List of All Articles with Tag 'li'

President Joe Biden on Monday caused a stir when he appeared to breach royal protocol by touching King Charles III during an arrival ceremony at Windsor Castle, while the King appeared to lose his cool after one of the Welsh Guards at the castle seemed to spend too much time engaging the president in conversation. Mr Biden, who’d arrived in the UK late on Sunday and spent the night at the US Embassy in London, closed out the day’s engagements by meeting with the King and a group of business leaders alongside several US and UK officials. After arriving on the Windsor grounds by helicopter for their first one-on-one meeting since Charles became King last year, Mr Biden raised eyebrows among longtime palace observers by placing his hand on the monarch’s elbow as the two men shook hands. Following that warm greeting, the president placed his hand on the King’s back as they reviewed the assembled Welsh Guards on the Windsor quadrangle, with the monarch reciprocating in a similar gesture a short time later. Both men appeared to be smiling and in good spirits as they ambled about the castle grounds, with Charles attempting to hurry Mr Biden along at one point as they reviewed the Guard of Honour. Mr Biden, who was engaged in conversation with one of the soldiers he was reviewing, failed to heed the monarch’s polite suggestion to keep moving, with the King appearing to snap and gesture at the guard after the president moved along. Although protocol states that the monarch is generally not to be touched, a Buckingham Palace source told People that Mr Biden did not breach protocol and said the King was “entirely comfortable” with the encounter. "What a wonderful symbol of warmth and affection it was between both the individuals and their nations," they said. The King and Mr Biden have met multiple times during their time in public life, with their two most recent meetings coming during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow and a Buckingham Palace reception during the 2021 G7 summit. Both of those times, the subject at hand was their respective efforts to battle climate change, and the same topic was on the agenda during Mr Biden’s visit with the King. Both men participated in what the White House described as a ”climate engagement” featuring His Majesty and a number of “philantrophists and investors,” including the chief executives of Bank of America, Prudential, and BlackRock, as well as US climate envoy John Kerry and Grant Shapps, the British Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. Mr Shapps told reporters that British officials are “enormously pleased” that the Inflation Reduction Act signed by Mr Biden last year “advanced clean energy goals”. Mr Biden’s audience with the King came immediately following a 42-minute visit to Number 10 Downing Street for tea with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. As he sat in the back garden with the PM, Mr Biden said the relationship between the US and the United Kingdom continues to be “moving along in a way that is positive” and “rock solid”. The US president, who has met with his British counterpart five times in the last five months, quipped that it was “good to be back” and commented that he and Mr Sunak have “only been meeting once a month”. For his part, the British Prime Minister said he and Mr Biden would use the brief bilateral meeting to discuss “how do we strengthen our cooperation” and “joint economic security to the benefit of our citizens”. “We stand as two of the firmest allies in that alliance and I know we’ll want to do everything we can to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security,” he said. Following the meeting with the King, Mr Biden departed London for Vilnius, where he will participate in the Nato leaders’ summit before travelling to Helsinki for a meeting with Nordic leaders. Read More King and President Biden’s meeting reinforces US-UK special relationship People defend Joe Biden after reporter claims he wore sneakers without socks during trip to UK: ‘Impeach!’ Biden’s biggest gaffes: Muddling up wars, dozing off mid-event and a series of tumbles Budget 2022: Hunt says UK in recession as he announces huge tax rises Jeremy Hunt increases energy windfall tax in budget Jeremy Hunt freezes tax allowances and hits 45p rate payers

Former president Donald Trump reportedly further strained his relationship with Republican party leadership in Iowa after failing to show up for senator Joni Ernst's annual "Roast and Ride" charity. Except for Mr Trump, eight of the GOP 2024 presidential election hopefuls were present at the senator's charity event last month – a combination of barbecue-rally and motorcycle rides that kick off a busy summer campaign season heading into the first-in-the-nation caucuses. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former vice president Mike Pence, US senator Tim Scott, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and other candidates dressed for the occasion in leather and reached out to supporters. Mr Trump declared that he would not participate in the event but his campaign had expressed interest in sending videotaped remarks to be played for the crowd, according to a New York Times report. However, the former president failed to send the videotape, allegedly leaving Ms Ernst’s operation with a large bill that was wasted on renting screens for the purpose of showing the tape. The former president also potentially ruined the senator's plan to use a motorcycle helmet signed by all of the Republican candidates to sell tickets to the event. The event organisers sent the helmet to Mr Trump, who returned it later than expected and had added the numbers '45' and '47,' signaling he would be the next president. The helmet was never used, the newspaper said. The presidential hopefuls during the event all tiptoed around mentions of the 45th president. Ms Haley repeated a version of a line she has been using as a candidate that seems to allude to Mr Trump and his political career as replete with controversies. “It’s time for a new-generation leader. We’ve got to leave the baggage of the negativity behind,” she said. Meanwhile, Mr Trump in Iowa earlier this week attacked the Florida governor as an enemy of corn-based ethanol in his largest campaign event in the state. The former president spoke to more than 1,000 Iowans and Nebraskans packed into the event hall inside Mid-America Center. Mr Trump declared himself “the most pro-farmer president that you’ve ever had” at the event, which was aimed at promoting his administration’s agricultural record. “I fought for Iowa ethanol like no president in history,” he said. Read More Trump and DeSantis begin eyeing Super Tuesday states as they prepare for 2024 long game Trump says ‘damaged’ DeSantis is ‘desperately trying to get out’ of 2024 race Trump lawyer Alina Habba leaves his defence team in New York fraud case Mexico's president breaks with tradition in quarrel with scrappy opposition upstart A competitive race for an open House seat is taking shape in a Michigan battleground district Trump wanted to tap phones of White House aides, new book claims

