Trump says he will not participate in another debate with Harris

Republican nominee Donald Trump said he would not participate in another presidential debate against Vice US President Kamala Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.'There will be no third debate!' the former president wrote on social media site Truth Social, referencing his first face-off with President Joe Biden in June and his second with Harris on Tuesday.The two White House candidates traded harsh attacks and accusations during their debate, and had a very heated argument on topics such as economy and illegal immigration, as well as the 2020 elections and foreign policy issues such as the Middle East, Ukraine and the withdrawal from Afghanistan.According to a CNN poll about the debate, Harris won the debate by 63% to 37% for Trump.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690573/international/trump-says-he-will-not-participate-in-another-debate-with-harris

Bridge partially collapses in Germany, no injuries

A bridge partially collapsed in the eastern German city of Dresden early yesterday, with authorities saying that no one was injured but that there was a risk of further sections crumbling.A roughly 100-metre (330-foot) section of the Carola Bridge, which connects Dresden’s historic old town to other parts of the city, plunged into the Elbe river around 3:00am (0100 GMT), the Dresden fire brigade said.The bridge and the surrounding area were sealed off, causing major disruption to city traffic.Officials warned that other parts of the bridge could yet come crashing down.“There is still an acute danger to life and risk of collapse,” fire brigade spokesman Michael Klahre said. The German weather service (DWD) warned that storms in the next days could cause the level of the Elbe to rise, with authorities fearing this could cause further damage.Nobody was on or under the bridge at the time of the incident.The last tram had crossed the bridge at around 02:50am, mere minutes before the collapse and narrowly avoiding catastrophe.“I am very, very happy that based on what we know, no one was hurt,” Klahre said at a press conference alongside other officials.Police spokesman Thomas Geithner said officers who happened to be stationed just 50 metres away “described hearing a loud, heavy noise, the ground shook”. Rescue services and other experts were deployed at the scene to assess the damage and secure the bridge.The cause of the collapse is still being investigated.The concrete structure may have suffered from corrosion caused by chloride contamination in the past, Holger Kalbe, head of the bridges and civil engineering structures department for the city of Dresden, told reporters.But he added that this was just a first “assumption” and experts would have more certainty on what happened in the coming days.The part of the bridge that fell contained the section dedicated to tram lines and foot and cycling traffic. It was scheduled for maintenance work next year.The other two sections of the bridge, for road vehicles, had already been renovated, Kalbe told reporters.The partial collapse also damaged two major heating pipes, cutting off district heating in the city and temporarily leaving residents in some neighbourhoods without hot water, Klahre said.Police said the partial collapse was being deemed an accident, and warned against spreading fake news on social media.“There is zero indication” to suggest any criminal behaviour at this point, Geithner said.On X, Saxony state police urged people not to share “any false reports” about the incident, adding that there “is no evidence so far of third-party interference”.The Carola Bridge, one of Dresden’s main crossings, was constructed when the region was part of communist East Germany and completed in 1971. It is named after the wife of King Albert of Saxony.Germany counts around 130,000 bridges, many of which were built decades ago when traffic was lighter.Concerns have long been raised about the need for repairs and for more investment to modernise the ageing structures.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690498/international/bridge-partially-collapses-in-germany-no-injuries

Samsung production at key India plant hit due to strike

Samsung Electronics’ production at a key plant in southern India was disrupted for a second day by hundreds of employees striking for higher wages on Tuesday, as top executives sought to resolve a rare episode of labour unrest.

South Korea-based Samsung, India’s biggest consumer electronics company, counts the country as a key growth market, competing with the likes of LG Electronics to make everything from televisions and refrigerators to smartphones.

The strike-hit plant in Sriperumbudur, the smaller of Samsung’s two Indian factories, employs around 1,800 people and makes electronic products rather than smartphones. But it still contributes 20% to 30% of Samsung’s annual $12bn revenue in India, said two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Posters saying “Indefinite Strike” went up outside the factory near the city of Chennai, where hundreds of workers in company uniforms set up tents to shade themselves from the heat. Union leader E Muthukumar said “the strike will continue for a third day” today.

About half of the factory’s daily production was affected when many workers stayed away on Monday, and the protesters continue to press their demands for higher wages, better hours and most importantly want Samsung to recognise the formation of a union backed by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions group.

Shares in Samsung closed 1.9% lower in Seoul, versus the benchmark KOSPI’s 0.5% fall.

Samsung’s Southwest Asia CEO, J B Park, and other senior executives are visiting the factory to find a resolution, people with direct knowledge of the situation said. Park oversees the India market for Samsung from Gurugram, near New Delhi.

