search

India roared back into the first Test against Australia on Friday after being skittled for 150, taking seven wickets in the final session to put themselves in the box seat after a riveting opening day in Perth. At the close the hosts were in disarray on 67-7 after stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah demolished the Australian top order in a devastating spell to end the day with 4-17. Alex Carey was unbeaten on 19 and Mitchell Starc not-out six. After opting to bat the visitors were blown away in their innings, no match for the hosts’ lethal pace attack with Josh Hazlewood taking 4-29. Impressive debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy (41) and flamboyant Rishabh Pant (37) showed some spirit but once again superstar Virat Kohli flopped, out for five. “We have the advantage now and I’m hoping we can bat better in the second innings and put them under pressure,” said Reddy. “We were just trying to hit the areas, be disciplined in our bowling and obviously the wicket is helping a lot.” Australia fared no better in reply. Bumrah removed rookie opener Nathan McSweeney lbw for 10, another headache for a team struggling to find a decent replacement for the retired David Warner. Marnus Labuschagne had a massive letoff two balls later, with Kohli putting down a sitter in the slips, leaving Bumrah with his head in his hands. But India quickly snared another breakthrough with Kohli this time holding the catch off Bumrah to remove Usman Khawaja (8), and when Steve Smith was trapped lbw next ball, it was game on. Harshit Rana clean-bowled Travis Head (11) for a maiden Test wicket before Mitchell Marsh departed for five, caught low in the slips by KL Rahul off Mohammed Siraj. Labuschagne rode his luck for 52 balls to eke out two runs before he too was on his way, lbw to Siraj, then Bumrah returned to dismiss skipper Pat Cummins (3). “Obviously a good day to be a fast bowler. Both teams with the ball in hand bowled a lot of good stuff,” said Starc. “There was a fair bit in the wicket, swing and sideways movement, and some good pace and carry. We’ll come out tomorrow and try and get as close to their total as we can.” After a crushing 3-0 home series defeat by New Zealand, India sprung a surprise by dropping veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, allrounder Ravindra Jadeja and middle-order batsman Sarfaraz Khan. With the absence of opener and regular skipper Rohit Sharma following the birth of his second child, and number three Shubman Gill injured, it left them a fragile batting lineup. Yashasvi Jaiswal left without scoring in the third over, edging an attempted drive off Starc to McSweeney, who did well to collect low at gully. With Gill missing, left-hander Devdutt Padikkal came in at three, facing 23 deliveries without scoring before Hazlewood steamed in and enticed an edge taken by wicketkeeper Carey. That brought Kohli to the crease, in dire need of a big score. Despite a stellar record in Australia he lasted just 12 balls before fending off a climbing Hazlewood thunderbolt that took an edge to Khawaja at slip. India’s woes worsened when opener Rahul (26) feathered to Carey on the cusp of lunch. Pant and Dhruv Jurel needed to hang around after the break. But Jurel survived barely 10 minutes before succumbing to Marsh on 11, getting an edge that carried to third slip Labuschagne. Marsh struck again to account for Washington Sundar to leave the visitors staring down the barrel on 73-6 before Pant and Reddy led a mini recovery. Cummins finally ended Pant’s exploits, taken sharply at slip by Smith, which signalled India’s demise. The visitors have won their last two Border-Gavaskar trophy series in Australia. Perth is the first of five Tests in the series. BRIEF SCORES Australia 67 for 7 (Carey 19*, Bumrah 4-17, Siraj 2-17) trail India 150 (Reddy 41, Pant 37, Hazlewood 4-29, Marsh 2-12, Starc 2-14) by 83 runs

Indian prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju broke new ground to reach the World Chess Championship and the 18-year-old “Friends” fan is now hot favourite to win the title and make more history. Gukesh will be the youngest player to take home the undisputed world crown if he beats reigning champion Ding Liren of China in Singapore from November 25. Most pundits and players believe Gukesh will prevail against the 32-year-old Ding, who has not won a game in the classical format since January. The modest and bearded Gukesh is having none of it. “I don’t believe in predictions and who are the favourites,” he told reporters ahead of the title match, where there is a total prize fund of $2.5mn. “I’m just focusing on the process and I try to just be at my best every day and play a good game. “I just want to enjoy the experience.” Gukesh became India’s youngest grandmaster aged 12 years, seven months and 17 days, and among the youngest in the history of the game. Even Magnus