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  • Norway sovereign wealth fund drops investments in 11 Israeli firms over Gaza war

    Norway sovereign wealth fund drops investments in 11 Israeli firms over Gaza war

    Oslo: Norway’s sovereign wealth fund said Monday that it was selling its investments in 11 Israeli companies following reports it had invested in an Israeli jet engine maker even as the war in Gaza raged.

    Nicolai Tangen, chief of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the fund, said the decision was taken “in response to extraordinary circumstances”.

    “The situation in Gaza is a serious humanitarian crisis. We are invested in companies that operate in a country at war, and conditions in the West Bank and Gaza have recently worsened,” Tangen said in a statement.

    Read More: Israel signs $35 billion natural gas supply deal with Egypt

    He said the move would reduce the number of Israeli companies the fund’s Council of Ethics needed to supervise.

    Norway’s wealth fund — also known as the oil fund as it is fuelled by vast revenue from the country’s energy exports — is the biggest in the world with a value of around $1.9 trillion, with investments in more than 8,600 companies spanning the globe.

    Last week, Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reported that the fund had invested in Israeli Bet Shemesh Engines Holdings, which makes parts for engines used in Israeli fighter jets.

    Tangen later confirmed the reports, and said the fund had increased its stake after the Israeli offensive in Gaza began.

    The revelations led Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store to ask Finance Minister and former NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg for a review.

    NBIM said it had investments in 61 Israeli companies at the end of the first six months of this year, 11 of which were not in its “equity benchmark index” — which is set by the finance ministry and used to gauge the wealth fund’s performance.

    NBIM added that it had decided last week that “all investments in Israeli companies that are not in the equity benchmark index will be sold as soon as possible”.

    – Ethical guidelines –

    Going forward, “the fund’s investments in Israel will now be limited to companies that are in the equity benchmark index,” it said.

    NBIM also said that all investments in Israeli companies managed by external managers would be moved in-house, and that it was “terminating contracts with external managers in Israel”.

    In addition, NBIM said the finance ministry had asked it to review “its investments in Israeli companies, and to propose new measures that it deems necessary”.

    It said it initiated the review and would present its findings before an August 20 deadline.

    The fund also said that it had “long paid particular attention to companies associated with war and conflict”.

    “Since 2020, we have been in contact with more than 60 companies to raise this issue. Of these, 39 dialogues were related to the West Bank and Gaza,” NBIM said.

    It said that monitoring of Israeli companies had been intensified in the autumn of 2024, and that “as a result, we have sold our investments in several Israeli companies”.

    Speaking at a press conference later Monday, Stoltenberg said he was glad Norges Bank had “acted quickly”.

    “The fund’s ethical guidelines stipulate that it shall not invest in companies that contribute to violations of international law by states,” he told reporters.

    “Therefore, the pension fund should not hold shares in companies that contribute to Israel’s warfare in Gaza or the occupation of the West Bank,” he said.

    Also on Monday, Norwegian pension fund KLP said it had excluded Israeli company NextVision Stabilized Systems “from its investments because the company supplies key components for military drones used in the war in Gaza”.

  • Antonio Banderas, 65, rules out retirement plans

    Antonio Banderas, 65, rules out retirement plans

    Spanish film star Antonio Banderas said in an interview published Sunday for his birthday that he has no plans to slow down now that he has reached 65.

    “When I was 20, I thought that 65-year-olds walked with a cane,” said Antonio Banderas, known for roles in films such as ‘The Mask of Zorro’, ‘Desperado’, and ‘Philadelphia’, in an interview with the Spanish daily El País.

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    “Back then, at 65, you retired. Not anymore — now it’s later.”

    “Maybe I’m doing things I shouldn’t be doing,” added Banderas, who suffered a heart attack in 2017. “But the doctors don’t say anything to me. They say I’m fine, that I should do whatever I want.”

    The actor said he has recently started music theory classes and bought himself a piano.

    “I think I’d be one of those people who die if they stop. And I work at what I love; it’s been the luck of my life,” he said.

    Banderas, who began acting in the 1980s, said he remains busy running the theatre he opened in 2019 in his hometown of Malaga, in southern Spain.

    Also Read: Antonio Banderas joins Dominic Sessa in Anthony Bourdain biopic ‘Tony’

    He spent part of the summer in Boston filming a biopic of legendary chef Anthony Bourdain, titled ‘Tony’, and then travelled to Spain’s Canary Islands to work on a thriller, ‘Above and Below’.

