Headline

80-year-old Chinese Language Teacher Makes World Guinness Records With Longest 64-year Career

Published

1 year ago

May 27, 2024

An 80-year-old Chinese woman, Yeyu Ying, has been officially recognised by the Guinness World Records for having the title of longest career as a female language teacher of an incredible 64 years and 33 days.

GWR said Yeyu Ying started her teaching career at the tender age of 17 in a rural elementary school in Zhejiang, China.

She was born into a poor family in Ruian, Zhejiang Province, but chose to become a teacher to help support her family, and this choice marked the beginning of a remarkable journey.

After initially retiring in February 1999 at the age of 55, she founded Yuying Elementary School, where she continued to teach to this day.

However, currently, she still teaches six Chinese language classes each week. Her dedication embodies the spirit of lifelong learning, constantly updating her teaching methods and resources, even as she grows older.

“I remember seeing record challenges on TV long ago and thinking about my own passion for teaching. I always believed my lesson plans were the most meticulous in the world,” Yeyu Ying said.

“Maybe I harboured a secret desire to challenge the record but never dared to speak it out loud for fear of being laughed at,” Yeyu Ying recalls.

“Earlier this year, while chatting with my daughter, we watched some Guinness World Records challenge clips again. I decided to discuss applying with my colleagues, and to my surprise, we succeeded!”

She disclosed that her journey as a teacher from a humble family but with incredible feats gives her joy.

“This recognition is a testament to my lifelong passion. Coming from a rural village in southern China, establishing a school in Lishui in the 1990s, and receiving such an honour for what seemed like an ordinary career fills me with gratitude,” she added.

Yeyu Ying has always faced life’s challenges with courage, never thinking of giving up. At 17, she was tested by mischievous students.

After retiring, she faced the challenge of founding a school on her own, moving locations three times in four years. Over her decades-long teaching career, even walking to school became a strenuous task at times.

As a principal, Yeyu Ying would rise at 5 am and be at school by 7:30 am to monitor teachers and students before starting her teaching duties. When teachers were away for meetings or training, she would step in to save on school expenses.

She recalled, “In any spare moment, I was preparing lessons. Unlike today, we didn’t have convenient electronic devices. Every lesson was meticulously handwritten with a calligraphy brush, taking six hours to prepare each class. If I wasn’t satisfied with my handwriting, I would tear up the pages and start over.”

Remarkably, at 80, Yeyu Ying still has new goals of establishing a nursing home to make life comfortable for the aged.

“I plan to open a nursing home next, dedicating my remaining life to society and helping the elderly live their final years with joy,” she said, noting she is currently conducting social research for this new project.

Headline

UK Nursery Worker Jailed For Abusing 21 Babies

Published

21 hours ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

A judge on Friday jailed a nursery worker for eight years for a string of “gratuitous” and “sadistic” attacks on babies.

In one incident, Londoner Roksana Lecka, 22, kicked a little boy in the face several times.

Lecka, who blamed cannabis for her crimes, admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was convicted after a trial of another 14 counts.

Sentencing her for attacks on 21 babies, Judge Sarah Plaschkes said she had committed “multiple acts of gratuitous violence” at two London nurseries where she worked.

“You pinched, slapped, punched, smacked and kicked them. You pulled their ears, hair and their toes. You toppled children headfirst into cots,” she said.

“Often the child would be quietly and happily minding its own business before you deliberately inflicted pain… Your criminal conduct can properly be characterised as sadistic,” she added.

Lecka’s cruelty was revealed in June 2024 after she was seen pinching a number of children.
Police were called in and found multiple incidents recorded on the nursery CCTV.

Victim impact statements submitted to London’s Kingston Crown Court from parents of Lecka’s victims told how they were left heartbroken and guilt-stricken by the attacks.

“These children were so innocent and vulnerable,” one mother told the court.

“They couldn’t speak, they couldn’t defend themselves and they couldn’t tell us as parents that something had happened to them,” she added.

“They were totally helpless and Roksana preyed upon them.”

The hearing was told that she had apologised to the parents in a letter to the court in which she said cannabis had turned her into a different person.

She had been addicted to the drug around the time of the offences, but had not told the nursery.
She was found not guilty of three further counts of child cruelty.

Headline

Italy Fines Six Oil Firms $1bn Fine For Restricting Competition

Published

24 hours ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

Italy’s antitrust regulator said Friday it has slapped Italian energy giant Eni and five other companies with fines totalling more than 936 million euros ($1.1 billion) for “restricting competition” in the sale of fuel.

The authority said in a statement that Eni, Esso, Ip, Q8, Saras and Tamoil “coordinated to set the value of the bio component factored into fuel prices”, which tripled between 2019 and 2023.

A probe following a whistleblower’s complaint revealed that “the companies implemented parallel price increases — largely coinciding — which were driven by direct or indirect information exchanges among them”, the authority said.

“The cartel began on 1 January 2020 and continued until 30 June 2023,” it added.

AFP

Headline

Trump Signs Order For TikTok’s Sale, Valued At $14bn

Published

1 day ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order declaring that his plan is to sell TikTok’s US operations to American and global investors.

As reported by Reuters on Friday, the order requires companies bidding for TikTok to meet the national-security requirements of the 2024 law that otherwise would ban the app unless its Chinese owners divest.

Speaking to reporters at an Oval Office briefing on Thursday, Vice President James Vance said the newly created US entity would be “valued around $14 billion.

“We actually think this is a good deal for investors, but they will make a determination about what they want to invest and what they think is the proper value,” he said.

The White House on Thursday pushed back the law’s enforcement date to January 20 to allow time for the transaction, investor commitments, and negotiations with Chinese authorities.

The publication of the executive order shows Trump is making progress on the sale of TikTok’s US assets.

However, details remain to be worked out, including how the U.S. company would handle TikTok’s most valuable asset: its recommendation algorithm.

“There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law,” Vance said.

According to Reuters, Trump’s order says the algorithm will be retrained and monitored by the U.S. company’s security partners, and operation of the algorithm will be under the control of the new joint venture.

Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had indicated approval of the plans. “I spoke with President Xi,” Trump said. “We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing, and he said go ahead with it.”

Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. TikTok did not immediately comment on Trump’s action.

Trump has credited TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users, with helping him win reelection last year. Trump has 15 million followers on his personal TikTok account. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.

“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump said.

He said that Michael Dell, the founder, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies; Rupert Murdoch, the chairman emeritus of Fox News owner Fox Corp, and newspaper publisher News Corp, and “probably four or five absolutely world-class investors” would be part of the deal.