Sri Lankan tea exporters seek greater presence in Kingdom with Foodex Saudi showcase

Sri Lankan tea exporters seek greater presence in Kingdom with Foodex Saudi showcase
Saudi guests taste Ceylon tea at a reception hosted by the Sri Lankan Embassy on the sidelines of Foodex Saudi in Riyadh on Sept. 19, 2023. (Sri Lankan Embassy)
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Updated 21 September 2023
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Sri Lankan tea exporters seek greater presence in Kingdom with Foodex Saudi showcase

Sri Lankan tea exporters seek greater presence in Kingdom with Foodex Saudi showcase
  • Tea is one of Sri Lanka’s biggest exports, major source of foreign exchang
  • MENA region accounted for more than half of country’s tea exports last year

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan companies participating in the recent 10th edition of Foodex Saudi showcased the country’s famous Ceylon tea to boost its presence in the Kingdom, Colombo’s envoy in Riyadh, Pakeer Mohideen Amza, told Arab News on Thursday. 

Tea is one of Sri Lanka’s biggest exports and a major source of foreign currency for the country that has been mired in a financial crisis for over a year. Last year, revenue from tea exports stood at around $1.26 billion.

As the crisis-hit nation looks to attract additional foreign exchange, the tea industry has been on a global promotional campaign targeting its main export destinations, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as the Middle East and North Africa region comprised over half of Sri Lanka’s tea exports in 2022.

Foodex Saudi, the Kingdom’s leading international exhibition for food and beverages, which was held in Riyadh from Sept. 17 to 20, saw eight Sri Lankan companies display their products.

“The objective of the participation of the Sri Lankan companies is to tell the world that Sri Lanka is the best place for the best tea,” Amza, the ambassador in Riyadh, told Arab News.

“It had been a great event for Sri Lankan companies, they were able to find opportunities in order to enhance their presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

The Sri Lankan mission in Riyadh also held a promotional event on the sidelines of Foodex Saudi, facilitating meetings between the tea companies and potential buyers from the Kingdom and other countries.

During the event, pots of the beverage from Sri Lanka’s seven tea regions were brewed and offered to the guests to try, as exporters sought to show the unique qualities of Ceylon tea — which refers to the island’s colonial-era name.

“With the assistance of the mission, they have met importers of tea from various countries,” Amza said.

“We were able to demonstrate to the tea importers of these differences and I’m sure the opportunity of the companies that are participating. (It gave a) greater avenue for the Sri Lankan presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”


Musk regrets controversial post but won’t bow to advertiser ‘blackmail’

Musk regrets controversial post but won’t bow to advertiser ‘blackmail’
Updated 8 sec ago
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Musk regrets controversial post but won’t bow to advertiser ‘blackmail’

Musk regrets controversial post but won’t bow to advertiser ‘blackmail’
  • The remark before corporate executives at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence

NEW YORK: Elon Musk apologized Wednesday for endorsing a social media post widely seen as anti-Semitic, but accused advertisers who are turning away from his social media platform X of “blackmail” and said anyone who does so can “go f*** yourself.”
The remark before corporate executives at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence.
Earlier, Musk had apologized for what he called “literally the worst and dumbest post that I’ve ever done.”
In a comment on X, formerly Twitter, Musk on November 15 called a post “the actual truth” that said Jewish communities advocated a “dialectical hatred against whites,” which was criticized as echoing longtime conspiracy theory among White supremacists.
The statement prompted a flood of departures from X of major advertisers, including Apple, Disney, Comcast and IBM who criticized Musk for anti-semitism.
“I’m sorry for that tweet or post,” Musk said Wednesday. “It was foolish of me.”
He told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin that his post had been misinterpreted and that he had sought to clarify the remark in subsequent posts to the thread.
But Musk also said he wouldn’t be beholden to pressure from advertisers.
“If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money?” Musk said. “Go f*** yourself.”
But the billionaire acknowledged that there were business implications to the advertiser actions.
“If the company fails... it will fail because of an advertiser boycott” Musk said. “And that will be what will bankrupt the company.”
Musk, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel earlier this week, insisted in the interview that he holds no discrimination against Jews, calling himself “philo-Semitic,” or an admirer of Judaism.
During the interview, Musk wore a necklace given to him by a parent of an Israeli hostage taken in the Hamas attack on October 7. The necklace reads, “Bring Them Home.”
Musk told Sorkin that the Israel trip had been planned earlier and was not an “apology tour” related to the controversial tweet.


