40 foreign operators may be using faulty Boeing 737s: US Safety Board

The US National Transportation Safety Board on Monday said more than 40 foreign operators of Boeing 737 airplanes may be using planes with rudder components that may pose safety risks.The NTSB last week issued urgent safety recommendations about the potential for a jammed rudder control system on some Boeing 737 airplanes after a February incident involving a United Airlines flight.The NTSB also disclosed Monday that it has learned two foreign operators suffered similar incidents in 2019 involving rollout guidance actuators. 'We are concerned of the possibility that other airlines are unaware of the presence of these actuators on their 737 airplanes,' NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said Monday in a letter to FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691685/international/uslatin-america/40-foreign-operators-may-be-using-faulty-boeing-737s-us-safety-board

Trump launches into ‘dark speech’ on illegal immigration

Donald Trump has called Democrat Kamala Harris “mentally impaired” and said illegal immigrants are out to cut the throats of ordinary Americans in their own homes as he doubled down on the racially charged rhetoric fuelling his unprecedented bid to regain the US presidency.Trump was seeking to strike back at Harris after she visited the US-Mexico border on Friday and vowed to do more to control asylum claims and undocumented migrant crossings.The issue is one of the Democratic vice president’s weakest in polling, as she runs neck-and-neck against Trump in the November 5 election.Trump dismissed Harris’s speech at the border, swearing and telling supporters in the small town of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, that President Joe Biden and Harris are responsible for an “invasion” of violent criminals.Anti-immigrant sentiment has been at the core of Trump’s appeal in economically depressed, majority-white parts of the country ever since his 2016 presidential victory, but the rhetoric is turning ever more extreme as election day nears.The 78-year-old businessman — the first major presidential candidate in US history to be a convicted felon and subject of multiple ongoing court cases — said former California prosecutor Harris, 59, is “dumb.”“Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way. She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country,” he said.Harris, meanwhile, spent Saturday at a fundraiser in San Francisco, California, where she said Trump was using “the same tired playbook we’ve heard for years.”“This election is about two very different visions for our nation and we see that contrast on the campaign trail,” she said.Trump spoke in Wisconsin while flanked on stage by large mugshots of migrants accused of crimes, painting a hellish picture of an America under violent assault — despite a plunge this year in illegal border crossings and what the FBI says is a steep decline in crime overall, particularly murder.“They will walk into your kitchen, they’ll cut your throat,” Trump said of illegal immigrants.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691620/international/trump-launches-into-dark-speech-on-illegal-immigration

Nepal floods, landslides kill at least 38 people

At least 38 people have been killed in Nepal since early Friday as persistent downpours triggered more flooding and landslides, closing major roads and disrupting domestic air travel, officials said yesterday.The death toll could rise, they added, with another 29 people reported missing over the last 30 hours. Most of the deaths took place in the Kathmandu valley, which is home to four million people and the country’s capital, where the flooding brought traffic and normal activity to a standstill. Rescue workers used helicopters and rubber boats to help people stranded on rooftops or elevated ground as some parts of Kathmandu reported up to 322.2mm of rain over the last day.Most rivers in the Himalayan nation have swollen, spilling over roads and bridges, authorities said, after nearly a week’s delay in the retreat of South Asia’s annual monsoon rains brought torrential downpours across the region. Police were working to clear debris and reopen roads after landslides blocked highways in 28 places, said police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki. The earliest let-up in the rains might not come until Sunday, said Binu Maharjan, a weather forecasting official in Kathmandu, who said a low-pressure system over parts of neighbouring India had caused this year’s extended rains. “Heavy rains are likely to continue until Sunday morning and weather is likely to clear after that,” Maharjan told Reuters.Most central and eastern areas had received moderate to extremely heavy rainfall, ranging from 50mm to more than 200mm, she added, with moderate levels recorded elsewhere. International flights are operating, but many domestic flights have been disrupted, said Rinji Sherpa, a spokesperson for Kathmandu airport.The Koshi River in the southeast, which causes deadly floods in India’s eastern neighbouring state of Bihar almost every year, was running above the danger level at 450,000 cusecs, versus the normal figure of 150,000 cusecs, one official said. A cusec is a measurement of water flow equivalent to one cubic foot a second. The river level is still rising, added Ram Chandra Tiwari, the area’s top bureaucrat. — Reuters

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691523/international/nepal-floods-landslides-kill-at-least-38-people

Hurricane triggers ‘catastrophic’ US floods, with more than 30 dead

Tropical Storm Helene brought life-threatening flooding to the Carolinas yesterday after leaving widespread destruction as a major hurricane in Florida and Georgia overnight that killed at least 33 people, swamped neighbourhoods and left more than 4mn homes and businesses without power.Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday at 11.10pm ET (0310 GMT yesterday) and left a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbours, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.Police and firefighters carried out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states, including in Atlanta, where an apartment complex had to be evacuated due to flooding.Helene came ashore in Florida with 140mph (225kph) winds, weakening to a tropical storm as it moved into Georgia early yesterday.By early afternoon, the storm had been downgraded to a tropical depression and was packing maximum sustained winds of 35mph (55kph) as it slowed over Tennessee and Kentucky, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.Helene’s heavy rains were still producing catastrophic flooding in the southern Appalachians, the NHC said.More than 50 people were trapped on the roof of a hospital at midday yesterday in Unicoi County, Tennessee, about 120 miles northeast of Knoxville, local media reported, as floodwaters swamped the rural community.Rising waters from the Nolichucky River were preventing ambulances and emergency vehicles from evacuating patients and others there, the Unicoi County Emergency Management Agency said on social media, but emergency crews in boats were conducting rescues.In western North Carolina, Rutherford County emergency officials warned residents near the Lake Lure Dam just before noon to immediately evacuate to higher ground, saying” “Dam failure imminent.”In nearby Buncombe County, landslides forced interstates 40 and 26 to close, the county said on X.The extent of the damage in Florida began emerging after daybreak.In coastal Steinhatchee, a storm surge – the wall of seawater pushed ashore by winds – of 8-10’ (2.4-3m) moved mobile homes.In Treasure Island, a barrier island community in Pinellas County, boats were grounded in front yards.The city of Tampa posted on X that emergency personnel had completed 78 water rescues of residents and that many roads were impassable because of flooding. The Pasco County sheriff’s office rescued more than 65 people overnight.The US Coast Guard said it had saved nine people from storm waters.Video posted online showed a coastguard crew pulling a man and his dog wearing life vests from the ocean on Thursday after his sailboat became disabled off Sanibel Island.Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s emergency management director, urged residents in the affected areas to stay off the roads.“I beg you, do not go out,” he said at a morning press briefing. “We have 1,500 search and rescue personnel in the impacted areas. Please get out of the way so we can do our jobs.”Officials had pleaded with residents in Helene’s path to heed evacuation orders, describing the storm surge as “unsurvivable”, as NHC Director Michael Brennan warned.In Perry, near where Helene slammed into the coast as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, houses lost power and the gas station was flattened.“Once the eye (of the storm) got to us, that’s when everything started to intensify,” Larry Bailey, 32, who sheltered in his small wooden home all night with his two nephews and sister, told AFP. “I am Floridian, so I’m kind of used to it, but it was real scary at one point. It’s like, was my house gonna get blown away or not?”In Taylor County, the Sheriff’s Department wrote on social media that residents who decided not to evacuate should write their names and dates of birth on their arms in permanent ink “so that you can be identified and family notified”.Some residents had stubbornly stayed put.Ken Wood, 58, a state ferry boat operator in Pinellas County, said he should have heeded evacuation orders rather than riding out the storm at home with his 16-year-old cat, Andy.“I’ll never do that again, I swear,” he said. “It was a harrowing experience. It roared all night like a train. It was unnerving. The house shook.”Down the hill from his house, the storm flooded some homes with chest-deep salt water. One house caught fire and burned down, shooting 30-foot flames in the stormy sky, he said.“Old Andy seemed like he didn’t care,” Wood said. “He did fine. But next time we leave.”Some of Wood’s neighbours were not as fortunate.Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said first responders were unable to answer several emergency calls from residents overnight due to the conditions.Yesterday county authorities found at least five people dead.Two other people in Florida died, Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed.Georgia Governor Brian Kemp cited 11 storm-related fatalities in his state so far, while North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said there had been two deaths in his state.At least 13 people had died during the storm across South Carolina, the Charleston-based Post and Courier newspaper reported, citing local officials.Helene was unusually large for a Gulf hurricane, forecasters said, though a storm’s size is not the same as its strength, which is based on maximum sustained wind speeds.A few hours before landfall, Helene’s tropical-storm winds extended outward 310 miles (500km), according to the NHC.By comparison, Idalia, another major hurricane that struck Florida’s Big Bend region last year, had tropical-storm winds extending 160 miles (260km) about eight hours before it made landfall.Airports in Tampa, Tallahassee and St Petersburg suspended operations on Thursday but reopened yesterday, though extensive delays were expected.More than 4.6mn homes and businesses were without power midday yesterday in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and other states, according to the tracking website Poweroutage.usWith typhoon Yagi battering Asia, storm Boris drenching Europe, extreme flooding in the Sahel, September so far has been an unusually wet month around the world.Scientists link some extreme weather events to human-caused global warming.“Helene traveled over exceptionally warm ocean waters in the Gulf of Mexico,” Andra Garner, a climate scientist at Rowan University in New Jersey, told AFP. “It’s likely that those extra-warm ocean waters played a role in Helene’s rapid intensification.”“We also know that storm surges from hurricanes are getting worse because our sea levels are rising as we warm the planet,” she added.Curtis Drafton, a search and rescue volunteer, 48, in Steinhatchee, Florida raised similar concerns on the ground as he tackled the storm’s aftermath.“We have got to start wondering: is this the new normal? Is it going to happen every year?” he told AFP. “We have a lot of talk about once-in-a-lifetime storm, but we had one similar last year.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691486/international/hurricane-triggers-catastrophic-us-floods-with-more-than-30-dead

