Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraq and Iran agreed to devise and implement joint pilot schemes to deal with sand and dust storms in both neighboring countries, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

The agreement was signed in Baghdad by the Secretary of the National Headquarters for Policy and Management of the Dust Phenomenon of the Department of the Environment, Ali Mohammad Tahmasebi Birgani, and the Technical Undersecretary of the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture, Mithaq Abdul-Hussein Obaid, IRNA elaborated.

According to the agreement, the two sides will devise four pilot schemes for the Iraqi governorates of Dhi Qar, Muthanna, Wasit and Maysan, as well as two pilot schemes for the Iranian provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan to manage sand and dust storms, IRNA revealed.

The meeting between both sides addressed ways to deal with desertification, reduce the effects of climate change, remove barriers to food security, and deal with sand and dust storms, IRNA added.

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, received on Wednesday the Pakistani Minister of Interior, Rana Sanaullah Khan, where they discussed enhancing bilateral cooperation and partnership in security, intelligence, and joint efforts to combat terrorism, drugs and organized crime, according to a statement issued by the Prime Ministers Office (PMO).

The statement illustrated that Al-Sudani expressed his condemnation of the terrorist attack that took place in Bajaur district in Pakistan three days ago, offering his condolences and sympathy to the victims, their families, and all the Pakistani people.

The Iraqi Prime Minister emphasized that Iraq is eager to maintain and develop relations with Pakistan in various fields.

The meeting addressed cooperation in religious tourism and the facilities provided by the Iraqi government to visitors to the holy shrines in Iraq.

The Pakistani Interior Minister conveyed his governments appreciation and desire to expand economic relations with Iraq to serve the interests of the people of both countries.

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied on Wednesday allegations about the abandonment of Umm Qasr Port in the southern Iraqi governorate of Basra and the renunciation of Iraqs territorial sovereignty.

The spokesperson for the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, Ahmed Al-Sahaf, mentioned in a statement that the land border was demarcated under a UN resolution in 1993, adding that the government is fully committed to the resolution and its relevant international obligations.

The statement stressed that no changes have been made to land borders since the resolution was issued in 1993.

The Foreign Ministrys announcement followed circulated news about angry demonstrations in Umm Qasr city denouncing the sale of parts of Iraqi lands to Kuwait.

Iraq and Kuwait confirmed on Sunday that they would work towards a final border deal, including the waters off Umm Qasr port. Details of what that meant were not disclosed, resulting in a public outcry, The National reported.

The Foreign Ministrys statement noted that houses built on the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border are located on Iraqi land and were constructed to be a more stable alternative for their residents.

The post Iraqi Foreign Ministry resolves debate about Umm Qasr Port appeared first on Iraqi News.

Rio de Janeiro Nine people were killed Wednesday in a police operation targeting criminal gangs in Rio de Janeiro, authorities said, the latest in a week of security force raids that have left at least 44 dead across Brazil.

The Rio raid came after days of deadly police crackdowns on drug trafficking gangs that have left 16 dead in Sao Paulo state and 19 killed in the northeastern state of Bahia.

Rio state police said officers had returned fire after coming under attack during a raid on a meeting of organized crime bosses in the Complexo da Penha group of favelas, on the citys north side.

Authorities face mounting calls for independent investigations of alleged police abuses in Brazil, where the security forces have been accused of human-rights violations in their war with heavily armed drug gangs.

Police said the Rio operation came after officers received intelligence on a high-level meeting by gang leaders.

A clash occurred when police teams came under attack by gunmen at the scene, state police said in a statement.

Eleven suspects were wounded and taken to the hospital, it said. Nine of them died of their injuries.

Two policemen were also wounded and are in stable condition, it added.

Residents described the favela complex as a scene from a war zone during the raid, with locals left cowering inside their homes mostly small shacks packed tightly on the hillsides.

Businesses are all closed. People cant leave home to take their kids to school. You just have to take cover in a safe place and wait for the shooting to end, one resident told TV Globo, speaking on condition of anonymity.

AFP reporters outside the hospital where the wounded were taken described anxious residents waiting for news on injured relatives, flanked by a heavy police contingent as helicopters hovered overhead.

Police said makeshift barricades had been set up across the neighborhood to slow officers advance.

They also said they had seized seven assault rifles, grenades and ammunition in the operation.

The dead included two gang leaders, police said.

They did not report any arrests.

Rio state legislator Dani Monteiro noted the operation came just over a year after a May 2022 raid in the same favela complex that left 25 dead, the second-deadliest police operation in the citys history.

Calling that raid a massacre, she criticized Rio state Governor Claudio Castro, a security hardliner and ally of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Castros (in)security policy must stop! Monteiro, a lawmaker for the left-wing PSOL party, wrote on X, formerly called Twitter.

Alleged abuses

In Sao Paulo, state police launched a massive anti-gang operation Friday, a day after a 30-year-old special forces officer...

Washington Donald Trump spun his latest indictments into a 2024 campaign pitch Wednesday, but faced withering criticism from his former vice president who accused him of relying on crackpot lawyers for advice.

The twice-impeached Republican has remained defiant despite accumulating legal woes including the extraordinary 45-page indictment unsealed Tuesday, which argues that while still president he put the foundations of American democracy at risk by conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results.

A key figure in the indictment was then-vice president Mike Pence, who provided prosecutors contemporaneous notes that he took documenting the efforts to reverse the poll outcome.

Pence, who is likely to be a star witness in any eventual trial, offered unyielding criticism on Wednesday of Trump for pressuring him to thwart the will of the voters by refusing to certify Joe Bidens election victory at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol that day called for Pence to be hanged over his refusal. 

Anyone who asks someone else to put themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again, Pence, who is also running for the Republican nomination, told reporters in Indianapolis.

I had no right to overturn the election and what the president maintained that day and frankly, has said over and over again over the last two and a half years, is completely false.

Sadly the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers who kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear, Pence, whose refusal to do as Trump asked on January 6 forms a key part of the indictment, said.

Trump spent part of the morning playing golf at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club, according to CBS TV broadcast images.

He also vented online about the new indictments, the third time he has been criminally charged this year, keeping up his refrain that the election was rigged.

Speedy trial

In a post on his Truth Social platform, the 77-year-old suggested the indictment was all the more reason for his supporters to circle the wagons and elect him next year.

I have never had so much support on anything before, Trump said in a five-sentence post written in all caps.

This unprecedented indictment of a former (highly successful!) president, & the leading candidate, by far, in both the Republican Party and the 2024 general election, has awoken the world to the corruption, scandal & failure that has taken place in the United States for the past three years, he added.

America is a nation in decline, but we will make it great again, greater than ever before.

The comments are the latest by the pugnacious ex-president insisting the charges again...

Los Angeles Hollywood studios will meet with writers this week to discuss reopening talks for the first time since a strike began nearly 100 days ago.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) walkout, which kicked off May 2 over pay and the threat of artificial intelligence, has brought US film and television production to a halt. 

Writers have been joined on the picket lines since last month by the much larger Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) including A-list stars such as Sean Penn ramping up pressure on the likes of Disney and Netflix to return to negotiations.

Studios reached out to the WGA today and requested a meeting this Friday to discuss negotiations, the union said in an email to members on Tuesday.

Well be back in communication with you sometime after the meeting with further information.

