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Israel pounds Gaza and evacuates town near Lebanon ahead of expected ground offensive against Hamas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:18 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel bombarded the Gaza Strip early Friday, hitting areas in the south where Palestinians had been told to seek safety, and it began evacuating a sizable town near the country’s border with Lebanon in a sign that a potential ground invasion of Gaza could trigger regional turmoil.Palestinians reported heavy airstrikes in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the town’s Nasser Hospital, Gaza’s second largest, which is already overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter. The Israeli military said it had struck more than 100 targets across Gaza linked to the territory’s Hamas rulers, including a tunnel and arms depots.On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered ground troops to prepare to see Gaza “from the inside,” hinting at a ground offensive aimed at crushing Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers nearly two weeks after their bloody incursion in...

Commission sets out tools to manage demographic change in the EU

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:18 GMT

The Commission has adopted a Communication presenting a set of policy tools available to member states for managing demographic change and its impacts on the EU's society and economy, including its global competitiveness. The Communication outlines the wide range of tools (including regulatory instruments, policy frameworks and funding) available to member states to do so. These tools can be effectively combined with national and regional policies to empower and support everyone in reaping the benefits and smoothly face off the challenges of demographic change.Decisive and concerted EU action to manage demographic changeThe demography toolbox draws on experiences from across the EU and sets out a comprehensive approach to demographic change structured around four pillars:       1) support parents by better reconciling family aspirations and paid work, notably by ensuring access to quality childcare and good work-life balance;2) supporting and empowering...

Inspirational tour across China

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:18 GMT

Embark on an inspirational tour across China with a delegation of international civil society representatives. Many of them have written to Chinese President Xi Jinping and subsequently received his reply letters. They serve as a bridge between China and the countries involved in jointly building the Belt and Road.By Peng Yukai, Zhang Rong, Zhou Yu, Liu Ning - People's Daily Online

Miss Manners: A stranger sent a letter blasting me. Must I respond?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:18 GMT

DEAR MISS MANNERS: What is the correct response to a critical unsolicited letter?Related ArticlesAdvice | Miss Manners: How do I bring up the problem of the neighbor’s cats? Advice | Miss Manners: The bride hung up on me, and her mother was rude, too. Was I in the wrong? Advice | Miss Manners: This lady at church got stuck, and I accidentally laughed out loud Advice | Miss Manners: This well-off bride’s wedding shower has me baffled Advice | Miss Manners: I’m plagued by how I mishandled this neighborly interaction I am in my 30s, and sadly have been estranged from my parents for the past few years due to abuse. I periodically receive long, scathing letters from people I’ve never met, and from distant family members who think I should give my parents another chance.Presumably, my parents have asked them to send these letters, as they contain many misperceptions about the situation....

Minjee Lee birdies 18th hole to take a 2-stroke lead into the 3rd round of LPGA South Korea event

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:18 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Minjee Lee shot a 3-under 69 on Friday to take a two-stroke lead after two rounds of the LPGA South Korea tournament.Lee had a two-round total of 11-under 133. American Alison Lee bogeyed her final hole for a 72 and was tied for second with first-round leader Ashleigh Buhai (73).Defending champion Lydia Ko was three strokes behind after a 69.On Thursday, Buhai shot a bogey-free 62 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round in soft conditions on the newly-renovated Seowon Valley Country Club course outside Seoul. But those low scores — only 10 players in the 78-player, no-cut field were over par — changed on Friday and gusty winds and fast greens made scoring difficult.The South Korea tournament is the second of four in the LPGA Tour ’s Asian swing. Angel Yin, who shot 68 Friday and is four strokes behind Lee, won the LPGA Shanghai event last week. The tour moves to Malaysia and Japan over the next two weeks. ___AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golfSource

