MADRID: Charles Leclerc and Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton said they had cleared the air face-to-face after a clash at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix but there were still no written rules of engagement between the pair.
Seven-times Formula One world champion Hamilton had called for written rules after being forced off onto the gravel by Leclerc on the opening lap and dropping from fourth to 10th.
The Briton eventually finished sixth while Leclerc crashed out. Asked at the Spanish Grand Prix on Thursday whether anything had been put in writing, Hamilton replied, “There was not.
“I’m sure at some stage we’ll discuss how we can be better but we’ve not had a lot of time to turn around. You can’t change things in two days.”
Hamilton said there had been no shying away between the two drivers when they came to discuss what had happened.
“We sat face to face, just him and I, and talked about it,” he said. “We were just both open and honest and we squashed it. And we can move on… I think it’s healthy. It’s a relationship we have built over time.”
“Of course there’s going to be frustrations… I’m sure there will be more times (where) we are close (on track) because we are very close on pace. We both want to win just as much as each other and we both want to do well for the team as well.”
Ferrari are second in the championship after 13 rounds, 122 points behind Mercedes. Hamilton is third overall, 76 points behind Mercedes’ leader Kimi Antonelli.
Leclerc told reporters he had reviewed footage after the race and recognised he had gone too far.
“I said it to Lewis and I think it’s very clear what we should do or should avoid going forward but I won’t go into much more details of what we’ve said,” added the Monegasque.
“The only thing I can say is it definitely did not affect the good relationship that we have and it will not affect anything going forward and that is the most important for me really.”
Leclerc said his crash at Monza at the end of the second lap had felt like a big one and he had suffered a tight neck for a couple of days after but was now fine.
BEIRUT: The Lebanese army and other security agencies reinforced their presence in the southern city of Nabatiyeh Thursday amid continued Israeli military escalation. An official Lebanese source told Arab News that Beirut had received no guarantees that the city would be spared an Israeli incursion following Israel’s takeover of the Ali Al-Taher ridge.
The Lebanese source said the enhanced army deployment was intended to “remove Israeli pretexts” for advancing into and occupying the city. “No foreign party, including the Americans, has provided Lebanon with guarantees that Israel will be restrained from pursuing its ambitions,” the source said.
Concerns are mounting over the city’s fate since Israel announced taking control of Ali Al-Taher, amid silence from Hezbollah, raising fears that Nabatiyeh could become vulnerable militarily. Nabatiyeh is approximately 12-15 km from the Israeli border.
Any slide toward widespread destruction would mark a major escalation in the conflict. Recent Israeli attacks have struck government and public facilities in Nabatiyeh, prompting President Joseph Aoun to condemn the targeting of a Finance Ministry building and the destruction of Ghandour Hospital.
In a statement, Lebanese Army Command stressed that the reinforcements did not constitute a new deployment, as army units were already present in Nabatiyeh and other areas not occupied by Israeli forces. It said the military had instead intensified its duties to reassure residents.
Interior Minister Ahmad Al-Hajjar said reinforcing the military and security presence was “an essential step to reassure residents,” adding that the state would continue strengthening its presence in the south to create conditions for people to return safely.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told Nabatiyeh Mayor Abbas Fakhruddin that supporting the resilience of residents was a priority. He said he was following up with security chiefs on increasing the presence of official state agencies alongside the army in Nabatiyeh. Lebanon is seeking to consolidate its authority inside the city and turn it into a broader model of state administration in areas exposed to Israeli military pressure.
The developments at Ali Al-Taher have made those efforts more urgent, with concerns that any area not quickly brought under effective state authority could, under the current balance of power, become the target of further Israeli military pressure.
The push coincided with a statement from the US Embassy on Thursday, as public calls grew in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah’s weapons. Residents of Tyre and Nabatiyeh have urged the Lebanese army to deploy and for weapons to be restricted exclusively to state institutions, while backing the government’s efforts to secure an Israeli withdrawal.
The US Embassy in Lebanon said Thursday that “the Lebanese people are making clearer every day their preference for Lebanese state institutions over Hezbollah’s weapons.” It added that “southern Lebanon does not belong to regional actors or militias.”
The embassy reaffirmed US support for the government’s declared objective of asserting sovereignty, with the Lebanese army responsible for enforcing it and decisions of war and peace remaining exclusively in the hands of the Lebanese state. The Lebanese army, meanwhile, issued a detailed statement outlining its activities since the signing of the US-sponsored framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
The statement came in response to what the army described as continued Israeli efforts to undermine existing arrangements, obstruct the army’s field operations and continue attacks on civilians that killed and wounded dozens of people a week ago. Lebanese Army Command said the escalation in Israeli strikes, alongside demolition and explosive operations in the south, “leaves no room for doubt regarding the aggressive intentions of the Israeli occupation.”
It said the Israeli escalation threatened implementation of the framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, while continued attacks endangered existing understandings and arrangements and obstructed the army’s efforts to establish stability in the south. The army also warned that Israeli attacks and violations demonstrated an effort to undermine its credibility both inside Lebanon and before the international community.
The continuation and escalation of these attacks, alongside brutal demolition and explosive operations in the south, left no doubt about Israel’s aggressive intentions and contradicts international law, the statement added. Lebanese Army Command said specialist units had seized about 1,818 weapons and ammunition items during their operations.
The seized material included 10 rocket-launching platforms, seven rockets, seven drones, 51 projectiles, 10 aerial bombs and 1,560 pieces of light ammunition, in addition to large numbers of mines and explosive devices.
The army said units had also searched some homes in accordance with Lebanese law and with owner consent. It said residents had cooperated with the measures, particularly those related to removing unexploded ordnance and other dangers left behind by the war. Military units also opened roads totaling about 12 km in length as part of efforts to rehabilitate damaged areas, facilitate the movement of residents and troops and consolidate the army’s presence.
