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European Union tariffs slowed the influx of Chinese-made electric vehicles in July, as the bloc moved to protect its automakers from low-cost competition.The number of new EVs that Chinese automakers like BYD Co and SAIC Motor Corp’s MG registered in the EU last month fell 45% from June, according to research from Dataforce, which compiled results across the 16 member countries that have reported July figures to date. The drop may have been exaggerated by carmakers rushing to get EVs to dealers before the added levies took effect July 5.“We saw a huge push from Chinese manufacturers” to empty stockpiles in June, said Matthias Schmidt, an independent auto analyst based near Hamburg. “That likely caused an inventory burn.”The provisional tariffs, which raise import duties to as high as 48%, are meant to shield an important EU industry from Chinese rivals that enjoy structural advantages in key areas such as battery technology that have benefited from state subsidies. Political tensions remain high, with Beijing threatening to retaliate amid talks to resolve the matter.Overall, Chinese brands weren’t massively out of step with the 36% sequential slide in EV sales for the 16 countries tracked by Dataforce. BMW, Stellantis and Tesla also import Chinese-made EVs that are subject to the higher EU tariffs. The June spike was less pronounced for Western companies that were more cautious in managing their inventory, Schmidt said. There’s little in the July figures to suggest Chinese brands have tempered their ambitions to expand in Europe.From a standing start in 2019, MG, BYD and others have steadily grown — their share of the EU’s electric-car market stood at 8.5% in July, based on the Dataforce figures, up from 7.4% a year earlier. While EVs are still a small part of the European market, they’re set to dominate over time as combustion cars are phased out.BYD sold three times more EVs in the 16 markets in July than it did a year earlier. MG, part of Chinese state-owned SAIC, posted a 20% drop in July from a year earlier, while Polestar sales declined 42%.“BYD’s increases are really softening the fall” for Chinese brands, said Julian Litzinger, a Dataforce analyst. China’s top-selling car brand is pressing on with its expansion in Europe. BYD’s sponsorship of the Euro 2024 football tournament in Germany exposed the company to 5bn TV viewers.For now, BYD’s pricing strategy in Europe remains unchanged after the tariffs. It expanded into Poland on August 6, signalling it’s prepared to live with higher duties as it builds a new plant in Hungary.The new tariffs were put in place after an EU probe found Beijing subsidizes its EV industry to an extent that causes economic harm to the bloc’s carmakers. MG is subject to an additional 37.6% duty on top of the existing 10% rate, while Volvo owner Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. and BYD will pay 19.9% and 17.4% more, respectively. The levies will become permanent in November, barring a deal between Brussels and Beijing.The tariff debate has coincided with a slowdown in global EV sales growth that’s put pressure on manufacturers across regions. EU policymakers are seeking to balance job protection with the goal of phasing out new fossil fuel-burning cars by 2035.

Britain’s economy is enjoying a “Goldilocks moment” with slowing inflation, rising employment and healthy growth that’s likely to set the stage for a more comfortable backdrop both for the Bank of England (BoE) and Keir Starmer’s government.A strong performance in the second quarter meant the UK enjoyed the best growth in the Group of Seven nations in the first half of 2024, outstripping the US and well ahead of other European countries. Official data this week also showed that workers were hired at the quickest pace since November, reducing the jobless rate, while inflation rose less than expected.The figures leave the UK threading a narrow path, with the economy running just hot enough to put last year’s recession further in the rear-view mirror while cool enough to allow the BoE to proceed with lowering interest rates later this year. The risk is that constraints on the size of the workforce and productivity weigh down a recovery that business groups warn remains quite fragile.“The economic data released this week portrayed a somewhat Goldilocks scenario for the UK,” said Ellie Henderson, UK economist at Investec. For Dan Hanson at Bloomberg Economics, the “sweet spot” the UK is enjoying now could turn “challenging” in the longer run with a slowdown in the third quarter and beyond. Starmer pledged to “take the brakes off Britain” after his win in the July 4 election, taking early steps to reform planning rules that hold up construction and get people back into jobs after many workers dropped out of the labour market since the pandemic.BoE Governor Andrew Bailey and his colleagues are acutely aware of those limitations and watching carefully for signs that inflation will stick around. Investors currently expect only one or two more interest rate cuts this year after an Aug. 1 decision ease from a 16-year high.But this week’s data held good news, growth that had eluded the UK in recent years without immediately triggering inflation:n After rebounding from recession with growth of 0.7% in the first quarter, data this week showed GDP rose 0.6% in the second quarter, “another gangbusters” set of figures, according to Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK.n Inflation came in below expectations on Wednesday, edging up slightly to 2.2% in July. Services inflation — a crucial gauge of domestic pressures for the BoE — fell sharply to 5.2%, the lowest in over two years.n Jobs data for the three months to June showed the biggest hiring spurt since November, even as regular wage growth cooled to a near two-year low of 5.4%.n Retail sales rebounded in July, reversing some of the slump in June, with summer discounts and the Euros football tournament lifting spending.The growth outlook meanwhile is on track for a “just right” temperature that Goldilocks enjoyed in the classic English fairy tale. Forecasters surveyed by Bloomberg expect a 0.3% expansion in each quarter from here on through the end of 2025. The economists predict growth of 1% this year, accelerating to 1.3% in 2025 and 1.5% in 2026. The Office for Budget Responsibility expects even better growth of around 2% in the next and following year.That makes more plausible Starmer’s goal of the highest sustained growth among the G7 nations and his lofty ambition for a 2.5% rise in GDP every year. He and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves are seeking to get the economy growing at the healthier rates seen before the financial crisis, helping to generate more money to pump into struggling public services.“We think the UK economy has now firmly exited the stagnation phase of the last four years and will continue to grow solidly over the rest of 2024, and into 2025 as real incomes rise, consumer and business confidence improves and interest rates fall further,” said Thomas Pugh, UK economist at RSM UK.He said the economy had a “Goldilocks moment” in the second quarter where growth was strong but not too hot to trigger price pressures, though he cautioned that the figures were helped significantly by base effects.“The risk is that if growth continues at this pace for the rest of the year we end up dipping into the too hot bowl,” said Pugh.The BoE is sceptical the current pace of growth can last, noting that business surveys suggested that the underlying pace of the economy was weaker than the GDP figures indicate.“The bigger picture here is it does feel like some of the recent momentum in GDP growth is easing,” said Ashley Webb, UK economist at Capital Economics. “Looking under the surface dampens the goldilocks scenario a bit,” he said, pointing to weaker underlying GDP growth and noisy services inflation data.Nonetheless the BoE has flagged the threat of more robust growth on its fight to contain inflation. Unless the UK economy is undergoing a fundamental upgrade in its longer run trend growth rate, official forecasters believe it can only expand at a pedestrian pace before running into price pressures. This year’s fast growth didn’t trigger inflation as it was largely a catch up effect after last year’s recession created more spare capacity in the economy. However, once that catch-up is complete, the UK will only be able to expand at its longer-term trend growth rate before stoking price pressures. Pushing against that constraint could force the BoE to reduce interest rates more cautiously to stop the risk of inflation. Bloomberg Economics estimates that the UK’s trend growth — the pace it can expand without generating excess inflation — is around 0.3% per quarter, half the rate seen in the second quarter.

The Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) strongly condemned the organized terrorism and daily crimes committed by extremist settler gangs, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces. The most recent of these atrocities occurred in the village of Jit, east of Qalqilya, where settlers launched a horrific attack, randomly firing at civilians, vandalising property, and setting fire to homes, vehicles, and agricultural lands, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of dozens of people.In its statement, the OIC described these actions as part of the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, their land, and their holy sites, in blatant violation of international humanitarian law. The organisation held the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the consequences of the continued perpetration of these heinous crimes.The OIC called on the international community, particularly the UN Security Council, to assume its responsibilities in ensuring the provision of international protection to the Palestinian people and to guarantee the immediate and comprehensive cessation of this ongoing Israeli aggression in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.The organisation reiterated its call for the international community to obligate Israel, as the occupying power, to dismantle all colonial settlements and their terrorist militias in the occupied Palestinian territories, to lift political and legal protection from them, to classify them as terrorist organisations, and to end the illegal colonial occupation of the State of Palestine.GCC welcomes Sudan decision to open border to deliver aidThe Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) welcomed the decision of the Transitional Sovereignty Council in the Republic of Sudan to open the Adre border crossing to deliver humanitarian aid to those affected by the war.This important step will greatly contribute to alleviating the suffering of those affected by the war, preventing famine, and improving the humanitarian situation in the Darfur region of western Sudan and the surrounding areas, GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi said in a statement yesterday.He reiterated the firm position of the Co-operation Council towards the Sudanese crisis, stressing the importance of preserving the sovereignty, security and stability of Sudan and the unity of its territories, as well as supporting Sudan in facing the developments of the current crisis.He underscored the need for de-escalation, prioritising dialogue and unity, and returning to a political process that leads to a civilian government.He also stressed the importance of relieving the suffering of the Sudanese people, protecting the cohesion of national institutions, and preventing the exacerbation of the conflict and confrontations between the different Sudanese factions. (QNA)

Ukraine said yesterday that its incursion into Russian territory was aimed at forcing Russia to negotiate on “fair” terms, as Moscow’s troops announced new gains in eastern Ukraine.Two and a half years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv’s troops last week launched a major counter-offensive into Russia’s Kursk region, sending more than 120,000 people fleeing.President Volodymyr Zelensky’s aide Mykhailo Podolyak said yesterday that Ukraine wanted to negotiate “on our own terms”.“We have absolutely no plans to beg: ‘Please, sit down to negotiate’, he wrote on X. “Instead, we have a proven, effective means of coercion. In addition to economic and diplomatic ones...we need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia.”“In the Kursk region, we can clearly see how the military tool is being used objectively to persuade Russia to enter a fair negotiation process,” he said.Ukraine has ruled out any talks with Russia if Russian troops do not leave its territory.President Vladimir Putin has said Russia would declare a ceasefire only if Kyiv withdraws from the four regions that Russia claims to have annexed but only partially controls – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.Ukraine meanwhile claims to have seized over 1,100sq km of Russian territory, in the biggest attack by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II.“I was very scared, very scared,” Nina Golinyaeva, a former resident of the border town of Sudzha, told AFP at an evacuation centre in Kursk city, the regional capital.“Shells were flying from all sides, helicopters, planes, fighter jets were flying over the house,” she said, recounting a dramatic night-time escape amid the fighting.“We don’t know what to do. We cry day and night, every day. We don’t know what we are going to do,” said 70-year-old Zinaida Tarasyuk, another evacuee collecting humanitarian aid.“We left everything,” she added.Kyiv claims to have taken control of more than 80 settlements in the lightning incursion.The governor of the Kursk region said on Monday that Ukraine had seized 28 settlements.The attack has been a morale boost for Ukraine, where many say it is giving Russian civilians a taste of what Ukrainians have been facing on a daily basis since the start of Russia’s full-scale assault in February 2022.However, the incursion appears to have had little impact on the larger battles raging in Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine.The Russian defence ministry said yesterday that its troops had captured another village near the Ukrainian-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk.The head of Pokrovsk’s military administration, Sergiy Dobryak, has urged people to evacuate.“The enemy is rapidly approaching the outskirts of Pokrovsk,” he said on Telegram.On the other side of the front line, Russian-installed authorities said at least seven people were injured by a Ukrainian strike on a supermarket in the Russian-held city of Donetsk.In Kursk region, a pro-Kremlin organisation said two of its employees helping evacuations were killed by a strike on their car.Russia’s defence ministry also said it had repelled a night-time attack using 12 US-made missiles on the landmark Crimea bridge built on the orders of President Vladimir Putin after Moscow annexed the peninsula.Kyiv has launched multiple attacks and attempted attacks on the Kerch Bridge since Moscow began its military offensive.An influential aide to Putin has meanwhile accused the West and the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) alliance of having helped to plan Ukraine’s surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region, something Washington has denied.The United States and Western powers, eager to avoid direct military confrontation with Russia, said Ukraine had not given advance notice and that Washington was not involved, though weaponry provided by Britain and the US is reported to have been used on Russian soil.Influential veteran Kremlin hawk Nikolai Patrushev dismissed the Western assertions in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper.“The operation in the Kursk region was also planned with the participation of Nato and Western special services,” he was quoted as saying, without offering evidence. “Without their participation and direct support, Kyiv would not have ventured into Russian territory.”The remarks implied that Ukraine’s first acknowledged foray into sovereign Russian territory carried a high risk of escalation.Putin chaired a meeting of Russia’s Security Council, including Patrushev, and said that the discussion would focus on “new technical solutions” being employed in the military operation.“Washington’s efforts have created all the prerequisites for Ukraine to lose its sovereignty and lose part of its territories,” Patrushev said.While the Ukrainian attack has revealed weaknesses in Russian defences and changed the public narrative of the conflict, Russian officials said Ukraine’s “terrorist invasion” would not change the course of the war.

