Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Minister of Defense, Thabet Muhammad Al-Abbasi, received on Tuesday the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sebastien Lecornu, in Baghdad, where they discussed bilateral cooperation.

The French minister revealed that the French army will carry out a new round of training with the Iraqi army.

We reviewed the French-Iraqi relationship. We also discussed the presence of French forces within the international coalition and the important role they play in combating terrorism and remnants of the ISIS group, Al-Abbasi said during a press conference following his meeting with Lecornu.

Lecornu welcomed the decisive action of the French forces in Iraq, alongside the Iraqi forces and other partners, including the American partner.

We currently have a road map represented by an upcoming unique training called the Desert Battalion, Lecornu said.

The French official explained that the training, in which 80 French trainers will take turns training five battalions, or 2,100 Iraqi soldiers, will last for two years.

The two ministers also discussed armament, especially with regard to securing Iraqi airspace.

Lecornu talked about the discussions Baghdad is holding with Thales Group regarding the GM400 radar, clarifying that discussions will continue regarding other equipment and radars.

In January, during a visit to Paris, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, met with representatives of Thales Group, Dassault Group and Airbus to discuss the possible supply of radars, Rafale aircraft and military helicopters to Baghdad.

In May, the Iraqi and French air forces conducted joint exercises in Iraq, in which Rafale aircraft participated.

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The spokesperson for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, stated on Thursday that the United States strongly condemns the attack on the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in the early hours of July 20, according to a statement issued by the US embassy in Iraq.

Freedom of peaceful assembly is an essential hallmark of democracy, but what occurred last night was an unlawful act of violence, Miller said.

It is unacceptable that Iraqi security forces did not act to prevent protestors from breaching the Swedish embassy compound for a second time and damaging it, the US official illustrated.

We are in contact with our Swedish partners and have offered our support. Foreign missions should not be targets of violence, the spokesperson for the US State Department clarified.

Miller also called on the government of Iraq to honor its international obligations to protect all diplomatic missions in Iraq against any intrusion or damage, as required by international law, according to the statement.

Iraqi protesters set fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad early Thursday ahead of a planned burning of a Quran in Sweden, AFP reported.

Swedish authorities approved an assembly to be held later Thursday outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, where organizers plan to burn a copy of the Quran as well as an Iraqi flag, AFP added.

On Wednesday, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, during a phone call with his Swedish counterpart, stressed the need to prevent the recurrence of acts offensive to Islam and the Holy Quran, according to INA.

On June 28, Salwan Momika, a refugee of Iraqi origin in Sweden, burned a copy of the Quran outside Stockholms central mosque.

Momika, 37, tore up and burned several pages of a copy of the Holy Book outside Stockholms central mosque after the Swedish police granted him permission to do so, according to a judicial decision.

The incident sparked a wave of anger in the Arab and Islamic regions.

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi government suspended on Thursday the license granted to the Swedish telecom company Ericsson to operate in the country, according to a statement cited by the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

The director of the Iraqi Communications and Media Commission (CMC), Ali Al-Moayad, issued a decision to suspend Ericssons license to operate in Iraq, according to a statement issued by the CMC.

The statement illustrated that the decision was made in response to Swedens permission to burn a copy of the Holy Quran and the Iraqi flag.

The move also follows the Iraqi governments decision to expel the Swedish ambassador from Iraq and withdraw the Iraqi charge daffaires from the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm.

Media outlets mentioned that the Swedish telecom company agreed last March to pay a $206 million fine for breaching its prosecution deal with US authorities by withholding information about its alleged misconduct in Iraq and other countries.

Reports mentioned that Ericsson admitted to accusations of bribery and other wrongdoing in multiple countries and paid a $1 billion fine under a deferred prosecution agreement struck with the US Department of Justice.

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Dubai Greenpeace Thursday praised a risky UN-led operation to transfer oil from a rusting Yemen tanker, but warned the threat of environmental catastrophe cannot be ruled out until the operation ends.

On Sunday, the UN-owned Nautica arrived off war-torn Yemen to take on 1.14 million barrels of crude oil from the decaying FSO Safer, a rusting 47-year-old vessel that has not been serviced in more than eight years.

The difficult transfer operation is expected to begin over the next few days, following years of tense diplomacy between the United Nations, Yemens Huthi rebels and the internationally recognised government.

We are happy that the Nautica ship approached Safer because this is the culmination of years of effort to save the Red Sea from a ticking bomb, Ghiwa Nakat, Executive Director of Greenpeace in the Middle East and North Africa, told AFP.

But the risks are very big, she warned.

