World

India’s economic transformation is kicking into high gear.

UNITED NATIONS—The United Nations forecast Wednesday that global economic growth will fall significantly to 1.9 percent this year as a result of the food and energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, persistently high inflation and the climate emergency.

TOKYO—A senior EU official said Friday that Russia has taken its war against Ukraine to “a different stage” by making indiscriminate attacks on civilians and non-military targets, while criticizing Moscow for triggering recent moves by Germany and the United States to send advanced tanks to Ukraine.

WASHINGTON—The US economy expanded at a 2.9 percent annual pace from October through December, ending 2022 with momentum despite the pressure of high interest rates and widespread fears of a looming recession.

Myanmar’s military government took an early step toward holding parliamentary elections, but it did so by imposing strict rules on political parties that may make fair balloting difficult.

VATICAN CITY—Saying “we must walk patiently in China,” Pope Francis views continued dialogue with Beijing as the guiding principle in his efforts to safeguard his flock, who are a small minority in that Asian nation.

WASHINGTON—The Justice Department and eight states filed an antitrust suit against Google on Tuesday, seeking to shatter its alleged monopoly on the entire ecosystem of online advertising as a hurtful burden to advertisers, consumers and even the US government.

When Rylae-Ann Poulin was a year old, she didn’t crawl or babble like other kids her age. A rare genetic disorder kept her from even lifting her head. Her parents took turns holding her upright at night just so she could breathe comfortably and sleep.

HALF MOON BAY, California—Seven people were killed in two related shootings Monday at agricultural businesses in a Northern California community, marking the state’s third mass killing in eight days, including an attack at a dance hall that killed 11 during Lunar New Year celebrations.

Working from home is saving commuters around the world 72 minutes a day, time they’re splitting between their jobs, leisure and caregiving, a new study shows.

BANGKOK—A human rights group and 16 people from Myanmar have filed a criminal complaint in Germany seeking punishment of Myanmar’s generals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity they alleged were committed in that country after their 2021 government takeover and during a 2017 crackdown on Muslim Rohingya.

BENGALURU, India—For six years, Pravinbhai Parmar’s farm in Gujarat state in western India has been lined with rice, wheat and solar panels.

HONOLULU—One of the world’s most prestigious and storied surfing contests—dubbed the “Super Bowl of Surfing”—went forward Sunday in Hawaii for the first time in seven years with towering wave faces and a gigantic swell that was expected to grow throughout the day.

Incoming New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will prioritize the economy as a recession looms and may jettison some of Jacinda Ardern’s policies as he seeks to win back the political middle ground ahead of an October election.

MONTEREY PARK, California—The hunt for a gunman who killed 10 people at a ballroom dance club during Lunar New Year celebrations ended Sunday when authorities found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the van he used to flee after people thwarted his attempt at a second shooting.

By Carla Bridi / The Associated Press

New Zealand’s next prime minister credits time spent in a police cell for sparking his interest in national politics.

KYIV, Ukraine—Alina Kapatsyna often dreams about getting a phone call from her mother. In those visions, her mother tells her that she’s coming home.

KABUL, Afghanistan—Last June, a team of female doctors and nurses drove six hours across mountains, dry riverbeds and on unpaved roads to reach victims of a massive earthquake that had just hit eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced she is stepping down in a shock resignation ahead of a general election later this year.

Close to half a million workers are ready to strike on a single day as Britain faces an escalation of industrial action across a number of sectors.

Microsoft is cutting 10,000 workers, almost 5 percent of its workforce, joining other tech companies that have scaled back their pandemic-era expansions.

KYIV, Ukraine—A helicopter crash in a Kyiv suburb Wednesday killed 18 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and three children, Ukrainian authorities said.

ZURICH—US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sits down with her Chinese counterpart Wednesday in the highest-ranking contact between the two countries since their presidents agreed to look for ways to improve relations that have grown increasingly strained in recent years.

BRUSSELS—The European Union pushed forward on Tuesday with a major clean tech industrial plan, which not only should keep the continent in the vanguard of plotting a greener future but also guarantee its economic survival as it faces challenges from China and the United States.

BANGKOK—Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc resigned Tuesday, becoming the most senior member of the government to step down after a series of high-profile corruption scandals for which he was held responsible.

Trade between the US and China is on track to break records, a signal of resilient links between the world’s top economies amid the heated national security rhetoric in Washington and fears of “decoupling.” 