Hurricane Ernesto churned towards Bermuda yesterday as a powerful Category 2 storm likely to produce 1’ (30cm) of rainfall over the weekend and trigger life-threatening flooding and storm surges in the British island territory.Ernesto, centred about 180 miles (290km) southwest of the archipelago at 2pm Atlantic time (1pm ET/1700 GMT), was packing sustained winds of up to 100mph (160kph) and had the potential to drop up to 15” (38cm) of rain.It is likely to make landfall this morning, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said, making conditions ripe for storm surges and flash flooding by the afternoon.Bermudians were hauling boats out of the ocean and water, boarding up windows, filling bathtubs with water and stocking up on batteries and food supplies.As the territory’s emergency officials met on Thursday, Minister of National Security Michael Weeks urged residents to complete their hurricane preparation as soon as possible.“Time is running out,” he said, according to the Royal Gazette newspaper.Warren Darrell, 52, of Smith’s Parish, said he had stocked up on groceries for his family, battened down the hatches and removed furniture from the lawn in preparation for Ernesto’s arrival“I’m ready to play games with my daughters and wait,” he said. “I’m a bit worried, a little bit worried, but I think we’ll overcome. I think we’ll be fine.”Winds, torrential rains and rip currents began picking up just before noon at John Smith’s Bay on Bermuda’s Main Island.The government planned to close a causeway bridge linking it to St George’s Island.A number of tourists and locals were seen roaming around the south shore, while a person was windsurfing as waves grew in size before 2pm.Ernesto was crawling at roughly 14mph (22kph) on a north-northeast trek, the NHC said, gradually weakening and slowing by today before picking up speed and potentially regaining strength later tomorrow.Bermuda, a collection of 181 small islands clustered more than 600 miles (965km) off the Carolina coast, can expect hurricane conditions to persist until tomorrow, NHC Director Michael Brennan said in an online briefing.Fewer than a dozen hurricanes have made direct landfall on Bermuda, according to records dating back to the 1850s.Earlier this week, Ernesto grazed Puerto Rico as a tropical storm, bringing heavy rainfall to the US Caribbean territory and cutting power to about half of its 1.5mn customers.About 250,000 homes and businesses remained without power as of morning yesterday, according to LUMA Energy, the island’s main electricity distributor.Puerto Rico’s power grid is notoriously fragile. The island has experienced prolonged power outages in recent years when weather systems much more powerful than Ernesto rolled through.Since Hurricane Irma seven years ago, Puerto Rico’s grid has been in a rebuilding process, and residents have increased their use of renewable power, according to a study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.Despite work to shore up the grid, and $1bn in federal funding, the island’s power organisations have failed to balance budgets or stabilise the central power network, said Tom Sanzillo, the institute’s director of finance.“The grid in Puerto Rico remains in a state of disrepair,” he said.Ernesto is the fifth named Atlantic storm of what is expected to be an intense hurricane season.Slow-moving Debby hit Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane just last week before soaking some parts of the Carolinas with up to 2’ of rain.

The separation of religion and the state is at the very heart of France. But with the Olympic Games taking place, is this hindering its very own people?Gulf Times spoke to Diaba Konate, who is a basketball player from Paris who pursued her passion from Paris Basketball at the age of 18 to college basketball in the US, playing at Idaho State and UC Irvine, where she also earned a degree.However, after choosing to wear the hijab in April 2021, Konate returned to France and faced discrimination because of the hijab ban in sports competitions.“I’m unable to play on a team; now I am fighting this ban alongside Basket Pour Toutes, advocating for the right of all women to participate in sports, regardless of their beliefs and identity,” she said.Konate tells us that her journey began in primary school: “I chose basketball and quickly developed a deep passion for it. Since then, I’ve been dedicated to the sport and have never looked back.” Nonetheless, she discusses how a period of deep reflection and solitude during the Covid-19 pandemic increased her faith in her religion. “Choosing to wear the hijab was a personal decision that represents my religious beliefs and commitment. “It signifies modesty and a strong connection to my spirituality, and it has become a central aspect of who I am. “Embracing the hijab has strengthened my resolve and helped me face the challenges associated with it.”The Olympic ban on French athletes wearing a hijab deeply upsets Konate.“It feels like a denial of the right to fully participate in sports while honouring one’s beliefs. “This restriction not only limits opportunities for athletes like me but also contradicts the values of acceptance and respect that sports should promote.” On how this ban stops Konate from playing for the French national team and whether she feels punished.She says: “As a result of this ban, I’m excluded from participating in competitions where I would otherwise be eligible. “It does feel like a punishment, as it forces me to choose between my faith and my passion for basketball. “This exclusion not only affects my career but also feels like a setback in the fight for inclusivity in athletics,” she says.As this ban is only on French athletes, hijab-wearing athletes from around the world are getting the opportunity to represent their countries.For Konate, “seeing athletes in hijabs competing at the Olympics is both motivating and bittersweet.“It’s inspiring to see their achievements and representation, but it also highlights the barriers I face due to the ban in France.” The hijab for Konate is not a threat to sports, nor should it stop anyone from participating and doing something they have a passion for. “The hijab for me is a personal choice that reflects my faith and identity, and it should be respected just like any other aspect of an athlete’s appearance or beliefs. “Excluding athletes based on their religious attire not only limits opportunities but also goes against the principles of inclusivity and respect in sports.”We asked her about secularism in France and whether she feels it could be working against its people. “This approach creates obstacles for people who want to express their faith while engaging in public activities, including sports. “Instead of fostering integration, it can lead to exclusion and hinder full participation, which undermines the principle of equal access for all,” expresses Konate.Clearly, the Olympic games have just highlighted the division in French society. Therefore, being a female in France under such laws presents significant challenges for Konate. “For me, the hijab ban directly affects my ability to play basketball and participate fully in public life while remaining true to my faith.“These restrictions create barriers and contribute to feelings of exclusion, making it hard to pursue my passions and opportunities.”It is clear that Konate’s skills are not the issue but that she wears a hijab. On Konate’s dream and what keeps her motivated to continue this journey, she said: “My dream is to ensure that all athletes, regardless of their faith or identity, have the chance to compete and succeed. “Believing that I’ve been given this platform for a reason motivates me to persevere despite the obstacles.” Konate’s message to Muslim girls is merely “keeping your identity and pursuing your passion with confidence.“Even when facing challenges or obstacles, remember that your faith and values are strengths, not barriers. “You have the right to follow your dreams and participate fully in all aspects of life, including sports.” Finally, Konate’s message to the French government. “I just think it is very crucial to recognise that policies like the hijab ban are unjust and discriminatory. “No one should be excluded or face barriers, especially in sports. “Embracing diversity and ensuring equal opportunities for everyone is essential and should be a fundamental right.”

