US President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House, ending his bid for reelection after a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about the incumbent's fitness for office. The unprecedented announcement, delivered less than four months before the election, immediately upended a campaign that both political parties view as the most consequential in generations. The president - intent on serving out the remainder of his term in office - quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take on Trump and encouraged his party to unite behind her, making her the party's instant favourite for the nomination at its August convention in Chicago.

The announcement is the latest jolt to a tumultuous campaign for the White House, coming a week after the attempted assassination of Trump at a Pennsylvania rally. A party's presumptive presidential nominee has never stepped out of the race so close to the election. President Lyndon Johnson, besieged by the Vietnam War, announced in March 1968 that he would not seek another term after just a single state's primary.

Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed in Beijing to form a government together, the groups said, in the latest attempt at resolving a longstanding rivalry and offering a potential scenario for the rule of Gaza after the war with Israel. Previous similar declarations have failed, raising doubts about whether the China-sponsored negotiations might lead to reconciliation between Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip for 17 years, and Fatah, the main force in the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority that administers parts of the occupied West Bank.

The two groups issued a joint statement announcing the deal but gave no details on how or when the government would be formed, saying only that it would be done "by agreement among the factions." Both sides said the accord, which provided no guarantees, was only an initial step, and they promised to follow up on previous reconciliation agreements signed in 2011 and 2022.

Mudslides triggered by heavy rain in a remote part of Ethiopia killed at least 157 people, many of them as they tried to rescue survivors of an earlier mudslide, local authorities said. Young children and pregnant women were among the victims of the mudslides in the Kencho Shacha Gozdi district of southern Ethiopia, said Dagmawi Ayele, a local administrator. The death toll rose from 55 late Monday to 157 on Tuesday as search operations continued in the area, said Kassahun Abayneh, head of the Gofa Zone communications office. Gofa Zone is the administrative area where the mudslides occurred.

Most of the victims were buried in a mudslide on Monday morning as rescue workers searched the steep terrain for survivors of another mudslide the previous day. At least five people have been pulled alive from the mud, Ayele said. Another official in Gofa, Markos Melese, said many people remained unaccounted for among the group that was covered by mud while trying to rescue others.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borell, stripped Hungary of the right to host the next meeting of foreign and defence ministers over its stance on the war in Ukraine. It comes weeks after Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, a role in which it would normally host the event, and amid anger over a meeting Prime Minister Viktor Orban held with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier this month.

Borrell said Hungary's actions should have consequences and that "we have to send a signal, even if it is a symbolic signal". Hungary described the move as "completely childish". Every six months, under each new council presidency, the EU's foreign and defence ministers hold informal meetings to discuss the biggest global issues facing the bloc. The next set of meetings will take place on 28-30 August and were to be held in Budapest, but on Monday Borrell announced they would instead take place in Brussels.