International

Hindenburg report leaves JackDorsey poorer by $526 million

FORMER Twitter cofounder and CEO Jack Dorsey was left poorer by $526 million after short-seller Hindenburg Research revealed that his digital payment company Block facilitates fraud against consumers and the Government. After his worst single-day decline, Dorsey is now worth $4.4 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Block’s shares nosedived as much as 22 per cent on Thursday, before closing down 15 per cent late on Thursday. Block, formerly known as Square, claims to have developed ..

World sharesfall on bankingturmoil

SHARES fell on Friday in Europe and Asia as worries over turmoil in the banking sector and recession risks overshadowed gains on Wall Street. Benchmarks declined in most major markets, while US futures were higher. Oil prices fell. Investors are worried that more banks might suffer a debilitating exodus of customers following the second- and third-largest US bank failures in history...

New COVID origin data points to China market

GENETIC material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified show raccoon dog DNA commingled with the virus, adding evidence to the theory that the virus originated from animals, not from a lab, international experts say. “These data do not provide a definitive answer to how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important to moving us closer to that answer,” World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday. ..

Captain Modi gives his bowlers certain freedom: Jaishankar

EXTERNAL Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a cricket team captain and said he gave his bowlers a certain amount of freedom while expecting them to take wickets. Jaishankar said Modi’s knack of taking tough decisions was also on display when India decided to announce the lockdown after the outbreak of COVID, step up production of vaccines, roll out an inoculation programme and help countries in need of vaccines. “With Captain Modi, there is a lot of net ..

Musk cleared of fraud charges in ‘Tesla funding secured’ case

A COURT in the US has cleared Elon Musk in a class-action securities fraud over his tweets about taking Tesla private. The jurors deliberated for about two hours before reaching the verdict, called a “disappointed” one by Nicholas Porritt, partner at Levi & Korsinsky, the firm representing the Tesla shareholders in the class action, reports CNBC. Musk tweeted that he is “deeply appreciative of the jury’s unanimous finding”. His lead counsel Alex Spiro argued before the jury on Friday, saying “fraud ..

Bill Gates tries hand at making roti

BILLIONAIRE businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates’ stab at cooking a roti drew praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who encouraged him on Saturday to try his hand at making millet dishes too. Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, posted on Instagram a video of him making a roti. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates made roti along with celebrity chef Eitan Bernath, who recently returned from a trip to Bihar, and ate it with ghee. Superb, Modi reacted, and said that the latest trend in India are millets, ..

‘Second Chinese spy balloon spotted over Latin America’

A SECOND Chinese spy balloon has been spotted, this time in the skies over Latin America, the Pentagon has said, a day after another one of the size of three buses and carrying a “large” payload was seen in US skies that prompted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone his planned visit to China. “We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it as another Chinese surveillance balloon. We have no further information to provide at this time,” Pentagon Press Secretary ..

Pakistan’s oil industry on brink of collapse

OIL companies in cash-strapped Pakistan have warned that the industry is on the “brink of collapse” as the dollar liquidity crisis persists and their cost of doing business balloons due to the rupee’s devaluation. The Government removed the dollar cap to meet the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) demand which resulted in the Pakistani rupee falling to a historic low of Rs 276.58 in the interbank market, according to a ‘Geo News’ report. The IMF has set several conditions for resuming the bailout, ..

IMF spots Rs 2 trillion breach in Pakistan’s budgetary estimates

AHEAD of its crucial talks with the cash-strapped Pakistan Government, the IMF has found an over Rs 2,000 billion breach in budgetary estimates for 2022-23 in its initial assessment that might result in escalating the budget deficit and primary deficit targets with a massive margin. Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials are scheduled to kick-start parleys from Tuesday for accomplishing the ninth review under the Extended Fund Facility during which the fiscal slippages and reconciliat..

N Korea fires 3 missiles amid tensions

NORTH Korea fired three short range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters in its latest weapons display on Saturday, a day after rival South Korea launched a solid-fuelled rocket as part of its efforts to build a space-based surveillance capabilitytobettermonitorthe North. Tensions between the rival Koreas rose earlier this week when South Korea accused North Korea of flying five drones across the rivals’ tense border for the first time in five years and responded by sending its own drones ..