US asks Israel to narrow zone of combat in any southern Gaza attack

US asks Israel to narrow zone of combat in any southern Gaza attack
Updated 34 min 55 sec ago
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US asks Israel to narrow zone of combat in any southern Gaza attack

US asks Israel to narrow zone of combat in any southern Gaza attack
  • Washington understands Israel’s desire to root out Hamas militants in southern Gaza but believes greater caution is needed in the heavily populated area

WASHINGTON: The United States is urging Israel to narrow the zone of combat and clarify where Palestinian civilians can seek safety during any Israeli operation in southern Gaza, US officials said on Wednesday, to prevent a repeat of the massive death toll from Israel’s northern Gaza attacks.
US officials from President Joe Biden on down, including in the State Department and Pentagon, are pleading with Israel to take a more cautious approach if and when the Israeli military extends its offensive to southern Gaza.
Two-thirds of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million have fled south to avoid the war zone in the north.
Israel’s operation in the north drew strong international criticism and Biden has taken fire at home for his sweeping support for Israel.
Washington understands Israel’s desire to root out Hamas militants in southern Gaza but believes greater caution is needed in the heavily populated area, said two US officials who provided some details of the advice being given.
Many of the lead architects of the Hamas attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which 1,200 people were killed, are in the south, one official noted.
“But given that hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled to the south, at Israel’s request, we believe Israel should only move forward after operational planning has accounted for the presence of many more innocents,” the official said.
Planning should include drawing lessons from the operations conducted in the north to enhance protections for innocent civilians, “including things like narrowing the zone of combat and clarifying areas where civilians can seek refuge,” the official said.
The second official said that when Israel was planning its offensive in northern Gaza, US officials advised the Israelis to use a smaller force than planned, and be careful in terms of tactics, movements, unit size and rules of engagement.
“They are still in the planning phase for the south. We are urging them to factor this into their planning,” the official said.
Both officials said the US would like the Israelis to make sure they know where civilians are situated, focus on high-value precision targets and make sure they are going after specific locations rather than indiscriminate strikes.


Stop using WhatsApp, get Paris-made alternative, French PM tells ministers

Stop using WhatsApp, get Paris-made alternative, French PM tells ministers
Updated 30 November 2023
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Stop using WhatsApp, get Paris-made alternative, French PM tells ministers

Stop using WhatsApp, get Paris-made alternative, French PM tells ministers
  • Messaging apps like Meta’s WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal have increasingly become the go-to tool of communication in the inner circles of French politics

PARIS: France’s prime minister asked her cabinet to stop using widespread instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram and install widely unknown Olvid, a product of Paris’s start-up scene presenting itself as a more secure alternative.
In a ministerial circular, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne urged ministers and their top staff to deploy the Olvid app on phones and computers, her office told Reuters on Wednesday, confirming French media reports.
Olvid, run by two cryptography researchers and backed by several French tech accelerators, will “replace other instant messaging systems in order to strengthen the security of exchanges that may contain confidential information,” the Prime Minister’s office said.
French magazine Le Point earlier reported the circular announcing the move gives ministers a Dec. 8 deadline to replace their messaging apps, citing the prime minister as saying:
“The main consumer instant messaging applications are playing an increasingly important role in our day-to-day communications. However, these digital tools are not without security flaws, and so cannot guarantee the security of conversations and information shared via them.”
Messaging apps like Meta’s WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal have increasingly become the go-to tool of communication in the inner circles of French politics, and government officials also use the apps when talking to journalists. President Emmanuel Macron is said to be an avid user of messaging apps himself.
On its website, Olvid claims to be “the first and only messaging system” that is not relying on any trusted third parties and centralized servers, while also encrypting user metadata.


