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Record-breaking heat wave grips western United States

A record early heat wave striking the western United States on Friday is a one-in-500-year event and almost certainly the result of human-caused climate change, experts say. The heat has been toppling records this week and is set to continue into the weekend across western cities while expanding eastward. Four locations in the desert area near the California-Arizona border registered 44.4 degrees Celsius on Friday, a US national record for March. The readings were recorded near Yuma and Martinez Lake in Arizona, and around Winterhaven and Ogilby in California. Read: Intense heatwave grips US, triggering record-breaking temperatures Already, 65 cities have recorded new March highs, ranging from Arizona and California to Idaho, Weather.com reported. Death Valley reached 40°C on Thursday, while typically cool and foggy San Francisco tied its historic March record at 29°C. In Colorado, skiers were seen hitting the slopes shirtless. The National Weather Service issued extreme heat warni...

China's Xi meets Vietnamese PM

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Prime Minister of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh in Beijing on Wednesday. Chinh is in China to attend the 2024 Summer Davos. Xi asked Chinh to convey his cordial greetings to Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, and to Vietnamese President To Lam. Xi said that during his visit to Vietnam at the end of last year, he and Trong announced the building of a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance, ushering bilateral relations into a new stage. Over the past half a year, the two parties and the two countries have enjoyed close exchanges among high-ranking officials and smooth cooperation in various fields, bringing tangible benefits to the two peoples, he said. Noting that the world today is going through changes unseen in a century, Xi said both China and Vietnam have maintained rapid economic development and long-term social stability, demonstrating the strengths of the socialist system. He said the building of a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance is in line with the modernization needs of the two countries, and is conducive to maintaining regional peace and stability and to promoting the development of the global socialist cause. China is willing to work with Vietnam to maintain solidarity and friendship, consolidate mutual support, and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, Xi said, adding that China also stands ready to join hands with Vietnam to march toward modernization and make greater contributions to world peace, stability, development and prosperity. Xi stressed that China is committed to comprehensively deepening reform and promoting Chinese modernization, which will bring new opportunities for the two sides to expand cooperation in such fields as economy and trade, connectivity and digital economy. He called on the two sides to maintain high-level exchanges, jointly promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, enhance connectivity, and promote the high-quality development of practical cooperation between the two countries. China is willing to encourage more Chinese enterprises to increase investment in Vietnam and hopes that Vietnam can provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises, he said. He said the two sides should make good use of the friendly exchanges between the two parties, support border provinces in strengthening exchanges, implement livelihood projects on agriculture, education and medical care, and consolidate public support for China-Vietnam friendship through a good use of people-to-people and youth exchange platforms. The two sides should properly handle maritime issues, speed up joint maritime development and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability, Xi added. Chinh conveyed cordial greetings from General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President To Lam to Xi. He said that Vietnam and China, both as socialist countries led by the communist party, have a tradition of good-neighborliness and friendship. Hailing China's great achievements on all fronts, Chinh said the Vietnamese side thinks highly of China's important role as an engine and ballast for global economic growth, and supports China's development and prosperity and the realization of its Second Centenary Goal as scheduled. Vietnam supports China's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and opposes the politicization of economic, trade and sci-tech issues, Chinh said. Vietnam hopes to learn from China's new theories, practices and achievements in party and state governance, and to stick to the path of socialism along with China to achieve common development, he added. Noting that Vietnam supports China's position on the Taiwan question and firmly adheres to the one-China principle, Chinh said that it is the top priority and strategic choice of Vietnam's foreign policy, which will not be disrupted by external interference, to deepen strategic mutual trust and pragmatic cooperation with China, and build a Vietnam-China community with a shared future that carries strategic significance. He added that Vietnam will join hands with China to continue enhancing political mutual trust, deepening pragmatic cooperation, encouraging youth exchanges, consolidating public support, strengthening multilateral coordination, and properly handling differences, to earnestly promote the Vietnam-China community with a shared future that carries strategic significance. 

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