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A Nigerian forest and its animals are under threat. Poachers have become rangers to protect both

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

OMO FOREST RESERVE, Nigeria (AP) — Sunday Abiodun, carrying a sword in one hand and balancing a musket over his other shoulder, cleared weeds on a footpath leading to a cluster of new trees.Until recently, it had been a spot to grow cocoa, one of several plots that Abiodun and his fellow forest rangers destroyed after farmers cut down trees to make way for the crop used to make chocolate — driving away birds in the process.“When we see such a farm during patrol, we destroy it and plant trees instead,” Abiodun said. It could take more than 10 years for the trees to mature, he said, with the hope they ease biodiversity loss and restore habitat for birds.He was not always enthusiastic about conservation. Before becoming a ranger, Abiodun, 40, killed animals for a living, including endangered species like pangolin. He is now part of a team working to protect Nigeria’s Omo Forest Reserve, which is facing expanding deforestation from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming and poaching.Th...

As Israeli settlements thrive, Palestinian taps run dry. The water crisis reflects a broader battle

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

JIFTLIK, West Bank (AP) — Across the dusty villages of the occupied West Bank, where Israeli water pipes don’t reach, date palms have been left to die. Greenhouses are empty and deserted. Palestinians say they can barely get enough water to bathe their children and wash their clothes — let alone sustain livestock and grow fruit trees. In sharp contrast, neighboring Jewish settlements look like an oasis. Wildflowers burst through the soil. Farmed fish swim in neat rows of ponds. Children splash in community pools.The struggle for water access in this strip of fertile land reflects a wider contest for control of the West Bank — and in particular the Jordan Valley, which Palestinians consider the breadbasket of their hoped-for future state and Israelis view as key to protecting their eastern border.“People are thirsty, the crops are thirsty,” said Hazeh Daraghmeh, a 63-year-old Palestinian date farmer in the Jiftlik area of the valley, where some of his palms have withered in the bone-...

An Israeli raid on Jenin, a West Bank militant stronghold, kills 1, Palestinians say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in a raid on a militant stronghold in the northern occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, the latest violence in a city that has seen some of the worst bloodshed in the current round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.Violence has gripped the region since last spring, when Israel launched near-nightly raids in response to a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks. The violence has escalated into the fiercest fighting in the West Bank in some two decades, and along with increased violence by radical Jewish settlers and settlement expansion by Israel’s far-right government, has fueled tensions in the region.The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man killed as Mustafa al-Kastouni, 32. It was not immediately clear if the man was affiliated with a militant group. The Hamas militant group said its fighters engaged in a gun battle with Israeli troops in Jenin and lobbed explosives at the f...

Japan sank into a trade deficit last month as exports dropped, especially to other Asian nations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan suffered a trade deficit last month as exports sank for the first time in more than two years, dragged down by a slowdown overseas.Japan’s trade deficit totaled 78.7 billion yen ($539 million), the Finance Ministry said Thursday, the first trade deficit for the world’s third largest economy in two months.Exports shrank most markedly for the rest of Asia, including China, Singapore and Taiwan, declining 0.3% from the same month the previous year to 8.73 trillion yen ($60 billion).Exports recovered in autos and auto parts, as the social restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which had crimped production, eased gradually.But that was not enough to offset the drop in exports in computers, computer chips, machinery and other manufactured goods. Imports fell in various sectors, including food, machinery and energy, slipping 13.5% from the previous year to 8.8 trillion yen ($60 billion), according to the ministry.Imports to Japan dipped not only from Asia but man...

The impact of textile production and waste on the environment 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

With fast fashion, the quantity of clothes produced and thrown away has boomed. Find out more about the environmental impact and what the EU is doing about it, Society.Fast fashion is the constant provision of new styles at very low prices.To tackle the impact on the environment, the EU wants to reduce textile waste and increase the life cycle and recycling of textiles. This is part of the plan to achieve a circular economy by 2050.Find out about the circular economy's definition, its importance and benefits. Overconsumption of natural resourcesIt takes a lot of water to produce textile, plus land to grow cotton and other fibres. It is estimated that the global textile and clothing industry used 79 billion cubic metres of water in 2015, while the needs of the EU's whole economy amounted to 266 billion cubic metres in 2017.To make a single cotton t-shirt, 2,700 litres of fresh water are required according to estimates, enough to meet one person’s drinking needs for 2.5 years.The...