The measures included controlling movement in and out of operational areas, giving deployed units greater ability to monitor the area and prevent unauthorized armed activity. Lebanese Army Command said there had been no corresponding Israeli compliance.
According to army monitoring, Israel has committed about 7,700 violations since the framework agreement was signed on June 26. These include multiple attacks, as well as incidents in which Israeli forces opened fire near Lebanese army personnel and patrols.
RIYADH: After more than 20 years in the legal and investment sectors, Khadija Grabinski transitioned into executive coaching, where she helps leaders navigate change through meaningful conversations.
Having lived in Saudi Arabia for the past year, she also shares her experience of the Kingdom on social media, offering an authentic perspective on its culture, people, and transformation.
Grabinski and her husband moved to the Kingdom from the US and she felt this new period of her life was an opportunity to make some changes.
The daily routine she and her husband experienced during their time in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic inspired them to explore opportunities and make changes.
“I spent 20 years in my field (as a litigator), so I guess it was enough … it was the right moment for me to change and to be more connected to people. This is why I chose to transition,” she said.
Grabinski added that her new work life allows her to have meaningful conversations with people, providing them the space to talk about how they want to grow in professionally.
“I mean, for me, meaningful conversation gives more clarity. You think better. I mean, when you talk to people, even friends, and when you are in the deep conversation, it becomes like something more clear. You know where you are going. So this is why.”
When Saudi Arabia launched Vision 2030 in 2016, much of the world’s attention focused on its bold plans for economic diversification and landmark development projects.
Yet, nearly a decade later, the social transformation unfolding across Saudi Arabia has proven every bit as significant. Anchored in Vision 2030’s vibrant society pillar, this transformation is reshaping daily life in the Kingdom.
“As a coach, what I see is the other side of the transformation. It’s like people are excited for the future, but at the same time, they feel the pressure. So, they are wondering if their job will be the same in five or 10 years.”
Grabinski added that leaders in today’s environment leaders have to acquire more skills, reinvent themselves, or simply adapt because there is both excitement and uncertainty.
“For a country that grew that fast, which is totally normal to be honest, there is what I call growing pains. You know, like (when a) teenager (grows) too fast, it’s the same for a company. For people and for countries. So, there were some growing pains,” she said.
She added that today’s successful leaders need to possess interpersonal communication skills, which machines and artificial intelligence cannot easily replicate.
“Leaders will need to communicate better. Listen more. And help their teams to navigate uncertainty and lead by example. Always and where do you see emotional intelligence being basically a huge factor of that, like, how is that going to turn into a valuable skill set for a leader?
“I mean, by learning, the need to learn, it’s like a muscle, leadership,” she said.
Grabinski shares her experiences and opinions about living in Saudi Arabia through her accounts titled Simone Executive Coach|Common Ground on TikTok and Instagram.
Frankfurt has tightened again.
The European Central Bank’s governing council lifted the deposit facility rate from 2.25% to 2.5% on Thursday. It is the second hike since 11 June, when the ECB moved for the first time in three years.
The ECB sets monetary policy for the eurozone through three key interest rates, with the deposit facility rate serving as its main policy benchmark.
The main refinancing rate was lifted to 2.65% and the marginal lending facility to 2.9%.
In its statement, the central bank noted that “the conflict in the Middle East continues to generate inflation pressures, and inflation is set to remain well above target for an extended period,” while ensuring that “with today’s decision, the Governing Council remains well positioned to navigate the uncertainty caused by the conflict.”
The ECB staff projections continue to estimate that headline inflation will average 3% this year. However, it has revised up the expectations for 2027 and 2028 to 2.5% and 2.1% respectively, compared with June.
The decision follows an August inflation reading of 3.3%, up from 2.9% in July and the highest since September 2023.
Energy costs did nearly all the work, with energy inflation jumping to 14.3% from 10.3%, as fighting around the Strait of Hormuz kept crude supply constrained. The problem persists as Brent crude crossed $100 a barrel again on Wednesday due to renewed exchanges of fire between the US and Iran.
Underneath, the picture is calmer.
Core inflation, which strips out energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, actually fell to 2.4% from 2.5% in August, while services inflation, the component most sensitive to wages, dropped to 3% from 3.3%. There is still little sign that expensive energy is spreading into the rest of the economy.
That distinction has been central to the ECB’s own thinking.
In a paper published earlier this month, its economists found that adverse energy supply factors accounted for around 90% of the rise in energy inflation between January and May of this year.
“This time the energy supply shock dominates, while demand and public policy stimulus have minor roles,” the economists wrote, contrasting it with the 2021-22 surge that prompted a far more aggressive response.
The eurozone inflation average conceals a wide spread.
August inflation ran at 4.5% in Spain, 2.9% in Germany and 2.7% in France, three economies facing the same energy shock with markedly different outcomes.
Growth complicates matters further.
The bloc has held up better than expected, but resilience is not overheating, and even at 2.5% the deposit rate remains within the range the ECB considers neutral. Going further would mean deciding that policy must actively restrain the economy.
Christine Lagarde had signalled this move in July, when the council held rates but instructed staff to model oil and gas scenarios ahead of September.
“The burden of proof is on data,” Lagarde said then, adding that “the full inflationary impact of the energy shock has yet to play out.”
Thursday’s decision comes alongside fresh staff projections, though their cut-off date falls roughly two weeks before the meeting, meaning neither the latest leg higher in oil nor the surge in European government bond yields to 15-year highs will be reflected.
Attention now turns to Frankfurt’s peers.
The Federal Reserve will announce on 16 September and the Bank of Japan on the 18, with both expected to consider hikes of their own.
Meanwhile, the Bank of England will decide on 17 September and is expected to hold rates as it currently maintains a much higher benchmark than the rest at 3.75%.
DUBAI: Renewed fighting along Yemen’s Red Sea coast has put the strategic Bab Al-Mandab Strait back in focus, raising concerns over a key maritime route linking Europe and Asia.
