Gulfnews

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

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 collaps...

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 Mut...

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...

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 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 ...

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 ill...