(Al Jazeera Media Network) The United States’ continuing military buildup in the Gulf risks a “dangerous” confrontation with Iran, U.S.-based analysts have said, as the two countries continue to struggle to resolve their issues through diplomacy.
The Pentagon announced this week that thousands of U.S. troops were being deployed to the region to help protect shipping lanes, such as those in the Strait of Hormuz, from Iranian “harassment”.
The Associated Press news agency reported last week that the U.S. military was...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Niger’s military government has rejected the latest diplomatic mission from African countries aimed at restoring constitutional order after a July 26 coup, resisting pressure from the United States and United Nations to come to the negotiating table.
The African Union (AU) planned to send a joint mission with representatives of the UN and the West African bloc ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) to Niger on Tuesday, but it was...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Elon Musk has said in a social media post that his proposed cage fight with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg would be livestreamed on the social media platform X, headed by Musk and formerly known as Twitter.
The two social media moguls have been egging each other into a mixed martial arts cage match in Las Vegas since June.
“Zuck v Musk fight will be livestreamed on X. All proceeds will go to...
(BBC News) Niger's coup leaders have closed the country's airspace until further notice, citing the threat of military intervention.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 is showing that there are currently no aircraft in Niger's skies.
The West African group of countries, Ecowas, had earlier warned it could use force if President Mohamed Bazoum was not reinstated by 23:00 GMT on Sunday.
A junta spokesman says Niger's armed forces are ready to defend the country.
Bazoum was detained on July...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Niger’s coup generals have asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner as the deadline nears for it to release the country’s removed president or face possible military intervention by the West African regional bloc, a news report says.
The request came during a visit by a coup leader – General Salifou Mody – to neighbouring Mali, where he made contact with someone from Wagner, Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research...
(BBC News) Chandrayaan-3, India's latest Moon mission, has entered the lunar orbit, the country's space agency has said.
The spacecraft with an orbiter, lander, and a rover lifted off on July 14. It will try to set the lander and rover on the lunar surface on August 23 or 24.
If successful, India will be the first country to land near the Moon's little-explored south pole.
It will be only the fourth to achieve a soft landing...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Former United States President Donald Trump has again appeared in a criminal court where he pleaded not guilty this week to federal charges related to alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
The case is widely considered the most significant of three active criminal proceedings against the Republican politician, who is again running for president.
He also faces state charges in New York related to a hush-money payment, and a federal case...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Brazilian authorities have said that at least nine people were killed during a police raid in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the latest case of violence stemming from law enforcement activity in the city’s poor favela neighbourhoods.
Police said that Wednesday’s operation was focused on targeting criminal gangs in the Complexo da Penha, a network of favelas in the north of the city.
“A clash occurred when police teams came under attack...
(BBC News) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has defended the strength of the U.S. economy, after the government was stripped of its top-tier credit rating.
Yellen called the decision by Fitch, one of the three big ratings firms, "puzzling" and "entirely unwarranted".
Her remarks came as global stock markets dropped and many buyers of Treasuries, as U.S. government debt is known, demanded higher returns.
The S&P 500 ended trade about 1.4% lower, while the Nasdaq fell 2.17%.
The Dow...
(Bjorn Lomborg, The Wall Street Journal)
One of the most common tropes in our increasingly alarmist climate debate is that global warming has set the world on fire. But it hasn’t. For more than two decades, satellites have recorded fires across the planet’s surface. The data are unequivocal: since the early 2000s, when 3% of the world’s land caught fire, the area burned annually has trended downward.
In 2022, the last year for which there are...