The strait is a narrow passage between Yemen and the Horn of Africa that connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean.
For ships travelling between Asia and Europe, it forms part of the route linking the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, making it one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.
Why is it so important?
Bab Al-Mandab is the southern gateway to the Red Sea. Ships travelling through the Suez Canal between Europe and Asia generally pass through the Red Sea and then Bab Al-Mandab before entering the Gulf of Aden.
The route has ships carrying oil, fuel and other commercial goods.
Oil flows through the strait fell sharply after Houthi attacks on shipping began disrupting Red Sea traffic.
The US Energy Information Administration said oil trade through Bab Al-Mandab averaged about 4 million barrels per day in the first eight months of 2024, compared with 8.7 million barrels per day in 2023.
Why does the latest fighting matter?
Yemen’s western coastline runs alongside the strait, making control of nearby territory strategically important.
The port city of Mokha lies north of Bab Al-Mandab, while Dhubab is close to its entrance. Any expansion of Houthi control along this stretch of coast could increase the group’s ability to threaten or monitor shipping through the waterway.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Houthi forces were moving toward Mokha and Dhubab as they sought greater control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Yemeni government military sources said this could give the Houthis significant leverage over Bab Al-Mandab.
The reports have not been independently verified, and they do not mean the Houthis control the strait. But any further Houthi advance toward the coast could increase the risk to commercial shipping.
The Houthis have previously targeted commercial vessels in and around the Red Sea, forcing many ships to avoid the route.
What happens if shipping is disrupted?
Ships can avoid Bab Al-Mandab and the Red Sea by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
But that can add thousands of kilometers to some journeys, increasing sailing times, fuel consumption, insurance costs and freight rates.
The consequences can therefore extend well beyond Yemen, affecting the movement and cost of energy, manufactured goods and other products travelling between Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
LONDON: Prominent Israeli figures have welcomed British sanctions against illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, The Guardian reported.
In a joint statement, they described the move as an “inevitable consequence” of their government’s actions.
Sanctions are being imposed “against Jewish terrorists, and not against the legitimacy of the state of Israel,” they said.
“There is no basis to the government’s response that the decision to impose sanctions against Jewish terrorists is an expression of antisemitism.”
Prof. David Harel, British-born president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a signatory to the statement, said the measures delivered urgently needed support for liberal Israelis who are trying to stop attacks on Palestinians and end the occupation.
“I personally would fight until my last breath against antisemitism and against anti-Israelism,” he told The Guardian. “But what is justified, and I do support, is being anti things that Israel is doing, and these days in particular what it is doing in the West Bank.
“Getting out of there (occupied Palestine), or, at least for the present, stopping these things from happening and starting to really talk about a two-state solution is not only good for the Palestinians. It’s not that we’re doing these poor people a favour. We’re doing a favour to ourselves, no less, maybe even more.”
Signatories to the statement include former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert; former commander of the Israeli military Dan Halutz; former ministers Yuli Tamir and Roni Bar-On; and former Ambassador to Germany Yoram Ben Zeev.
They wrote: “This decision is precisely what the state of Israel should have received in order to remove the disgrace of Jewish terrorism from the face of the country.”
Former diplomat Nadav Tamir also said the sanctions are good for Israel. “Any move to prevent annexation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the West Bank (and Gaza) is serving the long-term interests of the Zionist vision of Israel as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people,” he added. “It will help us to be more secure and moral.”
Avraham Burg, a former parliament speaker, said “like many Israelis and Palestinians, I am grateful for the courageous moral leadership” of UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband. “It’s a good beginning. Do not stop.”
Fourteen Israeli human rights organizations — including B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Breaking the Silence — welcomed the sanctions.
“This is an important and necessary first step to meet states’ legal obligation,” they said in a statement. “We urge the international community to take further concrete measures to ensure that its relations with Israel no longer enable Israel’s settlement enterprise, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank, or its broader assault on Palestinian human rights across all territories under its control.”
Published on •Updated
The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday a legislative proposal allowing EU public authorities to favour European companies in public procurement for key public services such as energy, water, railways, ports, airports and postal services.
The move comes as European policymakers seek to shield the bloc’s market from China amid heated trade negotiations, as the EU grapples with a trade deficit with Beijing of roughly €1 billion a day.
Public procurement markets in Europe represent €2 trillion every year — 15% of Europe’s GDP.
“Public money must serve our collective interests,” Commission Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné said on Wednesday. “A public buyer will be able to organise his European preference and to exclude operators coming from countries with which we do not agree on public markets, both on the basis of the nationality of the company or on the base of the origin of the products.”
Under the Commission’s proposal, EU public authorities will be able to exclude non-European companies from public contracts when they come from countries that do not allow Europeans access to their own public procurement markets.
“A municipality will be very clearly able to exclude a Chinese company or a European company that offers Chinese products,” Séjourné added. “It will also be able to give more points and more visibility in his offer to European offers compared to competition offers.”
The Commission proposes that at least 30% of the evaluation of supplies for public procurement rely on quality criteria and not only on price, which will also hit low-cost Chinese products.
“The new standard is the best quality-price ratio, and not just the price,” Séjourné said. “Our choices must also be able to meet social and environmental demands, but also sovereignty.”
The legislation, which still has to be adopted by the EU co-legislators — the European Parliament and the EU Council — prompted a swift reaction from China. In a statement released after the commission’s announcement, China’s Chamber of Commerce to the EU said that such a European preference could “distort a level playing field” for Chinese companies participating in the European public procurement market.
“Public procurement should not discriminate against suppliers or goods on the basis of the supplier’s nationality or the country of origin of the goods.”
In March, another proposal creating a European preference in EU strategic sectors such as green tech, cars and energy-intensive industries also prompted Chinese ire, with Beijing threatening to retaliate.
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič will travel to China in early October, hoping to reach a political deal with Beijing to rebalance the trade relationship with the EU.
