http://www.china.org.cn/photos/2019-03/10/content_74553300.htm

How can Chinese city of Chengdu and U.S. city of Austin, nearly 13,000 km apart, forge a bond?

Chengdu and Austin are now seriously considering teaming up to tap opportunities that are already there or wait to be created while working toward the establishment of a formal relationship.

Austin is home to 46 incubators and has attracted a great many tech companies, including Apple, Samsung, IBM and Amazon, said David Colligan, manager of Global Business Expansion at the City of Austin Economic Development Department.

Chengdu, at the same time, is striving to build itself into a "city of innovation," with a goal of increasing the added value of cultural and creative industries to 180 billion yuan (26.8 billion U.S. dollars), or about 10 percent of the city's GDP, according to Zhang Yingming, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the Chengdu Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

https://exonews.org/austin-mayor-steve-adler-we-are-putting-queso-on-the-moon/

• Austen, Texas Mayor Steve Adler is one of a number of ‘celebrities, influencers, and dignitaries’ who has contributed a letter to the Arch Mission Foundation’s Lunar Library on the Moon. The letters are meant to be for extraterrestrials and future citizens of the solar system. They were placed on board the SpaceX Falcon rocket that launched out of Cape Canaveral, Florida on February 21st, and is scheduled to arrive at the Moon on April 11th.

https://apnews.com/dec2e0c6d6bb424c9fdfadbd23b98bec

North Korea goes to polls to approve new parliament lineup

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Millions of North Korean voters, including leader Kim Jong Un, went to the polls on Sunday to elect roughly 700 members to the national legislature.

In typical North Korean style, the vote was more of an endorsement than a competitive contest — voters were presented with just one state-sanctioned candidate per seat. They cast their ballots to show their approval or, very rarely, disapproval.

The elections, held every five years, are for the entire Supreme People’s Assembly, which, on paper at least, is the highest organ of power in North Korea. Its delegates come from all over the country and all walks of life. The candidates are selected by the ruling Korean Workers’ Party and a couple of other smaller coalition parties that have seats in the assembly but exercise little independent power.