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Finland’s prime minister said yesterday the country will shut its last border crossing with Russia, following an influx of migrants which Helsinki claims is a hybrid attack orchestrated by Moscow.Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said the closure would come into effect overnight between today and tomorrow and last until December 13.The Nordic country, which shares a 1,340km border with Russia, has seen a surge in undocumented migrants from third countries seek asylum on its border with Russia in November.From the start of August, nearly 1,000 migrants have entered Finland without a visa through the eastern border crossing points.“Finland is the target of a Russian hybrid operation. This is a matter of national security,” Rantanen said.Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko yesterday said Finland’s decision to close its border was “simply irrational”, according to Russian media outlets.Last week, Finland’s northernmost eastern border station, Raja-Jooseppi in the Arctic, became the sole crossing point with Russia, following the closure of the other seven by the Nordic country.The Finnish border with Russia is both the European Union’s and Nato’s external border.Asylum seekers will only be able to apply for protection at “open border crossing points for air and maritime traffic”, meaning ports and airports, according to a government statement.“This is an organised activity, not a genuine emergency,” Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said of the surge.He added that the “ease with which the migrants found their way to the remote border crossing point at Raja-Jooseppi is also evidence of this”.“It is not just the number of arrivals that is at issue, but the phenomenon itself,” Orpo said.Finland’s relations with its eastern neighbour soured after the invasion of Ukraine.After Finland acceded to the US-led military alliance Nato in April, reversing its decades-long policy of military non-alignment, Russia warned of “countermeasures”.The influx of migrants on its border has pushed Finland to balance its national security with its international obligations.Last week, the government sought to completely shut the border but the proposal was blocked as disproportionate by Finland’s Chancellor of Justice.While the border can be closed in exceptional circumstances it has to be proportionate and some access points for asylum seekers have to be ensured.Despite being a drastic measure, the government’s proposal to restrict asylum seekers to ports and airports passed scrutiny, and was backed by officials citing intelligence on increasing migration.Asked whether Finland would let migrants endure freezing conditions without granting them entry across the border, Orpo said that “without the changed policy of the Russian authorities, this phenomenon would not exist”.“We trust the Border Guard’s judgement and ability to respond to different situations,” Orpo said.Rantanen said the migrants have “a responsibility in deciding whether they come to the border or not”.“Our message is clear. Do not come. The border is closed,” she added.The Border Guard said that so far the pressure had been focused on the crossing points and not Finland’s long wilderness border, most of which has only a light wildlife fence.Anticipating that Moscow could use migrants as political pressure, Finland in February began building a 200km fence along its Russian border.But only 3km of the fence is finished. Even with the border fully closed, it remains uncertain how Finland would deal with those crossing illegally.From a legal standpoint, a migrant is entitled to submit an asylum application even if they enter illegally.

iPhone maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co plans to expand its footprint in India with another NT$50bn ($1.6bn) investment for construction projects.The announcement, made in an exchange filing in Taiwan late Monday, didn’t give any further details, saying only that the investment was for “operational needs.” A spokesperson for the company declined to say where the new facilities would be or what they would build.The news comes as Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, and other Taiwanese electronics manufacturers continue to diversify their businesses outside of China as tensions rise between Washington and Beijing.About half of Foxconn’s revenue comes from business with Apple Inc. The company has been making iPhones and other products in India for several years, including the latest iPhone 15. In September, a Foxconn representative in India said on LinkedIn that the Taiwanese company plans to double the size of its business in the South Asian country.India’s Karnataka state government in August announced that Foxconn planned to invest $600mn on two component factories in the southern Indian state. That included a plant that will make mechanical enclosures for iPhones and a semiconductor equipment manufacturing plant it will operate with Applied Materials Inc, the government said at the time.Those two projects are on top of a $700mn facility Foxconn aims to build on a 300-acre (121 hectares) site close to the airport in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, Bloomberg News previously reported. That plant is likely to assemble iPhones.It was not immediately clear if the latest investment announcement is to cover those projects or additional ones.Foxconn already operates nine production campuses and more than 30 factories employing tens of thousands of people in India, where it takes in around $10bn of revenue annually.

The far-right, anti-Islam party of firebrand politician Geert Wilders has won a stunning victory in the Dutch election, near-complete results showed, a political bombshell that will resound in Europe and around the world.Wilders and his eurosceptic Freedom Party (PVV) beat all predictions on Wednesday night by winning 37 seats out of 150 in the Dutch parliament, well ahead of a Labour/Green combination and the outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservatives.Dutch Muslims expressed shock yesterday.“These election results are shocking for Dutch Muslims. We did not expect such a party with a programme that is against the basic principles of the rule of law to be so big,” said Muhsin Koktas of Muslim organisation CMO.Muslims make up around 5% of the Dutch population of almost 18mn people.“It was a blow I have to process,” Abessamad Taheri, a 45-year-old community worker in the multi-ethnic Schilderswijk neighbourhood in The Hague told Reuters.Mehdi Koc, a 41-year-old insulation installer, said he was shocked by the swing to the PVV, while Taheri said the vote sent different messages to Muslims, although the overwhelming emotion was of disappointment.“In part the message is that many people are xenophobic and don’t want foreigners or Muslims. But another message is that people are very disappointed in 13 years of Rutte,” he said.However, Taheri, a member of the Labour party, said he could not really separate that from all the “nasty things” Wilders had said about banning head scarves and closing mosques.After his surprise win, Wilders said he wanted to be prime minister for all Dutch people, but that appeared to do little to assuage concerns about what he might do later.“If you say yes to Wilders now, than you will have to say yes later when he closes down all the mosques, because then you cannot go back,” Koc said, warning that Wilders will not lose sight of his eventual goals.Some in the Netherlands think that the Dutch system of coalition government means Wilders will have to compromise on his most radical views, as political analysts also predict.“He will not make the laws alone (other parties) will join and they have to co-operate,” Kemal Yildiz, 54, said. “It will be fine.”The shock victory of Wilders’s eurosceptic party in Dutch elections sent a political tremor through Brussels, seven months ahead of crucial EU elections.Despite Wilders’s promise to hold a “Nexit” referendum, pro-European parties do not yet fear that the Netherlands is going to follow Britain in quitting the European Union.However, his first place finish in a core member of the union is a reminder that populist parties are expected to grow in strength in next year’s European Parliament elections.“The European Union is in danger of death from within and without,” socialist MEP Raphael Glucksmann said in an interview with the France 2 network, warning that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin would be celebrating Wilders’s triumph.“Elections take place at regular intervals in the member states. And this does not, per se, put in doubt in any way the membership of any country to the European Union,” European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said. “We continue to count on the Netherlands strong participation in in the European Union, obviously.”Wilders’s PVV may not be able to build a coalition to make him prime minister so he can join the other 26 EU members at their summits.And his hardline plans to expel immigrants would be unlikely to survive legal challenges in the Dutch or European courts.However, Europe’s support for Ukraine, grand plans to fight climate change and efforts to build a joint strategic position in the face of crises like the Gaza war could be endangered.European elections to be held in June will be a new test of Wilders’s popularity.The Netherlands is the seventh most populous EU country and its MEPs – along with right-wingers from countries like Poland, Italy, France and Hungary – could form a powerful group.“We can expect at least a consolidation of right-wing populists, even an increase in their number of seats in the European Parliament, said Nathalie Brack of Brussels Free University.The PVV does not have any seats in the current parliament, but next year they could join the National Rally (RN) of France’s Marine Le Pen and Germany’s AFD in the assembly’s Identity and Democracy group.That is what the European far-right hopes for.“Bring on June 2024!” exclaimed French RN MEP Jordan Bardella, in a social media post hailing Wilders’s win as a “beautiful defeat” for supporters of immigration and Islamism.The larger ECR group of eurosceptic parties, currently dominated by Poland’s PiS and Spain’s Vox, could also benefit from a populist surge, the political scientist Brack told AFP.The ECR already has 67 seats and could pass the Greens, currently on 72, thanks to what she called “a generalised discontent” with traditional centre parties.“There is even the chance that ECR becomes the third group in parliament if, for example, the liberals are punished at the polls,” she said.Traditionally, European legislation moves forward backed by a broad coalition of the pro-European centre right and centre left.If such groups did not have a working majority, law-making could grind to a halt and the most ambitious plans of supporters of the “ever closer union” would be halted or reversed.

