International

WASHINGTON: Just days after taking control of powerful social media giant Twitter Inc, billionaire Elon Musk on Monday recommended that voters pick Republican candidates for Congress in Tuesday’s US midterm election. Musk, who is also Tesla CEO, has faced criticism from some groups over his absolutist stance on free speech. They expect his position to increase the volume of misinformation …

ISLAMABAD: The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says the past eight years are on track to be the warmest on record, fuelled by ever-rising greenhouse gas concentrations and accumulated heat. Provisional estimates of ‘State of the Global Climate in 2022” report, released on Monday in Sharm El-Sheikh during COP27, says extreme heatwaves, drought and devastating flooding have affected millions and cost billions …

MOSCOW: Influential Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is linked to President Vladimir Putin and sanctioned by Washington and European countries, admitted on Monday to interfering in US elections. “Gentlemen, we interfered, we are interfering and we will interfere,” Prigozhin, who has been accused of running a “troll factory” to influence the outcome of votes in several Western countries, said in …

LONDON: A pro-Imran slogan was spray painted on the wall of Stanhope House, the building where former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s son Hussain has an office, on Monday, in an act that constitutes ‘criminal vandalism’ under UK law. On Monday evening, a ‘die-hard’ supporter of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, British Pakistani Shayan Ali posted a photo on social media where …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: During talks on curbing global warming, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned world leaders here on Monday that humanity was in “the fight of our lives” as climate change intensifies droughts, floods and heatwaves. In the midst of a barrage of international crises battering economies and shaking international relations, Guterres said the international community faced a stark choice. “Cooperate …

WASHINGTON: As Russia became India’s top oil supplier last month, the US State Department said on Monday that the United States “does not currently have” sanctions on Russian energy exports to other countries. The Indian media reported earlier in the day that Russia had surpassed traditional sellers Saudi Arabia and Iraq in exporting oil to India. The report noted that India remained …

The United States is privately encouraging Ukraine to signal an openness to negotiate with Russia, the Washington Post reported, as the State Department said Moscow was escalating the war and did not seriously wish to engage in peace talks. The newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying the request by American officials was not aimed at pushing Ukraine to the negotiating table, but …

BAGHDAD: Iraqi lawmakers were due on Sunday to examine a bill seeking to reestablish military conscription in the country, before the first reading was postponed. Service in the armed forces was mandatory in Iraq from 1935 up until 2003, when a US-led invasion toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein. A first reading of the bill was scheduled to be held Sunday …

KAFR JALES: Syrian regime rocket fire killed nine people, including three children, at makeshift camps for displaced people in the country’s last major rebel-held bastion early on Sunday, a war monitor said. The dead included three children among seven civilians, and two unidentified individuals, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. An earlier Observatory toll reported six civilians dead, …

LAKE VICTORIA: The death toll from Sunday’s plane crash in Tanzania has jumped to 19, Prime Minister Kassim Maj­a­liwa said, after the Precision Air flight with dozens of passengers aboard plunged into Lake Victoria while approaching the northwestern city of Bukoba. “All Tanzanians are with you in mourning the 19 people who lost lives during this accident,” Majaliwa told a …