(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...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Burkina Faso and Mali have warned that any intervention in neighbouring Niger would be considered a “declaration of war” against their two countries, a signal of support for leaders of the recent coup there.
In a statement released on Monday, the governments of Mali and Burkina Faso also refused to implement what they called “illegal, illegitimate, and inhumane sanctions” against the Nigerien people and authorities.
“The transitional governments of Burkina Faso and Mali...
(BBC News) At least 44 people have been killed in an explosion in Pakistan during a rally organised by an Islamist party.
More than 100 people were also injured in the explosion in northwest Bajaur district, where Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was holding a meeting.
Police told the BBC that they have found evidence suggesting the explosion was a possible suicide attack.
A rescue operation has been completed and all injured have been taken to hospital, officers said.
Officials...
(BBC News) Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he does not reject the idea of peace talks on Ukraine.
Speaking after meeting African leaders in St. Petersburg, he said African and Chinese initiatives could serve as a basis for finding peace.
But Putin also said there could be no ceasefire while the Ukrainian army was on the offensive.
In the hours after he spoke, Russia said a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow had damaged two office blocks.
Flights...
(BBC News) General Abdourahmane Tchiani has declared himself the new leader of Niger after a dramatic coup.
Also known as Omar Tchiani, he staged a takeover that started on Wednesday when the presidential guards unit he led seized the country's leader.
Deposed President Mohamed Bazoum was Niger's first elected leader to succeed another since independence in 1960.
Bazoum is thought to be in good health, held captive by his own guards.
He had been considered a key ally by...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) The United States has ordered non-emergency government personnel to leave Haiti, as the Caribbean nation continues to reel under widespread gang violence, kidnappings, and political instability.
In a travel advisory issued late on Thursday, the U.S. State Department ordered the departure of non-emergency personnel and their family members, and said U.S. citizens in Haiti should leave “as soon as possible.”
“Kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include U.S. citizens,” the statement said, adding that...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) The situation in Niger “remains fluid” a day after mutinous soldiers detained toppled President Mohamed Bazoum and announced they had seized power in a coup because of the West African country’s deteriorating security situation.
Tensions remain high between supporters of the coup and people loyal to the deposed government, said Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, who has reported extensively on Niger.
Supporters of the coup ransacked and set fire to the headquarters of the...
(BBC News) Strength-training exercises such as wall squats or holding the plank position are among the best ways to lower blood pressure, a study suggests.
Current guidance focusing mainly on walking, running, and cycling should be updated, the UK researchers say.
Analysis, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, of trials involving 16,000 people found all exercise lowered high blood pressure.
But wall squats and planking led to larger falls than aerobic exercise.
These isometric exercises are...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) A law passed by Israel’s parliament on Monday that would overhaul the judiciary and limit its powers has sent the country into uncharted territory, amid mass protests from the opposition.
The new legislation, known as the “reasonableness bill”, removes the ability of the Supreme Court to strike down government decisions deemed “unreasonable”.
The far-right government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says that the judges have gotten too strong and need to be reined in,...
