Japan's prime minister not only faces a test on his sales tax hike this week, but also on his diplomatic policy, when he goes head to head with a China delegate at a regional security conference. Jon Gordon reports
Lawyers for Ryan Corbett, an American held by the Taliban for nearly two years without charge, on Thursday sought U.N. help to secure his immediate release, contending that he has been tortured and is suffering physical and mental health problems. The lawyers filed urgent petitions with the Geneva-based U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Alice Edwards and the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention arguing that Corbett's fundamental rights have been violated, justifying U.N. action on his case.
A diplomatic crisis in Ecuador and uncertainty over Venezuela's political future have divided South American nations and killed enthusiasm for a summit that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is trying to convene, diplomats in the region say. Seeking to become a regional leader again, Lula gathered 11 presidents in Brazil's capital last May, but the forum called the Brasilia Consensus was struck by disagreement over the presence of Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro. Chilean President Gabriel Boric, a fellow leftist from a younger generation, criticized Lula for inviting Maduro to a meeting of democratic leaders, as did Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou.
CEO Robert Jordan said the airline expects to end this year with 2,000 fewer employees than it had at the end of last year. Jordan said Southwest was reacting quickly “to address our financial underperformance” and cope with delayed deliveries of new planes from Boeing. The airline expects to have 802 aircraft by the end of the year, down from an earlier plan for 814 planes.
Ukraine worked Thursday to get much-needed new supplies of weapons and ammunition from a huge U.S. aid package to its eastern front line, where Russia was pressing forward with its efforts to take ground from outnumbered and outgunned troops. Ukraine is also seeking to reverse the drain of potential soldiers from the country, announcing that men of conscription age will no longer be able to renew their passports from outside the country. The Cabinet of Ministers said Wednesday that men between 18 and 60 who are deemed fit for miliary service will only be able to renew their passports inside Ukraine.
Mammoth's CRISPR-based gene editing platform and Regeneron's delivery technologies will be used to create disease-modifying medicines that can be delivered to tissues beyond the liver. CRISPR, discovered by Jennifer Doudna and CRISPR Therapeutics co-founder Emmanuelle Charpentier, uses molecular "scissors" to trim faulty parts of genes that can then be disabled or replaced with new strands of normal DNA.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a "credible" defence strategy less dependent on the United States."We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves," Macron said, adding Europe could not be "a vassal" of the United States.
The struggle for Myawaddy has highlighted the role played by Colonel Saw Chit Thu, his militia and sprawling business enterprise, underlining his outsized influence in the strategically vital territory. The Karen National Army (KNA) he leads has long had a presence in the region lying across from Thailand, which has become a key battleground in recent weeks as an anti-junta resistance gains momentum against the powerful military. Saw Chit Thu's ties to Myanmar's military rulers, evidenced by an honorary title for "outstanding performance" conferred on him by junta chief General Min Aung Hlaing in November 2022, have helped him build his position.
Britain's main Labour opposition on Thursday vowed to renationalise the UK's much-maligned rail services within five years if it wins a general election due later this year.Labour has been pretty light on policy detail as it tries not to blow a huge lead over Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives in opinion polls, and return to power after 14 years in opposition.
As Israel's leader equates U.S. university protests to rallies in Nazi Germany, Palestinian students tell CBS News what the support means to them.
President Joe Biden's government on Thursday finalized sweeping plans to curb planet-warming emissions from the nation's fossil fuel plants as part of the United States' efforts to confront the climate crisis.There were also concerns it encouraged the use of carbon capture to achieve the reductions, a technology still in its infancy and which allow fossil fuel plants to continue to dump other pollutants on vulnerable communities, climate justice groups say.
Micron is set to receive up to $6.1 billion in grants from the US government to help build its semiconductor plants in New York and Idaho, the White House said Thursday.Micron is set to invest up to $125 billion across both states over the next two decades "to build a leading-edge memory manufacturing ecosystem," according to the White House.
Chinese car giants locked in a cut-throat price war descended on the capital for the start of the Auto China show Thursday, vying to draw consumers and headlines in the world's biggest electric vehicle market and abroad.Beijing's Auto China show, which lasts until May 4, sees dozens of firms square off in a bid to draw customers at one of the country's biggest car shows.
A top European Union military officer said that a frigate that’s part of an EU mission in the Red Sea to protect merchant shipping destroyed a drone launched from an area in Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels on Thursday morning. Austrian Gen. Robert Brieger, who is chair of the EU’s military committee, said that it would be crucial for the bloc to “conserve resources” over the long haul because the threat posed by Houthi attacks “will not disappear” due to its connection to the Israel-Hamas war. “The task given to the military is simply to protect merchant ships and to show the public that the European Union is not willing to accept a terrorist organization will interrupt the freedom of movement at sea,” Brieger said.
The London stock market smashed another record peak Thursday after British mining titan Anglo American received a gargantuan $38.8-billion takeover bid from rival BHP, with sentiment also buoyed by earnings.Markets will switch focus later Thursday to earnings from US tech titans Alphabet and Microsoft.
More than 100 people were arrested Wednesday at two universities in California and Texas, officials said, after pro-Palestinian protests erupted across US campuses this week.- Free speech - The spreading pro-Palestinian protests began at Columbia University in New York, where dozens of arrests were made last week after university authorities called in police to quell a protest encampment that some Jewish students said was threatening and anti-Semitic.
Italy’s canal city has begun charging a 5 euro entry fee for people visiting for the day, the world’s first such measure to tackle chronic overtourism at peak times.
(Reuters) -Merck & Co on Thursday raised its annual profit and revenue forecast on the back of strong sales for its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda. The New Jersey-based drugmaker said it expected earnings of $8.53 and $8.65 per share, up from its previous forecast of $8.44 to $8.59, and sales of $63.1-$64.3 billion for the year. Merck's new forecast includes a $0.26 per share charge for its $680 million acquisition of cancer drug developer Harpoon Therapeutics, which closed in the first quarter of 2024, the company said.
Millions of people across South and Southeast Asia sweltered through unusually hot weather on Thursday, as the Thai government said heatstroke has already killed at least 30 people this year.Millions of people across South and Southeast Asia sweltered through unusually hot weather on Thursday, as the Thai government said heatstroke has already killed at least 30 people this year.
Lawyers for an American believed to be held by the Taliban for nearly two years are asking a United Nations human rights investigator to intervene, citing what they say is cruel and inhumane treatment. Ryan Corbett was abducted Aug. 10, 2022, after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family had been living at the time of the collapse of the U.S.-based government there a year earlier. In a petition sent Thursday, lawyers for Corbett say that he's been threatened with physical violence and torture and has been malnourished and deprived of medical care.
Portugal on Thursday marked 50 years since a military coup ended a decades-long dictatorship and 13 years of colonial wars in Africa, an anniversary that comes as a far-right party gains prominence.It is the first hard-right party to gain ground in Portugal since the end of the dictatorship.
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