By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel's parliament was scheduled on Monday to hold a first vote on a bill that

Former NBA player Royce White wrote “Trump Won!” on the side of his head as he appeared at a Big3 game. The Big3 is a basketball league co-founded by rapper Ice Cube featuring three-on-three games. Mr White played for the Sacramento Kings and the Houston Rockets, but his NBA career was brief as he played only three regular season games. Since then, he has become an outspoken right-winger. Last year, he ran for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District to challenge Democratic Rep Ilhan Omar. But he faced criticism when his campaign committee spent large amounts of money at major retailers without detailing how much of it was used for his campaign, Axios reported last year and he ultimately lost the primary in the solidly Democratic district. Mr White’s message earned him the praise of many on the right. “Royce White = MAGA fearless,” Steve Bannon said. “Royce White knows what’s going on,” former Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake tweeted. “Trump won. EVERYONE knows it.” Similarly, last week, Mr White said he would support a presidential ticket with Mr Trump and Democratic presidential candidate and conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr. Mr Kennedy also appeared at a Big3 game on Sunday. Despite initially criticising Mr Trump, Ice Cube later met with Mr Trump in 2020 to discuss the then-president’s agenda for Black Americans. “Every side is the Darkside for us here in America,” he tweeted at the time. “They’re all the same until something changes for us. They all lie and they all cheat but we can’t afford not to negotiate with whoever is in power or our condition in this country will never change. Our justice is bipartisan.” Read More Trump news – live: Guy Fieri faces backlash as new book claims Trump wanted to tap White House aides’ phones Trump wanted to tap phones of White House aides, new book claims Trump leaves Iowa Republicans with big bill after no-show at charity event Trump spreads White House cocaine conspiracy – live ‘Heartbreaking’ court ruling blocks trans youth from affirming care in Tennessee

Actor Hill Harper announced on Monday his plans to run for US Senate in Michigan to fill retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow's seat.

A 17-year-old boy reportedly carves the name "Julian" on an 8th Century temple in Nara, Japan.

Heat domes are masses of hot air trapped within the atmosphere by high pressure. And they're becoming more common, thanks to climate change.

It didn’t take very long for conservatives to pounce on Meta’s new Twitter competitor and accuse it of censoring a prominent conservative, forcing the social media giant to back down. Last week, the New York Post reported that users of Instagram Threads — the upstart from Facebook’s parent company meant to take advantage of Twitter users’ discontent over the site’s Elon Musk-era problems — were offered a warning when they attempted to follow Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of twice-impeached, twice-indicted ex-president Donald Trump. They were asked if they were “sure” they wanted to do so, and warned that the younger Mr Trump had “repeatedly posted false information that was reviewed by independent fact-checkers or went against our Community Guidelines”. The Trump Organization executive, who frequently posts false and inflammatory statements targeting prominent Democrats, posted a screen grab of the warning to Twitter on Thursday, around the time the new app went live. “Threads not exactly off to a great start,” he wrote. “Hey Instagram, threads is verbal, so the whole skimpy bikini thing is not going to work so well if your influencers can’t actually formulate a sentence… IMHO you may want to rethink cutting off those who can”. Meta communications boss Andy Stone responded that the warning “was an error and shouldn’t have happened”. “It’s been fixed,” he added. In response, Mr Trump replied: “Ok thanks I appreciate that”. The frustrated would-be poster’s father was banned from Instagram and Facebook for two years after he incited a deadly riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. On that day, a mob of the defeated president’s supporters stormed the seat of the US legislature in hopes of preventing certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Read More Instagram Threads hits 100 million users, becoming easily the fastest growing app ever Twitter restores old, ‘better’ version of TweetDeck – but for how long? Account tracking Elon Musk’s jet is now on Threads after it was suspended from Twitter Elon Musk says ‘Zuck is cuck’ as Threads inches closer to 100m users

Provides an overview of Martinique, including key facts about this French Caribbean territory.

Mozambique's ex-finance minister is to be tried in the US after five years in a South African jail.

A New York judge has ordered Steve Bannon to pay his former attorneys nearly $500,000 in unpaid legal fees for work on various legal matters, including his fight against a subpoena by the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.