As their customer base grows fast, fintechs across the region are looking to become banks in the full regulatory and economic sense.
This article appears in the September 2026 issue of Global Finance Magazine.
After nearly a decade of explosive growth, Brazil’s fintech industry has crossed a threshold that once looked unthinkable; a digital bank now counts more customers than any of the country’s storied private lenders.
According to recent data from the Central Bank of Brazil, nearly 60% of the nation’s adults now hold an account with Nubank, making it Brazil’s largest private financial institution by customer count, albeit still far from the largest by assets. Similarly, 55% of banked Brazilians primarily identify as customers of a digital bank or fintech, according to research organization Instituto Locomotiva.
“The fintech market has decidedly moved beyond access and into becoming the central piece of the Brazilian banking economy, also from the population’s perspective,” said Álvaro Machado Dias, associate director of Instituto Locomotiva.
The Brazilian experience reflects a broader shift across Latin America. Having secured a competitive customer base, the region’s fintechs are now seeking the licenses, deposits, and balance sheets that could allow them to become the banks they once set out to disrupt.
In Argentina, digital wallets have overtaken every other payment instrument, with 70% of consumers using them over the past six months compared with 52% for cash, according to Mastercard. Nu Mexico reaches roughly 15% of the adult population just seven years after entering the market, while Mercado Pago, the fintech arm of now-Montevideo-headquartered MercadoLibre Inc., now has 83 million monthly active users across eight countries, up 29% over the past year.
The shift is also changing how consumers transact. Sixty-one percent of Brazilian and 47% of Mexican consumers used a mobile device for their latest retail purchase, according to PYMNTS Intelligence’s Global Digital Shopping Index.
Having crossed that threshold with customers, the fintechs are now moving to the next stage: becoming banks in the full regulatory and economic sense. Nubank agreed in July to acquire Banco Porto Real de Investimentos S/A, enabling it to obtain a Brazilian banking license, while its Mexican unit began operating as a bank last month, becoming the first Mexican popular financial society (SOFIPO) authorized to convert.
Mercado Pago is close behind, with its own application reportedly first in line at Mexico’s banking regulator and an ambition to build the country’s largest digital bank. Mexican fintech Plata secured its license in February, while Argentina’s Ualá Bank SAU already holds a full banking license at home and in Mexico and a financing company license in Colombia.
The economics of the transition are straightforward. As fintechs scale, the limitations of lighter regulatory charters become increasingly binding. Nu Mexico’s SOFIPO status, for example, allows deposit insurance of just 25,000 UDIs (Mexico’s inflation-indexed units of accounts) per client; a full banking license raises that ceiling sixteenfold. Banks can also compete for payroll accounts, held by only about a third of Mexican adults and concentrated largely among four incumbent institutions.
Most important, a banking license gives fintechs access to the deposits that provide the cheapest funding for a growing loan book.
Nu Mexico already holds $5.9 billion in deposits, which makes the ability to gather and deploy them at scale an increasingly important side of its business.
“Once a digital bank holds the same license, follows the same rules, and funds itself the same way, it stops being essentially different from a traditional bank,” said Reginaldo Nogueira, national director of Brazil’s Ibmec business and economics school. “The difference shifts to technology, efficiency, and customer experience.”
Accompanying that strategic shift is a much larger investment commitment. Founder David Vélez paired Nubank’s Mexican license with a projected $4.2 billion investment in the country through 2030.
The fintechs’ current profile marks a striking reversal from where the industry began. A decade ago, they were outsiders challenging Latin America’s established banks to control the region’s customers, branches and balance sheets. Today, they have crossed the most important threshold on the customer side. The next step is to acquire the regulatory privileges and funding advantages that underpin the banking business itself.
Thomas Monteiro is a contributing writer based in Spain.
Derick Hudson
JPMorgan upgraded Meta Platforms (META) to overweight from neutral, citing upside potential following the social media giant’s launch of its AI assistant. Meta Platforms shares rose 1% in premarket trading on Thursday.
“Meta is in the early stages of releasing
Iraq’s ruling coalition has been forced to abandon plans to create deputy prime minister posts amid disputes over bringing weapons under state control, while sources say political factions are moving to recalculate their shares of the remaining vacant ministries.
Since parliament has approved Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s government on May 15, 2026, giving the green light to 14 out of 23 ministers, political disputes have prevented appointments to nine portfolios, most notably the interior and defense ministries.
A more complicated dispute involved attempts by forces within the Coordination Framework to create four deputy prime minister posts. Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq was among the leading proponents, with its leader, Qais al-Khazali, putting forward his brother Laith al-Khazali for one of the positions.
Reliable sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq had sought the post after formally agreeing to the plan to bring weapons under state control, but US objections blocked the appointment.
The sources described a “test of strength” between al-Zaidi and Coordination Framework forces because of the overlap between completing the Cabinet and the weapons issue. Scrapping the deputy prime minister posts, they said, opens the door to bargaining and forces all sides to recalculate the points assigned to ministries.
Observers believe efforts to complete the Cabinet began to falter as some political forces backed away from the weapons plan.
Al-Zaidi had made bringing arms under state control a key pillar of his government program. Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and other factions later joined the proposed settlement in hopes of easing international pressure.
Sources said the Coordination Framework’s latest meeting exposed sharp divisions between leaders opposed to creating deputy PM posts and others insisting on them, preventing the coalition from issuing a statement afterward.
Al-Zaidi has held a series of meetings with Coordination Framework leaders in recent days in an effort to reach agreement on completing his Cabinet, particularly after his government marked its first 100 days.
Figures close to the prime minister’s office said he urged ruling coalition leaders to continue supporting the government in resolving outstanding issues, including bringing weapons under state control, combating corruption and filling Cabinet vacancies, regardless of disputes over deputy prime minister posts.
Under Iraq’s informal power-sharing system, ministries are distributed among election-winning political forces according to points based on each party’s number of parliamentary seats.
