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Yellen criticizes Chinese treatment of US companies during visit to revive relations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen criticized Chinese treatment of U.S. companies and new export controls on metals used in semiconductors during a visit Friday to Beijing to try to revive strained relations. Talking with a group of businesspeople, Yellen defended U.S. controls on technology exports that irk Beijing, saying they are necessary for national security. She rejected suggestions Washington is trying to decouple, or separate the U.S. economy from China’s. “The U.S. seeks healthy economic competition with China,” Yellen said, according to a transcript released by her department. “I am communicating the concerns that I’ve heard from the U.S. business community — including China’s use of non-market tools like expanded subsidies for its state-owned enterprises and domestic firms, and barriers to market access for foreign firms,” Yellen said.U.S.-Chinese relations are at their lowest level in decades due to disputes over technology, security, Beijing’s m...

Israeli forces kill 2 Palestinians in shootout in the occupied West Bank

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in a flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank Friday, days after Israel concluded a major two-day offensive meant to crack down on militants.The Israeli domestic security agency Shin Bet said the two men, which it claimed were behind a shooting attack this week, were killed in a shoot out in the heart of the city of Nablus. The Palestinian Health Ministry said two men were killed by Israeli fire, identifying them as Khayri Mohammed Sari Shaheen, 34, and Hamza Moayed Mohammed Maqbool, 32.The deaths are part of a year-long spiral violence that shows no signs of abating, despite the fierce Israeli operation this week in the Jenin refugee camp. They follow a shooting on Thursday near an Israeli West Bank settlement that killed an Israeli soldier.Israel has been staging raids in the West Bank for 16 months, in response to a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis last spring. Over 140 Palestinians have been killed this year i...

A fire in a nursing home in Italy has killed 6 residents and injured some 80 others

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

MILAN (AP) — A fire that broke out in a Milan nursing home early Friday killed six of the residents and injured about 80 others, Italian firefighters said.Firefighters said the blaze began about 1:30 a.m., apparently in the room of two female residents, who were among the dead. Also dead were three other women and a man. Among the injured, two were in critical condition, while most of the others were being treated for smoke inhalation, firefighters told Italian state radio.Luca Cari, a spokesperson for Italy’s national firefighters corps, said firefighters were investigating the cause of the blaze, which was contained by early morning. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who came to the scene, told reporters that the 100 or so residents of the nursing home who weren’t injured were being transferred to other facilities in the northern Italian city.People who lived nearby told state radio that they saw people inside at the windows holding cloths to their faces against the smoke.Rome daily La R...

Drones sweep for sharks along New York’s coast during rise in encounters with beachgoers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

WANTAGH, N.Y. (AP) — Off the coast of Long Island, drones sweep over the ocean, patrolling the water for any danger that might lurk below the surface as beachgoers grow more vigilant because of a recent spate of shark encounters.Over two days this week, five people reported being bitten by sharks at some of New York’s most popular beaches, leading to heightened surveillance of the area’s waters.The sighting of a 10-foot (3-meter) shark on Thursday prompted officials to keep people out of the water at Robert Moses State Park, the same Long Island beach that delayed its opening July 4 after a drone spotted a group of 50 sand sharks off the coast.“We are now more vigilant than ever,” said George Gorman, the state’s park director in Long Island. “We have drones in the sky that watch over the waters. We have lifeguards on WaveRunners that watch over the waters.”Just a few years ago, encounters with sharks were rare. But more recently, reports of sharks biting people hav...

Yellen’s visit to Beijing aims to heal rifts over a daunting array of China-US antagonisms

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is visiting Beijing as part of efforts to revive U.S.-Chinese relations that are at their lowest level in decades due to disputes over technology, security and other irritants.Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in November and agreed to improve relations between the world’s biggest economies and major trading partners. But neither government has shown willingness to make major policy changes.“We hope the United States takes concrete actions to create a favorable environment for the healthy development of economic and trade relations,” the Chinese finance ministry said in a statement Friday.It expressed hope for “the realization of mutual benefit and win-win results” but did not suggest possible Chinese concessions.Yellen’s visit follows one by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with Xi last month in Beijing in an encounter that lasted just 30 minutes.Here’s a look at some areas of contention.___POLITICAL RELATIONSU.S....

