The world is changing fast, but you can learn it at a slower pace.
Special English You're listening to Special English.
Here is the news.
Chinese cities Quanzhou and Wuxi have been added to the Creative Cities Network of the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation.
UNESCO expanded its Creative Cities Network on the occasion of World Cities Day, with the addition of 58 new cities around the world, including Quanzhou and Wuxi.
The network encompasses eight creative fields architecture, crafts and folk art, media arts design film, as well as gastronomy, literature and music.
Chuanzhou was designated a creative city of gastronomy, while Wuxi was named a a creative city of music.
Both cities stand out for their vibrant cultural life, active support for creative sectors and innovative approaches to urban development.
With these additions, the network now includes 408 cities across more than 100 countries, all acknowledged for their commitment to advancing creative industries and cultural life.
Launched in 2004, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network supports cities that leverage culture and creativity to create jobs, boost economic growth and strengthen social cohesion by promoting skills, supporting creative professionals and engaging local communities.
Several other Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan have also joined the network.
Amid deafening cheers from more than 62000 fans at Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre, the final whistle blew on the inaugural season of China's Su Super League, capping an amateur league that has captivated the nation's grassroots sports scene.
In a nerve-wracking penalty shootout that gripped the entire stadium, underdog Tai Zhou edged Nantong 4-3, handing the previously undefeated team its first and most painful loss of the season.
Wang Yong, a Taizhou supporter who travelled hours to witness the spectacle, said it was the pure beauty of football raw, real and absolutely thrilling.
Nantong launched relentless attacks in the first half, but Taijo's defence held firm through 90 minutes of pressure, forcing the match into a shootout.
As confetti rained down, Taijo lifted the Golden Trophy – a cup reminiscent of the FIFA World Cup's iconic design, symbolising how this province of over 80 million residents has caught the fever ahead of next year's global tournament.
Drawing playful inspiration from both the English Premier League and the Chinese Super League.
The Sioux Super League has emerged as a local phenomenon, packed with derby rivalries, drama and roaring stadiums.
Tickets for the final had a success rate of just 12, while the record crowd of 62329 set a new benchmark for amateur football events in China.
Over the course of the season, total live attendance surpassed 243 million, averaging more than 28000 spectators per game figures once thought impossible for an amateur competition.
The league's appeal lies in its roots.
More than 500 players, from high school students and teachers to office workers and IT engineers, juggle day jobs with night-time training.
Their dedication has struck a chord, with residents across Jiangsu, turning football into a shared passion.
The impact extends beyond the pitch.
According to the provincial Department of Commerce.
Since the Su Super League's kick-off in May, Jiangsu's major retailers and supermarkets reported 1164 billion yuan in total sales during match periods, up 347 year on year, while foot traffic rose 312.
Tourism also flourished by the day of the final.
Host cities welcomed about 24 million visitors.
Key attractions on matchdays a 177 increase from a year earlier.
Out-of-town tourists spent 139 billion yuan on cultural and leisure activities via union pay transactions up 26.
According to the China Manned Space Agency, China will launch the new generation of crewed spaceship Mengzhou-1 in 2026 has been developed through a comprehensive upgrade from the Shenzhou crewed spaceship.
It adopts a modular design comprising a return capsule and a service capsule, and it will provide transport between Earth and the space station.
The Mengzhou-1 crewed spaceship will make its maiden flight atop the Long March 10A carrier rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in southern Hainan Province and dock with the radial port of the space station's core module.
It will verify the performance of the spaceship's overall systems, while delivering environmental assessment instruments and supplies, technology demonstration payloads, crew necessities and experiment devices for applied science tests.
China will also launch the Shenzhou-22 and Shenzhou-23 crewed spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China next year.
Each mission will carry a crew of three astronauts.
The Shenzhou-22 spacecraft will dock with the radial port of the space station's core module, while Shenzhou 23 will dock with the front port.
One astronaut of the Shenzhou 22 crew will stay in orbit for a long-duration residency experiment lasting more than one year.
The tasks of the two crewed spaceflight missions will also include conducting extravehicular activities, delivering and retrieving payloads through the cargo airlock, continuing space science experiments and technology tests, as well as managing space station systems, carrying out crew support tasks and performing education outreach activities.
Moreover, China plans to launch the Tianzhou-10 cargo spacecraft from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in 2026.
It will dock with the backward port of the Space station's core module.
The main tasks of the cargo spacecraft include delivering crew supplies and suits for extra-vehicular activities, maintenance spares and propellant to keep the station safe and operational, as well as payloads and experiment samples for applied science projects.
When it de-orbits, the cargo spacecraft will dispose of the waste from the space station.
You're listening to Special English.
A new unmanned helicopter, the T1400, has successfully conducted its first flight, marking a major step forward toward the tonne-class era of low-altitude equipment in China's aviation sector.
Developed by Harbin United Aircraft Technology Company under the United Aircraft Group project.
This helicopter performed a series of manoeuvres during its recent maiden test flight in Harbin, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
These manoeuvres included hovering, route flight and precision landing.
Tian Gangyin, chairman of the United Aircraft Group, said that the T-1400, with a maximum take-off weight of 1400 kg, represents a breakthrough in both payload and endurance, addressing the long-standing limitations of industrial drones.