Legal and legislative affairs researcher Saif al-Saadi told Asharq Al-Awsat that scrapping the deputy PM posts would increase the value of the remaining portfolios, with sovereign ministries potentially worth 15 to 20 points and service ministries 10 to 12.
Al-Saadi expected two or three ministries to be filled, while the rest could remain under acting ministers because of domestic and external factors. He said the United States opposes militia-linked figures taking senior government posts, while competition among Shiite political forces is delaying agreement on candidates for the vacant portfolios.
GAZA: An Israeli strike in Gaza on Thursday killed a family including two children, Palestinian hospital and security sources said.
“The bodies of four members of the Ahmad family were recovered in pieces after an Israeli strike hit a house in the Beit Lahia Project area in the northern Gaza Strip,” an official at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City said, identifying the children as aged 12 and eight.
The Israeli military, contacted by AFP, said it was checking.
Tokyo: The Asian Games began in Japan on Thursday when Qatar beat Iran in the men’s basketball opening group game, the first action in the continental multi-sport showpiece that has more participants than the Olympics.
Over 17,000 athletes and officials are expected to take part in 43 sports at the Nagoya-Aichi Games — which do not officially start until the opening ceremony on September 19 and will run until October 4.
Several events such as basketball, football, cricket, hockey and modern pentathlon will get under way before the opening ceremony.
Qatar held off a comeback from Iran to win their Group B encounter 59-35 at the Aichi International Arena in Nagoya in the first match of a men’s basketball competition that will hold medal finals on September 20, the day after the opening ceremony.
Los Angeles 2028 Olympics qualifying spots are up for grabs in several sports at the Asian Games, which are returning to Japan for the first time since 1994.
Organisers hope the athletes will have a “unique experience” staying in eye-catching accommodation ranging from a cruise liner and wooden containers to standard hotel rooms.
Officials are confident that the plan will not be affected by Japan’s typhoon season, which is usually in full swing in September-October.
Weather has already caused disruptions, with record rainfall on Tuesday forcing hundreds of athletes briefly to evacuate their accommodation.
Rainwater also leaked into some competition venues, with more wet weather forecast for the coming days.
Among those in action at the Games will be Philippine tennis sensation Alexandra Eala and a pair of world-class teenage talents in 15-year-old Indian cricketer Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and 13-year-old Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi.
MADRID: Spanish Intelligence and security reports declassified on Wednesday had warned of possible “mass entries” by migrants into Ceuta just before thousands crossed into Spain’s North African enclave from Morocco.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had told parliament when he announced he would declassify these 40 documents that there was “no information that conveyed the magnitude” of “the crisis we were going to suffer” on July 30 and 31.
“Internal communications have been detected in migrant groups in which they are trying to organise mass entries on the night of 29/07/2026,” reads a document from CENIF, a border division of the National Police, issued on the eve of the arrival of more than 70,000 migrants in the small Spanish territory.
CENIF said almost 1,000 people swam in from Morocco between July 1 and 28 — “a drastic upward trend compared to last year,” and “a consolidated and priority threat”.
An urgent memo from the National Intelligence Centre on the afternoon of July 29 warns of “several calls to carry out entries into Ceuta” in Facebook groups, one of them with over 160,000 members.
In a message on X Wednesday, Sanchez said that “with the information available at the time, no one could have foreseen the migration crisis that unfolded on the 30th and 31st. No competent body did so. Neither in Spain nor in the EU.”
He also said he had not received any document with “solid evidence that Morocco planned or carried out the incident”.
The government declassified the documents amid questions over Rabat’s role in the events and whether the Spanish government had been warned of the likelihood of mass entries.
Sanchez has insisted his government did not receive any report that would have allowed it to anticipate the scale of what was going to happen, nor anything containing “solid evidence that Morocco planned or carried out the episode.”
Doubts about Morocco’s role increased after the leak last week of a police report that pointed to the “permissiveness” of its security forces during the crisis.
A declassified document issued by military intelligence at midday on July 30 states that it is “highly likely that the Moroccan authorities are not actively encouraging the migratory wave, but have so far acted in a negligent and passive manner.”
The opposition accuses the government of failing to act despite being warned about what was going on and criticises it for exonerating Morocco, which it sees as being behind the mass entry.
“The government knew everything that was happening… They had the information. They are directly responsible for the invasion of Ceuta,” Ester Munoz, spokeswoman for the right-wing Popular Party in parliament, told reporters.
KANO, Nigeria: A popular Nigerian social media influencer known for outspoken political views was killed at his home in the northern city of Kano, his family and a rights group said Wednesday.
Ibrahim Khalil Dan Shagamu was found dead with his throat slit in his home late on Tuesday by friends and neighbors who scaled the fence after he failed to answer the door since Monday.
His death came as the election campaign season in Africa’s most populous nation swings into gear ahead of the January 16 presidential vote.
Amnesty International strongly condemns the killing of a social media political commentator Ibrahim Khalil Dan Shagamu whose body was found today in a pool of blood at his home in Kano. He was brutally slaughtered after being overpowered by his killers.
The Nigerian authorities… pic.twitter.com/tVfxwpjEnU
— Amnesty International Nigeria (@AmnestyNigeria) September 9, 2026
The 57-year-old father of six, popularly known as Dan Shagamu, was found “slaughtered with severe deep cuts to his head”, Aisha Sharu Lawan, his elder sister, told reporters in her home.
“It was a grisly sight. His two mobile phones were missing,” Lawan, 67, said.
Dan Shagamu, with a combined following of hundreds of thousands on Facebook and TikTok, was known for his aggressive videos in the Hausa language critical of government on local political and social issues.
It was not clear whether his death was linked to his political views, but Lawan said they suspected foul play.
“His friend said he had a disagreement with some people who threatened to kill him,” Lawan said, calling for investigation and prosecution of the killers.
Dan Shagamu was reporter for a state-funded local radio station before he resigned and became active on social media, building a huge fan base.
