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WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee in the November 5 U.S. presidential election, on Saturday called on her Republican rival, Donald Trump, to debate her with their microphones switched on throughout the event. Harris and the former president have agreed to a debate, hosted by ABC News, on September 10. "Donald Trump is surrendering to his advisors who won't allow him to debate with a live microphone. If his own team doesn't have confidence in him, the American people definitely can’t," Harris said in a post on social media platform X. "We are running for President of the United States. Let’s debate in a transparent way with the microphones on the whole time." Trump has said that he preferred to have his microphone kept on and that he did not like it muted during the last debate against then-contender President Joe Biden. So-called "hot mics" can help or hurt political candidates, catching off-hand comments that sometimes were not meant for the public. Muted microphones also prevent the debaters from interrupting their opponent. A representative for ABC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The debate would be the first time Harris and Trump face off since Biden dropped out of the presidential race following a poor performance at a CNN debate in June that raised doubts about his mental acuity. Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance have agreed to an October 1 debate on CBS News.

Moscow, Russia — A helicopter with 22 people aboard, most of them tourists, has gone missing in Russia's Kamchatka peninsula in the far east, regional authorities said Saturday. "Today at about 1615 (0415 GMT) communication was lost with a Mi-8 helicopter ... which had 22 people on board, 19 passengers and three crew members," Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on Telegram. Rescue teams in helicopters have been searching into the night for the missing aircraft, focusing on a river valley that the helicopter was due to fly along, Russian authorities said. The Mi-8 is a Soviet-designed military helicopter that is widely used for transport in Russia. The missing helicopter had picked up passengers near the Vachkazhets ancient volcano in a scenic area of the peninsula known for its wild landscapes, pristine rivers, geysers and active volcanoes. Kamchatka, which is nine hours ahead of Moscow, is a popular tourist destination. A source in the emergency services told TASS news agency that the helicopter disappeared from radar almost immediately after taking off and the crew did not report any problems. The local weather service said there was poor visibility in the airport area. Accidents involving planes and helicopters are frequent in Russia's far eastern region, which is sparsely populated and where there is often harsh weather. The emergencies ministry said the search and rescue operation was being hampered by thick fog in the area. In August 2021, a Mi-8 helicopter with 16 people on board, including 13 tourists, crashed into a lake in Kamchatka due to poor visibility, killing eight. In July the same year, a plane crashed as it tried to land on the peninsula, with 22 passengers and 6 crew aboard, all of whom were killed.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Two missiles suspected to have been fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted a Liberian-flagged container ship in the Gulf of Aden late Friday, splashing down nearby without causing damage, authorities said. The attack comes after the Houthis repeatedly assaulted and then boarded a Greek-flagged oil tanker in the nearby Red Sea, planting explosives on it that they later detonated. That attack, the worst in weeks, risked a major oil spill as the rebels' campaign disrupts the $1 trillion in goods that pass through the Red Sea each year as well as halting some aid shipments to conflict-ravaged Sudan and Yemen. The attack Friday saw two missiles “exploding in close proximity to the vessel” some 240 kilometers east of Aden, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The ship “reports all crew are safe and proceeding to next port of call,” the UKMTO said. “Investigations are ongoing.” The Joint Maritime Information Center, a multinational body overseen by the U.S. Navy, on Saturday identified the vessel targeted as the Liberian-flagged container ship Groton. The Groton came under attack on August 3 as well in a similar Houthi assault off Aden that included two missiles fired at the vessel, with one causing minor damage. The ship “was targeted due to other vessels within its company structure making recent port calls in Israel,” the center said. The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack Friday. However, it can take the rebels hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults. The Houthis have targeted more than 80 vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a United States-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets. The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran. Meanwhile, the U.S. military's Central Command said Saturday it destroyed two drones over Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen.

Tehran, Iran — Iran's police force has dismissed the commander of a city in the northern province of Gilan after the death in custody of a detainee, state media said Saturday. Mohammad Mir Mousavi, 36, was arrested on July 22 after being involved in a fight in Lahijan, police said in a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA. "The police commander ... was dismissed due to insufficient oversight of the conduct and behavior of staff," the police said. "Due to the complexity of the matter, the final conclusion on the cause of Mohammad Mir Mousavi's death depends on the medical examiner's final report.” The police said the station commander and several officers involved in the incident had been suspended. "The behavior of some law enforcement officers was against the professional policy of the police and that is not acceptable in any way, so they were referred to the judicial authority," the statement said. The Norway-based Kurdish human rights organization Hengaw said Wednesday Mir Mousavi "was killed under torture in the detention center." On Thursday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered an investigation into the case. Dismissals of members of the security forces are rare in Iran. In 2022, the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who had been arrested in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress code for women, sparked months of deadly nationwide protests.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris is from one of America’s most politically liberal states — California. Her work as a local prosecutor, the state’s attorney general and U.S. senator is central to Harris’ presidential campaign. Her opponent, Donald Trump, says that Harris’ record in California shows she is too liberal for the rest of America. From Los Angeles, Genia Dulot tells us what Californians are saying.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

ABUJA, Nigeria — Weeks of flooding have killed 185 people in Nigeria and washed away homes and farmlands, the country's disaster management agency said, further threatening food supplies, especially in the hard-hit northern region. The floods, blamed on poor infrastructure and badly maintained dams, have displaced 208,000 people in 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states, the National Emergency Management Agency said in an update Friday, triggering frantic efforts to evacuate hundreds of thousands to makeshift shelters. Nigeria records flooding every year mostly as a result of failure to follow environmental guidelines and inadequate infrastructure. The worst floods the country has seen in a decade were in 2022, when more than 600 people were killed and more than 1 million people were displaced. However, unlike in 2022 when the floods were blamed on heavier rainfall, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency predicted delayed or normal rains in most parts of the country this year and said the current floods were more a result of human activities. “What we are doing is causing this climate change, so there is a shift from the normal," said Ibrahim Wasiu Adeniyi, head of the central forecasting unit. "We have some who dump refuse indiscriminately, some build houses without approvals along the waterways.” The Nigerian disaster response agency warned the flooding could get worse in the coming weeks as the flood waters flow downwards to the central and southern states. “People [in flood-prone areas] need to evacuate now … because we don’t have time any longer,” said its spokesperson, Manzo Ezekiel. In Jigawa, the worst-hit state, has recorded 37 deaths. The impact of the floods there has been “devastating,” and authorities are converting public buildings and schools as shelters for those displaced, according to Nura Abdullahi, head of emergency services in the state. The floods have so far destroyed 107,000 hectares of farmland, especially in northern states, among the most affected and where most of Nigeria’s harvests come from. Many farmers in the region are already unable to farm as much as they would like either because of decreasing inputs as families struggle amid Nigeria’s economic hardship or as a result of violent attacks that have forced them to flee. Nigeria has the highest number of hungry people in the world, with 32 million — 10% of the global burden — facing acute hunger in the country, according to the U.N. food agency. Resident Abdullahi Gummi in Zamfara state’s Gummi council area said the floods destroyed his family's farmlands, which are their source of income. “We spent around 300,000 naira [$188] on planting, but everything is gone," Gummi said.