Man seen on TikTok video lurking near women in Burbank released from jail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

A man who was seen in a TikTok video lurking near women’s legs in Burbank was arrested and released from jail allegedly due to overcrowding.According to the victim, Michaela Witter, 28, this release marks the criminal justice system failing her and so many others in similar situations.The suspect, Calese Crowder, 37, was seen in a viral video lurking extremely close to Witter’s legs while she was browsing at a Barnes & Noble store on Aug. 7.After reporting the incident to police, Crowder was later arrested on Aug. 11 during an unrelated incident in which he was accused of peeping into a home with children and a family inside.“I’ve been so anxious and almost had a panic attack the other day because someone was knocking on my door,” Witter said following Crowder's release. “Everyone’s telling me to be careful, don’t go anywhere by yourself, bring a TASER. It’s just it’s really scary knowing he’s out there.”In the TikTok video, Witter describes noticing a strange man following her ...

3 hospitalized after crashing near Metro bus stop in Vermont Square

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

At least three people were critically injured in a crash involving two vehicles near a Metro bus stop in Vermont Square on Wednesday night.Authorities responded to the collision near the 450 block of 51st Street around 7:05 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Police Department.At one point, a pedestrian using a crosswalk was struck by a vehicle. The impact pushed that person under the nearby bus, LAPD said.Three people were transported to local hospitals in serious to critical condition. Four others who were involved in the crash declined medical transportation. Flash mob robbers ransack luxury clothing store in L.A. Details remain limited and it's unclear what initially caused the vehicles to crash.There were no passengers on the bus at the time, police said, and the bus driver was uninjured. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Air evacuations are to begin for people in the path of wildfires in Canada’s Northwest Territories

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories (AP) — Air evacuations were to begin Thursday to move residents in the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories out of the path of wildfires that neared the city of 20,000 people.People in the four areas of Yellowknife at highest risk should leave as soon as possible and residents in other areas have until noon Friday to leave, the Northwest Territories government said. Only those who don’t have the option of leaving by road should register for the flights out, officials added. People who are immunocompromised or have a condition that puts them at higher risk were encouraged to sign up.“I want to be clear that the city is not in immediate danger and there’s a safe window for residents to leave the city by road and by air,” Shane Thompson, a government minister for the Territories, told a news conference.The fire was burning about 17 kilometers (10 miles) outside the city. The evacuation order issued Wednesday night applies to the city of Yel...

La mayoría de las boyas fronterizas del gobernador de Texas están en México, según expediente judicial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

(CNN) — Alrededor del 80% de las controvertidas boyas fronterizas instaladas en el río Grande por la iniciativa fronteriza del gobernador de Texas, Greg Abbott, conocida como Operación Lone Star, se desplegaron en territorio mexicano, según un expediente judicial federal.La Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas (IBWC, por sus siglas en inglés), una entidad que administra los tratados de límites y aguas entre EE.UU. y México, realizó un estudio de las boyas flotantes y el Departamento de Justicia de EE.UU. presentó los hallazgos al tribunal como parte de su demanda en curso contra el estado de Texas.El Departamento de Justicia presentó la demanda el mes pasado exigiendo la eliminación de las barreras fronterizas y pidió a la corte que bloqueara cualquier futura construcción de barreras flotantes.López Obrador critica las “inhumanas” boyas antimigrantes que Texas desplegó en la frontera con MéxicoDe acuerdo con los hallazgos de la encuesta, Texas desplegó una cad...

Column: Chicago Cubs can survive even if Marcus Stroman doesn’t return from his mysterious rib injury

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

In any other year, Marcus Stroman’s potential season-ending rib cartilage fracture would’ve had Chicago Cubs fans crying, “Why us?”But this has been a season unlike any other in recent Cubs history, a roller-coaster ride that no one could’ve seen coming back in spring training. They buried themselves on June 8 in Anaheim, Calif., falling 10 games under .500, only to bounce back into contention in the National League Central and wild-card race.Though the Cubs were only three games over .500 entering Wednesday’s City Series finale against the White Sox, which the Cubs won 4-3 on a three-run, walk-off home run by Christopher Morel, the atmosphere in Wrigleyville matched the giddiness of the summer of 2015, the turning point of Theo Epstein’s vaunted rebuild.So if anyone is worried the possible absence of Stroman for the final seven weeks of the season has spoiled the Cubs’ chances of making a postseason run, they mostly have kept their th...