La atracción más famosa de Australia cumple 50 años

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:18 GMT

(CNN) — Decir que la Ópera de Sídney es un icono muy conocido de Australia es como decir que el Amazonas es un arroyo.Al edificio, que cumplirá 50 años el 20 de octubre, la firma financiera mundial Deloitte le ha otorgado un valor cultural de US$ 11.400 millones.Claro, los excelentes bienes raíces frente al mar de Sídney valen mucho, pero el valor real, según Deloitte, es la forma en que simboliza a Australia en todo el mundo, convirtiéndose en uno de esos edificios, como la Torre Eiffel y el Empire State Building, que pueden ser reconocido sólo por su silueta.Inaugurada el 20 de octubre de 1973 por la difunta reina Isabel II, la Ópera recibe ahora a más de un millón de visitantes cada año.El arquitecto danés Jorn Utzon ganó el concurso para diseñar la Ópera en 1957. Posteriormente ganaría el Premio Pritzker, considerado el Nobel de la arquitectura.Una rica historiaHay mucho más en la Ópera que, bueno, ópera.“Creo que existe una gran idea errónea de que somos artes clási...

DeMar DeRozan praises Becky Hammon for leading Las Vegas Aces to a 2nd straight WNBA title: ‘It’s not surprising for me at all’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:18 GMT

DeMar DeRozan had high praise for coach Becky Hammon after winning her second straight WNBA championship with the Las Vegas Aces.The pair worked together for three years when Hammon was an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs under Gregg Popovich. DeRozan reached out to Hammon to congratulate her after the Aces defeated the New York Liberty on Wednesday, clinching a 3-1 series victory despite the loss of star point guard Chelsea Gray.The Aces were the first team to win consecutive WNBA titles since the Los Angeles Sparks won in 2001 and 2002.“She’s an amazing person,” DeRozan said Thursday after the Bulls‘ 114-105 preseason loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves at the United Center. “Hell of a competitor, knows the game in and out. My time when I was in San Antonio with her being an assistant coach was amazing.”Hammon served as an assistant coach in San Antonio for eight seasons, where she quickly grew to prominence as one of the best candidate...

Rebel ambush in Indonesia’s restive Papua region kills a construction worker and injures 3 others

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:18 GMT

JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — Rebels in Indonesia’s restive Papua province killed a construction worker and seriously injured three others in an attack at a construction site, police said Friday.Nineteen other workers were unharmed “but experienced trauma” from the attack, which occurred on Thursday, according to a statement from Papua police spokesperson Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo.The 23-member construction crew was resting in their tents in Eromaga village in Puncak district when nine members of a rebel group attacked them with sharp weapons including arrows.Security officers rushed to the scene after hearing about the attack, but the rebels escaped before they arrived.Police and military officers were securing the area to prevent further attacks. They transferred the body and the wounded workers to a hospital in another district.Security forces were working to track down the attackers, Prabowo said.Papua, a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea, is ethnically a...

The leaders of Ukraine and Russia assess their resources as their war heads into winter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:18 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke by phone with U.S. President Joe Biden about Washington’s future support for Kyiv, and Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a military base near the Ukrainian border, as the warring countries laid plans for the winter and next year’s combat operations.Almost 20 months of war have sapped both sides’ military resources. The fighting is likely to settle into positional and attritional warfare during the approaching wintry weather, analysts say, with little change along the more than 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.Zelenskyy said late Thursday he spoke to Biden about “a significant support package” for Ukraine. Western help has been crucial for Ukraine’s war effort.Putin visited late Thursday the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District, less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Ukraine’s southeastern border, where he was briefed on the war by the chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, th...

A Palestinian engineer who returned to Gaza City after fleeing south is killed in an airstrike

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:18 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — When Omar Khodari and his family heeded the Israeli military’s warning last week advising them to head from the northern Gaza Strip to the south, they thought they were fleeing to a safer place.They figured they would wait out the airstrikes in the southern town of Khan Younis and go back home when calm returned to Gaza City, Khodari’s relatives said.But the explosions followed them like a slow-moving thunderstorm. Khodari watched as dozens of Palestinians like him who followed Israel’s warning and abandoned their homes in search of safety were killed by Israeli airstrikes raining down on residential buildings and United Nations shelters outside the evacuation zone. On Wednesday, Khodari, his wife, four teenage daughters and two sons decided they’d had enough. Khodari, a 47-year-old civil engineer who spent the last 15 years in Dubai, couldn’t stand that he was suffering under bombardment at his friend’s crowded Khan Younis apartment ...