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China’s Xi promises open markets and billions in new investments for ‘Belt and Road’ projects

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:55:59 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping promised foreign companies greater access to China’s huge market and more than $100 billion in new financing for other developing economies as he opened a forum Wednesday on his signature Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. Xi’s initiative has built power plants, roads, railroads and ports around the world and deepened China’s ties with Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Mideast. But the massive loans backing the projects have burdened poorer countries with heavy debts, in some cases leading to China taking control of those assets.At the forum’s opening ceremony at the ornate and cavernous Great Hall of the People, Xi promised that two Chinese-backed development banks – the China Development Bank and the Export–Import Bank of China – will each set up 350 billion yuan ($47.9 billion) financing windows. An additional 80 billion yuan ($11 billion) will be invested in Beijing’s Silk Road Fund to support BRI projects.“We will ...

Euro 7: MEPs back new rules to reduce road transport emissions 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:55:59 GMT

The Environment Committee adopted its proposals to lower pollutant emissions and set battery durability requirements for passenger cars, vans, buses and trucks.On Thursday, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) adopted its position on revamping EU rules for type-approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles (Euro 7) with 52 votes in favour, 32 against and one abstention.Updated limits for exhaust emissionsMEPs agreed with the levels proposed by the Commission for pollutant emissions (such as nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and ammonia) for passenger cars and propose an additional breakdown of emissions into three categories for light commercial vehicles based on their weight. The adopted text proposes stricter limits for exhaust emissions by buses and heavy-duty vehicles, including levels set for real driving emissions. Specific application time frames have been included for various Euro 7 provisions, linked to the entry in...

Livermore man killed in motorcycle crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:55:59 GMT

(KRON) -- A Livermore man was killed in a motorcycle crash on Tuesday, the Livermore Police Department said. LPD responded to North Mines Road and Shirley Way at 4:50 p.m. for the report of a crash involving a car and a motorcycle. Police learned the motorcycle was going north on North Mines Road when an SUV turning onto Shirley Way struck it. The motorcycle driver, a Livermore resident in his 30s, died at the scene. The driver of the car, a Livermore woman in her 60s, stayed at the scene and cooperated with police. Police believe she did not see the motorcycle and thus did not yield to it. Drugs and alcohol are not believed to be a factor in the crash. Mines Road from East Avenue to Dana Circle and Shirley Way between Hollice Lane and Mines Road were closed for a period of time Tuesday evening due to the crash.

Ukraine strikes Russian airfield with ATACMS missiles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:55:59 GMT

Presented by ASD By CALEB LARSON with JOSHUA POSANER, LAURA KAYALI and VERONIKA MELKOZEROVA PRESENTED BY View in your browser or listen to audioSNEAK PEEK— Ukrainian forces fired American-supplied ATACMS missiles, striking a Russian airfield in occupied Ukraine and marking the first known use of the long-range weapon.— Multinational military exercises kicked off in Spain this week, in what is the first time the EU has led and organized wargames independently of NATO.— An underwater telecommunications cable connecting Sweden and Estonia sustained damage, at around the same time an energy pipeline and communications cable linking Finland and Estonia were also damaged last week.Good morning and welcome to Morning Defense. Tips to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] or follow us at @joshposaner, @LauKaya and @calebmlarson.DRIVING THE DAYUKRAINE FIRES...

Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, St. Charles North’s Haley Burgdorf. If the jersey fits. ‘I always looked up’ to them.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:55:59 GMT

Its power isn’t limited to just one sport.St. Charles North’s Haley Burgdorf had Geneva’s number Tuesday night. It was the No. 23 on Burgdorf’s jersey. Does the sophomore outside hitter want to be like Mike?You bet. Or maybe the late, great Kobe Bryant.“I’ve always looked up to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and how hard they worked on their games,” Burgdorf said when asked if there was a story behind her wearing the same number as the former NBA stars for the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.“That, plus I sometimes stick my tongue out like Michael did when I’m playing and concentrating and focused like I should be.”Playing for a share of the DuKane Conference title, the 6-foot Burgdorf powered the North Stars to a 25-21, 25-22 win with 14 kills, three blocks, an ace and even an assist.The back-and-forth first game featured eight ties, the last coming at 21-21, before St. Charles North closed with a four-point...

