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Build ‘constructive’ relationship with China, Tokyo’s chief diplomat urges UK

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:42 GMT

LONDON — Japan and the U.K. must work together to build a “constructive and stable relationship with China,” Tokyo’s foreign minister said Wednesday.Doing so “will be critical” not only to charting the future of the South Pacific, but to countering Russian aggression in Ukraine, Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japan’s foreign minister, said in a speech at the Chatham House think tank in London.It is “necessary to cooperate with China, given its role in the international community and the size of its economy,” Hayashi added, including on global challenges like climate change.The world is facing “a historical turning point,” Tokyo’s top diplomat said, noting the “security and prosperity of Europe and the Indo-Pacific is inseparable.” He earlier held one-on-one talks with U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, addressed the Ukraine Recovery Conference and met with G7 foreign ministers. “A decisive factor in shaping the new era is how we respond to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” Hayashi said....

Fire erupts in central Paris after gas explosion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:42 GMT

Paris (CNN) — A fiery gas explosion in central Paris resulted in injuries to at least 29 people and drew hundreds of firefighters to the scene on Wednesday afternoon.Some 270 firefighters were deployed to the scene near Rue Saint Jacques in the city’s fifth arrondissement, and have contained the fire, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told reporters.Four people were “critically injured” in the incident, police told CNN.Video from the scene showed that part of a building that caught fire has collapsed.Locals were also stopped from returning to their homes in surrounding streets by authorities.One woman, Anne, told a CNN producer at the scene that she was inside her flat, around 500m from the site, when the explosion happened.“It felt like an earthquake, the windows banged against each other,” she said.Another woman who didn’t want to give her name and lives in a neighboring avenue told CNN that her doors slammed shut from the explosion.The local deputy mayor Édouard Civ...

Thanks to Netflix, this tiny Swiss town has more visitors than locals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:42 GMT

Seoeun Kim | (TNS) Bloomberg NewsThe small fishing village of Iseltwald, Switzerland, is home to just about 400 people. Located on the southern shore of Lake Brienz, it’s long been quiet and uneventful, rarely visited by outsiders — until a popular South Korean TV show put it on the map for global travelers, practically overnight.Since September 2022, Iseltwald has been hosting massive numbers of Asian tourists, mostly from South Korea and Southeast Asia. The volume of day-trippers has become so intense — sometimes outnumbering locals — that the village launched a double-decker bus service this month to ferry them to the scenic spots they come to see.That’s thanks to the popular K-drama “Crash Landing on You,” which Nielsen Korea ranks as South Korea’s fourth-most-viewed TV show in history. After it debuted in 2019, a steady international rollout on Netflix Inc. snowballed the show’s audience. The show’s narrative is set in North Korea, where production was not possible;...

Mets Notebook: Buck Showalter navigating through his shorthanded bullpen during Drew Smith ban

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:42 GMT

HOUSTON — Drew Smith is now more than halfway through his 10-game sticky substance suspension and the Mets have been able to get through it with relative success. It hasn’t been easy playing with one fewer bullpen arm, but some of the starting pitchers are finally starting to go deep into games on a somewhat consistent basis.Carlos Carrasco blew up Sunday and lasted only three innings, but the Mets still didn’t have to empty their bullpen. Right-hander John Curtiss ate nearly three innings and the Mets sent him to Triple-A the next day and brought up Grant Hartwig to have a fresh arm. An eight-inning start by Max Scherzer and a seven-inning start by Justin Verlander in the first two games of the Houston series helped as well.With the Mets off Thursday in between two road series against the Astros and Philadelphia Phillies, they may be able to avoid making another roster move. But right now the club is anticipating making one more.“If we can get to Sunday with...

Biden calling China’s leader a ‘dictator’ opens new rift just after Blinken’s tensions-easing trip

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:42 GMT

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and AAMER MADHANI (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s remarks calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping a “dictator” and China a country with “real economic difficulties” drew fast condemnation from China on Wednesday, cracking open a new rift just after the two countries agreed to tentative steps to stabilize the relationship. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning condemned Biden’s unusually pointed comments as “extremely absurd and irresponsible.”The clash of words comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a visit to Beijing on Monday that sought to break the ice in a relationship that has hit a historical low. While both sides saw those talks as productive, they did not result in any significant breakthroughs beyond an agreement to return to a broad agenda for cooperation and competition.China’s quick response to Biden, a president known for seemingly off-scrip...