Amnesty International condemned his killing saying in a statement that he was “brutally slaughtered after being overpowered by his killers.”
Dan Shagamu’s killing came after election campaigning commenced last month.
Nigerian elections are usually tainted with violence, with politicians recruiting thugs to intimidate opponents and silence dissenting political views.
The paid thugs cause chaos during rallies and at election booths to help their candidates have an edge over opponents.
“As the elections approach, we continue to receive disturbing reports of politically related threats to life and intimidation,” Amnesty said.
Cartoon by Amjad Rasmi. (Courtesy of Asharq Al-Awsat)
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KYIV: A Russian drone strike on a shopping centre in the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed three people and injured two, Regional Governor Oleh Hryhorov said.
Hryhorov, writing on Telegram, said a fire had broken out, and a photo posted online by the governor showed a badly damaged building and rubble strewn on the ground.
He said rescue teams were tackling the aftermath of the strike.
Sumy and the surrounding region along the Russian border have long been subject to heavy attacks and Moscow has said it wants to establish a buffer zone in the area.
Published on •Updated
The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday a legislative proposal allowing EU public authorities to favour European companies in public procurement for key public services such as energy, water, railways, ports, airports and postal services.
The move comes as European policymakers seek to shield the bloc’s market from China amid heated trade negotiations, as the EU grapples with a trade deficit with Beijing of roughly €1 billion a day.
Public procurement markets in Europe represent €2 trillion every year — 15% of Europe’s GDP.
“Public money must serve our collective interests,” Commission Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné said on Wednesday. “A public buyer will be able to organise his European preference and to exclude operators coming from countries with which we do not agree on public markets, both on the basis of the nationality of the company or on the base of the origin of the products.”
Under the Commission’s proposal, EU public authorities will be able to exclude non-European companies from public contracts when they come from countries that do not allow Europeans access to their own public procurement markets.
“A municipality will be very clearly able to exclude a Chinese company or a European company that offers Chinese products,” Séjourné added. “It will also be able to give more points and more visibility in his offer to European offers compared to competition offers.”
The Commission proposes that at least 30% of the evaluation of supplies for public procurement rely on quality criteria and not only on price, which will also hit low-cost Chinese products.
“The new standard is the best quality-price ratio, and not just the price,” Séjourné said. “Our choices must also be able to meet social and environmental demands, but also sovereignty.”
The legislation, which still has to be adopted by the EU co-legislators — the European Parliament and the EU Council — prompted a swift reaction from China. In a statement released after the commission’s announcement, China’s Chamber of Commerce to the EU said that such a European preference could “distort a level playing field” for Chinese companies participating in the European public procurement market.
“Public procurement should not discriminate against suppliers or goods on the basis of the supplier’s nationality or the country of origin of the goods.”
In March, another proposal creating a European preference in EU strategic sectors such as green tech, cars and energy-intensive industries also prompted Chinese ire, with Beijing threatening to retaliate.
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič will travel to China in early October, hoping to reach a political deal with Beijing to rebalance the trade relationship with the EU.
LONDON: British police said Wednesday that they have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that anti-immigration party Reform UK broke rules barring foreign donations.
Last week, Channel 4 broadcast an undercover investigation in which two senior Reform UK officials appeared to discuss ways money from an American financier could be channeled through his U.K.-based son to get around the rules.
U.K. electoral law says parties can only accept donations from British voters or U.K.-registered businesses.
The Metropolitan Police said that after the broadcast, the force “received a number of reports relating to donations and polling involving a political party.
“Detectives have assessed the information provided and determined that there are potential offenses requiring investigation,” it said.
Reform UK said it “denies any wrongdoing and will fully cooperate with the investigation.”
The party suspended Dan Jukes, a longtime adviser to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and party policy chief James Orr, after the documentary was aired. But Farage denied that there was any breach of electoral law.
The program showed two men purporting to be a U.S. financier and his U.K.-based son discussing with Jukes, in the presence of Farage, how 500,000 pounds ($675,000) could be donated to the party through the son. The “son” was actually a reporter from investigative group Verbatim, and the “father” an actor.
In separate footage, Orr, a Cambridge University theologian, appeared to discuss getting the U.S. donor to pay for opinion polls commissioned by Reform UK.
In a speech to the party’s conference on Friday, Farage insisted Reform UK hadn’t broken any rules or accepted “dodgy money.” He accused “foreign-funded hard-left activists” of being behind what he called “entrapment.” Verbatim is an offshoot of the Center for Climate Reporting, a nonprofit investigative group that says it’s funded by grants and donations.
Reform UK was facing questions about its funding even before the broadcast. Farage is being investigated by Parliament’s standards watchdog over an undeclared 5 million-pound ($6.7 million) gift he received from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire in 2024.
Police said Wednesday that the potential offenses raised by the TV program “are similar in nature to matters already under investigation by the Met’s Special Enquiry Team relating to donations made to the same political party. As a result, these matters will form part of that ongoing investigation.”
Founded in 2018 as the Brexit Party to push for a hard break from the European Union, Reform UK has grown rapidly in membership and support since changing its name in 2021 and honing its anti-establishment, anti-immigration message.
Though it holds just eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, it has often led opinion polls and was the big winner in local elections in May, a result that helped spur a panicky Labour Party to replace then-leader Keir Starmer with new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
In July, Farage quit his House of Commons seat in protest of the parliamentary standards investigation, saying he would run for reelection and let voters be his judge. He easily won the August election, which was dismissed as a stunt by his critics and boycotted by all the other main parties.
Updated 9 September 2026 18:12
DUBAI: The US has accused Yemen’s Houthis of triggering the latest escalation in violence in the country, as renewed fighting threatened to unravel years of relative calm and draw it deeper into the wider regional conflict.
The US Embassy in Yemen said on Wednesday that the Iran-backed group had brought “nothing but suffering” and accused it of turning Yemen into a base for Iran to “undermine Arab unity and security.”
