Beijing, China Top Chinese officials gather in Beijing on Monday, with all eyes on how they might kickstart lacklustre growth at a key political meeting that has historically seen officials unveil big-picture economic policy changes. The world’s second-largest economy is grappling with a real estate debt crisis, weakening consumption, an ageing population and geopolitical tensions. President Xi Jinping...
Jos, Nigeria After her early morning class ended, 16-year-old Nigerian student Chidera Denis was waiting to join classmates for end-of-term exams. Teachers had scheduled a raft of last-minute revisions. Moments later, she was trapped under rubble as her school building suddenly collapsed, with pupils barely protected by the desks where they were sitting. Denis was one...
Jerusalem Israel said Friday that “gaps” remained with Hamas on how to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release but that it will send a delegation for fresh talks with Qatari mediators next week.The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman came after a delegation led by the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David...
Panama City, Panama The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said Wednesday that the famed waterway continues to face a water shortage, despite recent rains alleviating most restrictions imposed following last year’s drought. “The waterway continues to face the impact of a prolonged dry season from this past year that limited the capacity of daily passages through the...
United Nations, United States Violence against children in armed conflicts reached “extreme levels” in 2023, particularly in Gaza and Sudan, according to a forthcoming UN report obtained by AFP on Tuesday. The United Nations’ annual “Children in Armed conflict” report placed the Sudanese army as well as the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the blacklist...
Mexico City, Mexico A landslide election win will embolden Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first woman president, to defend her country’s interests in sometimes-tense relations with the United States dominated by trade, migration and drugs, experts say. While the president-elect is expected to be more diplomatic in public than her sharp-tongued predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known by his...
Seoul, South Korea Workers at tech giant Samsung Electronics in South Korea staged the first strike at the company on Friday, the head of a major union representing tens of thousands of people told AFP. Samsung Electronics is one of the world’s largest smartphone makers and also one of the only companies globally to produce high-end...
United Nations, United States More than one in four children under the age of five globally live in “severe” food poverty, UNICEF has warned — meaning more than 180 million are at risk of experiencing adverse impacts on their growth and development.“Severe child food poverty describes children who are surviving on severely deprived diets so they’re...
Cartí Sugtupu, Panama Alberto Lopez prepares breakfast with water lapping at his ankles. The day began with rain, and his ramshackle home on the Panamanian island of Carti Sugtupu was flooded, not for the first time. Lopez is one of 1,200 Indigenous residents of the island being relocated to the mainland, as sea level rise due...
Rafah, Palestinian Territories Israel on Tuesday mourned four captives reported dead in Gaza by the army amid growing doubts and international pressure over a plan for a ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden. In the besieged Palestinian territory, Israeli strikes continued early Tuesday, particularly in Bureij in central Gaza where local...