Biden says US is ‘going to take care of’ Chinese balloon

Biden says US is ‘going to take care of’ Chinese balloon
A balloon flies in the sky over Billings, Montana, US on February 1, 2023 in this picture obtained from social media. (Reuters)
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Updated 04 February 2023

Biden says US is ‘going to take care of’ Chinese balloon

Biden says US is ‘going to take care of’ Chinese balloon
  • Biden made his remark in response to a question about whether the United States would shoot down the high-altitude surveillance balloon

SYRACUSE, United States: President Joe Biden said on Saturday that the United States is “going to take care of” a suspected Chinese spy balloon that has been tracked flying across the United States.
Biden made his remark in response to a question about whether the United States would shoot down the high-altitude surveillance balloon, which has been flying across the country in what Washington calls a “clear violation” of US sovereignty.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a visit to China that had been expected to start on Friday because of the balloon.
The president did not elaborate on what was planned. Military leaders considered shooting down the high-altitude surveillance balloon this week but eventually recommended against this because of the risk of falling debris, officials said.
China expressed regret that an “airship” used for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes had strayed into US airspace.
The Pentagon said on Friday that another Chinese balloon was observed over Latin America, without saying where exactly.


Pakistan’s parliament summoned in midst of crisis over former PM Imran Khan

Pakistan’s parliament summoned in midst of crisis over former PM Imran Khan
Updated 8 min 21 sec ago

Pakistan’s parliament summoned in midst of crisis over former PM Imran Khan

Pakistan’s parliament summoned in midst of crisis over former PM Imran Khan
  • Former cricket star Khan was prime minister from 2018 until 2022
  • His supporters have clashed with police several times over recent days

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s parliament is to meet in a special joint session on Wednesday to “take important decisions” to enforce the state’s authority, media reported, in the midst of prolonged anti-government defiance by former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Former cricket star Khan was prime minister from 2018 until 2022, when he was ousted from office in a parliamentary vote. Since then, he has been demanding a new election and holding protests across the country to press his case.
His supporters have clashed with police several times over recent days as authorities try to force him to appear in court in connection with various cases brought against him.
The office of the speaker of parliament, in calling Wednesday’s joint session, did not give a reason but the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said the ruling coalition had called for parliament to “take important decisions” to ensure the writ of the state was enforced.
The APP, reporting on a meeting attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet, cited the participants as saying Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was not a political party but “rather a gang of militants,” and its “enmity against the state” could not be tolerated.
Sharif has rejected Khan’s demand for a new election saying it would be held as scheduled later this year.
Parliament will meet in the capital, Islamabad, as Khan’s supporters gather for his latest rally in the eastern city of Lahore.
The clashes between Khan’s supporters and the security forces have brought a new round of political instability to the nuclear-armed country of 220 million people, which is in the midst of a crippling economic crisis.
Khan says the government and the powerful military are trying to stop him from contesting the next election, scheduled for November. If convicted in a case, Khan could face disqualification from the polls.
Both the government and military deny this.
Police have arrested hundreds of Khan’s supporters in raids in recent days in response to the clashes.
Khan appeared on Tuesday before the Lahore High Court to apply for protective bail in fresh cases against him, PTI leader Mussarat Jamshed Cheema told Reuters.
The former prime minister is also appearing before a bench hearing a case he has filed against the police for raiding his home, which he says was in violation of court orders granting him protective bail last week.

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Saudi Venture Capital launches $80m Saudi fintech fund 

Saudi Venture Capital launches $80m Saudi fintech fund 
Updated 25 min 50 sec ago

Saudi Venture Capital launches $80m Saudi fintech fund 

Saudi Venture Capital launches $80m Saudi fintech fund 

CAIRO: Saudi Arabia’s booming fintech sector is set to be boosted by an $80 million investment fund launched by Saudi Venture Capital Co..

The ‘Investment in Fintech VC Fund’ was launched in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority and the Financial Sector Development Program to preserve the Kingdom’s fintech industry growth that attracted almost 25 percent of all Saudi venture capital funding last year. 

SVC aims to stimulate and sustain financing for startups and small and medium enterprises from early stage to initial public offering by backing venture capital and private equity firms all around the region. 

The firm has been keen to empower the startup landscape in the Kingdom, and also signed a memorandum of understanding last month with the Saudi stock market Tadawul to support SMEs going public. 

The company will strategically place the new fund to support Saudi Arabia’s fintech ecosystem which raised $239 million in funding in 2022, according to venture data firm MAGNiTT. 

Saudi Arabia’s venture capital market has been one of the most attractive markets globally, capturing $987 million in funding last year, a 72 percent increase from the year before. 

The Kingdom’s 2022 funding boom came as investment across the world decreased by 35 percent year-on-year, while the US venture market experienced a 37 percent drop, according to Crunchbase. 

The UAE and Egypt, which are the region’s leading venture markets, also witnessed a decline in funding activity last year. 

Founded in 2018, SVC is a government investment company under the SME Bank and has invested in 35 funds which financed 525 companies through 904 deals. 