SA woman turns 118, among the oldest in the world

A South African woman celebrated her 118th birthday on Friday as one of the oldest people in the world with a small party at her care home.Margaret Maritz was born on September 27, 1906, according to a copy of her identity card shown to journalists by a charity that helped to organise the party in Touws River, 180 kilometres northeast of Cape Town. The document has not been independently verified but if confirmed would make Maritz older than Japanese national Tomiko Itooka who was born on May 23, 1908 and is listed by the US-based Gerontology Research Group as currently the world’s oldest living person.Flanked by two of her 14 children, Maritz blew out a candle on a large pink birthday cake at the party in the small town of Touws River.“She talks about her life as a young woman, (saying) you must respect your mother and your father. She didn’t drink, she didn’t smoke,” said a senior nurse at the home, Gregory Elroy Adams.“We must be grateful,” said one of her daughters, Liza Daniels, 67. “I don’t know if I will reach that age one day. But for me it’s a very, very big privilege to have a mother that reaches this age.”According to the Guinness World Records website, the oldest verified person is French national Jeanne Calment, who died in August 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.“Several people have been claimed to be older than Jeanne, but there has never been enough evidence to authenticate them,” it says.The oldest known South African died in March 2023 just two months before turning 129. Johanna Mazibuko was born on May 11, 1894 according to her identity papers, although these were not confirmed as authentic by authorities.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691485/international/sa-woman-turns-118-among-the-oldest-in-the-world

46 people drown during festival celebrations in India

At least 46 people, including 37 children, have drowned while celebrating a Hindu festival in eastern India, a local government official said yesterday.The victims drowned in separate incidents in Bihar state while bathing in rivers and ponds swollen by recent flooding, an official from the Bihar Disaster Management Department said.“People ignored dangerous water levels in rivers as well as ponds while bathing to celebrate the Jitiya Parv festival,” said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.The drownings occurred from Tuesday across 15 districts of Bihar state. Authorities were still working to recover three other bodies, the official said. The Bihar state government has announced compensation for each of the victims’ families, the government official said.Last year local media reported 22 people drowned during a 24-hour period in Bihar, most while marking the same festival.At least 116 people were crushed to death in July at an overcrowded religious gathering in Uttar Pradesh state, the worst such tragedy in more than a decade.India is hit by torrential rains and flash floods each year during the June-September monsoon season.The monsoon is vital for agriculture, and therefore for the livelihoods of millions of farmers.But it is also responsible for widespread destruction each year in the form of landslides and floods that kill hundreds of people across South Asia.More than 200 people were killed in the southern Indian state of Kerala in July when torrential monsoon downpours caused landslides that buried tea plantations under tonnes of rock and soil.Experts say climate change is increasing the number of extreme weather events around the world, with damming, deforestation and development projects in India exacerbating the human toll.A 2021 study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research tracking monsoon shifts from the mid-20th century suggested that it was becoming stronger and more erratic.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691450/international/46-people-drown-during-festival-celebrations-in-india

Kremlin says new nuclear doctrine is a ‘warning’ to the West

The Kremlin said on Thursday that an updated nuclear doctrine that will allow Moscow to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states should be seen as a warning to the West.Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced plans to broaden Russia’s rules on the use of its nuclear weaponry, allowing it to unleash a nuclear response in the event of a “massive” air attack.The proposals would also permit Moscow to respond with nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states if they are supported by nuclear powers – a clear reference to Ukraine and its Western backers.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the planned changes “must be considered a specific signal”.“A signal that warns these countries of the consequences if they participate in an attack on our country by various means, not necessarily nuclear,” he told reporters.Without mentioning Ukraine by name, Peskov said Russia’s “nuclear deterrence is being adjusted on account of elements of tension that are developing along the perimeter of our borders”.He also said there was “no question” of Russia boosting its nuclear arsenal.The proposed changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which Putin himself has the power to approve, come as Ukraine is seeking permission from Western allies to use long-range precision weaponry to strike targets deep inside Russia – thus far without success.Kyiv says it is necessary to target Russia’s airfields and military infrastructure that it uses to launch attacks on Ukraine, though the White House is cautious about enabling further escalation.The West has accused Putin of irresponsible nuclear sabre-rattling throughout the Ukraine conflict, with the Kremlin leader having issued multiple apparent threats about Moscow’s willingness to deploy its nuclear weapons.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691440/international/kremlin-says-new-nuclear-doctrine-is-a-warning-to-the-west

Lebanon cannot become another Gaza : UN Secretary-General to UNSC

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres affirmed that Lebanon cannot afford to become another Gaza, noting that the international organization supports intensive international efforts to achieve a temporary ceasefire, which would allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and pave the way for the resumption of a more lasting peace.'Despite the dangerous conditions, our peacekeepers remain in position,' Guterres said during the emergency UN Security Council (UNSC) session to discuss developments in Lebanon.'I implore the Council to work in lock-step to help put out this fire,' he said, calling on all parties to avoid a full-scale war.'To all sides, let us say in one clear voice: Stop the killing and destruction. Tone down the rhetoric and threats. Step back from the brink. An all-out war must be avoided at all costs. It would surely be an all-out catastrophe,' Guterres said.'Many lives have been lost. All this must stop,' he added.For his part, Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said the aggression that Lebanon is being subjected to represents an integral 'part and parcel of the policy of escalation' that the Israeli settlement occupation has made a preferred approach and a deliberate strategy on more than one front and more than one destination in the Middle East.He added that the Israeli occupation is no longer satisfied with the genocidal war it is committing against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but is igniting one crisis after another and is seeking, day after day, to extend its criminality and impose its tyranny on all neighboring countries, affirming that the time has come for the UNSC to realize that the issue of security and stability in the Middle East cannot remain hostage to the delusions of the Israeli occupation.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691388/international/lebanon-cannot-become-another-gaza-un-secretary-general-to-unsc

Next-Gen Wearables and Tablets unveiled at HUAWEI Innovative product launch event in Barcelona