Teachers and nurses plan to strike in England and Wales next month as unions remain at loggerheads with the government over below-inflation pay deals.

DNIPRO, Ukraine—Ukrainian emergency crews on Monday sifted through what was left of a Dnipro apartment building destroyed by a Russian missile, placing bodies from one of the war’s deadliest single attacks in months in black bags and gingerly carrying them across steep piles of rubble.

BERLIN—Germany’s much-criticized defense minister announced her resignation Monday following a series of missteps while her department steers the massive project of modernizing the country’s military and oversees expanding weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

VISALIA, California—Six people—including a 17-year-old mother and her 6-month-old baby—were killed in a shooting early Monday at a home in central California, and authorities are searching for at least two suspects, sheriff’s officials said.

DENVER—Earth’s fever persisted last year, not quite spiking to a record high but still in the top five or six warmest on record, government agencies reported Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of making India the world’s factory risks being held back by the country’s inability to attract bigger container ships due to inadequate port infrastructure.

POKHARA, Nepal—A plane making a 27-minute flight to a Nepal tourist town crashed into a gorge Sunday while attempting to land at a newly opened airport, killing at least 68 of the 72 people aboard. At least one witness reported hearing cries for help from within the fiery wreck, the country’s deadliest airplane accident in three decades.

LONDON—Food companies making big profits as inflation has surged should face windfall taxes to help cut global inequality, anti-poverty group Oxfam said Monday as the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting gets underway.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates—US climate envoy John Kerry backs the United Arab Emirates’ decision to appoint the CEO of a state-run oil company to preside over the upcoming UN climate negotiations in Dubai, citing his work on renewable energy projects.

KYIV, Ukraine—The death toll from the weekend Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 35, an official said Monday.

BEIJING—China on Saturday reported nearly 60,000 deaths in people who had Covid-19 since early December, offering hard numbers for an unprecedented surge that was apparent in overcrowded hospitals and packed crematoriums, even as the government released little data about the status of the pandemic for weeks.

LONDON—UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday promised to provide tanks and artillery systems to Ukraine, amid renewed missile attacks by Moscow targeting multiple Ukrainian cities for the first time in nearly two weeks.

A decade ago, China used low prices to dominate solar manufacturing, wiping out Western competitors just as worldwide demand for panels started to soar. The US and Europe are determined not to let the same thing happen with hydrogen.

Southeast Asia, like much of the rest of the world, is losing patience with King Dollar.

TOKYO—Japanese prosecutors formally charged the suspect in the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with murder, sending him to stand trial, a Japanese court said Friday.

LONDON—The leaders of Britain and Japan signed a defense agreement Wednesday that could see troops deployed to each other’s country.

KYIV, Ukraine—The fate of a devastated salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine hung in the balance Wednesday in one of the bloodiest battles of Russia’s invasion, while Ukraine’s unflagging resistance and other challenges prompted Moscow to shake up its military leadership again.

NEW YORK—Thousands of flights across the US were canceled or delayed Wednesday after a system that offers safety information to pilots failed, and the government launched an investigation into the breakdown, which grounded some planes for hours.

KYIV, Ukraine—Russian forces are escalating their onslaught against Ukrainian positions around the wrecked city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian officials said, bringing new levels of death and devastation in the grinding, monthslong battle for control of eastern Ukraine that is part of Moscow’s wider war.

RIO DE JANEIRO—“No amnesty! No amnesty! No amnesty!”

WASHINGTON—The global economy will come “perilously close” to a recession this year, led by weaker growth in all the world’s top economies—the United States, Europe and China—the World Bank warned on Tuesday.

ROME—Pope Francis on Monday broke his silence on the nationwide protests convulsing Iran, denouncing the recourse to the death penalty there and seemingly legitimizing the rallies as demonstrations “demanding greater respect for the dignity of women.”

After years of drought, California is in a long flood fight as waves of storms roll in off the Pacific, killing at least 14 people, closing highways up and down the state and sending residents fleeing for their lives.

China saw about a quarter of a million travelers enter the country on its first day of reopening, though the figure remains a fraction of pre-pandemic flows.

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Lithuanian lawmakers on a visit to Taiwan took aim at China Tuesday, saying the world’s second largest economy tried to use all sorts of measures to change Lithuania’s decision to break diplomatic norms in warming up relations with the self-ruled island democracy.