Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, received on Monday the CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne, where they discussed cooperation between Iraq and the French company after concluding a $27 billion energy deal, according to a statement issued by the Prime Ministers office.

Al-Sudani stressed that the Iraqi government progressed immensely with commitments to reach this stage, pointing out that the contract concluded with TotalEnergies is a representation of the strategic vision to benefit from the associated gas, which Iraq delayed taking advantage of.

The Iraqi Prime Minister renewed the governments intention to conclude serious partnerships with large companies in terms of taking advantage of Iraqs natural resources, especially the associated gas.

Pouyanne noted that TotalEnergies is expanding its cooperation with Iraq. He also talked about the companys confidence in the partnership in the energy sector in Iraq and investing in this promising sector.

The CEO of TotalEnergies also emphasized that the companys teams will begin their work in Iraq within days.

Earlier on Monday, Pouyanne and the Iraqi Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul-Ghani, signed the long-awaited $27 billion energy deal expected to increase oil production and Iraqs capacity to produce energy through four oil, gas and renewable energy projects.

The first of these projects involves the use of seawater to support oil extraction operations.

The second project is the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP), which aims to improve Iraqs electricity supply by recovering flared gas at three oilfields and using the gas to supply power plants, helping to reduce the countrys import bill, according to Reuters.

The third project is to develop the Artawi oilfield, which produces one of the best fuels in the region, to increase its production capacity to more than 210,000 barrels per day.

The fourth project is to develop a 1-gigawatt solar power plant to supply southern Iraq with electricity.

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Kyiv US President Joe Biden dropped in for tea and climate change talks with King Charles III on Monday, after a garden meeting with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before a NATO leaders summit on Ukraine.

Biden, 80, flew in his Marine One helicopter from Downing Street in central London to Windsor Castle, touching down for a ceremonial welcome from a band of red-jacketed Welsh Guards.

The Star Spangled Banner and God Save the King rang out across the manicured lawns of the stately royal residence west of London, before the pair disappeared inside.

It was Bidens first meeting with Charles since he was officially crowned king in May. The US president did not attend the coronation but was represented by his wife, First Lady Jill Biden.

The couple had been at the state funeral of Charless mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September last year, while Biden visited the late queen at Windsor after the G7 summit in 2021.

Charles, 74, is a lifelong environmentalist and Biden considers him a clarion voice on climate change, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Sunday.

Top financiers and philanthropists are also meeting in Windsor to discuss climate finance to boost support for developing nations to cut carbon emissions.

Attending the meeting are UK energy security and net zero minister Grant Shapps and Bidens special climate envoy John Kerry.

The UK government said more than $1 trillion is needed by 2030 to help developing economies get on track to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Additional investment, including from the private sector, is required to cut non-CO2 emissions, halt deforestation as well as to adapt and build resilience to climate change.

Biden, who arrived in the UK on Air Force One late Sunday, is heading to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, for the two-day NATO meeting.

Ukraine talks  

Bidens flying visit to the UK came with Ukraine topping the agenda at the upcoming alliance meeting, as Kyiv pushes to join once its war with Russia is over.

Western allies agree that Ukraine cannot join while war is still raging, as it would pull NATO into direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.

But the United States is seen as most hesitant about its membership. Biden has described Kyivs bid as premature. 

I dont think its ready for membership in NATO, he told broadcaster CNN.

Nevertheless, a Western official told AFP the allies were set to drop the Membership Action Plane requirement for Ukraines application.

Biden and Sunak held talks for just under 40 minutes, seated in wicker chairs and sipping from specially branded Downing Street mugs.

Downing Street said the pair agreed on the need to strengthen our alliance and...

Vilnius Western leaders gather in Lithuanias capital on Monday to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine amid rare glimmers of disunity over Washingtons controversial decision to supply cluster bombs to Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky voiced hope that Tuesdays NATO summit in Vilnius would provide a clear signal that Kyiv could join the alliance once its war with Russia is over.

Keen to expose any hint of friction among the allies, the Kremlin fired an eve-of-summit warning that Ukraines membership of the military alliance would have very, very negative consequences for the entire security architecture in Europe.

On the battlefront, Ukraines counteroffensive ground on, its forces recapturing 14 square kilometres in the past week amid heavy fighting near the Russian-controlled city of Bakhmut, the military said. 

And Russian shelling Sunday of a humanitarian aid hub in the frontline Zaporizhzhia region killed four people, the local governor announced Monday.

Cluster concerns

Ahead of the summit, US President Joe Biden met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a stopover in London on Monday, with British concern over the cluster munitions deal a key subject for discussion.

Britain is one of more than 120 countries that have signed an agreement banning the production, storage, sale and use of cluster bombs, which rights groups say pose a danger to civilian populations long after they are deployed.

Biden said the decision to send the weapons was very difficult but Ukrainian forces were running out of ammunition.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday played down any rift between the two leaders and in NATO, saying the Biden and Sunak were on the same page strategically on Ukraine.

China on Monday denounced the move as irresponsible and said it could lead to humanitarian problems. 

We should fairly manage humanitarian concerns and legitimate military and security needs, and maintain a prudent and restrained attitude towards the transfer of cluster munitions, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

In a summit expected to present unity on Ukraines future membership, a key goal is to pressure Turkey to drop its opposition to Swedens all-but-cleared membership bid.

Swedens prime minister will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday afternoon in a last-gasp effort to bridge the diplomatic impasse.

Erdogan has voiced repeated frustrations with what he calls Swedens failure to keep its promises to deal with suspected Kurdish militants allegedly roaming the streets of Stockholm.

He told Biden on a call Sunday that though Sweden had taken some steps in the right direc...

Nairobi Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged a halt to a major East African oil project led by French giant TotalEnergies, warning of dire consequences for the environment and local communities.

TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation signed a $10-billion agreement last year to develop Ugandan oilfields and ship the crude through a 1,445-kilometre (900-mile) pipeline to Tanzanias Indian Ocean port of Tanga.