Carlsen, the most recognisable current player in chess and a five-time world champion, was older. If he beats Ding in the best of 14 games, Gukesh will trump the legendary Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he became world champion in 1985. In public Gukesh often appears shy and reserved. He was absent from the Bermuda party while starring for India at this year’s Chess Olympiad in Budapest - the do is a decades-old tradition where contestants party at a nightclub in the host city. But after India finished with two gold medals, Gukesh surprised fans accustomed to his serious persona by posting a video of himself dancing exuberantly to a popular Tamil song clad in traditional clothing. Though he spends much of his time practising the game, Gukesh recently confessed to a love of the hit television sitcom “Friends”. When competing he usually wears a tilak - a smattering of white ash on his forehead in deference to his Hindu faith - to go with his suit. In 2022, Gukesh beat US number one Fabiano Caruana at the Chess Olympiad and later that year triumphed over Carlsen. He reached the world championship by becoming the youngest winner of the prestigious Candidates Tournament in April. Indian chess icon and five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand has played a mentor’s role in Gukesh’s journey and hailed the teenager as his successor. “Gukesh is a very level-headed boy,” the 54-year-old Anand told broadcaster NDTV. “I am very, very proud that he has managed this phenomenal achievement. “In a way I feel like I have managed to pass on the baton,” he added. Born to a doctor father and microbiologist mother, Gukesh started playing chess aged seven. His father Rajnikanth took him to watch Anand play Carlsen in a world championship match in his hometown Chennai in November 2013. The world championship in Singapore is being compared by some in India to the classic showdown between the American Bobby Fischer and Soviet great Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War in 1972. Ties between nuclear-armed neighbours China and India are frequently tense. Ding has been impressed by his teenage opponent’s maturity. “He plays like a seasoned player despite his young age,” said Ding, who since becoming world champion last year has suffered depression and took a nine-month break from competitive chess. Carlsen makes the young Indian “a significant favourite, and if he strikes first he will win the match without any trouble”, the Norwegian told FIDE, the International Chess Federation. “However, the longer it goes without a decisive game, the better it is for Ding Liren because he has the ability, but he doesn’t have the confidence.”

Opec+ delegates said they assume next month’s meeting on plans to restore oil production will be held online, rather than at their Vienna headquarters as originally planned.Several members said they haven’t yet received invitations for an in-person gathering of the alliance, which hasn’t begun the typical logistical preparations to convene at its secretariat on December 1. The delegates asked not to be identified as the talks are private.The gathering will be closely monitored as market-watchers including Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co doubt that Opec+ will go ahead with output increases next year. An impending surplus is already set to send crude toward $60 a barrel, and prices could sink further if the group opens the taps, they warn.If the switch online is confirmed, it will be the third time in a row that the group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia has turned a gathering initially scheduled for Vienna into a virtual session.Still, at the coalition’s previous conference in June, Saudi Arabia issued a last-minute invitation to the other seven members currently involved in supply cutbacks to assemble at the Ritz hotel in Riyadh. There’s still a chance it could spring a similar surprise this time.Opec+ has already delayed the start of its plan to gradually bring back curtailed production twice. Member countries are supposed to revive 2.2mn barrels a day in monthly instalments from January, a sequence postponed from October as oil prices struggle.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says he wants to wait and see what policies the incoming Trump administration will implement before the central bank forecasts what it means for the economy.“There’s nothing to model right now,” Powell said at his November 7 press conference. “We don’t guess, we don’t speculate and we don’t assume.”That’s not how the Fed responded to President-elect Donald Trump’s win in 2016, transcripts from meetings at the time show. A month before the inauguration, the Fed’s staff began forecasting a fiscal boost to growth that would be partly offset by higher interest rates, based on an assumption that promised tax cuts would get passed. And several policymakers, including Powell, also incorporated fiscal policy changes into their forecasts.