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[ad_1] STOCKHOLM: Researchers discovered that Covid epidemic shutdowns in South Asia significantly reduced the number of short-lived cooling particles in the air while having no effect on the concentration of long-lived greenhouse gases. Researchers were thus able to demonstrate how lower air pollution emissions lead to cleaner air and faster global warming. The study was published in the journal, 'Climate and Atmospheric Science'. It is well known that emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxides, as well as other air pollutants, cause the formation of aerosols (particles) in the air, which can offset or mask the full climate warming caused by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. However, this masking effect' has received little attention. Large-scale experiments involving vast areas would be required to determine the size, which is impractical. The Covid pandemic became such a 'natural' experiment. Due to pandemic restrictions, many industries

[ad_1] Myanmar’s military government has dissolved the ousted ruling party of former leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 39 other parties, state media announced on Tuesday, over their failure to register for an election set to prolong the army’s grip on power . The National League for Democracy (NLD) is among dozens of parliamentary parties that were severely weakened by the military’s 2021 coup against Suu Kyi’s elected government and its crackdown on protests against its rule. The polls, for which no date has been announced, will come amid a deepening crisis in Myanmar, where the military is fighting on multiple fronts to crush ethnic minority armies and a resistance movement formed to counter its lethal suppression of anti-coup dissent. In a live broadcast late on Tuesday, state-run Myawaddy TV said 63 parties had registered at local or national level and named 40 parties that were automatically disbanded for failure t

[ad_1] CNN  —  The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announced Tuesday that it will return to hosting tournaments in China in 2023 after previously suspending all events in the country, including Hong Kong, last November due to the uncertainty over tennis player Peng Shuai’s safety . Peng was feared to be held incommunicado by the Chinese government after she accused retired Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of forcing her into sex during a years-long on-off relationship. The immediate response from Chinese authorities was to censor any mention of the accusation online and block Peng’s Weibo account from search results. Peng disappeared from public view for more than two weeks, prompting the world’s biggest tennis stars and the United Nations to demand answers as to her whereabouts – as well as a full investigation into her allegations against Zhang. Peng, a three-tim

[ad_1] CNN  —  The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday said it was “deeply alarmed” by the ruling Taliban’s ban on women attending university or working for aid groups in Afghanistan . In moves widely condemned by the international community, the Islamist group last week ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work and suspended university education for all female students in the country. In its statement Tuesday, the UNSC expressed its “deep concern” and called for “the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women and girls in Afghanistan.” It also urged the Taliban to reverse its policies, “which represents an increasing erosion for the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The new restrictions mark yet another step in the Taliban’s brutal crackdown on the

[ad_1] Watch Alex Marquardt’s report on the sting operation on Erin Burnett OutFront on Monday, April 10, at 7 p.m. ET. CNN  —  A team of South Korean spies and American private investigators quietly gathered at the South Korean intelligence service in January, just days after North Korea fired three ballistic missiles into the sea. For months, they’d been tracking $100 million stolen from a California cryptocurrency firm named Harmony, waiting for North Korean hackers to move the stolen crypto into accounts that could eventually be converted to dollars or Chinese yuan, hard currency that could fund the country’s illegal missile program. When the moment came, the spies and sleuths — working out of a government office in a city, Pangyo, known as South Korea’s Silicon Valley — would have only a few minutes to help seize the money before it could be laundered to safety through a s

[ad_1] Reuters  —  Taiwanese are rushing to buy patches being worn by their air force pilots that depict a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh – representing China’s leader Xi Jinping – as a defiant symbol of the island’s resistance to Chinese military exercises. China began three days of military drills around Taiwan on Saturday, a day after the island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, returned from a brief visit to the United States, where she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy despite Beijing’s warnings. Chinese censors have long targeted representations of Winnie the Pooh – created by British author A.A. Milne – over internet memes that compare the fictional bear to China’s leader. Alec Hsu, who designed the patch, has been selling it at his shop since last year, but he saw a spike in orders after Taiwan’s military news agency on Saturday published a photo of the patch

[ad_1] Hong Kong CNN  —  Ride-hailing giant Didi received approval to resume new user registration in China, it said Monday, providing more evidence that Beijing’s regulatory crackdown on tech giants might be coming to an end. The move is the latest sign that regulators are loosening the reins on the country’s beleaguered tech companies in a bid to spur economic growth. “For more than a year, our company has cooperated with the government’s cybersecurity review, seriously dealt with the security issues found in the review, and carried out a comprehensive rectification,” Didi said in a statement posted on its Weibo account. With the approval of the Cybersecurity Review Office, Didi will be able to resume adding new users “immediately,” it added. Didi is a poster child for Beijing’s years-long crackdown on its tech companies. Just days after its $4.4 billion IPO

[ad_1] Taipei CNN  —  The number of companies in Taiwan saying they’re experiencing business disruptions due to rising tensions between Taipei and Beijing has almost doubled, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan . An annual survey, which polled 214 member firms in Taiwan, showed that the number of companies reporting “significant disruption” rose from 17% to 33% between August and December 2022, the chamber said Tuesday . Last August, then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei, and China stepped up military drills in response. China’s ruling Communist Party has increasingly exerted its territorial claims over democratic Taiwan, a self-governing island, despite having never controlled it. The business disruptions were caused by elevated concern from global headquarters, increased shipping, insurance or financial costs, as well as staff anxiety, the c

[ad_1] CNN  —  Authorities in Hong Kong have raided a shop suspected of selling dog and cat meat as food – more than 70 years after the trade was outlawed. Officers seized “suspected samples of dog or cat flesh” at a shop in the Yau Ma Tei district during a “joint blitz operation” by the city’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department on Thursday evening. The AFCD said it had carried out the raid after receiving reports that the meats were on sale in Yau Ma Tei – a densely populated commercial and residential district in the Kowloon area – and that it had arranged testing of the seized samples. It said it was also investigating whether the shop was trading fresh meat without a license. “Prosecution will be instituted should it be proven,” the AFCD said in a statement. Eating dog and cat meat

[ad_1] Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here . Abu Dhabi, UAE CNN  —  When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his decision to delay a controversial plan to weaken the country’s judiciary on Monday, he invoked the biblical story of the Judgement of Solomon, where the king had to rule between two women, both claiming to be the mother of a child. Solomon ordered that the child be cut in two, and the woman who protested the ruling was determined to be the real mother. Before Netanyahu spoke, supporters of the judicial overhaul had gathered in the streets following calls from right-wing politicians to come out, allowing the prime minister to make his address as protesters from both sides rallied simultaneously for the first time in weeks.