Former Pope Benedict XVI passes away at 95

FORMER Pope Emeritus BenedictXVI,theshyGerman theologian who tried to reawaken Christianity in a secularised Europe but will foreverberememberedasthe first pontiff in 600 years to resign from the job, died Saturday. He was 95. Benedictstunnedtheworld on Feb. 11, 2013, when he announced, in his typical, soft-spoken Latin,that he no longer had the strength to run the 1.2 billion-strong Catholic Church that he had steered for eight years through scandal and indifference. His dramatic decision paved the ..

Barbara Walters, news pioneer and ‘The View’ creator, no more

BARBARAWalters, the intrepidinterviewer, anchor and programme host who blazed the wayas the first woman to become a TV news superstar during a career remarkable for its durationandvariety, hasdied.She was93. ABC broke into its broadcast to announceWalters’deathonairFriday night.“Shelivedherlifewithnoregrets. She was a trailblazernotonlyforfemale journalists, but for all women,” her publicist Cindi Berger also said in a statement,addingWaltersdiedpeacefully at her New..

Twitter suspends accounts of journalists covering Elon Musk

TWITTER has abruptly suspended the accounts of several high-profile journalists who cover the social media platform and Elon Musk, who acquired the company in October. The accounts of Ryan Mac of ‘The New York Times’, Donie O’Sullivan of ‘CNN’, Drew Harwell of ‘The Washington Post’, Matt Binder of ‘Mashable’, Micah Lee of ‘The Intercept’, Steve Herman of ‘Voice of America’, and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann as well as Tony Webster had all been suspended as of Thursday evening, ..

World sees Pak as epicentre of terror: Jaishankar at UN

THE world sees Pakistan as the “epicentre of terrorism” and it should clean up its act and try to be a good neighbour, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said, asserting that the world has not forgotten where the menace stems from. He also recalled former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s blunt message to Islamabad that snakes in one’s backyard will eventually bite those who keep them. Jaishankar was addressing reporters on Thursday at the UN headquarters after chairing a signature event ..

Assassination attempt on Imran a lone-wolf attack; ‘no conspiracy’

AN INTELLIGENCE agency report submitted to Pakistan’s federal government on assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Imran Khan “does not find any conspiracy involved” and terms it a “lone-wolf” attack, a media outlet reported. The report says that the gunshots by the pistol were followed by SMG fire by some unknown deputed for security purposes in the rally...

‘No choice’, says Elon Musk, justifies layoffs at Twitter

AMID massive layoffs at Twitter across the world, including in India, and subsequent backlash, the microblogging site’s new owner Elon Musk on Saturday justified the move, saying, there was “no choice” when the company was losing millions of dollars daily. The company posted a net loss of USD 270 million in the second quarter ended on June 30, 2022 compared to a profit of USD 66 million in the same period a year ago. “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the ..

Pak Army seeks legal action against Imran

THE Pakistan Army on Friday requested the Federal Government to initiate legal action against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan for defaming a senior Army personnel. Responding to Khan’s allegations on the involvement of a senior Army personnel in his assassination attempt, the Intelligence agency, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) said, “The baseless and irresponsible allegations by Chairman PTI against the institution and particularly a senior Army officer ..

Sunak, Boris camps claim hitting 100 UK MPs mark

RISHI Sunak supporters claimed on Saturday that the Indian-origin former Chancellor has hit the threshold of 100 members of Parliament required to make it to the shortlist for the race to replace Liz Truss as the Conservative Party leader and British Prime Minister. The 42-year-old frontrunner’s tally continues to grow as former Prime Minister Boris Johnson flew back from his Caribbean holiday and his camp also claimed that he has the requisite minimum of 100 MPs for a possible leadership bid. Neither ..

‘Interpol plays no role in curbing terrorism’

INTERPOL plays no role in curbing any state-sponsored activities such as terrorism and its focus is on cyber criminals, drug dealers and child abusers, its Secretary General Jurgen Stock said on Monday. Stock addressed the press on the eve of the 90th General Assembly of Interpol in Delhi in which police chiefs and ministers of 195 countries are likely to participate. The General Assembly will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. Asked if the global body will take steps to curb ..

BTS members to fulfill military duties

ALL seven members of the popular South Korean music group BTS are looking forward to carrying out their military service with oldest member Jin initiating the process by the month end, their management agency announced on Monday. In a statement posted on fan community forum Weverse, the band’s management company BigHit Music said the septet hopes to reconvene as a unit around 2025 following their service commitment. It is also “the perfect time” for the septet to fulfil their duty towards the country ..

