US rescuers desperately searched for survivors yesterday after tornadoes killed at least 93 and left towns in ruin, with emergency crews racing against time to find dozens still missing from a collapsed Kentucky factory.

I made it absolutely clear to President (Vladimir) Putin ... that if he moves on Ukraine, the economic consequences for his economy are going to be devastating, devastating.

At least 50 people are dead after a tornado ripped through the southeastern US state of Kentucky, its governor told reporters, as storms ravaged large swathes of the country.

China yesterday branded US democracy a “weapon of mass destruction”, following the US-organised Summit for Democracy which aimed to shore up like-minded allies in the face of autocratic regimes.

International donors agreed to release $280 million in aid to Afghanistan, the World Bank said Friday, after repeated warnings that more than half the population face “acute” food shortages this winter.

At least 100 people were feared dead in Kentucky after a swarm of tornadoes tore a 200-mile path through the US Midwest and South, demolishing homes, levelling businesses and setting off a scramble to find survivors beneath the rubble, officials said Saturday.

After recently abandoning Afghanistan to an Islamist autocracy and famine, and finalising a $650 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia, US President Joe Biden thought it would be a fine idea to hold a two-day virtual gathering on democracy, where some of its worst offenders could pose as responsible upholders of freedom and dispense homilies on how to save the world from those like themselves, says an opinion piece written by Debasish Roy Chowdhury, published in Time magazine on December 10.

At least 53 migrants crammed into a truck traveling at high speed were killed Thursday in Mexico after the vehicle overturned in the southern state of Chiapas, a major transit point for those trying to reach the United States.

President Joe Biden gave “strong” backing Thursday to Ukraine in its struggle with Russia and urged a diplomatic solution to the conflict in eastern Europe, while promising US help if Moscow attacks.

A US federal appeals court on Thursday rejected former president Donald Trump’s bid to prevent the release of White House records relating to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Facebook’s parent firm opened its Horizon Worlds virtual reality platform on Thursday to the public in North America, in a step toward building its metaverse vision for the future.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday allowed abortion providers to pursue a legal challenge to a ban on most abortions in Texas, with the fate of the Republican-backed measure that allows private citizens to enforce it now hanging in the balance.

The number of journalists jailed around the world hit a new record in 2021, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said yesterday.

Democracy faces “sustained and alarming challenges” worldwide, US President Joe Biden said yesterday at the opening of a virtual summit on democracy with representatives from some 100 countries.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that a video call between US President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin was “positive”.

The United States slapped fresh sanctions on a dozen Iranian officials and entities for “serious” human rights abuses Tuesday, ahead of the

Rohingya refugees sued Facebook on Monday for $150 billion over claims the social network is failing to stem hate speech on its platform, exacerbating violence against the vulnerable minority.

Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin held a two-hour video summit yesterday in which the US president said he would warn of painful sanctions and increased military support for Eastern Europe if Russia invades Ukraine.

The United States will have to “pay a price” for its diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China said yesterday, just weeks after talks aimed at easing tense relations between the two sides.

Thus far, the signals are a bit encouraging. But we have really got to be careful before we make any determinations that it is less severe, or it really doesn’t cause any severe illness, comparable to Delta.”