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China e-commerce giant Alibaba outlines future strategy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:36 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — The CEO of Chinese e-commerce and financial giant Alibaba said Thursday that the company is moving toward giving up control of some of its business units in a transition toward becoming a capital operator to optimize the value of its sprawling businesses. Daniel Zhang outlined details of a plan announced earlier this week to split Alibaba into six main groups as a prelude toward stock listings of some of its companies. The restructuring marks a new stage in Alibaba’s growth after a series of setbacks as regulators cracked down on it and other tech companies. Alibaba, whose headquarters is in the eastern city of Hangzhou, will be “in the nature of a holding company that is the controlling shareholder of the business group companies,” Zhang said in a conference call.Alibaba’s CFO, Toby Xu, said the company would continue to evaluate the strategic importance of group companies after they go public and decide whether or not to retain control. He declined to say wh...

Piden a partidarios de Bolsonaro que respeten el orden público en regreso del expresidente a Brasil

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:36 GMT

(CNN) — Las autoridades brasileñas instan a los partidarios del expresidente Jair Bolsonaro a no recibirlo en el aeropuerto cuando se espera que regrese a Brasil este jueves, su primera vez en el país desde que perdió la reelección en octubre de 2022.Hablando antes de abordar su vuelo de regreso a casa este miércoles, Bolsonaro dijo que no lideraría una oposición al presidente Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva a su regreso.“No es necesario oponerse a este gobierno. Este gobierno es una oposición en sí mismo”, dijo Bolsonaro en una entrevista exclusiva con la afiliada de CNN, CNN Brasil, en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Orlando.Jair Bolsonaro regresará a Brasil el 30 de marzo, dice el presidente de su partidoSin embargo, Bolsonaro dijo que planeaba seguir ayudando a su Partido Liberal de centroderecha “como una persona con experiencia”, colaborando con “lo que ellos deseen”, citó CNN Brasil al expresidente. Bolsonaro dijo que recorrerá...

Gaudreau scores two SHGs, Wild beat Avalanche 4-2

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:36 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Frederick Gaudreau scored two short-handed goals, Filip Gustavsson stopped 39 shots, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 Wednesday night.Marcus Johansson and Sam Steel also scored for the Wild, who improved to 16-1-4 in their last 21 games moved three points ahead of Colorado and Dallas atop the Central Division.Bowen Byram and Lars Eller scored for the Avalanche, who lost for just the 10th time in their last 34 games (24-7-3). Alexandar Georgiev finished with 25 saves.Despite outshooting the Wild by a 44-29 margin, including a 19-4 advantage in the third period, the Avalanche struggled throughout the night to outmaneuver Gustavsson. The first three Minnesota goals came after crucial miscues by Colorado.An errant pass from Georgiev from behind his own net set up Johansson’s goal just 3:24 into the first period. After Byram tied it midway through the opening period, a battle for a lost puck in front of the Colorado net resulted in a backhanded goal fr...

Piastri is back at an Australian GP in a far different role

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:36 GMT

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Oscar Piastri is hoping his debut Formula One drive on home soil at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday will be more successful than the first time he stood on the grid in Melbourne.The first-season driver, who grew up in a nearby suburb to the Albert Park circuit, was chosen as a flag holder for Toro Rosso Ferrari driver Daniil Kyvat in Melbourne in 2016.But, to his disappointment, a chance to meet the Russian driver did not eventuate because Kyvat experienced electrical difficulties on the formation lap. “I was holding Daniil Kyvat’s flag and he broke down on the lap to the grid, so I never actually got to see him,” Piastri said. “(It will be) pretty special to have someone holding my flag this time.”The 21-year-old Piastri, who replaced popular compatriot Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren for the 2023 season, grew up a 15-minute drive from the circuit but has never driven a race around it. The track encircling a lake is in a sporting precinct and is surround...

Asia stocks mostly rise after Wall St rally, bank fears ease

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:36 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher Thursday following a rally on Wall Street as worries over banks following the collapses of several lenders in recent weeks receded. Forceful actions by regulators have helped to calm markets as investors have turned their focus to how central banks might adjust their interest rate policies to reflect persisting worries over how higher rates might affect lenders. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.5% to 27,740.58. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 1.0% to 7,122.30. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.7% to 2,459.73. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.4% to 20,266.96, while the Shanghai Composite advanced 0.6% to 3,259.64 after China’s new No. 2 leader, Premier Li Qiang, said the recovery from a long slowdown picked up pace in March. The economy showed “encouraging momentum of rebounding” in January and February, Li said at the Boao Forum for Asia, a gathering of businesspeople and politicians on the southern island of Hai...