3 from US share Nobel Prize in economics for research on banks

THIS year’s Nobel Prize in economic sciences has been awarded to the former chair of the US Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, and two US-based economists, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig, “for research on banks and financial crises.” The prize was announced Monday by the Nobel panel at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The committee said their work had shown in their research “why avoiding bank collapses is vital.”..

UK PM U-turns on tax cut for wealthiest to avert rebellion

THE new Liz Truss-led UK Government on Monday made its first major U-turn on its central plank of tax cuts by withdrawing a policy to abolish the top rate for the wealthiest, following market turmoil and to avert an expected rebellion within the governing Conservative Party. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng declared that the announcement in his mini-budget last month of a proposed abolition of the 45 pence tax rate, which applied to the top tier of income taxpayers from next April, had become a “massive ..

Firefly Aerospace reaches orbit with new Alpha rocket

A NEW aerospace company reached orbit with its second rocket launch and deployed multiple small satellites on Saturday. Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space ForceBase, California, in early morning darkness and arced over the Pacific. “100% mission success,” Firefly tweeted later. A day earlier, an attempt to launch abruptly ended when the countdown reached zero. The first-stage engines ignited but the rocket automatically aborted the liftoff. Therocket’spayloadincluded ..

India hits out at Pak PM for raking up Kashmir at UNGA

UNITED NATIONS, IN A strong response to Pakistan, India has said in the UN General Assembly that a country that claims to seek peace with its neighbours would never sponsor cross-border terrorism nor would it shelter planners of the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack, disclosing their existence only under pressure from the global community. India exercised the Right of Reply in the UN General Assembly on Friday to respond sharply to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who had raked up the issue ..

UNSC requires urgent and comprehensive reforms: MEA

THE United Nations requires urgent and comprehensive reforms and emphasised that the Security Council must be reflective of the “aspirations and perspectives of the developing world” that form the majority of UN global membership, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a joint statement. The 32 countries including India highlight the urgency needed to push reforms in the UN Security Council in their joint statement. The signatories of the joint statement stated that they reaffirm that adapting the ..

Global economy in its steepest slowdown since 1970: World Bank

INTEREST rate hikes by central banks around the world could trigger a global recession in 2023, the World Bank has warned, media reports said. Central banks have raised rates “with a degree of synchronicity not seen over the past five decades” to tackle soaring prices, World Bank said, BBC reported. Raising rates makes borrowing more expensive to try to bring down the pace of price rises. But it also makes loans more costly, which can slow economic growth. The warning from the World Bank came ahead ..

Chinese delegation banned from Queen’s Lying-in-State in UK

   LONDON,THE House of Commons Speaker has refused permission for a Chinese Government delegation to attend the Queen’s Lying-in-State at Westminster Hall within the Parliament complex before the funeral at Westminster Abbey in London..

Modi, Turkish President discuss ways to deepen bilateral ties at SCO summit

SAMARKAND, PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Samarkand during which they reviewed bilateral relations an..

President to join 500 world leaders at Queen’s funeral

PRESIDENT Draupadi Murmu will be among an estimated 500 world leaders and foreign dignitaries, including Kings and Queens and heads of State and Government, who will attend Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday. The Ministry of External Affairs confirmed the President’s three-day UK visit on Wednesday as India’s Head of State invited for the state funeral in London. It marks the first state funeral in the UK in 57 years, last held at the Abbey for Britain’s war-time Prime ..

Musk demands months for trial prep in Twitter suit

TESLA CEO Elon Musk fired back Friday at Twitter’s lawsuit seeking to force him to complete his USD 44 billion acquisition of the platform, according to multiple news reports. In a filing with the Delaware Court of Chancery, Musk’s lawyers accused Twitter of withholding information about fake accounts — a longtime preoccupation for Musk — and of creating delays, providing evasive responses and putting up technical obstacles. The filing also disputed Twitter’s request for an expedited trial, claiming ..

Biden says, he raised Khashoggi murder with Saudi Crown Prince

PRESIDENT Joe Biden said he brought up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in his meeting Friday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, rejecting the idea that he was ignoring the kingdom’s human rights abuses as he tries to reset a critical diplomatic relationship. “I said, very straightforwardly, for an American President to be silent on an issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am,” Biden said. “I’ll always stand up for our values.” US Intelligence believes that the crown ..

