ECU-Temple Gameday: Pirates face Temple in final game of regular season

Authorities in China’s western Xinjiang region have opened up some neighborhoods in the capital of Urumqi after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city’s draconian “zero-COVID” lockdown that had lasted more than three months. The displays of public defiance were fanned by anger over a fire in an apartment compound that had killed 10, according to the official death toll. Emergency workers took three hours to extinguish the blaze in a delay many attributed to obstacles caused by anti-virus measures. Some Urumqi residents had their doors chained physically shut. Many in the city believe such brute-force tactics may have prevented residents from escaping in Friday’s fire and that the official death toll is an undercount.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has resigned as head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party following local election losses suffered by her party. Tsai offered her resignation on Saturday evening, a tradition after a major loss, in a short speech in which she also thanked supporters. She said she will shoulder the responsibility as she had hand-picked candidates in Saturday’s elections. Voters in Taiwan overwhelmingly chose the opposition Nationalist party in several major races across the self-ruled island. Chiang Wan-an, the Nationalist party’s mayoral candidate, won the closely watched seat in capital Taipei. Lingering concerns about threats from rival China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, took a backseat to more local issues.

Ukrainian authorities are endeavoring to restore electricity and water services after recent pummeling by Russian military strikes that vastly damaged infrastructure. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said millions have seen their power restored since blackouts swept across the war-battered country days ago. Skirmishes continued Saturday in the east and residents from the southern city of Kherson have headed north and west to flee after punishing, deadly bombardments by Russian forces in recent days. The strikes have been seen as attempts at Russian retribution against Ukraine’s beleaguered but defiant people after Ukrainian troops over two weeks ago liberated the city that had been in Russian hands for many months.

World Cup host Qatar sits in a region that is warming faster than anywhere else on earth besides the Arctic. The wealthy Gulf Arab nation has been able to pay for extreme adaptive measures so far like outdoor air-conditioning to mitigate the effects of rising temperatures in some areas. Qatar has inched forward in recent years with climate pledges. But the transition away from hydrocarbons will not be simple for one of the world's largest producers and exporters of natural gas.

Germany’s socially liberal government is moving ahead with plans to ease the rules for obtaining citizenship in the European Union’s most populous country, a drive that is being assailed by the conservative opposition. Chancellor OIaf Scholz said in a video message Saturday that Germany has long since become “the country of hope” for many, and it’s a good thing when people who have put down roots in the country decide to take citizenship. He said that “Germany needs better rules for the naturalization of all these great women and men.” The overhaul of citizenship rules is one of a series of modernizing reforms that Scholz's three-party coalition agreed to tackle when it took office last December,

BEIJING (AP) — A fire in an apartment building in northwestern China's Xinjiang region killed 10 people and injured nine, authorities said Friday, amid stringent lockdowns that have left many residents in the area stuck in their homes for more than three months.

In cities across Europe, officials are wrestling with a choice this Christmas. They could dim festive lighting to send a message of energy conservation and solidarity with citizens squeezed by higher energy costs and inflation. Or they could let the lights blaze in a message of defiance after two years of pandemic-suppressed Christmas seasons, creating a mood that retailers hope loosen holiday purse strings. Fewer lights will sparkle from the centerpiece tree at France's famed Strasbourg Christmas market, and lights on Paris' Champs-Elysees and London's Oxford Street are reducing hours. But the holiday will shine brightly in Germany, and the Spanish port city of Vigo is keeping up its tradition of staging the country’s most extravagant Christmas light display.