The first Hollywood double strike by writers and actors in six decades has meant movie productions are shut down, glitzy premieres are scrapped, and events such as the Emmys are delayed as stars are banned from promoting TV shows.

The strikes are costing the entertainment industry and the California economy several million dollars per day.

Writers are demanding higher pay and a greater share of profits from the boom in streaming, while studios say they must cut costs to cope with economic pressures.

Other major disagreements include the growing trend for TV shows to hire fewer writers, for shorter durations, to script series and studios refusal to offer protection against the future use of artificial intelligence in writing.

While writers appear poised to return to talks, actors remains at an impasse with studios, which are represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

We have not heard from the AMPTP since July 12 when they told us they would not be willing to continue talks for quite some time, SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told trade outlet Deadline on Wednesday.

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McLean A US credit downgrade by Fitch was entirely unwarranted, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday, pushing back against the second-ever decrease by a major ratings agency following repeated debt limit standoffs in Washington.

Her remarks came a day after the worlds biggest economy lost its top-tier credit rating from Fitch as the agency lowered it a notch from AAA to AA+, drawing fiery disapproval from the White House and Treasury.

The action was on the back of the United States growing federal debt burden and an erosion of governance resulting in multiple gridlocks over the debt ceiling, said Fitch Ratings on Tuesday.

But Yellen told an event in Virginia that Fitchs decision is puzzling in light of the economic strength we see in the United States.

Citing US economys bounceback from the pandemic with a robust jobs market and cooling inflation, Yellen stressed that fiscal responsibility is a priority for herself and President Joe Biden.

At the end of the day, Fitchs decision does not change what all of us already know, she said.

This includes the understanding that Treasury securities remain the worlds preeminent safe and liquid asset, she added.

Long-term fix

But a Fitch Ratings senior director told CNBC Wednesday that Washington needs to tackle the recurrence of debt limit impasses and find long-term solutions for growing fiscal issues if it seeks a credit upgrade.

Weve seen a pretty steady deterioration in governance over the last couple of decades, Richard Francis said in an interview.

Among the elements he highlighted was January 6, referring to the date in 2021 when supporters of Donald Trump stormed Congress in a bid to prevent certification of his rival Joe Bidens election victory.

Other factors, he added, included constant brinksmanship surrounding the debt ceiling along with Republicans and Democrats inability to generate meaningful, long-term solutions on fiscal issues surrounding programs like social security and Medicare.

While the US economy has so far defied predictions of a looming downturn, Francis noted that entering or skirting a recession doesnt really move the needle when it comes to underlying fundamentals Fitch is eyeing. It also does not stabilize debt or address governance issues, he added.

Limited impact

Markets slumped following the Fitch Ratings downgrade, with bourses in Asia, Europe and the United States tumbling even as analysts said they did not forecast long-term implications.

Asked about the impact to borrowing costs, Treasury assistant secretary for financial markets Josh Frost, told reporters that the department sees limited or no im...

Ramallah A Tunisian singer who rose to prominence during the Arab Spring revolution in her homeland announced Wednesday an upcoming show in Tunisia had been cancelled for supposed normalisation with Israel.

In July, Emel Mathlouthi performed in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, as well as in Bethlehem and Ramallah, both in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. She did not perform in Israel.

Artists who perform in Israel often face fierce resistance from the BDS movement, which calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions of the country over what it describes as mistreatment of the Palestinians. 

Mathlouthi, 41, had been set to perform at the Hammamet International Festival in Tunisia next week.

I am very sorry to announce our much awaited concert in Hammamet has been cancelled with no official reason, Mathlouthi said in a statement posted on Instagram.

We believe that our latest tour in beautiful Palestine has sparked an unjustified controversy accusing me of normalisation.

In a statement to AFP, Mathlouthi said she had been subjected to a big misinformation campaign and that she just did shows with Palestinians for Palestinians. 

Organisers of the Hammamet festival did not respond to AFPs request for comments.

They believe that going to Palestine anywhere is normalisation, the singer told AFP.

Her concerts were in no conflict either with BDS guidelines or those from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, her Instagram statement said.

BDS backed Mathlouthi, saying in a statement that it distinguishes between artists who entertain the oppressors, art-washing apartheid, on the one hand, and artists who stand with the oppressed.

Arab artists who respect the relevant BDS guidelines contribute to our cultural resistance, the statement added.

Suhail Khoury, general director of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music at Birzeit University, who invited Mathlouthi to perform, said she should be commended and not condemned for what she did.

Khoury added: She is a great singer and Palestinians love her. She was outstanding, probably one of the best performances that Palestine has ever seen.

The Ramallah concert concluded with Mathlouthi singing the Palestinian ballad Wein a Ramallah and waving a Palestinian flag, an AFP correspondent in attendance said.

Mathlouthi told AFP the Hammamet cancellation is clearly an attack against me personally and what I stand for I grew up knowing about the Palestinian struggle, and I have always sung for Palestine.

She said Palestinians dont want to be isolated. They want artists like me that come from other Arab countries that speak Arabic to perform...

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, stated on Tuesday that Baghdad is communicating with the United States on settling outstanding debts of $10 billion the country owes Iran for gas imports, according to AFP.

Gas imports from Iran are extremely important for Iraq to generate electricity. However, US sanctions imposed on Iran make it difficult for Baghdad to pay for Iranian gas imports.

Iraq cannot directly deliver cash payments to Iran. Payments must be deposited in a bank account and used by Tehran to pay for its imports of food and medicines.

On July 11, Al-Sudani announced that Iraq had reached an agreement with Iran regarding gas imports, which Iraq needs to operate power plants.

The Iraqi Prime Minister elaborated that Iraq agreed to provide Iran with crude oil in exchange for gas, explaining that the decision will ensure the continuation of gas supplies from Iran and will end the crisis.

Tehran is putting Baghdad under pressure to get US permission to disburse funds by stopping Iranian natural gas exports to Iraq, reducing Iraqs ability to generate electricity, and forcing the country to cut off electricity during the hot summer, according to Reuters.

The US sanctions imposed on Iran force Iraq to pay for Iranian electricity only through restricted bank accounts in Iraq, which Iran can use to purchase its humanitarian needs after obtaining permission from the United States.

About a month ago, the Iranian Minister of Economy, Ehsan Khandouzi, revealed that Iraq has pledged to facilitate Irans access to its frozen assets in Iraq, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

The Head of the Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce, Yahya Al-Eshaq, mentioned earlier that Iraq has paid all dues of $10 billion to Iran, Al-Arabiya News reported.

Al-Eshaq elaborated that Iraq has paid its overdue debts to Iran through the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI), and the two countries have agreed that the money will be used for the purchase of goods that are not included in the embargo imposed on Iran, such as medicine, IRNA reported.

Iraq heavily relies on gas imports from Iran but has recently invested in many projects to start taking advantage of flared gas and using renewable energy to generate electricity.

The post Iraq communicates with the US over $10 billion debt to Iran appeared first on Iraqi News.

Washington It was compelling, Joe Biden offered Tuesday after Donald Trumps indictment. But the US president was referring to a film not the legal fate of his political rival, which he has declined to address. 

The 80-year-old Democrat was emerging from a screening of Oppenheimer, having dined earlier with First Lady Jill Biden at a fish restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, the seaside escape where the couple is vacationing this week.

While Christopher Nolans biopic tells the life of the American physicist who developed the first atomic weapon, Tuesdays historic indictment of ex-president Trump is the bombshell currently rocking American politics.