Russia deployed more troops and munitions yesterday to a border region where Ukraine has mounted a major ground offensive, the defence ministry said.Ukraine said meanwhile that a Russian strike on a supermarket in the east of its territory had killed 14 people.Ukrainian troops launched a surprise offensive into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday, in the most significant attack across the border since Moscow invaded in February 2022.Russia’s defence ministry said it was sending rocket launchers, artillery, tanks and heavy trucks to reinforce its defences in the region, state media reported.Around 1,000 Ukrainian troops and more than two dozen armoured vehicles and tanks were involved in the initial attack, said Moscow, though it later claimed to have destroyed many more pieces of equipment.While Ukraine has not officially confirmed the offensive, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Russia needed to “feel” the consequences of its invasion.Yesterday both sides stepped up aerial attacks behind the frontlines.A Russian missile strike on a supermarket and post office in the east Ukrainian town of Kostyantynivka killed at least 14 people and wounded 43, Ukraine’s general prosecutor said.The town is about 13km (eight miles) from the nearest Russian positions.Heavy black smoke clouds rose from the destroyed building in images and videos posted by officials.The interior minister later said the blaze was put out.“Russian terrorists hit an ordinary supermarket and a post office. There are people under the rubble,” Zelensky said on X.Emergency services continued working out the rubble looking for survivors.“No situation on the battlefield can justify targeting civilians,” Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin said on X, reporting an updated death toll.There was no immediate comment from Moscow. Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians although it has killed thousands of them during the 29 months since it launched its full-scale invasion.Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s largest private postal company, said its cargo office in the supermarket was damaged in the strike.“All our employees are alive. One colleague received a concussion - he is getting all the necessary help,” the company said on X.Residential houses, shops and more than a dozen cars were also damaged in the attack, according to the interior minister’s post on Telegram.“Russia will be held accountable for this terror,” Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.Ukraine’s offensive into the Kursk region appeared to catch Russia off guard.Influential Russian military bloggers have blasted army leaders for failing to spot or quash the incursion.Senior Ukrainian officials have not commented although Zelensky alluded to the attack on Thursday.“Everyone can see that the Ukraine army knows how to surprise and knows how to achieve results,” he said.Moscow has not presented detailed information on the extent of the advance.It said yesterday that it had struck Ukrainian positions on the western edge of Sudzha, a town around 8km (five miles) from the border that appeared to be the focus of Kyiv’s offensive.Several Russian media shared a video purporting to show Sudzha residents appealing to President Vladimir Putin for help, warning that many were unable to evacuate.“In a few hours our town was turned into ruins ... our relatives are left behind, we can’t call them, there is no communication. Please help us get our land back,” one resident said in the video.Thousands have been evacuated from the border region, with Russia putting on an extra train to Moscow from the regional capital, Kursk.At a train station in Moscow, AFP journalists saw families disembarking with children.“The war has come to us, so all the relatives have gone to Moscow,” AFP heard a woman with her young daughter saying at the station.“Ukrainian forces are reportedly present in areas as far as 35km from the international border,” said the independent US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in its daily assessment drawing on geolocated videos and photos.However, those troops “most certainly do not control” that entire area, it added.Putin has called the incursion a “large-scale provocation” by Kyiv, and Russia’s top general has vowed to crush it.On the first day of the assault, Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov said five civilians had been killed.The health ministry said on Thursday that 66 people had been wounded.Twelve were hospitalised in a serious condition, it said yesterday.Yesterday Ukraine expanded its own evacuation zone in the Sumy region, just across the border from Kursk.“About 20,000 people need to be evacuated” from 28 settlements, Ukraine’s police force said.Ukraine also said it had carried out a major air strike on a Russian military base in the Lipetsk region, around 280km (175 miles) from the Russia-Ukraine border.It said it had struck “warehouses containing guided aerial bombs and a number of other facilities”.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued a statement warning both sides of the dangers as the fighting neared the Kursk nuclear power plant.“I would like to appeal to all sides to exercise maximum restraint in order to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences,” said IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.

President Nicolas Maduro appeared before Venezuela’s Supreme Court yesterday, asking the country’s top judicial body to affirm his disputed re-election.Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado meanwhile continued to challenge the July 28 vote, telling AFP that she would offer Maduro “guarantees and incentives” for a “negotiated transition” of power that would see him leave office.The South American nation has been in political crisis since election authorities declared Maduro the winner of last month’s poll, a decision questioned both at home and abroad.The National Electoral Council (CNE) has yet to release detailed results from the vote, while the opposition has released copies of 84% of ballots cast, showing an easy win for their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.The government says those results are forged.The Supreme Court – widely seen as aligned with Maduro – has summoned all presidential candidates before it, though some of the opposition has refused to attend.Maduro arrived at the court alongside his wife Cilia Flores, state attorney Reinaldo Munoz and several members of his government.The contested election sparked protests that have left at least 24 people dead, according to rights groups, and more than 2,000 arrested.“We want peace, tranquillity, that is why I filed this contentious appeal before the Supreme Court,” Maduro said on Thursday at a rally in Caracas. “There have been two days of hearings, all candidates and all parties were summoned...it’s my turn.”Machado called for greater support from the international community.Speaking to AFP via voice notes sent while in hiding amid fears for her safety, she said the opposition was “determined to move forwards in a negotiation”.“It will be a complex, delicate transition process, in which we are going to unite the whole nation,” said the 56-year-old Machado, who was barred from running herself against Maduro.She added that Maduro has “completely, absolutely, lost legitimacy” and that “all Venezuelans and the world know that Edmundo Gonzalez won in a landslide”.Lawmaker Diosdado Cabello, a powerful Maduro ally, dismissed Machado’s offer.“She is not in a position to negotiate anything,” he told reporters as he arrived at the Supreme Court, shortly before Maduro. “Offering conditions, to whom? Here the CNE, which is the governing body, gave a result: Nicolas Maduro won.”Giulio Cellini, a director at the political consultancy group LOG Consultancy, said that the whole process was an “ambush” of Gonzalez Urrutia since both the high court and election authority are “controlled by Maduro”.Fellow left-wing governments from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico noted the verification process undertaken by the court but asked that the CNE “transparently disclose the electoral results”.The CNE ratified Maduro’s victory, saying he had earned 52% of votes. In addition to not publishing detailed results, it has also claimed to have been hacked.Jennie Lincoln, head of the Carter Centre delegation that was invited to monitor the Venezuelan election, told AFP that it had “no evidence” of a cyberattack.Furthering his post-election crackdown on Thursday, Maduro suspended access to the social media site X as he faced continued international pressure.The president announced his government was blocking the social media platform formerly known as Twitter for 10 days, while accusing the site’s owner Elon Musk of “inciting hate and fascism” in Venezuela.Maduro and Musk have been locked in a war of words via X.Maduro has overseen a national collapse, including an 80% drop in the once-wealthy oil-rich country’s GDP, amid domestic economic mismanagement and international sanctions.According to the United Nations, more than 7mn Venezuelans have fled the country of 30mn since Maduro took over in 2013, mostly to other Latin American countries and the United States.Meanwhile, Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino told broadcaster CNN yesterday that he would give Maduro safe passage to act as a “bridge” to a third country in order to allow for a political transition in Venezuela.“If that’s the contribution, the sacrifice that Panama has to make, by offering our soil so that this man and his family can leave Venezuela, Panama would do it without a doubt,” Mulino said in an interview.Panama is part of a group of Latin American countries that have cut diplomatic ties with Venezuela since the disputed July 28 election, including Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Uruguay.

