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Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Photo: Brendan SMIALOWSKI and Patrick T. Fallon / AFP Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is performing better than President Joe Biden in battleground states likely to decide the 5 November election, narrowing the gap with Republican Donald Trump, according to an Emerson College/The Hill poll released on Thursday. The poll showed former president Trump leading in four of the critical states: Arizona 49 percent to 44 percent, Georgia 48 percent to 46 percent, Michigan 46 percent to 45 percent, and Pennsylvania 48 percent to 46 percent. Trump and Harris are tied at 47 percent in Wisconsin, according to the poll. Harris surpassed Biden's performance in an Emerson poll conducted ...

Photo: AFP Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu have met in an effort to close the remaining "gaps" in the push for a Gaza ceasefire deal, the White House said. The meeting at the White House came a day after Netanyahu gave a fiery speech to Congress as thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside. US Vice-President Kamala Harris later met Netanyahu and said she had voiced "serious concerns" over casualties in Gaza. The Israeli prime minister faces pressure both at home and abroad to bring an end to the Israel-Gaza war, now in its ninth month. He said he had known the US president for 40 years - and that Biden had known every Israeli PM over the last half a century. "From a proud Jewish Zionist to a proud Irish-American Zionist, I want to thank you for 50 years of public serv...

By David Ljunggren and Nia Williams, Reuters Visitors evacuate Jasper National Park in Canada on July 22, 2024, due to a wildfire. Photo: LE MINH KHUE / AFP A raging wildfire has devastated the western Canadian tourist town of Jasper, potentially destroying up to 50 percent of structures, and firefighters were working on Thursday to save as many buildings as possible, authorities said. Jasper is in the middle of mountainous Jasper National Park, in the province of Alberta. The town and the park, which draw more than two million tourists a year, were evacuated on Monday, when officials estimated there were up to 10,000 people in the town and a further 15,000 visitors in the park. "There is no denying that this is the worst nightmare for any community," Alberta premier Danielle Smith t...

An oil spill containment boom being prepared to be on standby for deployment at a port in Limay, Bataan. Photo: Jam Sta Rosa / AFP By Annabelle Liang and Flora Drury, BBC News The Philippines is in a race against time to contain an oil spill after a tanker carrying close to 1.5 million litres of industrial fuel capsized and sank off the country's coast, officials say. There are fears the "enormous" spill - which is already stretching out over several kilometres - could reach the shore of the capital, Manila, coast guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo told reporters. The ship was one of two which sank in the region on Thursday, with the second going down just off Taiwan's south-western coast. Both Taiwan and the Philippines are seeing large amounts of rain as Typhoon Gaemi moves t...

Governor of East Sepik Allan Bird said violence in the country had been getting worse during the past 10 years. Photo: ANDREW KUTAN Violent attacks on three remote villages in Papua New Guinea's (PNG) north has reportedly killed 26 people, including 16 children, while several people were forced to flee after attackers set fire to their homes, the United Nations said. "I am horrified by the shocking eruption of deadly violence in Papua New Guinea, seemingly as the result of a dispute over land and lake ownership and user rights," UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said in a statement released on Wednesday. The death toll could rise to more than 50 as PNG authorities search for missing people, Turk said. Citing Provincial Police Commander in East Sepik James Baugen said, "It was a very ter...

Jennifer Aniston has criticised Donald Trump's vice-presidential candidate for calling Democrats a "bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives". Photo: SHAUN CURRY/AFP By Bonnie McLaren, culture reporter, BBC News Jennifer Aniston has criticised Donald Trump's vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, for resurfaced comments calling Democrats a "bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives". The Friends actress, 55, posted a 2021 interview with Vance that has been widely shared since his selection as Mr Trump's running mate for November's presidential election. "I truly can't believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States," she wrote on Instagram. "All I can say is… Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one d...