Brazil block on X takes effect as Musk blasts ‘dictator’ judge

A block on Elon Musk’s X social network in Brazil started to take effect early yesterday after a Supreme Court judge ordered its suspension, according to AFP.Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes on Friday ordered the suspension of the platform following a months-long standoff with the tech billionaire over disinformation in South America’s largest nation.Moraes handed down the ruling after Musk failed to comply with an order to name a new legal representative for the company.Early yesterday access to X was no longer possible for some users in the South American country, who were presented with a message asking them to reload the browser without being able to log in successfully.Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, reacted with fury to the judge’s order, branding Moraes an “evil dictator cosplaying as a judge” and accusing him of “trying to destroy democracy in Brazil.”“Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes,” the billionaire, who has become increasingly aligned with right-wing politics, wrote on X.The two have been locked in an ongoing, high-profile feud for months as Moraes leads a battle against disinformation in Brazil.Musk has previously declared himself a “free speech absolutist,” but since he took over the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022 he has been accused of turning it into a megaphone for right-wing conspiracy theories.He is a vocal supporter of former US president Donald Trump’s bid to regain the White House.Moraes ordered the “immediate, complete and comprehensive suspension of the operation of” X in the country, telling the national communications agency to take “all necessary measures” to implement the order within 24 hours.He threatened a fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) to anyone who used “technological subterfuges” to get around the block, such as a VPN.The judge also demanded Google, Apple and Internet providers “introduce technological obstacles capable of preventing the use of the X application” and access to the website — though he later walked back that order.The social media platform has more than 22mn users in Brazil. Musk shut X’s business operations in Brazil earlier this month, claiming Moraes had threatened the company’s previous legal representative with arrest to force compliance with “censorship orders.” On Wednesday, Moraes told Musk he had 24 hours to find a new representative or he would face suspension.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689707/international/brazil-block-on-x-takes-effect-as-musk-blasts-dictator-judge

Bangladesh garment industry short on cotton as floods worsen protest backlog

Garment factories in Bangladesh, one of the world’s biggest clothing production hubs, are struggling to complete orders on time as flooding disrupts their cotton supplies -- exacerbating a backlog caused by recent political turmoil.Bangladesh is a leading global cotton importer due to the size of its textile and garment industry, but the devastating floods mean few trucks and trains have been able to bring supplies to factories from Chittagong port over the last week, industry officials and analysts said. The disruption, on top of the unrest and protests that led to factory closures earlier this month, have caused garment production to fall by 50%, said Mohammad Hatem, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.“The industry is now under immense pressure to meet deadlines, and without a swift resolution, the supply chain could deteriorate even further,” Hatem said. Bangladesh was ranked as the third-largest exporter of clothing in the world last year, after China and the European Union, according to the World Trade Organization, exporting $38.4bn worth of clothes in 2023.At the clothing factory she runs in the capital, Dhaka, Rubana Huq is counting the cost of lost production.“Even for a moderate-sized company like ours, which makes 50,000 shirts a day and if the price of one single shirt is $5, there was $250,000 of production loss,” said Huq, a former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).She said some garment plants were slowing resuming production, but estimated that complete recovery “would be at least six months away”, warning that Bangladeshi manufacturers could lose 10%-15% of business to other countries. Bangladesh’s readymade garments industry, which supplies many of the world’s best-known fashion brands, accounts for more than 80% of the country’s total export earnings.Buyers are adopting a cautious approach and could potentially delay new orders, said Shahidullah Azim, a director of the BGMEA industry group. “The longer this uncertainty persists, the more challenging it becomes for us to maintain the momentum we have built,” he told Reuters. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said flood conditions could persist if the monsoon rains continued, as water levels were receding very slowly. Some cotton shipments could get diverted to India, Pakistan and Vietnam, commodity analysts said. “We are already hearing and seeing some cotton for prompt delivery wanted by Pakistan and Vietnam,” said Louis Barbera, partner and analyst at VLM Commodities based in New Jersey.New orders shifted from Bangladesh could also be accommodated in southern India, said Atul Ganatra, president of the Cotton Association of India. Even before the floods and political unrest, the Bangladeshi garment industry was grappling with power shortages that remain a problem, said Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, vice president at the country’s knitwear manufacturers and exporters association.“Energy shortages continue to hamper our operations,” he said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689648/international/bangladesh-garment-industry-short-on-cotton-as-floods-worsen-protest-backlog

Typhoon Shanshan churns up Japan, up to six dead

Typhoon Shanshan dumped record rains yesterday as it slowly churned up through Japan, triggering transport havoc and widespread warnings of landslides with up to six people killed. The typhoon, one of the fiercest to hit Japan in decades, has weakened and was forecast to ease to tropical cyclone strength by Monday, though gusts were still reaching 126km per hour early Friday.Even before making landfall on the island of Kyushu, a landslide caused by the heavy rains preceding it killed three members of the same family late Tuesday in Aichi prefecture, around 1,000km away. Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi confirmed four deaths but said that in one case, “the relation to the typhoon was being studied”.Two more were feared dead and two others were missing, Hayashi said.Eight people were seriously hurt and 70 others had light injuries, he said, with many hurt by broken glass after the typhoon smashed windows and ripped tiles off roofs when it slammed into Kyushu on Thursday with gusts up to 252 kph. Almost 200 buildings were damaged.Typhoons in the region have been forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change, according to a study released in July.Another published by World Weather Attribution (WWA) on Thursday said that climate change had turbocharged Typhoon Gaemi, which killed dozens of people across the Philippines, Taiwan and China last month.A similar rapid attribution analysis from Imperial College London using peer-reviewed methodology calculated that Typhoon Shanshan’s winds were made 26% more likely by a warming planet.“Without phasing out fossil fuels, the root cause of climate change, typhoons will bring even greater devastation to Japan,” said Ralf Toumi, director of the Grantham Institute at Imperial.Japanese authorities issued their highest alert in several areas, with more than five million people advised to evacuate, although it was unclear how many did.The Japan Meteorological Agency issued alerts for possible landslides in many parts of Kyushu and as far away as Shizuoka on the main island of Honshu, the Tokyo region and nearby Kanagawa. Footage from Japanese broadcaster NHK showed a car park in Kanagawa prefecture with vehicles half-submerged in brown water, with authorities there urging residents to move to higher floors after a local river flooded.Some parts of Kyushu saw record rains for August, with the town of Misato recording a staggering 791.5mm in 48 hours, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.Kitakyushu in Kyushu saw 474 mm in the 24 hours to Friday morning, the most since 2012, when comparative data began to be collected. Nearby Kunimi had 384.5 mm, the most since records began in 1977.The holiday resort of Beppu in Kyushu suffered no major damage, but the typhoon left tourists stranded and bored, with the onsen hot springs, a monkey park and even 24-hour convenience stores shut.“This is my first time (here). I was very looking forward to it,” morose visitor Nobuhiko Takagishi from Tokyo told AFP. “But it will be a trip to remember. A trip when I couldn’t do anything.”“Tourists must be in big trouble. They came here with no preparation, and they are stranded,” said resident Hiroko Handa, 48. Power cuts hit more than 250,000 Kyushu households but the utility operator said Friday that only 6,500 were still without electricity as engineers repaired transmission lines.Overnight, many motorways were fully or partially closed in Kyushu, as well as others further afield, media reports said. Shinkansen bullet trains remained suspended in Kyushu and were also halted on the major route between Tokyo and Osaka, with operators warning of disruptions elsewhere.Japan Airlines and ANA had already announced the cancellation of more than 600 flights between them for Friday, having scrapped a similar number the previous day, affecting almost 50,000 passengers.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689649/international/typhoon-shanshan-churns-up-japan-up-to-six-dead

Fighter jet deal at centre of Macron’s Serbia trip

France’s President Emmanuel Macron arrived yesterday in Serbia where the two countries hope to sign a deal worth billions of euros for Paris to supply fighter jets to the Balkan nation.The Rafale fighter jet deal is looming large over the French leader’s two-day visit, after Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic told AFP that he hoped to seal the agreement this week.The deal to purchase the French Rafale jets would be one of several agreements inked during the visit, according to Vucic.“There are thousands of things that we’ll have to discuss tomorrow. There are many memorandums of understanding and many contracts that we’re going to sign tomorrow,” Vucic said in an interview Wednesday.“I believe that we’ll finish everything successfully regarding our military-technical co-operation, which means that Serbia might become a member of (the) Rafale Club, which is a huge, huge contract.”A source with the French presidency said “intense discussions” were ongoing and hoped a deal could be reached during Macron’s visit.Macron arrived in Belgrade late yesterday afternoon, where he was greeted with a hug by Vucic and a traditional honour guard. Vucic told a Serbian state broadcaster late Wednesday that financing for the fighter jet agreement was no longer an issue, while adding that some unspecified “guarantees” still needed to be ironed out.France has been strengthening its economic ties with Belgrade in recent years, with trade between the two countries tripling in the past 12 years, according to Serbia’s finance ministry.French company Vinci has been overseeing a years-long renovation of Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport, and French groups are set to build the capital’s first metro station and a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant.Belgrade-based analyst Vuk Vuksanovic said that Vucic likely saw the Rafale deal as crucial for ensuring France’s support in the future.The president “believes that by purchasing these Rafales, which are an extremely expensive product of the French military and industry, he will buy President Macron’s favour and political protection,” Vuksanovic, a senior researcher at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, told AFP.If signed, the agreement would mark the latest in a string of moves by Serbia to curry favour with Europe.In July, the European Union and Serbia signed a deal to develop the country’s supply of lithium — seen as a crucial building block to achieve Europe’s transition to a green economy.The Serbian government reinstated the licences for a controversial lithium mine this summer after revoking in 2022 the permits granted to Rio Tinto following a string of demonstrations over environmental concerns.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689579/international/fighter-jet-deal-at-centre-of-macrons-serbia-trip