Recipe: This Tuscan Chicken Pasta dish gets a boost from lots of garlic and lemon juice

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:42 GMT

For this Tuscan-style chicken and penne pasta dish, lots of garlic and lemon juice bring an appealing flavor personality. The chicken breasts are dredged with flour and pan-fried, then later cut into diagonal slices. Once cooked the chicken is removed from the skillet and the sauce-making begins by patiently cooking the 12 garlic cloves and 3 shallots, all thinly sliced. A pinch of dried red pepper flakes come to the sauce party, along with dry white wine and chicken broth.After cooking the penne in boiling salted water and draining, some of the cooking water is reserved for the sauce. Two cups of the sauce, along with baby arugula, Parmesan cheese, and lemon juice, are tossed with the pasta. The consistency is adjusted by adding about 1/2 cup (or less) of the reserved cooking water. Scooped into individual bowls, the mix is topped with chicken and drizzled with the remaining sauce.Garlicy Tuscan Chicken PastaYield: 4 to 6 servingsINGREDIENTS3 (6- to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chic...

Justice Alito accepted Alaska resort vacation from GOP donors, report says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:42 GMT

By The Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito accepted a 2008 trip to a luxury fishing lodge in Alaska from two wealthy Republican donors, one of whom repeatedly had interests before the court, and he did not disclose the trips on his financial disclosure for that year, ProPublica reports.A story published Wednesday by the nonprofit investigative journalism organization states that in July 2008 Alito flew to a remote corner of Alaska aboard the private plane of businessman and Republican donor, Paul Singer. A hedge fund founded by the billionaire has brought roughly a dozen cases before the court since then, ProPublica reported. Alito did not recuse himself from participating in any of those cases.Alito’s three-day stay at the King Salmon Lodge was paid for by another wealthy donor, Robin Arkley II, the owner of a mortgage company then based in California. Leonard Leo, then a leader of the conservative legal group The Federalist Society, helped make arr...

MASN: Orioles, Nationals reach a settlement agreement on past payments

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:42 GMT

After more than a decade of dispute and debate over precisely how much the Orioles and Washington Nationals each were owed by the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network for a five-year period from 2012 to 2016, the two clubs have reached a settlement, according to The Associated Press.The network, majority owned by the Baltimore club, will pay both teams about $100 million, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because neither team had made an announcement.The settlement closes a lengthy, bitter chapter between the teams during which they had disagreed over the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars. But it does not necessarily end the quarrel between the clubs. Going forward, they must agree on how much they each are owed for other five-year periods, including from 2017 to 2021.Earlier this year, attorneys for the teams argued their cases in New York’s highest court. The clubs previously had battled over how much...

Senior living: What to do when arthritis dictates what you do

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:42 GMT

By Elissa Lee and Albert Jiang, Contributing Writers Thomas, 72, was once an avid hiker. Throughout his 50s and 60s he had frequented the sandy trails of Crystal Cove for strenuous and beautiful day-hikes. The retired post office clerk had been struggling with osteoarthritis in his knees for decades, but now the pain in his knees flared so badly that he found himself spending more time indoors – in bed, in the armchair next to his television especially after an unusually rainy California winter.One morning, after Thomas finished his business on the toilet, he put down his newspaper and prepared to stand up when he realized – he couldn’t. He tried to pull his feet under him to ready himself when he felt his knees increase in stiffness, and then, the pain came on. It was a radiating ache he knew all too well, but now the intensity was excruciating, and for the first time, made Thomas more fearful than annoyed.As Thomas recounted this incident for me at our first physical therapy sessi...

Math and reading scores for American 13-year-olds plunge to lowest levels in decades

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:42 GMT

By COLLIN BINKLEY (AP Education Writer)WASHINGTON (AP) — Math and reading scores among America’s 13-year-olds fell to their lowest levels in decades, with math scores plunging by the largest margin ever recorded, according to the results of a federal test known as the nation’s report card.The results, released Wednesday, are the latest measure of the deep learning setbacks incurred during the pandemic. While earlier testing revealed the magnitude of America’s learning loss, the latest test casts light on the persistence of those setbacks, dimming hopes of swift academic recovery.More than two years after most students returned to in-person class, there are still “worrisome signs about student achievement,” said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the federal Education Department.“The ‘green shoots’ of academic recovery that we had hoped to see have not materialized,” Carr...