On September 19, at the HUAWEI Innovative Product Launch event in Barcelona, Spain, Huawei introduced a range of highly anticipated products, highlighting its 'Fashion Forward' approach to wearables. The new lineup of wearables includes the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Series, HUAWEI WATCH D2, and the HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate Green. Additionally, Huawei unveiled the HUAWEI MatePad Pro 12.2-inch and HUAWEI MatePad 12 X—brand new tablets offering advanced technologies for enhanced productivity and seamless connectivity. To provide a worry-free experience, Huawei is offering the HUAWEI Care+ Service, which can be purchased alongside the new devices.Alex Huang, Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei Consumer BG, emphasised the brand's global impact and commitment to innovation. “We aim to bring innovative products that offer consumers a unique blend of fashion and creativity,” said Alex. “By inspiring our users, Huawei strives to create a more connected and heartwarming world where technology enhances daily living and brings people closer together.”The HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Series elevates smartwatch fashion with sharp, geometric designs and premium materials. Boasting IP69K certification for water and corrosion resistance, the series is built for durability. It’s available in two editions—HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro and HUAWEI WATCH GT 5—with three sizes and 12 colourways. The 46mm version features an iconic octagonal dial, a 1.43-inch AMOLED display, and durable materials like sapphire glass and titanium. The sleeker 42mm version offers a nano-ceramic build with gold accents and a 1.32-inch AMOLED screen. The HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Series offers the sleek 41mm and a larger 46mm options. Unlike the Pros, these are constructed with durable stainless steel.The HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Series introduces a major leap in health and fitness tracking with the debut of the HUAWEI TruSense System. It now leads the industry in tracking vital signs such as heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and respiratory rate. The new Emotional Wellbeing Assistant allows the watch to infer the user’s emotional state. The battery life remains impressive, boasting up to 14 days on the 46mm model and 7 days on the 41mm version. The watch is compatible with Android and iOS smartphones.HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Series will be available in Qatar on September 26thwith pre-orders starting on September 19th price from 999 QAR from Huawei Experience Store as well as certified retailers.HUAWEI WATCH D2The HUAWEI WATCH D2 is the successor to the HUAWEI WATCH D, which brought blood pressure monitoring to the wrist. The new watch introduces Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM), offering 24-hour blood pressure tracking throughout a full sleep-wake cycle. For individuals with hypertension, the watch helps identify their blood pressure circadian rhythms and detect abnormal nighttime blood pressure decline rates. For those without hypertension, the watch can help assess their risk.Additionally, the HUAWEI WATCH D2 offers comprehensive health monitoring capabilities, including heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen, stress, skin temperature, ECG, vascular elasticity, pulse wave arrhythmia, and sleep apnea detection. With a single tap, users can measure nine body indicators and generate a Health Glance report to identify potential health risks. In terms of design, the HUAWEI WATCH D2 features a glossy mirror bezel and a rotating crown that exudes a premium feel.HUAWEI WATCH D2 will be available in Qatar in November 2024HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate Green EditionHUAWEI WATCH Ultimate introduces the new Advanced Golf Course Features and the enhanced Expedition Mode, along with a new green edition. The new green edition brings an exclusive dual-colour nano-tech ceramic bezel, crafted through a highly complex manufacturing process. As Huawei's ultimate luxury smartwatch, the HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate boasts a Zirconium-based liquid metal body and a high-strength sapphire glass cover, ensuring maximum durability and wear resistance. Additionally, it offers a 100-meter diving mode with audio functions.HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate will be available in QATAR in November 2024.HUAWEI MatePad Pro 12.2The new HUAWEI MatePad Pro 12.2” features an innovative Tandem OLED PaperMatte screen capable of reaching an astounding 2000 nits of brightness. It delivers stunning HDR visuals, ensuring lifelike colours even in bright sunlight. This display incorporates cutting-edge anti-sparkle and nanoscale anti-glare etching technologies, alongside magnetron nano optical layers to reduce light interference and glare offering a paper-like viewing. The all-new HUAWEI Glide Keyboard offers integrated stylus storage and charging, with a magnetic hinge for easy mode switching. Built with anti-stain materials, it resists coffee spills, oil, and lipstick smudges.The GoPaint app on the new tablet introduces Splatter and Fluid brushes, delivering pro-level tools for digital painting. The MatePad Pro 12.2” comes in a stunning Golden Silk rear cover that redefines artistry in gadget design.HUAWEI MatePad Pro 12.2” will be available in QATAR on October 24th with pre-orders starting on October 17th from Huawei Experience Store .HUAWEI MatePad 12 XThe HUAWEI MatePad 12 X is an elegant-looking tablet Available in three beautiful pastel colours—Greenery, Sakura Pink, and White. They all have a unique metallic white lustre, adding a refined aesthetic touch. Designed for young professionals, its 12-inch PaperMatte Display simulates the texture of paper using nano-level etching making it the most suitable screen for paperless creation. Paired with the HUAWEI M-Pencil, it delivers a writing experience that feels natural, improving precision by 47% compared with traditional tablets. The HUAWEI MatePad 12 X also comes with Huawei Notes, a professional note-taking app designed by Huawei for seamless, paperless creation, making it the perfect tool for creativity and productivity.HUAWEI MatePad Pro 12.2” will be available in QATAR on October 24th with pre-orders starting on October 17th from Huawei Experience Store .

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691331/international/next-gen-wearables-and-tablets-unveiled-at-huawei-innovative-product-launch-event-in-barcelona

Iran shows greater willingness to re-engage on nuclear file : IAEA

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday he had sensed a greater willingness by Iranian officials to engage with the agency in a more meaningful way after talks held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.In a statement following talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Grossi said 'What I see is an expressed willingness to re-engage with us in a more meaningful fashion.'Grossi said that he wanted to make real progress in restoring proper technical discussions with Iran quickly and was aiming to travel to Tehran in October to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.'Of course now we have to give content and substance to this because we are not starting from zero. We have had relatively protracted process without replies to some of the questions we have,' he said.Several long-standing issues have soured relations between Iran and the IAEA , including Tehran's barring of IAEA's uranium-enrichment experts on the inspection team.Addressing the General Debate at the UN General Assembly's 79th session, the Iranian President recalled the 2015 nuclear deal, saying that Iran, under the Joint Comprehensive Programme of Action (JCPOA), had agreed to the highest level of nuclear oversight in return for the recognition of its rights and the lifting of sanctions. He stressed that these sanctions targeted innocent people and weakened the Iranian economy.'We have the opportunity to transcend limitations and enter a new era, commencing with the acknowledgment of Iran's security concerns and cooperation on mutual challenges,' he added.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691328/international/iran-shows-greater-willingness-to-re-engage-on-nuclear-file-iaea

Iraqi Prime Minister calls for ending aggression on Gaza and Lebanon during meeting with US Secretary of State

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani met today US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York.In a statement, the media office of the Iraqi Prime Minister said that the meeting focused on bilateral relations and enhancing cooperation in various fields. They also discussed the latest regional developments, particularly the recent escalation in Lebanon.The statement added that Al-Sudani emphasized the need for concerted efforts to stop the ongoing war and aggression in Gaza and Lebanon, warning that the conflict could escalate and widen further, threatening regional and international security.He called on the United Nations to fulfill its responsibilities regarding the crimes being committed against civilians in Gaza and Lebanon, especially women and children.The discussion also covered areas of bilateral cooperation in the energy sector, as well as the ongoing dialogue to end the mission of the international coalition in Iraq, transitioning to bilateral cooperation in various sectors with coalition member states.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691244/international/iraqi-prime-minister-calls-for-ending-aggression-on-gaza-and-lebanon-during-meeting-with-us-secretary-of-state

New Marxist president vows to ‘rewrite Sri Lankan history’

Sri Lanka’s Marxist president-elect yesterday invited his compatriots to help him “rewrite” history in the cash-strapped island nation after winning a vote coloured by discontent over an unprecedented financial crisis.Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, the 55-year-old leader of the People’s Liberation Front, was declared the winner of the weekend’s poll with nearly 1.3mn more votes than his nearest rival.The once-fringe leader, whose party won less than four percent of the vote in parliamentary elections four years ago, saw a surge of support as the economic meltdown forced widespread hardships upon Sri Lankans.“The dream we have nurtured for centuries is finally coming true,” he said in a statement shortly after the announcement.“This victory belongs to all of us,” he added. “Millions of eyes filled with hope and expectation push us forward, and together, we stand ready to rewrite Sri Lankan history.”Outgoing President Ranil Wickremesinghe – who took office at the peak of the 2022 economic collapse and imposed tough austerity policies per the terms of an IMF bailout – was a distant third in the contest with 17% of the vote.“History will judge my efforts, but I can confidently say that I did my best to stabilise the country during one of its darkest periods,” he said in a statement.He congratulated Dissanayaka on the win and said he was “confident” the politician would “steer Sri Lanka on a path of continued growth and stability.”Dissanayaka will be sworn in today morning at the colonial-era President Secretariat in Colombo, election commission officials said.Economic issues dominated the eight-week campaign, with widespread public anger over the belt-tightening measures imposed by Wickremesinghe since the peak of the island nation’s bruising financial crisis.Dissanayaka would “not tear up” the IMF deal but would seek to modify it, a party politburo member said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691143/international/new-marxist-president-vows-to-rewrite-sri-lankan-history

Macron appoints new govt in shift to the right

French President Emmanuel Macron has named a new government led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier, marked by a shift to the right 11 weeks after an inconclusive parliamentary election.The first major task for Barnier, appointed just over two weeks ago, will be to submit a 2025 budget plan addressing France’s financial situation, which the prime minister this week called “very serious”.Conservative Barnier is best-known internationally for leading the European Union’s Brexit negotiations with the UK.More recently, he has had the difficult job of submitting a cabinet for Macron’s approval that has the best chance of surviving a no-confidence motion in parliament.Opposition politicians from the left have already announced that they will challenge his government with a confidence motion.In the July election, a left-wing bloc called the New Popular Front (NFP) won the most parliamentary seats of any political bloc, but not enough to get an overall majority.Macron argued that the left would be unable to muster enough support to form a government that would not immediately be brought down in parliament.He turned instead to Barnier to lead a government drawing mostly on parliamentary support from Macron’s allies, from the conservative Republicans (LR) and the centrists groups, while counting on a neutral stance from the far-right.Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) had given tacit support to Barnier’s premiership, but reserved the right to back out at any point if its concerns over immigration, security and other issues were not met.Among the new faces in key cabinet posts are Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, a centrist, and conservative Bruno Retailleau at the interior ministry, whose portfolio covers immigration.Antoine Armand, who is 33 and a graduate of France’s top administration school, will serve as finance minister and Jean-Noel Barrot will become foreign minister in a government composed largely of centrist and conservative parties, Alexis Kohler said from the Elysee Palace late yesterday.Sebastien Lecornu will stay on as defence minister, he added.There are questions over how stable the new government will prove to be, and whether it will manage to push reform measures through parliament, analysts say, with the adoption of the 2025 budget its first, difficult challenge.The job of submitting a budget plan to parliament next month falls to Armand, the new finance minister.He has previously served as head of parliament’s economic affairs commission.“The centrist government is de facto a minority administration,” Eurointelligence analysts said in a note.Its ministers “will not only have to agree amongst each other but also will need votes from opposition parties for its bills to pass in the assembly. This means offering even more concessions and manoeuvring”.“I’m angry to see a government that looks set to recycle all the election losers,” Mathilde Panot, who leads the hard-left LFI group of lawmakers, told TF1 television.Even before the announcement, thousands of people with left-leaning sympathies took to the streets in Paris and the southern port city of Marseille yesterday to protest.They were object to a cabinet they say does not reflect the outcome of the parliamentary election.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691096/international/macron-appoints-new-govt-in-shift-to-the-right

