The latest and fifteenth version of Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) was released by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy on Tuesday, according to media reports.

According to the report, 45 universities on the Chinese mainland are among the top 500 universities in the world, while 12 universities in China’s Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are also on the list. That puts a total of 57 Chinese universities on the list, accounting for 11.4%.

Meanwhile, Tsinghua University in Beijing, ranked 48th, has entered the top 50 for the first time and become the third top ranked Asian university.

Peking University ranks 71st, followed by Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, University of Science and Technology of China, and Zhejiang University, which all rank between 101st and 150th.

Four more top 500 universities on the Chinese mainland are on the ARWU list in 2017 than 2016, which is a demonstration of greater comprehensive strength and influence of Chinese universities in the world.

Universities from English-speaking countries still dominate the list, with 19 of the top 20 universities located in the US and the UK.

Harvard University remains number one in the world for the 15th consecutive year. Stanford University continues to be the second top university. The University of Cambridge overtakes MIT and Berkeley, rising to the third best university in the world.

According to Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities, the institutions ranked between 501st and 800th have been included on an ARWU World Top 500 Candidates list for the first time. They demonstrate their potential of breaking into the Top 500 list in the near future. The US and China are the two biggest hosts of Top 500 Candidates. Both of them have 55 institutions recognized as candidates.

ARWU, also known as Shanghai Ranking, is an annual publication of university rankings by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy.

ARWU has been presenting the world Top 500 universities annually based on a transparent methodology and third-party data since 2003.

Severe rainstorms flooded stores and houses throughout Zhangguying county in Yueyang, Hunan province, on Saturday.

Liu Hongbo tries to help a shopkeeper when severe rainstorm hits Zhangguying county in Yueyang, Hunan province, Aug 12, 2017. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A shopkeeper was swept from her shoe store while trying to prevent stock from being washed away.

Seeing the woman being dragged from her shop, a man, Liu Hongbo, jumped into the rapidly flowing floodwaters to help the woman.

Liu tied her to a steel pipe using rope, but as the rope was not long enough for them both, he had to clutch onto the pipe.

After about 10 minutes, a truck arrived to rescue them. “If I didn’t help her, I would have felt guilty,” Liu said after the incident.

Half of all flights across China were delayed or canceled in July, mostly affected by extreme weather, the top aviation authority said on Tuesday.

The flight punctuality rate was 50.76 percent, said Zhang Chunzhi, Party chief of the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s operation and monitoring center.

Although the on-time figure in June was low, July’s figure was lower. The punctuality rate was 57.23 percent in June, 11.2 percentage points lower than the same period last year.

Zhang said weather accounted for 58.6 percent of the delays in July.

“The northern, southern and southwestern region of China experienced more storms in summer than before. Airports in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Haikou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming and Tianjin experienced extreme storms,” she said.

Five typhoons struck China and affected airports in southeastern coastal areas, including Guangdong, Shenzhen, Haikou, Sanya, Fuzhou and Xiamen.

Air-traffic control also contributed to the lower punctuality rate, accounting for 25.99 percent of the delays, Zhang added.

Near-term forecasts call for storms to continue. “According to weather predictions, bad weather such as strong rainfall and storms will continue to affect flights in late August, mostly in middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River and south of the river. Two or three typhoons will affect the southeastern coastal area,” Zhang said.

The bad weather forced many flights to reschedule, culminating on July 22, when airports across China marked a record by handling 15,181 flights.

Feng Zhenglin, head of the aviation administration, predicted in March that 75 percent or more of all flights during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20) would be on time.

Beijing Capital International Airport saw heavy rainfall on July 21, but handled 1,522 flights. Some 653 flights were delayed and 238 canceled, according to the CAAC’s North China Regional Administration.

The next day, the airport handled 1,725 flights.

The CAAC’s North China Regional Administration launched initiatives to cope with weather challenges, such as adjusting flight schedules a day ahead based on weather forecasts and telling airlines to reschedule flights. These moves give passengers time to reschedule their travel and help avoid having passengers travel to airports and then face last-minute cancellations.

The single adults in China with disposable income and willingness to spend is huge, but instead of helping the economy they could be hurting growth, according to a South China Morning Post report on Aug 15.

The number of China’s single adults has reached to the entire populations of Russia and the UK combined.

The report said that by the end of 2015, China had 200 million single people, including those who would have got married by now in the previous generation and unmarried couples.

It is said the new generation was richer and was spending more money compared to the older generations. World Economic Forum data shows upper-middle-class consumers who are 35 or younger on average spend 40 percent more than last generation of their age.

Most retailers and service providers in fashion, entertainment, food and travel fields target single people as they tend to focus on themselves and are willing to improve their living quality. The luxury brands are especially quite popular among urban single people since they can afford them and like the idea of “giving themselves a treat”.

However, Zhang Ning, a research fellow with the China National Academy of Economic Strategy, said the increase in the number of single people has a more negative influence on economy although many industries do benefit from their spending.

He takes Japan as an example, saying Japanese young people want to avoid familial responsibility by not getting married. The high unmarried rate in Japan has had a negative influence on the economy.

Single people feel less responsiblities than married ones that could lead to a lack of motivation to work and create more fortune.

The report also said that although singles now feel more confident and secure, but they are more insecure about family responsibility, economic burden and emotional stress than married ones.

Single people often face the pressure to plan for their own future which leads them to prefer investing in insurance and finance product rather than purchasing high-value items.

As for young married couples, they usually spend considerable amount of money on baby products and things they want to buy for the partners, which drives domestic consumption.

President Xi Jinping has encouraged college students to get to know their country and achieve their true value as the nation comes “closer than ever” to its goal of rejuvenation.

Xi made the remarks on Tuesday in a letter replying to college students who took part in the third China College Students’ “Internet Plus” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition.

The students wrote to Xi earlier this year about how they used business startup programs to address local need for development and help boost efforts in eradicating poverty in Yan’an, Shaanxi province.

Yan’an was once a home to China’s revolutionary bases before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, and it has been underdeveloped.

In April and July, around 100 groups taking part in the competition went to Yan’an to help local people eliminate poverty and live a well-off life.

In the reply to the students on Tuesday, Xi said he is glad to know that the students have achieved progress and received inspiration during their stay at the hometown of China’s revolution.

The students have integrated their dreams of youth into the Chinese Dream, and have projected the upbeat look of the modern Chinese youth when they followed the paces of revolutionary predecessors there, Xi said.

“As long as the younger generation of the country have ideals, pursuits and shoulders, there will be endless power of youth supporting the Chinese nation’s rejuvenation,” Xi wrote.

It is hoped the students will improve their talent and abilities via innovation and entrepreneurial activities and strengthen their willpower through hard work, Xi said.

As the country has set the goal of eliminating poverty by 2020, Yan’an reduced its registered population of poor residents to 10,200 people as of the end of last year, according to the city’s information office.