The rebellious Republican is likely to face Biden once more in 2024, even as he is criminally charged over allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election result.

It is the third indictment of Trump since March. They include charges over a hush-money payment to an adult film star in 2016, and his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House. 

A fourth indictment could follow in Georgia, where an investigation over electoral interference is concluding.

No comment

Biden, known for impulsive remarks, has demonstrated considerable discipline when it comes to his rivals legal peril.

After Trump became the first-ever indicted former president in March, Biden repeatedly gave reporters a curt no comment and other dodges.

On Wednesday, as the commander-in-chief biked along a Rehoboth trail to occasional cheers from onlookers, a reporters shouted one-word question Indictments? was met with silence.

Biden has little choice, especially given that the two gravest cases against Trump are federal prosecutions by the US Department of Justice, which Bidens aides have repeatedly stressed operates independently from the White House.

Even the slightest word from Biden would fuel charges from Trumps supporters that the president is weaponizing the judiciary.

Biden therefore is counting on the modern-day visual known as the split screen.

Relaxation and remove

On one side is Trump, with his legal proceedings piling up and the bracing images of the former leader scowling as he sat in a Manhattan court this year.

It is not yet known whether Trump will appear in person for a preliminary hearing set for Thursday in Washington in the case surrounding the 2020 election.

On the other side: Biden chilling in Rehoboth, where he might hit the beach Thursday like last weekend, or take another bike ride.

Either way, its the very image of peace of mind. 

If Trump is compelling, in one form or another, Biden as he has described himself before is assumed to be boring....

Paris Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air has ordered another 75 A321neo aircraft, Airbus said Wednesday, in a deal worth $10 billion at list prices.

Wizz Air was already the largest client for the largest version of the Airbus best-selling model, and takes its total of the single-aisle, medium-haul aircraft to 434. 

The airline already has 180 A320 family aircraft in operation, with more than half of them neo versions equipped with more fuel-efficient engines. 

The A321neos unparalleled economic efficiency and remarkably low carbon footprint underpin our commitment to provide affordable and sustainable travel options for our customers, Wizz Air chief executive Jozsef Varadi was quoted as saying in an Airbus statement.

The A321neos ordered by Wizz Air will have 240 seats in a single class.

Created 20 years ago, Wizz Air is Europes sixth-largest airline in terms of daily flights.

The airlines board chairman is William Franke, who is the managing partner of Indigo Partners, a US private equity firm which holds stakes in a number of carriers including Frontier Airlines in the United States, JetSMART in Chile, and Volaris in Mexico as well as Wizz Air.

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Tunis Tunisian President Kais Saied fired his prime minister Najla Bouden without explanation late Tuesday. Why did he do this, and what are the implications for the debt-ridden North African country?

Why was Najla Bouden sacked?

Media reports say Saied was unhappy with her handling of the shortage of flour, and therefore of bread in government-subsidised bakeries.

This administration has a short fuse when it comes to problems, and the important thing for the president is that nothing can be seen to be his fault, essayist Hatem Nafti told AFP.

He said Saieds regime looks for scapegoats judges, prisoners of conscience and most recently sub-Saharan migrants.

Economists attribute the lack of state-subsidised bread to shortages of grain. Suppliers no longer extend credit to Tunisia, where debt is around 80 percent of gross domestic product.

Since the 1970s, the state has supplied staples such as flour, cooking oil, sugar, milk and fuel, to the marketplace at subsidised prices.

Nafti said Bouden, whom Saied himself appointed in October 2021 as the countrys first woman premier, had become highly unpopular within the presidents entourage.

Even among opposition circles she was seen simply as a reassuring showcase for the West, he said.

Faced with the bread shortage and a deteriorating economy, curiously, it is the government and opposition that bear the brunt of popular anger, rather than the regime itself in which the president holds all the power, according to political scientist Youssef Cherif of Columbia Global Centers in Tunis.

Appointing a new prime minister may show that the president listens to the word on the street, he said.

Saied won a democratic election in October 2019, but granted himself sweeping powers on July 25, 2021, and now governs by decree. Since his power grab, he has dismissed half a dozen ministers.

What does Saied plan to do?

Some analysts believe that Saied may be making political preparations in advance of the presidential election due in autumn next year.

But the new prime minister, Ahmed Hachani, a lawyer who worked at the central bank, is not a politician at all. Hes an old comrade of the president from the law faculty at the University of Tunis, Nafti said.

The premiers name and background do not matter. He is only there to implement the presidents wishes, he added.

According to political scientist Slaheddine Jourchi, Kais Saied does not believe in the independence of government or its ministers.

Cherif said it seems probable that the main ministerial portfolios will not be affected, and that changes will be limited to those that have had problems in recent months.

Economy Minister Samir Saied may find himself targeted, as he has fronted talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $1.9-billion bailout the president has repeatedly rejected as foreign diktats that will lead to more poverty.

That would be logical, for with Kais Saied, they are on two irreconcilable lines, said Nafti.

And the international consequences? 

Analysts say it is hard to imagine that the IMF bailout talks will continue, given Saieds opposition to them and his calls for a new global financial institution.

Saied rejects lifting subsidies and restructuring 100 state-owned firms that are often heavily indebted, two measures proposed by the Bouden government in exchange for the IMF loan.

The president says he will seek funding elsewhere. This is part of his Third World and populist thinking, and helps to bolster his popularity, said Cherif.

Some funding may be possible with aid from Europe and some Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, which recently announced financial aid of $500 million, including a grant of $100 million.

In mid-July, the European Union and Tunisia agreed on a comprehensive partnership providing for the payment of 255 million euros ($280 million) this year, including 150 million as a direct contribution to the budget.

In the future, Brussels may also provide a long-term loan of around 900 million euros, but this would be conditional on political reform...

Paris Look out, blue whale theres a new contender for your heavyweight title.

A newly discovered whale that lived nearly 40 million years ago could be the heaviest animal to have ever lived, based on a partial skeleton found in Peru, scientists said on Wednesday.

The modern blue whale has long been considered the largest and heaviest animal ever, beating out all the giant dinosaurs of the distant past.

But Perucetus colossus the colossal whale from Peru may have been even heavier, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

Extrapolating from some massive bones found in the Peruvian desert, an international team of researchers estimated that the animal had an average body mass of 180 tonnes.

That would not take the heavyweight title by itself. The biggest blue whale ever recorded weighed 190 tonnes, according to Guinness World Records.

But the researchers estimated the ancient whales weight range was between 85 and 340 tonnes, meaning it could have been significantly larger.

The researchers were careful not to declare the ancient whale had broken the record.

But there was also no reason to think that this specimen was the largest of its kind, study co-author Eli Amson told AFP.

I think theres a good chance that some of the individuals broke the record but the take-home message is that we are in the ballpark of the blue whale, said Amson, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany.

Rewriting cetacean history

The first fossil of the ancient whale was discovered back in 2010 by Mario Urbina, a palaeontologist who has spent decades searching the desert on the southern coast of Peru.

But what he found looked more like a boulder than a fossil, Amson said.

A total of 13 gigantic vertebrae one of which weighed nearly 200 kilograms (440 pounds) were found at the site, as well as four ribs and a hip bone.

It took years and multiple trips to collect and prepare the giant fossils, and longer for the team of Peruvian and European researchers to confirm exactly what they had been found.

