Yellen to visit Beijing in further sign of US-China thaw
Plans are under way for U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her Chinese counterparts to hold meetings in Beijing and Washington later this year, continuing the governments’ efforts to ramp up face-to-face engagement to improve ties.
The announcement came after the two countries’ top economic officials met for the first time in Zurich on Wednesday, pledging to improve communication as a way to avoid more serious confrontation in a period of heightened tensions.
Yellen “looks forward to traveling to China and to welcoming her counterparts to the United States in the near future,” the Treasury said in a statement following the meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.
No further details were given on the possible timing. A Treasury official declined to comment on whether any invitations were issued during the session.
The move is another step forward for U.S.- China dialogue that was jump-started in November when Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping held their first face-to-face discussion in Bali, Indonesia.
—Bloomberg News
Cruise ship crew rescues 17 migrants who were adrift, needing aid
MIAMI — A Royal Caribbean crew rescued a group of migrants while the cruise ship was heading to the Bahamas on Sunday.
The cruise line and U.S. Coast Guard declined to comment on the nationalities of the people on the boat. But the rescue comes amid a surge in maritime migration from Cuba and Haiti. And the small boat the people were on is more characteristic of a Cuban migrant boat.
Royal Caribbean released a statement saying the crew of the Liberty of the Seas, which sails out of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, launched a rescue boat after seeing the migrant vessel “adrift and in need of assistance.”
“The crew provided them with medical attention, and is working closely with the United States Coast Guard” the statement said.
Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Nicole Groll said because the rescue happened in Bahamian waters, the people were turned over to the Royal Bahamas Defense Force.
Groll said the Liberty of the Seas the day before reported spotting another boat with people in Bahamas waters. The Coast Guard has an agreement with the Bahamian government to assist when asked, Groll said.
—Miami Herald
Indians view US as biggest threat after China, survey shows
Indians view the U.S. as the biggest military threat after China and place greater blame on NATO and Washington than on Russian President Vladimir Putin for his war in Ukraine, according to a new survey.
Some 43% of the 1,000 respondents perceived China — with whom India has a long-lingering border dispute and has seen tensions flare again since 2020 — as the greatest threat, according to the survey by Morning Consult, a U.S.-based global business intelligence company.
However, 22% saw the U.S. as the second-most significant security threat, ahead of India’s historic arch-rival Pakistan, the survey showed.
“While the world’s two largest democracies would seem to make for natural partners, especially given their mutual mistrust of China, Indians have strategic reasons to be wary of the world’s Western superpower,” according to Sonnet Frisbie and Scott Moskowitz, who oversaw the survey released on Tuesday.
The concerns reflected in the survey — conducted Oct. 14-15 — about the risks from Washington persist despite the South Asian nation’s closer partnership with the U.S., Australia, and Japan — or the Quad, a grouping of democracies formed to counter Beijing’s economic and military ambitions.
—Bloomberg News
Parts of California in for a 'quick shot of rain' before drier period
LOS ANGELES — A series of atmospheric river storms that dropped record-breaking rain and unleashed chaos across California will end with a whimper this week, as a weak storm will give way to what's expected to be a prolonged drier period.
The latest system, a drizzler compared with the powerful deluges that have hammered the state for the better part of a month, will move into the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday afternoon and evening, according to the National Weather Service.
It's expected to "bring a quick shot of rain," with up to half an inch possible in higher elevation areas, said Dalton Behringer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Monterey.
A forecast released by the office showed more modest totals, largely between 0.1 and 0.2 inches, expected across the region.
"Rain should be totally out of the picture by sunrise tomorrow morning," Behringer said Wednesday.
He characterized the latest storm as "an entirely new system ... not really of atmospheric river origin like these past events have been."
The story is much the same across the thoroughly soaked state. In the Central Valley, "we have some overnight rain tonight, but it's (only) going to be a little bit — nothing earth-shattering," said JP Kalb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford.
"We are looking at less than a tenth of an inch in most places," he said Wednesday morning.
—Los Angeles Times
———