Jolie ‘terribly nervous’ about playing diva in new film

Angelina Jolie confessed she was afraid about being able to “live up” to Maria Callas in her new biopic about the great diva’s extraordinary yet tragic life that premieres yesterday at the Venice Film Festival.In Maria, the American movie star tackles the tormented final years of the 20th century’s most celebrated opera singer who mesmerised audiences around the world.“The bar in this... are the Maria Callas fans and those who love opera,” Jolie told a press conference ahead of the premiere of the movie by Chilean director Pablo Larrain.“And my fear would be to disappoint them.”“I really came to care for her so I felt I didn’t want to do a disservice to this woman,” she added.Jolie said she hoped to honour the “legacy” of the diva, who died nearly alone in 1977 aged 53, after a whirlwind life and career that was nevertheless marked by great sadness.The film’s premiere last night on the festival’s second day is the last in Larrain’s trilogy of movies about iconic women — after 2021’s Spencer about Princess Diana and 2016’s Jackie about Jacqueline Kennedy.The director has said only a larger-than-life star in her own right could play the role of the American-born Greek singer, whose successes at La Scala, La Fenice, Covent Garden and New York are the stuff of opera legend 100 years after her birth.“This movie would not have existed without Angelina,” said the director.Absent from the screen since 2021, the 49-year-old American actress and director has kept a relatively low profile even as her lengthy, acrimonious divorce from Brad Pitt continues to make headlines.The public’s fascination with Jolie’s private life has parallels with Callas, whose stormy life and loves — including her relationship with the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who left her for Jacqueline Kennedy — were similarly fodder for the tabloids.But while the paparazzi will be out in full force yesterday for her premiere, Jolie will not cross paths with Pitt during her visit.Pitt’s action comedy Wolfs, in which he and George Clooney play rival professional fixers, is playing out of competition on the Lido on Sunday, as purposely planned by festival organisers to avoid awkward encounters.One of 21 films in competition for Venice’s prestigious Golden Lion prize, Maria opens with a whirlwind look at the highlights of Callas’ life as seen through the eyes of the paparazzi, with Jolie here singing Casta Diva in Paris in her red silk wrap, there accepting ovations at La Scala or frolicking with Aristotle Onassis on his yacht.Jolie said she studied for nearly seven months ahead of filming, training herself to mimic the great artist’s cadences and tones as the film mixes in her own singing voice with that of the celebrated soprano.“I was terribly nervous,” Jolie said. “I was frightened to live up to her.”Taped master classes taught by Callas served as a guide, however: “I got very lucky because the best way in, I got to be taught by Maria.”Jolie said she related to Callas’ softer side, “the part of her that’s extremely soft and doesn’t have room in the world to be as soft as she truly was, and as emotionally open as she truly was.”“I share her vulnerability more than anything.”While some critics found flaws with Callas’s voice, it was nevertheless deeply expressive, able to impart dramatic intensity to any role, which combined with her beauty and presence often brought frenzied standing ovations.A towering talent with a tireless work ethic, Callas was often portrayed as a “temperamental” star, a label she rejected, defending herself as a disciplined perfectionist with high standards.She single-handedly revived the 19th-century bel canto operas of Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini — whose Norma was one of Callas’s signature roles.But the diva’s voice began to fail and even as she struggled to rekindle it, the “critics were so cruel”, said Jolie.“I don’t know if she passed knowing that she did her best and she was appreciated and loved. I think she may have died with a lot of loneliness and pain.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689580/international/jolie-terribly-nervous-about-playing-diva-in-new-film

25 militants killed, 11 Injured in infiltration qttempt on Pakistan-Afghan Border

Twenty-five militants were killed and 11 others were injured in an attempt to infiltrate Pakistani territory across the Afghan border.Radio Pakistan quoted a statement by the Pakistani army on Thursday as saying that militants tried to infiltrate across the border last night, but Pakistani forces confronted them and managed to eliminate them during an exchange of fire.The land border between the two neighboring countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, is witnessing the infiltration of armed elements in both directions, as authorities in Islamabad and Kabul are seeking to control the border through preemptive combing operations.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689553/international/25-militants-killed-11-injured-in-infiltration-qttempt-on-pakistan-afghan-border

Venezuelan opposition vows to make Maduro ‘yield’ on election ‘fraud’

Venezuelan opposition supporters gathered in Caracas yesterday, chanting “Liberty!” as their leader came out of hiding to lead a protest against what they call President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election fraud.Maria Corina Machado, who has kept a low profile amid threats from Maduro after the July 28 presidential vote, vowed in front of followers to not stop fighting until the opposition’s claim to victory is recognised.“They say that the regime will not yield. You know what: we are going to make it yield and (that) means respecting the will expressed on July 28,” Machado told a rally that attracted hundreds of supporters in an atmosphere of fear.“This protest is unstoppable,” she added.Machado arrived at the demonstration hiding her face under a black hoodie, which she took off only when she clambered onto the truck that served as her stage.“Brave! Brave!” supporters chanted as the truck passed them.“I’m fighting for Venezuela, to recover our democracy. We don’t want to live in a dictatorship,” demonstrator Laidy Molina, a 60-year-old nutritionist, told AFP.“We are afraid. We fear that they will put us in prison, that they will not respect the constitution but we must continue the struggle,” she added.Maduro has called for the arrest of Machado and the opposition’s presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who replaced her on the ballot after the regime barred her from running.Venezuela’s CNE electoral council — with most of its members loyal to 61-year-old Maduro — declared him the winner hours after voting closed, giving him 52 percent of ballots cast without providing a full breakdown.The opposition has published its own polling station-level records, which it says show that Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old retired diplomat, won by a landslide.Spontaneous protests erupted in the hours after Maduro’s claimed victory, with at least 25 civilians killed and more than 2,400 arrested.Several Latin American countries, the United States and the European Union have called on the CNE to release voting data that proves Maduro’s re-election to a third, six-year term until 2031.The CNE said it was unable to provide the data due to a computer hack, though election observers said there was no evidence of this.Yesterday’s rally was the fourth organised protest called by the opposition to denounce Maduro’s election “fraud.”“We have to protect ourselves, take care of ourselves,” Machado told supporters.“Every passing day we are making progress... We have succeeded in turning the cause for freedom in Venezuela into a global cause.”The ruling “Chavista” movement, named after Maduro’s socialist predecessor Hugo Chavez, had also called for demonstrations on Wednesday to mark its “victory.”Gonzalez Urrutia, last seen in public at an opposition rally on July 30, ignored summons on two successive days this week in an investigation by Maduro-aligned prosecutors into his alleged “usurpation” of official powers, disseminating false information, and incitement of insurrection, among other charges.The probe stems from the opposition publishing election results that the CNE claims only it has the right to do. The opposition coalition says Gonzalez Urrutia is the target of “judicial harassment.”The charges against him carry a potential 30-year sentence.On Tuesday, Maduro reshuffled his cabinet and named two of his closest allies to key positions.Diosdado Cabello, the number-two in the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), will now head the interior ministry, which is responsible for policing and security matters.Vice President Delcy Rodriguez will take over the role of oil minister in a country with the world’s largest crude reserves but an industry bent under US sanctions.Also on Tuesday, Machado accused the regime of “kidnapping” her lawyer.The authorities have not commented on the reported arrest, which would add to the more than 100 opposition activists taken into custody in recent months.Six of Machado’s most trusted collaborators, including her campaign chief, have taken refuge in the Argentine embassy in Caracas.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689547/international/venezuelan-opposition-vows-to-make-maduro-yield-on-election-fraud

Thousands told to evacuate as ‘strong’ typhoon nears Japan

Japan braced yesterday for its strongest typhoon of the year, with authorities advising tens of thousands of people to evacuate and issuing the highest warning level for wind and storm surges on the main southern island of Kyushu.“Typhoon Shanshan is expected to approach southern Kyushu with extremely strong force through Thursday and it may make landfall,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.“It is expected that violent winds, high waves, and storm surge at levels that many people have never experienced before may occur,” said Hayashi, the top government spokesman.The approach of the storm, packing gusts of up to 252km per hour and already bringing widespread heavy rain, prompted auto giant Toyota to suspend production at all 14 of its factories.Two people remained unaccounted for on Wednesday after a landslide buried a house with five family members inside in Gamagori, a city in central Aichi prefecture. Rescuers worked around the clock and on Wednesday afternoon they pulled out a woman in her 70s.“She wasn’t breathing and was unconscious,” a Gamagori official told AFP. They were still searching for a man in his 70s and another in his 30s.For southern Kyushu the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) predicted 1,100mm of precipitation in the 48 hours to Friday morning, around half the annual average for the area comprising Kagoshima and Miyazaki regions.The JMA also issued its highest “special warning” for violent storms, waves and high tides in parts of the Kagoshima region of Kyushu, with authorities there advising 56,000 people to evacuate.Video on public broadcaster NHK TV showed roof tiles being blown off houses, broken windows and felled trees. “Our carport roof was blown away in its entirety. I wasn’t at home when it happened, but my kids say they felt the shaking so strong they thought an earthquake happened,” a local resident in Miyazaki told NHK. “I was surprised. It was completely beyond our imagination,” she said.The warnings indicate the “possibility that a major disaster prompted by (the typhoon) is extremely high,” Satoshi Sugimoto, chief forecaster of JMA, told a news conference.Japan Airlines cancelled 172 domestic flights and six international flights scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, while ANA nixed 219 domestic flights and four international ones on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The cancellations affected around 25,000 people.Kyushu Railway said it would suspend some Shinkansen bullet train services between Kumamoto and Kagoshima Chuo from Wednesday night and warned of further possible disruption.Trains between Tokyo and Fukuoka, the most populous city on Kyushu, may also be cancelled depending on weather conditions this week, other operators said. Shanshan comes in the wake of Typhoon Ampil, which disrupted hundreds of flights and trains this month.Despite dumping heavy rain, it caused only minor injuries and damage. Ampil came days after Tropical Storm Maria brought record rains to northern areas. Typhoons in the region have been forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change, according to a study released last month.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689541/international/thousands-told-to-evacuate-as-strong-typhoon-nears-japan