  • Italy’s defence minister says Israel has ‘lost humanity’ on Gaza

    Italy’s defence minister says Israel has ‘lost humanity’ on Gaza

    ROME: Italy’s defence minister said in an interview published Monday that Israel’s government had “lost its reason and humanity” over Gaza and signalled an openness to potential sanctions.

    “What is happening is unacceptable. We are not facing a military operation with collateral damage, but the pure denial of the law and the founding values of our civilisation,” Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told La Stampa daily.

    “We are committed to humanitarian aid, but we must now find a way to force Netanyahu to think clearly, beyond condemnation.”

    Asked about possible international sanctions against Israel, Crosetto said that “the occupation of Gaza and some serious acts in the West Bank mark a qualitative leap, in the face of which decisions must be made that force Netanyahu to think”.

    “And it wouldn’t be a move against Israel, but a way to save that people from a government which has lost reason and humanity.

    “We must always distinguish governments from states and people, as well as from the religions they profess. This applies for Netanyahu, and it applies to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, whose methods, by now, have become dangerously similar.”

    He was speaking after Netanyahu defended his plan to take control of Gaza City, a plan which has sparked criticism from across the world.

    Italy has declined to join other nations in saying it would recognise a Palestinian state — a decision Crosetto defended, saying that “recognising a state that doesn’t exist risks turning into nothing but a political provocation in a world dying of provocations”.

  • Three-quarters of UN members support Palestinian statehood

    Three-quarters of UN members support Palestinian statehood

    PARIS: Three-quarters of UN members have already or soon plan to recognise Palestinian statehood, with Australia on Monday becoming the latest to promise it will at the UN General Assembly in September.

    The Israel-Hamas war, raging in Gaza since the Palestinian militant group’s attack on October 7, 2023, has revived a global push for Palestinians to be given a state of their own.

    The action breaks with a long-held view that Palestinians could only gain statehood as part of a negotiated peace with Israel.

    According to an AFP tally, at least 145 of the 193 UN members now recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state, including France, Canada and Britain.

    Here is a quick recap of the Palestinians’ quest for statehood:

    1988: Arafat proclaims state

    On November 15, 1988, during the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising against Israeli rule, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat unilaterally proclaimed an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

    He made the announcement in Algiers at a meeting of the exiled Palestinian National Council, which adopted the two-state solution as a goal, with independent Israeli and Palestinian states existing side-by-side.

    Minutes later, Algeria became the first country to officially recognise an independent Palestinian state.

    Within a week, dozens of other countries, including much of the Arab world, India, Turkey, most of Africa and several central and eastern European countries followed suit.

    The next wave of recognitions came in late 2010 and early 2011, at a time of crisis for the Middle East peace process.

    South American countries, including Argentina, Brazil and Chile, answered calls by the Palestinians to endorse their statehood claims.

    This came in response to Israel’s decision to end a temporary ban on Jewish settlement-building in the occupied West Bank.

    2011-2012: UN recognition

    In 2011, with peace talks at a standstill, the Palestinians pushed ahead with a campaign for full UN membership.

    The quest failed, but in a groundbreaking move on October 31 of that year, the UN cultural agency UNESCO voted to accept the Palestinians as a full member, much to the dismay of Israel and the United States.

    In November 2012, the Palestinian flag was raised for the first time at the United Nations in New York after the General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinians to “non-member observer state”.

    Three years later, the International Criminal Court also accepted the Palestinians as a state party.

    2024-2025 new push

    Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the October 7, 2023 attack has boosted support for Palestinian statehood.

    Four Caribbean countries (Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Bahamas) and Armenia took the diplomatic step in 2024.

    So did four European countries: Norway, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia, the latter three EU members.

    Within the European Union, this was a first in 10 years since Sweden’s move in 2014, which resulted in years of strained relations with Israel.

    Other member states, such as Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, had already done so in 1988, long before joining the EU.

    On the other hand, some former Eastern bloc countries, such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, do not or no longer recognise a state of Palestine.

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday that “Australia will recognise the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own” at the UN General Assembly.

    France said last month it intends to recognise a Palestinian state come September, while Britain said it would do the same unless Israel takes “substantive steps”, including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.