Tokyo’s well-kept streets may not be the most obvious place to do it, but competitive litter-hunters yesterday sifted through the Japanese capital in their first world championship.The Spogomi World Cup saw 21 countries battle it out to collect the most rubbish within a set time limit, scouring the streets in search of plastic, cigarette butts and other trash.Spogomi founder Kenichi Mamitsuka started to pick up litter on his morning runs and realised that setting targets could turn it into a fun activity.He organised his first competition 15 years ago, taking the title from the words “sport” and “gomi” — Japanese for rubbish.He said watching the event’s maiden world championship was “like a dream”, but he optimistically believes it can grow to an even bigger scale.“If you form national spogomi associations, my ambition is that it could become an Olympic demonstration event,” he told AFP in front of a portion of the almost 550kg of rubbish collected by participants.Armed with gloves, metal tongs and plastic rubbish bags, each team of three roamed a roughly five-square-kilometre collection area in Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya district.Running, ransacking existing litter bins and shadowing other teams were all forbidden, with each team followed by a referee to enforce the rules.In both of the morning and afternoon sessions, they had 45 minutes to hunt out rubbish and another 20 to sort it into categories.Points were awarded based on volume and type, with small items such as cigarette ends scoring highly. Australia’s Petrya Williams said that her team had “found some great spots that are like treasure maps”.“I think we’ve got it for the next round, we know where to look,” she said, as she and her team-mates waited to weigh their haul.Each team had to earn the right to represent their country in Tokyo by winning national competitions.Reasons for their involvement varied. Australia’s Jamie Gray said his team belonged to a meditation group and “clean-up is part of our philosophy”.France’s team arrived with something of an advantage — all three members work in the refuse collection industry.“We have a flair for it,” said Usman Khan, 32.At the end of the day, Britain were declared the winners after collecting 83 kg of rubbish.South Africa’s Philippe Louis de Froberville said Tokyo’s relatively clean streets made it “harder to find the rubbish than in the competition back home”.But he believes competitive collecting can “get really big”, and thinks schools are a good place to start.“That’s where you’re going to get your people,” said the 33-year-old from Durban, who says his passion for surfing and the ocean got him involved in collecting rubbish.“If you start when you’re young, you’re going to want to do it when you’re older and you’re going to want to look after your environment.”Spogomi founder Mamitsuka believes changing the way people think about rubbish is key.He says that people thought he was “making fun of activities that contribute to society” at first.But then he began to hear stories about people getting involved and passing on good habits to their children.“It made me think that I should keep going,” he added.“Our target is to have spogomi events in 50 countries by 2030.”

Altman returns as OpenAI CEO after tumultuous ousterOpenAI revamps board with Bret Taylor as new chairSam Altman (pictured) is returning as CEO of OpenAI just days after his ouster, capping frenzied discussions about the future of the startup at the centre of an artificial intelligence boom.The ChatGPT maker also unveiled a new initial board with former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor as chair and Larry Summers, former US Treasury Secretary, and Adam D’Angelo as directors. D’Angelo was part of the original board that had dismissed Altman.The return of Altman could potentially usher in a new era for the startup which had long juggled concerns among staff about AI’s dangers and its potential for commercialisation.“i’m looking forward to returning to openai,” Altman said in a post on the X social media platform late on Tuesday.The original board had given scant explanation for Altman’s firing on Friday other than his lack of candour and its need to defend OpenAI’s mission to develop AI that benefits humanity.Analysts said the reshuffle will favour Altman and Microsoft, which has pledged billions of dollars to the startup and is rolling out its technology to its customers globally.“There are still huge questions about why Altman was fired and why Microsoft had been kept in the dark about the decision,” said Danni Hewson, AJ Bell’s head of financial analysis.“What does seem clear is that Microsoft will now play a much bigger role, that the partnership will become stronger and the two companies more integrated.”Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella welcomed the changes.“We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance,” he said on X.Microsoft shares rose nearly 1% in premarket US trading.It was not immediately clear if the previous board directors who hold no equity in OpenAI would retain their seats, or if the backers of its capped-profit subsidiary — such as 49% owner Microsoft — would ultimately win board appointments.Unlike most Silicon Valley startups, OpenAI is overseen by a nonprofit parent board designed to ensure AI safety is given priority alongside growth. It created the capped-profit unit in 2019 to raise funds and grant stock options to its employees.“The return of Altman consolidates his influence over the direction of OpenAI, and probably means it will be more bold and profit focused, but also potentially less risk averse,” said Kyle Rodda, analyst at Capital.com.Spokespeople for the startup did not immediately respond to a request for comment.OpenAI’s previous board consisted of Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner and OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever and Quora CEO D’Angelo, who is part of the revamped board.Reuters earlier reported some shareholders were exploring legal recourse after the turmoil threatened the future of OpenAI, recently expected to have an over $80bn valuation.Tuesday’s moves reassured some investors.“We believe this is the best outcome for the company,” said Thrive Capital, a backer of OpenAI.Altman’s dramatic turnaround drew comparisons in Silicon Valley lore to Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO who left the computer maker in a 1985 power struggle only to return 12 years later.Altman took back the CEO mantle after four days.His departure triggered a major upheaval at OpenAI, with President Greg Brockman quitting in protest. By Sunday, Altman was back at OpenAI’s offices expecting his swift reappointment, when the board surprised again by naming ex-Twitch boss Emmett Shear as interim CEO.In a post on X on Tuesday, Shear said he worked “72 very intense hours” to bring stability — and ultimately Altman — back to OpenAI. “This was the pathway that maximised safety alongside doing right by all stakeholders involved,” he said.Altman’s master stroke was made possible in part by Microsoft. When he was out of a job, CEO Nadella said Altman could head a new research team alongside Brockman and other colleagues departing from OpenAI. By Monday, nearly all of OpenAI’s over 700-strong staff had threatened to leave and join Microsoft’s effort unless the board stepped down and reinstated Altman, according to a letter reviewed by Reuters.This threat was backed by Microsoft’s vast computing power, the key asset driving OpenAI’s technology along with its staff of computer scientists.Co-founder and President Brockman celebrated with a staff selfie late Tuesday night, having beaten the US Thanksgiving holiday deadline against which parties raced to negotiate.“We will come back stronger & more unified than ever,” he said.

Joe Biden joked about his age as he celebrated his 81st birthday yesterday, but the issue is no laughing matter for many voters as he seeks re-election next year.His birthday renews the focus on the fact that the Democrat is the oldest president in American history — and that if he wins a second term next year he will be 86 by the time he leaves.While his aides regularly lash out at those who cast doubt on whether he is too old to be commander-in-chief, Biden likes to suggest that age brings wisdom, or simply takes a light hearted approach.“It’s difficult turning 60,” the president said with a chuckle at the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House yesterday, the same day as his birthday.“This is the 76th anniversary of this event — and I want you to know I wasn’t there for the first one,” he quipped.But a moment in which he mixed up US singers Taylor Swift and Britney Spears is likely to reinforce impressions among voters who have been concerned by a recent series of trips and slip-ups.Footage of Biden losing his balance on the stairs of Air Force One has gone viral — he now uses a shorter flight of stairs — and he has occasionally given rambling answers during press conferences.Worse for Biden, voters don’t so far have the same concerns about his likely election rival Donald Trump, despite the fact that Trump is 77 and has been known to make similar slip-ups.Trump warned in a speech in September, for example, that the United States was on the verge of “World War II,” and recently said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was the leader of Turkiye.Biden is “not doing a lot wrong” but is struggling to change perceptions on his age — as well as other issues like the economy — said David Karol, who teaches government and politics at the University of Maryland.“He is lucid, but people just have this perception,” Karol told AFP.The White House has been dismissive of opinion polls, with Democrats notching up a series of recent electoral successes. They also point to the fact that Biden beat Trump in 2020 despite Biden being 77 himself at the time.Yet the numbers make grim reading for the party. Some 74% of people said Biden would be too old to serve a second term, compared to 50% for Trump, a recent ABC/Washington Post poll showed.A Yahoo/YouGov poll found that 54% of Americans say Biden no longer has “the competence to carry out the job of president,” up from 41% before the 2020 election.Some analysts say Biden’s age should not matter.The issue in general has been unfairly “weaponised” in US politics, said S Jay Olshansky, a longevity researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago.“Aging is not what it used to be,” Olshansky told AFP.“There are very large segments of the population that survive to their eighth decade perfectly capable of being president, or doing whatever they like.”

