The WTA had made a 10 year deal to hold the WTA Finals in China, after a significant monetary commitment from the Chinese. The WTA gave up on what was a significant income source after the Peng Shuai ordeal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/sports/tennis/wta-finals-china.html

It appears the type of kidney cancer he had mostly affects those with sickle cell traits. I wonder if he had the sickle cell trait.

It is not even necessarily wrong. See "Exposition"/"Expo": An event where things are exposed.

Fair enough. I read it halfway twice before getting through it from the beginning on the third attempt. It is a beautifully written book and I dont think I've ever read a work written with a similar character, even if it did sometimes have a hard time holding my focus.

I can hardly believe that someone who has actually read the unabridged book in print to have not found much of the book tedious. Much of the 700+ page text is hard to track as names for Arab persons TE encountered are introduced throughout the book but the ones that have already been introduced are not kept constant. Long passages are then composed of flowery descriptions of high level descriptions of conversations, between persons referred to with non-constant names.

I believe what you are referring to are the limited and trade editions of Revolt in the Desert, which although were abridged versions of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, were not published under that name, so should not be considered competing with the whole work for the definitive status.