Manipur on high alert over alleged influx of 900 militants

India’s northeastern state of Manipur has been placed on high alert after intelligence reports of a potential influx of 900 suspected Kuki militants from Myanmar, a senior security official said yesterday.An organisation that represents the Kuki community, however, denied the security official’s allegations and called for his resignation.Kuldiep Singh, Manipur’s security adviser, told reporters the information regarding the militants had been shared with various intelligence agencies.Since May 2023, Manipur has been embroiled in violence between the majority Meitei and minority Kuki communities, driven by disputes over economic benefits and quotas.“The border police have been alerted, and combing operations are underway,” he said, adding that hill districts, home to Kuki tribes, were put under heightened vigilance.Denying there had been an influx of Kuki militants from Myanmar, the Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO), the main body representing the community in the state, accused the security adviser of spreading false information about the community while failing to ensure their safety.“We no longer feel secure under his leadership...we would like to call for his resignation,” a KSO statement said.The Kuki people, residing in southern Manipur, share ethnic ties with the Chin tribe in Myanmar. The latest intelligence follows reports of attacks involving explosives delivered by drones that officials allege were carried out by Kuki militants. Kuki representatives have denied the attacks were carried out by people in their community.In response to the attacks, Meitei protesters have held large gatherings in Imphal, demanding action against Kuki militants.Despite efforts to quell the unrest, sporadic clashes persist, with the latest violence resulting in 11 deaths earlier this month. Since May of last year, the conflict has resulted in at least 237 deaths and displaced over 60,000 people in Manipur, which is home to 3.2mn people.The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has repeatedly attributed the violence to an influx of refugees following Myanmar’s 2021 military coup.Last year, the government revoked a long-standing policy permitting visa-free movement along the 1,650km porous border, and announced plans to construct a border fence at a projected cost of 310bn rupees ($3.71bn).These measures have drawn criticism from Kuki groups due to their ties across the border.Manipur remains divided into two ethnic enclaves — a Meitei-controlled valley and Kuki-dominated hills — separated by a no-man’s land monitored by federal paramilitary forces.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691093/international/manipur-on-high-alert-over-alleged-influx-of-900-militants

Polls close in first Sri Lanka vote since economic collapse

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka voted for its next president yesterday in an effective referendum on an unpopular International Monetary Fund austerity plan enacted after the island nation’s unprecedented financial crisis.Turnout was at nearly 70% an hour before polling stations closed at 4pm, an election commission official said, citing provisional figures. The record for voter turnout in a Sri Lankan presidential election was set in 2019 with 83.72%. President Ranil Wickremesinghe is fighting an uphill battle for a fresh mandate to continue belt-tightening measures that stabilised the economy and ended months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.His two years in office restored calm to the streets after civil unrest spurred by the downturn in 2022 saw thousands storm the compound of his predecessor, who promptly fled the country. “I’ve taken this country out of bankruptcy,” Wickremesinghe, 75, said after casting his ballot.“I will now deliver Sri Lanka a developed economy, developed social system and developed political system.”But Wickremesinghe’s tax hikes and other measures, imposed under the terms of a $2.9bn IMF bailout, have left millions struggling to make ends meet. “The country has been through a lot,” lawyer and musician Soundarie David Rodrigo told AFP after casting her vote in Colombo. “So I just don’t want to see another upheaval coming soon.”Wickremesinghe is tipped to lose to one of two formidable challengers. One is Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, the leader of a once-marginal Marxist party tarnished by its violent past.The party led two failed uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead, and it won less than 4% of the vote in the previous parliamentary elections. But Sri Lanka’s crisis has proven an opportunity for the 55-year-old Dissanayaka, who has seen a surge of support based on his pledge to change the island’s “corrupt” political culture.He said at a polling station he was confident of securing the top job. “After the victory there should be no clashes, no violence,” he said. “Our country needs a new political culture.” Fellow opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, 57, the son of a former president assassinated in 1993 during the country’s decades-long civil war, is also expected to make a strong showing. Premadasa has vowed to fight endemic corruption, and both he and Dissanayaka have pledged to renegotiate the terms of the IMF rescue package.Political analyst Kusal Perera told AFP it was difficult to predict a winner from the three-way race – the first in the island’s history. “What is clear is that no candidate will surpass the 50% mark” needed to win outright, he said. Officials would then carry out a count of second- and third-preference votes to determine the winner.More than 17mn people were eligible to vote in the election, with more than 63,000 police deployed to guard polling booths and counting centres in schools and temples. The government also banned the sale of liquor over the weekend and said no victory rallies or celebrations would be permitted until a week after the results were announced.“This election would go down in the history of the country as the most peaceful,” election commission chair RMAL Ratnayake told reporters in Colombo. Counting began yesterday evening and a result is expected on today, but an official outcome could be delayed if the contest is close. Schools were closed on Friday to be converted into polling stations, which were staffed by more than 200,000 public servants deployed to conduct the vote.Economic issues dominated the eight-week campaign, with public anger widespread over the hardships endured since the peak of the crisis two years ago.Official data showed that Sri Lanka’s poverty rate doubled to 25% between 2021 and 2022, adding more than 2.5mn people to those already living on less than $3.65 a day. Experts warn that Sri Lanka’s economy is still vulnerable, with payments on the island’s $46bn foreign debt yet to resume since a 2022 government default.The IMF said reforms enacted by Wickremesinghe’s government were beginning to pay off, with growth slowly returning.“A lot of progress has been made,” the IMF’s Julie Kozack told reporters in Washington last week. “But the country is not out of the woods yet.”Voter Rodrigo agreed. “We have a lot of challenges ahead so good luck to whoever comes,” she told AFP.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691079/international/polls-close-in-first-sri-lanka-vote-since-economic-collapse

First early votes are cast in knife-edge US presidential election

The first early voters cast their ballots on Friday for November’s knife-edge US presidential election, as Democratic candidate Kamala Harris headed for a campaign event focused on the hot-button issue of abortion.Three US states – Virginia, Minnesota and South Dakota – were starting early voting, a practice that Republican nominee Donald Trump has previously cast doubt on when falsely claiming he won the 2020 election.Dozens of people waited at an early voting polling station in the centre of Arlington, Virginia, just outside the capital Washington, AFP journalists saw.A number had “Harris-Walz” shirts, while there were also some “Trump-Vance” signs in front of the building.“I’m excited,” said Michelle Kilkenny, 55, adding that voting early, “especially on day one, helps the campaign and raises the enthusiasm level”.Most US states permit in-person voting or mail-in voting to allow people to deal with scheduling conflicts or an inability to cast their ballots on election day itself on November 5.Former president Trump has frequently lashed out against anything except on-the-day voting, repeatedly blaming mail-in ballots for his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden – while also sometimes calling early voting into question, despite efforts by his campaign to promote it.Trump, 78, faces criminal charges for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 result, after which his supporters assaulted the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.Every vote will count in a desperately close 2024 White House race, whose result Trump has once again refused to say he will accept.Harris has erased Trump’s lead since sensationally replacing President Biden as Democratic candidate in July, but remains neck-and-neck with the Republican.The vice-president was travelling to Atlanta in Georgia – one of the seven swing states expected to decide the election – to talk on the crucial issue of reproductive rights.Harris has heavily focused on the subject, believing Trump to be vulnerable due to his frequent boasting that his Supreme Court picks paved the way for the 2022 overturning of the national right to abortion.At least 20 states including Georgia have since brought in full or partial abortion bans as a result.Her campaign said she would “speak about the dangerous consequences of Trump abortion bans”.She would also focus on the deaths of two women in Georgia from delayed medical care caused by its restrictive measures, which were reported by ProPublica.With the end of his term approaching in January, Biden meanwhile continued his long goodbye.The 81-year-old president was hosting a meeting at the White House to “direct his cabinet to sprint to the finish”, an official said.He will later start greeting the leaders of Australia, India and Japan – the so-called Quad – at his home in Wilmington, Delaware in a farewell to the alliance he has promoted as a counterweight to China.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/691050/international/first-early-votes-are-cast-in-knife-edge-us-presidential-election