Libertarian outsider Javier Milei swept to victory in Argentina’s presidential election Sunday, vowing to halt decades of economic decline in a country reeling from triple-digit inflation.The self-described “anarcho-capitalist” pulled off a massive upset by ousting the populist Peronist coalition which has long dominated Argentine politics.With 55.7% of the vote, Milei thumped his rival, Economy Minister Sergio Massa, who won 44% of the vote and rapidly conceded defeat.“Today begins the reconstruction of Argentina. Today, begins the end of Argentina’s decline,” Milei said in his victory speech. “The model of decadence has come to an end. There is no way back.”Latin America’s third-biggest economy has suffered decades of crises under interventionist governments big on welfare that resort to printing money to finance spending, fuelling inflation, while borrowing heavily only to default on their debt.Access to dollars is strictly controlled, leading to a thriving black market for greenbacks, and analysts warn the peso is ripe for a sharp devaluation.“There is no room for gradualism...or half-measures,” said Milei. Milei’s main platform has been a plan to ditch the ailing peso for the US dollar and “dynamite” the Central Bank to do away with the “cancer of inflation.”Analysts, however, warn the country is too low on dollar reserves for the move to happen anytime soon.“This is the change that us young people want. I am not afraid of Milei, I am afraid my dad won’t be able to pay his rent. The Argentine peso isn’t worth a thing,” said Juan Ignacio Gomez, 17. Thousands of Milei supporters waved flags and chanted “freedom” as they celebrated outside his campaign headquarters.“We are tired of Peronism. Milei is an unknown, but better a madman than a thief,” said 50-year-old writer Nacho Larranaga, wearing the blue-and-white Argentina flag as a cape.Milei, a 53-year-old economist with wild hair and thick sideburns, has drawn comparisons with former US president Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro for his abrasive style and controversial remarks.Both former presidents congratulated him on social media.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington “(looks) forward to working with President-elect Milei and his government on shared priorities.”Milei had vowed on the campaign trail to cut ties with his country’s top trading partners Brazil and China, saying he would not “do business with communists.”Following Milei’s victory, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wished “good luck and success” to the new Argentine government.China said yesterday it would continue working with Argentina, congratulating the president-elect on his victory. “China has always attached great importance to the development of China-Argentina relations from a strategic and long-term perspective,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular briefing.

Clutching a blown-up surgical glove as a makeshift toy, a Palestinian child is stretchered onto a plane to Abu Dhabi — one of the Gaza war’s first evacuees to the United Arab Emirates for urgent medical treatment.In the dead of night at Egypt’s Al Arish airport, near the Rafah border crossing from Gaza, the child is carried carefully from the back of one of six yellow ambulances waiting near the runway, blue lights flashing.A hydraulic platform lifts the wheeled stretchers into the back of a plane until eight children in various stages of injury and distress, some accompanied by relatives, are aboard.These are the lucky ones, spirited away from the dangers and trauma of the Israel-Hamas war to quiet, well-equipped hospitals in Abu Dhabi, capital of UAE.Five thousand children are among Gaza’s dead, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory — an average of about 122 a day — and 30,000 people have been wounded.The initial group of evacuated children, who arrived in Abu Dhabi early yesterday, are the first of an expected 1,000 who will be airlifted to the UAE for medical help. Among the children, one has a fractured spine and another a broken leg. Others have burns, and one needs urgent treatment for cancer. Two more with severe injuries did not board and were expected to join the next flight. The humanitarian airlifts for children could now happen daily, an aid official said.“We would like to carry out daily evacuations because there are injured people, hospitals out of service, and a shortage of medicines,” said Mohamed al-Kaabi from the Emirates Red Crescent humanitarian organisation, describing the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic”.“God willing, during the next week we will have evacuated whomever we can, because time is precious and there are lives we are losing.” On arrival in the morning light of Abu Dhabi, one boy with a braced and bandaged leg, and a weary expression on his face, flashes two fingers in a “Victory” sign as he is carried to a waiting white ambulance.Another young boy aged about three, clutching a white bottle of milk and with his right leg in a bandage, cries as he is pushed across the tarmac in a wheelchair.The airlifts are among a number of humanitarian initiatives by the UAE. The UAE has sent 51 planes carrying 1,400 tonnes of food and relief supplies as part of a $20mn aid package, a foreign ministry statement said.

Jordan’s foreign minister voiced doubt yesterday that Israel could reach its goal of obliterating Hamas with its heavy bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip long dominated by the Palestinian movement.“Israel says it wants to wipe out Hamas. There’s a lot of military people here, I just don’t understand how this objective can be realised,” Ayman Safadi said at the annual IISS Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain.Israel vowed to wipe out Hamas since its October first week cross-border storming into nearby Israeli communities. Israel has bombed much of Gaza City to rubble as it has subdued the north of the enclave and turned to stepping up attacks on Hamas in the south. Regional power Saudi Arabia called at the conference for an immediate Israeli-Hamas ceasefire. “We are seeing civilians dying every day. And we need to end that today, not tomorrow,” said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan. Hamas has vowed a long and sustained battle against Israel.Brett McGurk, US President Joe Biden’s top adviser on the Middle East, told the Manama conference that the release of hostages held by Hamas would lead to a surge in the delivery of humanitarian aid and a significant pause in fighting in Gaza.Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said a long-time failure to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict had spawned the current crisis.“We...must consider that war is also an indication of political and diplomatic failure of the international community; all of us have failed solving this problem,” he said. “And the responsibility falls on all of us to find a solution.” Israel’s blitz of Gaza has raised questions among world and regional powers and the UN over who would govern the densely populated territory at the end of the conflict.Only the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Western-backed entity that exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, could run Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war is over, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.“Hamas cannot be in control of Gaza any longer,” Borrell told the Manama Dialogue, an annual conference on foreign and security policy. “So who will be in control of Gaza? I think only one could do that — the Palestinian Authority.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said the PA could play a role in administering Gaza if there was a full political solution — moves towards Palestinian statehood on lands Israel has occupied since 1967 — that also encompassed the West Bank.Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been frozen since 2014. A senior official from the United Arab Emirates, which reached a US-brokered normalisation accord with Israel in 2020, warned that a drawn-out Gaza conflict could breed radicalisation across the wider Middle East.“The longer the crisis takes, the more danger we have of the crisis spiralling out of control and I think we have to be very, very careful,” said Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president.

SpaceX’s uncrewed spacecraft Starship, developed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, failed in space shortly after lifting off yesterday, cutting short its second test but making it further than an earlier attempt that ended in an explosion.The two-stage rocketship blasted off from the Elon Musk-owned company’s Starbase launch site near Boca Chica in Texas, helping boost the Starship spacecraft as high as 90 miles above ground on a planned 90-minute test mission to space and back.But the rocket’s Super Heavy first stage booster, though it achieved a crucial manoeuvre to separate with its core Starship stage, exploded over the Gulf of Mexico shortly after detaching, a SpaceX webcast showed.Meanwhile, the core Starship stage boosted further toward space, but a few minutes later a company broadcaster said that SpaceX mission control suddenly lost contact with the vehicle.“We have lost the data from the second stage...we think we may have lost the second stage,” SpaceX engineer and livestream host John Insprucker said. He added that engineers believe an automated flight termination command was triggered to destroy the rocket, though the reason was unclear.About eight minutes into the test mission, a camera view tracking the Starship booster appeared to show an explosion that suggested the vehicle failed at that time. The rocket’s altitude was 91 miles.The launch was the second attempt to fly Starship mounted atop its towering Super Heavy rocket booster, following an April attempt that ended in explosive failure about four minutes after lift-off.The US Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees commercial launch sites, confirmed a mishap occurred that “resulted in a loss of the vehicle,” adding no injuries or property damage have been reported.The agency said it will oversee a SpaceX-led investigation into the testing failure and will need to approve SpaceX’s plan to prevent it from happening again.The mission’s objective was to get Starship off the ground in Texas and into space just shy of reaching orbit, then plunge through Earth’s atmosphere for a splashdown off Hawaii’s coast. The launch had been scheduled for Friday but was pushed back by a day for a last-minute swap of flight-control hardware.Starship’s failure to meet all of its test objectives could pose a setback for SpaceX. The FAA will need to review the company’s failure investigation and review its application for a new launch licence. SpaceX officials have complained that such regulatory reviews take too long.On the other hand, the failure in a program for which SpaceX plans to spend roughly $2bn this year was in line with the company’s risk-tolerant culture that embraces fast-paced testing and re-testing of prototypes to hasten design and engineering improvements.“More things were successful than in the previous test, including some new capabilities that were significant,” said Carissa Christensen, CEO of space analytics firm BryceTech.“There’s not money and patience for unlimited tests, but for a vehicle that is so different and so big, two, three, four, five tests is not excessive,” Christensen said.At roughly 43 miles in altitude, the rocket system executed the crucial manoeuvre to separate the two stages — something it failed to do in the last test — with the Super Heavy booster intended to plunge into Gulf of Mexico waters while the core Starship booster blasts further to space using its own engines.But the Super Heavy booster blew up moments later, followed by the Starship stage’s own explosion. SpaceX in a post on social media platform X said “success comes from what we learn,” adding that the core Starship stage’s engines “fired for several minutes on its way to space.”A fully successful test would have marked a key step toward achieving SpaceX’s ambition producing a large, multi-purpose, spacecraft capable of sending people and cargo back to the moon later this decade for Nasa, and ultimately to Mars.

