External Reserves Record $424.68 million Increase Nigeria’s external reserves recorded an increase of $424.68 million between August 30 and September 10, highlighting an improved financial outlook for the country. Data sourced from a report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and analysed on Thursday showed the rise in the country’s foreign exchange reserves…
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External Reserves Record $424.68 million Increase
At least 8 dead as Storm Boris continues to pound Central, Eastern Europe
The death toll in Central and Eastern Europe has risen as Storm Boris continued to pummel the region, causing massive floods.
One person drowned in southwestern Poland on Sunday, a firefighter taking part in rescue efforts was killed in Austria and two more people were killed in Romania as strong winds and heavy rains were forecast to persist for a fourth day on Monday. Floods killed four people in Romania on Saturday.
Thousands of people were evacuated on Sunday from their homes in the Czech Republic following days of torrential rain that caused rivers to burst their banks in several parts of the region.
A low-pressure system named Boris has triggered downpours from Austria to Romania, leading to some of the worst flooding in nearly three decades in hard-hit areas in the Czech Republic and Poland.
More rain and strong winds are forecast until at least Monday, though the rain eased on Sunday in Romania, which bore the brunt of flooding a day earlier.
Thousands of homes were damaged over the weekend, bridges swept away and at least 250,000 households – mainly in the Czech Republic – were affected by power cuts.
In Lower Austria, the province surrounding Vienna where government officials said the firefighter had died, authorities declared the area a disaster zone and warned against non-essential travel.
A bridge collapsed in the historic Polish town of Glucholazy near the Czech border and local officials ordered evacuations early on Sunday. Local media said another bridge collapsed in the mountain town of Stronie Slaskie, where a dam burst, according to the Polish weather service.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who visited nearby flooded areas, said on the X platform the government would announce a state of disaster and seek European Union aid.
In the neighbouring Czech Republic, police said they were searching for three people who were in a car that plunged into the river Staric on Saturday near Lipova-lazne, a village about 235km (146 miles) east of the capital, Prague. Rainfall in the area has reached about 500mm (19.7 inches) since Wednesday.
In the Hungarian capital, Budapest, officials raised forecasts for the river Danube to rise in the second half of this week to more than 8.5 metres (27.9 feet), nearing a record of 8.91 metres (29.2 feet) in 2013.
As the rain eased in Romania, workers sought to restore power supplies to some 11,000 homes and cleanup efforts started as residents surveyed the damage.
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Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Neck-and-Neck in New CNN Poll
The race for the White House is neck-and-neck just six weeks from Election Day, with CNN‘s latest poll showing Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump tied among registered voters.
The survey, released by CNN and SSRS Opinion Panel on Tuesday, is based on the responses of 2,074 registered voters nationwide who were surveyed from September 19 to September 22. Harris and Trump were found tied in a multicandidate matchup at 47 percent, with Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver also on the ballot.
Tuesday’s poll also found that the candidates have relatively similar favorability ratings among voters. Forty-two percent of registered voters indicated that they hold a favorable view of the former president, while 45 percent said the same of Harris.
The core issues for voters, according to the latest survey results, are also reflective of similar polling in recent weeks. In the CNN poll, 41 percent of registered voters said that the economy was the most important issue in deciding their presidential pick, followed by protecting democracy (21 percent), immigration (12 percent) and abortion/reproductive rights (11 percent).
Recent analyses have indicated that the 2024 presidential election will likely be one of the closest races in American history. FiveThirtyEight’s election forecast model puts the race between Harris and Trump in the “toss-up” category, with the contest in four swing states—Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada—all falling within a 1-point margin as of Tuesday.
As FiveThirtyEight reporter G. Elliot Morris wrote in a report on Tuesday, there is a chance that November would see “the smallest electoral-vote margin in a presidential election since 1876.” CNN published an analysis piece on Sunday that found the 2024 race to be the “closest race for the White House in the past 60 years,” noting that neither candidate has been able to open up a 5-point lead or more across national polling.
“The fact that no one has led by at least 5 points this cycle is noteworthy because it’s incredibly rare,” CNN’s Harry Enten wrote in the report. “Even in races that end up being very close, one candidate at some point almost always builds a significant advantage. This year, most voters seem locked in.”
According to averages compiled by FiveThirtyEight, Harris is ahead across national polling by 2.5 percentage points (48.3 percent t 45.8 percent). At the same point in the 2020 election, President Joe Biden was up by 7.1 percentage points above Trump. Biden went on to beat the former president by 4.4 percentage points in November 2020.
RealClearPolling (RCP) shows the race to the White House even closer, with Harris leading Trump by 2.1 percentage points (49.2 percent to 47.1 percent). Per RCP’s estimates, the candidates are nearly tied in the Electoral College race: Harris had 215 electoral votes locked in while Trump had 219 votes secured.
RCP puts 104 electoral votes in the toss-up category, which includes those from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Nebraska’s Second Congressional District.
Newsweek reached out to Harris and Trump’s campaigns via email for additional comment on Tuesday.
Trump says Zelenskyy insulted him; House GOP to probe Ukraine leader’s PA trip
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 22, 2024.
Ukrainian Presidential Press Service | Reuters
House Oversight Chair James Comer is opening an investigation into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy‘s Sunday visit to an ammunition factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Comer claims that the trip was organized to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris‘ bid for presidency, and was done using “taxpayer-funded resources.”
The Republican investigation comes as the relationship between Zelenskyy and former president Donald Trump seems to sour.
On Wednesday, Trump accused Zelenskyy of insulting him — Trump said the Ukrainian president was “making nasty little dispersions toward” him — and adding that he got along with Russian President Vladimir Putin “very well.”