The East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) has run into strong opposition from rights activists and environmental groups, and faced legal action in France and criticism in the European Parliament.

TotalEnergies says those displaced by the project have been fairly compensated and measures have been taken to protect the environment.

But HRW says the mega-project will irreparably harm fragile ecosystems, and alleges that some of the 100,000 people expected to be displaced by its development have been poorly treated.

Researchers conducted over 90 interviews in March and April this year, including with 75 displaced families, many of whom said they had received delayed or inadequate compensation.

Others told HRW they were pressured into selling their land.

EACOP has been a disaster for the tens of thousands who have lost the land that provided food for their families and an income to send their children to school, and who received too little compensation from TotalEnergies, said Felix Horne, senior environment researcher at HRW.

EACOP is also a disaster for the planet and the project should not be completed.

Rights violations

Farmers told HRW they went into debt waiting years for compensation, with campaigners documenting 37 cases where children were allegedly forced to drop out of school because their families could not pay fees.

Some signed compensation agreements in English, a language they couldnt read, while others told researchers the presence of government and security officials at public meetings contributed to an aura of intimidation, HRW said.

One 79-year-old man said: In my heart I said no, but because I thought government would be hard on me, I gave in and signed.

Those who refused to sign said they faced pressure from company representatives as well as harassment from local government and security officials.

TotalEnergies told AFP that more than 94 percent of the people who had signed the agreements had already received their compensation.

These agreements are supplemented by measures to promote employment, education and respect for womens rights, TotalEnergies said.

The company said it was committed to putting environmental and biodiversity issues as well as the rights of the communities concerned at the centre of the project.

Ugandan P...

London British telecoms group BT on Monday announced the departure of chief executive Philip Jansen, two months after the group axed up to 55,000 jobs to slash costs.

Philip Jansen has informed the board that at an appropriate moment over the next 12 months he intends to step down from his role, the group said in a statement.

Sky News said the British national was studying job opportunities in the United States.

Jansen has held the top job for more than four years, during which time he oversaw a big push into high-speed broadband internet services.

BT in May said it would axe up to 55,000 jobs, or 42 percent of its workforce, in response to rampant inflation.

Philip has done an excellent job in his time at BT and the board is fully supportive of our long-term strategy which he and his team are pursuing, BT chairman Adam Crozier said in the statement.

Whilst we are still in the early years of that transformation, we are on track to deliver.

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) TotalEnergies signed on Monday the long-awaited $27 billion energy deal expected to increase oil production and Iraqs capacity to produce energy through oil, gas and renewable energy projects, according to Reuters.

The deal was signed in 2021 to build four oil, gas, and renewable energy projects with an initial investment of $10 billion in southern Iraq over 25 years, but several setbacks amid disputes between Iraqi politicians over the terms hindered the deal.

The Iraqi Oil Minister explained that the deal with TotalEnergies includes four major projects.

The first of these projects is the use of seawater to support oil extraction operations, Abdul-Ghani stated.

The deal was finally closed in April when Iraq agreed to take a smaller than initially demanded stake of 30 percent in the project, Reuters reported.

TotalEnergies took a 45 percent stake, and QatarEnergy holds the remaining 25 percent, Reuters revealed.

TotalEnergies CEO, Patrick Pouyanne, signed the agreement with Iraqi Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdel-Ghani, at a ceremony held in Baghdad, where Pouyanne described the event as a historic day.

The second project is the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP), which aims to improve Iraqs electricity supply by recovering flared gas at three oilfields and using the gas to supply power plants, helping to reduce the countrys import bill, according to Reuters.

The third project is to develop the Artawi oilfield to increase its production capacity to more than 210,000 barrels per day.

Abdul-Ghani indicated that the Artawi oilfield already produces one of the best fuels in the region.

The fourth project is to develop a 1-gigawatt solar power plant to supply southern Iraq with electricity.

Saudi company, ACWA Power, has been invited by TotalEnergies to participate in the solar power plant project.

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Paris Frances government must further rein in sometimes inappropriate hiring of consultancies, the countrys Court of Auditors said Monday, responding to public outcry over an issue that hobbled President Emmanuel Macrons reelection campaign last year.

In a first-ever report compiled after requests from ordinary citizens, the court said calling in consultants had become the easy option for civil servants facing tight budgets and time constraints.

Their involvement had touched on the heart of the administrations tasks as well as intervening in decision-making processes, the auditors wrote.

Between 2017 the year Macron was first elected and 2021, state spending on consultancies tripled to almost 234 million euros ($257 million), the report found.

That number rose to 890 million euros when IT consulting work was included.

A Senate report with similar findings published in March 2022 buttressed suspicions that the president and his ministers were too close to heavyweight outfits like US-based McKinsey, whose name became a common heckle against Macron ahead of the April vote.

The question was one of six taken up at the time by the Court of Auditors based on a public consultation.

But the court highlighted that spending on consultancies amounted to just 0.04 percent of state outlays last year.

Externalising a part of the civil services tasks raises no objection in principle, the auditors said

Nevertheless, consultancies place should be more appropriate and better controlled among the administrations different tools to carry out its missions.

The court called on the government to put the finishing touches to a January 2022 circular that aimed at limiting use of consultancies, which had been issued under the pressure of events.

That decision has already brought down spending on consultants, with the state aiming to lower the figure by 35 percent this year compared with 2021. 

The auditors also said the state should bring some capabilities back into the civil service and call on its own employees whenever possible.

French senators have already passed a bill with stronger controls on hiring outside firms, although MPs have yet to debate it.

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Johannesburg A rare snowfall dusted Johannesburg and other high-lying parts of South Africa on Monday, with weather services warning of potential road closures and dangerously cold temperatures.

Residents in the business hub woke up to snowfalls lightly covering rooftops and gardens as a cold front that hit the country late last week morphed into a weather system called a cutoff low.

At a Johannesburg kindergarten, excited children made snowballs and attempted to catch flakes with their tongues some having never witnessed snow before.  

