News
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No petrol, no cars: Why Cubans are turning to electric transport
As fuel shortages and US sanctions take their toll, and even though electricity generation can be spotty, Cubans are turning to smaller, cheaper, plug-in electric alternatives
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Warming climate upends Arctic mining town
In Svalbard, climate change has meant shorter winters; temperatures that yo-yo; more frequent precipitation, increasingly in the form of rain; and thawing permafrost—all conditions that increase the risk of avalanches and landslides
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Forced labour found in China's lithium battery supply chain
China produces three-quarters of the world's lithium ion batteries, and almost all the metals needed to make them are processed there. Here, red flags of forced labour have been found, where the Communist authorities have detained or imprisoned more than 1 million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs and members of other largely Muslim minorities
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Russia becomes China's biggest crude oil supplier as Europe cuts imports
The volume of Russia's crude oil exports to China grew by 28% from the previous month, hitting a record level for its trade with China
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Bankrupt Sri Lanka opens IMF talks, begins shutdown
Schools were shut and state offices worked with skeleton staffing as part of government plans to reduce commuting and save precious petrol and diesel
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Aviation could fly back into black next year, IATA says
Renewed profitability "appears within reach" in 2023, the International Air Transport Association said, predicting a rebound in passenger levels to 83 percent of pre-pandemic levels this year
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Hundreds of thousands evacuated in China after heaviest rains in decades
The downpours have dangerously swelled waterways in the low-lying Pearl River basin in recent days, threatening manufacturing, shipping and logistics operations at a time when supply chains are already stressed because of China's strict Covid-19 controls
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A new brand of activists is taking aim at Ukraine war and climate crisis, together
This is a different brand of activist — young, mostly female and mostly from Eastern Europe — who believes that the Ukraine war is a brutal manifestation of the world's dependence on fossil fuels. They have joined two causes — anti-war activism and climate change — to take full advantage of this moment when the world's attention is focused on Ukraine. And to make their case, they confront Europe's leaders face-to-face
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Layoffs and exits: Firms in China teeter under zero-Covid pressure
China is the last major economy welded to a zero-Covid strategy—putting firms and workers at risk of snap lockdowns, freezing activity in the services sector and tangling supply chains crucial for factories to sell their goods
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Gustavo Petro is Colombia's first leftist leader
Gustavo Petro, a former rebel and a longtime legislator, won Colombia's presidential election Sunday, galvanizing voters frustrated by decades of poverty and inequality under conservative leaders
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China's mass testing mantra is building a waste mountain
From Beijing to Shanghai, Shenzhen to Tianjin, cities are now home to an archipelago of temporary testing kiosks, while authorities order hundreds of millions of people to get swabbed every two or three days