CNN reports: "China has issued its second ever 'red alert' warning, advising residents that heavy air pollution is anticipated to shroud northern parts of the country this weekend...The four-level system was actually introduced in 2013, which has lead some observers to question why the alerts haven't been employed until now. China has regularly come under fire for its lack of transparency about air quality index figures and its seeming unwillingness to implement a warning system for residents. But things appear to be changing. Last week locals had 12 hours notice. Today the warning came while Beijing's skies were still blue, giving people more time to prepare and possibly reduce their likelihood of being exposed to the toxic shroud."
The Wall Street Journal reports: "With a new electronic-payments deal, Apple Inc. and China's state-run bank-card giant are trying to catch up in a market where such services have already taken off...UnionPay, which holds a monopoly on processing bank-card payments in China, said Friday it struck a deal with Samsung Electronics Co. to work with the South Korean company's Samsung Pay smartphone card-management system. In recent days it said it launched its own QuickPass mobile-payment system in conjunction with 20 Chinese banks on phones that run Google Inc.'s Android software. In an interview on the sidelines of China's World Internet Conference in the city of Wuzhen this week, UnionPay President Shi Wenchao said QuickPass would 'level up users' experience.' He also said UnionPay welcomes competition."
The Associated Press reports: "Alex Theil lost his innocence the day an envelope landed on his desk. It was filled with money from a counterfeiter of Toyota auto parts he'd busted, mistakenly delivered to him by a lawyer hired to help with the raid...Fraud in the anti-counterfeiting industry goes well beyond luxury fashion goods, and has impacted products that can be dangerous — including auto parts, pharmaceuticals and critical electrical components, the AP found. Western companies share the blame, because many have bought into a system that facilitates widespread fraud, according to more than a dozen lawyers, law enforcement officials and private investigators interviewed by the AP. One of them is Theil, who has spent years trying to figure out a way to fix the system."