Ethnic minority groups observe Water-Splashing Festival with tourists flocking in

Ethnic minority groups including the Dai and the De'ang in southwest China's Yunnan Province were in grand celebrations from Thursday to Sunday to observe the Water-Splashing Festival, feasting all participants including tourists from home and abroad with celebratory activities and delicacies full of local characteristics.

The Water-Splashing Festival, or the ethnic Dai calendar new year festival celebrated by some ethnic minority groups in China, is one of the most important festivals in the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture and Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan. This year, the festival fell on Sunday.

During the grand celebration, an indispensable traditional performance in the region is the peacock dance. As Dehong is known as the homeland of the ethnic dance, local performance teams had lots of final preparations before the annual Water Splashing Festival grand parade.

"We Dai people will make three curved movements of arms in performing the peacock dance,' which is to mimic peacocks walking," said Yue Lao, an inheritor to the ethnic Dai peacock dance, which is a national-level intangible cultural heritage in China.

In addition to the peacock dance, local people are also celebrating the festival with various other kinds of ethnic dances and performances, as well as a long-street banquet to entertain all participants including with local cuisines. In Mangshi City of Jingpo, the banquet consists of over 200 tables.

"The Water-Splashing Festival Glutinous Rice Cake is made with glutinous rice and brown sugar, and we wrap the dough with fresh Hardy banana leaves and steam it. This is a must-eat delicacy for our Water-Splashing Festival," said Yang Wen, deputy head of Dehong's Culture and Tourism Department.

To conclude the celebration on Sunday, a water-splashing carnival was held at the center square of Mangshi, engaging locals and tourists to splash water on everyone around to "dispel bad luck" and share best wishes. From basins to water guns, people were bringing all kinds of "weapons" to enjoy together the excitement and jolliness of the festival.

Ethnic minority groups observe Water-Splashing Festival with tourists flocking in

Italy's competition watchdog on Monday fined U.S. tech giant Apple over 98 million euros (115 million U.S. dollars) for abuse of its dominant position in the domestic mobile app market.

Following a complex investigation conducted in coordination with the European Commission, other national competition authorities and the Italian Data Protection Authority, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) said its findings confirmed "the restrictive nature -- from a competition-law perspective -- of the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy."

This policy refers to the privacy regulations Apple imposed on third-party developers distributing apps via the App Store for iOS devices, effective in April 2021.

The Italian regulator explained that Apple Inc., Apple Distribution International Ltd. and Apple Italia S.r.l required third-party app developers to obtain specific consent for the collection and linking of data for advertising purposes through Apple's ATT prompt.

Such prompt would unfairly overburden third-party developers, and "not meet privacy legislation requirements, forcing developers to double the consent request for the same purpose," the AGCM stated.

Requiring duplicate user consent for advertising data undermines developers' ad-based business models, thereby harming the interests of Apple's commercial partners.

"The terms were also found to be disproportionate to the achievement of the company's stated data protection objectives," the authority said.

According to the ruling, Apple breached article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which prohibits any abuse of a dominant position within the EU internal market. The watchdog said Apple holds a super-dominant position through its App Store.

Italy's competition authority fines Apple 115 mln U.S. dollars