    Canada also plans to recognise a Palestinian state in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney said, marking a dramatic policy shift that was immediately rejected by Israel.

    Among other countries that could also formally express recognition, Malta, Finland and Portugal have raised the possibility.

  • The Russian past of Alaska, where Trump and Putin will meet

    The Russian past of Alaska, where Trump and Putin will meet

    WASHINGTON: Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will hold a high-stakes meeting about the Ukraine war on Friday in Alaska, which the United States bought from Russia more than 150 years ago.

    Russian influence still endures in parts of the remote state on the northwest edge of the North American continent, which extends just a few miles from Russia.

    Former Russian colony

    When Danish explorer Vitus Bering first sailed through the narrow strait that separates Asia and the Americas in 1728, it was on an expedition for Tsarist Russia.

    The discovery of what is now known as the Bering Strait revealed the existence of Alaska to the West — however Indigenous people had been living there for thousands of years.

    Bering’s expedition kicked off a century of Russian seal hunting, with the first colony set up on the southern Kodiak island.

    In 1799, Tsar Paul I established the Russian-American Company to take advantage of the lucrative fur trade, which often involved clashes with the Indigenous inhabitants.

    However the hunters overexploited the seals and sea otters, whose populations collapsed, taking with them the settlers’ economy.

    The Russian empire sold the territory to Washington for $7.2 million in 1867.

    The purchase of an area more than twice the size of Texas was widely criticized in the US at the time, even dubbed “Seward’s folly” after the deal’s mastermind, secretary of state William Seward.

    Languages and churches

    The Russian Orthodox Church established itself in Alaska after the creation of the Russian-American Company, and remains one of the most significant remaining Russian influences in the state.

    More than 35 churches, some with distinctive onion-shaped domes, dot the Alaskan coast, according to an organization dedicated to preserving the buildings.

    Alaska’s Orthodox diocese says it is the oldest in North America, and even maintains a seminary on Kodiak island.

    A local dialect derived from Russian mixed with Indigenous languages survived for decades in various communities — particularly near the state’s largest city Anchorage — though it has now essentially vanished.

    However near the massive glaciers on the southern Kenai peninsula, the Russian language is still being taught.

    A small rural school of an Orthodox community known as the “Old Believers” set up in the 1960s teaches Russian to around a hundred students.

    Neighbors

    One of the most famous statements about the proximity of Alaska and Russia was made in 2008 by Sarah Palin, the state’s then-governor — and the vice-presidential pick of Republican candidate John McCain.

    “They’re our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska,” Palin said.

    While it is not possible to see Russia from the Alaskan mainland, two islands facing each other in the Bering Strait are separated by just 2.5 miles (four kilometers).

    Russia’s Big Diomede island is just west of the American Little Diomede island, where a few dozen people live.

    Further south, two Russians landed on the remote St. Lawrence island — which is a few dozen miles from the Russian coast — in October, 2022 to seek asylum.

    They fled just weeks after Putin ordered an unpopular mobilization of citizens to boost his invasion of Ukraine.

    For years, the US military has said it regularly intercepts Russian aircraft that venture too close to American airspace in the region.

    However Russia is ostensibly not interested in reclaiming the territory it once held, with Putin saying in 2014 that Alaska is “too cold”.

  • Indian police arrest fake police running ‘crime bureau’

    Indian police arrest fake police running ‘crime bureau’

    NEW DELHI: Indian police have arrested six men for allegedly posing as police and extorting “donations” from a rented office labelled a “crime investigative bureau”.

    The “International Police and Crime Investigation Bureau”, run from an office decorated with “police-like colours and logos”, was located in New Delhi satellite city Noida, police said in a statement late Sunday.

    The accused forged documents and certificates and ran a website where they sought “donations” from victims, police said.

    They also claimed they had an “affiliation with Interpol” and other international crime units.

    “The perpetrators presented themselves as public servants,” the police said.

    Police recovered several mobile phones, cheque books, stamp seals and identity cards.

    The arrests come just weeks after a man was arrested for allegedly running a fake embassy from a rented house near New Delhi and duping job seekers of money with promises of employment abroad.

    The accused was operating an illegal “West Arctic embassy” and claimed to be the ambassador of fictional nations including “West Arctica, Saborga, Poulvia, Lodonia”.