Flood-hit central Europe to get billions in EU aid

The European Union will make billions of euros available to help central Europe recover from severe floods, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday, as she pledged support for regions that have been devastated by the deluge.The worst floods to hit central Europe in at least two decades have caused widespread damage from Romania to Poland, killing at least 24 people, destroying bridges, submerging cars and leaving towns caked in mud and debris.“It was for me on the one hand heartbreaking to see the destruction and the devastation through the floods,” she told reporters. “But I must also say it was on the other hand heartwarming to see the enormous solidarity between the people in your countries.”The flooding was caused by torrential rain that began last week and lasted for several days, causing rivers to burst their banks in several parts of the region.“I am here to reassure you that Europe stands by your side,” she told a news conference in the Polish city of Wroclaw, standing alongside leaders of the affected countries. “This is a moment of need, of... natural disaster and we have all to stand together to overcome the challenge.”Von der Leyen said that €10bn ($11.16bn) would be made available from EU cohesion funds and that some of the conditions usually attached to such funds, such as co-financing by member states, would be lifted to make the response quicker.Cohesion funds usually require co-financing from the member states but in this case von der Leyen said it would be “100% European money, no co-financing”.“These are extraordinary times and extraordinary times need extraordinary measures,” she said.She also said that money from the EU’s Solidarity Fund, which supports member states hit by natural disasters, would be used to rebuild infrastructure.Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told private broadcaster Polsat News that Poland could get €5bn.“What we need now is to quickly build, repair infrastructure, it will cost huge amounts of money, it would be tough to handle it from national budgets,” said Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, adding he was grateful for von der Leyen’s concrete proposals for help.Czech Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said earlier that the government would provide 30bn crowns ($1.3bn), about 0.38% of GDP, in a 2024 budget amendment and earmark 10bn crowns more in the 2025 budget to help with flood damage.Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said most power supply should be reconnected by today.The country is holding regional elections this weekend and authorities said a satellite connection had been set up in places where mobile signal is lacking, to allow the vote to go ahead.Meanwhile, flood defences in Poland’s third-largest city, Wroclaw, looked to have held firm on Thursday.The flood wave that has inundated the Polish-Czech border region since the weekend reached Wroclaw overnight, but there were no signs of serious damage.“The urban system withstood and absorbed the main wave of the floods that have been hitting Lower Silesia and neighbouring regions for a week,” local authorities said in a statement on Facebook.However, authorities warned that larger than usual levels of water would keep flowing through the city in the coming days.Agnieszka Popow-Wozniak, 44, an employee at an infertility clinic who had cycled through the city, told Reuters the situation seemed to be better than expected, adding: “There is no flooding in the city centre at the moment.”The army said 16,000 soldiers were helping out in the region, alongside police and thousands of volunteers.Prime Minister Tusk said officers from Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) had arrested a person who had dressed up in a soldier’s uniform and falsely told members of the public that flood defences were going to be blown up.Poland has warned citizens to be alert for disinformation about the floods.In Hungary, towns were dealing with the rising Danube River, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the water level in Budapest was expected to peak this afternoon or evening, but that it would be lower than record levels seen in 2013.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690992/international/flood-hit-central-europe-to-get-billions-in-eu-aid

Polls show Harris and Trump tied nationally

Vice-President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump remain deadlocked less than seven weeks before the November 5 US presidential election, according to new polls released yesterday that also show a tight race in the key state of Pennsylvania.While the surveys found likely and registered voters gave higher marks to Democrat Harris in last week’s debate with her Republican opponent, they showed the race – particularly in the battleground state – remains close, in line with other polling.In the national poll, Harris and Trump were tied at 47% among the 2,437 likely voters polled September 11-16, according to a survey by the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College.The margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points.In Pennsylvania, one of seven critical battleground states, Harris maintained her 4-point advantage, leading 50% to 46% with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points, according to the Times poll.Separate findings by the Washington Post also found a tight race between the candidates in the state, which is among those along with Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin that are seen as likely to determine November’s outcome.Among 1,003 Pennsylvania likely and registered voters surveyed September 12-16, 48% said they would vote for Harris while 47% said they would cast their ballot for Trump – a 1-point difference that falls within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.The majority of those polled told the Post that they were “extremely motivated” to vote and that protecting American democracy was “extremely important”.However, voters were split on which candidate would best protect the nation’s freedoms, with 48% choosing Harris and 45% choosing Trump.The issue looms large as Harris, a former prosecutor and state attorney-general, seeks to maintain Democrats’ hold on the White House after Biden dropped his re-election bid in July.Trump, who faces four criminal cases, has continued to falsely claim his 2020 election defeat by Biden was due to fraud.Trump has denied any wrongdoing.The Times/Inquirer/Siena poll also found US democracy was a major issue for voters along with the economy, abortion and immigration, with preferences for either candidate largely unchanged.Reuters/Ipsos polling last week showed Harris with a 5-percentage point lead among registered voters, leading Trump 47% to 42%.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690993/international/polls-show-harris-and-trump-tied-nationally

Tunisia, Iraq agree to boost tourism cooperation and investment

Tunisian Minister of Tourism Sofiane Tekaya and Iraqi Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities Ahmed Fakak Al-Badrani have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the tourism sector through the implementation of a set of training programs and the holding of a joint conference to promote tourism investment.The Tunisian Ministry of Tourism said in a statement that both sides agreed to organize joint work programs in the fields of tourism and business administration, in addition to exchanging expertise and promoting the cultural and tourism assets of both countries through joint marketing efforts.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690966/international/tunisia-iraq-agree-to-boost-tourism-cooperation-and-investment

Explosion of telecommunications devices in Lebanon exacerbates tensions in Region : European Official

High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has stressed that the recent explosion of a large number of wireless telecommunications devices in Lebanon endangers its security and stability and exacerbates escalation in the region.In a statement Wednesday, Borrell expressed his condemnation of the attacks on wireless telecommunications devices that took place Tuesday and Wednesday in Lebanon, which resulted in the death of a number of individuals and the injury of thousands, expressing his deep concern about the situation there.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690964/international/explosion-of-telecommunications-devices-in-lebanon-exacerbates-tensions-in-region-european-official

US President calls for resumption of negotiations to end war in Sudan

US President Joe Biden called on the two parties to the conflict in Sudan to resume negotiations aimed at ending the ongoing war between them since April 2023, which has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.In a statement released by the White House Tuesday, Biden said, 'I call on the belligerents responsible for Sudanese suffering the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to pull back their forces, facilitate unhindered humanitarian access, and re-engage in negotiations to end this war.'Biden said that this war has created 'one of the world's worst humanitarian crises,' pointing out that nearly 10 million people have been displaced by this conflict.US assistance to Sudanese people has reached over $1.6 billion in the last two years.'Let it be clear: the United States will not abandon our commitment to the people of Sudan who deserve freedom, peace, and justice. We call for all parties to this conflict to end this violence,' Biden said, stressing that both parties need to immediately allow unhindered humanitarian access to all areas of Sudan.Armed conflict has continued in Sudan since April 15, 2023, between the SAF and the RSF, leading to the death of more than 20,000 people and the displacement of over 10 million others.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690907/international/us-president-calls-for-resumption-of-negotiations-to-end-war-in-sudan

Paris and Milan closest to becoming a ‘15-minute city’

Paris and Milan are among the cities closest to reaching the urban planning goal of being a “15-minute city,” while car-dependent metropolises in the United States and elsewhere lag behind, a worldwide analysis said yesterday. In fact, the central areas of many cities already meet the definition of a 15 minute-city, which means that residents are within a quarter-hour walk or bike ride from everything they need to a lead a good life, the analysis found. But even within a city, there are often stark differences between the wealthy inner cities and the urban sprawl on their outskirts, according to the Italian researchers behind the new study. The concept of the 15-minute city gained traction during the Covid pandemic, when lockdowns put more focus on local neighbourhoods. It has since been embraced by dozens of mayors around the world — and become the target of conspiracy theorists online. For the new study, published in the journal Nature Cities, the researchers built an online database looking at roughly 10,000 cities globally. They used open source data to map out how far of a walk or cycle residents were from different services, including shops, restaurants, education, exercise and healthcare. “A lot of people already live in a 15-minute city,” study co-author Hygor Piaget Monteiro Melo told AFP. But it depends on where you look within a city, he said, because of the inequality in access to services between the centre and periphery. What is clear, the researchers noted, is that population density is a crucial factor — if enough people are living close enough to each other, it is much easier for them to have easy access to services. This meant that somewhat smaller yet relatively dense cities such as Italy’s Milan or Spain’s Barcelona scored well on their map, which was made available online. When it came to the biggest cities, “Paris is an outlier,” lead study author Matteo Bruno told AFP. The mayor of Paris embraced the concept in 2020, and a “considerable fraction” of the city is below the 15-minute mark, the study said. Some European cities have a head start because they were built centuries ago at a time before cars — when basically all towns had to be 15-minute cities, the researchers said. Cities built more recently with cars specifically in mind — particularly in the United States — fared far less well on the map. Atlanta in particular stood out as being a long way from being a 15-minute city. Future Olympic host Los Angeles also lagged behind most others for walkability, as did several Chinese cities including Chongqing. But when it comes to cities, there are always trade-offs — and there is no single right answer, the researchers said. “The 15-minute city is often presented as a utopia — it’s not,” Bruno said. Americans in sprawled-out cities usually have their own houses and backyards, while Europeans in densely populated cities tend to live in apartments, illustrating the important role played by culture, Bruno said. And central parts of US cities such as New York, San Francisco and Milwaukee were under the 15-minute threshold. “Manhattan is definitely one of the most 15-minute places ever in the world,” said Bruno, a researcher at Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Rome. There has been confusion about the concept in the past, the researchers lamented. For example, “traffic has nothing to do with the 15-minute city,” Bruno said. In fact, slow traffic could indicate an area is more pedestrian friendly, he added. Yet it was new “low-traffic zones” in the UK that turned the ire of conspiracy theorists towards 15-minute city proponents. Confusing the two ideas, online groups including vaccine and climate sceptics falsely claimed that 15-minute cities were part of a secret plot to restrict the movement of citizens. The Italian researchers, who have themselves been targeted by “Twitter haters,” emphasised that nothing about the 15-minute city concept involves confining anyone. Researcher Carlos Moreno, a high-profile proponent of 15-minute cities who has advised Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, was also “attacked by the worldwide conspiracy mongers,” he told AFP. Moreno welcomed the new study, praising how the idea had swiftly become a topic of interest for researchers around the world. Just last week, Valerie Pecresse, the right-wing head of the greater Paris Ile-de-France area, presented a plan for a 20-minute region, he pointed out. Bruno said that the 15-minute metric is just one element in the “recipe” that makes a good city. Other parts of the recipe include tackling inequality and segregation, improving public transport, reducing traffic and so on, he said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690884/international/paris-and-milan-closest-to-becoming-a-15-minute-city