Britain mobilised 1,000 extra specialised police officers in case of racist rioting at the weekend and the government said it was considering tightening regulations around social media companies after days of unrest driven by online misinformation.Prime Minister Keir Starmer said extra police numbers and swift justice had deterred people he referred to as “far-right thugs” since Wednesday, but that the authorities would remain on high alert for further trouble. Racist attacks and disorder have mostly targeted Muslims and migrants. Hotels housing asylum-seekers have had their windows smashed and mosques have been pelted with rocks.Those involved in the riots could expect to be brought before the courts, Starmer said, noting that what he called “significant sentences” had already been handed out.“That is a very important part of the message to anybody who is thinking about getting involved in further disorder,” he said.More than 480 people have been arrested so far for involvement in attacks on Muslim, immigration and other sites as well as police and passers-by since late last month, with a 13-year-old among nearly 150 charged. Data released on Friday by the Justice Ministry showed that more than 150 of those arrested have already appeared in court. Dozens have already been jailed with cases fast-tracked through the justice system and more due to be sentenced on Friday.The riots broke out across the country after a wave of false online posts wrongly identified the suspected killer of three young girls in a knife attack on July 29 in Southport, northwest England, as an Islamist migrant. Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told Sky News earlier on Friday that 1,000 extra specialised police officers had been mobilised across the country ahead of the weekend. He also said the government would revisit the framework of the country’s Online Safety Act that regulates social media companies’ responsibilities regarding content inciting violence or hate. “We stand ready to make changes if necessary,” he said of the act, passed in October but not due to come into effect until next year due to a consultation process.Predicted widespread far-right riots failed to materialise on Wednesday, when thousands of counter-protesters took the streets across the country, giving hope to authorities and worried community leaders that the disorder was fizzling out. “We have to stay on high alert going into this weekend,” Starmer told reporters. It is not clear how many far-right gatherings are planned or if they will go ahead. There are around 40 counter-protests due on today, according to the Stand Up to Racism group.

Noor Miah was a student when riots broke out in northern England in the summer of 2001, with angry young British South Asians clashing with police after a series of racist attacks and incidents.The northern town of Burnley was engulfed in the riots which began an hour away in Oldham, as the far-right stoked racial tensions and minority communities accused the police of failing to protect them.More than two decades later, Miah recalled that dark period as he tried to calm Muslim youths in Burnley after several Muslim gravestones in the local cemetery were defaced and far-right riots targeted mosques in nearby cities. “2001 was a difficult time for Burnley. We have moved onwards since then, picked ourselves up. The next generation has a lot of hope,” Miah, now a secretary for a local mosque, told AFP.On Monday, Miah received a message from a friend who found a family member’s grave covered in paint. “When I rushed to the cemetery there were already a couple of families, who were really concerned, really emotional,” Miah said, with around seven gravestones vandalised with grey paint. The act is being treated as a hate crime by local police.“Whoever’s done this is trying to provoke the Muslim community to get emotionally hyped up and give a reaction. But we have been trying to keep everyone calm,” Miah said.“It’s a very low thing to do. No one deserves this...things like this shouldn’t happen in this day and age.”The attack has added to the fear among Burnley’s Muslims, after anti-immigrant, Islamophobic riots occurred in other northern towns and cities in the last week. The violence followed a mass stabbing on July 29 in Southport, near Liverpool, in which three children were killed, which was falsely blamed on social media on a Muslim migrant.Miah worries about his wife going to the town centre wearing a hijab and has told his father to pray at home instead of at the mosque “to limit how much time he spends outside”.“I helped build that mosque, I physically moved bricks there. I was part of that mosque, but I have to think about my family’s safety,” he said. But Miah still hoped there would be no violence. “We haven’t had riots yet here. Hopefully the riots won’t come to Burnley.”In Sheffield, violence hit close to home for Ameena Blake. Just a few miles away in Rotherham, hundreds of far-right rioters attacked police and set alight a hotel housing asylum seekers on Sunday.While Blake, a community leader on the board of two local mosques, said Sheffield is a place of “sanctuary”, Rotherham “is literally on our doorstep”. Since the weekend riot, there has been “a feeling of massive fear”, especially among Muslim women, Blake said. “I’ve had Muslim sisters who wear hijab contacting me saying, ‘I’m worried about going out with hijab.’” Like Miah’s family in Burnley, here too “people have been staying in their homes”.“I know of sisters who usually are very independent...who now won’t go out without a male member of the family dropping them off and picking them up because they don’t want to be out in the car alone.”The government has announced extra security for the places of worship in the wake of the violence, which reportedly left mosque-goers in Southport trapped inside the building during clashes. While the last two major bouts of rioting to rock England in 2001 and 2011 involved an outpouring of mistrust and anger against the police by minorities, this time police forces have worked alongside Muslim community leaders to urge calm. “Historically, there has been a lot of mistrust in the police between BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) communities, Muslim communities,” said Blake, who is also a chaplain for the South Yorkshire police in Sheffield.“Communities have almost parked to one side the mistrust and the historical issues to join together (with the police) to tackle this very, very real problem.”Support from the police and government has been “really amazing, and to be honest, quite unexpected”, Blake added. As Friday prayers beckoned, Muslims in Sheffield were feeling “quite nervous and vulnerable”. But people will go to mosques, Blake said. “There is fear, but there’s also very much a feeling of we need to carry on as normal.”

India’s biggest e-scooter maker Ola Electric Mobility dazzled on its market debut Friday after raising $734mn, as traders bet on surging demand for battery-powered vehicles.A booming stock market in the world’s fifth-largest economy has stoked an initial public offering frenzy over the last two years, with start-ups and companies scooping up billions of dollars from domestic and foreign investors.Ola Electric, backed by global investors such as Japan’s SoftBank and Singapore’s Temasek, has managed to establish a leading position in a country where electric vehicle adoption is low but growing fast. Sales of two-wheelers dwarf cars in India, but less than 6% of the nearly 18mn scooters and bikes sold in India in the fiscal year ending March 2024 were electric.Ola has sought to convince wary Indian customers that long-term fuel savings will make up for a lack of country-wide charging infrastructure. The company sold 35% of all electric scooters bought in India in the year to March, but has reported losses for the last three years.The Indian government has spent over a billion dollars subsidising the sale of electric and hybrid vehicles over the last five years in an attempt to cut down on vehicle emissions.Founder Bhavish Aggarwal, who often cheekily says “Tesla is for the West, Ola for the Rest”, was jubilant as he entered the billionaires’ club.“Our hard work has paid off and the world recognises that,” Aggarwal wrote on Tesla boss Elon Musk’s social media platform X. The company’s shares surged to Rs91.20 ($1.09), 20% above their IPO price of Rs76 ($.90) Aggarwal founded Ola Electric in 2017 after tasting success with Ola Cabs, a popular ride-hailing app that competes with Uber in India. Ola Electric’s first scooter rolled out in 2021, but the company ran into several controversies including safety and fire incidents.But the company edged ahead of competition from bigger rivals such as TVS, Bajaj Auto and Hero Electric. In 2021, it announced plans to invest $920mn to build a vast electric vehicle hub in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Despite its success, the company continues to bleed money.Its sales doubled to more than 329,000 units in the fiscal year ending this March, but its losses also rose 7.6% year-on-year, to a little under $190mn.