“It seems likely that more accommodative fiscal policy will arrive during 2017,” Powell, then a governor, wrote in comments submitted with his forecasts at the December 2016 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. “I have therefore followed the staff baseline in assuming a personal income tax cut of 1% of GDP, as a placeholder.”He went on to say he had changed his rate projections to incorporate three, instead of two, quarter-point interest-rate hikes in 2017.A spokesperson at the Fed declined to comment.Powell’s extra caution compared to 2016 is striking, given that Trump’s policies are expected to reignite price pressures, and Fed officials are still working to finish off their toughest bout with inflation in four decades. How much further they can lower interest rates will still depend, at some point, on how they see the cross-currents of tax, tariff and immigration policies affecting the economy.“The job’s not quite done” on inflation while the economy could get a lift from deregulation and business-friendly tax policies, said Randall Kroszner, a former Fed governor and a professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. “They are going to be on a shallower path” with interest rates in the short run “as the economy gets a boost.”Just how and when to position around fiscal stimulus is fraught with political risks for central bankers who have run afoul of tax-cutting presidents in the past. If they raise borrowing costs too early or too much to offset the effects, they get criticized for leaning against the administration’s policies. Raise rates too little or too late, and inflation may heat up as it did in 2021.Eight years ago, it proved difficult to accurately predict the impact of Trump’s proposed policies. The Fed ended up cutting rates beginning in July 2019, just 19 months after the passage of Trump’s signature package of tax cuts, in response to a slowdown in manufacturing and an inflation rate that had fallen back to below their 2% target.To former Fed Governor Laurence Meyer, who had to grapple with the George W Bush tax cuts in 2001, the Fed’s current response should remain strictly at the staff level.“They should be running alternative simulations” to get a sense of how the economy would perform if taxes were cut, he said. “They shouldn’t be basing their policy on something where they don’t know what is going to happen.”Still, others worry the Fed could err if they wait too long to react. Trump once again promised lower taxes, and with control of both the House and Senate, an extension of his first-term tax cuts is looking like a good bet.“The patterns we have here for unified Republican control has not been a model of restraint,” said Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “I could see why central bankers might want to duck out of the wind and get a better sense of what’s coming,” Binder added. “But it does risk getting behind the eight ball.”Several Wall Street banks haven’t waited. Since Trump’s re-election, economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co, Barclays Plc and Toronto-Dominion Bank have reduced the number of rate cuts they anticipate through next year. Investors have also pared back their expectations for rate cuts in 2025.Whatever the Fed’s response, what’s really required is a regularized process for handling potential action from the White House and Congress, said Ellen Meade, a former senior policy adviser at the Board of Governors who is now a research professor of economics at Duke University.“Having a systematic process around how and when prospective fiscal initiatives are incorporated into the baseline Tealbook forecast is critical to ensuring consistent treatment of prospective policies proposed by either political party,” she said, referring to the Fed staff’s forecast and strategy document.In December 2016, some Fed policymakers, including William Dudley, then president of the New York Fed, raised questions about the staff’s decision to pencil in a more expansionary fiscal policy. Dudley is now a Bloomberg opinion columnist.Stephanie Aaronson, then an assistant director of the Division of Research and Statistics, told the committee that House Republicans had a plan that was similar in magnitude to what staff built into their forecast. Aaronson is a senior associate director at the Fed today.Kyle Pomerleau, a senior fellow studying tax policy at the American Enterprise Institute, said that while that plan was more vision statement than draft legislation, it was nonetheless “a very reasonable assumption” in late 2016 that Congress would pass individual income tax cuts and boost demand.This time around, he said, it may not be so reasonable to do the same. “There is less agreement among the Republican caucus on what to do,” said Pomerleau. “The deficit is higher.”