Inflation in UK unchanged at 6.7% in September, still way more than Bank of England’s target of 2%

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:55:59 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Inflation in the U.K. held steady at 6.7% in September as easing food and drink price rises were offset by higher prices at the pump for motorists, official figures showed Wednesday.The flat reading reported by the Office for National Statistics was disappointing as most economists had predicted another, albeit modest, fall.It means that the U.K.’s inflation rate remains more than three times higher than the Bank of England’s target rate of 2%. The bank, though, is not expected to raise interest rates at its next policy meeting in early November, opting instead to keep its main borrowing rate unchanged at the 15-year high of 5.25%. Last month, the bank brought an end to nearly two years of interest rate rises as inflation fell from multi-decade highs above 11%.Most economists expect a sizeable decline in inflation next month.“Progress on falling inflation has stalled, for one month at least,” said James Smith, research director at the Resolution Found...

China says US moves to limit access to advanced computer chips hurt supply chains, cause huge losses

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:55:59 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China vigorously protested Wednesday the U.S. Commerce Department’s latest update of export controls to prevent exports to China of advanced computer chips and the equipment to make them. The revisions to the U.S. rules were announced Tuesday, roughly a year after the export controls were first launched to counter the use of the chips for military applications that include the development of hypersonic missiles and artificial intelligence.China’s Commerce Ministry said the controls were “improper” and urged that Washington lift them as soon as possible. It said that since the semiconductor industry is highly globalized, the restrictions on chips used for artificial intelligence and other advanced applications were hindering normal trade and economic activities. They violate international trade rules and “seriously threaten the stability of industrial supply chains,” it said according to a transcript of a briefing on the ministry’s website. “U.S. semiconductor co...

A Berlin synagogue is attacked with firebombs while antisemitic incidents rise in Germany

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:55:59 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A Berlin synagogue was attacked with Molotov cocktails early Wednesday as antisemitic incidents in the German capital have been rising following the violent escalation in the Middle East.The Kahal Adass Jisroel community said its synagogue in the city’s Mitte neighborhood was attacked with two incendiary devices. Police confirmed the incident.“Unknown persons threw two Molotov cocktails from the street,” the community wrote on X, formerly Twitter. It also posted video footage of police officers investigating the scene in front of the synagogue that was cordoned off.The building complex of the Kahal Adass Jisroel community in the center of Berlin houses a synagogue, a kindergarten and a community center.Police also said there were riots overnight between Muslim immigrants and police in the city’s Neukoelln and Kreuzberg neighborhoods and at Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate in which several officers were injured. Following Hamas’ brutal attack o...

Gaza’s doctors struggle to save hospital blast survivors as Middle East rage grows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:55:59 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Doctors in Gaza City faced with dwindling medical supplies performed surgery on hospital floors, often without anesthesia, in a desperate bid to save badly wounded victims of a massive blast that killed hundreds of Palestinians sheltering in a nearby hospital amid Israeli bombings and a blockade of the territory.The Hamas militant group blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military blamed a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants. At least 500 people were killed, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said.Rage at the hospital carnage spread through the Middle East as U.S. President Joe Biden headed to the region in hopes of stopping a spread of the war, which started after Hamas militants attacked towns and cities across southern Israel last week.Jordan’s foreign minister said his country canceled a meeting there between Biden, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Si...

Former Austrian chancellor to go on trial over alleged false statements to parliamentary inquiry

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:55:59 GMT

VIENNA (AP) — Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is set to go on trial Wednesday on a charge of having allegedly made false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged corruption in his first government.The charges center on his testimony to the inquiry that focused on the coalition he led from 2017, when his conservative People’s Party formed a government with the far-right Freedom Party, until its collapse in 2019. Kurz pulled the plug on that government after a video surfaced that showed the vice chancellor and Freedom Party leader at the time, Heinz-Christian Strache, appearing to offer favors to a purported Russian investor.Kurz is accused of giving false evidence in June 2020 regarding his role in setting up and appointing the leadership of a holding company, OeBAG, that administers the state’s role in some companies. The charge of giving false evidence carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.Kurz has denied any wrongdoing.A few months after his first ...