Nobel laureate Mohamed Yunus and his newly named interim government set out yesterday to restore “law and order” after a student-led uprising and deadly mass protests forced predecessor Sheikh Hasina into exile. A day after returning home from Europe and vowing to “uphold, support and protect the constitution” as he was sworn into office, 84-year-old Yunus began the tough challenge of returning the country to democracy.“The number one challenge is the law and order,” Touhid Hossain, who has taken over the foreign ministry portfolio, told reporters. “If it is ensured, the rest will be fine.” Hasina, 76, accused of widespread human rights abuses including the jailing of her political opponents, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India on Monday as protesters flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her 15-year rule.The military announced her resignation and then agreed to student demands that Yunus - who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering microfinancing work - lead an interim government. Yunus, who has taken the title of “chief advisor” to the caretaker administration, comprised of fellow civilians bar one retired brigadier-general, has said he wants to hold elections “within a few months”.When polls might take place is not clear. Officials of Hasina’s former ruling party, the Awami League, have gone into hiding after revenge attacks saw some of their offices torched, while former opposition groups such as the key Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are rebuilding after years of crushing repression.Several of Yunus’ advisers are loosely affiliated with the BNP, led by Hasina’s longtime rival and former premier Khaleda Zia, 78, newly released after years of house arrest. Yunus wrote in The Economist this week that his country needed a new generation of leaders “who are not obsessed with settling scores, as too many of our previous governments were”.For Syeda Rizwana Hasan, a top environmental activist and lawyer appointed to oversee climate change affairs, the transition offers a chance to change the country’s political course. “My plan is to lay the foundation to put Bangladesh on a truly liberal democratic path,” she said.That desire for change was echoed by former student leader Nahid Islam, now information adviser in the cabinet. “This government has been made through a mass uprising, and people have that trust,” 26-year-old Islam said. “Our goal is to reconstruct the Bangladesh that we dreamt in the fastest possible time.” But the new administration faces a daunting task.Yunus has called for the restoration of order in the South Asian nation after weeks of violence that left at least 455 people dead, calling on citizens to guard each other, including minorities who came under attack. UN country chief Gwyn Lewis on Friday praised Yunus’ “calls for calm and peace”, adding she would “work with all parties to forge reconciliation”. Hasina’s flight abroad has heightened rancour towards India, which played a decisive military role in securing Bangladesh’s independence, but also backed Hasina to the hilt.Her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy told the Times of India newspaper his mother still had hope of contesting political office. “She will go back to Bangladesh the moment the interim government decides to hold an election,” he said.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first to offer his “best wishes” to Yunus on Thursday moments after he was sworn in, saying New Delhi was “committed” to working with neighbouring Dhaka. Pakistan yesterday also said it hoped it could boost ties with Dhaka, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wishing Yunus “great success in guiding Bangladesh towards a harmonious and prosperous future”.China said yesterday it also welcomed the interim government, promising to work with the country “to promote exchange and cooperation”. In driving rain, Yunus carried out his first duty as leader, standing silently alongside student and civil society leaders. Together the group laid a wreath in the red-and-green colours of the national flag at the main memorial commemorating the millions who died in Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.Yunus suggested on his arrival in Dhaka on Thursday that Hasina’s ouster was as significant as the conflict that brought Bangladesh into being. “Bangladesh has created a new victory day,” he told reporters. “Bangladesh has got a second independence.”

Thailand’s main opposition party relaunched yesterday with a new name and leader, after its old version won the popular vote in last year’s elections but was forced by a court to disband this week.The People’s Party will be led by 37-year-old tech entrepreneur Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, who vowed to set up a “change government” in time for the 2027 election.“I’m not perfect but I am ready to improve myself to prepare for the PM role,” he said.Thailand’s Constitutional Court voted unanimously on Wednesday to dissolve the Move Forward Party (MFP), the vanguard of the country’s youthful pro-democracy movement, and ban its executive board members from politics for 10 years.Among those barred was 43-year-old Pita Limjaroenrat, who led the reformist MFP to a surprising first place finish in last year’s general election, after resonating with young and urban voters through his pledge to reform Thailand’s strict royal defamation law.Pita’s political career had already been shaken in March when Thailand’s election commission asked the top court to dissolve the MFP.That followed a ruling that the party’s pledge to reform the lese-majeste law amounted to an attempt to overthrow the constitutional monarchy. Lese-majeste charges are extremely serious in Thailand, where King Maha Vajiralongkorn enjoys a quasi-divine status that places him above politics.The European Union, United States, United Nations and human rights groups blasted the court’s decision, which the EU said harmed democratic openness in Thailand. Natthaphong has more than 10 years of experience in computer science and IT business, according to his Linkedin profile. Hours after its launch, the new party had received more than 6.5mn baht ($185,000) in donations and 13,000 membership applications, according to its website.Party representative Parit Wacharasindhu said there was “still space” to talk about the lese-majeste law, even though the Constitutional Court had dissolved the MFP due to it campaigning to reform the laws.“What we saw as a problem in lese-majeste is still a problem now,” Parit said, when asked about the party’s stance on the laws. In an interview with AFP before he was banned from politics, Pita warned against the weaponisation of Thailand’s judicial system.He said that 33 parties had been dissolved over the past two decades, including “four major ones that were popularly elected”. Thailand, Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, is known for its chronic instability, with a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.The Constitutional Court is due to deliver another major decision next Wednesday, on accusations that Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin violated ethical rules by appointing a minister who had served time in prison. An unfavourable ruling could force Srettha out of office after just a year.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco yesterday reported a 3.4% fall in second-quarter profit on lower crude volumes and softer refining margins, yet kept its generous dividend policy unchanged, with $31.1bn in payouts for the quarter.Aramco posted second-quarter net income of 109.01bn riyals ($29.03bn) in the three months to June 30, beating a company-provided median estimate from 15 analysts of $27.7bn.The company declared dividends of $31.1bn, including $10.8bn in performance-linked payouts. Aramco introduced the performance-linked dividends last year, on top of a base dividend that is paid regardless of results, an uncommon practice among listed companies.Aramco, the world’s most profitable oil company and top oil exporter, has long been a vital source of income to Saudi Arabia, which is spending vast sums under Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan to end what he once called the kingdom’s “oil addiction”.Aramco’s dividend provides “a greater transfer of oil revenue to the government and (limits) the size of the fiscal deficit,” said Monica Malik, chief economist at ADCB.Aramco said yesterday it expects $124.2bn in total dividends in 2024, roughly in line with previous guidance of $124.3bn.The performance-linked dividend distributions this year are for the combined 2022-2023 period and are calculated as 50-70% of annual free cash flow, net of the base dividend and other elements.For 2025, those payments will be based on 2024’s annual results alone, Chief Financial Officer Ziad al-Murshed said on an earnings call. The payouts this year were on the upper end of the 50%-70% range.After selling 0.7% of Aramco for $12.35bn last month, the Saudi government still directly holds nearly 81.5% of Aramco and Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund PIF holds another 16% of and also benefits from Aramco’s dividends.“There are still many ways that the government can extract funds from Aramco, including further share sales,” Malik said.Aramco’s capital expenditure in the second quarter rose nearly 14% year-on-year to $12.1bn, partly due to investments to maintain crude maximum sustainable capacity at 12mn barrels per day and expansion of its gas business.Saudi Arabia, the leading member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), is pumping roughly 9mn barrels per day (bpd), about three quarters of its capacity. It has made cuts along with other Opec members and allies including Russia, together known as Opec+.Brent crude was trading at about $76.7 yesterday, its lowest since January, amid concerns about global economic growth. Aramco’s shares rose about 1.7% yesterday, but are down about 17% this year, trailing the performance of Western oil majors.Lower output and prices have pressured Saudi state finances. The government, Aramco and PIF have all raised billions of dollars in capital markets this year.