Starmer warns Oct 30 budget will be ‘painful’

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned yesterday that his new government’s first budget in just over two months will be “painful”, asking the country to “accept short-term pain for long-term good”. Starmer, whose Labour Party won a landslide parliamentary majority on July 4, used his first major speech since then to lay the ground for the much-anticipated fiscal event on October 30.He also used the address, from the Downing Street garden, to attack the ousted Conservatives, reiterating claims they had left a £22-bn ($29-bn) “black hole” in the public finances. “There is a budget coming in October, and it’s going to be painful,” Starmer said.“Those with the broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden,” he added, hinting at tax rises for some after October 30.Labour has pledged not to hike taxes on “working people”, which would appear to rule out raising income tax, other social security and VAT rates. But there is growing speculation that other taxes, like capital gains, could be targeted. Starmer insisted the UK must look beyond tinkering with taxes and that growing the economy remained the “number one mission”. But he also cautioned that his government’s fiscal inheritance would not be “easily fixed”. “We’re going to have to take tough decisions, I did not cater for a £22bn black hole,” he added. Political opponents have argued that the government was aware of the country’s perilous financial plight months ago and is preparing the ground for unpopular announcements.Labour has insisted the Tories misled the public and others on the issue, including the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).The independent fiscal watchdog has said it is investigating the last government’s spending forecasts in light of Labour’s black hole claims. In his speech, Starmer also addressed the recent anti-immigration riots sparked by the deadly Southport knife attack.Officials have blamed far-right elements for helping to stir up the disorder, which targeted mosques and hotels housing asylum-seekers as well as police officers and other properties. Attempting to link the disturbances to the Conservatives’ legacy, the UK leader said they “didn’t happen in a vacuum” and had “exposed the state of our country”. They “revealed a deeply unhealthy society...weakened by a decade of division and decline, infected by a spiral of populism which fed off cycles of failure of the last government”.“Every time they faced a difficult problem, they failed to be honest, they offered the snake oil of populism, which led to more failure,” Starmer argued.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689458/international/starmer-warns-oct-30-budget-will-be-painful

Zelensky to present Biden a plan to end Russia war

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that the war with Russia would eventually end in dialogue, but that Kyiv had to be in a strong position and that he would present a plan to US President Joe Biden and his two potential successors.The Ukrainian leader, addressing a news conference, said Kyiv’s three-week-old incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was part of that plan, but that it also comprised other steps on the economic and diplomatic fronts.“The main point of this plan is to force Russia to end the war. And I want that very much — (that it would be) fair for Ukraine,” he told reporters in Kyiv of the war launched by Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.He did not elaborate further on the next steps, but said he would also discuss the plan with Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris and probably also with Republican Donald Trump, the two nominees for the US presidential election.Zelensky said he hoped to go to the United States in September to attend the UN General Assembly in New York and that he was preparing to meet Biden.His remarks indicated that he sees the main potential forum for talks as a follow-up international summit on peace, at which Ukraine has said it wants Russia to have representatives.The first summit to advance Kyiv’s vision of peace, held in Switzerland in June, pointedly excluded Russia, while attracting scores of delegations, but not from China, the world’s second largest economy, despite Kyiv’s push to win over the global south.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on August 19 that talks were out of the question after Ukraine launched a major cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region on August 6.Zelensky has been adamant that Russia wants to dictate terms to Ukraine in any settlement of the war, something that Kyiv sees as unacceptable.Putin has said any deal needs to start with Ukraine’s acceptance of “realities on the ground”, that would leave Russia with possession of substantial chunks of four Ukrainian regions as well as Crimea. Now Ukraine says it controls more than 1,200 square km of Russia’s Kursk region.“There can be no compromises with Putin, dialogue today is in principle empty and meaningless because he does not want to end the war diplomatically,” Zelensky said at the news conference.He said the offensive into the Kursk region had reduced the number of governments around the world calling for Ukraine to make compromises with Russia to end the war and give up swathes of territory.On the battlefield, Zelensky mocked Putin, who he said was prioritising the capture of Ukrainian land over the defence of Russia’s own territory.He pointed to Kursk region where Ukraine has claimed the capture of 100 settlements, while Russian forces continue to inch forward in the eastern Donetsk region.The Ukrainian leader also said that Kyiv was continuing to make progress on its domestic weapons production and that it had conducted its first test of a domestically-produced ballistic missile.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689456/international/zelensky-to-present-biden-a-plan-to-end-russia-war

Railway track hangs off bridge after attacks

The mangled track of a Pakistan railway line hung over a dry river bed yesterday, after it was targeted in a series of co-ordinated attacks that killed dozens of people.The colonial-era bridge — a key link between Balochistan province and the rest of the country — was blown apart on Monday, with a section of a fallen tack blocking a motorway below and another hanging from a damaged column.Separatist militants killed dozens on Monday in several early morning attacks in the province which included taking control of a highway and shooting dead 23 people, mostly from Punjab province.Six people travelling on the motorway near to the Kolpur bridge were also shot dead after militants checked their IDs, according to government officials.“Explosives were used to attack our main bridge routes yesterday, which has stopped trains from travelling to other parts of the country,” Mohamed Kashif, a senior railway official in Balochistan, told AFP.“We’re working to clear the road as quickly as possible to ease traffic for the public,” he said.“We do not know how much time it would take to restore the bridge in Bolan.”The fallen tracks and rubble from the bridge that blocked the road below was being cleared by authorities.“It’s a steep mountainous area and fear is natural, but the journey has to go on. We often pass through here in a convoy of three or four vehicles,” a truck driver from the neighbouring province of Sindh told AFP, while waiting for the road to reopen.The Balochistan Liberation Army, which claimed responsibility for the attacks, is waging a war of independence against the state, which it accuses of unfair exploitation of resources by outsiders in the mineral-rich region.The BLA’s operation mostly targeted Punjabis, the largest and most dominant ethnic group in Pakistan.Security forces have been battling sectarian, ethnic and separatist violence for decades in impoverished Balochistan, but the co-ordinated attacks that took place in several districts throughout the province were one of the worst in the region’s history.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689455/international/railway-track-hangs-off-bridge-after-attacks

Apple to unveil its New iPhone in September

Apple is set to unveil its latest iPhone and Apple Watch models early next month as it will host its fall event on September 9 in Cupertino, California.Apple will likely unveil a series of new iPhones and updates to other devices and apps. Analysts see a strong upgrade cycle for the new iPhone series with AI features expected to be the key selling point for the new devices.At its developers conference in June, Apple announced a slew of AI features under the umbrella 'Apple Intelligence,' including a revamped Siri and an integration with ChatGPT.The upcoming launches are crucial for Apple as it looks to reverse a global sales slowdown, particularly in China, and lay out its artificial intelligence roadmap.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689409/international/apple-to-unveil-its-new-iphone-in-september

Dozens feared dead after dam bursts in eastern Sudan

Surging waters have burst through a dam, wiped out at least five villages and left an unknown number of people dead in eastern Sudan, officials said yesterday, devastating a region already reeling from months of civil war.Torrential rains caused floods that overwhelmed the Arbaat Dam on Sunday just 40km north of Port Sudan, the de facto national capital and base for the government, diplomats, aid agencies and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.“The area is unrecognisable. The electricity and water pipes are destroyed,” Omar Eissa Haroun, head of the water authority for Red Sea state, said in a WhatsApp message to staff. He said he had seen the bodies of gold miners and pieces of their equipment wrecked in the deluge, and likened the disaster to the devastation in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in September last year when storm waters burst dams, swept away buildings and killed thousands.On the road to Arbaat yesterday a Reuters reporter saw people burying a man and covering his grave with driftwood to try to prevent it from being washed away in mudslides.The dam was the main source of water for Port Sudan, which is home to the country’s main Red Sea port and working airport, and receives most of the country’s much-needed aid deliveries. “The city is threatened with thirst in the coming days,” the Sudanese Environmentalists Association said in a statement.Officials said the dam had started crumbling and silt had been building during days of heavy rain that had come much earlier than usual.Sudan’s dams, roads and bridges were already in disrepair before the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Forces began in April 2023.Both sides have since funnelled the bulk of their resources into the conflict, leaving infrastructure badly neglected. Some people had fled their flooded homes in five devastated villages and headed to the mountains where they were now stranded, the health ministry said.Yesterday, the government’s rainy season taskforce said 132 people had been killed in floods across the country, up from 68 two weeks ago. At least 118,000 people have been displaced by the rains this year, according to United Nations agencies.The conflict in Sudan began when competition between the army and the RSF, who had previously shared power after staging a coup, flared into open warfare.The two sides had been seeking to protect their power and extensive economic interests as the international community promoted a plan for a transition towards civilian rule.Overlapping efforts in pursuit of a ceasefire, including Saudi- and US-led talks in Jeddah, have not eased the fighting and half of the 50mn population lack sufficient food.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689394/international/dozens-feared-dead-after-dam-bursts-in-eastern-sudan

