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