Electric cars overtake petrol cars in Norway: Road Federation

Electric cars outnumber petrol cars in Norway for the first time ever, an industry organisation said on Tuesday.Of the 2.8 million private cars registered in the Scandinavian country, 754,303 are all-electric, compared to 753,905 that run on petrol, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said in a statement.Diesel models remain most numerous at just under one million, but their sales are falling rapidly.'This is historic. A milestone few saw coming 10 years ago,' OFV director Oyvind Solberg Thorsen said in a statement.'The electrification of the fleet of passenger cars is going quickly, and Norway is thereby rapidly moving towards becoming the first country in the world with a passenger car fleet dominated by electric cars,' OFV director Oyvind Solberg Thorsen said.Norway, pardoxically a major oil and gas producer, has set a target to sell only zero-emission vehicles -- mostly EVs since the share of hydrogen cars is so small -- by 2025, 10 years ahead of the EU's goal.In August, all-electric vehicles made up a record 94.3 percent of new car registrations in Norway, boosted by sales of the Tesla Model Y.In a bid to electrify road transport to help meet Norway's climate commitments, Norwegian authorities have offered generous tax rebates on EVs, making them competitively priced compared to fuel, diesel and hybrid cars.Norway's EV success is in sharp contrast to struggles seen elsewhere in Europe.Electric car sales began falling at the end of 2023, and now account for just 12.5 percent of new cars sold on the continent

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690846/international/electric-cars-overtake-petrol-cars-in-norway-road-federation

China condemns Israel's attacks on humanitarian agencies in Gaza Strip and West Bank

China strongly condemns Israel's horrific attacks on humanitarian agencies and workers in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.At the UN Security Council briefing on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Geng Shuang renewed the call on Monday for Israel to fulfill its obligations under international humanitarian law by putting lives and humanity first.The UNRWA is mandated by the UN General Assembly to provide relief for Palestinian refugees and is a pillar of strength for humanitarian operations in Gaza, Geng stressed.Even at the most perilous times, UNRWA has not abandoned Gaza, and to date, 224 of its staff have perished in the line of duty, said the ambassador.'We pay highest tribute to all the humanitarian workers who are still hanging in there, and our condolences over the demise of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice,' he said, calling on Israel to investigate in earnest all attacks on humanitarian workers and hold the perpetrators accountable.'China renews its call to Israel to fulfill its obligations under international humanitarian law by putting lives and humanity first, immediately lift the blockade, open all crossings, scrap restrictions on humanitarian deliveries, cease and desist from attacking UN and other humanitarian agencies, and provide safe and unimpeded access to the operations of those agencies,' the ambassador said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690840/international/china-condemns-israels-attacks-on-humanitarian-agencies-in-gaza-strip-andwest-bank

Landslide in Central Mexico kills nine

At least nine people were killed in a landslide that buried the homes of several families in central Mexico.Local authorities announced that the disaster occurred in the village of San Luis Ayucan.They added that rescue teams saved three people from under the piles of mud left by the landslide.The landslide displaced nearly 150 people from the village, who are now staying in shelters.Landslides are common in Mexico, especially during the rainy and hurricane season, which lasts from May to November.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690836/international/landslide-in-central-mexico-kills-nine

Trump suspect, staunch Ukraine backer, charged with gun crimes

A man suspected of plotting to assassinate former US president Donald Trump was charged with federal gun crimes Monday.Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number at his initial court appearance.Routh, who was arrested on Sunday after an alleged abortive bid to shoot the Republican presidential candidate at his West Palm Beach golf course, is expected to face further charges at a later date.Routh appeared calm during the brief court hearing before Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe of the Southern District of Florida, answering 'yes' to several questions.A detention hearing was scheduled for September 23 and an arraignment on further potential charges was set for September 30.Routh was arrested on Sunday after a Secret Service agent on the former president's security detail saw what appeared to be the barrel of a rifle pointing out of a tree line on the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Course, according to a criminal complaint filed by an FBI special agent.'The Agent fired his/her service weapon in the direction of the rifle,' the complaint said.Trump was several hundred yards away when the golf course shooting occurred and was unharmed.A man later identified as Routh was seen by a witness fleeing the area in a Nissan sport utility vehicle at high speed, the complaint said.Routh was arrested by local police about 45 minutes later on I-95, a major north-south highway, and replied in the 'affirmative' when asked if he knew why he was being stopped, it said.Video footage of the arrest showed Routh, who was wearing sunglasses and dressed in a peach-colored shirt, being taken into custody by the roadside without incident by heavily armed police officers.According to the complaint, a 'loaded SKS-style, 7.62x39 caliber rifle with a scope,' a digital camera, a backpack and a black plastic bag containing food were recovered from the tree line.Gunman spent nearly 12 hrs near golf courseRouth appears to have spent nearly 12 hours on the perimeter of the Trump golf course.'Routh's mobile phone was located in the vicinity of the area along the tree line... from approximately 1:59 am until approximately 1:31 pm on September 15,' the complaint said.Routh is reported to be a self-employed builder based in Hawaii, with an arrest record spanning decades.He regularly posted about politics and current events on social media, including criticism of Trump, according to US media.According to the criminal complaint, he was convicted in North Carolina in December 2002 of 'possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction.'He was convicted in 2010 in the same state of multiple counts of possession of stolen goods, it said.Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number carries a maximum five-year sentence.Ukraine denies linksKyiv Monday denied links to a man accused of trying to assassinate former US President Donald Trump, after it emerged that the suspect was a supporter of Ukraine who had said he wanted to recruit foreign volunteers to fight there. Media interviews and social media posts showed that the reported suspect was a staunch supporter of Ukraine who had traveled there after Russia's 2022 invasion.Ukrainian officials said they had nothing to do with him. The Kremlin, for its part, implied there was a link.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690798/international/uslatin-america/trump-suspect-staunch-ukraine-backer-charged-with-gun-crimes

Trump safe after shots fired near him

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was safe after multiple shots were fired near his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, Sunday.The shots originated outside the fence line of the course. The Associated Press reported that US Secret Service agents opened fire after seeing a person with a firearm near Trump's golf club, adding that no injuries were reported.The Secret Service said it was investigating the incident, which occurred shortly before 2 pm (1800 GMT).Trump was injured in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on July 13.The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had been briefed about the incident and were relieved to know that he is safe.'Violence has no place in America,' Harris said in an X social media post.Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., cited local law enforcement as saying an AK-47 automatic weapon had been discovered in bushes and a suspect has been apprehended, according to a post on X.The Washington Post said Trump had been golfing at the course when the incident occurred. Secret Service agents took him to a holding room at the club, it said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690743/international/uslatin-america/trump-safe-after-shots-fired-near-him

Death toll rises as storm lashes central, eastern Europe

One person has drowned in Poland and an Austrian fireman has died responding to floods, authorities said yesterday, as Storm Boris lashed central and eastern Europe with torrential rains.Since Thursday, swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have been hit by high winds and unusually heavy rainfall.The rains have flooded streets and submerged entire neighbourhoods in some places, while shutting down public transport and electricity in others.Romanians waded through armpit-high water to safety, Poles sought shelter in schools and Czechs hurriedly put up sand dykes in an effort to keep the water at bay.Yesterday’s deaths bring the overall toll from the storm to eight, with thousands evacuated across the continent.In Romania, two bodies were found yesterday, after four people were reported killed earlier, and one person was declared missing.Four people were reported missing in the Czech Republic.“The water came into the house, it destroyed the walls, everything,” Sofia Basalic, 60, a resident of Romania’s village of Pechea, in the hard-hit region of Galati, told AFP.“It took the chickens, the rabbits, everything. It took the oven, the washing machine, the refrigerator. I have nothing left,” she said.“Heartfelt solidarity with all affected by the devastating floods in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia”, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X, formerly Twitter, adding that the EU was ready to offer support.Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said yesterday morning that “we have the first confirmed death by drowning, in the Klodzko region” on the Polish-Czech border in the southwest of the country, which has been hit hardest by the floods.Around 1,600 people have been evacuated in Klodzko and Polish authorities have called in the army to support firefighters.Separately, a fireman in northeastern Austria died in floods in the Lower Austria region, which has been classified as a natural disaster zone, regional governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner told reporters yesterday.“For many residents, the upcoming hours will be the worst of their lives,” she said.Emergency services had made nearly 5,000 interventions overnight in the state of Lower Austria, where flooding had trapped many residents in their homes.A highway from western Austria to Vienna was shut just outside the capital and four of Vienna’s five metro lines had been shut in the city, where the Wien river was threatening to overflow its banks, according to local news reports.In Poland, authorities shut the Golkowice border crossing with the Czech Republic after a river flooded its banks on Saturday, as well as closing several roads and halting trains on the line linking the towns of Prudnik and Nysa.Tusk said that Ukraine, which is fending off a Russian invasion in its third year, has offered to send some 100 rescuers specially equipped to deal with floods to help as an expression of solidarity with Poland, which has steadfastly backed Kyiv during the war.“It’s very touching”, Tusk said of the offer.In the Czech Republic, a dam in the south of the country burst its banks, flooding towns and villages downstream.In the village of Velke Hostice, residents put up a wall of sandbags 500 metres long in an effort to hold back the rising waters of the River Opava.“If we don’t stop the wave, it will flood the lower part of the village,” local hunter Jaroslav Lexa told AFP. In southeastern Romania, another body was found yesterday in the worst-affected Galati region, where four people had died on Saturday.“We are again facing the effects of climate change, which are increasingly present on the European continent, with dramatic consequences,” Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis said.Hundreds of people have been rescued across 19 parts of the country, emergency services said, releasing a video of flooded homes in a village by the Danube river.“This is a catastrophe of epic proportions,” said Emil Dragomir, mayor of Slobozia Conachi, a village in Galati, where he said 700 homes had been flooded.Romania’s interior minister said more than 6,000 households and 15,000 people were affected in the region.In Austria, some areas of the Tyrol region were blanketed by up to a metre (three feet) of snow — an exceptional situation for mid-September, which saw temperatures of up to 30 degrees Celsius last week.Rail services were suspended in the country’s east early yesterday.In neighbouring Slovakia, a state of emergency has been declared in the capital Bratislava.Heavy rains are expected to continue until at least today in the Czech Republic and Poland.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690742/international/death-toll-rises-as-storm-lashes-central-eastern-europe