President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris hugged journalist Evan Gershkovich on Thursday as he and two other Americans arrived back on US soil after being freed by Russia in a prisoner swap involving some two dozen people.Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich, former US marine Paul Whelan, and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva were met by cheers from family and friends as they disembarked a plane, before each embracing Biden and Harris.“It feels wonderful, it was a long time coming,” Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, where he and Harris welcomed the freed prisoners around 11.40pm (0340 GMT).They were among two dozen detainees released earlier on Thursday in the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.A fourth freed prisoner, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian Kremlin critic with US residency, was also among those released but was returning separately to the United States.In total 10 Russians, including two minors, were traded for 16 Westerners and Russians imprisoned in Russia in a dramatic exchange on the airport tarmac in Turkiye’s capital Ankara.“Alliances make a difference. They stepped up and took a chance for us,” Biden said of the deal, which also involved Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Belarus on the other side.Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after Biden dropped out of the 2024 election, heralded “an extraordinary day”.The freed prisoners and their relatives are now expected to travel to San Antonio, Texas, for medical evaluations and any care they need at the Brooke Army Medical Centre, US media said.The most high profile prisoner was Gershkovich, 32, who was detained in Russia in March 2023 on a reporting trip and sentenced in July to 16 years in prison on spying charges that were denounced by the United States.Gershkovich smiled with his hands on his hips as he stepped onto the runway, before hugging Biden and Harris and speaking with them for around a minute.“Not bad,” he replied as he greeted fellow journalists who had asked him how it felt to finally be home.Gershkovich’s family said in a statement before his arrival that they had “waited 491 days for Evan’s release”.“We can’t wait to give him the biggest hug and see his sweet and brave smile up close,” they said.The historic swap happened after months of top secret negotiations and involved the release of Russians held for murder, espionage and other crimes.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the swap was “difficult” but had “saved lives”.Berlin agreed to take a total of 12 detainees, including five with German nationality.Among them is Rico Krieger, a German who was sentenced to death in Belarus on espionage charges before a reprieve this week.Speculation about a deal had swirled for days after several detainees had disappeared from the prison system, but there was no confirmation until they finally switched planes in Ankara.“We held our breath and crossed our fingers,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.The exchange was the first between Russia and the West since star US basketball player Brittney Griner went home in return for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022.It was the biggest since 2010, when 14 alleged spies were exchanged.They included double agent Sergei Skripal, who was sent by Moscow to Britain and undercover Russian agent Anna Chapman, sent by Washington to Russia.Before then, major swaps involving more than a dozen people had only taken place during the Cold War, with Soviet and Western powers carrying out exchanges in 1985 and 1986.The White House revealed that an even more ambitious agreement had been on the cards with attempts to negotiate the release of Putin opponent Alexei Navalny, before he died in February this year.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris (pictured) effectively secured the Democratic party’s presidential nomination yesterday, confirming her remarkable rise to party standard bearer in November’s showdown against Republican Donald Trump.Harris, 59, was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates.The first black and south Asian woman ever to secure a major party’s nomination, she will be officially crowned at a Chicago convention later this month.“I am honoured to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States,” Harris said on a phone-in to a party celebration after securing enough votes by the second day of the marathon virtual vote.In the two weeks since Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, Harris has gained full control of the party, smashing fundraising records, packing arenas and erasing the polling leads Trump had built over the president.“I couldn’t be prouder,” Biden posted on X after her nomination.The nomination milestone came with Harris preparing to hit the campaign trail next week for a swing across seven crucial election states alongside her yet-to-be-named running mate.The Democratic Party decided on a virtual nomination process – departing with tradition and mirroring the procedure used in the pandemic-hit 2020 election – because of an early deadline in Ohio for submitting the names of certified candidates.The virtual roll call marks the official beginning of the 2024 convention, with the more traditional festivities getting going when thousands of party faithful descend on Chicago on August 19.The gathering will feature a ceremonial vote for Harris in what is expected to be a raucous celebration of her rise from California prosecutor to historic candidate vying for the nation’s highest office.Trump’s White House bid was turned upside down on July 21 when 81-year-old Biden, facing growing concerns about his age and lagging polling numbers, withdrew his candidacy and backed Harris.Energetic and two decades younger than 78-year-old Trump, the vice-president has made a fast start, raising $310mn in July, according to her campaign – more than double Trump’s haul.She and her running mate are scheduled to rally Tuesday in Pennsylvania – a crucial swing state, where Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro is on the shortlist to join Harris’s ticket.Biden beat Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020 by around 80,000 votes and it is seen as the biggest prize of the closely fought battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system.The Keystone State is part of the so-called blue wall that carried Biden to victory in 2020, alongside Michigan and Wisconsin, two states where Harris is due to woo crowds on Wednesday.Harris will also tour the more racially diverse Sun Belt and southern states of Georgia, North Carolina Arizona, North Carolina and Nevada as she seeks to shore up the black and Hispanic vote that had been peeling away from the Democrats.In a sign that the Harris campaign is thinking big, US media reported that a raft of senior advisers from Barack Obama’s own historic candidacies in 2008 and 2012 have taken up top positions with her.David Plouffe, who was manager of Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 and a senior aide during his 2012 victory, joined Harris’s campaign for president as a senior adviser, a source said.The Harris campaign is also being joined by Stephanie Cutter, a Democratic communications veteran, who previously served as Obama’s White House communications director and deputy campaign manager.She will join the campaign as senior adviser on strategy messaging.Cutter’s firm is on contract to produce the Democratic National Convention in August.Other Obama alums joining the campaign include Mitch Stewart, who worked on both Obama campaigns, and will come in as senior adviser on battleground states.David Binder, who led Obama’s public opinion research operation, will expand his role on the Harris campaign to lead the opinion research operation.All of the new hires will report to Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, another veteran of Obama’s two campaigns, who managed Biden’s 2020 campaign and built his 2024 operation from the White House.Where the now defunct Biden re-election campaign made high-minded appeals to the nation’s founding principles, Harris’s messaging has focused on the future, repositioning the race as a battle for “freedom” rather than the less tangible “democracy” that the president emphasised.She and her allies have also been more aggressive than the Biden camp – mocking Trump for reneging on his commitment to a September debate and characterising the convicted felon as an elderly crook and “weird”.“Some days I feel sorry for Republicans, because they’ve got to figure out how to run a criminal against a prosecutor,” Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock said at Harris’s Atlanta event.On the detail, however, Harris has been tight-lipped.While she has disavowed some of the leftist positions she took during her ill-fated 2020 primary campaign, she hasn’t given a wide-ranging interview since jumping into the race, meaning voters have no clear picture of her overall vision.Meanwhile Trump and his Republicans have struggled to adapt to their new adversary or hone their attacks against Harris – at first messaging that she was dangerously liberal on immigration and crime before pivoting to accusing her falsely of pretending to be black for political purposes.

