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A Moses Lake, Wash., factory that closed its doors in 2019 will soon resume shipping a key ingredient used in most solar panels and that for years was produced almost exclusively in China.The revival of the factory, owned by REC Silicon, could help achieve a long-standing goal of many American lawmakers and energy executives to re-establish a complete domestic supply chain for solar panels and reduce the world's reliance on plants in China and Southeast Asia. .REC Silicon reopened the factory that produces polysilicon, the building block of most solar panels, in November in partnership with Hanwha Qcells, a South Korean company that is investing billions of dollars in solar panel production in the United States. As part of the deal, Hanwha said this month it became the largest shareh...

Hamas said on Saturday it is reviewing a new Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a move that comes amid efforts to break the deadlock in talks between the armed group and Israel.The statement came as anticipation grew of an Israeli invasion of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where more than a million people have been displaced. Humanitarian groups have warned that such an offensive would have catastrophic consequences for civilians.In a statement, Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, said the group had received an Israeli response to a proposal delivered to Egyptian and Qatari mediators two weeks ago. Al-Hayya did not provide any details included in the Israeli proposal, but said Hamas would respond after the group finished studying it.On Friday, a delegation of Egypt...

Penny Simkin, a childbirth educator and author often described as the "mother of the doula movement," died April 11 at her home in Seattle. She was 85 years old.The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his daughter, Linny Simkin.Ms. Simkin, a physical therapist turned birth educator, has been a pioneer in helping women have a better experience during and after childbirth. Doula is the Greek word for “handmaid” and was adopted several decades ago by alternative birth professionals to refer to someone who supports mothers during labor. In books, seminars and training organizations, Ms. Simkin has helped popularize that role and has worked as a doula herself.Doulas are not medical professionals; their role is to provide comfort to women in the delivery room and postpartum care at home. Such...

There is a locked door on the eastbound platform of Chancery Lane station on the London Underground. The door is unpretentious, sturdy and white.Behind it is a wide set of stairs leading to a labyrinth of tunnels about a mile long built in the 1940s that were initially intended to serve as a World War II shelter and later used for espionage, storage of 400 tons of documents government and telecommunications. Services.Welcome to the Kingsway Exchange Tunnels, located approximately 100 feet below street level in central London, extending beneath the Underground's Central Line. They may soon be entering a new chapter: Angus Murray, the owner of the complex, who bought the tunnels last summer, has applied for a building permit from the local authorities together with the architecture fi...

A Baltimore-area high school athletic director was arrested Thursday after using artificial intelligence software, police said, to produce a racist and anti-Semitic audio clip in which he impersonated the school's principal.Dazhon Darien, the athletic director at Pikesville High School, fabricated the recording — including a rant about "ungrateful black kids who can't get out of a paper bag" — in an attempt to smear the principal, Eric Eiswert, according to the department Baltimore County Police Department.The fake recording, which was posted to Instagram in mid-January, spread quickly, upsetting public schools in Baltimore County, which is the 22nd largest school district in the nation and serves more than 100,000 students. As the district investigated, Mr. Eiswert, who denied ma...

Under intense international scrutiny, Israel has accelerated the flow of aid into Gaza this month, but aid groups say more is needed as severe hunger grips the enclave, particularly in the devastated north.Israel's efforts - which include opening new aid routes - have been recognized in the past week by the Biden administration and international aid officials. More aid trucks appear to be reaching Gaza, especially in the north, where experts have been warning for weeks that famine is imminent.The increase in aid levels is a good sign, but it is too early to say that the looming famine is no longer a risk, said Arif Husain, chief economist at the United Nations World Food Programme.“This can't happen just for a day or a week: it has to happen every single day for the foreseeable fu...

Federal regulators said Friday they had not yet discovered live avian influenza virus in the first batch of milk samples tested at retail, a reassuring indication that milk on store shelves remains safe despite an outbreak of the virus among dairy cows.In an online update, the Food and Drug Administration said that an initial series of tests looking for live viruses, not just genetic fragments, suggests that the pasteurization process was actually neutralizing the pathogen.“These findings reaffirm our assessment that the commercial supply of milk is safe,” the FDA wrote in the update, adding that testing efforts were ongoing.Officials also tested formula for infants and toddlers, which incorporates powdered dairy products, and did not find the virus, the agency wrote.The FDA launched a nat...

As Russian missiles streaked through the skies above Ukraine before dawn Saturday, once again targeting the nation's already battered energy grid in a broad and complex bombardment, Ukrainian drones flew in the opposite direction, targeting refineries of vital oil and gas and other objectives. within Russia.The Ukrainian Air Force said its air defense teams intercepted 21 of 34 Russian ballistic and cruise missiles launched from land, air and sea systems, but the attack caused extensive damage to four thermoelectric power plants and other critical parts of the electricity grid. in three regions.The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down 66 Ukrainian drones over the Krasnodar region, which lies just across the Kerch Strait in southern Russia, east of the occupied Crimean peninsula...

If 2023 was the year of AI chatbots for the tech sector, 2024 is proving to be the year of AI. It may not sound that exciting, but tens of billions of dollars are quickly being spent on behind-the-scenes technology for the industry's AI boom.Companies from Amazon to Meta are renovating their data centers to support artificial intelligence. They are investing in huge new facilities, while places like Saudi Arabia are also racing to build supercomputers capable of handling artificial intelligence. Nearly everyone with a foot in technology or huge amounts of money, it seems, is jumping into a spending frenzy that some believe could last for a long time. years.Microsoft, Meta and Google's parent company Alphabet revealed this week that they spent more than $32 billion combined on d...

Seven rabbis and peace activists were arrested Friday near the Gaza border after attempting to bring food supplies into the territory, according to two participants and the group that organized the operation.The detainees were part of a group of about 30 Israeli and US rabbis and activists who were stopped by police officers as they tried to reach the Erez crossing, a major transit point between Israel and northern Gaza.Organized by Rabbis for Ceasefire, a US-based peace movement, the effort was aimed at building support for a truce and highlighting growing reports of starvation in Gaza. A global authority on food security, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, has predicted an imminent famine in northern Gaza, the area of ​​the territory closest to Erez.The protes...