‘Sam Altman built a company from nothing to $90bn in value, and changed our collective world forever’, says former Google chiefThe board of the company behind ChatGPT on Friday fired OpenAI CEO Sam Altman - to many, the human face of generative AI — sending shock waves across the tech industry.OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO, the company said, adding that it will conduct a formal search for a permanent CEO.“Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities,” OpenAI said in the blog without elaborating.Greg Brockman, OpenAI president and co-founder, who stepped down from the board as chairman as part of the management shuffle, quit the company, he announced on messaging platform X late on Friday. “Based on today’s news, i quit,” he wrote.The departures blindsided many employees who discovered the abrupt management change from an internal message and the company’s public facing blog. It came as a surprise to Altman and Brockman as well, who learned the board’s decision within minutes of the announcement, Brockman said.“We too are still trying to figure out exactly what happened,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter, adding, “We will be fine. Greater things coming soon.”The now four-person board consists of three independent directors holding no equity in OpenAI and its Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever. The organisation did not immediately answer a request for comment on Brockman’s claims.Backed by billions of dollars from Microsoft, which does not have a board seat in the non-profit governing the startup, OpenAI kicked off the generative AI craze last November by releasing ChatGPT. The chatbot became one of the world’s fastest-growing software applications.Trained on reams of data, generative AI can create human-like content, helping users spin up term papers, complete science homework and even write entire novels. After ChatGPT’s launch, regulators scrambled to catch up: the European Union revised its AI Act and the US kicked off AI regulation efforts.Altman, who ran Y Combinator, is a serial entrepreneur and investor. He was the face of OpenAI and the wildly popular generative AI technology as he toured the world this year.Altman posted on X shortly after OpenAI published its blog: “i loved my time at openai. it was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. most of all i loved working with such talented people. will have more to say about what’s next later.”Altman did not respond to requests for comment.Murati, who has worked for Tesla, joined OpenAI in 2018 and later became chief technology officer. She oversaw product launches including that of ChatGPT.At an emergency all-hands meeting on Friday afternoon after the announcement, Murati sought to calm employees and said OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft is stable and its backer’s executives, including CEO Satya Nadella, continue to express confidence in the startup, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.The Information previously reported details of the meeting.“Microsoft remains committed to Mira and their team as we bring this next era of AI to our customers,” a spokesperson for the software maker told Reuters on Friday.In a statement published on Microsoft’s website, Nadella said: “We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI...Together, we will continue to deliver the meaningful benefits of this technology to the world.”The shakeup is not the first at OpenAI, launched in 2015. Tesla CEO Elon Musk once was its co-chair, and in 2020 other executives departed, going on to found competitor Anthropic, which has claimed it has a greater focus on AI safety.Well wishers and critics piled onto digital forums as news of the latest shuffle spread.On X, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt called Altman “a hero of mine,” adding, “He built a company from nothing to $90bn in value, and changed our collective world forever. I can’t wait to see what he does next. I, and billions of people, will benefit from his future work — it’s going to be simply incredible.”“This is a shocker and Altman was a key ingredient in the recipe for success of OpenAI,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “That said, we believe Microsoft and Nadella will exert more control at OpenAI going forward with Altman gone.”The full impact of the OpenAI surprise will unfold over time, but its fundraising prospects were an immediate concern. Altman was considered a master fundraiser who managed to negotiate billions of dollars in investment from Microsoft as well as having led the company’s tender offer transactions this year that fuelled OpenAI’s valuation from $29bn to over $80bn.“In the short term it will impair OpenAI’s ability to raise more capital. In the intermediate term it will be a non-issue,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman at hedge fund Great Hill Capital.Other analysts said Altman’s departure, while disruptive, would not derail generative AI’s popularity or OpenAI or Microsoft’s competitive advantage.“The innovation created by OpenAI is bigger than any one or two people, and there is no reason to think this would cause OpenAI to cede its leadership position,” said DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria. “If nothing else, Microsoft’s stake and significant interest in OpenAI’s progress ensure the appropriate leadership changes are being implemented.”As late as Thursday evening, Altman showed no signs of concern at two public events. He joined colleagues in a panel on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) conference in San Francisco, describing his commitment and vision for AI.Later he spoke at a Burning Man-related event in Oakland, California, engaging in an hour-long conversation on the topic of art and AI. Altman seemed relaxed and gave no indication anything was wrong, but left right after his talk was over at 7:30pm.The event organiser said at the event that Altman had another meeting to attend.

Thousands of protesters took part in rallies across Britain and France yesterday calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war. Several thousand people marched through central Paris, in torrential rain, behind a banner proclaiming “Halt the massacre in Gaza and West Bank, immediate ceasefire”.“France must immediately call for a ceasefire so that the guns go silent,” said CGT union secretary-general Sophie Binet, one of several union leaders to speak at the rally. Rallies were held in dozens of towns across France, Binet added. In Marseille, AFP saw several hundred people stage a minute’s silence for Palestinian victims of the war. In Toulouse, more than 1,200 people took part in a march, according to police. Rallies have been held across Europe since October 7. The health ministry in Gaza says that more than 12,000 people have died in the Palestinian territory in Israel’s military onslaught. Last Saturday saw more than 300,000 people stage a pro-Palestinian march in London. Smaller protests were held this week with one targeting an office where main opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer holds meetings. Protesters there waved Palestinian flags and chanted “Ceasefire now”.Some held placards reading “Stop the war in Gaza” and “Starmer — blood on your hands” amid a heavy police presence in the Camden area of north London. “We are here to basically put pressure on the UK government, and on Keir Starmer specifically as the leader of the Labour Party to pressure the Israeli government for a ceasefire,” said Aziz, a 26-year-old consultant originally from Jordan.Starmer — whose party is predicted to win an election expected next year — has refused to call for a permanent ceasefire, sparking a string of resignations from his top team. Instead, the former human rights lawyer has called for a humanitarian pause to Israel’s bombardment to allow aid in for the 2.4mn population.One protester at the London event, Nicoleta, 36, held a placard reading “Bombing hospitals is a crime”.“Because I’m a healthcare provider I’m here to defend the hospitals, the innocent civilians, the children in incubators,” she said.“We need a ceasefire and need peace negotiations and an end to the occupation,” she added.

