International

LONDON — Prince William denied Britain’s royal family is racist on Thursday in his first public comments since Prince Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey. “We’re very much not a racist family,” William said in response to questions from the media as he visited a school in east London with his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge. William added that he hadn’t spoken to his brother yet, “but I …

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to make his first official visit to the UAE on Thursday following an agreement between the two countries to establish ties, Israeli media reported. A senior official in Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the reports by Israeli public radio, Haaretz newspaper and other outlets. The reported visit would take place less than two weeks before Netanyahu faces …

MOSCOW: Russia’s X5 group, the country’s leading food retailer, announced on Wednesday the launch of a facial recognition payment system, the latest expansion of a technology that has sparked privacy and security concerns. To launch its facial recognition payment system, the X5 group, which owns the Pyaterochka convenience stores and the Perekrestok supermarket chain, has joined forces with the Visa …

ISLAMABAD: Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa and Director General of Inter-Services Intelli­gence Lt Gen Faiz Hameed attended a session on Afghan peace process in Bahrain, it emerged on Wednesday. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement said: “Current developments in Afghan peace process, border security and necessary steps to be undertaken to facilitate an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process …

WASHINGTON: The House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to one of the largest economic stimulus measures in US history, a sweeping $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill that gives President Joe Biden his first major victory in office. The measure provides $400 billion for $1,400 direct payments to most Americans, $350bn in aid to state and local governments, an …

PARIS: The world is missing a once-in-a-generation chance to rebuild a sustainable post-pandemic future, the United Nations said on Wednesday in an assessment showing less than 20 percent of recovery finance can be considered “green”. Although the unprecedented economic slowdown caused by Covid-19 saw greenhouse gas emissions fall dramatically in 2020, institutions from the UN to the International Energy Agency …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Min­­ister Imran Khan on Wednesday assured Uzbe­kis­tan of complete facilitation in access to Pakistani ports. Mr Khan held out the assurance during a meeting with Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Dr Abdulaziz Kamilov, who was on a two-day visit to Pakistan. Mr Khan, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister Office after the meeting, said that Pakis­tan’s Karachi …

DUBAI: A court in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday denied the appeal by one of the kingdom’s most prominent political activists that would have allowed her to travel freely, her supporters said, weeks after her release from prison. Loujain al-Hathloul, whose 1001-day detention drew fierce international criticism of the kingdom’s human rights record, had hoped to lift a five-year ban on …

MOSCOW: Russia said on Wednesday it was disrupting Twitter’s services because the platform had failed to remove “illegal” content, the latest in a series of moves exerting control over foreign tech giants. The Kremlin has been clamping down on sites including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in recent months for hosting content supporting jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media …

NEW YORK/YANGON: The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday condemned the violence used by Myanmar’s military against peaceful anti-coup demonstrators as authorities swooped on striking workers in the Southeast Asian country. The nation has been in turmoil since the military ousted and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi last month, triggering daily protests around the country to demand the …