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Geopolitics

In Response To Newtown Shooting, Utah Teachers Get Free Gun Training

REUTERS, FOXNEWS, CNN, AP (USA)

Worldcrunch

SALT LAKE CITY - Gun-rights advocates in Utah have offered six hours of training in handling concealed weapons for teachers, in the wake of the mass shooting that killed 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

On Thursday, about 200 Utah teachers flocked to an indoor sports arena for free instruction in the handling of firearms by gun activists from the Utah Shooting Sports Council – who say armed educators might have a chance of thwarting deadly shooting rampages in their schools, Reuters reports.

The move comes after the National Rifle Association (NRA) proposed placing an armed officer at each of the nation's schools. Instruction features plastic guns and a major emphasis will be for people who are facing deadly threats to announce they have a gun and retreat or take cover before trying to shoot, the Utah Shooting Sports Council told Foxnews.

Clark Aposhian, president of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, clarified the group’s stance on the presence of weapons in schools: "What we're talking about is not arming teachers," he told CNN, adding that locking doors and hiding behind a desk "just isn't doing it anymore." "We're simply not taking away that ability of lawful self-defense within a school."

Gun control activists have criticized calls to arm teachers and said efforts at curbing gun violence in schools should be tied to tightening firearms laws. Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C., told Reuters: "We think it makes a lot more sense to prevent a school shooter from getting the gun in the first place."

“It’s a terrible idea,” Carol Lear, the chief lawyer for the Utah Office of Education, told the Associated Press -- arguing that teachers could be overpowered for their guns or misfire or cause an accidental shooting. “It’s a horrible, terrible, no-good, rotten idea.”

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Economy

How A Xi Jinping Dinner In San Francisco May Have Sealed Mastercard's Arrival In China

The credit giant becomes only the second player after American Express to be allowed to set up a bank card-clearing RMB operation in mainland China.

Photo of a hand holding a phone displaying an Union Pay logo, with a Mastercard VISA logo in the background of the photo.

Mastercard has just been granted a bank card clearing license in China.

Liu Qianshan

-Analysis-

It appears that one of the biggest beneficiaries from Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to San Francisco was Mastercard.

The U.S. credit card giant has since secured eagerly anticipated approval to expand in China's massive financial sector, having finally obtained long sought approval from China's central bank and financial regulatory authorities to initiate a bank card business in China through its joint venture with its new Chinese partner.

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Through a joint venture in China between Mastercard and China's NetsUnion Clearing Corporation, dubbed Mastercard NUCC, it has officially entered mainland China as an RMB currency clearing organization. It's only the second foreign business of its kind to do so following American Express in 2020.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the development is linked to Chinese President Xi Jinping's meeting on Nov. 15 with U.S. President Joe Biden in San Francisco, part of a two-day visit that also included dinner that Xi had with U.S. business executives.

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