There could be an explosion while pumping due to a difference in pressure which could lead to a massive leak in the Red Sea.

The Safer is carrying four times as much oil as the amount that spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.

A major spill which could cost more than $20 billion to clean up could result in ecological disaster, devastate Yemeni fishing communities and close lifeline ports and desalination plants.

Greenpeace said the risk of a spill or explosion has been a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of millions of people living in the region.

The threat cannot be averted until the oil is completely and safely removed, it warned in a statement.

Assuming that the transfer operation is successful, the crude oil will stay stored on the Nautica for the foreseeable future.

The Safer is intended to be fully decommissioned and recycled.

We certainly hope that in the next stage, a proper recycling of Safer will take place because there will be leaks and traces of the oil that was present, Nakat said.

This process needs funding, she said, adding that Greenpeace would hold responsible the oil companies that used it for many years.

The UN operation to transfer oil from the Safer and tow the ship to a scrapyard is budgeted at some $143 million.

The world body says that it still needs an additional $22 million to tow the Safer to a recycling yard and safely tether the replacement vessel to ensure safe storage of the oil until its eventual destination is decided.

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, ordered on Thursday to withdraw the Iraqi charge daffaires in Stockholm and expel the Swedish ambassador to Iraq, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.

The Iraqi government issued on Thursday a strongly worded statement threatening to sever diplomatic relations with Sweden if it allowed the Quran burner to repeat his act.

The Iraqi government mentioned in the statement that it informed the Swedish government of its intention to sever diplomatic relations if burning copies of the Holy Quran was repeated.

The decision was taken during an urgent meeting with senior military and security officials, chaired by the Iraqi Prime Minister on Thursday morning to discuss permission granted by the Swedish government to an individual to burn the Holy Book later in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, in addition to setting fire the Swedish embassy in Baghdad.

The meeting condemned the setting of fire to the Swedish embassy by protesters, considered the action a security breach that must be dealt with immediately, and stressed that those responsible for the security of the embassy must be held accountable.

Iraqi protesters set fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad early Thursday ahead of a planned burning of a Quran in Sweden, AFP reported.

Swedish authorities approved an assembly to be held later Thursday outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, where organizers plan to burn a copy of the Quran as well as an Iraqi flag, AFP added.

On Wednesday, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, during a phone call with his Swedish counterpart, stressed the need to prevent the recurrence of acts offensive to Islam and the Holy Quran, according to INA.

On June 28, Salwan Momika, a refugee of Iraqi origin in Sweden, burned a copy of the Quran outside Stockholms central mosque.

Momika, 37, tore up and burned several pages of a copy of the Holy Book outside Stockholms central mosque after the Swedish police granted him permission to do so, according to a judicial decision.

The incident sparked a wave of anger in the Arab and Islamic regions.

Following the incident, Iraq called on the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to arrest the Quran burner in Sweden and extradite him to Baghdad.

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Istanbul Turkeys central bank hiked its main interest rate for the second month in a row on Thursday but analysts said the unwinding of President Recep Tayyip Erdogans unconventional policy was too timid to tame inflation.

After years of cuts that aimed to boost growth but fuelled inflation and caused the lira to tumble, the bank doubled its rate last month from 8.5 percent to 15 percent.

The latest hike was smaller, at 2.5 percentage points, taking the rate to 17.5 percent.

The central bank said in a statement that it decided to continue the monetary tightening process in order to establish the disinflation course as soon as possible, to anchor inflation expectations, and to control the deterioration in pricing behaviour.

The rate increases have been undertaken since Erdogan named investor-friendly faces to head the central bank and the finance ministry following his re-election in tight May polls.

The bank said after the first rate hike in June that the move was only the start of a process aimed at bringing Turkeys annual inflation rate of nearly 40 percent to single figures as soon as possible.

The inflation rate reached 85 percent late last year and the central bank burned through most of its reserves trying to prop up the lira down 90 percent against the dollar over 10 years from even bigger falls.

But the two hikes have disappointed analysts. who had forecast a five-point hike for Thursday. 

Turkeys central bank today once again underwhelmed expectations and the slow and steady tightening is pushing the limits on what policymakers can get away with, said Liam Peach, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.

There are now clearer risks that the policy shift falls short and that the lira comes under much larger downward pressure, he added.

The lira fell 0.5 percent on Thursday to nearly 27 liras to the dollar.

Terrible decision

The central bank is now headed by Hafize Gaye Erkan, the first woman to hold the job.

Her resume includes diplomas from Princeton and Harvard, a top job at Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs and the role of co-CEO of California-based First Republic Bank.

Erdogan also named former Merrill Lynch economist Mehmet Simsek as finance minister.