On Wednesday, they revealed it is a new species of basilosaurid, an extinct family of cetaceans. 

Todays cetaceans include dolphins, whales and porpoises, but their early ancestors lived on land, some resembling small deer.

Over time they moved into the water, and basilosaurids are believed to be the first cetaceans to have a fully aquatic lifestyle.

One of their adaptations at that time was gigantism they became very big.

But the new discovery indicates that cetaceans reached their peak body mass roughly 30 million years earlier than previously thought, the study said.

Tiny head, heavy bones

Like other basilosaurids, Perucetus colossus likely had a ridiculously small head compared to its body, Amson said though there were no available bones to confirm this.

Lacking any teeth, it was impossible to say for sure what they ate. But Amson speculated that scavenging off the seafloor was a strong possibility, partly because the animals could not swim quickly.

The researchers were confident that the animal lived in shallow waters in coastal environments, due to the strange heaviness of its bones.

Its whole skeleton was estimated to weigh between five to seven tonnes more than twice as heavy as the skeleton of a blue whale.

This is for sure the heaviest skeleton of any mammal known to date, as well as any aquatic animal, Amson said.

Perucetus colossus needed heavy bones to compensate for the huge amount of buoyant blubber and air in its lungs which could otherwise send it bobbing to the surface. 

But just the right balance of bone density and blubber allowed the giant animal to stay in the middle of around 10 metres (33 feet) of water without moving a muscle, Amson explained.

Felix Marx, a marine mammal expert at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa not involved in the study, told AFP that Perucetus colossus is very different from anything else weve ever found.

He cautioned that extinct sea cows had heavier bones than would be expec...

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Iraq and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) partnered with the Ministry of Tourism in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to unveil the Reform Roadmap, a groundbreaking plan to revitalize tourism in the region, according to a statement issued by the UNDP.

The statement mentioned that the Kurdistan region of Iraq is the most popular travel destination within Iraq, where greenery and picturesque mountains are located.

In this area of the country, the tourism and hospitality sectors have emerged as one of the key drivers of economic growth and job creation in the region, according to the statement.

The UNDP illustrated that the reform roadmap identifies areas that are most important for sustainable and successful tourism development in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The statement elaborated that the reform roadmap focuses on recommendations with the biggest impact on the tourism industry, including tourism legislation, laws, and regulations; marketing; and developing tourism sites and products.

The Roadmap provides guidance on how to stimulate private sector investment through different financing modalities, such as public-private partnerships for the development of tourism sites and products, according to the UNDP.

The statement added that the roadmap also includes a comparative study of the legal framework of the tourism sector to examine the institutional structure and quality assessment criteria of countries with well-established tourism industries in the Middle East and Europe, taking these best practices and applying them to this context.

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Riyadh Saudi side Al Nassr confirmed the signing of Bayern Munich striker Sadio Mane on Tuesday where he will team up with five-time Ballon dOr winner Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Senegalese international is the latest high profile player to join the cash-rich Saudi league.

Both clubs announced the transfer involving the former Liverpool star which German media estimated at around 30 million euros with an annual salary for Mane of 40 million plus 10 million in results-based bonuses.

Earlier Tuesday Mane, 31, rued his departure with two years of his contract at Bayern remaining.

Leaving Bayern hurts me. I would have wished for a different ending, he told Sky Germany.

Those sentiments were echoed by Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel when he spoke in Singapore on the eve of his sides friendly against Liverpool.

We had a long, big hug and we both agreed that we dont like whats happening now, but we think its for the best in this situation, said the Bayern coach.

Sometimes things dont work out as everybody wants it to work out. In person I have always had a very good relationship with him and this will stay.

I can totally understand that he feels hurt and I also wouldnt feel happy if things like this happened.

Obviously its something that we didnt bring into the full potential, which is my job and my responsibility, but in this particular situation, it was the best solution to untie the knot.

Mane moves to the club that instigated the first coup of a raft of signings by Saudi clubs with the capture of Ronaldo.

Mane won the Champions League and Premier League in six seasons with Liverpool and was a key part of Jurgen Klopps devastating front three with Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.

When Liverpool won their first English league title for 30 years in the pandemic-disrupted 2019-2020 season, Mane scored 18 goals.

But in the summer of 2022, when he won the African Player of the Year, Mane decided he wanted a new challenge unconfirmed rumours said he had tired of sharing the limelight with Egypts Salah at Anfield.

Bayern made a big play for Mane, promising to make him the focal point of an attack which had just lost the services of Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona.

After a strong start to the season at Bayern, it soon become clear that Mane was not clicking in Bavaria.

New start

In a Bundesliga game against Werder Bremen in November, Mane suffered an injury to his fibula and his season was put on hold.

The injury forced him to miss the World Cup in Qatar at the end of last year in a crushing blow to Senegals chances.

Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen reflected on Manes difficult spell in Germany.

It certainly wasnt an easy year for him, getting injured just before the World Cup and being unable to take part in it with Senegal, he told Bayerns website.

Dreesen added: Because of his long lay-off he also couldnt have the impact at FC Bayern that we all and he himself had hoped for.

Thats why we came to the joint decision that hell begin a new chapter in his career and make a new start at a different club.

While Mane returned to the Bayern team in 2023, his problems were underlined when he became involved in a physical altercation with teammate Leroy Sane following a Champions League defeat to Manchester City.

Bayern reportedly fined Mane around 350,000 euros ($385,000) and gave him a one-match suspension for his part in the incident.

He ended the season with an underwhelming 12 goals in 38 games across all competitions.

Aside from Ronaldo, Al Nassr have also signed this summer Croatia midfielder Marcelo Brozovic, Brazil full-back Alex Telles and Ivory Coast midfielder Seko Fofana.

The post Sadio Mane joins Ronaldo at Saudi side Al Nassr appeared first on Iraqi News.

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi President, Abdul Latif Rashid, urged on Tuesday to end the displaced issue within a timeframe that does not exceed December 2024.

During a meeting with the Head of UN-Habitat Iraq, Wael Al-Ashhab, and his accompanying delegation in Baghdad, the Iraqi President stressed the need to ensure a safe and stable return of the displaced to their cities and homes, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

Rashid explained that the safe return of displaced Iraqis will be completed through strengthened cooperation between government agencies and international organizations concerned with the displaced.

Al-Ashhab reviewed the progress of the United Nations program and the future plans set to resolve this issue by returning all the displaced to their homes.

A report issued in July by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) mentioned that one million people remain displaced in Iraq six years after the defeat of the terrorist group ISIS, with a quarter of them perceived as ISIS-affiliates.

On a visit to Anbar, Baghdad and Basra in mid-July, the UNDPs Assistant Secretary-General and Crisis Bureau Director, Asako Okai, stated that supporting the countrys efforts to reintegrate everyone is critical to preventing extremism and boosting recovery.

More than six million people were forced to flee their homes between 2014 and 2017 as ISIS fighters controlled around 40 percent of the country, including Mosul, Iraqs second-largest city.

80 percent of displaced people have been able to return home, according to the UNDP.

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San Francisco X is suing a nonprofit group in US federal court over reports that hate speech has flourished at the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Elon Musk-owned X accused the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) of generating flawed studies that have cost the tycoons tech firm tens of millions of dollars, a copy of the lawsuit showed.

However, the legal basis outlined in the suit filed in San Francisco late Monday was an accusation that the nonprofit violated Xs terms of service in the way it accessed data for its reports.

