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

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

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

Harris vows ‘new way forward’ for America

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

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

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

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

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

Disappeared Bangladeshi lawyer recounts horror in secret jail

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

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

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

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

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

20 Pakistanis killed in bus accident in Iran

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

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

Africa could start mpox vaccinations within days

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

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

Mpox ‘not the new Covid’, says WHO

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

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

Santos pleads guilty; faces at least two years in prison

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Egypt, US inaugurate renovations of buildings in Historic Cairo

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

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

Putin arrives in Azerbaijan for state visit

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

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