search

US Vice-President Kamala Harris called on a rally of more than 6,000 Black women yesterday to help her revitalise the Democratic presidential campaign, ahead of her Republican rival Donald Trump’s return to the campaign trail.Harris has emerged as the Democratic presidential candidate in the November 5 election after President Joe Biden, 81, ended his re-election bid on Sunday in the face of intense opposition from fellow Democrats who questioned his ability to win or to serve for another four years were he to do so.The 59-year-old vice president, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president — who would also be a historic first as president if she prevails over former President Trump, 78 — has shaken up a staid race and sparked new energy among Democrats.That surge was not to go unanswered yesterday, with Trump holding his first rally since Biden ended his campaign — in the battleground state of North Carolina.The Trump campaign has insisted it is prepared for Harris’ candidacy, arguing she serves as a proxy for Biden on the economic and immigration policies that contributed to his sinking popularity with voters.Harris spoke at an event in Indianapolis hosted by the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, which was founded at Howard University, the historically Black college she attended. She hopes to tap sororities’ multi-generational network of Black women — who played an important role in Biden’s 2020 victory — to deliver strong voter turnout for Democrats again in November.“I thank you. And now, in this moment, our nation needs your leadership once again,” Harris said. Harris and Trump are closely competitive, public opinion polls showed this week.A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Tuesday showed Harris with a marginal two-percentage-point lead over Trump, 44% to 42%. A CNN poll conducted by SSRS showed Trump leading Harris, 49% to 46%. Both findings were within the polls’ margins of error.Biden, who came back to Washington after isolating at his home in Delaware with Covid, was to address the nation from the Oval Office last night to explain his decision to drop out after a disastrous June debate with Trump raised questions about his ability to win the election, or to serve another four years if he succeeded.On Tuesday, Trump took the unusual step of speaking to reporters on a conference call to underscore his campaign’s line of attack on the border, saying Harris was partially responsible for a record flow of migrants.Biden put Harris in charge of working with countries in Central America to help stem the tide of migration, but she was not made responsible for border security.“She’s a radical left person, and this country doesn’t want a radical left person to destroy it,” Trump said on the call. “She wants open borders. She wants things that nobody wants.”Harris has not called for the removal of border controls.Trump, coming off a triumphant week in which his party unified around his presidential bid after a failed assassination attempt two weekends ago, has had to watch as Biden’s sudden departure from the race dramatically shifted the narrative and sparked a surge of attention toward Harris at his expense.Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a memo made public yesterday that Democrats would aim to compete in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, opening up a map that in the final weeks of Biden’s campaign had appeared to be more focused on the Midwest.“This race is more fluid now — the vice president is well-known but less well-known than both Trump and President Biden, particularly among Dem-leaning constituencies,” O’Malley Dillon wrote. Democrats will formally nominate their new ticket at next month’s convention in Chicago after an August 7 virtual vote. Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s Democratic governor, is considered to be on the short list to serve as Harris’ running mate.Harris and her campaign have worked at breakneck pace to consolidate support among Democrats in Congress and delegates across the country. Candidates who could have been potential rivals for the nomination have fallen in line and endorsed her. The Harris campaign yesterday said it has raised $126mn since Sunday, with 64% of donors making their first contribution of the 2024 campaign.