China says took ‘control measures’ against Philippine ships near disputed reef

China said it took “control measures” yesterday against two Philippine Coast Guard ships that had entered waters near the disputed Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard accused Manila of sending two ships to “illegally barge into waters near Xianbin Jiao”, using the Chinese name for the Sabina Shoal.The ships “continued to dangerously approach normally sailing Chinese coast guard ships, inciting hype”, it said in a statement. “The Chinese coast guard took control measures against the Philippine ships in accordance with the law,” it added. The Philippine Coast Guard said it sent two vessels to deliver provisions to one of its ships at Sabina Shoal.As the vessels neared the shoal, they were forced to abandon the resupply mission due to China’s “excessive” deployment of ships and rough sea conditions, Commodore Jay Tarriela, a spokesman for Manila’s coast guard, told AFP. Spotted in the area were six ships from the China Coast Guard, three from the Chinese navy as well as 31 other vessels, Tarriela said. “We were boxed, we were surrounded and it was difficult for us to move forward,” he said.AFP correspondents were among several media outlets on board the Philippine Coast Guard vessels for the mission. Beijing claims most of the strategic South China Sea and has been involved in maritime confrontations with Manila in recent months, sparking fears of armed conflict that could draw in the United States, a Filipino military ally.Multiple confrontations have taken place in recent days around Sabina Shoal, located 140km west of the Philippine island of Palawan and about 1,200km from Hainan island, China’s nearest major landmass. “The Philippine Government deplores the repeated aggressive, unprofessional and illegal actions displayed by Chinese maritime forces against Philippine vessels and aircraft over the past week,” Manila’s National Maritime Council said in a statement on Monday.Both sides have in recent months stationed coast guard vessels near Sabina, where the Philippines fears China is about to build an artificial island. On Sunday, Beijing said a Philippine vessel had collided with one of its ships near the disputed shoal. The Philippines slammed China’s claims as “completely unfounded”.In response to the clash, Beijing on Monday said fault “lies entirely with the Philippine side”.“The Philippine side has frequently dispatched coast guard, government, and other vessels to forcibly enter the waters near Xianbin Reef,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.He added that Manila has been “attempting to resupply the Philippine vessel that has been illegally stationed at the lagoon in the reef for an extended period, aiming to establish a long-term presence”.China deploys boats to patrol the busy South China Sea and has built artificial islands that it has militarised to reinforce its claims. On Saturday, Manila accused China of recently firing flares at one of its aircraft as it patrolled over the South China Sea. And in June, the Philippine military said one of its sailors lost a thumb in the confrontation in which Beijing’s coast guard also confiscated or destroyed Philippine equipment including guns.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689387/international/china-says-took-control-measures-against-philippine-ships-near-disputed-reef

Pakistani singles defy tradition, search for spouses in person

Dozens of young singles gathered this week to meet potential marriage partners in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, the first attempt by a UK-based matrimonial app to help people find spouses in person in the country.Typically, marriages in Pakistan are arranged by parents who look for suitable matches for their children from within their communities or the extended family. Dating apps are generally stigmatised and gender segregation socially and at work remains common in the country of 240mn people.The Lahore event was organised by Muzz, formerly Muzzmatch, which says its app is based on Islamic etiquette. The app is restricted to Muslim users, and, in a nod to traditional values, gives the option of blurring pictures except for specific matches and allows for chaperones to oversee meetings.Other smaller events are also emerging in the country to challenge traditional matchmaking norms.Despite criticism online in the past for the app, the Muzz event was attended by about 100 people.Aimen, a 31-year-old woman who did not want to be further identified, said she used the app on the recommendation of her US-based brother.“I used the app for two weeks, but then I saw an ad for this event and thought, why not meet people in person?” she told Reuters. She said that her mother would have accompanied her as a chaperone but couldn’t attend because of ill-health. Muzz, launched in 2015 in the Britain, which also has a sizeable Muslim population, has over 1.5mn users in Pakistan, its second-largest market after Morocco.Moaz, a 27-year-old man, said he has been using Muzz for a year and that he was hopeful of finding a wife through the app.“I do get matches, but they have different priorities,” he said adding that girls on the app expect him to involve his parents from the beginning.“That is not (immediately) possible,” he said, stressing the need of getting to know someone before taking the next big step.Annie’s Matchmaking Party, another Lahore event last week, used an algorithm to match 20 young professionals after a selection process and invited them to the meet.Noor ul Ain Choudhary, the 30-year-old organiser, faced criticism online that her event promoted a “hookup culture”. She countered that it aimed to provide a safe space for singles to meet and connect.“In Pakistan, we’ve had two options: biased arranged marriages or time-consuming dating apps with no guarantees. Safety during meetings is also a concern,” she said.Abdullah Ahmed, 22, was bullish about in person events and said he was convinced he may have found his perfect match at the Muzz gathering.“The highlight was meeting an amazing girl,” he said, beaming with excitement, adding that they instantly clicked and swapped social media handles.“We’re both Marvel fans! We’re already planning to catch the new Deadpool & Wolverine together,” he said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689309/international/pakistani-singles-defy-tradition-search-for-spouses-in-person

German police: Syrian suspect has confessed to festival knife attack

A Syrian man suspected of belonging to a “terrorist group” has given himself up and confessed to killing three people and wounding eight others in a knife rampage at a German street festival, officials said yesterday.The random attack as thousands of people gathered on Friday night in the western city of Solingen has stunned Germany.Two men aged 56 and 67 and a 56-year-old woman were killed, officials said.Four of the wounded remained in a serious condition. All of the victims were stabbed in the neck, according to police.Police said in a statement that the suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian who had “given himself up to authorities... and declared himself responsible for the attack”.German prosecutors said they had launched a “terrorist” investigation and ordered yesterday the pre-trial detention of the man, who is suspected of belonging to a “terrorist group”.The suspect identified as “Syrian national Issa Al H” will be detained over “strong suspicions of belonging to a terrorist group abroad” as well as of murder and attempted murder, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.The jihadist Islamic State group’s Amaq propaganda arm has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying “the perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians” in Solingen “was a soldier of the Islamic State”.IS said the attack was carried out as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”, in an apparent reference to the Gaza conflict.The claim could not be immediately verified.According to the Bild and Spiegel newspapers, the suspect arrived in Germany in December 2022 and had a protected immigration status often given to those fleeing war-torn Syria.German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said the suspect was not known to the security services as an extremist considered dangerous. Habeck — who called for tougher knife laws yesterday — said “Islamic terrorism” was one of “the biggest security dangers” Germany faces.Flowers, candles and messages lined the streets near the festival in Solingen, where the rampage took place as thousands of people gathered on Friday for the first night of a “Festival of Diversity”, part of a series of events to mark the city’s 650th anniversary.The whole festival has now been cancelled.The youth wing of Germany’s far-right, anti-immigrant AfD party, Junge Alternative, said it planned to hold a demonstration near the scene later yesterday, with a counter-protest also planned.Chancellor Olaf Scholz was due to visit the scene of the tragedy today.German officers indicated yesterday that a suspect arrested a day before at a raid at a hostel for asylum seekers, not far from the scene of the attack, was being considered a “witness”.A 15-year-old boy was also arrested, suspected of failing to report a criminal act.National and local leaders, including Scholz, said the country had been “deeply shocked” by the deaths in Solingen, a city of 160,000 people.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689310/international/german-police-syrian-suspect-has-confessed-to-festival-knife-attack