Both have promoted conventional policies that include interest rate hikes to combat inflation the opposite of the approach long backed by Erdogan, who has a history of dumping ministers.

BlueBay Asset Management economist Timothy Ash called Thursdays move by the central bank a terrible decision that was again under-delivering.

He said a 17.5 percent interest rate is not enough to bring down inflation of around 40 percent.

It will again play to the script of those saying...

Cairo Egyptian researcher Patrick Zaki on Thursday walked out of prison, his family said, a day after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi granted him a pardon in the wake of an international outcry.

Zakis three-year prison sentence on Tuesday for spreading false news had prompted some participants to walk out of a government dialogue aimed at giving the opposition a voice.

Patrick is free, his sister, Marise George, said Thursday on Facebook alongside an image of the 32-year-old outside the Mansoura prison, some 110 kilometres (60 miles) north of the capital Cairo.

He was jailed over a 2019 article recounting the discrimination he and other members of Egypts Coptic Christian minority say they have suffered.

Sisi on Wednesday granted presidential pardons to Zaki and five others three men and two women.

They include Mohamed al-Baqer, the lawyer for Alaa Abdel Fattah, Egypts best known political prisoner, according to the decree published on the official gazette.

Baqers relatives on Thursday said they were still waiting for his release from a prison in Cairo.

Zaki was studying at Bologna University in Italy until his arrest in 2020 while on a visit to Egypt.

Rights defenders have said Zaki was beaten and electrocuted during his detention.

Thousands in Italy signed petitions calling for Zakis release, and the countrys senate voted in 2021 in favour of granting him Italian citizenship.

Italys far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who speaks regularly with Sisi, in a video message on Wednesday welcomed the news of Zakis impending release and said he will be back tomorrow in Italy.

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Vesele Vitaliy Bylenko looked ruefully at the mountains of grain in his barn, contemplating the growing obstacles to shifting the stockpiles after Russia this week exited a deal allowing Black Sea exports.

Ukraine, European countries and the United States have lamented Moscows decision to scrap the landmark accord brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July.

But Bylenko said the deal signed in Istanbul had actually barely functioned for months.

It has been working only on paper, Bylenko told AFP.

Ukraine grows far more wheat than it consumes and exports contribute to global food security, especially in African countries.

The termination of the deal has renewed fears of shortages or price hikes that could hit vulnerable countries hardest.

Ukraine officials accused Russia of obstructing the deal in recent months, and Bylenko said so few ships were arriving at Ukrainian ports to export grain he was already using alternate routes.

Offers to buy grain from us in Odesa were scarce and we already took almost all our grain to small river ports, he said.

Instead, the wheat, maize and sunflowers he grows on his farm of 1,300 hectares and that employs some 35 people, was leaving via neighbouring Romania.

I think that for the five months left (this year), this will not change substantially.

Rock-bottom price

But the Romania route is more costly and complex than the Black Sea route river ports are around 200 kilometres (125 miles) further from his farm than Odesa.

Your profit margin is decreasing, the CEO of 11 years told AFP.

Due to lack of options, grain will now move through Romania, further lowering prices, Bylenko predicted.

Added to that, five neighbouring EU countries including Romania have blocked sales of grain over concerns of plummeting prices on their local markets, but allowed supplies to transit to other nations.

The more produce there is, the lower the price, he said, noting he had 400 tonnes of wheat piled at his farm.

If before the war, the price was around $270 per tonne, now those who are buying offer $120. We would like even $135.

To salvage the deal, Ukraine has proposed joint patrols with other Black Sea nations but Russia has repeatedly threatened to target ships nearing Ukrainian ports.

The situation may be painful, but last summer farmers were wondering how to sell any grain at all, Bylenko said.

The symbolic significance of grain in Ukraine is hard to miss.

Were competitive

The office of another agribusiness CEO, Lyudmyla Martinyuk, of Kivshovata Agro, is decorated with sheaves of wheat and a portrait of the national poet, Taras Shevchenko.

She said Ukraine boasts some 30 million hectares of fertile land to...

Johannesburg A body was found in central Johannesburg early Thursday after an unexplained blast ripped through a busy street at rush hour the previous evening, the emergency services said.

The explosion blew a hole in the road  and gouged out cracks, skittling pedestrians and cars.

(In the) early hours of this morning, we managed to recover a body of a male person on site where the explosion occurred, Emergency Management Services spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said.

Panyaza Lesufi, the premier of Johannesburgs Gauteng province, told a media briefing that 48 people were injured.

Witnesses reported chemical odours and escaping vapours after the powerful blast, which overturned vehicles, including minibus taxis. 