The 20-year-old man suspected of trying to kill former president Donald Trump conducted an online search of the John F Kennedy assassination on the day he registered for Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, FBI Director Christopher Wray said yesterday.“Analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the shooter reveals that on July 6, he did a Google search for ‘how far away was Oswald from Kennedy’,” Wray said in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.“That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally,” he said, adding that suspect Thomas Crooks had become “very focused on Trump and his rally” at the time.Former president Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald.Wray said Crooks, a nursing home aide, fired at least eight rounds from his rooftop position near the July 13 rally, wounding the Republican presidential candidate in the ear, killing one rally attendee and wounding two others.Crooks used an AR-15 assault-style rifle with a collapsible stock, “which could explain why it might have been less easy for people to observe,” Wray said.The motive for the shooting remains unclear. Wray said many people have described Crooks as a loner and the list of contacts in his phone was short.Wray also told lawmakers that Crooks flew a drone about 200 yards from the stage where Trump spoke to the crowd and live-streamed footage for about 11 minutes, some two hours before the event.He said the crude explosive devices recovered from Crooks’ car and home were designed to be detonated remotely. Crooks had a transmitter with him at the time of the shooting, Wray added. But he said the FBI believes the suspect would not have been successful had he tried to detonate the devices.The hearing also focused on the increasingly tense political atmosphere surrounding the presidential campaign.“I have been saying for some time now that we are living in an elevated-threat environment. And tragically, the...assassination attempt is another example, particularly heinous,” Wray testified.Kimberly Cheatle resigned as director of the US Secret Service on Tuesday after bipartisan demands to quit over the failure to prevent the attempted assassination.Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said he expected Wray to answer questions about what happened before, during and after the incident but expressed doubt about the FBI director’s answers even before questioning began.“I’m sure you understand that a significant portion of the country has a healthy scepticism regarding the FBI’s ability to conduct a fair, honest, open and transparent investigation,” Jordan said.Representative Jerrold Nadler, the panel’s top Democrat, condemned the Trump shooting “unequivocally and unabashedly” but pointed to years of political threats and violence, and violent rhetoric from Republicans including Trump himself.“If you think that this one assassin’s bullet was a bolt out of the blue, and not part of a wave of violence that has threatened this nation for years, then you have missed the point,” the New York Democrat said.Wray has long faced opposition from hardline Republicans, some angered over the arrest of Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Congress certified President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

British police yesterday arrested nine people during a protest against arms exports to Israel that briefly blocked the street outside the foreign ministry, highlighting pressure on the new Labour government over its stance on the Gaza war.Pro-Palestinian protesters in Britain have been campaigning for a government ban on arms sales to Israel following its offensive on Gaza.Last week new Foreign Minister David Lammy, who has said he wants a balanced position on Israel and Gaza, said a blanket ban on arms exports to Israel would not be right, but he would follow a quasi-judicial process in assessing whether sales of offensive weapons that could be used in Gaza could proceed.London’s Metropolitan Police said protesters arrived outside Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and blocked pedestrian and vehicle access. Police then said the protest could only continue if it left the central arch of the street clear.“When the group failed to comply with the conditions, officers intervened and made nine arrests, quickly restoring access,” a Met Police spokesperson said.While in opposition, Lammy earlier this year said the government should suspend the sale of UK arms if there were a clear risk they might be used in a serious breach of humanitarian law.Now in government, he said last week he requested on his first day in office an assessment of the legal situation and that he hoped to be able to communicate any decisions with “full accountability and transparency”.Labour was elected with a huge majority earlier this month, but lost some seats to pro-Gaza candidates.

Four-year-old Mahmoud Abdel Athim al-Saafin wakes up screaming from pain caused by burns suffered in an Israeli strike on a school where his family had been sheltering in the Gaza Strip, his father Abdel Athim al-Saafin said.His two-year-old sister, Maysar, was killed in the July 14 strike in Nuseirat refugee camp, Saafin said. Her body was so badly burned it resembled "a lump of coal", he said.Both sides of Mahmoud's face were burnt, the skin raw and pink from his scalp down to his neck. Both of legs and one of his arms were entirely bandaged, as he lay in a bed in a crowded hospital ward, where Reuters saw him fitfully sleeping.The boy later sat up in bed against a pink pillow, visibly in pain as his father fanned air across his wounds with a piece of a cardboard box.Saafin said the pain-killers being given to Mahmoud lasted a few hours before wearing off. "Then we beg to get an injection, a sedative or painkiller or sleeping (medication) so the child can sleep," he said.Describing the July 14 attack, Saafin said he had been helping children who had been burnt by a first missile strike when a second strike caused "massive destruction"."When we began to pull our children out from under the rubble, we found them all burnt," he said.Little Mahmoud saw the body of his sister. "'My sister is burnt, father’" Saafin recalled the boy saying.Gaza health officials say 17 people were killed and 80 wounded in the July 14 Israeli airstrike on the Abu Oreiban school, sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat in central Gaza. The school is run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.The Israeli military declined to comment on the father's remarks. It has said it launched the strike to target fighters who were operating in the area of the school, and took precautions including using precise munitions to reduce civilian casualties. Israel says Hamas fighters are to blame for harm to civilians for operating among them, which the fighters deny.UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a July 17 statement on X that at least eight schools had been hit in the Gaza Strip in the preceding 10 days, six of them UNRWA schools.Schools must never be used for fighting or military purposes by any party to the conflict, he added."All rules of war have been broken" in Gaza, he wrote.Israel has laid to waste much of Gaza since Hamas stormed southern Israel in the first week of October last year.The death toll among Palestinians in Israel's retaliatory offensive has reached more than 39,000, according to Gaza health authorities.