We last saw this type of weather in 2012, Puseletso Mofokeng, a senior forecaster at the South African Weather Service (SAWS), told AFP.

Mofokeng said snow was reported across southern parts of Johannesburgs Gauteng province and was expected to continue falling throughout the day, also hitting high-lying areas of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. 

Roads may be closed, he said. 

Johannesburg lies at an altitude of more than 1,700 metres (5,600 feet) and is in the peak of the southern hemisphere winter. 

But snow in the city remains a rare event prior to 2012, heavy snowfall occurred in 1996, Mofokeng said. 

Its been such a long time, I feel so happy, said Lerato Matepese, a Johannesburg resident.

SAWS warned that icy temperatures posed a risk to street dwellers in a country where poverty remains widespread.

Rough seas and strong winds were also expected to create hazardous conditions for small vessels off South Africas eastern coast. 

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Kurume One person was killed and hundreds of thousands were urged to evacuate their homes in southwestern Japan on Monday, as forecasters warned of the heaviest rain ever in the region.

Torrential downpours after a week of steady rain have caused rivers to burst their banks and sodden earth to collapse in deadly landslides, including one that killed a 77-year-old woman.

The womans home was engulfed overnight in Saga region, the local fire department told AFP. Her husband was recovered conscious and taken to hospital. 

A second woman was feared dead after last being seen clinging to a car in rising floodwaters in neighbouring Oita region, officials there said.

At least nine other people were missing in landslides in Fukuoka and Oita regions, where over 420,000 people were under a top-level evacuation warning stating: Your life is in danger, you need to take action immediately.

Nearly two million more in Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Saga, Yamaguchi and Oita were under a lower-level warning, urging them to evacuate if they are in hazardous areas.

Japan has five levels of evacuation order, but people cannot be compelled to leave their homes.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the heavy downpours risked flooding and landslides across Fukuoka and Oita.

This is the heaviest rain ever experienced by the region, Satoshi Sugimoto of JMAs forecast division told reporters.

The situation is such that lives are in danger and safety must be secured, he added.

Peoples lives first

Footage on national broadcaster NHK showed a gash in the hillside above a home in Karatsu City that had partly collapsed into a river, with many of its traditional roof tiles smashed or sliding off.

Images from elsewhere showed surging rivers washing over bridges that normally sit well above the waterline, and floodwater turning local streets into streams.

The prime ministers office said a task force had been established to coordinate a response to the rains.

We have received reports that several rivers have flooded and that landslides have occurred in various parts of the country, top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.

The government is doing its best to get a complete picture of the damage and taking measures under a policy of peoples lives first,' he added.

He warned torrential rain was forecast across much of the country on Tuesday.

If you feel your life is in danger, even just a little, dont hesitate to act, he said.

In Fukuokas Asakura City, officials said the rain was believed to have peaked but there were still fears about flooding.

Water levels in rivers are rising so were vigilant against the possibility of overflowing,...

Paris The Threads app launched by Instagram as a rival to Twitter has signed up more than 100 million users in less than five days, data tracking websites said on Monday, smashing the record of AI tool ChatGPT for fastest-growing consumer app.

While ChatGPT took two months to hit the 100 million user mark and video-sharing app TikTok took nine months, Instagram itself took two and a half years to reach that mark after its 2010 launch.

Threads went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries late on Wednesday, though it is not available in Europe because parent company Meta is unsure how to navigate the European Unions data privacy legislation.

Twitter is thought to have around 200 million regular users but it has suffered repeated technical failures since Elon Musk bought the platform last year and sacked thousands of staff.

Musk, who also serves as the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, has also alienated many users by introducing charges for previously free services and allowing banned right-wing accounts back on the platform.

Several rivals have emerged but most are niche platforms without the capacity to grow at the necessary scale to dethrone Twitter.

Threads is finding it easier because it is linked to Instagram, which has more than one billion regular users.

Online data service Quiver Quantitative reported that the app passed 100 million users at 0700 GMT on Monday.

Other websites using a count of the badges received by Instagram users who have downloaded Threads reckoned the mark had passed earlier.

Musk has threatened to sue Meta for stealing trade secrets and intellectual property, claims denied by the company, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp.

Musk is locked in a rivalry with Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, with the two men calling each other out for a cage fight recently.

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) In a breakthrough in the issue of the displaced in Iraq, the Ministry of Migration and Displacement announced the return of 189 displaced Yazidis to their areas of residence in the town of Sinjar in Nineveh governorate, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

Many Yazidis left their areas after the terrorist group of ISIS started occupying large areas in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

According to a statement by the Iraqi Minister of Migration and Displacement, Evan Jabro, 189 displaced Yazidis have returned from the displacement camps in Duhok governorate to their areas of origin in Sinjar in northern Iraq.

Jabro emphasized that the ministry is continuing to register displaced families who wish to return.

ISIS terrorists unpredictably invaded Sinjar in 2014 and displaced many of its residents, the majority of whom are Yazidis, after killing and capturing thousands.

The Iraqi minister indicated last March that the ministry is committed to the governments program to end the displacement issue within six months.

Jabro also clarified that there are more than 40,000 displaced families inside and outside refugee camps.

The post 189 displaced Yazidis return to Sinjar appeared first on Iraqi News.

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Minister of Health, Salih Al-Hasnawi, signed on Saturday a memorandum of understanding for health cooperation with the Iranian Health Minister, Bahram Einollahi, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

The memorandum of understanding tackles different issues related to the development of local pharmaceutical industries and the exchange of health experiences.

Earlier, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, met on Thursday with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, where they discussed strategic coordination on regional and international issues.

The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentioned in a statement issued on Friday that Hussein met with Abdullahian on the sidelines of their participation in the ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement, which was held in Azerbaijan from July 56.

The Iraqi ministry stressed that the two parties discussed ways to improve bilateral cooperation and strategic coordination between both countries in relation to regional and international issues.

The Iranian Foreign Minister emphasized that relations between Iraq and Iran are strong, expressing appreciation for Iraqs role in normalizing relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The Iranian Minister of Economy, Ehsan Khandouzi, revealed last Wednesday that Iraq has pledged to facilitate Irans access to its frozen assets in Iraq.

