International

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday it will donate $40 million to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which has faced massive funding cuts and calls for its abolition spearheaded by Israel. The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) said the funds would support UNRWA’s “humanitarian relief efforts in the Gaza Strip”, where the crisis has raged …

WASHINGTON: More than a third of the US Senate’s Democrats called on President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday to take “bold” action towards establishing a Palestinian state, in the latest pushback against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The letter to Biden comes days after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the country’s highest-ranking Jewish elected leader and longtime advocate for Israel, …

Neuralink on Wednesday streamed a video of its first human patient playing computer chess with his mind and talking about the brain implant making that possible. Noland Arbaugh, 29, who was left paralysed from the shoulders down by a diving accident eight years ago, told of playing chess and the videogame “Civilization” as well as taking Japanese and French lessons …

The United Kingdom and Australia inked a new defence agreement in Canberra on Thursday, as they try to boost a fledgling nuclear-powered submarine programme with the United States. UK defence minister Grant Shapps signed the agreement in Canberra with his counterpart Richard Marles, establishing a legal framework that makes it easier to host troops and share military intelligence. The agreement …

WASHINGTON: Bit­coin fell by as much as 6.5 per cent on Tuesday, on track for its largest one-day drop in two weeks, as a wave of selling hit cryptocurrencies and other risk assets, such as stocks. The price was last down 5.86pc at $63,419, having dropped to a two-week low of $62,966, while ether fell 6.39pc to $3,283. Bitcoin is …

TOKYO: The Bank of Japan (BOJ) ended eight years of negative interest rates and other remnants of its unorthodox policy on Tuesday, making a historic shift away from its focus on reflating growth with decades of massive monetary stimulus. While the move was Japan’s first interest rate hike in 17 years, it still keeps rates stuck around zero as a …

KURRAM: A day after the air strikes by the Pakistani military in Afghanistan provoked clashes along the border, Tuesday remained a relatively calmer day as guns on both sides of the boundary remained silent, barring the Angoor Adda border, despite the tense situation. In the early hours of Monday, Pakistan struck militant hideouts in Khost and Paktika provinces which, according to the …

WASHINGTON: Ahead of his appearance at a Congressional panel on Tuesday, US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu submitted a written statement expressing Washington’s concerns about irregularities in the Feb 8 elections while also emphasising the need to stay engaged with Pakistan to help it navigate through the crises it is facing. Mr Lu is the diplomat whose supposed warning …

LONDON: Britain said on Tuesday it would refer the UAE-led takeover of the Telegraph for a lengthy review, a move that will effectively kill the deal because a law banning foreign governments owning newspapers is due to come into force in coming months. Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI took control of the Telegraph titles and the Spectator magazine in December when it helped repay the Barclay family’s 1.2 billion …

AMMAN: Israel launched missiles at several military targets outside the Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday, Syria’s defence ministry said, in what regional intelligence and Syrian sources said were stepped up strikes on fortifications of Hezbollah. Syrian air defences intercepted Israeli “missiles and shot down some of them”, the ministry said in a statement, adding they caused only material damage. Two …