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China’s parliament names Li Qiang as new premier

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China’s parliament names Li Qiang as new premier

New premier Li Qiang, 63, an in depth confidant of Chinese language chief Xi Jinping, faces the duty of reviving China’s flagging financial system.

China has named Li Qiang, an in depth confidant of President Xi Jinping, because the nation’s subsequent premier, putting him nominally accountable for the world’s second-largest financial system, which is now dealing with a few of its worst prospects in years.

Li was nominated by Xi and appointed to the place with no dissenting voices at Saturday morning’s session of the Nationwide Individuals’s Congress, China’s ceremonial parliament, in Beijing. He replaces outgoing premier Li Keqiang.

The 63-year-old acquired votes from almost all of the greater than 2,900 delegates who voted. The rubber-stamp affirmation of Li’s place got here a day after Xi, 69, secured an unrivalled third five-year time period as president, setting him as much as probably rule for all times and confirming him as probably the most highly effective Chinese language chief since Mao Zedong.

Li is greatest recognized for having enforced a brutal “zero-COVID” lockdown in Shanghai final spring as celebration boss of the Chinese language monetary hub. In doing so, he proved his loyalty to Xi within the face of protests and complaints from residents over their lack of entry to meals, medical care and primary companies.

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Li got here to know Xi throughout the then-future president’s time period as head of Li’s native Zhejiang, a comparatively rich southeastern province now referred to as a expertise and manufacturing powerhouse.

China’s former Premier Li Keqiang shakes fingers with newly elected Premier Li Qiang as China’s President Xi Jinping seems on throughout the fourth plenary session of the Nationwide Individuals’s Congress on the Nice Corridor of the Individuals in Beijing, China on March 11, 2023 [Greg Baker/pool via Reuters]

Previous to the pandemic, Li constructed up a fame in Zhejiang and Shanghai as pleasant to personal trade – whilst Xi enforced tighter political controls and anti-COVID curbs – in addition to having extra management over e-commerce and different tech corporations.

As premier, Li will likely be charged with reviving China’s sluggish financial system nonetheless rising from the pandemic. He will even need to deal with weak world demand for exports, lingering US tariff hikes, a shrinking workforce and an ageing inhabitants.

China’s financial system grew by simply 3 % final yr and on the opening day of parliament, Beijing set a modest 2023 development goal of about 5 %, its lowest purpose in almost three a long time.

Li’s prime process this yr will likely be beating that concentrate on with out triggering severe inflation or piling on debt, Christopher Beddor, deputy China analysis director at Gavekal Dragonomics, informed the Reuters information company.

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“The management has already accepted two years of exceptionally weak financial development within the title of COVID containment. Now that containment is gone, they gained’t settle for one other,” Beddor stated.

Li will now make his intently watched debut on the worldwide stage on Monday throughout the premier’s conventional question-and-answer session with the media after the parliamentary session ends.

The appointment of Li is only one of a slate of loyalists that Xi is putting in key positions amid China’s largest energy reshuffle in a decade.

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US military conducts successful airstrikes on Houthi rebel forces in Yemen

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US military conducts successful airstrikes on Houthi rebel forces in Yemen

The U.S. military confirmed it conducted airstrikes in Yemen, saying it targeted a missile storage site and a command-and-control center operated by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the successful strikes in a release Saturday, saying they were meant to “disrupt and degrade” Houthi operations.

“CENTCOM forces conducted the deliberate strikes to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb and Gulf of Aden,” CENTCOM said in a news release.

DISAPPROVAL MOUNTS BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD AS US AVOIDS DIRECT ACTION AGAINST HOUTHI REBELS

The U.S. military successfully conducted airstrikes in Yemen, saying it targeted a missile storage site and a command-and-control site operated by Iran-backed Houthi rebels. (CENTCOM via X)

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Footage from CENTCOM showed F/A-18’s taking off. The agency said it also used assets from the Navy and the Air Force.

US NAVY SHIPS REPEL ATTACK FROM HOUTHIS IN GULF OF ADEN 

“The strike reflects CENTCOM’s ongoing commitment to protect U.S. and coalition personnel, regional partners and international shipping,” it said.

Houthi rebels

Houthi followers burn the Israeli and American flags on the outskirts of Sana’a, Yemen. (Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)

The attacks against shipping are ongoing, and Houthi militants have vowed to continue until Israel ends its campaign in Gaza.

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The terrorist group has targeted more than 100 merchant vessels since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.

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Fact check: How deadly was 2024 for journalists?

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Fact check: How deadly was 2024 for journalists?

An estimated 104 journalists lost their lives in 2024, with Palestine the most dangerous territory.

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An estimated 104 journalists were killed worldwide over the past year, according to data shared earlier this month by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Another report by NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) puts the figure at 54, but its methodology means it only includes killings that are considered “directly related” to journalists’ professional activity.

Both organisations say that Palestine is the deadliest place on earth for journalists. More than half (55) of the 104 killings reported by IFJ were Palestinian media professionals in Gaza, while a further six were killed in Lebanon.

At least 138 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on 7 October 2023, making the country one of the “most dangerous in the history of modern journalism, behind Iraq, the Philippines and Mexico,” according to the IFJ.

Reporters without Borders has described the number of killings in Gaza as “an unprecedented bloodbath”.

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Israel firmly denies it has intentionally targeted any journalists, but has recognised some that have been killed in its airstrikes on Gaza.

The 104 total killings reported by the IFJ is a slight decrease on the 129 they reported on in 2023, which is considered the bloodiest year for journalists since 1990.

How do other world regions fare?

Asia Pacific is the world’s second most dangerous region for journalists, after the Middle East, according to the IFJ.

It recorded 20 deaths in the region in 2024, of which 70% happened in the southern Asian countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

The region has seen an “upsurge” in violence, according to the IFJ, with deaths increasing sharply from the 12 recorded in 2023.

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Africa was the third most dangerous region for journalists at eight deaths, five of them in war-torn Sudan.

The number of journalists killed in south, central and north America has dropped sharply over the past two years, from 30 in 2022 to six in 2023, and another six in 2024. Mexico, considered to be one of the deadliest places in the world to do journalism, continues to see “threats, intimidation, kidnappings and murders” against journalists, particularly due to reporting on drug trafficking.

Number of journalists behind bars on the rise

According to IFJ estimates on 10 December, there were 520 journalists in prison across the world, considerably more than in 2023 (427) and 2022 (375).

China, including Hong Kong, accounts for most of journalists behind bars, followed by Israel and Myanmar.

The IFJ says the figures show how “fragile” the independent press is and how “risky and dangerous” the profession of journalism has become.

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Italian state railways plans 1.3 bln euro investment in solar plant

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Italian state railways plans 1.3 bln euro investment in solar plant
Italian state railways Ferrovie dello Stato plans to invest 1.3 billion euros ($1.36 billion) in a photovoltaic plant with an initial 1 gigawatt (GW) capacity that would cover 19% of its energy needs by 2029, the CEO said in a newspaper interview.
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