Samsung did not respond to a request for comment. Muthukumar said no settlement had been reached during the discussions on Tuesday with Samsung management.

Tamil Nadu labour secretary Veera Raghava Rao said that negotiations between workers and management are ongoing, but there is no indication yet when the matter will be resolved.

A spokesperson for Samsung India said on Monday that it actively engaged with workers “to address any grievances they may have and comply with all laws and regulations”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690415/international/samsung-production-at-key-india-plant-hit-due-to-strike

German govt tightens controls at all borders in immigration crackdown

Germany’s government has announced plans to impose tighter controls at all of the country’s land borders in what it called an attempt to tackle irregular migration and protect the public from threats such as religious extremism.The controls within what is normally a wide area of free movement – the European Schengen zone – will start on September 16 and initially last for six months, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said yesterday.The government has also designed a scheme enabling authorities to reject more migrants directly at German borders, Faeser said, without adding details on the controversial and legally fraught move.The restrictions are part of a series of measures Germany has taken to toughen its stance on irregular migration in recent years following a surge in arrivals, in particular people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East.Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is seeking to seize back the initiative from the opposition far-right and conservatives, who have seen support rise as they tap into voter worries about stretched public services, integration and security.“We are strengthening internal security and continuing our hard line against irregular migration,” Faeser said, noting the government had notified the European Commission and neighbouring countries of the intended controls.Recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum-seekers have stoked concerns over immigration.The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the western city of Solingen that killed three people in August.The AfD earlier this month became the first far-right party since World War II to win a state election, in Thuringia, after campaigning heavily on the issue of migration.Polls show that it is also voters’ top concern in the state of Brandenburg, which is set to hold elections in two weeks.Scholz and Faeser’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are fighting to retain control of the government there, in a vote billed as a test of strength of the SPD ahead of next year’s federal election.“The intention of the government seems to be to show symbolically to Germans and potential migrants that the latter are no longer wanted here,” said Marcus Engler at the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research.A backlash had been building in Germany ever since it accepted in excess of 1mn people, mostly fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, during the 2015/2016 migrant crisis, migration experts say.It reached a tipping point in the country of 84mn people after it automatically granted asylum to around 1mn Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s 2022 invasion even as Germany was struggling through an energy and economic crisis.Since then, the German government has agreed tighter deportation rules and resumed flying convicted criminals of Afghan nationality to their home country, despite suspending deportations after the Taliban took power in 2021 due to human rights concerns.Last year Berlin also announced stricter controls on its land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Those and controls on the border with Austria had allowed it to return 30,000 migrants since October 2023, it said on Monday.Faeser said a new model would enable the government to turn back many more – but it could not talk about the model before confidential negotiations with the conservatives.The controls could test European unity if they lead to German authorities requesting other countries to take back substantial numbers of asylum-seekers and migrants.Under EU rules, countries in the Schengen area, which encompasses all of the bloc except for Cyprus and Ireland, are only allowed to introduce border checks as a last resort to avert threats to internal security or public policy, and several have done so during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic or after attacks.The EU agreed a hard-fought overhaul to its asylum and migration laws earlier this year but the rules are only set to come into force in 2026.“Until we achieve strong protection of the EU’s external borders with the new common European asylum system, we must strengthen controls at our national borders,” Faeser said.Germany shares its more than 3,700km (2,300 miles) land border with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Bild newspaper yesterday that his country would not take in any migrants turned away by Germany at the border.“There’s no room for manoeuvre there,” he said.The measures may not immediately result in many more migrants being turned away at the border, but they could result in more returns to other European countries down the line, as well as acting as a deterrent, said Susan Fratzke at the Migration Policy Institute.The number of asylum applications in Germany already fell 21.7% in the first eight months of the year, according to government statistics.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690352/international/german-govt-tightens-controls-at-all-borders-in-immigration-crackdown

PM chairs GCC-Russia ministerial meeting

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, who is the current President of the GCC Ministerial Council, chaired the 7th joint ministerial meeting of the strategic dialogue between the GCC and Russia, which took place at the GCC Secretariat General in Riyadh Monday. The meeting discussed co-operation between the GCC and Russia, and ways to enhance and support them, along with a host of matters of mutual interest.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690333/qatar/pm-chairs-gcc-russia-ministerial-meeting