NASA’s James telescope reveals stunning images of Jupiter, its moon

AFTER releasing stunning coloured images of thousands of galaxies in our universe, NASA has now unveiled outstanding images of Jupiter and spectra of several asteroids taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. The data demonstrates Webb’s ability to track solar system targets and produce images and spectra with unprecedented detail, the US space agency said in a statement. New images show distinct bands that encircle Jupiter as well as the Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow the Earth. “Combined ..

Over 6 million people in Lanka ‘food insecure’: WFP

OVER six million people or over 28 per cent of Sri Lanka’s population are “food insecure” and this situation is likely to deteriorate as the crisis unfolds in the island nation which is grappling with its worst economic crisis, the World Food Programme has said. Sri Lanka is currently reeling under a severe foreign exchange crisis with falling reserves and the Government is unable to foot the bill for essential imports. The economic crisis has led to an acute shortage of essential items like food, ..

Shinzo Abe’s body arrives in Tokyo, funeral on Tuesday

THE body of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was returned to Tokyo on Saturday after he was fatally shot during a campaign speech in western Japan a day earlier. Abe was attacked in the city of Nara and airlifted to a local hospital but died of blood loss despite emergency treatment including massive blood transfusions. Local media has reported that a night vigil will be held on Monday and his funeral will be held on Tuesday. Police arrested the attacker, a former member of Japan’s Navy, at ..

Lankan protesters storm President’s house

SRI Lanka’s embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would resign on July 13, Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said on Saturday night. President Rajapaksa informed the Speaker about this decision after Abeywardena wrote to him asking for his resignation following the all-party leaders meeting held Saturday evening. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday offered to resign and form an all-party Government, hours after thousands of protesters stormed the official residence of President ..

US mourns shootings, NRA remains defiant

FOR a brief moment in 2012, it seemed like a national stalemate over guns was breaking. Adam Lanza, a 20-year-old gunman, had forced his way into a Connecticut elementary school and massacred 26 people, mostly children, with an AR-15-style rifle. Flags flew at half-staff. A sporting goods chain suspended sales of similar weapons. And longtime gun-rights supporters from both parties in Congress said they were willing to consider new legislation. The issue was complex, then-President Barack Obama said, ..

Tesla won’t manufacture in India unless allowed to sell, service cars: Musk

AMERICAN electric carmaker Tesla, which has been seeking reduction in import duties to sell its vehicles in India, will not manufacture its products locally unless it is allowed to first sell and service its cars in the country, company founder and chief executive Elon Musk has said.In a tweet responding to a user asking about Tesla setting up a manufacturing plant in India, he said, “Tesla will not put a manufacturing plant in any location where we are not allowed first to sell & service cars.”..

In biggest victory yet, Russia claims capture of Mariupol

IN WHAT would be its biggest victory yet in the war with Ukraine, Russia claimed to have captured Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege that reduced much of the strategic port city to a smoking ruin, with over 20,000 civilians feared dead. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin the “complete liberation” of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol — the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance — and the city as a whole, spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Friday...

Musk’s $44 bn Twitter deal faces 1st legal hurdle in US

THE Orlando Police Pension Fund has sued Elon Musk and his $44 billion buyout of Twitter, claiming that the deal cannot close till 2025 owing to Tesla CEO’s stake in the micro-blogging platform. The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed by the Orlando Police Pension Fund in the Delaware Chancery court, alleged that since Musk was an “interested stockholder” before the merger agreement was approved by Twitter’s board, “the proposed takeover may not lawfully close until 2025 absent approval by the affirmative ..

Over 900 civilians killed around Kyiv, Russia vows new attacks in Ukraine

INDIGNANT over what it called Ukrainian strikes in Russian territory and following the stunning loss of its Black Sea flagship, Moscow threatened renewed missile attacks on Kyiv, where authorities said the bodies of more than 900 civilians were found outside the capital. Most had been shot dead, police said, and likely “simply executed”. Russian forces prepared for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine, and fighting also went on in the pummelled southern port city of Mariupol, where locals reported ..

Russia warns US, NATO of ‘unpredictable consequences’

DAYS after the Joe Biden administration announced an additional USD 800 million in military assistance to Ukraine, Russia warns the United States of “unpredictable consequences” if the country continues to transfer weapons to Ukraine. ‘Washington Post’ reviewed a diplomatic note that Russia sent the US this week and said that the note warned that US and NATO shipments of the “most sensitive” weapons systems to Ukraine could bring “unpredictable consequences,” reported ‘Aljazeera’...

