Firefighters were battling a massive blaze at a building in Brooklyn on Thursday evening, December 18. According to initial reports, the building on the corner of Stillwell Avenue and Mermaid Avenue contains four apartments and three commercial units. Credit: Facebook/Stacie Deitch Schoenwandt
When is Arbor Day? President Richard Nixon established the day on the last Friday in April but that was nearly 100 years after the movement began.
It's taken Huawei just four years to become a force in smart car technology, navigating the devastation of trade sanctions on its smartphones business while simultaneously developing a driver assistance system that is the darling of the Beijing auto show. Huawei Technologies has two huge booths at this week's event, and there are at least seven Chinese automakers touting its Qiankun installed in their cars as the most sophisticated advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) to date. Even Germany's Volkswagen will equip its China-made, China-bound Audi Q6L e-tron with Qiankun upon the car's 2025 launch, in Huawei's first deal with a foreign automaker, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group fired anti-tank missiles and artillery shells at an Israeli military convoy in a disputed area along the border, killing an Israeli civilian, the group and Israel’s military said Friday. Hezbollah said that its fighters ambushed the convoy shortly before midnight Thursday, destroying two vehicles. The Israeli military said the ambush wounded an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work, and that he later died of his wounds.
On Monday, divers with gloved hands gently nestled the self-bred corals from the World Coral Conservatory project among their cousins in Europe’s largest coral reef at the Burgers’ Zoo in the Netherlands. It’s among several projects worldwide seeking to address the decline of coral reef populations, which are suffering from bleaching caused by rising sea temperatures. Corals are central to marine ecosystems, and while these projects won’t stem the tide of damage from human-caused climate change, they are seen as part of broader solutions.
China's foreign minister warned Antony Blinken on Friday that US pressure could trigger a "downward spiral", as the visiting secretary of state raised concerns on issues including support for Russia.Blinken raised concern with Wang about China's support for Russia, which has rapidly rebuilt its military base two years into its invasion of Ukraine, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Asian shares mostly rose Friday despite worries about the economic outlook and inflation in the U.S. and the rest of the world. The Bank of Japan ended a policy meeting with no major changes, keeping its benchmark interest rate in a range of 0 to 0.1%. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.8% to 37,934.76, while the U.S. dollar edged up to 156.22 Japanese yen from 155.58 yen.
Electric vehicle executives at a top car show in China were bullish on prospects for growth, despite a gruelling price war and mounting Western pressure on the industry.And even as firms face down a cut-throat price war at home and mounting regulatory pressure overseas, executives and attendees were upbeat.
Seoul, the capital, boasts top-level hospitals, but smaller cities are starved of doctors in a trend experts say will only get worse as the population ages at one of the world's fastest rates, while birthrates are the lowest in the world. "Our artificial kidney room was closed for almost two years because we didn't have a doctor and we couldn't find one … but this is a national phenomenon," said Cho Seung-yeon, director of the Incheon Medical Center in the port city. The shortage is at the heart of government plans to add thousands of medical school students from next year that face stiff opposition from trainee doctors and some medical groups who doubt it will improve poor working conditions.
British mining giant Anglo American on Friday rejected a blockbuster $38.8-billion takeover bid from Australian rival BHP, slamming it as "highly unattractive" and "opportunistic"."The proposed structure is also highly unattractive, creating substantial uncertainty and execution risk borne almost entirely by Anglo American, its shareholders and its other stakeholders."
Muslim groups in Australia on Friday criticized the disparity in the police response to two stabbing attacks in Sydney this month, saying it had created a perception of a double standard and further alienated the country's minority Muslim community. The Australian National Imams Council said an attack at a Bondi Junction shopping center was “quickly deemed a mental health issue” while the stabbing of a Christian bishop at a Sydney church two days later was “classified as a terrorist act almost immediately.”
China and the US face a choice between stability and a “downward spiral,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told counterpart Antony Blinken on Friday in Beijing, as the American diplomat kicked off a day of meetings with top Chinese officials.
Almost five years after Elijah McClain died following a police stop in which he was put in a neck hold and injected with the powerful sedative ketamine, three of the five Denver-area responders prosecuted in the Black man's death have been convicted. Experts say the convictions would have been unheard of before 2020, when George Floyd's murder sparked a nationwide reckoning over racist policing and deaths in police custody. Previously, she has said the two acquitted Aurora police officers, as well as other firefighters and police on the scene, were complicit in her 23-year-old son’s murder and that they escaped justice.
A centuries-old settlement submerged by the construction of a dam in the northern Philippines in the 1970s has reappeared as water levels drop due to a drought affecting swathes of the country.Hundreds of residents of the submerged villages and farms where the dam is located were moved by the government to higher ground.
A selection of South African artworks produced during the country’s apartheid era which ended up in foreign art collections is on display in Johannesburg to mark 30 years since the country's transition to democracy in 1994. Most of the artworks were taken out of the country by foreign tourists and diplomats who had viewed them at the Australian Embassy in the capital, Pretoria. The embassy had opened its doors to Black artists from the townships to be recognized and have their artworks on full display to the public.
Olga drew her index finger abruptly across her neck as she recounted the threats her husband levelled at her after he returned to Russia, wounded from fighting in Ukraine.Even before her husband went off to fight in Ukraine, he was a violent alcoholic, Olga -- not her real name -- told AFP. When he returned home seven months later, he was even worse.
India's six-week election juggernaut resumed Friday with millions of people lining up outside polling stations in parts of the country hit by a scorching heatwave.More than 968 million people are eligible to take part in India's election, with the final round of voting on June 1 and results expected three days later. sai-abh/gle/cwl
As 72-year-old Nonki Kunene walks through the corridors of Thabisang Primary School in Soweto, South Africa, she recalls the joy she and many others felt 30 years ago when they voted for the first time. It was at this school on April 27, 1994, that Kunene joined millions of South Africans to brave long queues and take part in the country's first democratic elections after decades of white minority rule which denied Black people the right to vote. The country is gearing up for celebrations Saturday to mark 30 years of freedom and democracy.
A dozen Utah Republicans vying to replace Mitt Romney in the U.S. Senate are set to square off Saturday for the party nomination in a race expected to reveal the brand of political conservatism that most appeals to modern voters in the state. Romney has long been the face of the party's more moderate wing, but his retirement from the Senate opens a door for Utah's farther-right faction. Observers are closely watching whether voters select a successor whose politics align more with Romney's or with Utah’s other U.S. senator, conservative Mike Lee, who supports former President Donald Trump.
The Bank of Japan kept its ultra-low interest rates unchanged Friday and stopped short of signalling another hike, pushing the yen to a fresh 34-year low against the dollar.The BoJ has been a global outlier in sticking to an ultra-loose policy while other central banks pushed rates up as they fought against surging inflation -- causing a wide differential that saw investors push into other currencies.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Thursday that he planned to sign a bill state legislators sent to his desk this week that would allow school staff members to carry concealed handguns on school grounds.
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