Stricken Red Sea tanker salvage makes ‘slow’ progress

The towing of an abandoned tanker struck by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in August, threatening environmental disaster, is proceeding slowly for a second day, a Greek military source told AFP yesterday.The operation to tow the Greek-flagged Sounion which began Saturday “is proceeding at a very slow pace”, the source said, adding that it was “initially headed north” without revealing a destination.The tanker was hit on August 21 by Iran-backed Houthis with missiles off the coast of Hodeida while carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude oil.After the initial strike, the Houthis returned and detonated charges on the ship’s deck, setting off new fires.Damage to the vessel had threatened a Red Sea oil spill four times the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.The operation is being overseen by the European Union’s Red Sea naval mission, Aspides, which yesterday said the tanker was being towed to a “safe location”.“The salvage of the MV SOUNION is a complex operation and consists of various phases,” the mission said on X, formerly Twitter.It added aerial shots of the tanker escorted by two warships, one dated Sunday, in which it is still emitting smoke.Greek state news agency ANA said the tugboat was escorted by three frigates, helicopters and a special forces team, without disclosing the states of origin.Fires were still visible on board in Aspides pictures on X dated Saturday.“When it reaches safe mooring there will be an attempt to put out the fire and preliminary steps will be taken to secure the cargo from leaking,” the Greek source said yesterday.The ships’ radars have been turned off for security reasons.The tanker had been anchored west of the rebel-held port city of Hodeida, midway between Yemen and Eritrea.The Sounion’s crew — made up of 23 Filipinos and two Russians — was rescued the day after the attack by a French frigate serving with the EU mission.The EU naval force was formed in February to protect merchant vessels in the Red Sea from attacks by the Houthi rebels, who have waged a campaign against international shipping that they say is intended to show solidarity with Hamas.Since November, the Houthi attacks have caused the sinking of two ships and deaths of at least four crew members.The Houthis have been firing drones and missiles at ships in the vital commercial route, saying they are targeting vessels linked to Israel, the US and Britain in solidarity with Palestinians over Israeli war actions in Gaza.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690741/international/stricken-red-sea-tanker-salvage-makes-slow-progress

4 dead in Romania floods as rain batters central Europe

At least four people died and thousands of homes were damaged by flooding in eastern Romania on Saturday, officials said, as surging river levels put authorities on alert in much of central and eastern Europe following days of torrential rain.Tens of thousands of households were left without power in Romania and the Czech Republic, where more rainfall is forecast in the coming days. Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, southern Germany and parts of Austria are also expected to see more heavy rain.Residents of some towns along the Czech-Polish border were evacuated as rivers rose past alert levels while the Czech capital, Prague, which suffered catastrophic floods in 2002, put preventative anti-flood measures in place.In Romania, flooding affected eight counties, the country’s emergency unit said, and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu visited hard-hit Galati county, where the four people were found dead, about 5,000 homes were damaged and 25,000 were without power.Television images from the area showed streets flooded with muddy water, silt and debris as rescuers led residents to safety.“The priority is obviously to save lives. At this moment we have all the necessary logistics to intervene quickly,” Ciolacu said.In the Czech Republic, northern and northeastern areas bore the brunt of the deluge and 51,000 households had their electricity supply cut off, the CTK news agency said.Forecasters warned that some parts of the country could see more than a third of average annual rainfall by Sunday, with Environment Minister Petr Hladik urging people in the worst-hit areas to prepare to leave their homes.In the village of Visnova, 140km north of Prague, local resident Roman Christof said his cottage had escaped damage because it was built on higher land. Others were less fortunate, he added.“I feel sorry for the neighbours,” he said as he surveyed the floodwaters.In Prague, a city of more than 1.3mn people that sits on the banks of the Vltava river spanned by the picturesque 14th century Charles Bridge, flood barriers were put in place.The city heavily invested into preventive measures after the 2002 floods, which swept into the subway system and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes. Prague Zoo, which is located along the Vltava, was closed to visitors and Czech Railways said services on dozens of routes were disrupted. In the country’s second-biggest city, Brno, a hospital evacuated patients as a precaution.In Glucholazy, a historic town in southwestern Poland near the Czech border, firefighters piled hundreds of sandbags alongside a swollen river and some residents were evacuated.Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said weather forecasts looked unfavourable, with very heavy rainfall to fall around the Czech border area over the next 24 hours, feeding rivers into Poland.“We are facing a critical night, full mobilisation is required,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on the X platform.Officials in neighbouring Slovakia warned of the threat of flooding in the capital, Bratislava, from the swollen Danube, while Hungary expects the river to near record-high levels in the coming days.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690689/international/4-dead-in-romania-floods-as-rain-batters-central-europe

Russia, Ukraine swap 206 war prisoners in UAE-brokered deal

Moscow and Kyiv swapped 103 prisoners of war each on Saturday in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates, a rare moment of coordination between the two warring sides as Russia pushes ahead in east Ukraine.The Russians released in the swap were captured during Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region, Moscow said, while some of the Ukrainians freed had been held prisoner since Moscow seized the Azovstal steel plant in May 2022.“Another 103 soldiers were returned to Ukraine from Russian captivity,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram.Among the freed were 82 privates and sergeants as well as 21 officers, Zelensky said.“The defenders of Kyiv, Donetsk, Mariupol and Azovstal, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and the Kharkiv regions,” he added.Russia confirmed it had “handed over” 103 Ukrainian army prisoners, and received 103 Russian servicemen captured by Kyiv in its Kursk offensive in return.“At present, all Russian servicemen are on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, where they are being provided with the necessary psychological and medical assistance, as well as an opportunity to contact their relatives,” the Russian defence ministry said.Despite ongoing hostilities, Russia and Ukraine have managed to swap hundreds of prisoners throughout the two-and-half-year conflict — often in deals brokered by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia or Turkiye.The announcement comes a day after Zelensky said 49 Ukrainian POWs had been returned from Russia, and three weeks ago both sides swapped 115 prisoners each in a deal also mediated by the UAE.The UAE’s foreign ministry hailed the deal as a “success” and thanked both sides for their co-operation on Saturday.The prisoner swap came as Russia pushed ahead in east Ukraine, where it claims to have captured a string of villages in recent weeks.The Russian defence ministry said in a daily briefing it had “liberated” the village of Zhelanne Pershe, less than 30km from the key Ukrainian-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk.Pokrovsk lies on the intersection of a key road that supplies Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern front and has long been a target for Moscow’s army.More than half of the city’s 60,000 residents have fled since the invasion began in February 2022, with evacuations ramping up in recent weeks as Moscow’s army closes in.Ukraine had hoped its major cross-border incursion into the Kursk region last month would slow down Russia’s advances in the east.On Friday, Zelensky said Moscow had been slowed down somewhat but conceded the situation on the eastern front was “very difficult”. Russia meanwhile claimed this week to have clawed back a swath of territory in the Kursk region, as it mounted what appeared to be a counter-offensive.Tensions between Russia and the West over the conflict reached dire levels this week over UK and US discussions about letting Ukraine use longer-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia.The discussions came after a visit to Kyiv by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British counterpart David Lammy.President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Thursday that green-lighting the use of the long-range weapons deep inside Russia would put the Nato military alliance “at war” with Moscow. “This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict,” Putin told a state television reporter.“It would mean that Nato countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia,” he added.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden on Friday delayed a decision on the move.US officials believe the missiles would make a limited difference to Ukraine’s campaign and also want to ensure that Washington’s own stocks of the munitions are not depleted.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690687/international/russia-ukraine-swap-206-war-prisoners-in-uae-brokered-deal

