After the feast is over there's always a heap of leftovers – but which to keep and which to toss? That's our lens for this week's edition of “watching and ignoring.
"WHAT WE'RE KEEPING: Dog days in China – The rapid growth of China's middle class has led to a huge increase in dog ownership, but dog care etiquette hasn't quite kept pace. Uncurbed and unleashed dogs have led to disturbances and even fights in some cities. To address the problem, the metropolis of Hangzhou (population 9.4 million) has imposed a toothy set of regulations: no dog walking between 7am and 7pm, confiscation or death for unlicensed dogs, and stiff fines for owners who let their pups off the leash. Several dozen spirited larger breeds of dog have been banned altogether, including, we note, the Tibetan mastiff.Brexit on Ice – Amid growing prospects that the UK will crash out of the European Union next March without any new trade agreements in place, cold storage space in the country is nearing peak capacity. Why? Food producers and supermarkets are worried that a "no-deal Brexit" could interrupt their international supply chains for everything from butter to potatoes to peas, so they are stocking up ahead of time. The pharmaceutical industry has warned it doesn't have sufficient cold storage for medicines either. Can May reach a deal that gets Brexit out of the cold?WHAT WE'RE TOSSING OUT:Viktor Yanukovych's tennis elbow… and back and knee – The former president of Ukraine, who was ousted in the 2014 Maidan uprising and later fled to Russia, was scheduled to testify yesterday, via Skype, to a Ukrainian court about his role in the episode. He is on trial in absentia for treason. But at the last minute his lawyer pulled the plug on it: Mr. Yanukovych, he said, had suffered severe injuries to his back and knee on a Moscow tennis court and would have to reschedule. Thought bubble: Was he playing tennis while falling out of a window?Darting with an F – A foul feud broke out this weekend between two pro dart players who accused each other of farting during the Grand Slam of Darts in the UK. After losing badly to former world champ Gary Anderson of Scotland, Dutchman Wesley Harms said he'd been distracted by Anderson's flatulence. Anderson, for his part, not only denied the allegation but claimed that Harmswas the wily windbreaker of the evening. All we're saying is, with so many sharp objects around, it's a good things these guys aren't Russian poets.