UN chief urges world not to look away and ignore ‘epic humanitarian catastrophe’ in Gaza

UN chief urges world not to look away and ignore ‘epic humanitarian catastrophe’ in Gaza
Updated 30 November 2023
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UN chief urges world not to look away and ignore ‘epic humanitarian catastrophe’ in Gaza

UN chief urges world not to look away and ignore ‘epic humanitarian catastrophe’ in Gaza
  • Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan says current temporary truce in the conflict is not enough and again calls for a permanent ceasefire
  • He tells Security Council meeting in New York the time is ripe for recognition of Palestinian state and calls for it to be granted full UN membership

NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that a “far greater” number of children have been killed by Israel in Gaza in a matter of weeks during the current conflict than the total number of children killed “during any year, by any party to a conflict since I became secretary-general.”

The people of Gaza are in the midst of “an epic humanitarian catastrophe before the eyes of the world. We must not look away,” he added.

As he welcomed the ongoing, last-minute negotiations taking place in an attempt to extend the truce in the war, Guterres once again stressed the need for “a true humanitarian ceasefire.”

Speaking during a meeting of the Security Council, he said it is imperative that the people of the region are given “a horizon of hope” in the form of efforts to move in a “determined and irreversible” way toward a two-state solution.

“Failure will condemn Palestinians, Israelis, the region and the world to a never-ending cycle of death and destruction,” he added.

The high-level Security Council meeting, which took place on the annual UN-organized International Day for Solidarity with the Palestinian People, was chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi. China holds the rotating presidency of the 15-member council this month.

“We should work toward a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire with the greatest urgency and as the utmost priority,” Wang said.

“What happened between Palestine and Israel over the decades shows, time and again, that resorting to military means is definitely not a way out.”

He added that China hopes the pause in military operations over the past few days will not prove simply to be a brief hiatus before a new round of violence, warning that “resumed fighting would only, most likely, turn into a calamity that devours the whole region.”

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, lamented the lack of any international mechanism for ensuring accountability for actions during the war, and the Security Council’s inability to take any steps to prevent Israeli violations of the rules of war and international law.

He told council members that the Nov. 11 summit in Riyadh adopted a resolution that reflected the will of Arab and Islamic peoples to “stem the bloodshed, deliver assistance, put an end to violations, overcome this unjustified suffering in Palestine, and stand with the Palestinian people to achieve their legitimate demands to take back their occupied territory and establish an independent state.”

Prince Faisal called for the ongoing implementation of Security Council Resolution 2712 and for efforts to build on it to achieve “a comprehensive and immediate ceasefire.” The resolution, adopted by the council on Nov. 15, calls “for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip … to enable … full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access.”

Israel’s representative to the UN, Gilad Erdan, accused the foreign ministers “of some Arab countries” of coming to New York to support a “terror organization that aims to annihilate Israel.”

He equated calls for a ceasefire with support for Hamas and its “continued reign of terror” in Gaza. “Don’t you see the contradiction here?” Erdan asked council members. “Calling for both a ceasefire and peace is a paradox.” He added that “more food, water and medical supplies will not bring us closer to a solution.”

Prince Faisal asked the council: “What will help us reach a solution, according to Israel? More bloodshed? More death?”

Urging Israel to heed Arab calls for peace, he added: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia presented an Arab peace plan in 1982. We also had the Arab Peace Initiative in Beirut in 2002. And the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) recognized the State of Israel in 1993.

“Where is the Israeli peace plan? Where is the Israeli recognition of the State of Palestine? We are peace-loving nations and peace has always been our strategic choice, but we also want it to be the choice of Israel as well.”

Prince Faisal said the time has come for the world to recognize an independent Palestinian state, and called for Palestine to be granted full membership of the UN. Currently it has observer state status.

He also called for an international peace conference to take place, under the auspices of the UN, with the aim of developing and implementing a two-state solution.

He told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York: “The danger is that if … this truce expires we will return to the killing at the scale that we have seen, which is unbearable. So we are here to make a clear statement that a truce is not enough. What is needed is a ceasefire.”

The prince added that a glimmer of hope can be found in the fact that public opinion worldwide is beginning to shift as people become increasingly aware of “the unfolding catastrophe” in Gaza, and that violence is not the answer.

Asked whether Arab nations should help ease the current pressure on Palestinians and their suffering by taking them in as refugees, he said they “do not want to leave their land. We won’t encourage them or force them to leave their land and we are not going to work with anyone who has that agenda.

