money Virus nicknamed ‘Bunny Ebola’ spreading around Colorado rabbit population
A deadly virus nicknamed “Bunny Ebola” has made its way into Colorado and experts believe it’s starting to spread rapidly throughout the state.
A deadly virus nicknamed “Bunny Ebola” has made its way into Colorado and experts believe it’s starting to spread rapidly throughout the state.
The Norwegian center-left government said Thursday that it wants to add 7 billion kroner ($630 million) to the Scandinavian country’s armed forces over the next 12 years amid increased tensions in the region. The announcement came on top of plans announced last month of a “historic increase” of 600 billion kroner ($54 billion) in the oil-rich country's defense budget over the same period. “We must increase the operational capability of the Armed Forces,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, citing heightened tensions in the region as the reason for the boost.
At Columbia University, tensions between the administration and students protesting over Israel's war in Gaza have reached the point that scores of New York City police marched onto campus to clear an encampment and arrest demonstrators who had commandeered a classroom building. It was the second time in as many weeks that the administration has called on police to control the protests. Students have been suspended, and threatened with expulsion.
Escalating campus protests are forcing U.S. President Joe Biden to walk a careful line of denouncing antisemitism while supporting young Americans' right to protest and trying to limit longer-term political damage. As violent police crackdowns and counter-protests greet spreading demonstrations across U.S. campuses, Biden faces sharp criticism of his Israel policy from both the left and right. Students at dozens of schools have rallied or camped out in recent days to oppose Israel's war in Gaza, demanding institutions stop doing business with companies that support the war.
Human Rights Watch accused Kenyan authorities on Thursday of not responding adequately to ongoing floods that have killed more than 170 people since the start of the rainy season. The New York-based rights group said the government “has a human rights obligation to prevent foreseeable harm from climate change and extreme weather events and to protect people when a disaster strikes.” Kenya's Meteorology Department sent an early warning before the rainy season started, but President William Ruto only formed a response committee on April 24.
Top Israeli ministers will convene on Thursday to discuss a proposed Gaza truce to free some hostages held by Hamas, as well as prospects for an army sweep of the southern tip of the enclave packed with displaced Palestinians, a government source said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet was provisionally slated to meet at 6.30 pm (1530 GMT), followed by the wider security cabinet, the source said. Israel does not generally publish information on sessions of the two groups.
As interest rate cuts get pushed into the future, investors fear potential rate hikes. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, however, appears not to share these worries.
The OECD raised its global economic growth forecast for 2024 on Thursday, driven by strong performances in the United States and emerging countries while Europe lags behind.Central banks worldwide raised interest rates in efforts to combat inflation, which rose after countries emerged from Covid lockdowns and soared further following Russia's assault on Ukraine in 2022.
Russia struck the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa with ballistic missiles in a nighttime attack, injuring 14 people and starting a massive blaze, local officials and emergency services said. The third attack on the city in a week hit a sorting depot belonging to Ukraine’s biggest private delivery company, Nova Poshta. On Monday, six people were killed in a Russian missile strike on Odesa, and two days later three people died there when the Kremlin’s forces targeted civilian infrastructure.
Vestas, the world's number one wind turbine maker, said Thursday it swung to a 75-million-euro ($80-million) loss in the first quarter and warned "geopolitical volatility" would continue to cause uncertainty."In 2024, continued geopolitical volatility is expected to cause uncertainty.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday announced $1 billion in aid for Lebanon during a visit to the crisis-hit country and urged it to tackle illegal migration to the bloc."I can announce a financial package of $1 billion for Lebanon that would be available from this year until 2027," von der Leyen said, adding that "we want to contribute to Lebanon's socio-economic stability".
The European Union announced on Thursday an aid package for Lebanon of 1 billion euros — about $1.06 billion — much of which will go to strengthening border control to halt the flow of asylum seekers and migrants from the small, crisis-wracked country across the Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus and Italy. It comes against a backdrop of increasing hostility toward Syrian refugees in Lebanon and a major surge in irregular migration of Syrian refugees from Lebanon to Cyprus.
The Taliban has agreed with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to build a logistics hub in western Afghanistan aimed at making the war-torn nation a major logistics point for regional exports, including oil from Russia to South Asia, the country's commerce minister said. Following a meeting between representatives of the three countries in the Afghan capital last week, Taliban acting commerce minister Nooruddin Azizi told Reuters that technical teams would draw up a written agreement within two months on the formal plans for the hub, which all three countries would invest in after six months of talks.
A highway collapsed in southern China early on Wednesday, sending cars plummeting down a hill and killing dozens of people, Chinese state media reported.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida unveiled an international framework for regulation and use of generative AI on Thursday, adding to global efforts on governance for the rapidly advancing technology. Kishida made the announcement in a speech at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “Generative AI has the potential to be a vital tool to further enrich the world,” Kishida said.
Firefighters and local residents battled a massive wildfire on the outskirts of Nepal's capital Thursday as the Himalayan republic endures a severe fire season authorities have blamed on a heatwave."Wildfires have increased in an unimaginable ratio, and the season is expected to last for a month more," Sundar Prasad Sharma of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority told AFP. "It is challenging to put out fires because of our difficult terrain," he added.
Organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest said Thursday they reserve the right to remove any Palestinian flags and pro-Palestinian symbols at the show next week in Sweden. The announcement came amid heightened tensions surrounding Israel’s participation in the annual music competition over its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, now in its seventh month. Pro-Palestinian groups are expected to stage large protests in Malmo to raise awareness of their cause.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is coming under fierce pressure from far-right members of his government not to strike the ceasefire proposal currently on the table, which could prevent an Israeli military offensive in Rafah from moving forward.
The US Marshals task force shootout left four officers and the suspect dead. It also revealed the overlapping dilemmas of American life.
President Joe Biden has described the four law-enforcement officers killed in Charlotte as "heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice."
Sen. Bernie Sanders sounds off on the Israel-Hamas war, antisemitism, college protests, and President Joe Biden’s record while in office