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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announces new CEO and chairman in major management reshuffle

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:45 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s Alibaba Group has announced a major management reshuffle aimed at spurring the e-commerce giant’s growth at a time when the Chinese economy is slowing despite an end to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions a half-year ago. Eddie Wu, chairman of its e-commerce group, will succeed Daniel Zhang as CEO, the company said in a statement Tuesday.Zhang will be CEO and chairman of Alibaba’s cloud computing unit, which has been approved to be spun off and is expected to be listed for trading within a year. Alibaba’s current executive vice chairman, Joseph Tsai, is to succeed Zhang as chairman of the Alibaba Group. Tsai, who owns the NBA basketball team Brooklyn Nets, is a Taiwan-born Canadian citizen and helped to found Alibaba in the late 1990s.The changes take effect Sept. 10. Zhang became Alibaba Group’s CEO in 2015 and succeeded Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma as chairman in 2019.“This is the right time for me to make a transition, given the importance of Alibaba...

Mueren 44 personas en el estado indio de Bihar a causa de la ola de calor

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:45 GMT

(CNN) — Al menos 44 personas perdieron la vida en los últimos días debido a una ola de calor en el estado de Bihar, al norte de India, según un funcionario estatal.Las muertes se produjeron debido a las altas temperaturas, dijo este lunes a CNN Sanjay Kumar, alto funcionario del departamento de salud del estado.Grandes zonas de Asia baten récords con temperaturas cálidas extremasEl Departamento Meteorológico de la India emitió una alerta roja en algunas zonas de Bihar por la persistencia de la ola de calor, ya que en algunos distritos se registran temperaturas superiores a los 45 grados Celsius.Se espera que las temperaturas desciendan en los próximos días.El pasado abril, numerosos países asiáticos batieron récords de temperatura, con una brutal ola de calor que afectó a gran parte del continente. En ese mes, Pakistán, India, Nepal y Bangladesh registraron temperaturas superiores a 40 °C durante muchos días.Fue reportado en abril que en el estado occidental indio de Maharasht...

POLITICO Pro Morning Energy and Climate UK: Labour sell the plan — Energy Bill again — Blair’s net zero playbook

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:45 GMT

Presented by SSE By CHARLIE COOPER and ABBY WALLACE PRESENTED BY View in your browser or listen to audioSNEAK PEEK— Labour continues to lay out its energy policy stall. We round up news lines and reaction. — In parliament, the Energy Bill is back and there’s a new MP on the energy security and net zero committee.— Tony Blair’s think tank spells out how the U.K. can deliver “a decade of electrification.” We’ve got your lowdown. Good Tuesday morning and welcome to POLITICO Pro Morning Energy and Climate UK. For those who recall news last week that Russell is trying to adopt a greyhound, we have an important update: a dog has been selected and is due to move in next week. Stay tuned for more news and potentially photos in a future edition. As always, please send all your tips, musings, encouragement and (gentle) criticism our way at [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. Or talk to us about grey...

Himalayan glaciers could lose 80% of their volume if global warming isn’t controlled, study finds

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:45 GMT

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates across the Hindu Kush Himalayan mountain ranges and could lose up to 80% of their volume this century if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t sharply reduced, according to a report.The report Tuesday from Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development warned that flash floods and avalanches would grow more likely in coming years, and that the availability of fresh water would be affected for nearly 2 billion people who live downstream of 12 rivers that originate in the mountains.Ice and snow in the Hindu Kush Himalayan ranges is an important source of water for those rivers, which flow through 16 countries in Asia and provide fresh water to 240 million people in the mountains and another 1.65 billion downstream.“The people living in these mountains who have contributed next to nothing to global warming are at high risk due to climate change,” said Amina Maharjan, a migration specialist and...

Israeli troops kill a Palestinian man in renewed clashes in the occupied West Bank

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:45 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest death in a surge of violence that has wracked the region.The Palestinian Health Ministry said late Monday that 21-year-old Zakaria al-Zaoul was shot in the head in the town of Husan, west of Bethlehem. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that he was killed during clashes with the military. The Israeli military said a suspect threw a firebomb at troops stationed along a West Bank highway near Husan. The troops responded with live fire and confirmed a hit, the army said. Israel and the Palestinians have been gripped by months of violence, focused mainly in the West Bank, where at least 126 Palestinians have been killed this year.Tuesday saw one of the fiercest days of fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants near the northern West Bank city of Jenin. At least five Palestinians were killed, including a 15-year-old boy, and ove...