CCDH chief executive Imran Ahmed on Tuesday contended that Musks legal move is an effort to silence critics that comes straight out of the authoritarian playbook.

Ahmed stood by the groups research, saying it shows that hate and disinformation are spreading like wildfire at Musk-run X.

The eccentric billionaires lawsuit asks a court to grant X unspecified cash damages and to order CCDH to stop the way it has been getting data for its reports.

The suit accuses CCDH and its parent organization in Britain of being activist organizations masquerading as research agencies.

X goes on to argue in the suit that the nonprofit improperly gained access to data so it could cherry-pick information to back reports showing the rebranded Twitter is rife with harmful content.

Musk is trying to shoot the messenger who highlights the toxic content on his platform rather than deal with the toxic environment hes created, Ahmed said in a statement.

Musk will not bully us into silence.

Since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, the platforms advertising business has collapsed as marketers soured on his management style and mass firings at the company that gutted content moderation.

In response, the entrepreneur has moved toward building a subscriber base and pay model in a search for new revenue.

Many users and advertisers alike have responded adversely to the social media sites new charges for previously free services, its changes to content moderation, and the return of previously banned right-wing accounts.

In December, Musk reinstated former president Donald Trumps Twitter account although Trump has yet to return to the platform.

X recently reinstated rapper and designer Kanye West around eight months after his account was suspended, according to media reports.

Last fall, West, who now goes professionally by Ye, posted an image that appeared to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David, and Musk suspended the artist from the platform, which he had bought weeks earlier.

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Ain al-Helweh Fruit and vegetable seller Ismail Akkawi had no choice but to brave days of intermittent but deadly fighting in Lebanons biggest Palestinian refugee camp in order to make ends meet.

The produce market at the heart of the restive Ain al-Helweh camp in the southern coastal city of Sidon is usually bustling with vendors, but few have ventured out since clashes broke out in the camp late Saturday.

I have to leave the house, despite the horrific circumstances for selling vegetables, said Akkawi, who is in his sixties.

If the violence continues, who will put food on the table for me and my family? he asked.

Outbreaks of violence are common in the camp, but 11 people have been killed in the current flare-up the worst in years, pitting members of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbass Fatah movement and Islamist militants.

It is not yet known why the latest clashes broke out.

Ain al-Helweh is home to more than 54,000 registered refugees. It was created for Palestinians who were driven out or fled during the 1948 war that coincided with Israels creation.

Thousands of Palestinians who sought refuge from Syrias civil war have also joined the camp in recent years.

Palestinian factions said they had agreed on a truce on Sunday but it failed to hold, and fighting continued on Monday and Tuesday with automatic weapons and rockets being used.

Deserted buildings stand riddled with bullet holes on the front lines, while charred cars litter the camps southern district of Hittin, which witnessed clashes and shelling.

Fear of shortages

Bread vendor Mukhtar, 62, said panicked residents were stocking up on supplies.

People are buying two bags of bread, fearing shortages due to the security situation, he said, declining to give his surname.

The fighting has prompted the United Nations to suspend its activities in Ain al-Helweh, while shops and public institutions have also closed in Sidon, the largest city in southern Lebanon.

Arrangements are under way to establish a serious ceasefire, senior Fatah official Mounir Makdah told AFP on Tuesday.

Palestinian security forces are working to remove the gunmen from the streets and form an investigation committee to identify those responsible for the violence, he added. 

All factions have collectively decided to hold perpetrators of breaches and security incidents to account, Makdah said.

Tiny Lebanon hosts an estimated 250,000 Palestinian refugees, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Most live in one of Lebanons 12 official camps, and face a variety of legal restrictions, including on employment.

By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter Palestinian refugee camps, leaving the factions themselves to handle security.

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New York Caterpillar reported strong second-quarter profits Tuesday behind robust demand for industrial equipment and an improving cost environment that boosted profit margins.

The company an industrial bellwether tied to the construction, mining, energy and other sectors also offered an upbeat forecast, saying that 2023 profit margins would be close to the top of the forecast.

Chief Executive Jim Umpleby said the results reflected healthy demand across most end markets for Caterpillar machines.

Were closely monitoring economic conditions, but we do feel good about the business, Umpleby told analysts.

Profits were $2.9 billion, up nearly 75 percent on the year-ago level as revenues jumped 22 percent to $17.3 billion. 

Profit margins topped estimates due to improved volumes and lower manufacturing costs, including freight, Umpleby said. 

The operating profit margin was 21.1 percent, up from 13.6 percent in the year-ago period.

Umpleby described the supply chain as improving, enabling improvements in output. 

However, areas of challenge remain, particularly for large engines, which impacts energy and transportation and some of our larger machines, he said.

Shares jumped 7.2 percent to $284.33 in morning trading

Caterpillar unearthed excellent Q2 results despite economic unease,  said Briefing.com. 

Although macroeconomic uncertainties will likely liner for the foreseeable future, construction activity is looking healthy, especially in North America and the Middle East.

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Seven Iraqi governorates in the southern part of the country will witness scorching weather on Wednesday when the temperature will exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), according to official data.

The Iraqi Meteorological Organization and Seismology mentioned that the highest temperature in the governorates of Basra, Maysan, Dhi Qar and Muthanna will reach 52 degrees Celsius (125.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, exceeding half the boiling point, according to Rudaw News.

The highest temperature in Diwaniyah governorate will reach 51 degrees Celsius (123.8 degrees Fahrenheit), while the highest temperature in the governorates of Najaf and Wasit will be 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

Iraq is one of the five countries most vulnerable to desertification and climate change in the world, especially with long heat waves, low rainfall, a lack of fertile lands, soil salinity, transboundary water retreat, and the spread of dust storms, according to reports issued by the United Nations.

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Tehran Iran on Tuesday declared a two-day holiday for government workers and banks nationwide as searing temperatures sweep across the country, state media reported.

The decision came after the meteorological office forecast temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in many cities, and hovering around 50 degrees Celsius in the southwest.

State broadcaster IRIB has said many cities including in the provinces of Ilam, Bushehr, and Khuzestan have seen temperatures rise above 45 degrees Celsius in recent days. 

The cabinet agreed to the health ministry proposal to declare Wednesday and Thursday public holidays all over the country to protect public health, the official IRNA news agency quoted government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi as saying. 

IRNA said the decision was taken because of what it described as an unprecedented heatwave across the country.

According to IRIB, Dehloran city in western Iran recorded the highest temperature of 50 degrees Celsius in Iran over the past 24 hours. 

It added that temperatures were expected to rise in the north as well, including in the city of Ardabil as well as at the southern shores of the Caspian sea. 

The health ministry has warned of the risks of heatstroke from over-exposure to the sun, and urged people to stay indoors between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm.

Health ministry spokesman Pedram Pakain described the number of heat-related illnesses in recent days as alarming.

In June, Iran changed summer working hours for government employees who now start earlier, in order to save electricity in offices when temperatures peak.

The southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan has been among the hardest hit by the heatwave.

Around 1,000 people have received hospital treatment there in recent days because of rising temperatures and dust storms, IRNA said.

The region has long faced severe water shortages, which triggered protests on Monday over an upstream dam in neighbouring Afghanistan restricting water flow, the Tasnim news agency said.

Iran, with a population of more than 85 million, is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change and the rise in global temperatures.

