PARIS: Rafa Nadal hammered Dutch 26th seed Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in the French Open third round on Friday to remain on course for a potential mouth-watering showdown against world number one Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals. Nadal has 13 Roland Garros titles among his 21 majors — the highest among men — but the Spaniard was …

PARIS: Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool are seeking to cap a remarkable season by avenging their 2018 defeat against Real Madrid when the sides meet again in the Champions League final in Paris on Saturday, but the Spanish giants have their sights on a 14th European Cup triumph. It is Liverpool’s third Champions League final in five seasons, after they followed their …

Chelsea said on Saturday that the sale of the Premier League club to a consortium led by Todd Boehly, the co-owner of baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, is expected to be completed by Monday. The British government and the Premier League have approved the 4.25 billion ($5.3 billion) takeover. Chelsea were put on the market in early March, days before owner Roman Abramovich …

ISLAMABAD: An increase in electricity tariff would follow fuel price adjustment through withdrawal of subsidies while protecting the poor under principles agreed to with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Minister of State for Petroleum Musadiq Malik said on Friday. Speaking at a news conference, he said Minister for Finance Miftah Ismail had very skillfully finalised conditions with the International Monetary …

BERLIN: Ministers from the Group of Seven countries on Friday called on Opec to act responsibly to ease a global energy crunch brought on by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, even as they announced a breakthrough commitment to phase out coal-fuelled power. The call, made at the end of three-day talks in Berlin focused on climate change, underscored that the …

ISLAMABAD: Inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) fell 0.26 per cent in the week ended May 26 owing to a drop in the prices of a few essential food items, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data released on Friday. The drop was noted after four weeks of consecutive increases. Last week, the SPI saw the second-biggest …

LAHORE: Leading economists have expressed grave concerns over the deteriorating economy, which, according to them, is in a free fall situation. In a webinar titled “Budget 2022-23: Is the economy in free fall?” organised by the Institute for Policy Reforms (IPR), they sought immediate and effective short-, medium-, and long-term measures under political will in a bid to control the …

LONDON: Indian author Geetanjali Shree and US translator Daisy Rockwell have won the International Booker Prize for Hindi novel “Tomb of Sand”, a first for a book in an Indian language. The prestigious 50,000 ($63,000, 59,000-euro) prize is awarded to fiction from around the world that has been translated into English and is shared between the author and translator. The …

LYSYCHANSK: Russian troops were moving in on the strategic city of Severodonetsk on Friday in a relentless offensive to control Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, bombing residential areas and claiming the capture of a key town. At least nine people were killed a day earlier in shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, raising fears that Russia had not lost interest in …

BERLIN: Japan for the first time has joined fellow members of the Group of Seven industrialised nations in pledging to end public financing for fossil fuel projects abroad by the end of the year to help combat global warming. “We commit to end new direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022,” …