Lesufi said a preliminary inspection did not reveal the cause of the explosion.

Experts are still searching for the source, he said. 

The blast occurred on a broad four-lane avenue used as a commuting artery by minibuses, bordered by high-rise buildings housing apartments and street-level stores.

Terrified people ran for safety after the blast, CCTV footage showed.

The area remained closed on Thursday as police chased away onlookers. 

Its about keeping this scene sterile, said Elias Mawela, the provincial police commissioner. Should we have a secondary explosion, then we may lose lives. 

Emergency services initially blamed underground gas pipes for the blast but the citys privatised gas company, Egoli Gas, said it was unlikely this was the case as customers were still receiving their supplies uninterrupted.

However, it issued a further statement after an initial inspection, saying that one or two manhole covers had been blown off and a white gas-like substance was seen coming out of these openings. 

The citys mayor told reporters that homeless people around the area, who often sleep rough on the pavements overnight, had been moved to temporary shelters.

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Hsinchu AI will be the defining mega-trend for the global computing industry, the head of chip giant AMD said Thursday in Taiwan, where the majority of the worlds semiconductors powering the technology is produced. 

California-based Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is one of the worlds largest chip suppliers rivalling giants Intel and Nvidia and their processors are used in everything from gaming consoles and laptops to massive servers. 

In the past year, tech companies have shifted resources to developing chips that have the processing power for generative AI which churns out complex content in seconds after seeing the popularity of products such as ChatGPT. 

The innovation opportunities ahead of us are truly enormous and the computing industry is changing very fast, said AMDs CEO Lisa Su, in Taiwan to receive an honorary doctorate from a university in the city of Hsinchu. 

AI is really the defining megatrend for the next 10 years, she said, adding that generative AI has reshaped how industry players think about techs possibilities. 

Every product, every service, every business in the world will be impacted by AI, and the technology is actually evolving faster than anything than Ive ever seen before, Su said in her speech to the university. 

As a chip design foundry, AMD outsources the production of their microchip designs to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which is headquartered in Hsinchu. 

The Taiwanese chipmaking giant controls half the worlds output of the silicon wafers, which are used to power everything from drip coffee machines to cars and missiles.

Unlike the AMD chief, TSMCs chairman Mark Liu cautioned investors on pinning their expectations of a boom in chips due to generative AI. 

The short-term frenzy about AI demand definitely cannot be extrapolated for the long term, Liu told shareholders in a conference call Thursday held around the same time as the university ceremony Su attended. 

Neither can we predict for the near future, meaning next year, how the sudden demand will continue or flatten out.

TSMC reported a 23 percent drop in its second quarter net income to about $5.85 billion.

Our second quarter business was impacted by the overall global economic conditions, which dampened the end market demand, and led to customers ongoing inventory adjustment, said Wendell Huang, TSMCs VP and chief financial officer.

The company also announced that its long-awaited Arizona plant the first in the United States has met delays, due to an insufficient amount of skilled workers, and the start of production will be pushed to 2025, Liu said.

The post...

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Presidency announced that it would summon the US ambassador in Baghdad to discuss the recent statements of the spokesperson of the US State Department, Matthew Miller, against the Iraqi government over the cancellation of a presidential decree pertaining to the head of Iraqs Chaldean Catholic Church, according to a statement cited by the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

The Iraqi Presidency issued a statement expressing disappointment about Millers accusations against the Iraqi government and the presidency, stressing that the presidential decree that was cancelled contradicts the Iraqi constitution.

The spokesperson of the Iraqi Presidency announced that the Iraqi government has worked seriously with the United States since the adoption of the constitution in 2005 to build an effective legal system that guarantees the rights of all citizens.

The role of the president in Iraq is to protect the constitution and laws, and he is not entitled to take measures that contradict the Iraqi constitution, the Iraqi Presidencys spokesperson stated.

The cancellation of the presidential decree pertaining to the head of the Christian Church in Iraq, Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, does not affect his position or religious status.

Judicial and constitutional authorities have confirmed since 2018 that the President of the Republic has no authority regarding the issuance of presidential decrees for any heads of religious sects, including the Christian, Yazidi, Islamic, and other sects in Iraq.

According to the Iraqi constitution, the president in Iraq may not appoint or dismiss the head of a sect chosen by his followers, and the president cannot favor any group over another.

Hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated last Friday outside the US embassy in the capital, Baghdad, demanding an end to the interference of Washingtons ambassador in the affairs of their country.

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London British airline EasyJet on Thursday said it expected record pre-tax profits during the current peak summer season despite strike action by air traffic controllers and other disruptions.