Palestinian officials said Israeli troops killed two men, including a customs officer, in separate raids in the West Bank yesterday, as the military confirmed a death and “hits” during its overnight operations.The raids were carried out before dawn in the Qalandia refugee camp and the town of Tubas, residents and officials said.Palestinian sources identified the men killed as Ahmad Nidal Aslan, 19, from Qalandia, and Abdul Nasser Muhannad Sarhan, 23, from Tubas.In a statement to AFP, the Israeli military said it “apprehended two wanted fighters in the area of Tubas” during which a customs officer was killed and an Israeli soldier injured.In Qalandia, the military said its soldiers responded “with fire” to a violent riot, during which “hits were identified”.Residents of Qalandia said teenage Aslan was killed when Israeli forces shot him after they entered the town to demolish the home of Mohamed Manasra, who Israel accuses of being a fighter and carrying out a attack on a West Bank settlement in February.Clashes erupted after the troops blew up the second floor of the building. Six men were wounded, they added.“At dawn, the occupation soldiers fired two bullets at Ahmad. He was taken to hospital where he died,” a resident said, declining to be identified for safety reasons.Further north in Tubas, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli troops shot dead Sarhan and wounded two others.“The Israeli army raided the town of Tubas at dawn and arrested two young men,” a resident of the town said, also declining to be identified.“As they were leaving, they fired at Sarhan and another young man.”The Palestinian customs authority said Sarhan was one of its officers. The health ministry said the death toll from an Israeli raid on the town of Tulkarem on Tuesday had risen to six after a Palestinian shot by Israeli troops died of his wounds.The Israeli military said its forces “eliminated” a local Hamas commander in the raid on the town’s refugee camp.Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and regularly carries out raids there.Since the war in Gaza erupted with Hamas’s unprecedented October first storming of Israel last year, violence has soared in the occupied territory, with at least 589 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops or settlers, according to the Palestinian authorities.