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Irbid Jordans key tourism industry may have been hammered by Covid, but the pandemic gave a boost to another sector, keeping its beekeepers busy as demand for honey has soared.

The countrys 4,000 apiarists have ramped up output of the sweet and sticky golden substance long praised for its anti-inflammatory and other health benefits.

Even if there is no scientific consensus that honey helps fight Covid, many of those infected have used it to soothe symptoms such as sore throats. 

The Covid period in particular had a great, positive impact on us, said beekeeper Mutasim Hammad, 48, who retired 12 years ago from the public security directorate and turned his hobby into his main job.

There was good demand for honey, and people got to know it, added Hammad, dressed in a white protective suit while checking on his 80 bee hive boxes on a property in Irbid 90 kilometres (60 miles) north of Amman.

People have become more aware of the value of honey and are turning to the guaranteed locally produced honey, said Hammad, who sells about 400 kilograms (880 pounds) a year.

The kingdom of Jordan prides itself on its 19 different types of honey, including citrus, eucalyptus and maple varieties, depending on which plants the bees pollinate.

We have about 2,500 flowering plants, said Mohammad Rababaa, head of the Jordan Beekeeping Association.

This diversity distinguishes Jordanian honey and means that the therapeutic and nutritional value of this honey is expected to be better than other types.

Rababaa said the slightly bitter maple honey variety, for example, boasts very high phenolic compounds and antioxidants compared to other types, which indicates that it has a higher value.

Ecosystem service

Rababaa also said that, since the Covid pandemic, demand for locally produced honey has clearly increased.

He said the sector has a much bigger workforce than Jordans official count of about 1,400 beekeepers. 

The reality is that the number of beekeepers is more than 4,000, said the professor of Natural Resources and Environment at the Jordan University of Science and Technology.

They produce about 700 to 800 tonnes annually, or about 70 percent of Jordans annual domestic needs, he said.

We are very close to self-sufficiency, said Rababaa, adding that imports must be stopped. 

A fellow enthusiast, Mohammad Khatib, 49, also pointed to the pandemic and lockdown periods, saying it helped me and gave me enough time to learn about bees and take good care of them. 

A French language professor at Al-Bayt University, he now works about 15 bee boxes in his garden, which he said earns him a nice side income.

People are lookin...

Beijing US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that her talks with top Chinese officials have put ties on surer footing, as she wrapped up a trip aimed at stabilising fraught relations between the worlds two biggest economies.

During her four-day trip which came on the heels of US Secretary of State Antony Blinkens visit Yellen stressed the need for greater exchanges and collaboration, even as deep divides persist between the countries.

We believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive, she told journalists at the US embassy in Beijing on Sunday.

Both nations have an obligation to responsibly manage this relationship: to find a way to live together and share in global prosperity, she added.

Her trip furthers a push by President Joe Bidens administration to steady ties with China while still asserting US policies.

While the trip did not produce specific breakthroughs, Chinas official Xinhua news agency said late Saturday that Yellens meeting with Vice Premier He Lifeng yielded an agreement to strengthen communication and cooperation on addressing global challenges.

Both sides also agreed to continue exchanges, the readout added.

And Yellen said Sunday that while there are significant disagreements between the two countries, she and Chinese officials had held talks that were direct, substantive, and productive.

My bilateral meetings - which totaled about 10 hours over two days - served as a step forward in our effort to put the US-China relationship on surer footing, she said.

Sources of tension

Topping the laundry list of disagreements are Washingtons trade curbs, which it says are intended to reduce the second-largest economys access to advanced technology deemed crucial to national security.

On Sunday, Yellen said she had stressed that Washingtons measures are not used by us to gain economic advantage.

These actions are motivated by straightforward national security considerations, she said.

She also said she had raised her serious concerns over what she called unfair trade practices by Beijing.

She cited barriers to foreign firms entering the Chinese market as well as issues around the protection of intellectual property.

I also expressed my worries about a recent uptick in coercive actions against American firms, she said, referring to a recent national security crackdown against US consulting firms in China.

Messaging a key goal

Looking ahead, any concrete key breakthroughs and major deliverables presumably will be reserved for the two top leaders to announce, said Yun Sun, director of the China p...

Burbank Aw, gee! The technology driving artificial intelligence sure is swell, but it could never capture the essence of Mickey Mouse, according to the man who voices Disneys mascot.

As part of Disneys upcoming 100th anniversary celebration, AFP spoke with animators, archivists and Mickey voice actor Bret Iwan about the companys past and future, including the potential for AI a topic currently roiling Hollywood.

Gosh, I would say, of course theres amazing technology being developed with AI, and its so impressive, said Iwan.

But I dont think anything can replace the heart of a character and more importantly, the heart of storytelling.

Artificial intelligence, and the threat it poses to professions across the entertainment industry, has been a constant source of hand-wringing in Hollywood this summer.

AFPs visit to Disneys sprawling studio near Los Angeles came during the ongoing strike by writers, in part over fears that AI could replace them.

The issue is also among demands being negotiated by Hollywood actors who are worried about AI cloning their voices and likenesses, and who could strike as soon as Thursday.

But for Iwan, character and storytelling are unique to a performer, a writer, an animator, an artist, a creator.

I have to believe that that part is whats going to hold out, and keep real people doing the job for a while!

Iwan is one of just four people to have ever been Mickeys official voice. 

Mickeys falsetto was first voiced by company founder Walt Disney himself, with 1928s Steamboat Willie. Two other men each voiced the character for more than three decades.

I hope I get to do it as long as this holds out, said Iwan, pointing to his vocal cords.

Replicating realism

In animation perhaps the art form most associated with Disney the role of sophisticated computers is well-established.

Computer-generated animation has long overtaken traditional hand-drawn artistry as the genres dominant form.

While humans are still designing and creating those films, the use of AI to generate the credits for the Disney+ show Secret Invasion recently triggered anger.