Climate change helps breed springtime wildfires in Spain

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:36 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — In his more than a decade battling wildfires, firefighter Manuel Rubio had never seen a blaze like the one that raged for the past week in eastern Spain. Not this early in the year. The forest fire that that broke out last Thursday near the village of Villanueva de Viver surprised Rubio and fire experts by displaying an unusual ferocity for spring, when in previous years lower temperatures helped keep fires manageable. That doesn’t bode well for a country that led Europe in burned land during a record-hot 2022.“I was expecting a fire like the ones we normally see in March, which can consume 100, 200 hectares, not the more than 4,300 hectares (11,600 acres) that this one has burned,” Rubio, 39, told The Associated Press hours before going back into the fray. “We are dealing with weather conditions appropriate for the summer and have a fire that is behaving like a summertime fire.”The Mediterranean region is warming faster than the global average due to c...

China’s No. 2 leader says economy improved in March

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:36 GMT

BO’AO, China (AP) — China’s new No. 2 leader said Thursday its economic recovery improved in March and tried to reassure foreign companies the country is committed to opening to the world.Premier Li Qiang spoke before an international audience of businesspeople and politicians as the government tries to revive business and consumer confidence after anti-virus controls that isolated China were abruptly dropped in December.The economy showed “encouraging momentum of rebounding” in January and February, Li said at the Boao Forum for Asia on the southern island of Hainan. “The situation in March is even better,” Li said. He said consumption and investment picked up and “market expectations improved.”Chinese retail sales rose 3.5% over a year earlier in January and February, recovering from December’s 1.8% contraction, government data showed earlier. Spending on restaurants rose 9.2%. Growth in investment in real estate and other fixed assets accelerated to 5.5% from December’s 5.1...

Israel’s Palestinians mostly sit out democracy protests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:36 GMT

HAIFA, Israel (AP) — Amal Oraby is usually a fixture at street protests. But as tens of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated for months against a contentious government plan to overhaul the judiciary, Oraby is sitting this one out.An activist and lawyer, Oraby is one of the many Palestinian citizens of Israel who have stayed on the sidelines of some of the country’s largest and most sustained demonstrations — a glaring absence in a movement that says it aims to preserve the country’s democratic ideals.“I don’t see myself there,” Oraby said.As minorities long plagued by systemic discrimination, Palestinian Israelis have potentially the most to lose if the plan, which would likely weaken the judiciary’s independence, is implemented.But the community harbors a deep sense that the system is already rigged against it and always has been — and sees the demonstrations as an exclusively Jewish movement unwilling to include issues that matter to Palestinians and blind to the l...

Russian whose daughter drew anti-war picture gets two years jail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:36 GMT

A Russian who was investigated by police after his daughter drew an anti-war picture at school was sentenced on Tuesday (28 March) to two years in a penal colony on charges of discrediting the armed forces.But the whereabouts of the convicted man, Alexei Moskalyov (pictured), were unclear. The court said in an official posting on VKontakte, similar to Facebook, that he had fled from house arrest.Moskalyov has been separated from his 13-year-old daughter Masha since he was placed under house arrest at the start of this month and she was moved to a children's home in their hometown of Yefremov, south of Moscow.The case has provoked an outcry among Russian human rights activists and sparked an online campaign to reunite father and daughter.Moskalyov's lawyer Vladimir Biliyenko said he had not seen his client since Monday and did not know whether Moskalyov had fled, as he had only the spokesperson's statement to go by."At the moment, to be honest, I'm in a state of shock," he said.He ad...

Clashes as French protesters rally against Macron's pension bill

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:36 GMT

Police in Paris were confronted by black-clad groups that set fire to garbage containers and threw projectiles at them. They also charged at them and used teargas to disperse protestors against President Emmanuel Macron's deeply unpopular pension bill.On Tuesday (28 March), clashes broke out at rallies similar to those in Rennes, Bordeaux, and Toulouse. A bank branch was set on fire in Nantes.Although public anger has morphed into more anti-Macron sentiments, violence was much lower than last week. Rally attendees were generally peaceful.Live footage from BFM TV shows that one man was lying motionless on the ground following a Paris police officer's charge. The same footage went viral on social networks. The man was rescued by police who stopped to help him but didn't respond to a request to comment.The government refused to suspend and rethink the pension law, which raised retirement age by two years to 64. This angered labour leaders, who demanded that the government find a way to...