that the decision required global co-ordination and should not be left to the commercial sector to decide alone.Countries globally are battling a rapid spike in Covid-19 cases, fuelled by the Omicron variant, with schools delaying scheduled returns to classrooms, cruises suspending operations, and governments expanding vaccine mandates.
The latest statement from the WHO official comes just days after a study found Sinovac's two-dose Covid-19 vaccine followed by a booster Pfizer-BioNTech shot showed a lower immune response against the Omicron variant compared with other strains.
The study, which has not been peer-reviewed yet, was conducted by researchers from Yale University, the Dominican Republic's Ministry of Health and other institutions.
Sinovac's CoronaVac and state-owned Sinopharm's BBIBP-CorV vaccine are the two most-used vaccines in China and the leading Covid-19 shots exported by the country.
The UAE last month approved the emergency use of Sinopharm’s protein-based Covid-19 vaccine and said it will be available to the public as a booster dose from January 2022.
The vaccine will be produced and distributed by a joint venture between the UAE’s Group 42 and China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).
At a media briefing on Tuesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described China’s “zero-COVID” strategy as “not sustainable” after similar remarks last week drew sharp criticism from China.
“We know the virus better and we have better tools, including vaccines, so that’s why the handling of the virus should actually be different from what we used to do at the start of the pandemic,” Tedros said. He added that the virus had changed significantly since it was first identified in Wuhan in late 2019, when China largely stopped its spread with lockdowns.
Tedros said the WHO had repeatedly advised Chinese officials about their recommended COVID containment strategies, but that “regarding their choice of policies, it is up to every country to make that choice.”The ruthless and often chaotic implementation of zero-COVID in China has stirred considerable resentment and food shortages in Shanghai, where some residents have been under lockdown for six weeks.
WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said the agency recognized that China had faced a difficult situation with COVID-19 recently and commended authorities for keeping the number of deaths to a very low level.
“We understand why the initial response of China was to try and suppress infections to the maximum level (but) that strategy is not sustainable and other elements of the strategic response needs to be amplified,” he said. Ryan added that vaccination efforts should continue and emphasized that “a suppression-only strategy is not a sustainable way to exit the pandemic for any country.”
WHO chief Tedros also said the agency was trying to persuade North Korea and Eritrea to begin COVID-19 vaccination.
“WHO is deeply concerned at the risk of further spread in (North Korea),” Tedros said, noting that the population is unvaccinated and there are worrying numbers of people with underlying conditions that put them at risk of severe disease.
Tedros said the WHO has asked North Korea to share more data about the outbreak there but has so far had no response. North Korea only acknowledged an outbreak for the first time last week, and now says more than 1.7 million people have become ill with fever. It doesn't have enough testing supplies to confirm large numbers of COVID-19 cases, but outside experts believe most of the fever cases are caused by the coronavirus.He said the WHO had offered to send both North Korea and Eritrea vaccines, medicines, tests and technical support, but that neither country's leader has yet responded.
Ryan said any unchecked transmission in countries like North Korea and Eritrea could spur the emergence of new variants, but that the WHO was powerless to act unless countries accepted its help.
China’s Tencent Holdings is in talks to join the ongoing funding round of ShareChat, two people aware of the development said, as the social media platform seeks to power the growth of its short video app Moj.
The Chinese investor plans to invest as much as $100 million in ShareChat through convertible notes, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.ShareChat, operated by Mohalla Tech Pvt. Ltd declined to comment, while Tencent Holdings did not respond to requests for comment.
On 30 May, Reuters reported that ShareChat had raised $300 million from Google, Temasek and Times Internet at a valuation of approximately $5 billion.
Tencent has decided to invest through convertible notes as India in April 2020 required all fresh foreign direct investments (FDI) from bordering countries to secure prior approval to prevent opportunistic takeovers of Indian companies, the people said.Following border clashes in June 2020, New Delhi banned over 200 Chinese apps, including ByteDance-owned TikTok and Tencent-owned WeChat.
Tencent, which is keen to double down on its existing Indian holdings, has been doing so through convertible debt, a third person aware of the development said on condition of anonymity.
In April 2021, news portal Entrackr reported that the Chinese investor had invested $225 million in ShareChat through convertible debentures via two European special purpose vehicles, Zennis Capital BV and Hlodyn BV. Tencent has also invested in e-commerce platform Cars24, digital ledger app Khatabook, Flipkart, Udaan and Practo over the last three years.Tencent’s investment plans follow the government’s step in March to extend the timeline for converting debt into equity from five years to 10.
India has more than 350 million online video users, with users growing nearly twice as fast as markets such as China and Indonesia, Bain and Co. said in an October report. Moj, MX TakaTak, Josh, Roposo and Zili have more than 100 million downloads each.