“The terrorist Houthis and their Iranian backers miscalculated by underestimating the resolve of the Republic of Yemen’s legitimate government, the Yemeni Armed Forces, and the Yemeni people to end Houthi aggression and brutality,” it said on X.
It cited an Aug. 7 statement by the UN Security Council, which condemned Houthi missile attacks against Saudi Arabia and commercial vessels and warned that the group’s actions threatened regional security, navigational rights and efforts to secure peace in Yemen.
The statement came a day after a major Houthi attack on southern Saudi Arabia wounded 73 people, including women and children, and struck energy facilities in Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran.
Fires broke out at several sites and operations at some facilities were temporarily halted, according to Saudi authorities, who described the attacks as a “dangerous escalation” and vowed to take measures to deter further strikes.
Germany has the largest GDP in Europe(Image: Getty)
When you think about wealthy countries, places like Dubai, China and the US might spring to mind. However, Europe has its fair share of rich countries too. The wealthiest of all has been revealed in new data this year, and it’s not Luxembourg or Sweden.
According to figures from the World Population review, Germany is Europe’s wealthiest country when judged by gross domestic product (GDP). Germany has a GDP of $5.45trillion (£4.026T).
GDP is a way to measure a country’s productivity and prosperity. The GDP of a country is the total monetary value of all goods and services which that country produced within its borders over a year.
To calculate it, economists take the spending of everyday consumers, the investment of businesses in the country, and government spending and net exports to figure out the final calculation.
If GDP is rising year on year, it’s a good sign that the country is doing well financially. If it is consistently lowering, it’s a sign of an incoming recession.
GDP is not a very accurate indicator of the prosperity of a country’s people. It does not indicate how the wealth is distributed, nor the happiness or individual wealth of people.
These flaws are why GDP is often calculated alongside other metrics such as the Human Development Index, which measures the economy as well as life expectancy and education to get a better idea of how a country is functioning.
There’s also the Inclusive Wealth Index, which measures the “savings account” of a country by looking at infrastructure, natural resources and workforce alongside its finances.
According to the most recent data, the UK is in second place with a GDP of $4.23trillion (£3.148T).
France is in third place with $3.17trillion (£2.654T), Italy fourth with $2.42trillion (£2.021T), and Russia fifth with $2.21trillion (£1.962T).
In the case of Germany’s GDP, it is larger than two other European nations combined. Portugal has $380.6billion (£281.0B), and Greece has $307.6billion (£227.1B).
NEW YORK: Israel’s “decades-long ethnic cleansing” of the Palestinian people “has reached its height through the commission of genocide,” Palestine’s permanent observer to the UN told the Security Council on Tuesday.
Riyad Mansour cited a string of statements by senior Israeli officials that amount to open declarations of a plan to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.
In a five-page letter to Security Council President Jerome Bonnafont, Mansour said Israeli officials “are proudly declaring their ethnic cleansing plan, enunciating their decades-long policy to remove the Palestinian people from their land, and rapidly and actively implementing their crimes on the ground.”
The letter, seen by Arab News, quotes Defense Minister Israel Katz telling an interviewer on Sept. 2 that “there’s no real solution for Gaza in the end without migration,” and that Israel is “organized and prepared to get them out — by sea, by air, by every way possible.”
Katz said “the plan hasn’t been cancelled; it’s being discussed all the time, even now, and I think there’s no other solution for everyone’s good.”
He added that “today, 70 percent of Gaza’s territory is a desert thanks to what the Israeli army has done; there are no longer any inhabitants or houses there,” and that Israeli forces have “reoccupied the refugee camps in the West Bank and expelled 40,000 Palestinians.”
Katz denied the existence of Jewish settler violence, saying: “There is no Jewish terror. I have cancelled that term. Terrorism is committed by those who act against the State of Israel.”
On Sept. 7, he said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the military “to prepare for the opening of a full-scale war” in the West Bank, including “the evacuation of residents from cities and villages … exactly as we did in the security zones in Gaza,” and announced plans for “targeted eliminations” of senior Palestinian Authority officials.
The letter cites Netanyahu filming himself at a military post in Gaza on Sept. 2 saying: “We are not withdrawing. We are staying on this line. We control 60 percent of the strip. And there is still more to come.”
The same day, it says, he visited a religious school in the city of Sderot and looked on as young settlers chanted: “And we will take vengeance, one eye for the two eyes of Palestine, may its name be erased.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir unveiled a plan on Sept. 3 called “Disengagement 710,” which he said would “encourage the voluntary migration of 1.86 million Gazans within seven years.”
He said 250,000 Palestinians would be removed from Gaza in the first year and a million within three years, adding: “It is possible. It is realistic. It is in our hands. It is within our ability.”
Ben-Gvir said a survey found that “76 percent of Israeli society support encouraging immigration from Gaza.”
The letter references a video generated by artificial intelligence that Ben-Gvir posted showing Palestinian detainees entering what it described as a slaughterhouse-style conveyor system, and a separate video of him telling women detainees: “The good conditions in the prisons are over … I’m glad we lowered these conditions to the bare minimum.”
The letter links this rhetoric to reports of Israeli soldiers marking Palestinian detainees with numbers on their bodies, including a case in which a man identified as Ahmad Al-Hathnawi was released with the number 44 written on his forehead. The Israeli military acknowledged the practise, saying “lessons have been learned.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a ministerial post within the Defense Ministry overseeing settlement policy, announced a new settlement near Bethlehem on Sept. 3 and said: “We want to bring a million settlers.”
He repeated the assertion that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people,” and on Sept. 7 said the PA “should be brought down,” declaring that the Oslo Accords are “null and void anyways.”
Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Yosef told a crowd on Aug. 22 that Palestinians “are not a people” and “have no rights here.” The crowd responded: “Amen. May the Holy One, blessed be He, destroy all of Gaza.”