Eric Goldberg the Disney animator who designed the Genie in Aladdin, and a stalwart champion of hand-drawn animation believes AI is unlikely to impact his work.

I think AI has less of a chance of affecting hand-drawn animation than it does computer animation, because AI is about replicating realism, he said.

The characters that I do, the Genies head can turn into a toaster! Which you cant do with an AI character!

So hand-drawn gives u...

Las Vegas The NBA launched its first-ever in-season tournament on Saturday, revealing the groups for the 30-team event culminating with the NBA Cup Final on December 9 in Las Vegas.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the idea had been discussed for 15 years by league officials before settling upon a format styled after European football league Cup events.

What a perfect opportunity for a global league like the NBA, Silver said. Its a perfect fit for our game.

Silver did sound a cautionary note in hopes NBA fans would be patient at the start of the new competition.

It takes a little bit of time to establish a new tradition, Silver said. All throughout sports were seeing new innovations and now is the time for this in-season tournament. So here we go.

Six groups of five teams each, three from the Eastern Conference and three from the Western Conference, were randomly drawn based on last seasons records.

Each team will play two home and two road games in group play, facing each group rival once.

Those games will be played on Tuesdays and Fridays in November starting November 3, regular-season contests counting as tournament play, except for US Election Day on November 7.

Three group winners and the next-best team overall from each conference will advance to the eight-team knockout quarter-finals round and games on December 4-5.

Those winners will advance to the semi-finals in Vegas on December 7 with the championship match two nights later.

Each player on the NBA In-Season Tournament championship squad will receive $500,000.

Im excited, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. I think its going to add an element of excitement for the players and the coaches and the fans. I think its a great idea.

The 67 games across both stages of the In-Season Tournament will count toward the regular-season standings except the final. All clubs will continue to play 82 regular-season games in the 2023-24 season.

In the Western Conference, Group A will consist of the Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis, Phoenix, Utah and Portland.

Group B will feature reigning NBA champion Denver, New Orleans, the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas and Houston while Group C includes Golden State, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Minnesota, Sacramento.

I think were going to be really surprising, said San Antonio Spurs teen star and 2023 top draft pick Victor Wembanyama of France.

In the Eastern Conference, Group A includes Philadelphia, Cleveland, Atlanta, Indiana and Detroit with Group B consisting of Milwaukee, New York, Miami, Washington and Charlotte.

Group C will feature Orlando, Chicago, Boston, Brooklyn and Toronto.

The post...

London Carlos Alcaraz was forced to dig deep on Saturday to see off the challenge of Nicolas Jarry and reach the last 16 at Wimbledon.

The Spanish top seed, seen as the man most likely to end Novak Djokovics long reign at the All England Club, was off-colour but still won 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 7-5.

A single break in the first set was enough for Alcaraz to edge ahead but he faltered in the second, slipping 4-1 behind.

The US Open champion clawed his way back, forcing a tie-break, but that went the way of his Chilean opponent, seeded 25th.

Alcaraz regrouped and took the third set 6-3 but the errors crept in again and he found himself in trouble at 3-0 down in the fourth.

The 20-year-old survived two break points in the following game and broke back when Jarry went long with a forehand.

He conjured a searing backhand return to break again in the 11th game and served out for the win.

Im really happy with the level that I played to get through this really tough match, said Alcaraz.

He added: It was really, really close. He has great shots I would say the key is to believe all the time and stay focused.

Alcaraz was playing his second match in two days after heavy rain earlier in the week caused a scheduling headache for tournament chiefs.

He is attempting to become the third-youngest player in the Open Era to win the Wimbledon title after Boris Becker and Bjorn Borg.

The post Alcaraz toughs it out to reach Wimbledon last 16 appeared first on Iraqi News.

Jenin A European envoy blasted Israel Saturday over the proportionality of the force it uses, as international envoys toured Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank following this weeks deadly raid.

His remarks echoed UN chief Antonio Guterres who on Thursday told reporters there was an excessive force used by Israeli forces in its 48-hour operation, the largest Israel has staged in the Palestinian territory for years.

It included air strikes and armoured bulldozers ripping up streets.

Jenin is a centre for multiple armed Palestinian groups, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the refugee camp a terrorist nest.

European Union representative to the Palestinian territories Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff made his comments as he led a delegation of UN officials and diplomats from 25 countries to the camp in the northern West Bank.

We are concerned about the deployment of weaponry and weapons systems which question the proportionality of the military during the operation, Kuehn von Burgsdorff said of the operation in which 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed.

This cycle of violence has to end, it cannot continue. If there is no political solution to the conflict, we are going to stand here in a weeks time, in a months time, in a years time, with nothing changed, he added.

As the delegation toured the camp, residents peered out of holes left in the walls by Israeli rockets, and local authorities tested a new camp-wide alarm system to warn of future raids.

UN plea for funds

Jenin camp has been the site of several large-scale raids by the Israeli military this year, but this weeks was the biggest such operation in the West Bank since the second Palestinian intifada or uprising of the early 2000s.

The camps infrastructure was severely damaged during the raid, which Israel said was targeting militants. 

Eight kilometres (five miles) of water pipes and three kilometres of sewage pipes were destroyed, the UN said. More than 100 houses were damaged and a number of schools were also lightly damaged.

The refugee camp in one of the poorest and most densely populated in the West Bank, with some 18,000 people living in just 0.43 square kilometres (0.16 of a square mile).

UN officials on Saturday made a plea for funds to help rebuild the camp.

To restore services and scale up support to the children, we need cash our appeal is desperately underfunded, Leni Stenseth, deputy commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said.

I would urge you to consider announcing your support for the work we are going to do here in Jenin camp in the coming weeks and months as soon as possible, she added.

On Thursday Algeria...

Johannesburg South Africa, which has experienced crippling electricity outages in recent months, will survive this winter season thanks to a huge improvement in generation, a cabinet minister said on Saturday.

