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China’s Xi calls for patience as Communist Party tries to reverse economic slump

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:48 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for patience in a speech released as the ruling Communist Party tries to reverse a deepening economic slump and said Western countries are “increasingly in trouble” because of their materialism and “spiritual poverty.”Xi’s speech was published by Qiushi, the party’s top theoretical journal, hours after data Tuesday showed consumer and factory activity weakened further in July despite official promises to support struggling entrepreneurs. The government skipped giving an update on a politically sensitive spike in unemployment among young people.Xi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, called for China to “build a socialist ideology with strong cohesion” and to focus on long-term goals of improving education, health care and food supplies for China’s 1.4 billion people instead of only pursuing short-term material wealth.Since taking power in 2012, Xi has called for restoring the ruling party’s role as an economic and ...

Braves complete sweep as Yankees end brutal road trip with sub-.500 record

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:48 GMT

ATLANTA — The Yankees wrapped up an abysmal road trip in fitting fashion on Wednesday, as the Braves completed a sweep with a 2-0 victory at Truist Park.Atlanta, baseball’s best team, scored the only runs of the game in the second inning when Eddie Rosario crushed a two-run shot for his second home run of the series. The blast came after Marcell Ozuna doubled.While Ozuna’s two-bagger was well-struck to right field at 102.1 miles per hour, the ball had a catch probability of 70%. Giancarlo Stanton, limited in his mobility but playing the field with Aaron Judge DHing, could not come up with it.Those were the only runs Randy Vásquez and the Yankees allowed against a stacked offense, but the rookie right-hander lasted just 3.1 innings. Vásquez walked three, including two in the fourth, and struck out three over 60 pitches before Michael King took his place on the mound.King, whom the Yankees would like to stretch out if possible, struck out three and walked o...

A camp teaches Ukrainian soldiers who were blinded in combat to navigate the world again

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:48 GMT

RIVNE, Ukraine (AP) — Along a bustling street in a western Ukrainian city, Denys Abdulin takes his first independent strides since he was severely wounded and blinded while fighting invading Russian troops more than a year ago. The 34-year-old former soldier, wearing black glasses and gripping a white mobility cane, steps onto a more crowded stretch of sidewalk. His movements become tentative and tense. He accidentally blocks the path of a woman approaching an ATM to withdraw cash. Like many other pedestrians, she responds with a compassionate smile and gracefully moves aside. Gradually, Abdulin covers 600 meters (almost 3/10 of a mile), guided by a trainer walking ahead of him with a bracelet of small metal bells. Five other Ukrainian military veterans conquered similar challenges while attending a rehabilitation camp for ex-soldiers who lost their vision in combat. Over several weeks, the men would learn to navigate the city of Rivne, to prepare their own meals and to use public t...

Pakistan arrests 129 Muslims after mob attacks churches and homes of minority Christians

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:48 GMT

JARANWALA, Pakistan (AP) — Police arrested more than 100 Muslims in overnight raids from an area in eastern Pakistan where a Muslim mob angered over the alleged desecration of the Quran by a Christian man attacked churches and homes of minority Christians, prompting authorities to summon troops to restore order, officials said Thursday.There were no casualties as Christians living in a residential area in the city of Jaranwala in the Faisalabad district quickly moved to safer places along with their families following one of the country’s most deadly attacks against Christians.Christians slowly returned to their homes Thursday, only to see the destruction of at least one church that was burned. Four other churches were also damaged. Two dozen homes were torched or badly damaged during the riots.“We were sitting at home when suddenly we heard that a mob is coming and it is burning homes and attacking churches,” said Shazia Amjad, as she wept outside her home, which was torched ...

Heavy rain and landslides have killed at least 72 people this week in an Indian Himalayan state

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:48 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Days of relentless rain in India’s Himalayan region have killed at least 72 people this week, a government official said Thursday, as a heavy monsoon triggered landslides and flash floods that have submerged roads, washed away buildings and left residents scrambling for safety.Rescuers in the mountainous Himachal Pradesh state have been working through challenging weather conditions to save people trapped under mud and debris from the rains that struck over the weekend. India’s weather department has put the state on high alert and expects the downpours to continue over the next few days.Vikram Singh, an operator at the state’s emergency operation center, said on Thursday that the 72 deaths occurred over the previous five days and that rescue work was ongoing. Hundreds of roads remain blocked and schools in the capital city of Shimla have been ordered shut as the Indian Air Force and disaster response teams help evacuate people from low-lying, vulnerable areas. The ...

