Month: June 2023

The Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Games will be carried for 68 days before the cauldron is lit

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A map is shown on a giant video screen during the unveiling of the route for the Paris 2024 Olympic Torch relay at Sorbonne University in Paris, Friday, June 23, 2023. The route of the Torch is expected to take in more than 60 departments across France as it is carried for three months in the lead-up to the July Olympics in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

By JEROME PUGMIRE AP Sports Writer

PARIS (AP) — The Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Games will pass through 64 departments — including five overseas — and 400 towns over 68 days before the cauldron is lit.

Organizers announced the route for the torch relay on Friday at a Paris university.

“Paris 2024 is the greatest collective project in our history,” organizing committee president Tony Estanguet said. “The torch relay plays an important role because it has the capacity to touch so many people.”

The torch will be lit by the sun’s rays on April 16 in Ancient Olympia, Greece. It will then be carried around the nation before its handover in Athens.

The flame will leave Athens on April 27 aboard a three-mast ship named Belem for the French port of Marseille — a former Greek colony founded 2,600 years ago.

The Belem was first used in 1896, the same year the modern Olympics came back. It will be skippered by French navigator Armel Le Cléac’h, winner of the solo around-the-world race Vendée Globe in 2017. The crew will reach Marseille on May 8. Continue reading

Want a climate-friendly flight? It’s going to take a while and cost you more

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FILE – A man walks down the steps of the Boeing 777X airplane during the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, north of Paris, France, Monday, June 19, 2023. Airlines are facing increasing pressure to cut their climate-changing emissions. That made sustainable aviation fuel a hot topic this week at the Paris Air Show, a major industry event. Sustainable fuel made from food waste or plant material is aviation’s best hope for reducing emissions in the next couple of decades. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer

When it comes to flying, going green may cost you more. And it’s going to take a while for the strategy to take off.

Sustainability was a hot topic this week at the Paris Air Show, the world’s largest event for the aviation industry, which faces increasing pressure to reduce the climate-changing greenhouse gases that aircraft spew.

Even the massive orders at the show got a emissions-reduction spin: Airlines and manufacturers said the new planes will be more fuel-efficient than the ones they replace.

But most of those planes will burn conventional, kerosene-based jet fuel. Startups are working feverishly on electric-powered aircraft, but they won’t catch on as quickly as electric vehicles. Continue reading

Americans mark Juneteenth with parties, events and quiet reflection on the end of slavery

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Kici Ashton, 3, waves a Juneteenth sign from a car while riding in the annual Galveston Juneteenth Parade in Galveston, Texas, on Saturday, June 17, 2023. (Stuart Villanueva/The Galveston County Daily News via AP)

By BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS, ED WHITE and ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press

Detroit (AP) — Americans across the country this weekend celebrated Juneteenth, marking the relatively new national holiday with cookouts, parades and other gatherings as they commemorated the end of slavery after the Civil War.

While many have treated the long holiday weekend as a reason for a party, others urged quiet reflection on America’s often violent and oppressive treatment of its Black citizens. And still others have remarked at the strangeness of celebrating a federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the nation while many Americans are trying to stop parts of that history from being taught in public schools.

“Is #Juneteenth the only federal holiday that some states have banned the teaching of its history and significance?” Author Michelle Duster asked on Twitter this weekend, referring to measures in Florida, Oklahoma and Alabama prohibiting an Advancement Placement African American studies course or the teaching of certain concepts of race and racism. Continue reading

UN steps up criticism of IMF and World Bank, the other pillars of the post-World War II global order

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FILE – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to reporters in the Treaty Room before a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department, April 27, 2023, in Washington. From the ashes of World War II, three institutions were created as linchpins of a new global order. Now, in an unusual move the top official in one, Guterres, is pressing for major changes in the other two. Guterres says the International Monetary Fund has benefited rich countries instead of poor ones. And he describes the IMF and World Bank’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a “glaring failure” that left dozens of countries deeply indebted. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — From the ashes of World War II, three institutions were created as linchpins of a new global order. Now, in an unusual move, the top official in one — the secretary-general of the United Nations — is pressing for major changes in the other two.

Antonio Guterres says the International Monetary Fund has benefited rich countries instead of poor ones. And he describes the IMF and World Bank ‘s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a “glaring failure” that left dozens of countries deeply indebted.

Guterres’ criticism, in a recent paper, isn’t the first time he’s called for overhauling global financial institutions. But it is his most in-depth analysis of their problems, cast in light of their response to the pandemic, which he called a “stress test” for the organizations.

His comments were issued ahead of meetings called by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday and Friday to address reforms of the multilateral development banks and other issues. Continue reading

Once a reliable cash cow, Amazon’s cloud business slows as companies pull back on service

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FILE – In this Feb. 14, 2019, file photo people stand in the lobby for Amazon offices in New York. Amazon is kicking off its annual security-focused cloud computing conference on Tuesday amid a slowdown in its profitable cloud business Amazon Web Services, or AWS. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — When the pandemic hit three years ago, Amazon was one of the few businesses that thrived.

Customers flocked to the online commerce site amid global lockdowns. But even when those lockdowns eventually lifted and Amazon’s sales slowed as people returned to stores, the company could still count on its massive cash cow: Amazon Web Services.

Now even the lucrative cloud services business is feeling pressure.

Companies are trimming their expenses amid concerns about high inflation and fears that a recession might be around the corner. And many of them are being more cautious about their cloud costs, leading to a slowdown in one of Amazon’s profitable businesses. The tech giant’s first quarter earnings report showed its cloud unit generated $21.4 billion and was growing at 16% in the first three months of this year — much slower than the 37% growth rate a year prior. Continue reading