Like nearby countries, it has suffered extreme dry spells and heatwaves for years, which are expected to worsen as climate change continues.

It has also endured repeated droughts as well as regular flooding, a phenomenon made worse when torrential rain falls on sun-baked earth. 

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Paris The Yazidis, who Britain on Tuesday officially acknowledged as victims of acts of genocide by the Islamic State (IS), are a Kurdish-speaking ethno-religious minority found mainly in Iraq.

IS jihadists carried out horrific violence against the community in 2014, killing men en masse and abducting thousands of girls and women as sex slaves.

Here are some key facts about the Yazidis:

Ancient faith

The Yazidis are followers of an ancient religion that emerged in Iran more than 4,000 years ago and is rooted in Zoroastrianism.

Over time it has also absorbed elements of Islam and Christianity.

Organised into three castes sheikhs, pirs, and murids Yazidis pray to God facing the sun and worship his seven angels, led by Melek Taus, or Peacock Angel.

Their holiest site is Lalish, a stone complex of shrines and natural springs in Iraqs mountainous northwest.

Yazidis discourage marriage outside of their community and across their caste system.

Their beliefs and practices include a ban on eating lettuce and wearing the colour blue. Some Muslims wrongly accuse them of being devil worshippers.

The community was persecuted during Ottoman times and also under Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Hunted by IS

Of the worlds nearly 1.5 million Yazidis, the largest number 550,000 lived in Iraq before the IS offensive in 2014.

The Sunni extremists attacked the Yazidi bastion of Sinjar in August 2014, killing more than 1,200 people, leaving several hundred children orphaned and destroying nearly 70 shrines, according to local authorities.

A further 6,400 Yazidis were abducted, around half of whom were rescued or managed to flee.

After the massacres, some 100,000 Yazidis fled to Europe, the United States, Australia and Canada, according to the UN.

Among those who found refuge in Germany was 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad who was captured, raped and forced to marry a jihadist before she was able to escape.

Genocide label

In May 2021, a special UN investigation team said it had collected clear and convincing evidence that IS had committed genocide against the Yazidis.

Six months later, a German court was the first in the world to recognise crimes against the Yazidi community as genocide.

On Tuesday, Britains government officially acknowledged that IS had committed acts of genocide against the Yazidis.

Germanys lower house of parliament in January also recognised the 2014 massacres as genocide, following similiar moves in Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The post Iraqs Yazidis: a quiet minority targeted by Islamic State appeared first on Iraqi News.

London The British government on Tuesday officially acknowledged that the Islamic State group committed acts of genocide against Iraqi Yazidis in 2014.

The Yazidis whose pre-Islamic religion made them the target of IS extremists were subjected to massacres, forced marriages and sex slavery during the jihadists 2014-15 rule in the northern Iraq province of Sinjar, the Yazidis traditional home.

The UK foreign office made the announcement ahead of events to mark the nine year anniversary of atrocities committed by the Islamic State against the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi minority in Iraq.

The UK has today formally acknowledged that acts of genocide were committed against the Yazidi people by Daesh in 2014, the statement said, using another name for IS.

So far, the UK has acknowledged only four other instances where genocide has occurred, the Holocaust, Rwanda, Srebrenica, and acts of genocide in Cambodia.

The Yazidi population suffered immensely at the hands of Daesh nine years ago and the repercussions are still felt to this day, UKs Middle East minister Tariq Ahmad said in the statement.

Justice and accountability are key for those whose lives have been devastated, he added.

Murad Ismael, co-founder of global Yazidi organisation Yazda, hailed the UK recognition as an important step.

Acknowledgement is the heart of justice process and helping victims to heal from the deep wounds of this genocide, he told AFP.

I am pleased that the UK government has formally recognised the horrors suffered by the Yazidis as genocide, said Nadia Murad, a Yazidi Nobel Peace Prize Laureate campaigning against the use of sexual violence in war, particularly against the Yazidis.

I hope that the British government will now begin to seek justice for the victims by holding British-born fighters to account, she added.

The world cannot afford to let ISIS members walk free. It sends a message to the world that you can murder and rape with impunity.

German court ruling

The official UK recognition follows a German court judgement which found a former IS fighter guilty of acts of genocide in Iraq.

The UKs position has always been that determinations of genocide should be made by competent courts, according to the statement.

In a landmark trial, a Frankfurt court in November 2021 sentenced Taha al-Jumailly to life in jail for crimes including the murder of a five-year-old Yazidi girl in Iraq.

Prosecutors said al-Jumailly in 2015 chained the enslaved child outdoors in extreme heat, leading to her dying of thirst.

Activists hailed the court ruling as a historic win.

The verdict was upheld after the German Federal Court of Justice this January rejected the defendants appeal.

Germany is one of the few countries to have taken legal action against IS.

The UKs lower house of parliament, the House of Commons, had unanimously voted to condemn the ISs treatment of Yazidis and Christians in Iraq as amounting to genocide in 2016, in a rare instance of parliamentary determination of genocide.

The foreign ministry had refused to acknowledge the genocide then, in keeping with a long-standing policy on the determination of genocide by courts rather than governments.

Nearly six years since Iraq declared victory over IS, many Yazidis have still not been able to return to Sinjar.

Thousands still live in precarious conditions in camps for displaced people.

Those who have returned face an unstable security situation and inadequate or nonexistent public services.

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Dubai The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it would allow environmental activists to assemble peacefully at this years UN climate talks, despite a prohibition on unauthorised protests in the Gulf state.

The oil-rich UAE, set to host COP28 from November to December in the business hub of Dubai, requires official permission for protests but effectively bans demonstrations it deems disruptive.

At the upcoming UN climate talks there will be space available for climate activists to assemble peacefully and make their voices heard, it said.

The announcement was made in a joint statement with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) released on Tuesday and published by the UAEs official WAM news agency.

The statement was released after COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber and UNFCCC chief Simon Stiell signed a bilateral agreement in Abu Dhabi that provides the legal basis for organising and hosting the climate talks.

We are firmly committed to ensuring that UN values are upheld at COPs, the statement quoted Stiell as saying.

Tuesdays announcement was welcomed by campaign group Climate Action Network International which commended the COP28 Presidency for their dedicated efforts towards fostering an inclusive climate summit.

But it warned that it would resist any attempts to curtail (civil society) participation, according to Harjeet Singh, its head of global political strategy.

Our unwavering conviction is clear: there can be no climate justice without human rights, Singh told AFP.

Rights record

The UAE is a major oil producer and one of the worlds largest emitters of CO2 per capita.

The choice for it to host COP28 has sparked criticism from environmental groups which warn that the involvement of a major oil exporter could slow progress in the fight against global warming.

Non-government groups including Human Rights Watch have also warned that the Gulf states restrictions on freedom of expression could hinder the meaningful participation of climate activists.

Civil society actors will struggle to effectively play their role in pushing for ambitious action to address the climate crisis in a country whose government has such an abysmal human rights record, HRW warned in a March report.

Large protests have been common at most previous COPs, and limited rallies were allowed at the last UN climate talks in Egypt, where authorities regularly crack down on demonstrations and detain activists.

The COP27 Egypt host faced criticism over restrictions that made for a tight protest space, where activists had to request accreditation 36 hours in advance, and provide detailed information on the organisers and on the protest.

Approved demonstrations were allowed only during certain hours, and in a specific purpose-built area that saw a heavy security presence.