Rocked gently on his mother’s knees, a fly on his nose, a baby sleeps fitfully in a tent in a barren border camp as his family prepares to leave the waypoint to rebuild their lives in Afghanistan.In the transit camp at Torkham, where returnees driven out of Pakistan sweat in burning heat during the day and shiver through the night, many of the blue tents at the foot of rocky mountains standing stark against a cloudless sky have already emptied.Trucks overloaded with several families, carrying cushions, brightly coloured blankets and kitchen utensils, are readied to set off.Border officials say that at least 210,000 Afghans, including many who have lived decades, if not their whole lives, outside their country, have passed through the Torkham border point since Pakistan ordered those without documents to leave.From the reception camp, they have dispersed to various Afghan provinces with a handout of around 15,000 afghanis ($205) – just enough to support a family for a month.For many, nothing, and no one, awaits them.“We have nowhere to go, we don’t have a house, or land, I don’t have any work,” said Sher Aga, a former security guard in Pakistan.He bundled his nine children and all the family’s belongings into a truck to head north, to Kunduz province, where he was born.However, the 43-year-old has no memory of his homeland, having left Afghanistan when he was five.“I don’t have any family there anymore,” he told AFP. “My children ask me, ‘What country are we going to?’”In a tent that she, her husband and their 10 children are sheltering in, 40-year-old Amina hides her face behind a red headscarf.They are destined for Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province where Torkham is located, and where she has “many brothers”.“I asked my family to find us a house” to rent, she said, “but they say there are none”.“No one has called us or come to see us,” she added.In Pakistan, her sons worked selling vegetables or driving rickshaws to pull in enough money to sustain the family, but Amina fears for their prospects in Afghanistan, wracked by economic crisis and unemployment.“If the boys don’t work, we’re not going to make it.”Another nearby tent is crammed with the 16 members of Gul Pari’s family, who have been sleeping on cardboard boxes without blankets since arriving at the transit camp.Her voice is drowned out by the honking of tanker trucks delivering much-needed water to the camp, with clusters of laughing, barefoot children clinging to the back.The 46-year-old grandmother, her grandchild’s rail-thin body cradled in her lap, said that in five days they will leave for Kunduz to start a new life in a country that she hasn’t seen in four decades.Life was precarious for the family collecting scraps in Pakistan, but in Afghanistan, “we have nothing”, she said.“We fear starvation. But if we find work, it’ll be OK. We will be happy in our homeland. In Pakistan, we were being harassed.”Most of those returning fled an Afghanistan ravaged for decades by deadly conflict, but the end to fighting since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 has encouraged some to come back.On the road to Jalalabad, Shazia and 20 other women and children piled into a small truck that leaned precariously as it veered around bends in the road, whipping the women’s blue burqas around a teetering mound of bundles.Of the Afghans returning from Pakistan, she is luckier than most: her husband went ahead of them to Jalalabad and found a four-room house to rent for four families.“The rent is expensive,” said the 22-year-old mother-of-three, her youngest child only two months old. “But tonight we will be able to sleep.”The Taliban’s acting commerce minister has said that he had asked Pakistan to help return the assets of expelled Afghans and discussed ways to overcome Afghanistan’s stalled banking sector transactions during a four-day visit to Islamabad this week.Acting minister Nooruddin Azizi’s arrival in the Pakistani capital marked the first public visit by a senior Taliban official since Pakistan announced its policy to deport thousands of undocumented Afghans and other foreign citizens after November 1.It comes just a week after Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister said its expulsion plan was a response to the unwillingness of the Taliban-led administration to act against militants using Afghanistan to carry out attacks in Pakistan.The Taliban have said the security issues are a domestic matter for Islamabad and called on Pakistan to stop deportations.Azizi said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday night that the negotiations had mainly focused on trade issues and had been “friendly”.He said that Pakistan officials had raised counter-terrorism issues and he had reiterated the Taliban’s policy that Afghan soil would not be used against other nations.Azizi said a major focus of the visit had been raising the problem of Afghan deportees being unable to return their assets from Pakistan.He said that the Afghan embassy’s charge d’affaires in Islamabad and Pakistan’s foreign office would work on a “detailed roadmap” on how the assets could be returned but said it would take time.“This is not a matter of 10 people or 100 people, this is a matter of 1.7mn people,” Azizi said.Afghan citizens returning to Afghanistan have said there are restrictions on the transfer of cash and property from Pakistan, where many had built businesses and homes for decades.

Hundreds of people stranded in Gaza’s biggest hospital were enduring “inhuman” conditions yesterday while heavy fighting raged around them, a doctor said as the Hamas-run health ministry reported a rising patient death toll.Israel argues Hamas fighters built their military headquarters under the Al-Shifa hospital complex — a charge Hamas denies — while UN agencies and doctors in the facility warned a lack of generator fuel was claiming lives, including infants.Witnesses reported intense air strikes, with tanks and armoured vehicles just metres from the gate of the sprawling Al-Shifa compound at the heart of Gaza City, now an urban war zone.“The situation is very bad, it is inhuman,” a surgeon with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the medical charity group, wrote on social media.“We don’t have electricity. There’s no water in the hospital,” added the doctor, who was not named.The Hamas government’s deputy health minister Youssef Abu Rish said the death toll inside Al-Shifa rose to 27 adult intensive care patients and seven babies since the weekend as the facility suffered fuel shortages.Gaza has been reliant on generators for more than a month after Israel cut off power supplies following the October first week storming and the besieged territory’s only power plant ran out of fuel.A lack of fuel was also hitting the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA. The group’s Gaza chief Thomas White said operations “will grind to a halt in the next 48 hours as no fuel is allowed to enter” the territory.The World Health Organisation in the Palestinian territories said early yesterday that at least 2,300 people — patients, health workers and people fleeing fighting — were inside the crippled Al-Shifa facility.The Israeli army pushed on with their campaign, determined to destroy the Hamas movement.Israel said 44 of its troops have been killed in its Gaza ground operation.ISRAEL FACES PRESSUREOVER CIVILIAN SUFFERINGBut Israel is facing intense international pressure to minimise civilian suffering amid its massive air and ground operations that Hamas authorities say have killed 11,180 people, including 4,609 children.Israel’s top diplomat, as quoted by his spokesman, said the nation has “two or three weeks until international pressure really steps up.” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen added that Israel is working to “broaden the window of legitimacy, and the fighting will carry on for as long as necessary.FEAR OF REGIONALCONFLICTThe Israel Defence Forces yesterday reported more heavy fighting and again stressed its claim that Hamas was hiding in civilian infrastructure. Teams of Israeli troops ran between jagged ruins in Gaza while air strikes shown on grainy military-released video shattered buildings.Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Hamas must first release the hostages before any ceasefire would be considered, but he told US media on Sunday that “there could be” a potential deal. Israelis are stunned by the October first week storming.The war in Gaza has also spurred concerns of a wider regional conflict.At least eight pro-Iran fighters were killed in US strikes on eastern Syria, a war monitor said, in response to attacks on American forces.It was the third time in less than three weeks that the US military has targeted locations in Syria, amid a spike in attacks on American forces in the Middle East linked to the Israel-Hamas war.International attention has focused on the plight of Palestinians, and protests have been held worldwide in solidarity with the 2.4mn under bombardment and near-total siege for more than five weeks. About 980 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have been let into Gaza since October 21, according to the UN humanitarian agency.Before the war, 500 trucks entered every day, it said.Palestinian prime minister Mohamed Shtayyeh called on the European Union and the UN to “parachute aid” into Gaza.Fuel is a crucial need, especially for hospital generators, but Israel has been concerned that any fuel deliveries could be diverted to Hamas fighters.Palestinians in Gaza’s south have been forced to adapt to the lack of basic resources.“People are using now (traditional) ovens in order to cook. What else can they do?” said a woman, who asked not to be named, making the ovens in southern Khan Yunis.Almost 1.6mn people — about two-thirds of Gaza’s population — have been internally displaced since October 7, according to UNRWA. Some people were being allowed to leave the besieged territory via the Egypt-controlled Rafah crossing and yesterday more than 550 foreigners passport holders and nine wounded Palestinians wounded and companions crossed.Israel’s military said it would observe a “self-evacuation corridor” yesterday, allowing people to move from Al-Shifa southward, but admitted the area was still the scene of “intense battles”.The area of fighting “currently includes the area surrounding the Al-Shifa hospital but not the hospital itself”, an IDF spokesperson said.The Israeli army also said its ground soldiers had hand-delivered 300 litres (80 gallons) of fuel near the hospital “for urgent medical purposes”.Al-Shifa director Abu Salmiya said he told Israeli authorities he needed far more — at least 8,000 litres to run the main generators and “save hundreds of patients and wounded, but they refused”.

