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Japanese political leader Taro Aso calls for peace in the Taiwan Strait as Tokyo expands defense

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:07 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A senior Japanese politician advocated Tuesday for increasing his country’s deterrence ability to ensure peace in the region, and called for that message to be clearly conveyed globally — particularly in China. “The most important thing for us now is that there should be no war in the region, including the Taiwan Strait,” the vice president of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Taro Aso, said Tuesday in Taipei at the Ketagalan Forum hosted by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Japan, as a very close neighbor to Taiwan, I think we should be the first to express our attitude and also to make that message clear in the international community including China,” he said.Taiwan and China split in 1949 after a civil war. The island never has been part of the People’s Republic of China, but the mainland’s ruling Communist Party says it is obligated to unite with China, by force if necessary.In December, Japan announced a historic break with its pac...

Powerful storm kills 2 people and leaves 1.1 million without power in eastern US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:07 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — At least two people died, thousands of U.S. flights were canceled or delayed, and more than 1.1 million homes and businesses lost power Monday as severe storms, including hail and lightning, moved through the eastern U.S.The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the greater D.C. area, lasting until 9 p.m. A special Weather Service statement warned, “There is a significant threat for damaging and locally destructive hurricane-force winds, along with the potential for large hail and tornadoes, even strong tornadoes.”The storms’ spread was massive, with tornado watches and warnings posted across 10 states from Tennessee to New York. The National Weather Service said more than 29.5 million people were under a tornado watch Monday afternoon. In Anderson, South Carolina, a 15-year-old boy who arrived at his grandparent’s house during the storm was struck and killed when a tree fell on him as he got out of a car, according to the Anderson County Office...

Bursting ice dam in Alaska highlights risks of glacial flooding around the globe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:07 GMT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The gray, two-story home with white trim toppled and slid, crashing into the river below as rushing waters carried off a bobbing chunk of its roof. Next door, a condo building teetered on the edge of the bank, its foundation already having fallen away as erosion undercut it. The destruction came over the weekend as a glacial dam burst in Alaska’s capital, swelling the levels of the Mendenhall River to an unprecedented degree. The bursting of such snow-and-ice dams is a phenomenon called a jökuhlaup, and while it’s relatively little-known in the U.S., researchers say such glacial floods could threaten about 15 million people around the world.“We sat down there and were just watching it, and all of a sudden trees started to fall in,” Amanda Arra, whose house continued hanging precariously over the river bank Monday, told the Juneau Empire. “And that’s when I started to get concerned. Tree after tree after tree.”The flooding in Juneau came from a side basin ...

Environmental protection services: €69 billion invested

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:07 GMT

Eurostat estimates that in 2022, EU countries invested about €69 billion into assets essential to provide environmental protection (EP) services. These services included wastewater treatment plants, vehicles to transport waste, acquisitions of land to create a natural reserve, or cleaner equipment for producing with less polluting emissions. The information comes from data on environmental protection expenditure accounts published by Eurostat as a result of the 2022 mandatory data collection according to the requirements established in the Commission delegated regulation 2022/125. This article presents a few findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on environmental protection expenditure accounts.About €44 billion (65% of total environmental protection investments) was spent by corporations, both the specialist providers of environmental protection services (e.g. private companies dealing with waste collection and processing and with sewerage) and corporations ot...

Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine: EU agrees to extend the scope of sanctions on Belarus to fight circumvention

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:07 GMT

The European Commission welcomes the adoption by the Council of further targeted restrictive measures arising from Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, and in response to Belarus's involvement in the aggression.In particular, the new measures create a closer alignment of EU sanctions targeting Russia and Belarus and will help to ensure that Russian sanctions cannot be circumvented through Belarus.The measures expand the ban on exports to Belarus to a number of highly sensitive goods and technologies which contribute to Belarus's military and technological enhancement. The Council also imposes an additional export ban on firearms and ammunition, and on goods and technology suited for use in aviation and the space industry. The changes also align the Belarus sanctions with the Russia sanctions regime.These restrictive measures are fast-tracked in view of the urgency linked to the fight against circumvention regarding certain highly sensitive goods and technologies. They are without p...