  • Australia will recognise Palestinian state: PM

    Australia will recognise Palestinian state: PM

    SYDNEY, Australia: Australia will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday.

    “Until Israeli and Palestinian statehood is permanent, peace can only be temporary,” he told reporters.

    “Australia will recognise the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own.”

    Several countries, including France, Britian and Canada, have announced plans to recognise statehood for Palestinians since Israel launched a bombardment of Gaza nearly two years ago in response to the Hamas attacks.

    Albanese added that he had received assurances from the Palestinian Authority that there would be “no role for the terrorists of Hamas in any future Palestinian state”.

    “There is a moment of opportunity here, and Australia will work with the international community to seize it,” he said.

  • European ministers slam Israel’s Gaza control plan

    European ministers slam Israel’s Gaza control plan

    Madrid: Spain and seven other European nations on Sunday condemned Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City, warning it would kill large numbers of civilians and force nearly a million Palestinians from their homes.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Friday greenlighted plans for a major operation to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave of domestic and international criticism.

    In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the eight nations said the decision “will only aggravate the humanitarian crisis and further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages”.

    Besides Spain, the statement was signed by the foreign ministers of Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal and Slovenia.

    They estimated the operation could lead to an “unacceptably high number of fatalities and the forced displacement of nearly one million Palestinian civilians”, according to a copy of the statement released by Spain’s foreign ministry.

    They also warned that the planned offensive and occupation of Gaza City would be “a major obstacle to implementing the two-state solution, the only path towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace”.

    Foreign powers, including some of Israel’s allies, have been pushing for a negotiated ceasefire to secure the hostages’ return and help alleviate a humanitarian crisis in the strip.

    Despite the backlash and rumours of dissent from Israeli military top brass, Netanyahu has remained defiant over the decision to seize Gaza City.

  • 6.1-magnitude quake hits western Turkey: disaster agency

    6.1-magnitude quake hits western Turkey: disaster agency

    A 6.1-magnitude quake struck Sindirgi in western Turkey on Sunday, the Turkish disaster management agency (AFAD) reported.

    The quake was felt across several cities in the west of the country, including Istanbul and the tourist hotspot of Izmir. No deaths were reported.

    About 10 buildings collapsed in Sindirgi, the epicentre of the earthquake, including a three-storey building in the city centre, Mayor Serkan Sak announced on Turkish private channel NTV.

    “Six people lived in this three-storey building. Four were rescued from the rubble,” he said, adding that efforts to extract the other two were underway.

    “Buildings and mosques were destroyed, but we have no reports of loss of life,” he added.

    The quake hit at 7:53 pm (1653 GMT), with aftershocks ranging from 3.5 to 4.6 magnitude, according to AFAD.

    Turkey is crisscrossed by several geological fault lines which have previously caused catastrophes in the country.

    A quake in February 2023 in the southwest killed at least 53,000 people and devastated Antakya, site of the ancient city of Antioch.

    At the beginning of July, a 5.8-magnitude tremor in the same region resulted in one death and injured 69 people.

  • Over 600 pilgrims hospitalised due to chlorine gas leak in Iraq

    Over 600 pilgrims hospitalised due to chlorine gas leak in Iraq

    KARBALA, Iraq: More than 600 pilgrims in Iraq were briefly hospitalised with respiratory problems after inhaling chlorine as the result of a leak at a water treatment station, authorities said Sunday.

    The incident took place overnight on the route between the two holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, located in the centre and south of Iraq respectively.

    This year, several million Shiite Muslim pilgrims are expected to make their way to Karbala, which houses the shrines of Imam Hussein and his brother Hazrat Abbas.

    There, they will mark the Arbaeen — the 40-day period of mourning during which Shiites commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

    In a brief statement, Iraq’s health ministry said “621 cases of asphyxia have been recorded following a chlorine gas leak in Karbala”.

    “All have received the necessary care and left hospital in good health,” it said.

    Security forces charged with protecting pilgrims meanwhile said the incident had been caused by “a chlorine leak from a water station on the Karbala-Najaf road”.

    Much of Iraq’s infrastructure is in disrepair due to decades of conflict and corruption, with adherence to safety standards often lax.

    In July, a massive fire at a shopping mall in the eastern city of Kut killed more than 60 people, many of whom suffocated in the toilets, according to authorities.