France hunts suspect after synagogue attack

Police were on Saturday hunting for a man who, draped in a Palestinian flag, was suspected of setting fires at a synagogue in southern France and triggering an explosion that injured a police officer.Authorities said the incident was being treated as a potential terror attack and “all means” were being deployed to find the perpetrator.France’s interim Prime Minister Gabriel Attal visited the site along with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and said: “We narrowly avoided an absolute tragedy.”Attal said that “if the synagogue had been filled with worshippers...there probably would have been human victims.”Security around Jewish sites was tightened following the attack early on Saturday at Beth Yaacov synagogue in the seaside resort of La Grande Motte, near the city of Montpellier.Two cars outside the synagogue were set alight, with a gas canister then likely exploding inside one of the vehicles, police said.Two fires were also started at the entrance of the synagogue, but were quickly put out, with two doors damaged, investigators said.The wounded police officer was injured by the blast after rushing to the scene after the fires were started, police said.President Emmanuel Macron called the incident “an act of terror”, adding on X: “The fight against anti-Semitism is a daily fight.”He said “all means are being deployed” to apprehend the suspect.La Grande Motte’s mayor, Stephan Rossignol, said that CCTV had picked up images of an individual setting fire to the cars.On part of the footage, watched and authenticated by AFP, a man is seen with a Palestinian flag draped around his waist, his head covered by a red Palestinian keffiyeh.The man carried two bottles filled with a yellowish liquid. The footage also seems to show the contours of a handgun.Sources close to the investigation said the suspect left the scene hurriedly on foot.The fires and explosion came amid a heightened state of alert in France and other European countries because of the war in Gaza.Attal said France’s national anti-terror prosecutors had been tasked with probing the incident.“La Grande Motte’s synagogue was the target of an attack this morning,” Attal said in a post on X.Darmanin called the incident “an obviously criminal act”.He said “all means are being deployed to find the perpetrator”.The police presence outside Jewish sites in France would be increased following the explosion, the minister added.The blast occurred during Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest that runs from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, with many attending synagogue services.There was, however, no religious service ongoing at the time of the incident, a police source said. A rabbi and four other people were inside the synagogue at the time but all were unharmed, investigators said.The town of La Grande Motte has about 8,500 permanent residents but the population swells during the summer tourism season.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689230/international/france-hunts-suspect-after-synagogue-attack

Film legend Delon buried near his dogs as fans mourn

Film legend Alain Delon was buried on Saturday in a private funeral attended by his children, relatives and close friends as fans mourned outside the gates of his country estate where he was laid to rest near his beloved dogs.

The 88-year-old star of such classics as Le Samourai and Purple Noon, who was once described as “Europe’s James Dean”, died last Sunday.

French police had set up roadblocks near the manor in the village of Douchy, with the airspace overhead also closed for the entire weekend.

The 50 or so mourners allowed into the estate’s private chapel had to leave their mobile phones at the door to ensure strict privacy.

Veteran Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, 86, who starred opposite Delon in The Leopard, was “too sad” to come, her agent told AFP.

“They ask me to put into words (the grief),” she said after his death, “but the sadness is too intense”.

But Rosalie van Breemen, Delon’s ex-wife and mother of his children Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, was present, sources close to proceedings told AFP.

Fans had left countless floral tributes and cards at the manor gates all week, with around a hundred people gathered there on Saturday to say goodbye.

“I wanted to pay him homage, even from behind the gates, on the day of the funeral, as a symbolic gesture,” Marie-Christine Guibert, a neighbour, told AFP.

“I really had to be here,” said Maxime Ducharme, 28. “I inherited a passion for Delon from my parents.”

Delon’s three children — who were with him when he died — told AFP that they were “extremely touched by the fervour and affection shown by his fans in France and across the world.”

Since his death, France has been paying homage to Delon, one of the country’s biggest but most divisive stars.

He was one of the last living legends of a golden era of French cinema in the 1960s.

While he had legions of fans around the world, Delon’s relations with women caused controversy. His sons accused him of domestic violence, which Delon denied while admitting to slapping women.

The actor also drew criticism for supporting Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founder of the far-right National Front.

Feminists were appalled by the lifetime achievement award the Cannes Film Festival gave him in 2019.

Delon lived his later years largely as a recluse, though his personal life kept him in the headlines.

In 2023, his three children filed a complaint against his live-in assistant Hiromi Rollin, accusing her of harassment and threatening behaviour.

The siblings went on to wage a public battle in the media and the courts, arguing over his health, which worsened after a stroke in 2019.

Even in death, he was still making headlines after it emerged that he asked for his favourite dog to be put down and buried with him.

But his long-time friend and fellow 1960s screen icon Brigitte Bardot said the Belgian malinois called Loubo would be spared.

“The family of Alain Delon have confirmed to us that they will take care of him. Loubo will of course not be euthanised,” her foundation said on the X social media platform.

French TV presenter Stephane Bern said Delon’s wish to be buried with his dogs was very him, comparing him to Frederick the Great of Prussia who did the same.

It was a gesture “of majesty and panache”, he said, “very Delon, worthy of a Leopard who had become a misanthrope.”

“I have absolutely no fear of death,” the actor insisted in 2011, posing for photographs outside the tomb where he intended to be buried.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689229/international/film-legend-delon-buried-near-his-dogs-as-fans-mourn

Zelensky calls Putin ‘sick’, touts new drone missile

President Volodymyr Zelensky touted a newly developed Ukrainian “drone missile” on Saturday that he said would take the war back to Russia and scornfully derided Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a “sick old man from Red Square”.

As Ukraine marked 33 years of post-Soviet independence, Zelensky said the new weapon, Palianytsia, was faster and more powerful than the domestically made drones that Kyiv has so far used to fight back against Russia, striking its oil refineries and military airfields.

“Our enemy will...know what the Ukrainian way for retaliation is. Worthy, symmetrical, long-ranged,” he said.

Zelensky said the new class of Ukrainian weapon had been used for a successful strike on a target in Russia, but did not say where.

He used derisive language to describe Russia’s 71-year-old president and the nuclear rhetoric coming out of Moscow.

“A sick old man from Red Square who constantly threatens everyone with the red button will not dictate any of his red lines to us,” he said in a video on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia, which has attacked Ukraine with many thousands of missiles and drones since it invaded in February 2022, has decried Ukraine’s drone attacks as terrorism. Moscow’s troops are advancing in Ukraine’s east and occupy 18% of the country.

Zelensky has been pressing Kyiv’s allies to allow him to use Western weapons deeper in Russian territory such as to strike airbases used by Russian warplanes that pound Ukraine with missiles and glide bombs.

“I want to stress once more that our new weapon decisions, including Palianytsia, is our realistic way to act while some of our partners are unfortunately delaying decisions,” Zelensky told a news conference.

Ukrainians say the word “Palianytsia”, a type of Ukrainian bread, is too difficult to pronounce for Russians and it has been used — sometimes humorously — during the war as a way to tell Ukrainians and Russians apart.

“It will be very difficult for Russia, difficult to even pronounce what exactly has hit it,” Zelensky said of the drone missile.

In a decree, Zelensky promoted his top commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, to the rank of general, a tacit gesture of praise after Ukraine’s lightning cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region launched on August 6.

Slammed by Russia as an escalation and major provocation, Ukraine’s incursion has captured more than 90 settlements in the Kursk region according to Kyiv, the biggest invasion of Russia since World War Two.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Poland’s and Lithuania’s leaders, Zelensky told reporters the operation had in part been a preventive move to stop Russian plans to capture the northern city of Sumy.

Apart from capturing prisoners of war and creating a “buffer zone”, Zelensky said the operation had other objectives that he could not disclose publicly.

Polish president Andrzej Duda confirmed that Polish PT-91 Twardy tanks given to Kyiv by Warsaw were taking part in the fighting in Kursk region.

“We are touched to see how the PT-91 Twardy tanks, given by Poland (to Ukraine) more than one year ago, are defending today Ukraine on the battlefields, fighting in the Kursk region,” he said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689228/international/zelensky-calls-putin-sick-touts-new-drone-missile

Teenager arrested after 3 killed in Germany rampage

Police have detained a teenager who may be connected with a knife attack in which a man killed three people and wounded eight others in the western German city of Solingen, but the perpetrator was still at large on Saturday.

Hendrik Wuest, premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, described Friday evening’s attack during a festival in the city as an act of terror.

Police were conducting a manhunt for the assailant. They said they had detained a 15-year-old and were investigating whether this person was linked to the attacker.

“This attack has struck at the heart of our country,” Wuest told reporters.

Interior minister Nancy Faeser said authorities were doing all they could to catch the assailant.

The attack took place in the Fronhof, a market square in Solingen where live bands were playing as part of a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary.

Markus Caspers, an official with the public prosecutor’s office in Duesseldorf, said authorities were treating the attack as a possible terrorist incident because there was no other known motive and the victims seemed unrelated.

Officials have declined to speculate on what type of motive might be behind the attack.

It was claimed on Saturday by the Islamic State group as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”. In a statement on Telegram, IS’s Amaq news agency said that “the perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians in the city of Solingen in Germany on Saturday was a soldier of the Islamic State” group.

A police official, Thorsten Fleiss, said the assailant appeared to aim for his victims’ throats.

“The perpetrator must be quickly caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a post on X.

Police cordoned off the square on Saturday and passers-by placed candles and flowers outside the barriers.

“We are full of shock and grief,” Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach told journalists.

A German musician who goes by the name Topic said he was playing on a nearby stage when the incident occurred. He was told about what had happened but was asked to keep playing “to avoid causing a mass panic attack”, he posted on Instagram.

He was eventually told to stop, and “since the attacker was still on the run, we hid in a nearby store while police helicopters circled above us,” Topic wrote.

Authorities cancelled the remainder of the weekend festival.

Fatal stabbings and shootings are relatively rare in Germany. The government said earlier this month it wanted to toughen rules on knives that can be carried in public by reducing the maximum length allowed.

In June, a 29-year-old policeman was fatally stabbed in Mannheim during an attack on a right-wing demonstration. A stabbing attack on a train in 2021 injured several people.

North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister, Herbert Reul, visited the scene in Solingen early on Saturday. He told reporters it was a targeted attack on human life.

Solingen, well known for its knife manufacturing industry, is a city of some 165,000 people.

The episode comes ahead of three state elections next month in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg, in which the anti-immigrant far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has a chance of winning.