A Nigerian forest and its animals are under threat. Poachers have become rangers to protect both

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:48 GMT

OMO FOREST RESERVE, Nigeria (AP) — Sunday Abiodun, carrying a sword in one hand and balancing a musket over his other shoulder, cleared weeds on a footpath leading to a cluster of new trees.Until recently, it had been a spot to grow cocoa, one of several plots that Abiodun and his fellow forest rangers destroyed after farmers cut down trees to make way for the crop used to make chocolate — driving away birds in the process.“When we see such a farm during patrol, we destroy it and plant trees instead,” Abiodun said. It could take more than 10 years for the trees to mature, he said, with the hope they ease biodiversity loss and restore habitat for birds.He was not always enthusiastic about conservation. Before becoming a ranger, Abiodun, 40, killed animals for a living, including endangered species like pangolin. He is now part of a team working to protect Nigeria’s Omo Forest Reserve, which is facing expanding deforestation from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming and poaching.Th...

As Israeli settlements thrive, Palestinian taps run dry. The water crisis reflects a broader battle

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:48 GMT

JIFTLIK, West Bank (AP) — Across the dusty villages of the occupied West Bank, where Israeli water pipes don’t reach, date palms have been left to die. Greenhouses are empty and deserted. Palestinians say they can barely get enough water to bathe their children and wash their clothes — let alone sustain livestock and grow fruit trees. In sharp contrast, neighboring Jewish settlements look like an oasis. Wildflowers burst through the soil. Farmed fish swim in neat rows of ponds. Children splash in community pools.The struggle for water access in this strip of fertile land reflects a wider contest for control of the West Bank — and in particular the Jordan Valley, which Palestinians consider the breadbasket of their hoped-for future state and Israelis view as key to protecting their eastern border.“People are thirsty, the crops are thirsty,” said Hazeh Daraghmeh, a 63-year-old Palestinian date farmer in the Jiftlik area of the valley, where some of his palms have withered in the bone-...

An Israeli raid on Jenin, a West Bank militant stronghold, kills 1, Palestinians say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:48 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in a raid on a militant stronghold in the northern occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, the latest violence in a city that has seen some of the worst bloodshed in the current round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.Violence has gripped the region since last spring, when Israel launched near-nightly raids in response to a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks. The violence has escalated into the fiercest fighting in the West Bank in some two decades, and along with increased violence by radical Jewish settlers and settlement expansion by Israel’s far-right government, has fueled tensions in the region.The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man killed as Mustafa al-Kastouni, 32. It was not immediately clear if the man was affiliated with a militant group. The Hamas militant group said its fighters engaged in a gun battle with Israeli troops in Jenin and lobbed explosives at the f...

Japan sank into a trade deficit last month as exports dropped, especially to other Asian nations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:48 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan suffered a trade deficit last month as exports sank for the first time in more than two years, dragged down by a slowdown overseas.Japan’s trade deficit totaled 78.7 billion yen ($539 million), the Finance Ministry said Thursday, the first trade deficit for the world’s third largest economy in two months.Exports shrank most markedly for the rest of Asia, including China, Singapore and Taiwan, declining 0.3% from the same month the previous year to 8.73 trillion yen ($60 billion).Exports recovered in autos and auto parts, as the social restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which had crimped production, eased gradually.But that was not enough to offset the drop in exports in computers, computer chips, machinery and other manufactured goods. Imports fell in various sectors, including food, machinery and energy, slipping 13.5% from the previous year to 8.8 trillion yen ($60 billion), according to the ministry.Imports to Japan dipped not only from Asia but man...

The impact of textile production and waste on the environment 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:48 GMT

With fast fashion, the quantity of clothes produced and thrown away has boomed. Find out more about the environmental impact and what the EU is doing about it, Society.Fast fashion is the constant provision of new styles at very low prices.To tackle the impact on the environment, the EU wants to reduce textile waste and increase the life cycle and recycling of textiles. This is part of the plan to achieve a circular economy by 2050.Find out about the circular economy's definition, its importance and benefits. Overconsumption of natural resourcesIt takes a lot of water to produce textile, plus land to grow cotton and other fibres. It is estimated that the global textile and clothing industry used 79 billion cubic metres of water in 2015, while the needs of the EU's whole economy amounted to 266 billion cubic metres in 2017.To make a single cotton t-shirt, 2,700 litres of fresh water are required according to estimates, enough to meet one person’s drinking needs for 2.5 years.The...