International

Schools across the US East Coast canceled outdoor activities, commercial airline traffic was slowed and millions of Americans were urged to stay indoors on Wednesday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, blanketing cities in a thick yellowish haze. The US National Weather Service issued air quality alerts for virtually the entire Atlantic seaboard. Healthofficials from Vermont to South Carolina ...

Mike Pence announced Wednesday his entry into the 2024 United States presidential election, as the former vice president goes up against his ex-boss Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, reports AFP from Washington. The evangelical Christian is scheduled to appear at a campaign launch event the same day in the early-voting state of Iowa — joining an already crowded field ...

At least 288 people are now known to have been killed and 850 injured in a multiple train collision in India’s eastern Odisha state, officials say. More than 200 ambulances were sent to the scene in Balasore district, says Odisha’s chief secretary Pradeep Jena, BBC reports. One passenger train is thought to have derailed before being struck by another on ...

Elon Musk has retaken the title of world’s wealthiest person. The Tesla Inc chief executive officer surpassed luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault on Wednesday after shares of Arnault’s LVMH fell 2.6 per cent in Paris trading. Musk and the 74-year-old Frenchman have been neck-and-neck for the top spot this year in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a listing of the world’s 500 ...

A divided US House of Representatives passed a bill to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling on Wednesday, with majority support from both Democrats and Republicans to overcome opposition led by hardline conservatives and avoid a catastrophic default. The Republican-controlled House voted 314-117 to send the legislation to the Senate, which must enact the measure and get it to President ...

A highway gun attack on security forces in northern Mexico left 10 people dead on Monday, authorities said. “Civil Force personnel were attacked with bullets by subjects who were traveling aboard three armored trucks,” Nuevo Leon Public Security Secretary Gerardo Palacios wrote on Facebook. Ten criminal suspects were killed and four officers injured, he added. The attack took place along ...

Shootings across the U.S. left at least 16 people dead and dozens more injured over Memorial Day weekend. The gun violence occurred at beaches, high schools and motorcycle rallies, among other locations, across at least eight states. The victims were teenagers to people in their 60s. The weekend concluded as it began — with gunfire. Nine people were injured in ...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will extend his 20 years at the top of Turkey’s political landscape after winning the country’s presidential runoff election on Sunday. Erdogan received 27,513,587 votes, or 52.14% of the votes cast, according to figures released by the country’s Supreme Election Council, beating challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu who had 25,260,109 votes, or 47.86%. Turkey’s Supreme Election Council has ...

Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a message to get the vote out as he cast his vote in Istanbul, greeting supporters and calling on Turks to vote, Al Jazeera reports. “I think the vote-counting process will be very fast today. It is important to see such elections for the presidency for the Turkish democracy,” the incumbent said after voting. “Participation at ...

A weeks-long battle against wildfires in western Canada finally reached a “turning point” on Monday with scattered rains reported over hotspots and more precipitation to come, officials said. The wildfires in Alberta province have displaced tens of thousands of people and scorched more than 945,000 hectares. “We have received rain, I understand, on almost every wildfire that’s currently burning in ...