Japan’s minority government signed off yesterday on a $140bn stimulus drive aimed at putting more money in consumers’ pockets after the ruling party’s worst election result in 15 years.The October 27 contest saw voters — angry over corruption in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and inflation — deprive new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s coalition of a majority in parliament’s lower house. The package worth 21.9tn yen ($141.8bn) includes handouts of around 30,000 yen for low-income households, fuel and energy subsidies, and assistance to small businesses, according to the government.The overall business impact was expected to be 39tn yen.“The goal is to achieve an economy in which wage growth steadily outpaces price growth and to ensure a transition to a growth-oriented economy driven by wage increases and investment,” a statement said.To pay for the package, the second in as many years, the government will table a supplementary budget by the end of the year in the lower house.But views about the move among people on the streets were mixed.Voter Katsuhiro Hirakawa, 63, accused politicians of making “whatever decisions they want without listening to the voices of us ordinary citizens”.Authorities should “think carefully about why they need more tax revenue, or how they can reduce wasteful spending, before making decisions on budgets”, he told AFP in Tokyo.And Hisaki Sato, 46, wanted more help for the middle class, adding: “We’re now living in an age when not only low-income households but middle-income families are in need of more stimulus measures.” The middle class is “home to many people who are contributing directly to the economy, so I want the government to cherish them as well”.To win enough lawmakers’ support, Ishiba agreed to include the lifting of an income tax threshold pushed by the opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPP).The smaller party says this will ease labour shortages and boost consumer spending by encouraging part-time staff to work longer hours and earn more.But critics worry that this will reduce tax revenues by trillions of yen and increase Japan’s huge debt pile, which equates to more than 200% of gross domestic product. With the Bank of Japan expected to keep hiking interest rates, this debt mountain will also cost more and more, SMBC Nikko Securities economist Yoshimasa Maruyama said. Tax cuts “must be accompanied by a permanent source of revenue to fill the gap”, Maruyama wrote in a research note.Ishiba, 67, has promised to revitalise depressed rural regions and to address the “quiet emergency” of Japan’s shrinking population with measures to support families such as flexible working hours.Going forward, businesses worry that the need to curry favour with opposition parties means Ishiba will avoid reforms needed to improve Japan’s competitiveness.There are also concerns that the government may pressure the Bank of Japan to go slow on raising interest rates, even if this leads to a weaker yen.Government data yesterday put headline inflation last month at a modest 2.3%, but it showed rice up nearly 60% year-on-year, revealing the pain for ordinary Japanese.The price of the staple rocketed because of hot weather and water shortages and after a “megaquake” warning in August led to hoarding. Record inflows of hungry tourists were also blamed.Separately, Ishiba has promised to spend 10tn yen through 2030 to boost Japan’s semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors and help the nation regain its tech edge.

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said Europe’s continuing struggle to innovate and the souring geopolitical backdrop make it even more imperative to unite its capital markets.Addressing the Frankfurt European Banking Congress yesterday, she said the region’s inaction has cost it valuable time since she appeared at that same event in 2023 with much the same message.“Since last year, Europe’s declining innovation position has come more clearly to light,” she said. “The technology gap between the United States and Europe is now unmistakable. The geopolitical environment has also become less favourable, with growing threats to free trade from all corners of the world.”Since that 2023 speech, Donald Trump has regained the White House, while repeated European Union efforts to revive its longstanding initiative for a Capital Markets Union have effectively stalled.Now both its two biggest economies, Germany and France, face political stasis, with Berlin inching toward elections early next year.“The urgency to integrate our capital markets has risen,” Lagarde said. “This growing urgency has not been matched by tangible progress.”She recounted a tale of Brussels quagmire over the project, with “55 regulatory proposals and 50 non-legislative initiatives” devoted to the matter since 2015.“Breadth has come at the expense of depth,” she said. “It has allowed CMU to be picked apart by national vested interests that see one or another initiative as a threat.” This sentiment was echoed later at the same event by Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel.“While I know the devil is in the detail here, it is still frustrating to see how slow progress has been,” he said, criticising “member states’ reluctance to subordinate national interests to the common cause.”“We have to overcome this mindset and tear down the invisible walls obstructing financial market integration,” he said.The current backdrop is one where Europeans still save about a third of their total financial assets, compared with a 10th in the US, making them “much less wealthy than they could be,” Lagarde said.The region’s financial markets are “extraordinarily fragmented,” she observed, noting that last year the EU had 295 trading venues. The ECB president showed a map of them to leaders at a recent summit.“Some of them were flabbergasted,” she said. “If leaders can bypass the vested interests that are protected like a fortress in the ancient ages, we might have a chance.”Alongside creating a “European SEC,” Lagarde said that regulatory fixes could emulate the two-tier supranational approach adopted for competition or banking supervision.Another option would be to create “a separate EU legal regime that firms can opt into sitting alongside the various national regimes.” Nagel and Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau also wrote a joint op-ed for the Friday editions of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Le Monde to urge action in Europe.Lagarde also said that Europe needs to “fully harness the potential of our public development banks, especially the European Investment Bank, to pool risks and crowd in private capital.”“More can be done to unlock the EIB’s potential and enable us to catch up with our peers faster,” she said. “In particular, the EIB should be allowed to use its resources more effectively and provide a wider variety of instruments to support breakthrough innovations, especially when it comes to supporting early-stage startups.”