Though the motive and identity of the assailant were not known, a top AfD candidate for one of the state elections, Bjoern Hoecke, seized on Friday’s attack, posting on X: “Do you really want to get used to this? Free yourselves and end this insanity of forced multiculturalism”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689227/international/teenager-arrested-after-3-killed-in-germany-rampage

At least 5 Secret Service agents put on leave after Trump assassination bid

Multiple US Secret Service agents have been placed on leave following the assassination attempt against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, US media reported yesterday.The agents put on leave include members of the Pittsburgh field office, which co-ordinated security for Trump’s July 13 campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, RealClearPolitics and several US TV networks said.Fox and CBS reported that at least five Secret Service members involved in the incident, including the head of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh office, had been put on leave.The Secret Service declined to comment on what it described as a “personnel matter” but said it is “committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler”.“The US Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure,” spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.“The US Secret Service holds our personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for potential disciplinary action,” he said.Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last month after acknowledging that the agency had failed in its mission to prevent the assassination attempt by a 20-year-old gunman.Trump was wounded in the ear, two rally attendees were seriously injured and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was killed before a Secret Service sniper shot the gunman dead.Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials have yet to identify a motive for the suspected shooter, Thomas Crooks.Acting Secret Service chief Ronald Rowe pledged during an appearance before a joint Senate committee last month that the agency will discipline any agents found to have committed policy violations.Following the attack in Butler, the Secret Service recommended that Trump avoid large outdoor events.Trump subsequently said he would continue outdoor rallies and that the Secret Service had “agreed to substantially step up their operation” to protect him.Trump, 78, held his first outdoor rally since the shooting on Wednesday, addressing a campaign event in Asheboro, North Carolina, from behind a pane of bulletproof glass (pictured). – AFP/Reuters

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689165/international/at-least-5-secret-service-agents-put-on-leave-after-trump-assassination-bid

Harris vows ‘new way forward’ for America

Vice-President Kamala Harris sealed the Democratic presidential nomination with a muscular speech, laying down broad foreign policy principles and sharp contrasts with Republican rival Donald Trump with 11 weeks left in the race for the White House.A sea of waving Stars and Stripes flags and chants of “USA” filled the arena as jubilant Democrats anointed Harris.She was later joined on stage by her running mate Tim Walz and their families, as they held their arms aloft while 100,000 red, white and blue balloons tumbled from the ceiling.Country act The Chicks sang a version of The Star-Spangled Banner while pop star Pink also performed as the Democrats rolled out a list of celebrity backers.On the final night of the four-day Democratic National Convention, Harris, 59, promised to be a “realistic”, “practical” president for all Americans, as she battles Trump in a razor-close campaign.“In the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs,” she said on Thursday, accusing Trump of bowing down to dictators.She promised to back the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), Ukraine and “stand up to Putin’s aggression”, a reference to Russia’s president.Harris emerged as the Democratic candidate a month ago when allies of President Joe Biden forced him to quit the race.“I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations,” she vowed.Harris then launched a broadside at 78-year-old Trump, whose campaign has been upended by having to face a woman two decades younger, rather than the increasingly frail Biden, 81.“We know what a second Trump term would look like,” she said, saying he wanted to “pull our country back to the past”.It was a forceful speech for a candidate who, during her brief campaign, had yet to articulate much of her vision for the country.Harris has faced a stream of personal attacks from Trump, who called her weak on the foreign stage.After days of protests from Palestinian supporters who were disappointed at not getting a speaking spot at the convention, Harris delivered a pledge to secure Israel, bring the hostages home from Gaza and end the war in the Palestinian enclave.“Now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done,” she said to cheers. “And let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.”She said that she wanted to end the war in a way that provides for Israel security and allows the Palestinian people to realise their right to self-determination.Harris said she would take whatever action was necessary to defend US interests against Iran and said tyrants and dictators including North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, “are rooting for Trump”.If successful, Harris stands to make history as the first woman elected US president on November 5.Harris drew a series of contrasts with Trump, accusing him of not fighting for the middle class, planning to enact a tax hike through his tariff proposals, and having set in motion the end of a constitutional right to abortion with his picks for the US Supreme Court.She noted the Supreme Court’s recent ruling about presidential immunity and the risks that would pose if Trump gained power again.“Just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails,” the vice-president said.Trump, who had promised to respond to Harris’s speech in real time, posted a series of messages on Truth Social as she spoke about him, including: “She stands for Incompetence and Weakness – Our Country is being laughed at all over the World!” and “She will never be respected by the Tyrants of the World!”Harris also said she will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100mn Americans, contrasting that with Trump’s vow to cut the corporate tax rate.She discussed her plans to fight for abortion rights, voting rights legislation, boost the housing supply and ban what she has called “price gouging” by grocers.Her campaign has also proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.Chicago’s United Centre brimmed with energy – and people.The arena’s 23,500 seats were filled and arena staff briefly blocked more people from entering the facility, saying that the city’s fire marshal declared the building at capacity.“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past – a chance to chart a new way forward,” Harris said to huge cheers. “And I want you to know: I promise to be a president for all Americans.”“We did it,” she told supporters at a post-convention reception. “Forward, forward, forward.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689166/international/harris-vows-new-way-forward-for-america

Baby paralysed in Gaza’s first case of type 2 polio in 25 years

A 10-month-old baby in war-shattered Gaza has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday, with UN agencies appealing for urgent vaccinations of every baby.The type 2 virus (cVDPV2), while not inherently more dangerous than types 1 and 3, has been responsible for most outbreaks in recent years, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.UN agencies have called for Israel and Gaza’s Hamas to agree to a seven-day humanitarian pause in their 10-month-old war to allow vaccination campaigns to proceed in the territory.“Polio does not distinguish between Palestinian and Israeli children,” the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA said yesterday in a post on X.“Delaying a humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among children,” Philippe Lazzarini added.The baby, who has lost movement in his lower left leg, is currently in stable condition, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.The WHO has announced that two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign are set to begin in late August and September 2024 across the densely populated Gaza Strip.With its health services widely damaged or destroyed by fighting, and raw sewage spreading amid a breakdown in sanitation infrastructure, Gaza’s population is particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of disease.Gaza’s health ministry first reported the polio case in the unvaccinated 10-month-old baby a week ago in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, an often embattled area in the war.On August 16 Hamas supported a UN request for a seven-day pause in the fighting to vaccinate Gaza children against polio, Hamas political bureau official Izzat al-Rishq said yesterday.Israel, which has laid siege to Gaza since last October and whose ground offensive and bombardments have levelled much of the territory, said days later that it would facilitate the transfer of polio vaccines into Gaza for around 1mn children.The Israeli military’s humanitarian unit (COGAT) said it was co-ordinating with Palestinians to procure 43,000 vials of vaccine – each with multiple doses – for delivery in Israel in the coming weeks for transfer to Gaza.The vaccines should be sufficient for two rounds of doses for more than 1mn children, COGAT added.As well as allowing the entry of polo specialists into Gaza, the UN has said a successful campaign would require transport for vaccines and refrigeration equipment at every step as well as conditions that would allow the campaign to reach children in every area of the rubble-clogged territory.Poliomyelitis, a virus primarily spread through the faecal-oral route, can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.Traces of polio virus were detected last month in sewage in Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis, two areas in southern and central Gaza that have seen hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting seek shelter.Children under five are particularly at risk.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689163/international/baby-paralysed-in-gazas-first-case-of-type-2-polio-in-25-years