“There’s really nothing for the Ukrainian people to go back to, and it didn’t need to happen. Those buildings are down, those cities are gone. They’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal,” Trump said of Zelenskyy while speaking at a plumbing parts manufacturer in Mint Hill, North Carolina.
Zelenskyy is in the United States to attend the UN General Assembly high-level week in New York, where he is meeting with world leaders. He also plans to visit the White House on Thursday, where he will meet with President Joe Biden and, later in the day, with Harris.
Trump was expected to meet with the Ukrainian President on Thursday at Trump Tower, but a Trump campaign official told NBC News Wednesday that the meeting was not happening. When asked why, a source familiar with the matter pointed to Zelenskyy’s New Yorker interview.
In an interview published Sunday by the New Yorker, Zelenskyy said that Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance was “too radical” and his message “seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice,” in ending the war with Russia.
When asked if Ukraine should cede land in exchange for a ceasefire with Russia in a press conference Wednesday, Vance said “everything is going to be on the table.”
Comer’s letter also criticized the timing of the visit with the publishing of Zelenskyy’s comments regarding Trump’s running mate.
The ammunition factory that Zelenskyy visited is operated by General Dynamics and manufactures components for 155 mm artillery shells, a crucial piece of ammunition to Ukraine’s battle efforts.The United States had shipped more than 3 million rounds of it to Ukraine since February 2022, according to a Pentagon fact sheet from July 2024
On Wednesday, the Defense Department announced additional security assistance of $375 million for Ukraine, including more of the 155 mm artillery shells that the Scranton factory specializes in manufacturing.
“I began my visit to the United States by expressing my gratitude to all the employees at the plant and by reaching agreements to expand cooperation between Pennsylvania and our Zaporizhzhia,” Zelenskyy wrote on X Sunday.
There, Zelenskyy also met with three Pennsylvania Democrats; Governor Josh Shapiro, Senator Bob Casey and Rep. Matt Cartwright. Both Casey and Cartwright are up for reelection in November.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy President of Ukraine addresses the “Summit of the Future” in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, U.S., September 23, 2024.
Caitlin Ochs | Reuters
“The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant is playing a critical role bolstering Ukraine’s forces, and I was honored to join President Zelenskyy to thank Pennsylvania workers for helping defend democracy. Attempts to smear his visit to our Commonwealth are an insult and a disgrace,” Sen. Casey said in a statement to CNBC.
Spokespeople for the governor’s office and Cartwright’s campaign did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the investigation.
“In 2019, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives impeached President Donald J. Trump for abuse of power under the theory that he attempted to use a foreign leader—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—to benefit his 2020 presidential campaign, despite a lack of any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of President Trump,” Chairman Comer wrote in a press release Wednesday.
A 30-minute phone call between then-president Trump and Zelenskyy in 2019, where the former president asked Zelenskyy to investigate the activities of his then rival President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, was a part of the impeachment inquiry into Trump.
“The Biden-Harris Administration recently flew the same foreign leader—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—on an American-taxpayer-funded flight to Pennsylvania, a battleground state in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, which has been described as the ‘trickiest battleground for Vice President Kamala Harris to win,” Comer continued.
Comer sought more information on government resources used for and all internal and external communications regarding the trip in letters sent to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Attorney General Merrick Garland and White House Counsel Edward Siskel.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson also sent a sternly worded letter about the Pennsylvania trip Wednesday. Johnson wrote directly to Zelenskyy, and asked the wartime leader to recall Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, who helped organize the visit to Scranton.
U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) walks to his office at the U.S. Capitol on September 17, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” Johnson wrote. “This shortsighted and intentionally political move has caused Republicans to lose trust in Ambassador Markarova’s ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country.”
Comer’s investigation comes a day after nine House Republicans signed a letter sent to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Department of Defense Inspector General Robert Storch, demanding “a full investigation into the use of U.S. military assets and federal resources in relation to the visit.”
In the letter, the Republicans posit that Zelenskyy may have flown into Scranton on a U.S. Air Force aircraft and provided Secret Service protection.
Trump’s position on the war in Ukraine, and America’s role in it, has been a source of controversy on the campaign trail and drawn criticism from both Democrats and from some Republicans. Several Republicans have cited Trump’s ambivalence about U.S. support for Ukraine as one of the reasons they endorsed Harris over him.
By contrast, Biden reiterated his administration’s support for Ukraine Wednesday, adding that he will announce additional “series of actions to accelerate support for Ukraine’s military” on Thursday.
Typhoon Bebinca lands in Shanghai, strongest storm to hit city since 1949, China News
SHANGHAI — Typhoon Bebinca made landfall in Shanghai on Monday morning (Sept 16) as a Category 1 storm, the most powerful tropical cyclone to directly hit the Chinese financial hub in more than seven decades. Packing top wind speeds of 151 kph (94 mph) near its eye, Bebinca landed in the city of nearly 25
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Senegal president dissolves national assembly amid political tensions
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As Harry Kane becomes England’s tenth centurion, we need you to name the nine players he’s joining in an exclusive club… Kane will start tonight against Finland at Wembley, where he will be honoured upon his 100th cap for the Three Lions. He also wants 100 goals…
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Intense Blazes Supercharged Afternoon Convective Clouds Over Southern California Southern California witnessed the formation of pyrocumulus clouds on September 9, 2024, driven by wildfires. These clouds evolved into severe weather events, producing a range of phenomena from rain to lightning. Simultaneously, firefighting efforts were intensified to combat the sprawling Line fire threatening thousands of structures…
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