London police force racist, misogynist and homophobic: report

London police force racist, misogynist and homophobic: report
Updated 30 min 47 sec ago

London police force racist, misogynist and homophobic: report

London police force racist, misogynist and homophobic: report
  • Crimes perpetrated in a pervasive culture of ‘deep-seated homophobia’ and predatory behavior
  • Female officers and staff ‘routinely face sexism and misogyny’

LONDON: The London police forces, Britain’s largest, is institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic and could still be employing rapists and murderers, a scathing independent review said Tuesday.
The report, written by government official Louise Casey, was commissioned after the kidnap, rape and murder two years ago of a London woman, Sarah Everard, by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens.
But since then, another officer, David Carrick, was also jailed for life for dozens of rapes and sexual assaults stretching back two decades, and several other Met scandals have emerged.
Casey found the shocking crimes had been perpetrated in a pervasive culture of “deep-seated homophobia” and predatory behavior, in which female officers and staff “routinely face sexism and misogyny.”
Officers from minorities suffer widespread bullying, while violence against women and girls in the majority white and male force has not been treated seriously enough, she concluded.
Asked if there could be more officers like Couzens and Carrick — who at one point served in the same armed unit protecting MPs and foreign diplomats — Casey said: “I cannot sufficiently assure you that that is not the case.”
“It is the police’s job to keep us safe as the public,” she said. “Far too many Londoners have now lost faith in policing to do that.”
Casey’s findings come nearly 25 years after the Macpherson Report, which probed Met failures after the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993, also found the force institutionally racist and recommended dozens of reforms.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that what was happening inside the Met was “simply shocking and unacceptable” and that “there needs to be a change in culture and leadership.”
But he backed its chief Mark Rowley, who was appointed after Cressida Dick was forced out last April, to “restore confidence and trust” through a draft overhaul unveiled in January.
Rowley called Casey’s report “a very upsetting read.”
“We have a real problem here. We have misogyny, homophobia and racism in the organization and we’re going to root it out,” he told Sky News.
The report, which identified “systemic and fundamental problems” within the Met including “inadequate management,” made 16 recommendations that would constitute a “complete overhaul.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has responsibility for the force and initiated the review, said he expected all of them to be fully implemented quickly.
“It’s in all of our interests to make sure that the police service changes, root and branch,” he told the BBC.
Failure to reform could mean the force, which polices more than eight million people over 1,605 square kilometers in the British capital, would be broken up, Casey warned.
“The bottom line is this if an organization can’t fix itself then there has to be change,” she told BBC radio.
But she noted: “The tougher thing is to ask the organization to change its culture and to do a better job.”
The Met had failed to protect its female staff and the public from “police perpetrators of domestic abuse, nor those who abuse their position for sexual purposes,” her report stated.
“Time and time again, those complaining are not believed or supported. They are treated badly, or face counter-claims from those they have accused,” it said.
The 363-page review also said an “absence of vigilance” meant that “predatory and unacceptable behavior has been allowed to flourish.”
Racism also exists within the force, with discrimination “often ignored” and complaints “likely to be turned against Black, Asian and ethnic minority officers.”
The Met’s investigations of crimes was also criticized, with the review saying that the force relied on “over-stuffed, dilapidated or broken fridges and freezers” to store forensic evidence.
A lunchbox was found in the same fridge as forensic samples in rape cases, and some appliances were so full they were strapped shut.
One fridge broke down, meaning the evidence inside could no longer be used, the report found.


Sharon Stone shows off gown by Saudi designer Yousef Akbar at Beverly Hills gala event 

Sharon Stone shows off gown by Saudi designer Yousef Akbar at Beverly Hills gala event 
Updated 21 March 2023

Sharon Stone shows off gown by Saudi designer Yousef Akbar at Beverly Hills gala event 

Sharon Stone shows off gown by Saudi designer Yousef Akbar at Beverly Hills gala event 

DUBAI: Saudi designer Yousef Akbar has added another Hollywood star to his client list —Sharon Stone.  

The Oscar-winning US actress wore an embellished green dress designed by Akbar to the 2023 Women’s Cancer Research Fund Gala this week.  

Her dress, which was clinched at the waist, featured half-satin and half-sparkling fabric with built-in gloves. Stone accessorized her look with a metallic gold clutch.  

The star received the 2023 Courage Award for her support of breast cancer research and dedication to raising awareness for the cause.  

Upon taking the stage, Stone said: “So often things that start with women get overlooked completely, and I am so grateful to stand for something that doesn’t.” 

The event, which took place in the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills, raised over $2 million to benefit the Women’s Cancer Research Fund, a program of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation that is dedicated to ending disease by advancing research across the globe.


Israel repeals law that banned four West Bank settlements

Israel repeals law that banned four West Bank settlements
Updated 21 March 2023

Israel repeals law that banned four West Bank settlements

Israel repeals law that banned four West Bank settlements
  • The original law, passed in 2005, mandated the evacuation of four Jewish settlements in the northern West Bank along with Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip

JERUSALEM: Israeli parliament on Tuesday repealed legislation that ordered the evacuation of four settlements in the occupied West Bank, one of the first major moves by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition.
The original law, passed in 2005, mandated the evacuation of four Jewish settlements in the northern West Bank along with Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip. The repeal would allow Jewish residents to return to these settlements on condition of approval by the Israeli military.
Since the 1967 war, Israel has established around 140 settlements on land Palestinians see as the core of a future state. Besides the authorized settlements, groups of settlers have built scores of outposts without government permission.
Most world powers deem settlements built in the territory Israel seized in the 1967 war as illegal under international law and their expansion as an obstacle to peace, since they eat away at land the Palestinians claim for a future state.
Yuli Edelstein, head of the Israeli parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, hailed the move as “the first and significant step toward real repair and the establishment of Israel in the territories of the homeland that belongs to it.”