Thousands defy roadblocks in rally for former premier Khan

Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan gathered in Islamabad on Sunday despite authorities’ attempts to block the protesters’ main routes into the capital, AFP journalists noted.The demonstration, led by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, is the largest in Islamabad since the retired international cricketer was jailed last year on several charges, some of them still before the courts.The rally’s “size and popularity ensure (PTI’s) mobilisation capabilities remain intact despite relentless attempts to curb it”, said Michael Kugelman, Pakistan specialist at the Wilson Centre, a US-based think tank.Protesters removed the containers used by Pakistani authorities to block major roads into Islamabad ahead of the demonstration.“They closed the city with containers. But despite this, thousands are here. They cannot stop this motivation and emotions the people have right now,” Humayun Mohmand, a PTI senator, said.In jail since August 2023, Khan insists along with his party that the charges against him are designed to prevent him from returning to office.Backed by the military, which wields enormous influence, he rose to power in 2018 by standing against widespread corruption embedded in the country’s revolving door of dynastic politics.However, he was ousted in 2022 after falling out with the military establishment.That furthered a sense of helplessness and frustration among many Pakistanis who want the generals to stay out of politics in a country that has been ruled by the military on and off for much of its history, and where a civilian prime minister has never served a full term.Khan’s first arrest, on graft charges in May 2023, sparked nationwide demonstrations by supporters expressing anger at the army.In response, the army orchestrated a massive crackdown on the PTI.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690285/international/thousands-defy-roadblocks-in-rally-for-former-premier-khan

Sudan rejects UN appeal for ‘impartial’ force to protect civilians

Sudan has rejected a call by UN experts for the deployment of an “independent and impartial force” to protect millions of civilians driven from their homes by more than a year of war.The conflict since April last year, pitting the army against paramilitary forces, has killed tens of thousands of people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.The independent UN experts said Friday their fact-finding mission had uncovered “harrowing” violations by both sides, “which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”. They called for “an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians” to be deployed “without delay”.The Sudanese foreign ministry, which is loyal to the army under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said in a statement late Saturday that “the Sudanese government rejects in their entirety the recommendations of the UN mission.” It called the UN Human Rights Council, which created the fact-finding mission last year, “a political and illegal body”, and the panel’s recommendations “a flagrant violation of their mandate”.The UN experts said 8mn civilians have been displaced.More than 25mn people — upwards of half the country’s population — face acute food shortages. World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on a visit to Sudan yesterday, said: “The scale of the emergency is shocking, as is the insufficient action being taken to curtail the conflict and respond to the suffering it is causing.” In Port Sudan, where government offices and the UN have relocated to due to the intense fighting in the capital Khartoum, Tedros called on the “world to wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it is living through”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690267/international/sudan-rejects-un-appeal-for-impartial-force-to-protect-civilians

Venezuela’s opposition figure flees to Spain to save ‘his life’

Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia – who insists that he, not strongman Nicolas Maduro, is Venezuela’s legitimate president-elect – fled for exile in Spain yesterday to save his own life, the opposition said.Gonzalez Urrutia, who the opposition says it can prove won July 28 elections in which Maduro claimed a widely questioned victory, arrived in Spain after a month in hiding in the crisis-hit South American country.The choice for the 75-year-old to leave was made as “his life was in danger” amid a “brutal wave of repression”, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on X.Gonzalez Urrutia had replaced Machado on the ballot at the last minute after she herself was prevented from running by institutions loyal to Maduro.Venezuela’s regime-loyal CNE electoral authority declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 elections, but the opposition cried foul and much of the international community has refused to accept the result without seeing a detailed vote breakdown, which has not been forthcoming.Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez Urrutia, who Maduro has said belongs behind bars along with Machado.She remains in hiding, save for leading a handful of anti-Maduro protests since the disputed vote.Gonzalez Urrutia left Venezuela yesterday after ignoring three successive summons to appear before prosecutors, arguing that doing so risked his freedom.Machado said on X that “the increasing threats, subpoenas, arrest warrants and even attempts at blackmail and coercion against (Gonzalez Urrutia) show that the regime has no scruples or limits in its obsession to silence him and try to bring him down”.She added that “faced with this brutal reality, it is necessary for our cause to preserve his freedom, his integrity and his life”.Madrid said it would grant asylum to the retired diplomat.He arrived on a Spanish military plane at the Torrejon air base near Madrid with his spouse around 4pm local time (1400 GMT), according to a foreign ministry statement.Speaking at a socialist party meeting on Saturday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described Gonzalez Urrutia as “a hero who Spain will not abandon”.Venezuela’s vice-president Delcy Rodriguez said on social media that Caracas had agreed to the safe passage of Gonzalez Urrutia, who had taken “refuge voluntarily at the Spanish embassy in Caracas a few days ago”.Attorney-General Tarek William Saab later told journalists that Gonzalez Urrutia’s departure marked the close of a piece of “farcical theatre ... fatefully named To the End” – the opposition’s post-election fightback slogan.He did not say whether the investigation against the opposition figure was now closed.The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, meanwhile, demanded that Venezuelan authorities “end repression, arbitrary arrests and harassment against members of the opposition and civil society, as well as release all political prisoners”.Saab had opened an investigation against Gonzalez Urrutia for crimes related to his insistence that he was the rightful victor of the July poll.Charges include usurpation of public functions, forgery of a public document, incitement to disobedience, sabotage, and association with organised crime.He risks a jail sentence of 30 years.The charges stem from the opposition decision to publish its own tally of polling station-level ballots cast, which it says showed Gonzalez Urrutia winning about two-thirds of votes.Venezuela’s electoral authority has said it cannot provide a breakdown of the election results, blaming a cyber attack on its systems.Observers have said there is no evidence of such hacking.Post-election violence in Venezuela has claimed 27 lives and left 192 people injured, while the government says it has arrested some 2,400 people.After Venezuela’s last election, in 2018, Maduro also claimed victory amid widespread accusations of fraud. With the support of the military and other institutions, he managed to cling to power despite international sanctions.Maduro has led the oil-rich but cash-poor country since 2013.His tenure has seen GDP drop 80% in a decade, prompting more than 7mn of the country’s 30mn citizens to flee.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690265/international/venezuelas-opposition-figure-flees-to-spain-to-save-his-life

