International

US President Joe Biden will discuss energy supply, human rights, and security cooperation in Saudi Arabia on Friday on a trip designed to reset the US relationship with a country he once pledged to make a “pariah” on the world stage. Biden will hold meetings with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman along with other …

The resignation of Sri Lanka’s president has been accepted, the crisis-hit country’s parliamentary speaker announced on Friday, after he fled the country earlier this week and notified him from Singapore that he was stepping down. The formal declaration makes Gotabaya Rajapaksa — once known as ‘The Terminator’ for his ruthless crushing of Tamil rebels — the first Sri Lankan head of state …

BEIJING: A US destroyer sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on Wednesday, drawing an angry reaction from Beijing, which said its military had “driven away” the ship after it illegally entered territorial waters. The United States regularly carries out what it calls Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea challenging what it says …

RIYADH: Malik al-Dowaish was arrested this month following years of campaigning for the release of his father, who was himself detained in 2016 after he gave a sermon seen as critical of the Saudi Arabian royal family, two sources familiar with the matter said. “I really don’t know the secret behind my father’s arrest,” Dowaish said, in a video that …

MALE: Escaping Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa faced protests in the Maldives on Wednesday with dozens of compatriots urging the government not to provide him safe haven. Sri Lankan expatriates carrying flags and placards denounced Rajapaksa, who fled his country early on Wednesday after protesters overran his Colombo residence at the weekend over the worsening economic crisis in the South …

BORDEAUX: France and Britain suffered soaring temperatures on Wednesday, edging closer to the blistering heat already engulfing Spain and Portugal as wildfires destroyed vast stretches of Western European forestland. Large parts of the Iberian Peninsula have seen temperatures surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) this week. In southwestern France a wildfire raging since Tuesday had ripped through 1,000 hectares …

WASHINGTON: US inflation surged to a fresh peak of 9.1 per cent in June, further squeezing American families and heaping pressure on President Joe Biden, whose approval ratings have taken a battering from the relentless rise in prices. Government data released on Wednesday showed a sharp, faster-than-expected increase in the consumer price index compared to May driven by significant increases …

TEL AVIV: US President Joe Biden arrived on Wednesday in Israel, which embraced him as an old friend on the first leg of a high-stakes trip dominated by efforts to bring it closer to Saudi Arabia and to persuade Washington’s Gulf allies to pump more oil. Landing at Ben Gurion Airport, whose tarmac he first trod in 1973 as a …

ISTANBUL: Russia and Ukraine met UN and Turkish officials on Wednesday in a bid to break a months-long impasse over grain exports that has seen food prices soar and millions face hunger. The high-stakes meeting in Istanbul came with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showing no signs of abating and the sides locked in a furious long-range shooting battle that is …

WASHINGTON/SAN FRAN­CISCO: Donald Trump on Tuesday ratcheted up attacks on Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk, after Musk said Trump was too old to become the next US president and Trump needed to “sail into the sunset.” The former US president said Musk would have “begged” him for government subsidies, in a message on his own social media app, Truth Social. …