EEUU: abismo fiscal
Estados Unidos de nuevo ante el precipicio fiscal. Este viernes primero de marzo entran en vigor una serie de recortes automáticos del gasto público, una intensa cura de austeridad que nada parece ya detener.
Estados Unidos de nuevo ante el precipicio fiscal. Este viernes primero de marzo entran en vigor una serie de recortes automáticos del gasto público, una intensa cura de austeridad que nada parece ya detener.
Diminished but not deterred, Hamas is still putting up a fight after seven brutal months of war with Israel, regrouping in some of the hardest-hit areas in northern Gaza and resuming rocket attacks into nearby Israeli communities. Israel initially made tactical advances against Hamas after a devastating aerial bombardment paved the way for its ground troops. This was the subtext of a rebellion in recent days by two members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's three-man War Cabinet — Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, Netanyahu's main political rival — who demanded that he come up with detailed postwar plans.
Norway on Thursday said it will further tighten its restrictions on the entry of people from Russia, saying those with tourist visas issued by Norway before regulations were tightened in 2022 or issued by another European country will be barred from entering the Scandinavian country as of next week. Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said the tightening was a response to “Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”
In a Pristina apartment, gay actors laugh and cry their way through rehearsals for a play lampooning homophobic politicians and advocating equal rights for the LGBT community in Kosovo, which may soon become the first Muslim-majority country to allow same-sex unions. The play is scheduled to run during Pride Week in June, but may also coincide with a vote in parliament on a new civil code legalising civil unions between people of the same gender. It is not clear exactly when the vote will be held, but Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said last month it would be soon.
At a factory in Finland, the "farmers of the future" are making a new food protein by feeding a microbe air and electricity, proving that protein can be produced without traditional agriculture.But at Solar Foods' recently opened factory outside Helsinki, scientists are using new technology to grow protein out of cells using air and electricity.
Britain’s political party leaders were crisscrossing the country on Thursday, the first day of a six-week election campaign in which voters will decide whether to end the governing Conservatives’ 14 years in power. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gambled on an earlier-than-expected July 4 election, arguing his party can give the country security in turbulent times. The main opposition Labour Party says it will bring much-needed change after years of political and economic turmoil under the Tories.
The UN General Assembly will vote Thursday on establishing an annual day of remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, despite furious opposition from Bosnian Serbs and Serbia.- Threat to peace, security - However, there has been a furious response from Serbia and the Bosnian Serb leadership.
UK political leaders kicked off six weeks of campaigning on Thursday, outlining their electoral battle plans before the country goes to the polls in a general election on July 4.The vote -- the first to be held in July in the UK since 1945, when Labour won -- will be Sunak's first national electoral test, as he was appointed Tory leader by his own MPs in October 2022.
A missile splashed down in the waters of the Red Sea on Thursday, but caused no damage to a passing commercial vessel in an attack likely carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels, officials said. The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, though it can take hours or even days for them to acknowledge their assaults. The attack happened in the southern Red Sea near the crucial Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
The top United Nations court is ruling Thursday on an urgent request by Mexico to order Ecuador to protect Mexican diplomatic property in the aftermath of the storming of the embassy in Quito to arrest a former vice president. The April 5 raid, hours after Mexico granted asylum to former Vice President Jorge Glas, drew widespread condemnation in Latin America and ratcheted up tensions that had been brewing between the two countries since Glas, a convicted criminal and fugitive, took refuge at the embassy in December. At a hearing late last month, Alejandro Celorio Alcantara, legal adviser for Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, told International Court of Justice judges Ecuador's actions overstepped “lines in international law which should not be crossed.”
Asian and European markets diverged Thursday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting indicated officials would keep interest rates elevated for some time as they struggle to bring inflation down to target.And confidence took another blow Wednesday when minutes from the Fed's April-May meeting showed policymakers were frustrated with the slow progress in bringing inflation down to their two percent goal.
Thailand’s Constitutional Court accepted a petition Thursday from members of the country’s outgoing Senate to begin an ethics probe against the prime minister over his appointment of a Cabinet member. If eventually found guilty, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin could be ousted from his position. The court ruled that Srettha’s appointment of Pichit Chuenban as minister of the Prime Minister’s Office was in violation of Section 160 of the constitution, which requires those in ministerial positions to “be of evident integrity" and bars those who fail to comply with ethical standards.
At least nine people, including a child, died after strong wind gusts caused a stage in northern Mexico to collapse during a campaign rally on Wednesday, authorities said.Maynez, who escaped without serious injury, said the stage collapsed due to a strong gust of wind.
Ukraine's allies are wrestling with how to squeeze money out of frozen Russian assets to support Kyiv's war effort, a debate that is ever more urgent as Russia gains territory on the battlefield and as the outlook for Ukraine’s state finances looks shakier. What to do with the Russian central bank reserves frozen in response to the invasion of Ukraine is at the top of the agenda as finance officials from the Group of Seven rich democracies meet Thursday through Saturday in Stresa, Italy, on the shores of scenic Lago Maggiore. The issue: While Ukraine and many of its supporters have called for the confiscation of $260 billion in Russian assets frozen outside the country after the February 24, 2022, invasion, European officials have resisted, citing legal and financial stability concerns.
When Maxwell Winchester and his wife arrived in the South Pacific island of New Caledonia nearly two weeks ago, they were excited for what would be their first child-free holiday since becoming parents.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday announced a record $19-billion-dollar support plan for the country's crucial semiconductor industry.- Key sector - The plan will also create a "semiconductor ecosystem fund" worth a trillion won, which will support fabless companies and small and medium enterprises linked to the industry.
China, the world's biggest agriculture importer, has set targets to drastically reduce its reliance on overseas buying over the coming decade in line with its push for food security, but they will be exceedingly difficult to meet, experts say. With limited land and water, China will have to sharply increase farming productivity through technology, including genetically modified crops, and expand area under cultivation to meet Beijing's 10-year projections. Cutting the country's imports would be a blow to producers from the U.S. to Brazil and Indonesia, who have expanded capacity to meet demand from China's 1.4 billion people, the world's largest market for soybeans, meat and grains.
The destructive tornado that ravaged the town of Greenfield, Iowa, on Tuesday has left four dead and at least 35 injured, the Iowa State Patrol said in a Wednesday evening news release.
Nine people were killed and a presidential candidate was briefly taken to hospital after a stage collapsed under heavy winds at a campaign rally in Mexico on Wednesday.
Thousands marched in Iran on Thursday on the final day of funeral rites for president Ebrahim Raisi, who will be laid to rest in his hometown days after dying in a helicopter crash.Thousands of people, holding placards of Raisi and waving flags, marched in the eastern city of Birjand on Thursday morning to bid the president farewell.
Millions of young people took to the streets across Europe in 2019 demanding action to fight climate change, helping Green parties secure their best ever EU election results and giving them influence over climate policies Brussels has passed since. Polls suggest Greens will perform worse than any other political grouping in June's EU election, which will form the next 720-member European Parliament. Fewer Greens in the next European Parliament will affect EU climate policy for the next five years, as the bloc's "Green Deal" moves into a politically sensitive phase in which the economic impact of Green goals will become more visible.