Author: ALJAZEERA

The new environmental regulations fall short of more ambitious goals previously set by the Biden administration.Washington, DC – The United States has released what it calls the “strongest ever” regulations for car tailpipe pollution, as the country looks to accelerate its sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Still, the rules — released on Wednesday — fall short of more ambitious goals previously set by the administration of President Joe Biden. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it projects that the regulations would lead to 30 to 56 percent of new cars being…

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has begun a tour of the Middle East by holding talks in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, hoping to secure a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. Blinken is set to meet Arab foreign ministers and a senior Palestinian official in Cairo on Thursday, according to an Egyptian foreign ministry note, as he pushes for a truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where hunger is spreading amid growing warnings of a looming famine. The note did not give details on the subject of the meeting, but Egyptian security sources cited by the…

Revenues from Qatar’s LNG fields will provide budget surpluses until the 2030s, Fitch said.Fitch Ratings has upgraded Qatar to AA, its third-highest rating, on the back of revenues expected from its expanded gas fields, the agency has said. Revenues from Qatar’s liquified natural gas (LNG) fields will ensure that the country posts budget surpluses until the 2030s, Fitch said in a release on Wednesday outlining the rating rationale. The upgrade from AA- “reflects Fitch’s greater confidence that debt to GDP will remain in line with or below the ‘AA’ peer median after falling sharply in recent years,” the agency said.…

The UN says a ‘humanitarian travesty’ is playing out in Sudan amid international inattention and inaction.Sudan is suffering one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history after nearly a year of war, the United Nations has warned. Fighting between the army, headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, since last April has killed tens of thousands of people, as the threat of famine looms amid international inaction. “By all measures – the sheer scale of humanitarian needs, the numbers of people displaced and facing hunger – Sudan is…

The measures come as Washington tries to curb the Yemeni group’s attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes amid the war on Gaza.Washington, DC – The United States has imposed sanctions on a shipping company it accused of facilitating the transfer of Iranian commodities linked to a Houthi official to China. The US Department of the Treasury announced the measures against the firm Vishnu Inc, registered in the Marshall Islands, on Wednesday, saying that one of its vessels is involved in “illicit shipments”. It said the cargo was “in support of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Houthi financial facilitator…

PodcastPodcast, The TakeIsrael strikes al-Shifa Hospital again, and detains another Palestinian journalist in the process. Israeli forces attacked Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital for the fourth time on Monday, beating and detaining Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul in the process. Why is this hospital a target this time? In this episode:  Biesan Abu-Kwaik (@BiesanAK), Al Jazeera correspondent Episode credits: This episode was produced by David Enders, Fahrinisa Campana, and Amy Walters with our host Malika Bilal. Sarí el-Khalili and Zaina Badr fact-checked this episode. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik and Adam…

The Israeli military says it has killed 90 people during its raid on Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital where a siege has entered a third day, as displaced Palestinians sheltering in the facility described long detentions and abuse. Hamas condemned what it called Israel’s “bloody massacre” at al-Shifa and said civilians, patients and displaced people were among the fatalities. Al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital before the current conflict started, is one of the few healthcare facilities that is even partially operational in the north of the enclave. It housed more than 7,000 patients and displaced people before the latest attack, the…

Medan, Indonesia – Ordinarily during the holy month of Ramadan, entrepreneur Putra Kelana breaks fast with his family and friends at several different food outlets across his city in North Sumatra.  But this year, one outlet will not be on the menu: McDonald’s. Kelana has been boycotting the fast food chain since October when McDonald’s Israel announced on social media that it had donated thousands of free meals to the Israeli military amid its war in Gaza. “It is not so much an outright boycott, rather a feeling of being deeply unhappy with Israel,” Kelana told Al Jazeera. “I used…

Episode 1 of a doomsday political thriller about evangelical Christian influence on US foreign policy in the Middle East.The first episode of Praying for Armageddon goes inside the evangelical Christian movement to explore its influence on US democracy and foreign policy. Preparing for the “end times”, a grassroots pastor gathers an army of veterans in the heartland of the United States, and megachurch ministers provide spiritual advice to politicians in the nation’s capital. They call for the “final battle” which they believe will trigger the second coming of Christ. Central to their apocalyptic prophecy is Israel. It is with their…

European companies in China are overly focused on risk management amid a less predictable and more politicised business environment in the world’s second largest economy, a business lobby group has warned. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said on Wednesday that about three-quarters of respondents to a survey of its 1,700 members had reviewed their supply chains and exposure in China over the past two years amid a “general sentiment of uncertainty”. Some 21 percent of respondents said they planned to expand their production in China, while another 12 percent planned to reduce it, the chamber said. Only…