It was a far cry from COP26 in Glasgow, where tens of thousands of demonstrators from all over the world marched to demand climate justice.

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Tests showed that an Indian-made cold medication sold in Iraq contained toxic chemicals, the latest in a series of alarming revelations about syrup medicines used by children around the world, according to Bloomberg News.

A Cold Out bottle bought at a pharmacy in Baghdad in March contained 2.1 percent ethylene glycol, according to Valisure LLC, an independent US laboratory, Bloomberg News reported.

Bloombergs report explained that the ethylene glycol percentage in the Indian medication is about 21 times the widely accepted limit.

The compound is lethal to humans in small amounts and played a role in mass child deaths caused by Indian-made cough syrups in Gambia and Uzbekistan last year, as mentioned in the report.

Bloomberg mentioned that it shared the test results with the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as Iraqi and Indian officials on July 8.

The report illustrated that the WHO found Valisures test results to be acceptable and that it will issue an alert if the Iraqi government confirms the product was sold there.

Bloomberg added that its the fifth time in a year that testing has found an Indian exporters drugs to contain excessive levels of ethylene glycol.

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Ministry of Oil announced on Tuesday that oil export revenues during July exceeded $8 billion, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.

According to row data issued by the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), the total exports of crude oil during July were more than 106.75 million barrels, with revenues estimated at $8.3 billion.

SOMO data revealed that the total quantities of crude oil exported during July from oil fields in central and southern Iraq were 105,487,610 barrels; the quantities exported to Jordan were 344,804 barrels; and oil exports from the Al-Qayyarah oilfield in Nineveh governorate in northern Iraq were 922,755 barrels.

The average price per barrel was more than $77.69, compared to more than $71.75 in July.

The average daily quantity exported from Iraq exceeded 3.44 million barrels per day.

The countrys oil export revenues in June were about $7.11 billion, compared to more than $7.3 billion in May.

In April, Iraqs oil export revenues exceeded $7.69 billion, according to an official statement.

The total exports of crude oil during March exceeded 100.9 million barrels, with revenues slightly exceeding $7.5 billion.

Crude oil exports during February were a little more than 92.25 million barrels with revenues exceeding $7.62 billion, while in January, Iraq exported more than 101.24 million barrels with $7.66 billion in revenues.

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Baghdad Iraqs economy continued its oil-driven recovery after the sharp pandemic-induced recession in 2020, but non-oil sectors have stagnated, and growth constraints have reemerged. Despite a record oil windfall and a long-awaited new budget, Iraq nevertheless remains at risk of missing the opportunity to push ahead overdue reforms that are critical to boost private sector growth and create the millions of jobs needed in the next decade.

The Spring/Summer 2023 edition of the Iraq Economic Monitor, titled Reemerging Pressures: Iraqs Recovery at Risk , finds that real gross domestic product (GDP) growth accelerated to 7.0 percent in 2022 driven by the oil sector, but fell to 2.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. Consumer price inflation, which had moderated in 2022, ticked up in early 2023, fueled by the depreciation of the Iraqi dinar in the parallel market.

Favorable oil market dynamics in the first nine months of 2022 brought total reserves, excluding gold, up to a record US$89.0 billion, though the trend slowed in early 2023. More recently, Iraqs newly approved 2023-2025 budget signals a significant expansionary fiscal stance that could lead to a rapid depletion of the oil windfall and renewed fiscal pressures. It also defers longstanding structural reforms needed to develop a vibrant and sustainable economy.

The Iraq Economic Monitor concludes that without structural reforms Iraqs highly oil dependent development model is set to endure. Overall GDP is forecasted to contract by 1.1 percent in 2023, driven by a projected 4.4 percent contraction of oil GDP given the agreed OPEC+ production quotas for the year. A low appetite for reforms, even amid softening oil prices, would do little to reduce public sector dominance and increase non-oil growth potential and job creation, thereby constraining long-term economic growth prospects.

Stronger risks lie ahead for Iraqs economy, largely due to unaddressed deep structural challenges, that leave it highly vulnerable to oil shocks, inflationary pressures, heightened climate change impacts and further commodity price volatility, which would intensify existing poverty trends and raise food insecurity.

Iraq is emerging strongly after years of turmoil, but it cannot continue to rely solely on oil windfalls for short-term relief. Short of a strong political commitment to adopt and implement necessary reforms it has itself advocated for a long time now, Iraq runs the risk of rapidly depleting its reserves and returning to square one in a very short time, said Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank Middle East Country Director. Urgent action is needed to accelerate economic diversification, address pre-existing drivers of economic fragility and pressing climate related challenges, and secure the long-term welfare of the Iraqi people.

The Special Focus of the Iraq Economic Monitor, titled Financial Intermediation in Iraq, examines Iraqs financial sector landscape, and finds that its dominant undercapitalized state-owned banks and weak private commercial banking sector remain major barriers to economic diversification. The report underscores the importance of banking reforms and promoting digital financial services to increase financial intermediation and promote financial inclusion. These recommendations aim to transform the financial sector into a catalyst for economic diversification.

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Peshawar The leader of an influential Pakistan political party called Tuesday for better state-provided security after an Islamic State suicide bomber killed 54 people almost half of them children at an election gathering.

Around 400 members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) party a key government coalition partner were meeting Sunday when a bomber detonated a vest packed with explosives and ball bearings.

JUI-Fs leader, firebrand cleric Fazl-ur-Rehman, questioned how such a significant intelligence failure could have occurred. 

The entire nation is turning to the state institutions responsible for its security, he said in a statement posted to Twitter.

Where are they? When will they listen to us? When will they heal our wounds? When will they establish a system that safeguards our future generations?

Rehman said Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam was a peaceful party, but even patience and endurance have their limits.

Nonetheless, I urge my supporters not to abandon patience and endurance, he said.

Rehman started political life as a firebrand Islamist hardliner, and while his party continues to advocate for socially conservative policies, he has more recently forged alliances with secular rivals. 

In the past, he has also helped facilitate talks between the government and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an IS rival that has since 2007 waged a bloody campaign of bombings and other attacks across the country.

Rising militancy

Sundays attack occurred in the town of Khar, 45 kilometres (28 miles) from the Afghan border, in an area where militancy has been rising since the Afghan Taliban who are allied with but distinct from the TTP took control of Kabul in 2021.

The blast has raised fears Pakistan could be in for a bloody election period following months of political chaos prompted by the ousting of Imran Khan as prime minister in April last year.

Parliament is likely to be dissolved after it completes its term in the next two weeks, with national elections to be held by mid-November.

Last year, IS said it was behind attacks against religious scholars affiliated with JUI-F, which has a huge network of mosques and schools in the north and west of Pakistan.

IS accuses the JUI-F of hypocrisy for being a religious party while supporting secular governments and the military.

While Rehmans party never musters more than a dozen or so seats in parliament, it can be crucial in any coalition and his ability to mobilise tens of thousands of religious school students grants him additional clout.

Violence has been rising across Pakistan in recent months.

In January, a suicide bomber linked to Pakistans Taliban blew himself up in a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 officers.

Militant assaults have focused on regions abutting Afghanistan, and Islamabad alleges some are being planned on Afghan soil a charge Kabul denies.

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Hong Kong Banking giant HSBC said on Tuesday that pre-tax profit more than doubled to $21.7 billion in the first half of 2023, boosted by higher interest rates.