Disappeared Bangladeshi lawyer recounts horror in secret jail

Blindfolded, handcuffed and bundled out of his secret prison for the first time in eight years, Bangladeshi barrister Ahmad Bin Quasem held his breath and listened for the sound of a cocked pistol.Instead, he was tossed from a car and into a muddy ditch on Dhaka’s outskirts — alive, at liberty, and with no knowledge of the national upheaval that had prompted his abrupt release.“That’s the first time I got fresh air in eight years,” Quasem, 40, told AFP. “I thought they were going to kill me.”Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister responsible for Quasem’s abduction and disappearance, had fled the country hours earlier.Her August 5 departure brought a sudden curtain down on 15 years of autocracy that included the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of her political opponents.But Quasem was in the dark.He had been confined in the “House of Mirrors” (Aynaghar), a facility run by army intelligence, given its name because its detainees were never supposed to see any other person besides themselves.Throughout his long incarceration, Quasem was shackled around the clock in windowless solitary confinement.His jailers were under strict instruction not to relay news from the outside world.‘Screaming’Elsewhere in the detention centre, guards blared music throughout the day that drowned out the Islamic call to prayer from nearby mosques.It prevented Quasem, a devout Muslim, from knowing when he should offer his prayers — and from keeping track of how long had elapsed since his abduction.When the music was off, he heard the anguished sounds of other detainees.“Slowly, slowly, I could realise that I am not alone,” he said. “I could hear people crying, I could hear people being tortured, I could hear people screaming.”Human Rights Watch last year said security forces had committed “over 600 enforced disappearances” since Hasina came to power in 2009.Rumours abounded of a secret black site housing some of that number, but Aynaghar was unknown to the public until the publication abroad of a 2022 whistleblower report.Hasina’s government consistently maintained afterwards that it did not exist.It also denied committing enforced disappearances, claiming some of those reported missing had drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe.‘Days before my father’s execution’Quasem is certain of the reason for his abduction.His father, Mir Quasem Ali, a senior member of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, was on trial that year.Ali was accused of running a paramilitary group that tortured pro-independence Bangladeshis during the country’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.He and several others were indicted by a war crimes tribunal, ostensibly to bring justice to the victims of that devastating conflict, but widely seen as a means for Hasina to eliminate political opponents.Whether or not Ali was guilty, there was no way of knowing from the mockery of justice that accompanied his prosecution.Quasem, called to the bar in London and then aged 32, was running his father’s defence.His regular media briefings on procedural lapses and judicial bias at the tribunal, echoed by rights groups and UN experts, put a target on his back.Plainclothes men entered his house one night, snatched him from his family, dragged him down the stairs and threw him in a waiting car.“I never could believe in my wildest dreams that they would subject me to disappearance just days before my father’s execution,” Quasem said.“I kept telling them, “Do you know who I am? I need to be there to conduct my case. I need to be there with my family.’”Quasem’s father was hanged four weeks later. Quasem did not know until about three more years had passed, when one of his jailers accidentally let it slip.‘It felt like eight lifetimes’After the car that had carried him out of prison sped away, Quasem walked through the night to try and find his way home.By sheer coincidence, he came across a medical clinic operated by a charity for which his father had once been a trustee.He was recognised by a staff member and a phone number was frantically tracked down to contact his family, who came rushing to be with him.But first, the excited chatter of those around him filled Quasem in on the weeks of student protests that had resulted in his release.“This entire thing, it was made possible by few teenagers,” he said.“When I see these children, these kids, leading the way,” he added, “I am really hopeful this will be the opportunity where Bangladesh finds a new direction.”Quasem and his family received AFP warmly into their home — but the trauma of his detention was immediately apparent.The thick, coiffed hairdo he sported before his detention has receded into a few wild tufts, and he has lost an alarming amount of weight.His wife Tahmina Akhter said the publicity around Quasem’s case left her feeling ostracised by other mothers at their children’s school.The family was reliably hounded every anniversary of his disappearance and warned to stop publicising it.His two young daughters were three and four years old when he was taken away.The elder witnessed his abduction and is still scared of certain authority figures, such as the private security guard posted outside her school.The younger did not remember him at all.“It didn’t feel like eight years for us,” Quasem’s mother Ayesha Khatoon told AFP.“It felt like eight lifetimes.” - AFP

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689107/international/disappeared-bangladeshi-lawyer-recounts-horror-in-secret-jail

Record-breaking Nepali teen eyes final 8,000m peak

At just 18 years old, Nepali mountaineer Nima Rinji Sherpa is on the brink of a remarkable achievement. With 13 of the world’s highest peaks already behind him, he is now one summit away from becoming the youngest person to conquer all 14 mountains towering above 8,000m (26,247 feet).Sherpa, who already holds multiple records from his ascents of dozens of peaks, said he is on a mission to “inspire a new generation and redefine mountaineering”. His final challenge, Shishapangma in Tibet, awaits him next month - if China issues a permit.Summiting all 14 “eight-thousanders” is considered the epitome of mountaineering aspirations. Italian climber Reinhold Messner first completed the feat in 1986, and only around 40 climbers have successfully followed in his footsteps. Many other elite climbers have died in the pursuit. All of the mountains are in the Himalayas and neighbouring Karakoram range, which span Nepal, China, India and Pakistan.Reaching each summit requires entering the thin air of the “death zone”, where there is not enough oxygen to sustain life for long. “When I am in the mountains, I may die anytime,” Sherpa said. “You need to realise how important your life is.” The young man says the mountains have taught him to stay calm.“Mentally, I have convinced myself...when I see an avalanche, bad weather, an accident in the mountains I am not in a hurry, I don’t get nervous,” he added. “I have convinced myself; this is normal in the mountains. I think this has helped me a lot.”Hailing from the Sherpa ethnic group, renowned for its mountaineering prowess, the teenage climber is no stranger to the treacherous terrain. His uncle, Mingma Gyabu ‘David’ Sherpa, currently holds the record of the youngest person to climb all 14 peaks. He achieved it in 2019, at the age of 30.His father, Tashi Sherpa, grew up in the remote Sankhuwasabha district, herding yaks before joining mountaineering as a teenager with his siblings. The entrepreneurial brothers now lead the biggest mountain expedition company in Nepal, Seven Summit Treks, and its sister company, 14 Peaks Expedition.“I come from a privileged family,” the teen climber said. “But going to the mountains has taught me what hardship is, and the real value of life”. Raised in the bustling capital Kathmandu, Sherpa initially preferred to play football. He was also more interested in filming and photography than following his father’s footsteps.“My whole family is from mountaineering. I have always been near mountaineering and expeditions,” he said. “But I never wanted to be myself in mountaineering.”Instead, he would take his camera out to the mountains during school holidays.But two years ago, he put his camera down to pursue mountaineering, and has since broken records.In August 2022, Sherpa scaled his first of the 14 peaks, reaching the top of the world’s eighth highest Mount Manaslu (8,163m) at the age of 16, the first teenager to do so.The last mountain he scaled was Kanchenjunga in June, again making a record for the youngest to climb the world’s third-highest mountain.“I have learned so many things about nature, the human body, human psychology”, he said. “Everything in the world I learnt from the mountain.”When not in the mountains, the student runs on the treadmill every day and avoids junk food. “Physically and mentally, you should be very fit for big mountain climbing,” his father Tashi Sherpa said, adding he had been helping him prepare for the challenge for years.“He will inspire newcomers,” he added.Nepali guides - usually ethnic Sherpas from the valleys around Everest - are considered the backbone of the climbing industry in the Himalayas. They carry the majority of equipment and food, fix ropes and repair ladders.Long in the shadows of their paying foreign customers - it costs more than $45,000 to climb Everest - Nepali mountaineers are slowly being recognised in their own right.The teenager envisions a future where climbing is recognised as a demanding, athletic pursuit for Nepali climbers as well. “My focus will be to make mountaineering a professional sport,” he said.His hero is Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, the first person to climb the world’s highest mountain Everest along with New Zealander Edmund Hillary. Sherpa considers his idol as big to climbing as Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo are to football. “Norgay is someone who is in that league,” he said.But, having seen the impacts of climate change and commercial climbing on the mountains, he is keen on taking a sustainable approach to mountaineering, and intends to study environmental science. “It’s a bigger purpose for what I do,” he said. “When I first started climbing, it was purely for myself,” he added. “But then I realised there is a lot we can do in mountaineering sports, and there are many ways to help the community.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689059/international/record-breaking-nepali-teen-eyes-final-8000m-peak

20 Pakistanis killed in bus accident in Iran

Twenty Pakistanis were killed and 22 others were injured in a bus accident in Yazd province in central Iran.According to initial reports, the accident occurred in the city of Taft in Yazd province, when a bus carrying 53 people overturned and caught fire due to brake failure, Iran News Agency (IRNA) reported.Rescue teams arrived at the accident site and recovered the bodies of the victims, while the injured people were transferred to the hospital for treatment.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689021/international/20-pakistanis-killed-in-bus-accident-in-iran

Africa could start mpox vaccinations within days

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African countries could start vaccinating against mpox within days, Africa’s top public health agency said yesterday.The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has been working with countries experiencing mpox outbreaks on logistics and communication strategies to roll out vaccine doses that are due to arrive following pledges by the European Union, vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic, the United States and Japan.The World Health Organisation last week declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years as a new variant of the disease spread rapidly in Africa.“We didn’t start vaccinations yet. We’ll start in a few days, if we are sure that everything is in place. End of next week vaccines will start to arrive in DRC and other countries,” Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya told a briefing.“We need to make sure that the supply chain management, the logistics are ready...to ensure that this vaccine will be safely stored and can be safely administered to people who need them.”He said studies on the efficacy of different vaccines would continue in Africa while shots are being administered, so countries better understand which shots are appropriate in their context.African states reported more than 1,400 additional mpox cases over the past week, taking the total number of cases in the 12 African countries where mpox has been detected to almost 19,000 since the start of the 2024, an Africa CDC presentation showed.Cases are up more than 100% on the same period last year, and Kaseya said it was too early to say mpox outbreaks on the continent were improving.Mpox, a viral infection that causes pus-filled lesions and flu-like symptoms, is usually mild but can kill. More than one strain is spreading simultaneously in Africa.Kaseya said African countries wanted solidarity, rather than being treated unfairly like during the Covid-19 pandemic.“I clearly request our partners to stop thinking about travel bans against Africans, that one will bring us back on the unfair treatment that we had during the Covid time,” he said.“Solidarity means we need you to provide appropriate support in terms of medical counter-measures,” he added, saying African countries needed help increasing their testing rate as well as accessing vaccines.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689007/international/africa-could-start-mpox-vaccinations-within-days