Northvolt’s CEO and co-founder Peter Carlsson stepped down yesterday, a day after Europe’s biggest hope for an electric vehicle battery champion filed for US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.The Swedish maker of battery cells went in a matter of months this year from being Europe’s best shot in a vital industry for the energy transition to racing to stay afloat, hobbled by production problems and dwindling funds.Its collapse deals a big blow to Europe’s hopes of reducing its auto industry’s reliance on Chinese battery suppliers such as CATL and BYD.The company, whose motto is “make oil history”, has received more than $10bn in equity, debt and public financing since its 2016 startup, and counts Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs, each with about one fifth of the shares, as its top owners.It now needs to raise between $1bn and $1.2bn to restore its business, the outgoing CEO told reporters.“Personally this is an emotional day,” Carlsson said. The former Tesla executive said Northvolt had been “like a baby” to him. The company opted for a court-led restructuring after talks with investors and creditors including Volkswagen and Goldman broke down, and as its funds were running out.The Chapter 11 filing allows a period during which the company can reorganise and ramp up operations while honouring customer and supplier commitments, and ultimately position itself for the long term, Carlsson said.The company had only $30mn of cash at the time of the filing, enough to sustain it for one week, while its debts stood at $5.8bn, including $313mn owed to the European Investment Bank (EIB) and a $154mn loan from shareholders.It was far too early to say what the outcome of the Chapter 11 process will be, EIB Vice President Tomas Ostros said.“For us... it remains the case that Europe has a strategic interest in a European battery industry for electric cars and we will follow developments very closely,” he added. The lithium-ion battery maker also secured $100mn in new financing for the bankruptcy process from other shareholder and top customer Scania to allow it to continue operating, and said it would seek more cash.Northvolt, which employs around 6,600 staff across seven countries, said in its Chapter 11 filing that it expects to complete the restructuring by the first quarter of 2025.Company sources, who declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak to media, said Northvolt’s problems in ramping up output stemmed from faults with machines, inexperienced staff and unrealistic ambitions. “In hindsight, we were over-ambitious on the timing in which we could achieve it,” Carlsson said of the production target, adding the company was working towards improving output.On Monday, Reuters reported that Northvolt had missed some in-house targets and curtailed production at its battery-cell plant in northern Sweden.Carlsson will become a senior adviser and remain a member of the board, the company said, adding the search for a new CEO had started. In the meantime, it will be led by finance chief Pia Aaltonen-Forsell and its president of battery cells, Matthias Arleth, who takes up a new role as chief operations officer. “The biggest issue is that batteries are not easy to make and Northvolt haven’t satisfied the supply demands of their customers — that is a management issue,” said Andy Palmer, founder of consultancy Palmer Automotive.Europe has been seeking to attract EV battery makers to the region — home to the likes of Volkswagen and Stellantis — to cut dependency on Asia, and win a green subsidies race with the US.Production plans have, however, been bogged down by bureaucracy, technical problems and slower EV demand than expected.In 2024, Europe’s battery pipeline capacity out to 2030 has fallen by 176 gigawatt-hours, according to data firm Benchmark Minerals.That’s equivalent to almost all the current installed capacity in Europe, according to Reuters calculations.Only a single production line at Northvolt’s plant in northern Sweden, its sole operating battery facility, is currently delivering finished products to an end user, truck maker Scania, Carlsson told reporters. Work is ongoing on two other production lines at the plant to enable deliveries to Porsche and Audi, he added.Northvolt said on Thursday it was looking for one or more partners to finance its restructuring and return the company to long-term sustainability, including the completion of major battery plants in Germany and Canada.“Any and all interested parties, regardless of their desired transaction type, are encouraged to contact Rothschild as soon as possible and submit proposals by early December,” Northvolt said in its Chapter 11 filing at a Texas court.