Exbailarinas de Lizzo que demandaron esperan haber creado un “movimiento”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:07 GMT

Los exbailarines de Lizzo que la demandaron alegando un ambiente de trabajo hostil y acoso sexual dicen que el abuso contra los bailarines de fondo es un problema de toda la industria y esperan estar iniciando un movimiento para cambiarlo.Crystal Williams y Noelle Rodríguez, dos de las tres exbailarinas que presentaron la demanda, explicaron por qué decidieron emprender acciones legales en una entrevista con el canal de noticias de la televisión británica Sky News el lunes por la tarde.“Creo que nuestra principal razón para presentar esto es simplemente darle voz a la gente y hacerles saber que puedes defenderte y hablar, sin importar el calibre del artista o el estatus que la persona pueda tener estoy hablando en contra”, dijo Rodríguez. La cantante Lizzo rompe el silencio tras acusaciones de supuesto acoso sexual Decepcionados y engañados: fanáticos de Lizzo acaban con la cantante en redes sociales Las mujeres hablaron día...

Colombia se suma a esfuerzos para proteger el 80% de la Amazonia al 2025

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:07 GMT

(CNN) — Antes de la cumbre de presidentes de la Amazonia en Belem, Brasil, este martes y miércoles, la ministra de Medio Ambiente de Colombia, Susana Muhamad, dijo que Colombia apoya el plan liderado por indígenas para proteger el 80% de la Amazonia para 2025.“Hago un llamado para que fortalezcamos el estado de los territorios, para que encontremos un propósito común, y coincidimos desde Colombia, que la meta de preservar el 80% de la Amazonia al 2025 debe estar integrada en la declaración de los presidentes”, Muhamad dijo durante un evento en Brasil el domingo.Muhamad hizo un llamado a todos los líderes para que reconozcan “la emergencia en la que nos encontramos”.Según la iniciativa Amazonia for Life 80% by 2025, “los niveles de deforestación se acercan actualmente al 26% del punto de inflexión del daño irreversible al ecosistema amazónico. Afirmar y planificar para mantener el 80% de los bosques intactos y protegidos es una prioridad global crítica que per...

Death toll rises to 7 after Russian missiles slam into Ukrainian city’s downtown area

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:07 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The death toll from Russian missile strikes that hit apartment blocks and other buildings in an eastern Ukrainian city has climbed to seven, with 67 injured, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said Tuesday.Two Russian missiles slammed into the downtown area of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donetsk region that is partially occupied by Russia, on Monday evening, local authorities said.The missiles, which hit within 40 minutes of each other, damaged nine- and five-story buildings, houses, a hotel, dining establishments, shops and administrative buildings, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of trying to leave nothing but “broken and scorched stones” in eastern Ukraine. Russian missiles, drones and artillery have repeatedly struck civilian areas in the war. The Kremlin says its forces target only military assets and claim other damage is caused by debris from Ukrainian air defense weapons. Neither side’s claims ca...

Niger’s neighbors and the UN seek to deescalate tensions with last-minute diplomacy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:07 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Nigeriens awoke Tuesday to deepening uncertainty about whether a regional bloc will follow through on its threat to use military force to try to reinstall ousted President Mohamed Bazoum or if last-minute diplomacy will prevail, nearly two weeks after mutinous soldiers overthrew the country’s democratically elected leader.The West African regional bloc ECOWAS had given the mutinous soldiers until Sunday to release and reinstall Bazoum or they threatened to use force.Members from ECOWAS, the United Nations and the African Union were expected to join talks in the capital, Niamey, on Tuesday, a foreign official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.On Monday, acting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met with the coup leaders in Niger and said they refused to allow her to meet with Bazoum, whom she described as under “virtual house arrest.” She described the mutinous officers as unre...

Searchers find black box of Australian army Taipan helicopter that crashed with the loss of 4 lives

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:07 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Divers have recovered the flight data recorder from an Australia army helicopter that crashed at sea, killing the four crewmembers, during a military exercise with the United States last month, officials said Tuesday.Recovering the black box was a priority to help determine the cause of the crash of the MRH-90 Taipan during a nighttime operation July 28 in the Whitsunday Islands off the northeast Australian coast.Navy divers retrieved the device that contains the helicopter’s flight data and cockpit voice recordings Monday, a Defense Department statement said.A drone spotted human remains in the wreckage last week at a depth of 40 meters (131 feet). But the remains have yet to be retrieved because of bad weather and strong currents.Australia’s fleet of more than 40 Taipans has been grounded since the crash and there are doubts any will fly again. The government says they will remain grounded until crash investigators have found a cause of the tragedy.The g...