The Qatar Stock Exchange yesterday treaded almost a flat path amidst buying interests in four of the seven sectors, and notably in the consumer goods and banking counters.The Gulf institutions were seen increasingly net sellers as the 20-stock Qatar Index shed 0.03% to 10,137.45 points, but recovering from an intraday low of 10,122 points.The Gulf individuals were also increasingly bearish in the main market, whose year-to-date losses were at 6.4%.As much as 49% of the traded constituents were in the red in the main bourse, whose capitalisation was down QR0.12bn or 0.02% to QR586.13bn on the back of microcap segments.The foreign funds’ substantially weakened net buying had its influence on the main market, which saw as many as 7,091 exchange traded funds (sponsored by Masraf Al Rayan), valued at QR0.02mn change hands across four transactions.The local retail investors continued to be bearish but with slackening grip in the main bourse, which saw no trading of treasury bills.The domestic funds continued to be net sellers but with lesser vigour in the main market, which saw no trading of sovereign bonds.The Islamic index was seen declining faster than the main barometer in the main bourse, whose trade turnover grew amidst lower volumes.The Total Return Index was down 0.03% and the All Islamic Index by 0.13%, while the All Share Index was up 0.03% in the main market.The industrials sector index declined 0.73% and realty 0.31%; whereas consumer goods and services gained 0.39%, banks and financial services (0.33%), insurance (0.13%) and telecom (0.07%). The transport index was rather unchanged.Major losers in the main market included Mekdam Holding, Alijarah Holding, Industries Qatar, Doha Bank, Qatar National Cement, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Gulf Warehousing and Nakilat.Nevertheless, Medicare Group, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Al Khaleej Takaful, Widam Food and Baladna were among the gainers in the main bourse.In the venture market, Al Mahhar Holding saw its shares appreciate in value.The Gulf institutions’ net profit booking strengthened noticeably to QR7.65mn compared to QR1.97mn on July 23.The Gulf retail investors’ net selling increased perceptibly to QR2.17mn against QR1.34mn the previous day.The foreign institutions’ net buying declined substantially to QR20.53mn compared to QR52.53mn on Tuesday.However, the Arab individuals were net buyers to the tune of QR3.17mn against net profit takers of QR0.35mn on July 23.The foreign retail investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR0.31mn compared with net sellers of QR0.63mn the previous day.The Qatari individual investors’ net selling weakened drastically to QR2.67mn against QR24.58mn on Tuesday.The domestic institutions’ net profit booking shrank markedly to QR11.52mn compared to QR23.66mn on July 23.The Arab institutions continued to have no major net exposure for the eighth straight session.Trade volumes in the main market fell 3% to 115.16mn shares, while value rose 3% to QR298.71mn amidst 10% lower transactions at 11,504.The venture market saw a 13% jump in trade volumes to 0.7mn equities, 15% in value to QR1.36mn and 96% in deals to 104.

Ooredoo has forged a strategic partnership with Qatar Airways and Fortinet to implement a hybrid multi-cloud environment to strengthen and fortify its position in an increasingly digital world.The collaboration will entail Ooredoo working with Qatar Airways on designing and developing a state-of-the-art hybrid multi-cloud environment, which will combine the technological and commercial benefits of public cloud infrastructure with the security and agility of private ones, offering the company a competitive advantage in enhancing customers’ experiences and cost efficiency.In collaboration with Fortinet, Ooredoo will develop next-generation security measures that include monitoring, filtration, and prevention solutions. Furthermore, Ooredoo will provide the entire network fabric and connectivity for the project, leveraging its partnerships with world-renowned vendors such as Nutanix, Cisco, F5, Zscaler, and Veritas.Thani I A al-Malki, chief business officer at Ooredoo, stated: “This partnership underscores Ooredoo’s role as a key stakeholder and pioneer in the field of digital transformation and as a nexus that connects industry leaders from various sectors and regions. The move toward digitalisation is gathering pace as it becomes the norm worldwide, and we take pride in Ooredoo’s crucial role in assisting major global businesses to embark on these transformative journeys by catering to their exact needs.”Amer Sakran, country manager for Qatar at Fortinet, stated: “By providing full visibility and networking and security convergence, our solutions will support Qatar Airways and Ooredoo in their goal of delivering superior end-user experience, without compromising on security. Through partnering with two major players in the local market, Fortinet demonstrates its support of the economic development plans outlined in Qatar’s National Vision 2030, and we look forward to more collaborations with both partners in the future.”The long-term strategic partnership aligns with Ooredoo’s focus on forging similar high-profile agreements with dominant tech companies, such as Google and Microsoft and major industry powerhouses. It highlights Ooredoo’s commitment to supporting enterprises in Qatar and the wider region with advanced technology solutions and innovative approaches that empower sustainable development and economic diversification.