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who had last month forecast an incredibly difficult southern hemisphere winter, on Saturday said power generation had been ramped up to achieve an average output of 60 percent, from 48 percent weeks ago.

The state utility Eskom imposes daily scheduled blackouts, called load-shedding, to safeguard the grid whenever demand outstrips supply. 

These have in recent weeks drastically dropped from 12 to around two hours a day.

We are succeeding in maintaining those levels of efficiency, said the minister. 

He credited the change to Eskom mobilising some of the best generation experts and deploying them at the worst-performing power stations whose output is now surpassing our expectations.

We are more than confident that we should be able to survive the winter, he told journalists at a national executive committee meeting of the governing African National Congress, taking place at a hotel east of Johannesburg.

We will not experience the worst-case scenario that we had projected and we will continue to see the improvement, said the minister. 

Peak winter demand, projected at 34,000 megawatts, has been down at 30,000 megawatts, he said.

Power cuts have forced many South Africans, who had become hardened to the rolling outages, to find alternative sources such as installing solar units at household level. 

Im very confident load-shedding will be behind us very soon and we begin to work on creating an additional buffer reserve margin to allow the economy to grow at the desired level, said Ramokgopa.

In May, the central bank forecast GDP will grow by just 0.3 percent this year and that the power cuts alone would cost the continents most industrialised economy at least two percentage points of growth.

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Kolkata At least seven people were killed and dozens more injured in India Saturday after clashes over local polls in West Bengal, a state notorious for political violence during election campaigns.

Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has in recent years worked hard to gain a toehold in West Bengal ruled by a communist party for much of its history to expand its reach beyond its Hindi-speaking northern heartlands.

Voters are currently casting their ballots in a fierce contest to elect municipal leaders, with more than 200,000 candidates across the state of 104 million people.

Seven people have been killed and dozens wounded in poll-related violence in different villages across the state, Jawed Shamim, a senior officer in West Bengals police force, told AFP.

Another police official, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, said five of the dead were from the states ruling Trinamool Congress party.

The other two were affiliated with the BJP and West Bengals Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Footage aired by local broadcasters showed rival party workers roaming streets with batons, as well as ballot boxes snatched and set alight outside polling stations.

Other voting booths saw a heavy security presence with paramilitary troops standing guard to keep order.

More than 200 crude bombs a staple of West Bengal elections that are sold cheaply on the black market to maim or intimidate voters had also been seized during the polls, police said.

State election commissioner Rajiv Sinha told local broadcaster Republic that his agency had received more than 1,300 complaints of vote-rigging, interference at polling booths and sporadic incidents of violence.

We cannot claim that polling was peaceful, he added.

Decades of violence

West Bengal has been ruled by Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee since 2011, when her party defeated the Communist-led administration that had ruled the state for the prior three decades.

Banerjee, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has accused his Hindu-nationalist BJP of attempting to import divisive sectarian politics into the state, which has a large Muslim minority.

Modi has in turn accused her administration of endemic corruption.

But the roots of political violence in the state stretch back decades, with police recording thousands of murders around election time since the 1960s.

During state polls in 2021 won emphatically by Trinamool but with a strong BJP showing several activists from both parties were shot or hacked to death, their bodies sometimes hung from trees as an intimidation tactic.

The post Seven killed i...

The Hague Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will personally tender his resignation to the king on Saturday after his coalition government collapsed in a row over migration, triggering elections later this year.

King Willem-Alexander was out of the country on holiday when the government fell and flew back to the Netherlands to meet Rutte, who is the countrys longest-serving premier and has been in power since 2010.

I will catch up with him tomorrow and explain exactly what happened, a sombre Rutte, the leader of the centre-right VVD party, told a press conference on Friday night after the coalition toppled.

Their meeting is due at around 1100 GMT on Saturday at the royal Huis Ten Bosch palace in a forest near The Hague. Rutte is leading a caretaker government until the elections expected in mid-November.

Europe has faced rising tensions over how to deal with migration and it was the issue that finally tore apart the Netherlands shaky coalition government, Ruttes fourth.

The four coalition parties fell out over Ruttes plans to tighten curbs on reuniting families of asylum seekers, a bid to curb numbers following a scandal last year over overcrowded migration centres.

ChristenUnie   a Christian Democratic party that draws its main support from the staunchly Protestant Bible Belt in the central Netherlands  and centre-left D66 had strongly opposed Ruttes plan.

Dutch newspapers picked over the carcass of the unstable coalition that only took office in January 2022, after a record 271 days of negotiations. 

The Volkskrant daily said that the cabinet stumbled from the starting blocks and never managed to recover.

Beautiful country

The elections now promise to be some of the most divisive in a generation, with a toxic brew of issues including migration, angry farmers and the cost of living.

The newest challenge to Ruttes bid for a fifth term comes from an upstart farmers party that opposes EU-backed environmental rules, while the Dutch far-right remains a threat as ever.

We can make the Netherlands a beautiful country again with fewer asylum seekers and crime, more money and houses for our own people, decent care, plenty of room for our farmers and fishermen, anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders tweeted.

The Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) will be seeking to repeat the success of senate elections that it won earlier this year.

Its leader Caroline van der Plas has refused to serve in a coalition with Rutte, and she didnt rule out standing to be prime minister.

Despite leading them to electoral success for nearly 13 years, Ruttes bid for an unprecedented fifth term also faces challenges from within the VVD.

If the farmers party does well enough in the elections to demand a place in a...

Nikopol On the 500th day since Russias invasion and as the war grinds on, Ukrainian forces are advancing slowly without enough arms and ammunition and with its main cities under constant threat.

Since the beginning of June, Ukraines army has been on the offensive to reconquer territory captured by Russian forces in the east and the south.

While suffering losses, Russian forces are putting up a ferocious resistance.

Russian forces have built solid fortifications, they have a lot of equipment, said Antonina Morakhovska, a 73-year-old retired teacher in the city of Nikopol in southern Ukraine.

I see how our forces advance. Its not easy for them in this heat. I think about them all the time, poor things.

