International

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday adopted a statement pledging to boost political and economic cooperation including in energy and trade. The talks between Putin and Erdogan came as Russia’s isolation grows following its intervention in Ukraine. “Despite the current regional and global challenges, the leaders reaffirmed their common will to further develop Russian-Turkish …

BAGHDAD: Tens of thousands attended Friday prayers in Baghdad’s Green Zone in a new power play by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr after his adversaries conditionally backed his call for early elections. Sadr, a longtime political and religious force in Iraq, has for months been in a political standoff with a rival Shia alliance backed by Iran. Worshippers converged on a …

PHONM PENH: Tensions over developments around Taiwan spilled into an Asian meeting of foreign ministers on Friday, diverting attention at a gathering that had been expected to focus on efforts to end the crisis in Myanmar. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov walked out of a plenary session just as Japan’s top diplomat, Yoshimasa Hayashi, spoke. …

SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk has accused Twitter of fraud, alleging the social media platform misled him about key aspects of its business before he agreed to a $44 billion buyout, as their court battle heats up. The Tesla boss lodged the claim late on Thursday as he fights back against Twitter’s lawsuit seeking to force him to close the deal, which …

NEW DELHI: Congress leaders led by Priyanka Gandhi were detained here on Friday as they observed August 5 to mark the “death of democracy” in India. Staying subdued about the annexation of disputed Jammu and Kashmir on this day in 2019, which the party opposed, and the stone-laying ceremony for the proposed temple at the site of the razed Babri Masjid later, …

BERLIN: An “unprecedented” fire broke out on Thursday around a German police munitions storage site in a popular forest in western Berlin, sending plumes of smoke into the skies and setting off explosions. Firefighters were unable to tackle the blaze directly due to the danger of further blasts, with emergency services setting up a 1,000-metre (3,280-foot) safety zone around the …

PARIS: More than half of species whose endangered status cannot be assessed due to a lack of data are predicted to face the risk of extinction, according to a machine-learning analysis published on Thursday. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently has nearly 150,000 entries on its Red List for threatened species, including some 41,000 species threatened …

ISLAMABAD: The Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG) on Food, Energy and Finance, formed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, has asked governments to find the most effective way to fund energy solutions to protect vulnerable communities everywhere, including through windfall taxes on the largest oil and gas companies. Launching the third report of the crisis group on Wednesday, the secretary …

Russia said on Friday it was ready to discuss a prisoner swap with Washington at the presidential level, a day after the drug conviction of US basketball star Brittney Griner. Despite tensions soaring between Russia and the US since the launch of Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine, the former Cold War rivals appeared to be edging closer to a new prisoner exchange. …

Taiwan blasted its “evil neighbour next door” on Friday after China encircled the island with a series of huge military drills that were condemned by the United States and other Western allies. Thursday’s military exercises, which are set to continue on Friday, saw China fire ballistics missiles and deploy both fighter jets and warships around Taiwan. The People’s Liberation Army …