Nine months pregnant, Ola al-Kurd could not wait to hold her baby and bring new life to Gaza during a war which has killed over 39,000 fellow Palestinians and razed much of the enclave.That special moment never came.An Israeli airstrike smashed into the family home in Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza on July 19, according to her father Adnan al-Kurd. The blast threw Ola down several floors to her death in the house, whose inhabitants included women, children and the elderly, he said.Somehow, her baby survived, as did her husband, who was hospitalised."It’s a miracle that the fetus stayed alive inside of her when she was martyred (died)," Adnan al-Kurd said, contemplating a photo of his daughter's graduation.The explosion, like many others, killed several members of a single family, a daily tragedy across Gaza since Israel began its offensive in Gaza in response to a storming of Israel by Hamas fighters in the first week of October last year.Mediators from the US, Gulf and Egypt have failed in multiple attempts to secure a ceasefire. So it is highly unlikely that Israeli airstrikes and shelling will end anytime soon."She wanted to hold her child and fill our home with his presence," al-Kurd said. "She would say, 'Mom, hopefully, this will make up for the loss of my martyred brothers and bring life back to our home'."Entirely against the odds, surgeons at Al Awda hospital in Nuseirat — where Ola was first taken after the strike — managed to deliver the newborn, Malek Yassin. He was then transferred to Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where an aunt touched the baby's face as he lay in an incubator."Thank God, this baby's life was saved and he is now alive and well,” doctor Khalil al-Dakran said at the hospital, where many medical facilities have been destroyed in over nine months of war.Al-Kurd gazes at photos of his three late children killed in the Gaza war. He said baby Yassin is blond like his deceased uncle Omar. "I go visit him everyday. He is a part of me,” he said.Babies who survive frequent Israeli bombardment get no relief as the conflict inflicts more destruction in the heavily built-up, densely populated Gaza Strip."We are in fact facing very great difficulties in the nursery department,” said al-Dakran, due to a lack of sufficient medication and supplies and fears that the hospital generator could stop at any moment due to fuel shortages.Hospitals across impoverished Gaza have been demolished or seriously damaged during the war, which began when Hamas-led fighters stormed Israel.Israel responded with an air and ground offensive that has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, and levelled much of the coastal territory."What is the fault of this child to start his life under difficult and very bad circumstances, deprived of the most basic necessities of life?" said Dakran.

Four-year-old Mahmoud Abdel Athim al-Saafin wakes up screaming from pain caused by burns suffered in an Israeli strike on a school where his family had been sheltering in the Gaza Strip, his father Abdel Athim al-Saafin said.His two-year-old sister, Maysar, was killed in the July 14 strike in Nuseirat refugee camp, Saafin said. Her body was so badly burned it resembled "a lump of coal", he said.Both sides of Mahmoud's face were burnt, the skin raw and pink from his scalp down to his neck. Both of legs and one of his arms were entirely bandaged, as he lay in a bed in a crowded hospital ward, where Reuters saw him fitfully sleeping.The boy later sat up in bed against a pink pillow, visibly in pain as his father fanned air across his wounds with a piece of a cardboard box.Saafin said the pain-killers being given to Mahmoud lasted a few hours before wearing off. "Then we beg to get an injection, a sedative or painkiller or sleeping (medication) so the child can sleep," he said.Describing the July 14 attack, Saafin said he had been helping children who had been burnt by a first missile strike when a second strike caused "massive destruction"."When we began to pull our children out from under the rubble, we found them all burnt," he said.Little Mahmoud saw the body of his sister. "'My sister is burnt, father’" Saafin recalled the boy saying.Gaza health officials say 17 people were killed and 80 wounded in the July 14 Israeli airstrike on the Abu Oreiban school, sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat in central Gaza. The school is run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.The Israeli military declined to comment on the father's remarks. It has said it launched the strike to target fighters who were operating in the area of the school, and took precautions including using precise munitions to reduce civilian casualties. Israel says Hamas fighters are to blame for harm to civilians for operating among them, which the fighters deny.UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a July 17 statement on X that at least eight schools had been hit in the Gaza Strip in the preceding 10 days, six of them UNRWA schools.Schools must never be used for fighting or military purposes by any party to the conflict, he added."All rules of war have been broken" in Gaza, he wrote.Israel has laid to waste much of Gaza since Hamas stormed southern Israel in the first week of October last year.The death toll among Palestinians in Israel's retaliatory offensive has reached more than 39,000, according to Gaza health authorities.