It will be tough but we will still win. I dont think it will be soon but we will win, she told AFP.

Despite receiving billions of euros in Western military aid, the Ukrainian army has only managed to take back around a dozen villages and a few hundred square kilometres of territory since the start of the offensive.

There is no comparison to last year when Ukraines forces re-captured 9,000 square kilometres in the Kharkiv region in September and 5,000 square kilometres in the Kherson region in November.

Offensive not fast

In the run-up to a NATO summit next week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pressed Western powers for long-range weapons and F-16 fighter jets.

The offensive is not fast, that is a fact. But nevertheless we are moving forward, he said during a visit to Prague this week.

Ukraines military commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny has also expressed frustration at the slow deliveries of promised weaponry from the West.

It pisses me off that some in the West complain about the slow start and progress of the long-awaited push against Russian forces, Zaluzhny told The Washington Post last month.

At a street market in Nikopol, Lyudmila Shudinova, 82, said her thoughts were focused on her 49-year-old son, a volunteer fighter recovering from a wound.

She said she had come to buy him potatoes.

I am very scared that, after he heals, he will again be sent to the front, she said, with tears in her eyes.

Ukrainians remain united in the effort to repel Russian forces but their resilience is constantly being tested.

The UN has documented the deaths of 9,000 civilians, including more than 500 children, in the conflict so far.

The real toll could be much higher.

Despite a significant strengthening of Ukraines air defence capability this year, the threat of drone and missile attacks across the country is constant.

In June, a missile hit a restaurant in Kramatorsk in the east killing 13 people, and on Thursday 10 people were killed in a stri...

London Former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini takes on big-serving Alexander Zverev at Wimbledon on Saturday as British wildcard Katie Boulter faces defending womens champion Elena Rybakina.

Frances Tiafoe flies the flag for America in the mens draw against Grigor Dimitrov, who is hoping to roll back the years.

AFP Sport picks out three standout matches on the sixth day of the 2023 tournament in London (x denotes seeded player):

Alexander Zverev (GER x19) v Matteo Berrettini (ITA)

Alexander Zverev and Matteo Berrettini have flown under the radar at the All England Club this year but both men have the weapons to go deep in the draw.

Berrettini was the runner-up to Novak Djokovic in 2021 but had to pull out last year after testing positive for coronavirus.

That still hurts the 27-year-old Italian.

Not being able to play was something that, even when I was better physically, was really tough mentally to overcome, he said.

He is up against a tough opponent in Zverev, who has been ranked as high as number two in the world but missed a huge chunk of last season after tearing ankle ligaments.

Katie Boulter (GBR) v Elena Rybakina (KAZ x3)

Defending champion Elena Rybakina was not at her best against French veteran Alize Cornet in the second round and will now be battling the home crowd when she takes on Katie Boulter.

The Kazakh player hit a total of 40 unforced errors in her straight-sets win on Thursday, although she balanced that out with 36 winners.

Britains Boulter, 26, reached the third round at Wimbledon last year.

I think its a super great opportunity for me, she said. Ive got nothing to lose. Shes clearly the defending champion for a reason. 

Im going to have a swing and go for it. Ive got a lot of tennis behind me. Its time for me to test my skills against an incredible champion.

Frances Tiafoe (USA x10) v Grigor Dimitrov (BUL x21)

Charismatic American Frances Tiafoe is counting on the crowd to give him a lift when he takes on Grigor Dimitrov.

The 10th seed is the highest-ranked American man left in the tournament after ninth-seed Taylor Fritz was knocked out.

Since Pete Sampras hung up his racquet, Wimbledon has not been a happy hunting ground for US male players. 

But 25-year-old Tiafoe is banking on winning the fans over against the experienced Bulgarian, who reached the semi-finals way back in 2014.

As soon as I start getting amped up and get on a run, the crowd is really behind me, he said.

I feel like its pretty one-sided honestly, once Im out there playing, especially playing well. 

As soon as I smile, the crowd erupts. Its crazy, but its cool. I mean, I guess its a blessing, and hopefully they like...

Tehran Iran hanged two men in public on Saturday over an October attack on a shrine in the southern city of Shiraz that claimed over a dozen lives, the judiciary said.

The October 26 attack on the revered Shiite Muslim shrine of Shah Cheragh, which left 13 people dead and 30 wounded, was claimed by the Sunni Muslim extremist Islamic State (IS) group.

The death sentences of two of the perpetrators of the Shah Cheragh terrorist attack were carried out in public this morning, the judiciarys Mizan Online website said.

The pair were hanged at dawn on a street near the shrine in Shiraz, the capital of Fars province, the official news agency IRNA reported. Mizan identified them as Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeem Hashem Qatali.

Iran had previously said the attack involved people from other countries, including neighbouring Afghanistan, but the nationalities of the executed men were not immediately revealed.

The area of Iran that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan is a hotbed of unrest, and on Saturday four armed assailants killed an Iranian policeman in the Sunni-majority city of Zahedan near the same frontier, state media said.

It was not immediately clear what was behind the attack in the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, a flashpoint for clashes with Sunni extremists as well as drug smugglers and rebels from the Baluchi minority.

Mizan said one of the men executed on Saturday, Rashidi, had confessed to having collaborated with IS to carry out Octobers shrine attack.

The two were sentenced to death in March after being convicted of corruption on earth, armed rebellion and acting against national security.

They were also charged with membership of IS and conspiracy against the security of the country.

Takfiri arrests

At the time, Fars chief justice Kazem Moussavi said they were directly involved in the arming, procurement, logistics and guidance of the main perpetrator.

Three other defendants in the case were sentenced to prison for five, 15 and 25 years for being members of IS, he said.

The main assailant, who was later identified by media in Iran as Hamed Badakhshan in his 30s, died of injuries sustained during his arrest, the authorities said.

In November, the Islamic republic said 26 takfiri terrorists from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan had been arrested in connection with the attack.

In Shiite-dominated Iran, the term takfiri generally refers to jihadists or proponents of radical Sunni Islam.