Do you truly love the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam? A fundamental of our religion, and a tenet of our faith, is to love him.Allah Says what means: “Say [O Muhammad]: ‘If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your relatives, wealth which you have obtained, commerce wherein you fear decline, and dwellings with which you are pleased are more beloved to you than Allah and His Messenger and Jihad in His cause, then wait until Allah executes His command. And Allah does not guide the defiantly disobedient people.” [Qur’an 9: 24]Al-Fudhayl ibn ‘Iyaadh said: “This verse is enough of an evidence to prove the obligation of loving the Prophet because Allah dispraised in it those whose wealth, family or children are dearer to them than the love of Allah and His Messenger describing them as defiantly disobedient at its conclusion.”Love of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, branches from Allah’s love of him; our love of the Prophet is due to the fact that Allah loves him, and because Allah sent him to us as His Messenger, as well as the fact that Allah instructs us to make him dearer to our hearts than our own souls. He Almighty Says what means: “The Prophet is more worthy of the believers than themselves...” [Qur’an 33: 6]This means that the believer should love the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, more than he loves his own self.This love entails full obedience, submission and acceptance; it also entails favouring the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, over oneself, one’s family and one’s wealth, and to surrender to the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, the controlling direction that one has over himself.The influence that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, should have over us is greater than that which a master has over his slave, or a father has over his child. We should have no control over ourselves except in acting in accordance with the way he directed us to.It is for every Muslim to prove his love for him, which can be determined according to the following narration of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam: “There are three qualities; whoever has them will taste the sweetness of faith: To love Allah and His Messenger more than anyone else...” [Al-Bukhari & Muslim]One will never taste the sweetness of faith except after achieving this, as he, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said in another narration: “I swear by the One in whose Hand my soul is! None of you will truly believe until I become dearer to him than his child, his father and all of mankind.” [Al-Bukhari & Muslim]This love is not simply an emotion that is confined to the heart, but rather it has implications and effects. This love makes the slave achieve a rank that he would not otherwise achieve by means of his bodily deeds, as in the narration of Ibn Mas’ood radhiallah ‘anhu who said: “A man came to the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, and said: ‘O Messenger of Allah! When will the Hour (i.e., the Day of Resurrection) come?’ He replied: “What have you prepared for it?” The man said: ‘Only my love of Allah and His Messenger.’ The Messenger of Allah then said: “You will be with those whom you love.”” [Al-Bukhari & Muslim]It is not as important to know when the Hour will occur as it is to prepare for its arrival, and this is the reason why the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, drew this to the attention of the man by asking him that question.Anas, radhiallah ‘anhu, said: “After being blessed by embracing Islam, we never rejoiced at anything as much as we did about this answer of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, to that man. I love Allah, His Messenger, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar and hope to be with them (in the Hereafter) even if I cannot perform the good deeds they did.” [Al-Bukhari & Muslim]The Companions had great love for the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam,, to the extent that they would face arrows that were being fired in his direction to shield him. They would risk their lives for him and sacrifice everything for his rescue. ‘Amr ibn Al-‘Aas, radhiallah ‘anhu, said: “There was no one dearer to me or more glorified than the Prophet; I could never look him directly in the eye due to the extent of my glorification, and if someone were to ask me to describe him, I would not be able to, as I never looked at him for long enough to be able to describe him.” [Muslim]When Abu Sufyaan, radhiallah ‘anhu, was still a disbeliever, he asked Zayd ibn Thaabit, radhiallah ‘anhu, who was taken as a hostage and being brought out by the people of Makkah to execute: “Do you not wish that Muhammad was in your place and that we killed him instead, while you could go to your family and be with them?” He replied: “I swear by Allah! I would rather be here facing this than have him even being pricked by a thorn.” Upon hearing this, Abu Sufyaan, radhiallah ‘anhu, said: “I never saw a people who love a man more than the Companions of Muhammad love him.”Such incidents greatly affected the disbelievers and caused many of them to embrace Islam.A man from the Ansaar came to the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, and said: “You are dearer to me than myself, my child, my family and my wealth, and I feel as if I am dying when I do not see you.” Then he began to cry. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, asked: “Why are you crying?” The man replied: “I remembered that we will die and you will die, then you will take your place in Paradise with the other Messengers and Prophets, while we, if indeed we do enter Paradise, will be lower in rank than you, and thus we will not be able to see you in Paradise.”Note how much they loved him; they were worried about not seeing him, despite the fact that they may also be in Paradise.The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, did not comment on his words until Allah revealed the following verses which mean: “And whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger – those will be with the ones upon whom Allah has bestowed favour of the prophets, the steadfast affirmers of truth, the martyrs and the righteous. And excellent are those as companions. That is the bounty from Allah...” [Qur’an 4: 69-70] Thereupon the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, summoned him and said: “Glad tidings to you!” [Al-Bayhaqi]Once, a female companion was waiting at the approach to Al-Madinah for the return of the Muslim army from the battle of Uhud. She was informed that her husband, brother and father were killed, but her only reply was: “What happened to the Prophet?” They told her that he, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, was fine and unharmed, but she insisted to seeing him so that she would be sure that he was truly safe. When she did see him, she remarked: “Any affliction, after seeing that you are safe, is minor.”Article source: http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/The Great Mosque of KairouanAt the time of its splendour, between the 9th and 11th centuries CE, Kairouan was one of the greatest centres of Islamic civilisation and its reputation as a hotbed of scholarship covered the entire Maghreb countries. During this period, the Great Mosque of Kairouan was both a place of prayer and a centre for teaching Islamic sciences under the Maliki school of thought.In addition to studies on the deepening of religious thought and Maliki jurisprudence, the mosque also hosted various courses in secular subjects such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine and botany. The transmission of knowledge was assured by prominent scholars and theologians which included Sahnun ibn Sa’id and Asad ibn al-Furat, eminent jurists who contributed greatly to the dissemination of the Maliki school of thought, Ishaq ibn Imran and Ibn al-Jazzar in medicine, Abu Sahl al-Kairouani and Abd al-Monim al-Kindi in mathematics. Thus, the mosque, headquarters of a prestigious university with a large library containing a large number of scientific and theological works, was the most remarkable intellectual and cultural centre in North Africa during the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries.The Great Mosque of Kairouan, also known as the Mosque of Uqba, is a mosque situated in the Unesco World Heritage town of Kairouan, Tunisia and is one of the most impressive and largest Islamic monuments in North Africa.Established by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi in the year 50 AH (670 CE) at the founding of the city of Kairouan, the mosque occupies an area of over 9,000sq m (97,000sq ft). It is one of the oldest places of worship in the Islamic world, and is a model for all later mosques in the Maghreb. Its perimeter, of about 405m (1,329ft), contains a hypostyle prayer hall, a marble-paved courtyard and a square minaret. In addition to its spiritual prestige, the Mosque of Uqba is one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture, notable among other things for the first Islamic use of the horseshoe arch. From the outside, the Great Mosque of Kairouan is a fortress-like building with its 1.90m thick massive ocher walls, a composite of well-worked stones with intervening courses of rubble stone and baked bricks.Extensive works under the Aghlabids two centuries later (9th Century, CE) gave the mosque its present aspect. The fame of the Mosque of Uqba and of the other holy sites at Kairouan helped the city to develop and expand.The current state of the mosque can be traced back to the Aghlabid period—no element is earlier than the ninth century besides the mihrab—except for some partial restorations and a few later additions made in 1025 during the Zirid period, 1248 and 1293–1294 under the reign of the Hafsids, 1618 at the time of Muradid beys, and in the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1967, major restoration works, executed during five years and conducted under the direction of the National Institute of Archeology and Art, were achieved throughout the monument, and were ended with an official reopening of the mosque in 1972. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mosque_of_Kairouan