The T-1400 unmanned helicopter boasts a maximum payload of 650 kilograms and can remain airborne for over eight hours.
Designed for extreme environments.
It operates in temperatures ranging from minus 40 degrees degrees Celsius to 55 degrees Celsius, reaches a service ceiling of 6500 meters and withstands strong winds.
Tian said that the T-1400 is primarily aimed at serving Heilongjiang's vast farmlands forests, lakes and rivers, with potential applications in agriculture, logistics and emergency rescue.
He also noted that the aircraft will be deployed nationwide in the future.
As a crucial grain-producing region and forest base in China, Heilongjiang has emerged as a key market for the low-altitude economy.
In recent years, the province has introduced a series of measures to accelerate the development of this sector, aiming to achieve breakthroughs in airspace reform and establish distinctive regional applications by 2027.
The low-altitude economy in China has gained significant momentum since its inclusion in the 2024 Government Work Report, where it was identified as a new growth driver.
The sector is expected to reach a market size of 15 trillion yuan by the end of 2025, with further expansion projected to 35 trillion yuan by 2035, as forecast by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
This is Special English.
A Chinese research team has uncovered a collaborative dynamic in soil microorganisms during a study on the ecological restoration of tropical coral islands, offering a novel strategy for the optimisation of vegetation in these fragile ecosystems.
The study, which was conducted by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' South China Botanical Garden, has been published in the journal soil ecology letters.
Tropical coral islands have relatively isolated and closed ecosystems with harsh living conditions, and they experience frequent high temperatures, intense sunlight, high salinity levels and seasonal drought.
Combined With low levels of biodiversity, simple system structures and weak capacities for self-regulation, these ecosystems are highly unstable.
Meanwhile, artificially established vegetation often struggles to persist and tends to degrade, thus posing significant challenges to restoration and ecological function enhancement efforts.
The study has indicated that artificial vegetation significantly improves soil conditions and nutrient availability, but key metrics such as Soil fertility, microbial biomass, enzyme activity and biodiversity during the early restoration stage still lag markedly behind those of natural vegetation.
The research has identified clear collaboration among soil microorganisms during the ecological recovery process.
In the initial stages of vegetation restoration.
Soil fungi efficiently break down hard to decompose organic matter thanks to their tolerance to drought and salinity.
This creates favourable conditions for plant colonization and plays a central role in stabilizing the microbial network structure.
As restoration progresses, soil bacteria take on a main force role in maintaining long-term ecosystem function and stability by promoting the rapid cycling of key elements such as carbon nitrogen and phosphorus.
Additionally, the study found that soil microorganisms in both artificial and natural vegetation are limited by both carbon and phosphorus nutrients.
This suggests that the insufficient supply of soil nutrients on tropical coral islands is a critical bottleneck restricting microbial activity and the efficiency of ecological restoration.
This is Special English.
That is the end of this edition of Special English.
To recap, I'm going to read one of the news items again at normal speed.
Please listen carefully.
Amid deafening cheers from more than 62000 fans at Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre, the final whistle blew on the inaugural season of China's Su Super League, capping an amateur league that has captivated the nation's grassroots sports scene.
In a nerve-wracking penalty shoot-out that gripped the entire stadium, underdog Tai Zhou edged Nantong 4-3, handing the previously undefeated team its first and most painful loss of the season.
Wang Yong, a Tai Zhou supporter who travelled hours to witness the spectacle, said it was the pure beauty of football raw, real and absolutely thrilling.
Nantong launched relentless attacks in the first half, but Taizhou's defence held firm through 90 minutes of pressure, forcing the match into a shootout.
As confetti rained down, Taizhou lifted the Golden Trophy, a cup reminiscent of the FIFA World Cup's iconic design, symbolising how this province of over 80 million residents has caught the fever ahead of next year's global tournament.
Drawing playful inspiration from both the English Premier League and the Chinese Super League.
The Sioux Super League has emerged as a local phenomenon, packed with derby rivalries, drama and roaring stadiums.
Tickets for the final had a success rate of just 12, while the record crowd of 62329 set a new benchmark for amateur football events in China.
Over the course of the season, total live attendance surpassed 243 million, averaging more than 28000 spectators per game figures once thought impossible for an amateur competition.
The league's appeal lies in its roots.
More than 500 players, from high school students and teachers to office workers and IT engineers, juggle day jobs with night-time training.
Their dedication has struck a chord, with residents across Jiangsu, turning football into a shared passion.
The impact extends beyond the pitch.
According to the Provincial Department of Commerce, since the Sioux Super League's kick-off in May, Jiangsu's major retailers and supermarkets reported 1164 billion yuan, about US16 billion in total sales during match periods, up 347 year-on-year, while foot traffic rose 312.
Tourism also flourished.
By the day of the final host cities welcomed about 24 million visitors to key attractions on matchdays, a 177 increase from a year earlier.
Out-of-town tourists spent 139 billion yuan on cultural and leisure activities via union pay transactions, up 265 year-on-year.
Encouraged by the league's success, Jiangsu sports authorities announced plans to start next season earlier, align it with major holidays and add rules to promote youth participation, aiming to nurture grassroots talent that could one day fuel China's football ambitions.
That is the end of today's programme.
I hope you'll join us every day to learn English... at a slower pace.