The massive jump from $8.8 billion in the same period a year ago came as central banks around the world have ramped up borrowing costs to fight inflation, helping inflation lenders income.

HSBC said revenue jumped $12.3 billion to $36.9 billion.

We have delivered a strong first-half performance and are confident of achieving our revised mid-teens return on tangible equity target in 2023 and 2024, chief executive Noel Quinn said in a statement.

There was good broad-based profit generation around the world, higher revenue in our global businesses driven by strong net interest income, and continued tight cost control, chief executive Noel Quinn said in a statement.

The firm also said second-quarter earnings came in better than forecast, jumping almost 90 percent to $8.8 billion, thanks to the bumper income from surging interest rates.

With regards the outlook, it said: Given the current market consensus for global central bank rates, we have raised our 2023 full-year guidance for net interest income to above $35 billion.

HSBC continued to sharpen its focus on Asia for diversification of revenue.

With around two-thirds of its revenue from the region, the lender has sold its Canadian, French retail and Greek businesses, exiting from Russia and downsizing personal banking in New Zealand.

The group said to grow income by investing in wealth business, especially in Asia, would be a key strategic priority to diversify its revenue.  

In May it defeated an activist proposal supported by its largest stakeholder, Chinese insurer Ping An, to spin off the banks Asia business in a search of better returns.

Ping An, which has a stake of more than eight percent in the bank, argued that the lender lags behind international peers and that a recent improvement in performance was tied mainly to rising interest rates, which it claims have peaked.

Ping An had called on HSBC to engage in a strategic restructuring that would see it create a separately-listed bank headquartered in Hong Kong.

The proposal was voted down more than 80 percent of the voting shareholders.

In June the firm relaunched the newly acquired British arm of collapsed US lender Silicon Valley Bank as part of a major push into technology and life sciences.

The firm rebranded SVB UK as HSBC Innovation Banking, it said in a statement, three months after it bought the unit in a rescue deal for 1 ($1.20).

Tuesdays report was welcomed by shareholders, with shares in HSBC jumping 1.5 percent to a four-year high in Hong Kong afternoon trade.

The stock has soared by more than a third this year, far outpacing the broader Hang Seng Index.  

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Moscow A Ukrainian drone downed by Russia on Tuesday struck a Moscow office tower that was also hit over the weekend, as multiple other drones were downed, Russian officials said. 

Several drones were shot down by air defence systems while trying to fly to Moscow. One (drone) flew into the same tower in (Moscow) City as last time. The facade on the 21st floor was damaged, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.

There is no information on casualties, he said, adding that emergency services were on the scene.

On Sunday, Russia said it had downed Ukrainian drones targeting the capital in an attack that damaged two office towers in Moscow-City, a commercial development. 

Russias defence ministry blamed Tuesdays attack on Ukraine, saying that multiple facilities in the Moscow region had been targeted.

Two Ukrainian (unmanned aerial vehicles) were destroyed by air defence systems over the territory of the Odintsovo and Narofominsk districts of Moscow region, the ministry said in a statement. 

Another drone was suppressed by electronic warfare and, having lost control, crashed on the territory of the Moscow-City non-residential building complex.

Shortly after the drone attack, Moscows Vnukovo international airport was briefly closed, TASS state news agency reported.

Vnukovo was temporarily closed for arrivals and departures, the planes are redirected to other airports, emergency services said, according to TASS, which later reported that it had resumed normal operations.

The same airport was briefly closed after Sundays attack, and earlier this month, a volley of drone attacks disrupted air traffic at Vnukovo, to the citys southwest.

Moscow and its environs, located about 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border, had rarely been targeted during the conflict in Ukraine until several drone attacks this year. 

Tuesdays attack is the latest in a series of drone assaults including on the Kremlin and Russian towns near the border with Ukraine that Moscow has blamed on Kyiv. 

War returning to Russia

On Monday, a missile strike on a residential building killed six and wounded dozens in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys hometown of Kryvyi Rig.

A day earlier, Zelensky had warned that war was coming to Russia.

Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process, Zelensky said Sunday.

The Kremlin on Monday called the recent strikes on the capital an act of desperation by Ukraine following setbacks on the battlefield. 

Ukraine began its long-awaited counteroffensive in June but has made modest advances in the face of stiff resistance from Russian forces on the frontline.

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Hong Kong Asian investors started August in the same way they ended July, with gains across markets that followed Wall Streets lead, fuelled by a general sense of optimism about the economic outlook.

Bets on the Federal Reserve calling it a day on its interest rate hiking cycle have been a key driver of buying for weeks as inflation continues to drop while the economy remains robust.

That has been compounded by Chinas recent promises of stimulus measures to kickstart growth, as a string of data showed the countrys post-Covid recovery has all but puffed out.

Traders are now keeping a close eye on earnings this week from tech titans Apple and Amazon, and US jobs at the end of the week that could provide an idea about the Feds thinking.

The central banks of Britain and Australia are also due to announce rate decisions.

On Monday, Chicago Fed boss Austan Goolsbee left open the possibility of pausing or stopping interest rate hikes at the banks next policy meeting in September.

Thus far were on the golden path and weve got to walk that line, Goolsbee told Yahoo! Finance, referring to the path of lowering inflation without triggering a major recession.

He said the slowdown in inflation was fabulous news, echoing comments from Minneapolis chief Neel Kashkari, who called the readings quite positive.

As we approach the middle of summer, there is a prevailing belief among people on the street that the Federal Reserve has probably made its final rate hike in the current cycle, said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management.

This is due to the evident decrease in inflation pressures.

The current economic conditions, including decreasing inflation, a pause in Federal Reserve tightening, and steady or increasing growth, could create an ideal situation for the stock market.

All three main indexes on Wall Street ended on a positive note, with the S&P 500 at a 16-month high.

And the rally filtered through to Asia, where Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Manila all pushed higher.

Data out of China showing the countrys factory activity shrank last month reinforced expectations the government will continue to unveil economic support measures.

On Monday, officials announced a 20-point plan to boost consumption, touching on housing, culture and tourism.

The announcement comes after top leaders last week said in a meeting the economy was facing new difficulties and challenges and agreed to implement precise and effective macroeconomic regulation, strengthen countercyclical regulation and policy reserves.

With the mood among investors broadly positive, analysts who had warned of another tough week for markets were changing their outlooks.

Michael Wilson at Morgan Stanley had been downbeat but now sees more legs in the latest rally.

The challenges companies have endured stubborn inflation, weak markets, and sluggishness internationally are no longer headwinds, he said. 

Now, were not only seeing tailwinds heading into 2024, but were getting less disruptive reactions in the stock market following earnings reports.

On currency markets, the yen weakened further as the Bank of Japans decision to loosen its grip on monetary policy failed to provide support.

The central banks tweak means its policy is still much looser than others and observers say it will likely be so for some time.

Key figures around 0230 GMT

Tokyo Nikkei 225: UP 0.7 percent at 33,418.53 (break)  

Hong Kong Hang Seng Index: UP 1.0 percent at 20,283.06 

Shanghai Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 3,304.99 

Dollar/yen: UP at 142.72 yen from 142.28 yen on Monday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0986 from $1.0997 

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2819 from $1.2834 

Euro/pound: UP at 85.70 from 85.67 pence 

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.2 percent at $81.67 per barrel 

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $85.27 per barrel 

New York Dow: UP 0.3 percent at 35,559.53 (close)

London FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 7,699.41 (close)

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