International

Lahore jumped more than 10 places to become the city with the worst air in the world in 2022, according to an annual global survey by a Swiss maker of air purifiers. The report published on Tuesday by IQAir also said that Chad in central Africa had replaced Bangladesh as the country with the most polluted air last year. IQAir measures air …

NEW YORK: Riyadh Air and Saudia reached agreements to purchase 78 Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes to support Saudi Arabia’s expanding aviation plans, Boeing announced on Tuesday. The order — which could reach as many as 121 planes with options — constitutes the fifth largest by commercial value in Boeing’s history. The contracts are part of “a blueprint for economic and …

PALO ALTO: Alphabet Inc’s Google on Tuesday unveiled a flurry of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for its email, collaboration and cloud software, taking aim at Microsoft Corp days before its rival is expected to make a similar announcement. In a replay of last month’s dueling chatbot launches by the tech giants, Alphabet touted a “magic wand” for its popular Google …

NEW YORK: Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday revised its outlook on the US banking system to “negative” from “stable”, citing heightened risks for the sector after the rapid unraveling of SVB Financial Group fuelled fears of contagion. Bank runs at Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Capital Corp and Signature Bank have deteriorated the operating environment for the sector that is now …

WASHINGTON: Ned Price, who explained US foreign policies to the world at the State Department’s daily news briefings, will step down next week for a new, policy-focused job in the same department. Mr Price, the department’s spokesman since the first day of the Biden administration, will now work directly for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “This will be my …

BAGHDAD: Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi gained fame for hurling his shoes at President George W. Bush in a news conference to show his anger at the corruption and chaos that followed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. He is still furious. “The same people who entered 20 years ago with the occupier are still ruling despite failures and corruption. …

WASHINGTON: A U.S military MQ-9 surveillance drone crashed into the Black Sea on Tuesday after being ‘‘intercepted by Russian fighter jets’’, in the first such incident since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over a year ago. The Pentagon alleged that one of the Russian Su-27 jets struck the propeller of the drone, making it inoperable, while Russia’s defence ministry blamed “sharp …

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that what was at stake in Ukraine was Russia’s very existence as a state. Speaking at length to workers at an aviation factory in Buryatia, Putin expanded on his familiar argument that the West was bent on pulling Russia apart. “So for us this is not a geopolitical task, but a task of …

PARIS: Diplomats from nearly 200 nations and top climate scientists began a week-long huddle in Switzerland on Monday to distil nearly a decade of published science into a 20-odd-page warning about the existential danger of global warming and what to do about it. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s synthesis report — to be released on March 20 …

LONDON: UK hospital doctors on Monday began a three-day strike over pay at the start of a week that will also see teachers, train staff and civil servants walk out, in the latest wave of industrial action. The doctors say years of below-inflation pay increases mean they have effectively had a 26 per cent pay cut since 2008. Ahead of …