bdreports24 Online:
The 100-day sprint to the US election began Sunday, the final act of a campaign transformed by an assassination attempt and the stunning exit of President Joe Biden.
After weeks of infighting and despondency over Biden's candidacy, Democrats have consolidated behind Vice President Kamala Harris, radically reshaping the race to November 5 that was fast becoming Republican nominee Donald Trump's to lose.
Harris's candidacy has clearly reinvigorated her party's campaign, which said Sunday it had raised $200 million -- mostly from first-time donors -- since Biden dro...
Putin warns US against deploying long-range missiles in Germany
bdreports24.com Online:
Vladimir Putin has warned the US that if Washington deploys long-range missiles in Germany from 2026, Russia will station similar missiles within striking distance of the west.
The US would start deploying long-range fire capabilities in Germany in 2026 in an effort to demonstrate its commitment to Nato and European defence, the Washington and Germany said earlier this month, reports The Guardian.
The US’s “episodic deployments” are in preparation for longer-term stationing of such capabilities that will include SM-6 and Tomahawk cruise missiles and developmental hypersonic weapons that have a longer range than current capabilities in Europe, Washington and Berlin said.
In a speech on Sunday to sailors from Russia, China, Algeria and ...
UN warns Ethiopia landslide casualties could climb to 500
The Guardian:
The death toll from landslides that hit south-western Ethiopia on Sunday and Monday has risen to 257 and could reach 500, the UN’s office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) says.
Heavy rains in the mountainous Gofa zone caused a landslide on Sunday night, followed by a second on Monday morning that trapped people who were rescuing victims of the first.
The death toll stood at 229 on Tuesday, according to Ethiopia’s national disaster risk management commission.
At least 125 people have been displaced and 12 injured, OCHA said in an update on Thursday. More than 15,000 affected people need to be evacuated immediately because of the risk of more landslides, it said.
Search and rescue operations are continuing. Images the Gofa authorities posted o...
NATO allies set to provide ‘heavier weapons’ to Ukraine
NATO countries are set to announce new "heavier weapons" for Ukraine, the alliance's chief said on Wednesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his backers to speed up their decision-making.
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting of around 50 countries on Friday at the US-run Ramstein military base in Germany, including all 30 members of the NATO alliance.
"The main message there (in Ramstein) will be more support and more advanced support, heavier weapons, and more modern weapons, because this is a fight for our values," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Many of Ukraine's allies have announced plans to step up their military support to Kyiv this month despite the risk of antagonising Russia, notably Brita...
World population at 8 billion humans and still growing
The UN Population Division estimates that the number of humans on Earth will grow to eight billion on November 15, more than three times higher than the 2.5 billion global headcounts in 1950.
However, after a peak in the early 1960s, the world's population growth rate has decelerated dramatically, Rachel Snow of the UN Population Fund told AFP.
Annual growth has fallen from a high of 2.1% between 1962 and 1965 to below 1% in 2020.
That figure could potentially fall to around 0.5% by 2050 due to a continued decline in fertili...
UN decries Russia’s ‘intimidation’ of opponents to Ukraine war
AFP
The UN's acting human rights chief decried on Monday the "intimidation" of people in Russia voicing opposition to the Ukraine war, warning it was undermining fundamental freedoms.
Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council, deputy UN rights chief Nada Al Nashif decried the "intimidation, restrictive measures and sanctions against people voicing opposition to the war in Ukraine."
These actions, she warned, "undermine the exercise of constitutionally guaranteed fundamental freedoms, including the rights 