Chinese astronauts return to Earth after 6 months

HREE Chinese astronauts returned to Earth safely on Saturday after spending a record six months aboard China’s new space station, doubling the previous stay of the country’s longest single flight in space. The Shenzhou-13 capsule carrying astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu touched down successfully at 9:56 am local time in the Dongfeng landing site in Gobi Desert, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, state-run ‘Xinhua news’ agency reported...

Lanka hikes interest rates to tackle inflation

SRI Lanka’s central bank has decided to hike interest rates by an unprecedented 700 basis points to tame high inflation amid the worst economic crisis that has led to protests across the country and put President Gotabaya Rajapaksa under mounting pressure to resign. The move comes as Sri Lanka’s main Opposition party SJB on Friday announced that it will move a no-confidence motion against the Government of President Rajapaksa and is prepared to impeach the embattled leader if he fails to address ..

Ukraine station attack toll reaches 52 By Adam Schreck and Cara Anna

UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he wants a tough global response to Russia after its forces fired a missile at a crowded train station, killing at least 52 people. Zelenskyy’s voice rose in anger during his nightly address late Friday, when he said, the strike on the Kramatorsk train station, where 4,000 people were trying to flee a looming Russian offensive in the east, amounted to another war crime. Russia denied it was responsible for the strike. Among those killed were children, ..

Oscars bans Will Smith for 10 yrs for slapping Chris

THE motion picture academy on Friday banned Will Smith from attending the Oscars or any other academy event for 10 years following his slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards. The move comes after a meeting of the academy’s Board of Governors to discuss a response to Smith’s actions. It is unclear whether the ban would apply to future nominations. “The 94th Oscars were meant to be a celebration of the many individuals in our community who did incredible work this past year; however, those moments ..

Pak Speaker ‘no’ to allow no-trust motion; saying ‘don’t mind being punished’

LIVING up to his own resolve to fight until the “last ball”, Prime Minister Imran Khan sprang late-night surprises upon the nation by reportedly sacking an unnamed but very important person in the official system, and asking the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser not to allow the no-trust motion to be put for voting. Responding quickly to the Prime Minister’s move, the Opposition, too, moved into Islamabad High Court a petition seeking to restrain Imran Khan from sacking any key person -- with ..

Rajapaksa declares emergency amidst protests in Lanka

SRI LANKAN President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has declared a nationwide public emergency amidst a spate of protests, including outside his house, over the worst economic crisis in the island nation. Rajapaksa issued a special gazette notification late on Friday night, declaring a public emergency in Sri Lanka with immediate effect from April 1. In the gazette, the President states: “Whereas I am of opinion that by reason of a public emergency in Sri Lanka it is expedient to do so in the interests of ..

72 attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities since Feb 24, says WHO

THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has registered a total of 72 attacks targeting Ukrainian healthcare facilities since Russia launched its war on February 24. According to the WHO’s Surveillance System for Attacks on Healthcare (SSA), of the 72 attacks, 58 impacted facilities, 11 transportation, 16 personnel, 10 patients, eight supplies and one impacted a warehouse. There were a total of 71 deaths and 37 injuries as a result of these attacks, the SSA added. “We are concerned that this number is ..

Zelenskyy makes surprise appearance at Doha Forum

UKRAINE’S President made a surprise video appearance Saturday at Qatar’s Doha Forum, calling on the energy-rich nation and others to boost their production to counteract the loss of Russian energy supplies. Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the United Nations and world powers to come to his aid, as he has in a series of other addresses given around the world since the start of the war Feb. 24. He compared Russia’s destruction of the port city of Mariupol to the Syrian and Russian destruction wrought ..

Russian forces keep up attacks in Ukraine as two sides hold talks

LVIV (Ukraine), RUSSIAN and Ukrainian negotiators held a new round of talks on Monday as Russia’s military forces bombarded Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine with a punishing assault that the Red Cross said has created “nothing short of a nightmare” for the country’s civilians. After an airstrike on a military base near the Polish border brought the war dangerously close to NATO’s doorstep, the talks raised hopes for progress in evacuating civilians from besieged Ukrainian cities and getting emergency ..