WORLD

BEIJING | Xinhua |  As the New Year’s ball is about to drop, let’s review the passing year. This was a year of upheavals: Global economic growth hit the brakes, the geopolitical landscape shook with increasing intensity, regional conflicts erupted like wildfire, humanitarian crises worsened, and a web of traditional …

MOSCOW | TASS | Several OPEC+ countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, have begun voluntarily reducing their oil production by an aggregate additional volume of 2.2 mln barrels per day (bpd) in January. The policy will be in force throughout the first quarter and, depending on market conditions, the petroleum …

MOSCOW | TASS | Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent holiday telegrams to Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) national leaders, with the exception of Moldova, as well as the heads of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Kremlin press service reported. Among European leaders, he sent greetings only to Hungarian Prime …

BEIJING, CHINA | Xinhua | As the world counts down to a new year, the China-U.S. diplomatic relationship is set to welcome its 45th anniversary. Back in November, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, held a historic meeting in San Francisco. Many, not just Chinese and …

UNITED NATIONS | Xinhua | UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday expressed his deep appreciation for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali as it completed its withdrawal from the country. The UN chief underscored the pivotal role the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) played in bolstering the …

BEIJING | Xinhua |  The following are the top 10 world news events in the year 2023 selected by Xinhua in a chronological order: 1. Generative AI accelerates industrial transformation The number of monthly active users of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, reached 100 million in January. Generative AI …

  MOSCOW/KIEV, UKRAINE | Xinhua | The Ukrainian shelling of the Russian border city of Belgorod has caused 21 deaths, including three children, and damage in 30 apartment buildings, Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said Sunday. “The number of dead has increased to 21 people, of whom three …

FRANKFURT, GERMANY | Xinhua | As German companies are getting increasingly dissatisfied with their status quo, their scepticism over business prospects for the first half of 2024 has grown. The Ifo Business Climate Index, which measures entrepreneurs’ sentiments about the current business situation and their expectations for the next six …

COMMENT | SARAH NEWMAN | When the world leaders gathered in Dubai for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), the United Arab Emirates unveiled the world’s highest-capacity waste-to-energy (WTE) facility. The plant is designed to process two million metric tons of municipal waste annually, producing enough electricity to power 120,000 …

BEIJING | Xinhua |  Another Christmas has come and gone, replete with families and friends exchanging gifts beside a crackling hearth, sharing stories under a Christmas tree and enjoying traditional holiday meals. Others weren’t so fortunate, receiving church handouts, curling up in a subway station to avoid the cold or …