Tuesday, March 19

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Israeli delegation to visit Washington to discuss planned offensive on Rafah | Israel-Gaza war
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Israeli delegation to visit Washington to discuss planned offensive on Rafah | Israel-Gaza war

Israel will send a team of officials to Washington to discuss its planned offensive on Rafah, the White House has said, as the Biden administration insists that an attack would be a “mistake” and seeks to persuade Israel to allow in more aid in the face of an imminent famine in Gaza.The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, announced the Israeli visit after a phone call on Monday between Joe Biden and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, focusing on the planned Rafah assault that Netanyahu has vowed to launch.Sullivan confirmed that Israeli forces had killed Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, and one of the masterminds of the 7 October attacks, in an operation last week, one of thousands of Hamas fighters he said had been killed. But he...
Poland says NATO must urgently ramp spending
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Poland says NATO must urgently ramp spending

Polish President Andrzej Duda speaks to members of the media following a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on March 12, 2024 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch | Getty ImagesPolish President Andrzej Duda said Monday that NATO must urgently increase its defense spending to ensure it does not become the next target of a Russian attack.Speaking to CNBC, Duda reiterated his calls for NATO members to increase their military contributions to 3% amid new reports that Moscow could be readying to target the military alliance within two to three years.Citing unspecified German research, Duda said new evidence suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin is doubling down on his shift toward a war economy with a view to attacking NATO in 2026 or 2027. It follows Danish intel...
Los Rayos-X desvelan qué ocurre en el interior de un coche cuando choca
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Los Rayos-X desvelan qué ocurre en el interior de un coche cuando choca

Mercedes-Benz ha desvelado mediante una radiografía lo que sucede en el interior de los vehículos cuando son sometidos a los llamados «crash-test». Mediante una «colisión transparente » todos los movimientos y deformaciones de las estructuras de los vehículos y los maniquíes son visibles por primera vez. Durante varios años, el departamento de seguridad de vehículos de Mercedes-Benz ha estado investigando el uso de la tecnología de rayos X en los crash tests junto con los compañeros de EMI. El factor decisivo para este avance fue el uso de un acelerador lineal con tecnología de 1 kHz como fuente de radiación. El dispositivo es mucho más potente que los flashes de rayos X utilizados anteriormente en los ensayos: la energía fotónica del acelerador lineal es de hasta nueve megaelectronvol...
Indonesia fishing village flooded with tide of rubbish after heavy rains | Indonesia
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Indonesia fishing village flooded with tide of rubbish after heavy rains | Indonesia

An Indonesian fishing village has been inundated with tonnes of rubbish after recent heavy rains resulted in stronger tides.Teluk, in the Indonesian province of Banten on the western edge of Java island, has one of the country’s dirtiest beaches. But the arrival of tonnes of rubbish on the shore has shocked residents.Solikah, an Indonesian housewife living in the fishing village of Teluk, was in tears as she pointed to piles of trash strewn on a beach close to her home of 40 years.An elderly man carrying baskets walks through rubbish on a beach in Teluk fishing village, Indonesia. Photograph: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters“You can’t predict the weather,” the 58-year-old told Reuters.Fikri Jufri, who works with the community cleaning beaches in Teluk, said the rain had led to the pile-up of rub...
Only seven countries meet WHO air quality standard, research finds | Pollution
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Only seven countries meet WHO air quality standard, research finds | Pollution

Only seven countries are meeting an international air quality standard, with deadly air pollution worsening in places due to a rebound in economic activity and the toxic impact of wildfire smoke, a new report has found.Of 134 countries and regions surveyed in the report, only seven – Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and New Zealand – are meeting a World Health Organization (WHO) guideline limit for tiny airborne particles expelled by cars, trucks and industrial processes.The vast majority of countries are failing to meet this standard for PM2.5, a type of microscopic speck of soot less than the width of a human hair that when inhaled can cause a myriad of health problems and deaths, risking serious implications for people, according to the report by IQAir, a Swis...
US and Japan push for ban on nuclear weapons in space with UN security council resolution | United Nations
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US and Japan push for ban on nuclear weapons in space with UN security council resolution | United Nations

The US and Japan are sponsoring a UN security council resolution calling on all nations not to deploy or develop nuclear weapons in space, the US ambassador has announced.Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN security council meeting that “any placement of nuclear weapons into orbit around the Earth would be unprecedented, dangerous, and unacceptable.”The announcement follows confirmation from the White House last month that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet.Russian President Vladimir Putin declared later that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the US.The Outer Space Treaty ratified by about 114 countr...
U.S. consumer sentiment stays steady
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U.S. consumer sentiment stays steady

Shoppers are seen at Whole Foods Market on October 14, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia.Elijah Nouvelage | Afp | Getty ImagesThis report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.What you need to know todayWall Street gainsU.S. stocks ended higher on Monday as investors look ahead to monetary policy decision from the Federal Reserve. The S&P snapped a three-day losing streak to rise 0.63%, while the Dow gained 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also rose 0.82%. Markets in Asia are waiting for the Bank of Japan's decision amid rising expectations that the world's last negative rates policy is about to end. Nvidia's new ...
English football regulator close as government confirms ‘historic’ bill | Football politics
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English football regulator close as government confirms ‘historic’ bill | Football politics

An independent regulator for English football is imminent after the government confirmed plans to put a bill before parliament under which clubs could be fined up to 10% of revenues if they breach agreed conditions.The long-awaited football governance bill is to be published on Tuesday and will define the powers of the regulator according to three objectives: “to improve financial sustainability of clubs, ensure financial resilience across the leagues, and to safeguard the heritage of English football”.The details of the bill, once published, will be pored over by politicians, football administrators and fans as a day supporter groups have long campaigned for finally comes to pass.The bill has been months in the making, with the government under pressure to deliver on its promise of a r...
Tesla-rival BYD pushes into emerging markets amid Western uncertainty
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Tesla-rival BYD pushes into emerging markets amid Western uncertainty

BYD electric cars waiting to be loaded onto a ship are seen stacked at the international container terminal of Taicang Port in Suzhou, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on February 8, 2024.STR | AFP | Getty ImagesIn the race against Tesla for the global electric car market, Chinese automaker BYD is pushing hard overseas despite rising barriers to the U.S. market.The Shenzhen-based company has already tested the waters in a number of countries with some immediate sales success, often just one year after entering. Given policy uncertainty around Chinese EV exports to major markets like the U.S. and Europe, BYD is seeking to bolster overseas sales by moving production to regions perceived as more friendly. Already, the company has factories in Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia, Hungary and Uzb...
Abortion foes settle lawsuit against museum over pro-life hats
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Abortion foes settle lawsuit against museum over pro-life hats

Patrons enter the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum for the public reopening of the museum’s west end galleries on the National Mall in Washington, U.S. October 14, 2022.Jonathan Ernst | ReutersThe National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., agreed to settle a lawsuit by a group of students, parents, and chaperones from a Catholic school in South Carolina who were told by security guards to remove hats bearing an anti-abortion message during a visit there last year, a court filing Monday revealed.The federally funded museum agreed to pay the more than a dozen plaintiffs a total of $50,000 to settle the suit, according to the filing in U.S. District Court in Washington. The payment includes attorneys' fees.The settlement also calls for the museum's director to give the p...