Tropical Storm Bret moves west in Atlantic, with possible hurricane threat to Caribbean islands

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:45 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tropical Storm Bret formed in the central Atlantic Ocean on Monday, with forecasters saying it could pose a hurricane threat to the eastern Caribbean by Thursday and the Dominican Republic and Haiti by the weekend.The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Bret had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) at 11 p.m. Monday as it moved west across the Atlantic at 18 mph (30 kph). Forecasters expect it to strengthen over the next two days, reaching Category 1 hurricane strength of 74 mph (120 kph) by Wednesday night as it nears the Lesser Antilles. Because of wind shear, the storm is not expected to strengthen into a Category 2 storm. Bret is forecast to move across the Lesser Antilles as a hurricane on Thursday and Friday and unleash flooding, heavy rainfall and dangerous storm surge and waves, the center said. It is then expected to weaken slowly while still in the eastern Caribbean region, although the center warned that its forecast “remains a low c...

Young crown prince is meant to embody Jordan’s future, but his generation faces bleak prospects

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:45 GMT

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Visitors to Jordan this month noticed a new addition to the royal portraits over highways and hospitals. The 28-year-old Crown Prince Hussein and his glamorous Saudi bride, Rajwa Alseif, now beam down at motorists stuck in Amman traffic.Their royal wedding represented the pinnacle of the monarchy’s efforts to establish Hussein as the face of Jordan’s next generation — a future king who can modernize the country, slash the red tape and set loose the talents of its bulging young population. Of nearly 10 million people in Jordan, almost two-thirds are under 30.But in the dilapidated streets of the poorer districts in the capital, Amman, and in the dusty villages of the countryside, there is little hope for change. Almost half of all young Jordanians are jobless. Those with means dream of lives abroad. Many grumble but few speak out — the government is quick to quash hints of dissent.The story of economic pressure and political repression is common across the Middle...

Ending Nigeria’s fuel subsidy pushes a shift to solar. Without a climate plan, progress is at risk

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:45 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — As soon as Bridget Mosanya went to get a book from her bag to study, it started to rain. The power immediately went out, as it virtually always does in Nigeria, even if it is barely drizzling.“NEPA has taken light,” the 17-year-old said in her now-dark room. She was referring to the National Electric Power Authority, a long-defunct public utility whose abbreviation is still the commonly used name for the intermittent power supply from Nigeria’s fragile electric grid. Her father, Tunde Mosanya, turned on the family’s small solar system, lighting up the living room, master bedroom and his daughter’s room. It was enough for Bridget to finishing studying that night. But a street away, on the east side of Nigeria’s capital of Abuja, 13-year-old Bamkinaan Panshak would have to wait to do his homework until the power was restored or make do with his parent’s half-charged cellphone flashlight. His family used to start up their gasoline-powered backup generator du...

EEAS Deputy Secretary General Enrique Mora visits Kazakhstan

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:45 GMT

Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu met with the EU Special Representative for Central Asia Terhi Hakala and Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service Enrique Mora. The parties exchanged views on a range of topical issues of interregional cooperation in the “CA-EU” format, as well as expressed mutual interest in the development of prospective projects between Kazakhstan and the EU.Noting the constructive nature of negotiations with European partners during his recent visit to Brussels, Minister Nurtleu stressed that Astana is interested in the further progressive development of relations with the EU.The Minister stressed the positive dynamics of the political dialogue at the highest level, noting the meaningful negotiations of Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev with the President of the European Council Charles Michel on the sidelines of the second meeting of the leaders of Central Asia and the EU on June 2...

President Tokayev prioritizes identity-building and youth education at National Kurultai

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:45 GMT

Nurturing cultural and historical identity and prioritizing youth education are key pillars for fostering responsible citizenship to build a Just Kazakhstan, said President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during the second meeting of the National Kurultai (National Congress)  in Turkistan on 17 June.Prioritizing cultural and historic identity and youth education are key pillars of state development, said Tokayev. Photo credit: Akorda press service.The first National Kurultai took place in Ulytau last year, organized by President Tokayev’s initiative in an effort to “strengthen public dialogue and establish a broad discussion of issues and tasks affecting the future of our country.”This year the Kurultai adopted a fresh approach gathering deputies of Mazhilis, the lower chamber of the Kazakh Parliament, civil society and political parties representatives on the opening day discussions on June 16. The first day’s agenda covered three sections including education and science; culture, art and sp...