A number of officials and experts in the media field have underlined that Qatar TV has reached an advanced stage of leadership, development and creativity, making it one of the most important media outlets that shape the culture and awareness of the public.In special statements to Qatar News Agency (QNA) on the occasion of World Television Day, which falls on Nov 21 of each year, they said that Qatar TV has been able, throughout its journey spanning from 1970 until today, to witness tremendous development, whether at the technical level or the level of programs and the diverse content it provides, including news, cultural, economic, social, artistic and other materials.In this regard, Ali bin Saleh al-Sada, Director of Qatar TV, said in a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA) that the celebration at Qatar TV of World Television Day is based on its consideration of this national media institution as a great gain for spreading our culture, values and authentic heritage, and that this day represents a message to all followers inside and outside Qatar that it conveys their concerns, explores their dreams and ambitions and strives to be an honest mirror of their reality. He stressed that Qatar TV has become a window through which the world can see the creativity of the younger generation.The Director of Qatar TV noted that television has become stronger and more widespread with its innovative programs that are close to the people, but also with its active platforms on social media and its digital platforms that broadcast diverse and sophisticated cultural, entertainment, media and social content. Therefore, the desired integration has occurred between the screen and the digital platforms, and the exchange of content between them has become evidence that they succeed together.For his part, Saad bin Mohammed al-Rumaihi, Chairman of the Qatar Press Center, said in a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA) that this is an opportunity to look back on the long journey of Qatar TV, which began on Aug 15, 1970, passing through several stages until it reached its current state of remarkable development in various fields. He highlighted the distinguished programming and qualified technical cadres the institution has.He reviewed Qatar TV journey since 1974 when it converted to colour television, followed by the addition of channels called 37 and 49 as a parallel channel to present programs in English, in 1982. Al-Rumaihi, who previously held the position of Director of Qatar TV, pointed out that the television's journey was full, as it witnessed the presentation of many programs and coverage, whether live, documentary, drama programs, or others related to competitions, as well as sports programs, and many others Which distinguished Qatar TV, which made it gain a large share of followers in Qatar and the Gulf and those who receive Qatar TV transmissions.The chairman of the Qatar Press Center confirmed that the great effort made by the Ministers of Information who succeeded one another at the Ministry of Information contributed to enhancing the public's communication with television, making it a very important and valuable media process.He pointed out that Qatar TV, since the beginning of its career, has been distinguished by presenting a distinctive news bulletin, which is the 8:30 news bulletin, which enjoyed a large share of followers.Despite the presence of satellite channels at that time, this bulletin maintained its privacy because it covered many local news, and other news that the region was going through at that time.Al-Rumaihi said that Qatar TV kept up with events, especially before it switched to satellite broadcasting, including the political events that it was very distinguished by, and its keenness to be present and provide everything that is useful to the viewer.In turn, Mubarak bin Jaham al-Kuwari, former CEO of Qatar Media Corporation, confirmed in a similar statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), that television is considered one of the important media devices for every person, and therefore a world day was allocated for it, in recognition of what it offers, and because it is linked to peoples lives and touches their conditions, which made it an indispensable device within the family.He noted that throughout the history of television, it has witnessed many aspects of development, and was not limited to one field, as it was in the past, with the presence of terrestrial television, and its broadcast