Typhoon weakens after leaving dozens dead in Vietnam, China and Philippines

Typhoon Yagi weakened to a tropical depression yesterday, after killing more than a dozen people, tearing roofs off buildings, sinking boats and triggering landslides across Vietnam.The typhoon had left a trail of destruction and two dozen people dead across southern China and the Philippines before it ravaged Vietnam.The storm killed 21 people and injured 229 in Vietnam, state media reported late yesterday.Among the victims was a family of four killed after heavy rain caused a hillside to collapse onto a house in the mountainous Hoa Binh province of northern Vietnam, according to state media.Since Friday, others have been killed in storm-related incidents, some crushed by falling trees or drifting boats, the defence ministry’s disaster management agency.Yesterday afternoon, six people, including a newborn baby and a one-year-old boy, were killed in a landslide in the Hoang Lien Son mountains of northwestern Vietnam.The slide was triggered by heavy rains and high winds after Yagi made landfall on Saturday.“We found the six bodies, including a one-year-old boy and a newborn, in the landslide,” a local official from the Sapa people’s committee, who asked not to be named, said.“The rain was heavy, weakening the soil and triggering (the) landslide.”While Vietnam’s weather agency downgraded the storm on Sunday, several areas of the port city of Hai Phong were under half a metre of flood waters, and electricity was out, with power lines and electric poles damaged.At Ha Long Bay, a Unesco World Heritage Site about 70kms up the coast from the city, fishermen were in shock as they examined the damage yesterday morning.The disaster management authority said 30 vessels sank at boat lock areas in coastal Quang Ninh province along Ha Long Bay after being pounded by strong wind and waves.The typhoon also damaged nearly 3,300 houses, and more than 120,000 hectares of crops in the north of the country, the authority said.Rooftops of buildings were blown off and motorbikes were left toppled over in piles of building debris.Pham Van Thanh, 51, a crew member of a tourist boat, said all the vessel’s crew remained on board since Friday to prevent it from sinking.“The wind was pushing from our back, with so much pressure that no boat could stand,” Thanh said.“Then the first one sank. Then one after another,” he said.Bui Xuan Tinh said he lost both his home and business to the “destructive” typhoon, and would need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to repair his three wooden tourist boats after they sank in a lock on Tuan Chau island.“I have been in this sea (and) ship business for decades and have never witnessed such a thing,” Tinh said.“Then I received a phone call from my kids at home saying our rooftop was blown off,” he said. “I did not feel anything.”Before making landfall in Vietnam, Yagi tore through southern China and the Philippines, killing at least 24 people and injuring dozens of others.Typhoons in the region are now forming closer to the coast, intensifying more rapidly, and staying over land for longer due to climate change, according to a study published in July.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690263/international/typhoon-weakens-after-leaving-dozens-dead-in-vietnam-china-and-philippines

