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At UN climate talks, 50 oil companies pledge to slash methane emissions; Environmentalists call it “smokescreen”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — At UN climate talks, 50 oil companies pledge to slash methane emissions; Environmentalists call it “smokescreen.”Source

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says death toll has surpassed 15,200 people, two-thirds of them women and children

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says death toll has surpassed 15,200 people, two-thirds of them women and children.Source

¿Qué es y dónde queda Guayana Esequiba? Lo que debes saber sobre la región rica en petróleo que Venezuela disputa con Guyana

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

(CNN Español) — La centenaria controversia entre Venezuela y Guyana por la soberanía del Esequibo, el territorio del noreste de Sudamérica de casi 160.000 km2 con salida al océano Atlántico, ubicado entre las desembocaduras de los ríos Orinoco y Esequibo, ha reavivado en las últimas semanas las tensiones entre Caracas y Georgetown.¿La razón? El Gobierno de Nicolás Maduro convocó para el próximo 3 de diciembre un referendo para, según dice, reafirmar sus derechos sobre esa zona, que actualmente controla Guyana y que Venezuela asegura que le despojaron en 1899 en el Laudo Arbitral de París, que calificó como nulo e “írrito” al denunciar en 1962 ante la ONU supuestos vicios en el procedimiento.¿Cómo votar en el referéndum sobre Guyana en Venezuela y qué significan las preguntas que lo componen?En esa consulta popular, Venezuela les preguntará a sus ciudadanos si quieren anexar la Guayana Esequiba, o simplemente Esequibo, el término con el cual está más familiarizado e...

DC offers opportunity for eating acorns in Foggy Bottom

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

Turns out those pesky nuts falling from the sky onto you and your car, and littering the D.C. area ground in late fall, are more important to the planet than you might think.A new exhibit at the Smith Hall of Art on the campus of George Washington University celebrates the most unlikely of foods: acorns.“‘Acornucopia’ is a wonderland of earthly acorn delights!” exclaimed artist and educator Shawn Shafner.Shafner, who is also a graduate student and published author, says the idea to not only look into how to make art using acorns, but also how to sustainably use and dispose of them, came to him a while ago.‘Acornucopia’ is the fruit of his labor—and it tastes…oaky.“If you’ve seen me around campus, you’ve probably thought I was crazy, gathering all my acorns for this exhibit,” Shafner joked.Shafner says ‘Acornucopia’ champions the acorn as an unvalued resource, both as a food source AND the genesis of new life in our ecosystem.R...

Moscow boosts troop numbers, citing Ukraine war, NATO expansion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

Russia is boosting the number of troops in its military for the second time in 15 months, citing the war in Ukraine and the expansion of the NATO defense alliance.Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered the military to increase the number of troops by nearly 170,000 to a total of 1.3 million as the Ukraine war grinds on after 21 months. Putin’s decree, which entered into force immediately, brings the overall number of Russian military personnel to 2.2 million, including 1.3 million troops.The Russian defense ministry in a message posted on Telegram cited the war in Ukraine and NATO’s expansion — which was spurred by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — as the reasons for the increase in army personnel. Finland joined the Western defense alliance this past spring, and Sweden said this week that Turkey has promised it will ratify Stockholm’s bid “within weeks.” NATO’s “combined armed forces are being built up near Russia’s borde...

Mild Saturday, rain Sunday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

Good morning! It’s been a gloomy start with overcast conditions and areas of fog. It’ll be mild start to finish today. Today is your best weekend day to get outside! Tomorrow, it’ll feel cooler with showers and a northeast breeze. It’s a mainly dry Saturday with a frontal boundary to our north. If you’re near the Mass/New Hampshire border you might getting a passing sprinkle. High temperatures will get back in the 50s this afternoon. We’ll see a lot of clouds through the day, but should see some breaks in the cloud cover this afternoon.Overnight, we’ll have layers of clouds. Some of get a shower by sunrise.Tomorrow high temperatures will be in the 40s with overcast conditions and a northeast breeze. Below is what radar could look like throughout the day tomorrow. -Meteorologist Melanie Black

Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel pounded targets in the crowded southern half of the Gaza Strip on Saturday and ordered more neighborhoods designated for attack to evacuate, driving up the death toll even as the United States and others urged it to do more to protect Gaza civilians.At least 200 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed Friday morning following a weeklong truce with the territory’s ruling militant group Hamas, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.Separately, the ministry announced that the overall death toll in Gaza since the Oct. 7 start of the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 15,200, a sharp jump from the previous count of more than 13,300. The ministry had stopped issuing daily updates of the overall toll on Nov. 11, following war-related disruptions of connectivity and hospital operations.The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but said Saturday that 70% of the dead were women and children. It said more th...

Burkina Faso rights defender abducted as concerns grow over alleged clampdown on dissent

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A prominent human rights defender in Burkina Faso has been abducted by unknown individuals, rights groups have announced, in what activists say could be the latest attempt by the military government to target dissidents using a controversial law.Daouda Diallo, a 2022 recipient of the Martin Ennals international human rights award, was abducted on Friday in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou after visiting the passport department where he had gone to renew his documents, according to the local Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities civic group, which Diallo founded.His captors – in civilian clothing – accosted him as he tried to enter his car and took him to “an unknown location,” the group said in a statement on Friday, warning that Diallo’s health could be at risk and demanding his “immediate and unconditional” release.Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa office said Diallo’s abduction was “presumably (for...

Italian officials secure 12th Century leaning tower in Bologna to prevent collapse

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

MILAN (AP) — Officials have secured the area around one of two 12th Century towers that have become symbolic of the northern city of Bologna, fearing its leaning could lead to collapse.The city on Friday announced 4.3 million euros ($4.7 million) in works to shore up the Garisenda tower, one of the so-called Two Towers that look out over central Bologna, providing inspiration over the centuries to painters and poets and a lookout spot during conflicts. Work will proceed during January and February.Italy’s civil protection agency has maintained a yellow alert on the site, denoting caution but not imminent danger.The Garisenda, the shorter of two towers built between 1109 and 1119, currently stands 48 meters (157 feet) feet to the Asinelli’s 97 meters (320 feet). Mayor Matteo Lepore noted in a debate earlier this month that the Garisenda tower has leaned since it was built “and has been a concern ever since.” It sustained additional damage in the medieval era when ironwork and b...

At first-ever health day at UN climate summit, Canadian doctors push for action

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:28 GMT

As global leaders prepare to meet for the first dedicated health day at a UN climate summit, Canadian doctors plan to use the platform to push for a new federal office dedicated to addressing the health effects of climate change.The president of a major national physicians group says a summer of record-breaking heat and air-polluting wildfires drove home the urgent need for decision-makers to organize a pan-Canadian response.A proposed national “climate and health secretariat” would work across governments to chart a course to a climate-resilient and low-carbon health-care system, said Dr. Kathleen Ross, president of the Canadian Medical Association.“We recognize that the solution to our climate crisis isn’t uniquely poised in just one silo of the government,” said Ross.Sunday will mark the first time a UN climate summit, known this year as COP28, will dedicate a day to exploring the links between health and climate change, which the World Health Organi...