for a limited number of hours per day, but the situation went beyond it to satellite broadcasting, for specialized television channels to later appear, such as documentary, sports, news, drama channels, and others, which created diverse segments of viewers, in addition to other areas in media coverage.He added that among the developments witnessed by television is its presence on social media, which has made it more popular among viewers, and has gained new viewers as a result, which reflects the keenness of television to adapt to the technical development witnessed by the media field in general, noting that television in Qatar has had a share of this development since its inception, as it has been keen to be present in its Gulf and Arab surroundings, not just Qatar, until it has a long history in what it provides of purposeful content that meets the various segments of society.Mubarak bin Jaham al-Kuwari pointed to the State of Qatar's interest in media expansions in the field of television, as channels such as Al Jazeera, Al Rayyan, beIN and Al Arabiya TV have emerged as a result of this interest, which reflects the keenness of the media in Qatar to have a television presence, starting from the early inception and launch, and reaching the stages of development.The celebration of World Television Day on November 21 of each year came under a UN resolution issued in 1996, and aims to recognize the increasing influence of television in decision-making by drawing public attention to conflicts and threats to peace and security, and its role in increasing focus on other key issues, including economic and social issues.This event came as a recognition of the increasing influence of television in the decision-making process, which means recognizing it as a basic means of conveying information to, communicating and influencing public opinion, and its impact on global politics, its presence in it and its influence on its course cannot be denied.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has accused the US of ramping up tension and provocations, saying the Korean peninsula has never faced a greater risk of nuclear war, state media KCNA said on Friday.The comments came amid international criticism over increasingly close military co-operation between Pyongyang and Moscow, and assertions that North Korea sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia to support its invasion of Ukraine.Previous negotiations with Washington have only highlighted its “aggressive and hostile” policy toward North Korea, Kim said in a speech at a military exhibition in Pyongyang, the capital, the KCNA news agency said.“Never before have the warring parties on the Korean peninsula faced such a dangerous and acute confrontation that it could escalate into the most destructive thermonuclear war,” he said.“We have already gone as far as we can on negotiating with the US,” he said, adding that the talks had only shown its aggressive and hostile policy toward North Korea could never change.North Korean state media have not yet publicly mentioned the re-election of Donald Trump, who held three unprecedented meetings with Kim during his first term, in Singapore, Hanoi, and at the Korean border, in 2018 and 2019.But their diplomacy yielded no concrete outcome due to the gap between US calls for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and Kim’s demands for sanctions relief.Trump has long touted his ties with Kim, saying last month the two countries would have had “a nuclear war with millions of people killed”, but he had stopped it, thanks to his ties with the North’s leader.Hong Min, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said Kim could be trying to underscore the North’s nuclear capabilities ahead of Trump’s second term, while leaving the door open for diplomacy.“He might be suggesting Trump should show his ‘willingness to co-exist’ before re-opening any talks and calling for a change in the US hostile attitude,” Hong said.Kim also called for developing and upgrading “ultra-modern” versions of weaponry, and vowed to keep advancing defence capabilities to bolster the North’s strategic position, KCNA said.Strategic and tactical weapons were on display at the event, called the Defence Development Exhibition.KCNA pictures showed the Hwasong-19 and 18 intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Chollima-1 rocket used in a successful satellite launch in November 2023, and the Saetbyol-9 multi-purpose attack drone, which resembles the US Reaper.