Tens of thousands in South Korea protest lack of climate progress

More than 30,000 protesters gathered in South Korea’s capital in broiling heat yesterday, demanding more aggressive action by the government to combat global warming. With temperatures exceeding 30C, protesters young and old marched in the country’s biggest demonstration so far this year, snarling traffic in central Seoul.They waved large banners reading “Climate justice,” “Protect our lives!” and “NO to climate villain (President) Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration”. “Truth is, without the air conditioner this summer was not liveable and people could not live like people,” said Yu Si-yun, an environmental activist leading the protest. “We are facing a problem not unique to a country or an individual. We need systemic change and we are running out of time to act.”Organised by the 907 Climate Justice March Group Committee, the protest followed a ruling last month by South Korea’s top court that the nation’s climate change law fails to protect basic human rights and lacks targets to shield future generations. The 200 plaintiffs, including young climate activists and even some infants, told the constitutional court that the government was violating citizens’ human rights by not doing enough on climate change.South Korea, which aims to be carbon-neutral by 2050, is the biggest coal polluter after Australia among the Group of 20 big economies, with a slow adoption of renewable energy. The government last year lowered its 2030 targets for curbing industrial greenhouse-gas emissions but kept its national goal of cutting emissions by 40% from 2018 levels.Even South Korea’s kimchi has fallen victim to climate change. Farmers and manufacturers say the quality and quantity of the napa cabbage used in the ubiquitous pickled dish is suffering due to intensifying heat. “Feel how long this summer is,” said Kim Ki-chang, a 46-year-old novelist who was participating in the protest for a third straight year.“This would be a much bigger threat and survival issue to younger generations than the older ones, so I think the older generation should do something more actively for the next generation.” Seoul has had a record 20 consecutive nights defined as “tropical”, with low temperatures remaining above 25C. Protest organising committee member Kim Eun-jung said the demonstrators chose the popular Gangnam financial and shopping area this year, not the Gwanghwamun area they used last year, to have their voices heard by the many big corporations there that the group blames for carbon emissions.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690179/international/tens-of-thousands-in-south-korea-protest-lack-of-climate-progress

Ireland, UK to ‘reset’ relations as Starmer begins Dublin visit

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday began the first visit by a British leader to Ireland in five years, vowing to “reset” damaged post-Brexit relations between the two nations. The visit, described by Downing Street as a “historic moment for UK-Ireland relations”, signals a further warming in bilateral ties that had frayed under the UK’s previous Conservative government.Irish counterpart Simon Harris welcomed Starmer to Dublin, with the pair shaking hands and posing for photographs before heading for talks. “Today we’re in Dublin to flesh out what a reset actually looks like... in a practical sense for our citizens on both islands,” Harris said at the beginning of the talks.“And I certainly know that it has to be embedded in things like peace, prosperity, mutual respect and friendship.”Starmer added that the reset was “really important to me and my government”. “(It) can be meaningful. It can be deep,” he said. Before later heading into a round table meeting with business leaders, Harris said that the pair had “had a very productive meeting” and agreed to hold an annual summit, with the first to take place in March 2025.Both leaders also stressed the importance of their joint roles as guardians of the Good Friday Agreement, the landmark peace accord brokered in 1998 that ended decades of sectarian violence in the British province of Northern Ireland. Boosting economic growth was also due to be high on the agenda, as well as the joint response to international crises, where Harris said the two leaders “were aligned in so many ways”.Harris, who became taioseach (prime minister) in April, was the first international leader hosted by Starmer in the UK after his landslide election win in July. The pair chatted over pints of Ireland’s national drink, Guinness, at the British prime minister’s country residence, Chequers, northwest of London, before a larger meeting of European leaders.The focus on “resetting” Anglo-Irish relations marks a notable shift in language after the last few years saw tensions rise between Dublin and London. Britons narrowly voted to exit the European Union in a referendum in 2016 and the country finally left the bloc in 2020 after years of political division and stalemate.Conservative former prime minister Boris Johnson’s hard break from the EU was widely seen as destabilising relations between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland. Since taking power, Starmer has moved to begin the repeal of a law granting conditional immunity to perpetrators of crimes during Northern Ireland’s decades of sectarian violence.The move has been fiercely opposed by relatives of those who lost their lives in “The Troubles”. During Saturday’s encounter, the leaders reaffirmed the Good Friday Agreement and their commitment to reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Starmer and Harris were to attend the Ireland versus England Nations’ League football match on Saturday evening.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/690178/international/ireland-uk-to-reset-relations-as-starmer-begins-dublin-visit