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Ruling regarding one who is in Mina on 8th day of Dhul-HijjahQuestion: What is the ruling about the one who was in Mina before the Day of Tarwiyyah (8th of Dhul-Hijjah)? Does he enter Makkah and enter the state of ihraam (there) or does he enter the state of ihraam in Mina?Response: For the one, who is in Mina, it is legislated for him to enter the state of ihraam in Mina and all Praise is for Allah. There is no need to enter Makkah, rather he should pronounce the talbiyyah for the Haj from where he is, if its time has arrived. [Shaykh Ibn Baaz – Majmoo’ Fataawa Samaahatu ash-Shaykh Ibn Baaz - Volume 6]The ruling regarding visiting Jabal ‘Arafah either before Haj or afterwards Question: Some pilgrims visit Jabal ‘Arafah before performing the Haj or afterwards and pray upon it (at the peak). What is the ruling regarding visiting Jabal ‘Arafah and what is the ruling regarding praying upon it? Response: Its ruling is as is known from the Shari’ah ruling and that is that anyone who worships Allah in a manner that has not been legislated, then he is an innovator. So it is known from this that he who has intended to pray on Jabal ‘Arafah or at the bottom or just touch it or similar to this, which some people do, is an innovation which is disliked and frowned upon. It is said to him: There is nothing special about this mount except that it is a Sunnah for a person to stand at the rocks on the Day of ‘Arafah (9th of Dhul-Hijjah), just as the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, stood at it. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, stood near the rocks and said: ((I have stood here, however, all of ‘Arafah is a standing place)) [Saheeh Muslim].So based upon this, it is also not befitting for a person to cause difficulty for himself on the Day of ‘Arafah by going to the mount and possibly causing difficulty for his people. Thus, getting tired from the heat and thirst , by doing so, is sinning because he has caused difficulty in a matter which Allah has not made obligatory for him. [Shaykh Ibn al-’Uthaimeen – Daleel al-Akhtaa’a yaqa’a feehaa al-Haaj wal-Mu’tamir wat-tahdtheer minhaa]Regarding the manner in which to cling onto the Ka’aba Question: What is the manner in which one should cling onto the Ka’aba (between al-Hajar al-Aswad and the door)? Response: Clinging onto the Ka’aba is by standing (between al-Hajar al-Aswad and the door) and placing the hands, arms and face (cheeks) upon the wall. [Shaykh Ibn al-’Uthaimeen – Daleel al-Akhtaa.a yaqa’a feehaa al-Haaj wal-Mu’tamir wat-tahdtheer minhaa]Wishes to change the intention for the Haj whilst in ‘Arafah Question: A man made the intention to perform the Haj for himself, whilst he has previously made the Haj. Then he decided to change his intention for his relative whilst in ‘Arafah. So what is the ruling regarding this and is it permissible? Response: A person, if he enters the state of ihraam for Haj for himself, cannot change the intention after that, neither en route nor in ‘Arafah nor any other place. Rather, it is imperative he completes the Haj for himself and does not change it for his father nor his mother and nor anyone else. Rather, the Haj is specific for him (now) for the saying of Allah (subhaanahu wa ta’ala): {And complete Haj and ‘Umrah for (the Sake of) Allah}. So, if he enters the state of ihraam for himself, it is obligatory he complete it for himself. If he enters the state of ihraam for other than himself, then it is obligatory that he completes for other than himself and does not change (the intention) once he enters the state of ihraam. [The Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fataawa – Fataawa al-Haj wal-’Umrah waz-Ziyaarah] Forgot to make talbiyyah for Tamattu’ Haj Question: A pilgrim has put on ihraam at the meeqaat but he forgot to say talbiyyah for Tamattu’ Haj. Should he complete his rites as a Mutamatti’? What should he do if he takes off his ihraam, and puts on the ihraam for Haj from Makkah? Response: If he has made an intention for ‘Umrah when he put on the ihraam but he forgot to say talbiyyah while he was intending for ‘Umrah, he will be considered as one who uttered talbiyyah. He has to perform tawaaf, sa’ee and cutting the hair, then he takes off his ihraam. It is permissible for him to say talbiyyah on the way. If he did not say talbiyyah then there is nothing required of him because the saying of talbiyyah is only a confirmed Sunnah. He makes tawaaf, sa’ee, has his hair cut and makes it ‘Umrah. This is because he had intention for ‘Umrah. If he has made intention for Haj while putting on the ihraam and the time is enough, it is preferable for him to change his pilgrimage to ‘Umrah. After that, he makes tawaaf, sa’ee, has a haircut and then takes off the ihraam. Praise be to Allah, he will be considered as a Mutamatti’. [Shaykh Ibn Baaz – Fataawa Muhimmah tata’allaq bil-Haj wal-’Umrah]Whilst making Haj for his mother, forgot to pronounce the intention for her Question: What is the ruling concerning the one who performed Haj on behalf of his mother and at the meeqaat he pronounced the talbiyyah for the Haj and did not do so for his mother? Response: As long as his intention was for the Haj on behalf of his mother, even if he forgot, the Haj is (acceptable) for his mother since the intention is a stronger (argument), for that which the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said: “Actions are but by intention.” So if the intention in his coming was for Haj on behalf of his mother or father and he then forgot when he entered the state of ihraam, the Haj is (acceptable) for whoever he had intended it for, either his mother, father or other than them. [Shaykh Ibn Baaz – Majmoo’ Fataawa Samahatu ash-Shaykh Ibn Baaz - Volume 6]Detained from completing the Haj or the ‘Umrah Question: If someone passed the meeqaat (specific station for putting on ihraam), uttering the talbiyyah for Haj and ‘Umrah without condition and then he is detained on account of illness and the like, which stops him from completing his rites, what should he do? Response: Such a person is treated as muhsar (detained). If he did not make a condition and afterwards an accident took place which stopped him from proceeding with his rites, then he should bear it and be patient if possible until the effects of the accident are over, then he should proceed with his rites. If he could not do this, he is treated as ‘detained’ according to the correct opinion. Allah says about a detained person: {But if you are prevented from completing it, send an offering for sacrifice such as you may find}, [Surah al-Baqarah: 196].According to the correct opinion, the case of being muhsar (detained) occurs by an enemy, and sometimes occurs by other than an enemy. So, he should sacrifice an animal, shave or cut some of his hair, then take off his ihraam. This is the verdict for muhsar. He slaughters his sacrificial animal in the same place that he is detained, whether he is in the Haram (sacred) area or outside the Haram. If he does not find any poor people there, the meat should be carried to the poor inside the Haram area, or it should be carried to some other villages. After that, he shaves or has a haircut and takes off the ihraam. If he cannot sacrifice an animal, he has to fast for ten days, then he shaves or has a haircut and takes off the ihraam. [Shaykh Ibn Baaz – Fataawa Muhimmah tata’allaq bil-Haj wal-’Umrah ]Advice to those having performed the Haj Question: What is your advice to the one who has performed the obligatory (first) Haj? Response: My advice is that he should fear Allah (and be aware of Him) in performing all that which Allah has obligated upon him in terms of other acts of worship such as salaah, zakaah, fasting, honouring the parents, enjoining family ties and being good to the creation (of Allah) and to the animals under ones ownership and other than this from that which Allah has commanded with. That which encompasses all of this is the statement of Allah: {Verily, Allah enjoins al-’Adl (justice) and al-Ihsaan (being patient in performing one’s duties to Allah), and giving (help) to kith and kin: and forbids al-Fahshaa (all evil deeds), and al-Munkar (all that is prohibited), and al-Baghee (all kinds of oppression), He admonishes you, that you may take heed. And fulfil the Covenant of Allah (Bay’ah: pledge for Islam) when you have covenanted, and break not the oaths after you have confirmed them, and indeed you have appointed Allah your surety. Verily! Allah knows what you do}, [Surah an-Nahl: 90-91]. [Shaykh Ibn al-’Uthaimeen – Daleel al-Akhtaa.a yaqa’a feehaa al-Haaj wal-Mu’tamir wat-tahdtheer minhaa]Things to beware of whilst in state of ihraamQuestion: What are the things that the Muhrim needs to be aware of?Response: The Muhrim (one in state of ihraam) must be aware of nine things which the scholars have mentioned and these are:1. Cutting (any) hair;2. Cutting/trimming the nails;3. Applying perfume;4. Wearing (any) stitched garment;5. Covering the head;6. Hunting game;7. Sexual intercourse;8. Entering into the contract of Nikaah;9. Touching one’s wife sexually.All of these are impermissible for the Muhrim until he comes out of the first state of ihraam (during Haj), whereby all of these are permissible except sexual intercourse. So, when he comes out of the second state of ihraam, sexual intercourse becomes permissible. [Shaykh Ibn Baaz – Majmoo’ Fataawa Samahatu ash-Shaykh Ibn Baaz - Volume 6]Ruling concerning changing the clothing of ihraamQuestion: Can a person change the clothing of ihraam in order to wash them?Response: There is no harm in washing the clothes during the ihraam. There is no harm in exchanging them for others and putting on new or washed clothing. [Shaykh Ibn Baaz]The ruling regarding applying perfume on ihraam before making intentionQuestion: What is the ruling regarding applying perfume on the ihraam before making the intention and the talbiyyah?Response: It is not befitting to apply perfume on the ihraam, rather, the sunnah is to apply the perfume on the body such as the head, the beard and the armpits, and other such places. As for the ihraam, then do not apply perfume on them for that which the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said: “Do not wear clothing which has been ‘touched’ by az-za’faraan or al-wars (ie types of perfume).” So, the Sunnah is to apply perfume on the body only and as for the ihraam, then perfume is not to be applied on it. And if it has been, then it is not to be worn until it is washed or changed (for a cleaner one). [Shaykh Ibn Baaz – Majmoo’ Fataawa Samaahatu ash-Shaykh Ibn Baaz - Volume 6]Is it permissible to change the ihraam (in order) to wash it?Question: Is it permissible to change the ihraam (in order) to wash it?Response: There is no problem in washing the ihraam (clothing) or changing it and using (other than that) a new or washed ihraam (clothing). [Shaykh Ibn Baaz – Majmoo’ Fataawa Samaahatu ash-Shaykh Ibn Baaz - Volume 6]Entering the state of ihraam whilst travelling in an airplaneQuestion: When should one, intending Haj or ‘Umrah and travelling by air, enter the state of ihraam?Response: The traveller either by air or sea should enter the state of ihraam when the meeqat is approaching. For example, the traveller, when approaching the meeqat either from air or the sea, should enter the state of ihraam just before (they approach the meeqat) by a little, out of precaution for the speed of the airplane, ship or steamer. [Shyakh Ibn Jibreen – Fataawa al-Hajj wal-’Umrah waz-Ziyaarah]Women enter the ihraam in any clothing they wishQuestion: Is it allowed for a woman to enter the state of ihraam in any clothing she wishes?Response: Yes, she may enter the ihraam in whatever clothing she wishes. She does not have any specific type of clothing that she must wear for ihraam as many of the general public think. But it is best for her to enter the ihraam in clothing which is not beautiful and will not attract the one who sees it. This is because she is going to be mixing with men, so her clothing must not be such that it tempts the looker. It should not be beautiful but should be customary and not a temptation. [Shaykh Ibn Baaz]A history of Haj, the annual pilgrimageHaj literally means ‘to set out for a place’. Islamically, however, it refers to the annual pilgrimage that Muslims make to Makkah with the intention of performing certain religious rites in accordance with the method prescribed by the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam. Haj and its rites were first ordained by Allah in the time of the Prophet lbraaheem, ‘alaihi-s-salaam, and he was the one who was entrusted by Allah to build the Ka’aba – the House of Allah – along with his son Ismaa’eel [Ishmael] at Makkah. Allah described the Ka’aba and its building as follows:“And remember when We showed Ibraaheem the site of the [Sacred] House [saying]: Associate not anything [in worship with Me and purify My House for those who circumambulate it [i.e. perform tawaaf] and those who stand up for prayer and those who bow down and make prostration [in prayer, etc.].” (Surah al-Haj 22:26) After building the Ka’aba, Ibraaheem would come to Makkah to perform Haj every year, and after his death, this practice was continued by his son. However, gradually with the passage of time, both the form and the goal of the Haj rites were changed. As idolatry spread throughout Arabia, the Ka’aba lost its purity and idols were placed inside it. Its walls became covered with poems and paintings, including one of Jesus and his mother Maryam and eventually over 360 idols came to be placed around the Ka’aba. During the Haj period itself, the atmosphere around the sacred precincts of the Ka’aba was like a circus. Men and women would go round the Ka’aba naked, arguing that they should present themselves before Allah in the same condition they were born. Their prayer became devoid of all sincere remembrance of Allah and was instead reduced to a series of hand clapping, whistling and the blowing of horns. Even the talbiyyah* was distorted by them with the following additions: ‘No one is Your partner except one who is permitted by you. You are his Master and the Master of what he possesses’. Sacrifices were also made in the name of God. However, the blood of the sacrificed animals was poured onto the walls of the Ka’aba and the flesh was hung from pillars around the Ka’aba, in the belief that Allah demanded the flesh and blood of these animals. Singing, drinking, adultery and other acts of immorality were rife amongst the pilgrims and the poetry competitions, which were held, were a major part of the whole Haj event. In these competitions, poets would praise the bravery and splendour of their own tribesmen and tell exaggerated tales of the cowardice and miserliness of other tribes. Competitions in generosity were also staged where the chief of each tribe would set up huge cauldrons and feed the pilgrims, only so that they could become well-known for their extreme generosity. Thus the people had totally abandoned the teachings of their forefather and leader Ibraaheem. The House that he had made pure for the worship of Allah alone, had been totally desecrated by the pagans and the rites which he had established were completely distorted by them. This sad state of affairs continued for nearly two and a half thousand years. But then after this long period, the time came for the supplication of Ibraaheem to be answered:“Our Lord! Send amongst them a Messenger of their own, who shall recite unto them your aayaat (verses) and instruct them in the book and the Wisdom and sanctify them. Verily you are the ‘Azeezul-Hakeem [the All-Mighty, the All-Wise].” (Surah al-Baqarah 2:129)Sure enough, a man named Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullaah, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, was born in the very city that Ibraaheem (AS) had made this supplication centuries earlier. For 23 years, the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, spread the message of Tawheed [true monotheism] – the same message that Ibraaheem and all the other Prophets came with – and established the law of Allah upon the land. He expended every effort into making the word of Allah supreme and his victory over falsehood culminated in the smashing of the idols inside the Ka’aba which once again became the universal centre for the worshippers of the one True God. Not only did the Prophet rid the Ka’aba of all its impurities, but he also reinstated all the rites of Haj which were established by Allah’s Permission, in the time of Ibraaheem. Specific injunctions in the Qur’an were revealed in order to eliminate all the false rites which had become rampant in the pre-Islamic period. All indecent and shameful acts were strictly banned in Allah’s statement:“There is to be no lewdness nor wrangles during Haj.” (Surah al-Baqarah 2:197)Competitions among poets in the exaltations of their forefathers and their tribesmen’s’ achievements were all stopped. Instead, Allah told them:“And when you have completed your rites [of Haj] then remember Allah as you remember your forefathers; nay with a more vigorous remembrance.” (Surah al-Baqarah 2:200) Competitions in generosity were also prohibited. Of course, the feeding of the poor pilgrims was still encouraged as this was done in the time of Ibraaheem but Allah commanded that the slaughtering of the animals which was done for this purpose should be done seeking the pleasure of Allah rather than fame and the praise of the people. He said:“So mention the name of Allah over these animals when they are drawn up in lines. Then, when they are drawn on their sides [after the slaughter], eat thereof and feed the beggar who does not ask, and the beggar who asks.” (Surah al-Haj 22:36)As for the deplorable practice of spattering blood of the sacrificed animals on the walls of the Ka’aba and hanging their flesh on altars, then Allah clearly informed them that:“It is neither their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah, but it is Taqwaa (piety) from you that reaches Him.” (Surah al-Haj 22:37)The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, also put a stop to the practice of circling the Ka’aba in a state of nudity and the argument that the pagans put forward to justify this ritual was sharply rebutted in Allah’s question:“Say: Who has forbidden the adornment [i.e. clothes] given by Allah which He has produced for His Slaves?” (Surah al-A’raaf 7:32)Another custom which was prohibited through the Qur’an was that of setting off for Haj without taking any provisions for the journey. In the pre-Islamic period, some people who claimed to be mutawakkiloon (those having complete trust in Allah) would travel to perform Haj begging food the whole journey. They considered this form of behaviour a sign of piety and an indication of how much faith they had in Allah. However Allah told mankind that to have sufficient provisions for the journey was one of the preconditions for making Haj. He said:“And take a provision [with you] for the journey, but the best provision is at-Taqwaa (piety).” (Surah al-Baqarah 2:197)In this way, all the pre-Islamic practices, which were based in ignorance, were abolished and Haj was once more made a model of piety, fear of Allah, purity, simplicity and austerity. Now, when the pilgrims reached the Ka’aba, they no longer found the carnivals and the frolic and frivolity that had once occupied the minds of the pilgrims there before. Now, there was the remembrance of Allah at every step and every action and every sacrifice was devoted to Him alone. It was this kind of Haj that was worthy of the reward of paradise, as the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said: “The reward for an accepted Haj is nothing less than paradise.” [Saheeh al-Bukhari] May Allah grant us all the ability to visit His House and perform the Haj in the manner of the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam. Footnote l Labbaik Allaahumma labbaik... (Here I am present, O’ Allah, I am present...) This is the chant which the pilgrims say when they are going around the Ka’aba.

