Hundreds of residents throughout California have been forced to flee their homes as wildfires rage across the drought-stricken state. Vanessa Johnston reports.
Germany said Wednesday that it plans to follow several other countries in resuming cooperation with the U.N. relief agency for Palestinians in Gaza after the publication of an independent review of its neutrality. Its presence underscores the struggle to find shelter in Gaza, where some 80% of people have fled their homes. More than half of the territory’s population of 2.3 million have sought refuge in Rafah, where Israel is expected to mount an offensive soon.
Dutch brewer Heineken said Wednesday its beer sales were up but saw a "challenging and uncertain" economic outlook and couldn't guarantee the same growth for the rest of the year."We continue to see the economic environment as challenging and uncertain, and will remain agile and focused," he said.
Israel is poised to send troops into Rafah, the Gazan city it sees as the last bastion of Hamas, Israeli media reported on Wednesday, saying preparations were under way to evacuate war-displaced Palestinian civilians who have been sheltering there. The Rafah sweep, postponed for several weeks amid disputes with Washington, will happen "very soon," the mass-circulation Israel Hayom newspaper said, citing a decision by the Israeli government after ceasefire talks with Hamas stalled. Several other Israeli media outlets carried similar reports.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Sri Lanka on Wednesday to inaugurate a hydropower and irrigation project that was long delayed due to international sanctions on his government and other issues. Raisi is the first Iranian leader to visit Sri Lanka since former President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad visited the country in 2008.
President Joe Biden’s apparent suggestion his uncle may have been eaten by cannibals has sparked uproar in Papua New Guinea, casting a shadow on ties.
Indonesia’s electoral commission formally declared Prabowo Subianto president-elect in a ceremony on Wednesday, after the country’s highest court rejected challenges to his landslide victory lodged by two losing presidential candidates. Authorities blocked streets leading to the General Election Commission compound, where more than 4,200 police and soldiers were deployed. Wearing matching long-sleeved white shirts, Subianto and vice president elect Gibran Rakabuming Raka waved to their supporters as they arrived at the building.
A high-level North Korean economic delegation was on its way to Iran, the North's state media said Wednesday, for what would be the two countries’ first known talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Embracing the idea of a “new Cold War,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pushing to build up cooperation with countries confronting the United States, as his intensified weapons tests prompted the U.S. and South Korea to expand their military drills. Pyongyang's delegation led by Yun Jung Ho, North Korea’s minster of external economic relations, flew out Tuesday for the trip to Iran, official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.
Indonesia president-elect Prabowo Subianto on Wednesday vowed to fight for all Indonesians and called for unity among political elites to take the country forward, as he seeks to strengthen his parliamentary clout ahead of taking office in October. Speaking at a ceremony where he was being confirmed as the winner of the Feb. 14 election, Prabowo, who won by a huge margin, said he was talking to elites in the country and it was vital parties could get along together for the common good. Prabowo, who was tacitly backed by popular incumbent Joko Widodo, is seeking to broaden his coalition in the new parliament and is in talks with parties who backed his election rivals.
Chinese-backed Swedish electric vehicle (EV) maker Polestar Automotive is preparing to shift production of cars it plans to sell into Europe to its U.S. plant from China in view of rising geopolitical tension, its CEO said. Asked how Polestar is preparing for a European probe into Chinese-made EVs possibly leading to increased tariffs, Thomas Ingenlath said the automaker is exploring the idea of exporting the Polestar 3 made in South Carolina to the European Union. Polestar builds the majority of its cars in the Chinese cities of Chengdu and Taizhou.
Nearly 40% of people in the U.S. are living in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution and the country is backsliding on clean air progress as the effects of climate change intensify, according to a new report from the American Lung Association.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Sri Lanka on Wednesday for a brief state visit aimed at strengthening ties, during which he will also open a $514-million hydropower project. The first visit by an Iranian president to Sri Lanka since an April 2008 trip by its then president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will see the two countries sign five pacts, or Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs). Iran agreed to build the hydro power project in 2010 but funds dried up after the release of $50 million, as U.S. sanctions imposed later that year on the Middle East nation made it hard to transfer money, forcing Sri Lanka to fund the rest.
A big, new package of U.S. military aid will help Ukraine avoid defeat in its war with Russia. The arms and ammunition in the $61 billion military aid package should enable Ukraine to slow the Russian army's bloody advances and block its strikes on troops and civilians. “Ultimately it offers Ukraine the prospect of staying in the war this year,” said Michael Clarke, visiting professor in war studies at King’s College London.
By most measures, the last thing China needs is more electric cars crowding a market with more losers than winners, driving down prices at the expense of profit and taking the fight for market share beyond China. But while there is a peril in China's overcapacity, there is also a power in the hyper-competition it has unleashed, analysts, suppliers and executives say. China's leading EV makers have found ways to slash vehicle development time, combining speed to market with new features and a pricing advantage rivals outside cannot match.
Standoffs between pro-Palestinian student protesters and universities grew increasingly tense on both coasts Wednesday as hundreds encamped at Columbia University faced a deadline from the administration to clear out while dozens remained barricaded inside two buildings on a Northern California college campus. Both are part of intensifying demonstrations over Israel’s war with Hamas by university students across the country demanding that schools cut financial ties to Israel or the war in Gaza. Dozens have been arrested on charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct.
Donning hijabs and floor-length abaya gowns over shorts and tank tops, Chinese students at an e-commerce school perform into a smartphone camera as they learn how to sell the clothes to overseas TikTok users.It is the final day of a two-week course on selling products abroad via the short video app -- which despite being blocked in China is a platform more and more Chinese vendors are turning to.
Detectives and secret service agents investigating the stabbing of a bishop in a Sydney church executed search warrants in the city on Wednesday as part of a major operation, officials said. The Joint Counter-Terrorism Team, which includes federal and state police as well as the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nation’s main domestic spy agency, said in a statement there is no current threat to public safety. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the operation was related to a knife attack in a Sydney church on April 15 in which an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest were injured.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Roche confirmed ambitions to return to sales growth this year on a continued boost from eye drug Vabysmo, after first-quarter sales slipped by 6% on the loss on COVID-19-related revenue. Quarterly sales fell to 14.4 billion Swiss francs ($15.80 billion), the family-controlled drugmaker said in a statement on Wednesday, hurt also by a strong Swiss franc that weighed on overseas revenue but in line with analysts expectations. Roche, which does not disclose quarterly earnings, said the rest of the year would no longer be burdened by year-earlier comparisons that were inflated by COVID-related sales.
China will send a fresh crew to its Tiangong space station on Thursday evening, Beijing's Manned Space Agency announced, the latest mission in a programme that aims to send astronauts to the Moon by 2030.Beijing also aims to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030, and plans to build a base on the lunar surface.
In a statement published on its website on Tuesday, the diocese did not say what was the reason for the punishment, which forbids the priest, Dmitry Safronov, from giving blessings, wearing the frock and bearing the church's priestly cross until 2027. Safronov was also to be moved to another church in Moscow to perform the duties of a psalm-reader.
Japan’s first moon lander has survived a third freezing lunar night, Japan’s space agency said Wednesday after receiving an image from the device three months after it landed on the moon. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the lunar probe responded to a signal from the earth Tuesday night, confirming it has survived another weekslong lunar night. Temperatures can fall to minus 170 degrees Celsius (minus 274 degrees Fahrenheit) during a lunar night, and rise to around 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit) during a lunar day.
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