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This is VOA News. I'm Joe Ramsey.
Bangladesh's Nobel Peace Prize winning economist Muhammad Yunus was sworn in as the head of the country's caretaker government on Thursday, three days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee the country following violent protests. Reuters correspondent Rachel Graham has more. Yunus made an emotional return home to Bangladesh after weeks of student protests killed about 300 people. The 84-year-old arrived in Dhaka from Paris, where he'd been receiving medical treatment. Protesters had backed him to head the caretaker government, which is tasked with holding elections for a new leader. People in the capital Dhaka welcomed his appointment hoping for a new era in Bangladeshi politics. "The example that the young generation has set of giving this country a rebirth, we are expecting that Yunus will be able to take it further to reconstruct our nation." The economist known as the banker to the poor received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for founding a bank that pioneered the fight against poverty through small loans to needy borrowers. Reuters correspondent Rachel Graham. In the wake of a canceled pop concert as a result of a foiled attack, the U.N. warned of the heightened terrorism risk posed by ISIS-K at a Security Council meeting on Thursday. "ISIL-K has improved its financial and logistical capabilities in the past six months, including by tapping into Afghan and Central Asian diasporas for support." :U.N. Undersecretary-General for counterterrorism Vladimir Voronkov. The meeting came as the Islamic State was implicated in a Taylor Swift concert plot on Wednesday. Israeli forces stepped up airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 40 people, Palestinian medics said. This is VOA News. Venezuelan security forces have arrested thousands in the wake of last week's massive protest by opponents of President Nicolás Maduro, who say he stole the country's July 28 elections. Yan Boechat reports from Caracas. It was the first time in 25 years that people who live in the capital's slums hit the streets to protest against Chavismo, the ideology behind the leftist government that have ruled Venezuela for decades. It caught both the government and the opposition by surprise. Less than 24 hours after Nicolás Maduro claimed victory in the elections, residents of the poorest neighborhoods in Caracas took to the streets, some banging pots and pans, all of them outraged by an election that the opposition claims was rigged. Yan Boechat, VOA News, Caracas. Democrat Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 42 percent to 37 percent in the race for the November 5 U.S. presidential election, according to an Ipsos poll published on Thursday. The poll found Harris had widened her lead since a July 22 to 23 Reuters/Ipsos survey, which found her up 37 to 34 percent over Trump. The nationwide poll of more than 2,000 U.S. adults conducted last week found 4 percent of those surveyed backed independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., down from 10 percent in July. Britain remained on high alert on Thursday for further unrest. AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports. Police had been expecting a wave of planned far-right protests targeting offices of immigration lawyers and others offering services to migrants. But those demonstrations failed to materialize as police and counter-protesters filled the streets. Carrying signs saying "Refugees Welcome" and chanting "Whose streets? Our streets," people turned out in force to protect asylum service centers and the offices of immigration attorneys. Karen Chammas, London. Earth's string of 13 straight months with a new average heat record came to an end in July. That's [the] according to the European climate agency [c..., c...] Copernicus on Thursday. The agency said July's 2024 (July 2024's) average heat missed surpassing the July of a year ago. Both the agency and outside experts warned that the end of the [reg...] record-breaking streak changes nothing about the threat posed by climate change. It's driving extreme weather events that can be seen regularly from torrential rains and flooding in South Africa to the earliest Category 4 hurricane ever seen, Beryl. I'm Joe Ramsey. |