Mpox ‘not the new Covid’, says WHO

The mpox outbreak is not another Covid-19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday, because much is already known about the virus and the means to control it.While more research is needed on the Clade 1b strain which triggered the UN agency into declaring an international health emergency, the spread of mpox can be reined in, the WHO’s European director Hans Kluge said.“Mpox is not the new Covid,” he said.“We know how to control mpox. And, in the European region, the steps needed to eliminate its transmission altogether,” he told a media briefing in Geneva, via video-link.In July 2022, the WHO declared an emergency over the international outbreak of the less severe Clade 2b strain of mpox, which mostly affected men who have sex with men. The alarm was lifted in May 2023.“We controlled mpox in Europe thanks to the direct engagement with the most affected communities,” said Kluge.Robust surveillance, investigating case contacts, behaviour changes in the affected communities and vaccination all contributed to controlling the outbreak, he said.Kluge said the risk to the general population was low.“Are we going to go in lockdown in the WHO European region, (as if) it’s another Covid-19? The answer is clearly: ‘no’,” he said.Clade 1b is spreading mainly through sexual transmission among adults.Kluge said it was also possible that someone in the acute phase of mpox infection, especially with blisters in the mouth, may transmit the virus to close contacts by droplets, in circumstances such as in the home or in hospitals.“The modes of transmission are still a bit unclear. More research is required,” he said.WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said the agency was not recommending the use of masks.“We are not recommending mass vaccination. We are recommending to use vaccines in outbreak settings for the groups who are most at risk,” he added.The WHO declared an international health emergency on August 14, concerned by the rise in cases of Clade 1b in the DR Congo and its spread to nearby countries.There are two subtypes of mpox: the more virulent and deadlier Clade 1, endemic in the Congo Basin in central Africa; and Clade 2, endemic in West Africa.Clade 1b is a new offshoot of Clade 1, which is now called Clade 1a.The Clade 1b outbreak in northeastern DRC was first detected in September last year and is spreading rapidly.Catherine Smallwood, WHO Europe’s emergency operations programme area manager, explained that the split of Clade 1 into 1a and 1b reflects “change in the evolution of the virus.”Clade 1a traditionally has outbreaks resulting from infections from sick animals, with some limited follow-on transmission between humans at the household level, or within communities.But with Clade 1B, “we have not isolated or detected zoonotic transmission of Clade 1b,” said Smallwood.“So it seems to be a strain of the virus that’s circulating exclusively within the human population.”Experts are trying to work out if there is a difference in disease severity between Clades 1a and 1b.The available vaccines were originally developed for smallpox, and are effective against other viruses in the wider orthopoxvirus family, such as mpox.Two mpox vaccines have been used in recent years — MVA-BN, produced by Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic, and Japan’s LC16.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/689008/international/mpox-not-the-new-covid-says-who

Santos pleads guilty; faces at least two years in prison

Former US Representative George Santos pleaded guilty to criminal corruption charges yesterday, cementing the downfall of a novice politician who was expelled from Congress last year after a brief, scandal-plagued tenure.

Santos, a Republican, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a minimum two-year prison sentence. He entered his guilty plea at a hearing before US District Judge Joanna Seybert in Central Islip, New York, on Long Island.

After pleading guilty, Santos, 36, apologised to his constituents.

“I deeply regret my conduct and the harm it has caused and accept full responsibility for my actions,” Santos said in court, his voice shaking as he read from a prepared statement.

Santos was hit with federal charges in May 2023 for laundering campaign funds to pay for his personal expenses, charging donors’ credit cards without their consent, and receiving unemployment benefits while he was employed. Santos had initially pleaded not guilty. He had been in plea talks with prosecutors since last December.

His indictment prompted lawmakers to expel him from the House of Representatives in December. “To hell with this place,” he said shortly afterward. Santos spent much of his 11 months in office engulfed in scandal and marginalised by his fellow lawmakers following revelations that he had lied about much of his past. A bipartisan investigation by the House Ethics Committee found he spent campaign money on Botox, luxury brands such as Hermes, and OnlyFans, an online platform known for sexual content.

Santos’ seat, which represents a small slice of New York City and some of its eastern suburbs, was filled in a special election in February by Democrat Tom Suozzi.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/688943/international/santos-pleads-guilty-faces-at-least-two-years-in-prison

Egypt, US inaugurate renovations of buildings in Historic Cairo

Egyptian officials and the US ambassador inaugurated renovations of several monuments and buildings in Historic Cairo, including the Bimaristan Al-Muayyad Sheikh, a hospital complex built in 1420 CE.The building is notable for its giant crenulated facade and inlaid kufic Arabic inscriptions.“It is a new policy the government is following, which is to merge civil society to help preserve the antiquities,” Mohamed Ismael, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said.The building will be used for cultural functions with the involvement of the neighbourhood’s people, he added.Other monuments restored with US Agency for International Development (USAID) help and inaugurated on Sunday included the 18th century Sabil Kuttab of Ruqayya Dudu and the 14th century Gate of Manjak Al-Silahdar.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/688942/international/egypt-us-inaugurate-renovations-of-buildings-in-historic-cairo

Putin arrives in Azerbaijan for state visit

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku yesterday for a two-day state visit, Russian news agencies reported. Russian television broadcast images of the Russian president’s plane as it arrived in Baku in the evening. His visit to the Caucasus country, a close partner of both Moscow and Turkiye but also a major energy supplier to Western countries, comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented Ukrainian military offensive on Russian soil.Putin is due to hold talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on bilateral relations and “international and regional problems”, the Kremlin said.The two leaders dined yesterday evening at the Azerbaijani president’s official residence, local official news agency Asertac said.Today, Aliyev and Putin will sign joint documents and make statements to the press, said Russian agency Ria Novosti.Putin will also lay a wreath on the tomb of Heydar Aliyev, father of the current leader, who was president from 1993-2003.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/688864/international/putin-arrives-in-azerbaijan-for-state-visit

Trump, Harris fight for Pennsylvania with rally, bus tour

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris will hold duelling campaign events this weekend in Pennsylvania, the political battleground that could be the most critical state in the November 5 presidential election.Trump, the former president, held a rally yesterday in Wilkes-Barre in the northeastern part of the state. Vice-President Harris will conduct a bus tour of western Pennsylvania starting in Pittsburgh today, ahead of the kick-off of the Democratic National Convention on Monday in Chicago.Pennsylvania was one of three Rust Belt states, along with Wisconsin and Michigan, that helped power Trump’s upset victory in the 2016 election. President Joe Biden, who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, flipped the trio back to the Democrats in 2020.The three states are true bellwethers — the only US states to have voted for the eventual winner of the presidential race in every cycle since 2008.With 19 electoral votes out of the 270 needed to secure the White House, compared with 15 in Michigan and 10 in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania may be the biggest prize in this year’s election.A statistical model created by Nate Silver, an election forecaster, estimates that Pennsylvania is more than twice as likely as any other to be the “tipping point” state — the one whose electoral votes push either Harris or Trump over the top.Harris’ entry into the race after Biden ended his re-election bid last month has upended the contest, erasing the lead Trump built during the final weeks of Biden’s shaky campaign. Harris is leading Trump by more than two percentage points in Pennsylvania, according to the poll tracking website FiveThirtyEight.Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by about 44,000 votes, a margin of less than one percentage point, while Biden prevailed by just over 80,000 votes in 2020, a 1.2% margin.Both campaigns have made the state a top priority, blanketing the airwaves with advertisements. Of the more than $110mn spent on advertising in seven battleground states since Biden dropped out in late July, roughly $42mn was spent in Pennsylvania, more than twice any other state, the *Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing data from the tracking site AdImpact.Democratic and Republican groups have already reserved $114mn in ad time in Pennsylvania from late August through the election, more than twice as much as the $55mn reserved in Arizona, the next highest total, according to AdImpact.The Harris campaign said on Saturday it planned to spend at least $370mn on digital and television ads nationwide between the Labour Day holiday on September 2 and Election Day.The battleground states — seen as critical for winning the election — also include Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia.New polls published yesterday by the *New York Times found Harris leading Trump among likely voters in Arizona, 50% to 45%, and in North Carolina, 49% to 47%, and narrowing the former president’s leads in Nevada, 47% to 49%, and in Georgia, 46% to 50%. A pollster from the Trump campaign said the poll results underestimated the Republican candidate’s support.Trump and Harris have visited Pennsylvania more than half a dozen times each this year. Trump was wounded during an assassination attempt at his rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.He has said he will return to Butler in October, and also announced he will give remarks on the economy at a campaign event in York, Pennsylvania, tomorrow. Trump’s running mate, US Senator J D Vance, will deliver remarks in Philadelphia that day as well.Trump’s trip yesterday to Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne County was aimed at solidifying support among the white, non-college-educated voters who lifted him to victory in 2016. The blue-collar county voted Democratic for decades before swinging heavily toward Trump in 2016, mirroring other similar regions around the country.Trump won Luzerne in 2020 by 14.4 percentage points, a smaller margin than his 19.4 point win in 2016. With Biden out of the picture, Trump likely sees room for gains in this area of the state, said Chris Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College. “This is the type of place where Trump has lots of strengths,” Borick said, referring to the state’s northeast region. “Marginal gains in a region like this certainly could have some impact on his ability to take back Pennsylvania.”Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will make multiple stops across Allegheny and Beaver counties on Sunday, the campaign said. The tour is the first time Harris, Walz and their spouses have campaigned together since their first rally as a presidential ticket in Philadelphia earlier this month.Pennsylvania was at the heart of Biden’s victorious 2020 strategy across the Rust Belt states: limiting Trump’s margins among working-class white voters while building majorities among suburban voters and driving higher turnout in urban areas with large Black populations.The Harris campaign is pursuing a similar “win big, lose small” strategy, aiming for large margins in the cities and suburbs of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, while limiting losses in smaller counties like Beaver County, where Trump won 58% of the vote in 2020.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/688826/international/trump-harris-fight-for-pennsylvania-with-rally-bus-tour