“The Palestinians have a right to their land, and they have a right to live in safety and security and dignity on their land, and that is what we will push for and work toward.”

Riyad Maliki, the Palestinian foreign minister, told the Security Council that anyone who is still not sure about whether they oppose the war in Gaza or the need for it to end should “check their humanity.”

The current truce must become “a permanent ceasefire,” he said, because “the massacres cannot be allowed to resume.”

He added: “Our people are faced with an existential threat. Make no mistake about it. With all the talk about the destruction of Israel, it is Palestine that is facing a plan to destroy it, implemented in broad daylight.”

The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said her country has urged Israel “to take every possible measure to prevent civilian casualties as it exercises its right to safeguard its people from acts of terror.” The use of civilians as human shields by Hamas “does not lessen Israel’s responsibility,” she added.


Man charged with shooting 3 Palestinian college students accused of harassing ex-girlfriend in 2019

Man charged with shooting 3 Palestinian college students accused of harassing ex-girlfriend in 2019
Updated 30 November 2023
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Man charged with shooting 3 Palestinian college students accused of harassing ex-girlfriend in 2019

Man charged with shooting 3 Palestinian college students accused of harassing ex-girlfriend in 2019
  • Eaton’s name appeared in 37 Syracuse police reports from 2007 until 2021, but never as a suspect, said police spokesperson Lt. Matthew Malinowski
  • Authorities are investigating Saturday’s shooting to determine whether it constitutes a hate crime

VERMONT, USA: The man charged with shooting three college students of Palestinian descent in Vermont last weekend was accused several years ago of harassing an ex-girlfriend in New York state, but no charges were ever filed, according to a police report.
Jason J. Eaton’s ex called police in Dewitt, New York, a town near Syracuse, in 2019 saying she had received numerous text messages, emails and phone calls that were sexual in nature but not threatening from Eaton, and wanted him to stop contacting her, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press. NBC News first reported on the complaint.
The woman said Eaton had driven his pickup truck by her home that evening and a second time while she was talking to the police officer. She said she didn’t want to press charges against him but just wanted police to tell him to stop contacting her, the report states.
Police pulled over Eaton’s vehicle and he told them that he was under the impression that the woman still wanted to see him, according to the report. The officer told Eaton that the woman wanted absolutely no contact with him and he said he understood, according to police.
Eaton, 48, is currently being held without bail after his arrest Sunday in the city of Burlington on three counts of attempted murder. Authorities say he shot and seriously wounded the three college students in Burlington on Saturday evening as they were walking near the University of Vermont. The students had been spending Thanksgiving break with one of the victims’ relatives who lived nearby. Eaton had moved to Vermont this summer from the Syracuse, New York, area, according to Burlington police. He pleaded not guilty on Monday.
Eaton’s name appeared in 37 Syracuse police reports from 2007 until 2021, but never as a suspect, said police spokesperson Lt. Matthew Malinowski. The cases ranged from domestic violence to larceny, and Eaton was listed as either a victim or the person filing the complaint in 21 of the reports, Malinowski said.
Authorities are investigating Saturday’s shooting to determine whether it constitutes a hate crime. The students were conversing in a mix of English and Arabic and two of them were also wearing black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves when they were shot, police said. One of the students has been released from the hospital, according to news reports, while one faces a long recovery because of a spinal injury.
Eaton had recently lost his job. He worked for less than a year for California-based CUSO Financial and his employment ended on Nov. 8, said company spokesperson Jeff Eller.
He legally purchased the gun used in the shooting, police said. On Sunday, Eaton came to the door of his apartment holding his hands up, and told the officers he’d been waiting for them. Federal agents found the gun in his apartment later that day.
Awartani and the two other shooting victims had been friends since first grade at Ramallah Friends School, a private school in the West Bank. Rania Ma’ayeh, who leads the school, called them “remarkable, distinguished students.”
Awartani is studying mathematics and archaeology at Brown University; Abdalhamid is a pre-med student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania; and Ali Ahmad is studying mathematics and IT at Trinity College in Connecticut. Awartani and Abdalhamid are US citizens while Ali Ahmad is studying on a student visa, Ma’ayeh said.