The next edition of Qatar Foundation (QF)’s Ladies’ Night will take place at the Education City Stadium, a FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 venue, on June 21, from 6pm-10pm, it was announced yesterday.For the first time, the Education City Stadium will be the setting for the return of the event which provides women and girls from across Qatar’s community with an opportunity to enjoy sport and fitness activities, relax, and interact in a ladies-only space, with free entry, a statement said.The Education City Stadium is now becoming a hub dedicated to women’s and girls’ sport – providing people with a chance to experience the spectacular stadium from pitch level.The event will also take place at the stadium on July 19 and August 23.For its first appearance at the Education City Stadium, Ladies’ Night will feature classes from health and fitness providers WarriorFit, Un1t, Wyld, Evo Active, and V Lounge, as well as a football mini-tournament by the Paris Saint-Germain Academy, stadium runs around the arena courtesy of Adidas Runners Doha, Run the World, and QTR Run Ladies, as well as Zumba sessions by QF’s team.A Kids Corner, housed in the players’ tunnel area and run by Toys 4 Joy, will offer activities for children, who can also enjoy screenings – including the QF’s edutainment TV series Siraj, which provides youngsters with a fun and interactive educational journey based around the importance of moral and values – in the stadium’s media room.For those who just prefer to have a relaxing evening, Ladies’ Night at the Education City Stadium will have areas for people to unwind, chat, and enjoy food and drink from the Torba Store and Pinkberry as well as browsing the Education City Gift Shop.Entry to the stadium is free, with the main entrance point being Gate 35, close to Education City’s West Car Park and Education City Tram services.All females are welcome, as are boys under nine years.To register for sessions – some of which are free, including children’s activities – and find out about the QF’s latest Ladies Night, visit www.educationcity.qa/spotlight/192 or the Education City app.