Uganda holds funeral for murdered Olympian Cheptegei

Ugandans on Saturday paid tributes to Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei, who died after her partner set her on fire in Kenya, ahead of her funeral in her family village.The 33-year-old, who debuted this summer in the women's marathon at the Paris Olympics, succumbed to severe burns last week after being attacked by Kenyan Dickson Ndiema Marangach.The brutal assault shocked the East African region and prompted a global outpouring of tributes, with activists condemning another act of gender-based violence in Kenya.On Saturday morning, residents, officials and relatives waited in the cold morning light to pay their respects in the village of Bukwo, some 380 kilometres northeast of Uganda's capital Kampala.'We are extremely saddened,' said her estranged husband Simon Ayeko, with whom she had two daughters.'As a father it has been very difficult,' he told AFP, explaining he had not been able to break the news to their children.'Slowly we will tell them the truth.'The service to honour Cheptegei, a sergeant in the Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces (UPDF), started around 10am, with officials and relatives gathering at the local council office.The coffin, swathed in the Ugandan flag, was saluted by officers from the UPDF who carried her body into the room overlooking the remote rolling hills of her childhood.The athlete was a 'heroine', local presidential representative Bessie Modest Ajilong told AFP, describing her as 'out of ordinary.''As leaders, we saw Cheptegei as an inspiration.'Her body was moved from the local council headquarters to a nearby sports stadium where hundreds gathered to pay their respects.Scores of athletes, among them Kenyan athletes Mary Keitany and Daniel Komen, travelled to the small village to attend the ceremonies.'She greatly contributed to the promotion of athletics until her last days,' coach Alex Malinga, who trained her as a teenager, told AFP.'Cheptegei was one of those who inspired the talented young that one day they will be like her.'Police said Marangach sneaked into her home to hide while she was at church with her children.The couple had argued over ownership of the property where she lived with her sister Dorcas Cherop and daughters, according to her family.'I think at that time, their relationship had become sour,' Cheptegei's brother-in-law, Moses Kipsiro, told AFP.'I didn't know then something was wrong,' said Kipsiro, who previously trained with Cheptegei and also hails from Bukwo.Her attacker later died from injuries sustained in the assault.The vicious assault has thrown yet another spotlight on what activists have called a femicide epidemic.Kenya reported 725 femicide cases in 2022 alone, according to the latest UN figures.A report the following year by Kenya's National Bureau of Statistics found 34 percent of women had experienced physical violence since the age of 15.At least two other athletes, Agnes Tirop and Damaris Mutua, have lost their lives in domestic violence incidents since 2021.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690645/international/africa/uganda-holds-funeral-for-murdered-olympian-cheptegei

Zimbabwe to cull 200 elephants amid food shortages

Zimbabwe will cull 200 elephants as it faces an unprecedented drought that has led to food shortages, a move that will also allow it to tackle a ballooning population of the animals, the country's wildlife authority said Friday.The country has 'more elephants than it needed', Zimbabwe's environment minister said in parliament on Wednesday, adding that the government had instructed the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) to begin the culling process.The 200 elephants will be hunted in areas where they have clashed with humans, including Hwange, home of Zimbabwe's largest natural reserve, ZimParks director general Fulton Mangwanya told AFP.Zimbabwe is home to an estimated 100,000 elephants, and has the second-biggest elephant population in the world after Botswana.Thanks to conservation efforts, Hwange is home to 65,000 of the animals, more than four times its capacity, according to ZimParks. Zimbabwe last culled elephants in 1988.Neighbouring Namibia said this month that it had already killed 160 wildlife in a planned cull of more than 700 animals, including 83 elephants, to cope with its worst drought in decades.Zimbabwe and Namibia are among a swathe of countries in southern Africa that have declared a state of emergency because of drought.About 42 percent of Zimbabweans live in poverty, according to UN estimates, and authorities say about six million will require food assistance during the November to March lean season, when food is scarcest.The move to hunt the elephants for food was criticised by some, not least because the animals are a major draw for tourists.'Government must have more sustainable eco-friendly methods to dealing with drought without affecting tourism,' said Farai Maguwu, director of the nonprofit Centre for Natural Resource Governance.'They risk turning away tourists on ethical grounds. The elephants are more profitable alive than dead,' he said.'We have shown that we are poor custodians of natural resources and our appetite for ill-gotten wealth knows no bounds, so this must be stopped because it is unethical.'But Chris Brown, a conservationist and CEO of the Namibian Chamber of Environment, said that 'elephants have a devastating effect on habitat if they are allowed to increase continually, exponentially'.'They really damage ecosystems and habitats, and they have a huge impact on other species which are less iconic and therefore matter less in the eyes of the eurocentric, urban armchair conservation people,' he said.'Those species matter as much as elephants.'Namibia's cull of elephants has been condemned by conservationists and the animal rights group PETA as short-sighted, cruel and ineffective.But the government said the 83 to be culled would be only a small fraction of the estimated 20,000 elephants in the arid country, and would relieve pressure on grazing and water supplies.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690621/international/africa/zimbabwe-to-cull-200-elephants-amid-food-shortages

Spain hosts conference on two-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict

AFP/MadridMinisters from Muslim and European countries along with the European Union’s foreign affairs chief gathered yesterday in Madrid to discuss how to advance a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Together, we want to identify the concrete actions that will enable us to make progress towards this objective,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on social network X.“The international community must take a decisive step towards a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” the Socialist premier added. Sanchez welcomed participants at his official residence before the start of the meeting at the foreign ministry in central Madrid, hosted by his top diplomat Jose Manuel Albares.In attendance were Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye – all members of the Arab-Islamic Contact Group for Gaza – as well as the heads of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation.The European Union was represented by its foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell as well as the foreign ministers of Ireland, Norway and Slovenia in addition to Spain. “The implementation of the two-state solution is the only way to ensure a just and lasting peace in the region through the peaceful and secure coexistence of the state of Palestine and the state of Israel,” Albares told a news conference.Asked about Israel’s absence from the meeting, he said the country had not been invited because it belonged “neither to the group of Europeans nor to the Arab-Islamic contact group” but stressed he would be “delighted” if Israel took part in discussions on the two-state solution. Calls for the solution have grown since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.Israel has launched an offensive that has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children. Sanchez has been one of the staunchest critics in Europe of Israel’s Gaza offensive since the start of the conflict.Under his watch, Spain on May 28 along with Ireland and Norway formally recognised a Palestinian state comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Earlier this month he announced that the first “bilateral summit between Spain and Palestine” would be held before the end of the year. He said he expected “several collaboration agreements between the two states” to be signed.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690615/international/spain-hosts-conference-on-two-state-solution-to-israeli-palestinian-conflict

Gaza polio vaccination drive a 'massive success': WHO Chief

The WHO chief hailed Friday the success of the first phase of a giant polio vaccination campaign in war-ravaged Gaza after more than 560,000 children received a first dose.'This is a massive success amidst a tragic daily reality of life across the Gaza Strip,' Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, formerly Twitter.Disease has spread with Gaza lying in ruins and the majority of its 2.4 million residents forced to flee their homes due to Israel's military assault -- often taking refuge in cramped and unsanitary conditions.After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began on September 1 targeting at least 90 percent of children under 10, aided by localised 'humanitarian pauses' in fighting.The first phase of the campaign, which first brought vaccines to children in central Gaza, then the south, and finally to the hardest-to reach north of the territory, wrapped up Thursday.A fresh campaign to provide a needed second dose is due to begin in about four weeks in Gaza, besieged for over 11 months.'We admire all the health teams, who conducted this complex operation,' Tedros said, also voicing gratitude to the families for turning out in droves to get their children vaccinated against polio.Poliovirus, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water, is highly infectious. It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal. It mainly affects children under the age of five.WHO has hailed that area-specific humanitarian pauses were respected, allowing the campaign to go ahead, and has urged a broader halt in fighting to help establish humanitarian corridors and the delivery of desperately-needed throughout the war-torn territory.'Imagine what could be achieved with a ceasefire!' Tedros said.The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The count includes hostages killed in captivity.Israel's retaliation has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The UN human rights office says most of the dead have been women or children.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690582/international/gaza-polio-vaccination-drive-a-massive-success-who-chief

Jordan FM, Norwegian counterpart, EU Foreign Affairs representatives discuss halting Israeli aggression on Gaza

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi discussed with his Norwegian counterpart Espen Barth Eide, and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell the developments in the region and the efforts being made to stop the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the dangerous escalation in the occupied West Bank.The meeting, held on the sidelines of a gathering in Madrid focused on implementing the two-state solution, also explored ways to enhance bilateral relations between Jordan and Norway on one hand, and with the European Union on the other.Safadi emphasized the need to finalize a prisoner exchange deal that would lead to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, halt the dangerous escalation in the West Bank, ensure the protection of civilians, and deliver sufficient and sustainable humanitarian aid to all parts of the Gaza Strip.The Jordanian Foreign Minister also warned of the potential explosion of the situation in the region if Israel's illegal actions in the West Bank continue, along with violations of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and the failure to respect the city's legal and historical status.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690581/international/jordan-fm-norwegian-counterpart-eu-foreign-affairs-representatives-discuss-halting-israeli-aggression-on-gaza