The shrine attack came more than a month after protests spread across Iran over the death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, following her arrest in Tehran for allegedly violating the countrys dress code for women.

In October, Irans President Ebrahim Raisi blamed the...

Tokyo Japan on Saturday marked a year since the shock assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, the countrys longest-serving leader and a towering political figure.

Abe was gunned down in broad daylight while giving a campaign speech in western Japan, targeted by a man allegedly angry over the former leaders links to the Unification Church.

The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, was apprehended on the spot and is said to have resented the sect over large donations that his mother made that bankrupted his family.

Gun violence is extremely rare in Japan which has strict gun laws. Yamagami is believed to have used a homemade weapon.

On Saturday, visitors from all walks of life formed a long queue outside Tokyos Zojoji Buddhist temple, offering flowers before framed pictures of a smiling Abe.

I think he was the icon of Japanese people. He was the icon of the conservatives, said mourner Tomoko Shimoda, 57. 

She said the way he communicated with other people, what he said publicly, and the way he behaved made a lasting impression on her. 

Hiroyuki Kumagi, 69, said he was a real worshipper of Mr. Abe. 

I participated in the prayer at the last years national funeral, and of course I am here today, he told AFP.

In the western Nara region, people brought flowers and prayed outside Yamato-Saidaiji Station the site of Abes shooting.

Abes death prompted a flood of condolences from international leaders, many of whom met the former prime minister as he worked to raise Japans diplomatic profile.

But at home, the assassination caused waves of political upheaval.

First, the renewed attention on the Unification Church whose members are sometimes called Moonies prompted revelations of deep ties between Japans conservative lawmakers and the sect.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who saw his approval ratings tumble as the revelations emerged, was forced to first investigate the ties and then announce his party would sever any relations with the church.

Abes murder also prompted soul-searching over Japans security arrangements, with pledges to improve the protection of politicians.

Less than a year later, an attacker was able to approach Kishida at a campaign event and throw a homemade explosive. The prime minister was unharmed in the April event, and his attacker was detained at the scene.

A real patriot

An outspoken scion of a political dynasty, Abe invigorated socially conservative movements through his push to amend the post-war pacifist constitution.

He attempted to move Japans regional relations past the bitter memories of World War II, stressing the nations history of pacifism since the war.

While he was perhaps Japan...

Beijing It is critical for Washington and Beijing to keep working together on climate finance, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Saturday, urging deeper cooperation in addressing the existential threat of global warming.

Her comments, on a four-day trip to Beijing that follows Secretary of State Antony Blinkens visit, come as the United States seeks to cool tensions and stress areas of collaboration between the worlds two biggest economies.

As the worlds two largest emitters of greenhouse gases and the largest investors in renewable energy, we have both a joint responsibility - and ability - to lead the way, Yellen told a roundtable of experts in China, underlining a key area of cooperation despite tense bilateral relations.

Climate change is at the top of the list of global challenges, and the United States and China must work together to address this existential threat, she added.

Saying that climate finance should be targeted efficiently and effectively, she pressed China to support existing multilateral institutions like the Green Climate Fund, while urging for the inclusion of the private sector in transitioning towards net zero.

Both our economies seek to support partners in emerging markets and developing countries as they strive to meet their climate goals, and I believe continued US-China cooperation on climate finance is critical.

China last year briefly said it was suspending talks on the climate after Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the House of Representatives, visited Taiwan the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing.

But there are signs that talks might restart again soon, with US envoy John Kerry due to travel to China soon to discuss cooperation on climate change, a US official said Friday.

Besides working together on climate, Yellen said in a Friday meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang it was also key that Washington and Beijing closely communicate on global economic and financial affairs while making joint efforts on international challenges such as debt distress.

Big ticket items

On Saturday, in addition to meeting people involved in climate finance, she is also expected to speak with women economists and see Vice Premier He Lifeng, a key Chinese economic official.

And a key question is whether big ticket items that are in the category of global challenges, like debt distress and climate cooperation, get bumped to the top of the agenda, said Lindsay Gorman, senior fellow for emerging technologies at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Yellens talks on Saturday follow meetings with US businesses, who have expressed a host of concerns ranging from level playing fields with the Chinese, reduced people-to-people exchanges, and an uncertain business...

Las Vegas NBA top draft pick Victor Wembanyama played his long-awaited first game with the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, the 19-year-old Frenchman starting in an NBA Summer League contest against Charlotte.

A sellout crowd of 17,500 spectators jammed the Thomas & Mack Arena to watch the 7-foot-4 (2.24m) prodigy, considered the NBAs greatest prospect since LeBron James arrived two decades ago, against other young prospects.

Wembanyama won the opening tip-off and had an assist on the first Spurs possession, but missed his first three shots a baseline jumper, an outside jumper and a layup attempt.

Wembanyama made his first basket in a Spurs uniform with 7:02 remaining in the first quarter, banking in an inside turnaround jumper in the lane while being fouled. He sank the free throw to complete a three-point play.

His opponents, the Hornets, were the club that made forward Brandon Miller the second overall pick.

Already a star in the French league, Wembanyama was considered a runaway choice for the top pick when the Spurs won the NBA Draft Lottery in May and global attention has followed him even before San Antonio made him the first selection last month.

The Summer League, featuring young talent seeking NBA roster spots, offered Wembanyama his first game in a Spurs uniform, but more contests will be coming, including pre-season games and San Antonios 2023-24 regular-season games starting in October.

There were cautionary notes for Wembanyama before he even took the court.

The third pick in the NBA Draft, Portland guard Scoot Henderson, suffered a right shoulder injury in the third quarter against Houston and didnt return to the game played just before the Spurs met the Hornets.

The fourth pick, Houston guard Amen Thompson, limped off in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, having grabbed his left ankle after falling to the court under the basket.

The Spurs will face Portland on Sunday.

Wembanyamas Spurs debut was played hours after Las Vegas police said no charges will be filed from an incident where guards protecting Wembanyama were involved in an incident with Britney Spears.

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