Nigerian police fired shots in the air to break up protests in the capital Abuja yesterday as rights group Amnesty International accused security forces of killing at least 13 demonstrators during nationwide rallies against economic hardship. Curfews were in place across several northern states and there was a heavy security presence on the second day of the demonstrations.An AFP photographer saw police in Abuja firing rifle shots over the heads of protesters in the city centre, while security forces scattered hundreds of protesters using tear gas.“We were ruthlessly dispersed, but I think that it only made us more resolute,” said 29-year-old activist Damilare Adenola, leader of the Take It Back group organising protests in Abuja. “Hunger is the greatest motivation of this protest - that is why we are calling for the end of bad governance.”The turnout was lower than on Thursday, when thousands took to the streets in cities across the country calling for the government to reduce fuel prices and tackle Nigeria’s worst economic crisis in a generation. Africa’s most populous country is battling high inflation and a tumbling naira after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ended a fuel subsidy and liberalised the currency more than a year ago in reforms the government says will improve the economy in the long term.Dubbed #EndbadGovernanceinNigeria, the protest movement won support with an online campaign, but officials had warned against attempts to follow the same path as recent violent demonstrations in Kenya, where protesters forced the government to abandon new taxes. Nigerian protest leaders have vowed to press ahead with rallies in the coming days despite warnings from the authorities.Police said they had made hundreds of arrests across the country including 269 people they accused of “destruction, looting, and instigating chaos” in the northern city Kano on Thursday. Anietie Ewang, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said she was concerned by “reports of excessive use of force by Nigerian security forces” and urged the authorities to listen to protesters.In a statement on X yesterday, Amnesty International said security forces killed six people in Suleja near the capital, four in the northeastern city of Maiduguri and three in Kaduna in the northwest the previous day. “Our findings, so far, show that security personnel at the locations where lives were lost deliberately used tactics designed to kill while dealing with gatherings of people protesting hunger and deep poverty,” Amnesty said.Conflicting accounts have emerged over the number of deaths and police in Maiduguri told AFP four people died in explosions, without providing details. On Thursday, the national police chief rejected claims that officers had attacked peaceful protesters and said one officer had been killed and others injured, without providing details.In a statement on X, Inspector General Kayode Egbetokun said he had “placed all units on red alert” to respond to “further threats to public safety and order.” Kano was calmer on Friday following intense clashes between police and protesters the previous day, but residents said hundreds of people demonstrated in the nearby town of Minjibir.Officials have imposed a curfew in Kano as well as in the northern states Yobe, Katsina, Borno and Jigawa. In Nigeria’s economic hub Lagos, a few dozen protesters gathered in the Ojota area yesterday. Around 1,000 people marched peacefully in the mainland area on Thursday, chanting “Tinubu Ole”, using the Yoruba language word for thief. Nigerians are struggling with high costs - food inflation is at 40% and fuel has tripled in price since a year ago - but many people were also wary about insecurity around protests.Nigeria’s protests come after Kenyan President William Ruto was forced to repeal new taxes and name a new cabinet following weeks of anti-government protests in the worst crisis in his almost two years in office.

Several rockets were launched Thursday and yesterday against bases hosting troops from the US-led anti-militant coalition in Iraq and Syria, security officials and a war monitor said.Such attacks were frequent early in the war between Israel and Hamas Palestinian fighters in Gaza but since then have largely halted.“Four rockets fell in the vicinity” of Ain Al-Assad base in Anbar province, an Iraqi security source said.Another security official said an attack occurred with “a drone and three rockets” that fell close to the base perimeter.A United States official said initial reports indicated that projectiles landed outside the base without causing injuries or damage to the base.All sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.At least one rocket also fell near a base of the coalition in the Conoco gas field in Deir Ezzor province of eastern Syria, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.The Observatory said a blast was heard in the area but there were no immediate reports of casualties.The rocket was fired from “zones under the control of militia” groups, said the monitor which relies on sources inside Syria.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack.Foreign-backed armed groups in Iraq have largely halted similar attacks on US-backed troops in recent months.The latest attack come after a security meeting this week between Iraqi and US officials in Washington on the future of the international anti-militant coalition in Iraq. Foreign-backed groups have demanded a withdrawal.The US Defence Department said Wednesday “the delegations reached an understanding on the concept for a new phase of the bilateral security relationship”.This would include “co-operation through liaison officers, training, and traditional security co-operation programmes”.On July 16, two drones were launched against Ain Al-Assad base, with one exploding inside without causing injuries or damage. A senior security official in Baghdad said at the time he believed the attack was meant to “embarrass” the Iraqi government before the security meeting.For more than three months, as regional tensions soared over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, United States troops were targeted by rockets and drones more than 175 times in the Middle East, mainly in Iraq and Syria.The Islamic Resistance of Iraq, a loose alliance of foreign-backed groups, claimed the majority of the attacks, saying they were in solidarity with Gaza Palestinians.In January, a drone strike blamed on those groups killed three US soldiers in a base in Jordan. In retaliation, US forces launched dozens of strikes against foreign-backed fighters.Since then, attacks against US troops have largely halted.