During its third quarter to the end of June, EasyJet posted profit before tax of 203 million ($262 million), compared with a loss of 114 million one year earlier.

We continue to see good momentum as we move into Q4 where we expect to deliver another record profit-before-tax performance, chief executive Johan Lundgren said in the earnings statement.

We are absolutely focused on mitigating the impact of the challenging external environment on our customers and flying them on their well-earned holidays, he added.

EasyJet, which flies mainly throughout Europe, recently cancelled about 1,700 flights for the summer season owing to air traffic control disruption.

The airline blamed strike action by air traffic controllers as well as constrained air space owing to the war in Ukraine.

The bulk of cancellations, equivalent to almost the number of daily flights operated by the carrier, concern trips to and from Londons Gatwick airport.

France in particular has been hit by air traffic control strikes, while Gatwick is facing its own summer of industrial action by ground staff.

Despite EasyJets upbeat outlook as the aviation sector recovers from Covid-fuelled turbulence, the companys share price dropped 1.3 percent in early London trading.

EasyJet is clearly on a strong flight path, but the share price recovery still has far to go, noted Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.

Airlines market values crashed in the wake of the Covid pandemic that grounded the aviation sector. 

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Mexico City An Australian sailor rescued with a stray dog after more than two months adrift on the Pacific Ocean has decided to leave his canine companion in Mexico with the captain of the ship that saved them.

Timothy Shaddock and his dog Bella were picked up by a tuna vessel after surviving for weeks on raw fish and rainwater while aboard a storm-struck boat.

Shaddock arrived at the Mexican port of Manzanillo on Tuesday thin, with a bushy beard and wild hair bunched into a cap bearing the logo of fishing company Grupomar, whose vessel had rescued him.

The dog was given by Timothy to the captain of the ship that saved his life, Grupomars director Antonio Guerra told local media on Wednesday.

Shaddock, 54, and Bella had set off from Mexicos seaside city La Paz in April, and planned to sail about 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) before dropping anchor in French Polynesia.

But they soon found themselves stranded after rough seas damaged the boat and knocked out its electronics.

In a rescue reminiscent of the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away, the bedraggled amateur yachtsman was plucked from the water more than two months later by a tuna trawler, more than 1,200 miles from land, according to Grupomar.

Shaddock said he had found Bella in Mexico shortly before departing. After failing to find the stray dog a home, he decided to bring her along as a traveling companion.

Shes amazing. That dog is something else, he told reporters on Tuesday. Im just grateful shes alive. She is a lot braver than I am.

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London English hospitals were braced Thursday for the latest doctors strike to hit the state-run health service, with managers warning it will leave routine care virtually at a standstill. 

The two-day strike by consultants comes amid record patient waiting times due to a vast pandemic backlog and multiple strikes across the economy over the past year as workers battle a cost of living crisis.

The consultants strike, only the third time the senior specialist doctors have taken industrial action, began at 7:00 am (0600 GMT) on Thursday and will run until 7:00 am on Saturday.

This could undoubtedly be the most severe impact we have ever seen in the NHS as a result of industrial action, with routine care virtually at a standstill for 48 hours, said National Health Service (NHS) medical director Stephen Powis.

Consultants will not only stop seeing patients themselves, but they wont be around to provide supervision over the work of junior doctors, which impacts thousands of appointments for patients, he said.

The action follows months of disruption as health staff have walked out, leading to delayed treatment and cancelled appointments for hundreds of thousands of patients.

Junior doctors staged an unprecedented five-day stoppage earlier this month over pay and staff retention, their third walkout since April.

Nurses and ambulance staff have also taken strike action, eventually accepting a five percent pay rise in May.

Powis said emergency and urgent care would be prioritised in the eighth month of industrial action, and with more than 600,000 appointments already affected, its becoming even more challenging to get services back on track after each round of action.

Derisory

Consultants are calling for a credible pay offer after years of below-inflation rises which they say have eroded their pay.

The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents consultants, says their take-home pay has fallen by 35 percent since 2008.

The consultants, who earn annual salaries of around 88,000-119,000 ($113,000-$153,000), have already announced a second round of strikes for August 24-25.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, however, has told the doctors to call off their stoppages and warned that the government will no longer negotiate on higher salaries.

He said earlier this month the government had accepted recommendations from independent pay review bodies for salary increases of between 5.0 and 7.0 percent in the public sector.

The offer was final, he said, adding: No amount of strikes will change our decision.

Sunak has pledged to halve stubbornly high inflation, currently just under 8.0 percent.

He has said higher pay awards are unaffordable and just risk fuelling inflation.