Thousands of protesters opposed to Israel's war in Gaza, some carrying Palestinian flags, gathered near the US Capitol yesterday ahead of a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to members of Congress.A stage decked with banners included one declaring the Israeli leader a "Wanted War Criminal" in reference to an arrest warrant sought by International Criminal Court prosecutors.Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon took to the stage and condemned the death toll. "No-one is free until everyone is free," Sarandon said.Nearby, demonstrators placed nearly 30 human-size cardboard coffins wrapped in Palestinian flags in memory of those killed in the war in Gaza. Traffic was barred from several roads near the Capitol."I want all aid (to) be suspended to Israel due to its actions in Gaza," said Bradley Cullinan, who said he traveled to the area from Columbus, Ohio, 400 miles away.Dozens of Democratic lawmakers planned to skip Netanyahu's speech to Congress, expressing dismay over the thousands of civilian deaths and the humanitarian crisis from Israel's campaign in Gaza.Members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group carried Palestinian flags and signs reading "Free Palestine" and "Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism," while a group of younger protesters danced to Arabic music and carried large banners reading "Stop Arming Israel and "Stop War Crimes in Gaza."Pro-Palestinian groups and university students have for months protested in the US against Israel's offensive in Gaza, a Hamas-ruled enclave where health authorities say nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly all of its 2.3mn people have been displaced.ICC prosecutors say there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Malabar Gold & Diamonds has just launched their Golden Summer offers which will run until August 3 across its showrooms in Qatar to give customers the chance to get free gold coins on their diamond & precious gem jewellery purchases.As part of the Golden Summer offers, customers shopping for diamond or precious gem jewellery worth QR5,000 will get free 1gm gold coin and customers purchasing diamonds or precious gem jewellery worth QR3,000 will get 1/2gm gold coin.Additionally, as part of the offers, customers can also exchange their old 22K gold jewellery purchased anywhere, for the latest designs from Malabar Gold & Diamonds without any loss.“We have introduced the Golden Summer offers to enhance the jewellery purchase experience of our customers, who are entering the last leg of their summer shopping. With diamond jewellery increasingly becoming the most preferred gifting article amongst individuals and families, the exquisite collection of diamond jewellery that Malabar Gold & Diamonds offers makes it the perfect destination for jewellery shopping,” commented Shamlal Ahamed, managing director, international operations, Malabar Gold & Diamonds.

Vodafone Qatar and ZTE Corporation have launched the new 5G Hotspot MU5120 to deliver fast and secure internet access for customers.With its super compact design, the MU5120 combines 5G performance with dual-band Wi-Fi 6, enabling it to connect up to 64 users, including laptops, tablets, POS systems, smartphones, televisions, smart home systems, and gaming consoles, with a peak rate of up to 3.6Gbps (actual speeds experienced depend upon network availability and other factors).Featuring a 2.4-inch screen, users can directly set up the device through the touchscreen. The MU5120 also boasts a 10000mAh battery, is usable for up to 16 hours, and supports a power bank function. Through a dedicated cable, maximum output charging power can reach up to 18W.Paired with Vodafone’s 5G Plans, the device offers users speed, simplicity, and security, all in a small and sleek design suitable for both business and home spaces. Vodafone Qatar is committed to delivering fast, reliable, and secure internet access for its retail and business customers alike.For QR1,099, customers can purchase the MU5120 online and from the following Vodafone retail stores: Villaggio Mall, City Center, Mall of Qatar, Landmark Mall, Doha Festival City, Place Vendome, Tawar Mall, LuLu D-Ring road, and Vodafone’s Al Wakra branch.For more information on specifications, visit www.vodafone.qa/en/wifi.