For the third time this week, Earth sets an unofficial heat record

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

Earth’s average temperature set a new unofficial record high on Thursday, the third such milestone in a week that already rated as the hottest on record.The planetary average hit 63 degrees Fahrenheit, 17.23 degrees Celsius, surpassing the 62.9 and 17.18-degree marks set Tuesday and equaled Wednesday, according to data from the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world’s condition. That average includes places that are sweltering under dangerous heat — like Jingxing, China, which checked in almost 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) — and the merely unusually warm, like Antarctica, where temperatures across much of the continent were as much as 8 degrees Fahrenheit (4.5 degrees Celsius) above normal this week.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday issued a note of caution about the Maine tool’s findings, saying it could not confirm data that results in part fr...

A new round of showers/t-storms Friday night. Above Normal precipitation Trend Continues

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

Friday's Sun-filled Open To Mask The Approach Of Afternoon Clouds And A New Round Of Showers and T-storms Friday Night & Early Saturday.Weekend Weather To Improve Beyond Saturday Morning While Temps Head For 90 Monday and Tuesday Before Two More Wet Systems Move In.The "Above Normal Precip" Regime To Remain Intact Overall In Coming Weeks—Hints Of Heat Showing Up The The Following WeekThe respite from the rains in recent days—for some portion of the Chicago area, from flooding downpours—-is to continue as Friday dawns. But already, the next rain-making system is taking shape in the Rockies and Plains. Its clouds will be spreading across area skies Friday with an overcast assembling during the afternoon and a scattering of showers already putting in an appearance over a portion of the Chicago area as evening comes on.As cooler air rides upper winds into the Midwest and the Chicago area later Friday and Friday night, the air mass will be carrying significant moisture just waiting t...

Give Ukraine quick path to NATO after war, Lithuania leader tells allies

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

Lithuania's president urged NATO leaders to be bolder in addressing Ukraine's push for membership at a summit in his country next week, saying this would boost Kyiv's battlefield performance while Moscow would see any caution as weakness.President Gitanas Nauseda advised NATO allies to disregard fears that bringing Ukraine into the US-led military alliance would provoke Russia, which invaded Ukraine on 22 February, 2022."We should not hesitate to take bolder decisions because otherwise the Putin regime will decide that the Western allies are too weak, (that they should be) pushed to the corner and they will surrender", Nauseda said on Monday."Our stronger wording on Ukraine's (membership) perspective would for sure increase the fighting spirit of Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield. And this is very important", he added.Ukraine has been pressing NATO to declare at the July 11 and 12 summit that Kyiv would join the alliance soon after the end of the war, and to set out a roadmap to...

Single family residence in San Ramon sells for $1.7 million

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

7387 Hillsboro Avenue – Google Street ViewA 2,035-square-foot house built in 1970 has changed hands. The spacious property located in the 7300 block of Hillsboro Avenue in San Ramon was sold on June 14, 2023, for $1,710,000, or $840 per square foot. The property features four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an attached garage, as well as a pool in the backyard and two parking spaces. The unit sits on a 10,000-square-foot lot.Additional houses have recently been sold nearby:In June 2023, a 2,285-square-foot home on Sedgefield Avenue in San Ramon sold for $1,850,000, a price per square foot of $810. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.A 2,497-square-foot home on the 7400 block of Sedgefield Avenue in San Ramon sold in September 2022, for $1,770,000, a price per square foot of $709. The home has 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On Butte Avenue, San Ramon, in May 2023, a 1,288-square-foot home was sold for $1,389,000, a price per square foot of $1,078. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms...

Acusan de homicidio a la pareja que dejó a su bebé en el coche tras una fiesta del 4 de Julio

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

(CNN) — Una pareja de Florida fue acusada de homicidio con agravantes por la muerte de una niña de 18 meses abandonada en un coche caluroso durante la noche tras una fiesta del 4 de Julio, según informó la policía.Joel y Jazmine Rondon, ambos de 33 años y residentes en Lakeland, acudieron a una celebración del 4 de Julio con sus tres hijos pequeños y no regresaron a casa hasta aproximadamente las 3:00 a.m. del día siguiente, según un comunicado de prensa de la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Polk.La familia abandonó la fiesta alrededor de las 2:00 p.m. del miércoles, dijo el sheriff del condado de Polk, Grady Judd, en una conferencia de prensa el jueves.Según Judd, Jazmine llevó a los niños mayores —de ocho y seis años— a la casa y le dijo a Joeal que llevara a la bebé. Joel dijo que las puertas del coche estaban abiertas mientras cargó algunas bandejas de comida a la casa, y luego se dio cuenta de que la puerta trasera del coche estaba cerrada cuando terminó. Dijo que pens...