Rowdy cheers spilled from a Hong Kong banquet hall hosting a mass wedding party, as one of the 20 elderly couples renewing their vows coquettishly shared a strawberry marshmallow mouth-to-mouth.Dressed to impress, the brides and grooms - mostly in their 70s - were in high spirits as they took part in the 17th Elderly Wedding event, organised by a local NGO to highlight the importance of love to mental well-being among older adults.Wendy Wong, the vibrant 72-year-old who had delighted the room with her confectionery-based antics, sat by her husband, her arm through his.“What is love? I don’t think I can live without him,” Wong said.“I didn’t have a western-style wedding, so this is very special for us,” she said, her diamante-encrusted white satin gown catching the light from the hall’s chandeliers.The full three-day event has returned after a five-year hiatus caused first by the huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests that engulfed Hong Kong in 2019, and then the coronavirus.The pandemic left its mark in other ways too.“In previous years, we had participants even in their 90s, but... many older individuals lost their lives to Covid-19,” said volunteer team leader Chan Hiu-ching.“That’s why the demographics skew younger this year.”Wong and her husband Lun Yuk-lam, the oldest participant at 77, have had their own brush with mortality.Lun survived cancer 10 years ago, and still has to take medication to keep it at bay.“It was a critical moment in life, but I will always by his side and hope for his good health,” Wong said.The uncertainty of the pandemic had made the couple eager to “create more memories” together, she added - and the Elderly Wedding seemed like the perfect way to mark their 50th wedding anniversary.Chan Siu-kam, the chairman of the organising NGO, came up with the idea around 20 years ago.While visiting a care home, she noticed a beautiful gown one of the residents was using for a photoshoot, and saw the desire to dress up for a special occasion did not necessarily fade with age.“This is a way for the elderly to connect with others,” Chan explained.“Their needs extend beyond financial or physical support - their mental health is often overlooked by society.”Many of the participants had reached out themselves, she said, with some of the more tech-savvy ones coming across the event on Facebook.After the banquet, the couples piled into two brightly coloured Hong Kong trams and set off along the tracks, waving to passers-by who stopped to watch delightedly.“Please congratulate them! They just got married today!” volunteers shouted from the top of the tram.

India’s government plans to clamp down on polluting farm fires by measuring the areas burnt instead of live blazes, after reports that farmers were burning paddy waste or stubble at times when satellites were not passing overhead.India currently uses data from Nasa satellites that pass twice a day over the northern states of Punjab and Haryana to monitor farm fires, which are a major contributor to the smog that envelopes the national capital region (NCR) each winter.The Commission for Air Quality Management, a government body responsible for air quality in the NCR, said on Friday that India’s space agency had been asked in January to develop a system to study burnt areas to count farm fires. “That protocol has actually been developed and is currently being tested,” additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati told the Supreme Court after an adviser to the court said on Monday that the current system counted fires over a limited time.Some experts suspect that farmers have, over time, become aware of the surveillance period and shifted the time of burning their crop waste to evade the Nasa satellites, because of which while counts were lower this year, pollution levels were not.The government said on Friday data from stationary satellites was “sub optimal” and not “actionable”, dismissing an earlier direction from the court to use them instead.Delhi has been battling hazardous air this month, with the air quality index (AQI) touching a peak of 494 on a scale of 500 on Monday, when farm fires also recorded a high of 2,893, prompting the government to restrict vehicle movement and construction and shift schools to online teaching.India considers an AQI of 0-50 ‘good’, and above 400 ‘severe’, which poses a risk to healthy people and “seriously impacts” those with existing diseases.Delhi recorded a ‘very poor’ AQI of 374 on Friday, authorities said, and the ministry of earth sciences forecast it would remain in the same category (300-400) through this week.Other countries in South Asia also battle toxic air every year as cold air traps dust, smoke, and emissions, and some studies say rising air pollution can cut a person’s life expectancy in the region by more than five years.

London’s Gatwick Airport, the second busiest airport in Britain, reopened a terminal on Friday after a security alert earlier in the day forced its evacuation and caused travel disruption for thousands of people.Police sent a bomb disposal team to deal with a suspected prohibited item that they said had been found in luggage at the airport’s south terminal, 30 miles south of London.“The earlier security alert has now been resolved and cleared by police,” Gatwick said in a statement.The incident disrupted weekend travel plans for thousands of passengers, with more than 600 flights due to land or take off on Friday from Gatwick, amounting to more than 121,000 passenger seats, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.Thousands of passengers were seen outside the terminal and the surrounding area in videos posted online after the terminal shut for several hours. Emergency foil blankets were distributed to some of the passengers who were waiting in the cold, social media pictures showed.In a separate incident earlier on Friday, London police carried out a controlled explosion near the US embassy in south London after discovering a suspect package. Police later said they believed it was a hoax.