Extreme heatwaves contributed to more than 60,000 deaths in Europe in 2022 – a number much bigger than previous estimates have shown, according to a new report. The study, conducted by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and published in the journal Nature Medicine, estimated that a staggering 61,672 deaths were caused by extreme heat in Europe between 30 May and 4 September 2022. Europe experienced its hottest summer on record in 2022, marked by an onslaught of scorching heatwaves, devastating droughts and raging forest fires, driven by human-induced climate crisis. While it was known that the excessive heat had led to a significant increase in mortality rates, the exact number of deaths directly attributable to the heat had remained unquantified. In an earlier report, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), an agency of the United Nations, estimated the number of deaths in Europe to be at 15,700 due to 2022 heatwaves. The numbers from the ISGlobal report now estimate it to be four times what WMO found. “This work adds to the existing evidence on heat-related mortality by providing updated data and analysis for the summer of 2022 in Europe,” Dr Raquel Nunes, assistant professor in environmental change and public health, Warwick Medical School, said about the report. “The findings of the current study, with over 61,000 estimated heat-related deaths, further support the evidence that heatwaves have a significant impact on mortality rates.” To arrive at these alarming figures, the research team gathered temperature and mortality data from 2015 to 2022 for 823 regions across 35 European countries, representing a total population of more than 543 million people. These datasets were then used to develop epidemiological models to predict temperature-attributable mortality for each region and week during the summer period. Temperature records indicated that every week throughout the summer period, Europeans experienced above-average temperatures, the report said. The most extreme temperature anomalies occurred during the peak of the summer, from mid-July to mid-August. Researchers say that this repeated occurrence of heatwaves significantly increased heat-related mortality, resulting in 38,881 deaths between 11 July and 14 August. Within this period (slightly over one month), a severe pan-European heatwave occurred from 18 to 24 July, accounting for 11,637 deaths. When examining the impact on individual countries, Italy reported the highest number of heat-attributable deaths during the entire summer of 2022, with a total of 18,010 fatalities. Spain followed closely behind with 11,324 deaths, while Germany recorded 8,173 deaths. Analysing the mortality rates attributable to heat, Italy again topped the list with 295 deaths per million, followed by Greece (280), Spain (237) and Portugal (211). The European average was estimated at 114 deaths per million. In terms of temperature anomalies, France experienced the highest deviation from the average values for the period 1991-2020, with temperatures reaching an astonishing 2.43C higher. Switzerland followed closely with 2.30C higher, while Italy, Hungary and Spain recorded an increase of 2.28C, 2.13C and 2.11C respectively. The study also revealed stark differences in heat-related mortality based on age and gender. It found that more women died of heatwaves than men, with mortality among women standing at a 63 per cent higher rate compared to men. The study estimated 35,406 premature deaths among women, standing at 145 deaths per million, and 21,667 deaths among men, at 93 deaths per million. “It [the study] demonstrates that heat prevention strategies need to be re-evaluated, with gender and age especially in mind,” said Dr Chloe Brimicombe, climate scientist and extreme heat researcher at the Centre for Climate and Global Change, University of Graz. “This research could be taken further, assessing the social vulnerability of citizens across Europe in the future because heat doesn’t impact people equitably. We need climate mitigation to help stop the impact of heat becoming worse in the future.” Mortality rates were also markedly higher among older age groups, with 4,822 deaths occurring among individuals under 65, 9,226 deaths among those aged 65 to 79, and a staggering 36,848 deaths among individuals over 79. Ms Nunes said older people are more vulnerable to extreme heat for several reasons. “As people age, their bodies become less efficient at regulating temperature and adapting to heat stress,” she explained. “This makes it harder for older individuals to cool down and maintain a stable body temperature during periods of high heat.” In addition, older people are also more likely to have existing illnesses. Ms Nunes added that “certain medications commonly taken by older adults, such as diuretics or beta-blockers, can interfere with the body’s ability to cool down”. “Additionally, social factors such as living alone, limited mobility and inadequate access to cooling systems can contribute to the increased vulnerability of older individuals to heat-related health risks.” While temperatures witnessed in the summer of 2022 were not unprecedented, the increased frequency and intensity of heating over the past decade, as average global temperatures reach 1.2C, makes the situation all the more urgent. Europe, already experiencing 1C more warming than the global average, faces a grim future if effective adaptive responses are not implemented, the report warns. Without such measures, the study projects that by 2030 the continent will witness more than 68,000 premature deaths each summer, a number that will surge to more than 94,000 by 2040. Despite many countries having active prevention plans in place, the fact that more than 61,600 people died due to heat stress in 2022 suggests that current adaptation strategies may be insufficient. “The high number of heat-related deaths during the summer of 2022 in Europe highlights the urgent need for action to protect vulnerable populations from the impacts of heatwaves,” says Ms Nunes. “National governments, relevant agencies and other bodies need to be called upon to increase the effectiveness of heat prevention and adaptation plans.” Read More Earth sets its hottest day record for third time in a week Will the UK see a 40C heatwave again this summer? Europe was blighted by unprecedented heat, drought and fires in 2022 – and more is on the way Germany, Austria issue warning to elderly and infirm as heatwave rolls in Heat health alert issued by Met Office as temperature set to reach 30C this weekend 15 dead in China as government warns of ‘multiple natural disasters’ in coming weeks