The letter documents the “infrastructure of ethnic cleansing” on the ground, saying Israeli forces demolished the village of Khirbet Al-Tabban in the past week, displacing more than 70 people and bringing to 47 the number of Palestinian communities erased since October 2023.
It says Israeli settlers and soldiers killed teenagers Omar Al-Nassan, 17, and Khalil Abu Alia, 16, in the village of Al-Mughayyir the same day Israel’s president told CNN that his country was making a “major effort” to curb settler violence.
Citing a UN report issued on Sept. 4, Mansour said Israeli forces “killed civilians, destroyed hundreds of homes … and went door to door forcing residents to leave” in the Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarm refugee camps, and displaced families “were told by Israeli officers there would be no more refugee camps and that they should all go to Jordan.” More than 40,000 Palestinians remain displaced from the camps, the letter says.
In Gaza, 2.3 million people, including a million children, remain confined to less than a third of the territory’s area, with 1.9 million displaced and two-thirds of households living in tents.
More than 30,000 tents are being held at border crossings against a need for 130,000 before winter, and roughly two-thirds of Gaza’s population face crisis-level food insecurity or worse.
More than 30 Palestinians were killed in Gaza between Aug. 28 and Sept. 7, including 8-year-old Wafaa Akila and her father.
They were killed as he drove her to school, bringing to more than 270 the number of children killed since the ceasefire was announced.
Mansour welcomed recent moves by Britain, France, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway and Belgium to restrict settlement products and sanction those financing the settlement enterprise, as well as similar steps under consideration in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden.
He called on the Security Council to go further, urging states to halt arms transfers, close diplomatic missions in Jerusalem, and impose travel bans and asset freezes.
“Action, not statements, will help the Palestinian people to survive Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign,” Mansour wrote, calling it “the most organized, methodic, and broadcasted ethnic cleansing campaign in modern history.”
The letter is the 892nd that Palestine has sent to the Security Council on the situation since September 2000, according to the Palestinian mission to the UN.
LONDON: The algae bloom that clogged intake pipes at Israel’s Mediterranean desalination plants in late August exposed the fragility of a water system that supplies not only Israel, but also Gaza.
Five of Israel’s six coastal desalination plants, which convert seawater into drinking water, shut down after microscopic algae clogged their intake systems, CNN reported on Sept. 4, citing Mekorot, Israel’s national water company.
The plants produce more than 80 percent of Israel’s drinking water, according to Israeli media.
Some privately owned plants have since resumed partial operations. But as of Sept. 3, only one was operating at full capacity. By Sept. 7, two plants remained closed and three others were operating at limited capacity for a ninth consecutive day, The Times of Israel reported.
Authorities responded by restricting water use, increasing withdrawals from reservoirs and the Sea of Galilee, and limiting supplies to agriculture, Haaretz reported.
Mekorot spokesperson Lior Gutman called the disruption unprecedented, according to CNN.
Scientists believe the bloom formed near Egypt’s Nile Delta before Mediterranean currents carried it north along Israel’s coast. The algae extended at least a dozen kilometers, said Edo Bar-Zeev, an associate professor of water research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
“This is the first time I saw something of this extent,” Bar-Zeev, who has tested coastal water for two decades, told CNN.
Environmental experts say untreated sewage from Gaza may be worsening the nutrient-rich conditions in which algae thrive. Gaza’s six wastewater treatment plants have been damaged or destroyed during the war, allowing untreated sewage to flow into the Mediterranean for months.
Zalul Environmental Association, an Israeli nonprofit, said in a statement that satellite imagery suggested that pollution feeding the bloom came from both Gaza and the Nile Delta.
But for Palestinians in Gaza, the crisis did not begin with an algae bloom, but with the destruction of water and sewage infrastructure during the war, compounded by Israeli restrictions on supplies and movement.
Maysa Yousef, an artist and mother in central Gaza, said she first noticed green algae forming in bottles filled with Mekorot water, which is piped from Israel into Gaza through a network of transmission lines.
“Before Israel announced that the water had become contaminated, we already knew,” Yousef told Arab News. “Every morning, I filled the water bottles, then when I went to wash them in the evening, I found them all covered in algae.”
She said her husband initially dismissed her concern because the water came from Mekorot.
“I told my husband, ‘The water coming to us from Israel is contaminated. It is not clean,’” she said. “He said, ‘No, it is Mekorot water — it is desalinated and treated.’ I told him, ‘No, there is algae in it. Look inside the bottles.’”
Other Gaza residents have shared similar accounts on social media, reporting algae and small worms.
When Israel announced the desalination shutdowns in late August, Mekorot supplies to Gaza were cut off, Yousef said. For many families, the water had been one of the few comparatively safe sources available.
“Gaza relied on Mekorot water because it is close to drinking-water quality,” she said. “Some people drink it although it tastes awful.”
Her family used it for cooking and tea because safe drinking water was already scarce.
The World Health Organization said on Sept. 1 that microbiological contamination in Gaza water samples had risen from less than 6 percent in January to nearly 20 percent in August.
Since 2024, Gaza residents have faced severe water shortages. In many areas, people have reportedly resorted to makeshift latrines as sanitation systems failed.
Nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s water infrastructure, including desalination and wastewater treatment facilities, has been destroyed, according to UN agencies and media reports. Damaged sewage lines have also contaminated the aquifer on which many residents depend.
In February, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said its partners reported that the Mekorot supply line was fully shut. The line had already been operating at reduced capacity because of two identified leaks, and repairs near a reservoir had not been completed.
Humanitarian groups have increased water trucking to affected neighborhoods, but access remains uneven. In Al-Mawasi, residents have complained that available water is visibly contaminated.
“If you put it in front of a donkey, it would refuse to drink it because it is so filthy and full of worms,” one local woman, whose name is being withheld at her request, said. “But we had no alternative. Otherwise, you die of thirst.”
The WHO warned in early September that Gaza’s deteriorating water quality was raising the risk of disease outbreaks. Winter rains could further spread sewage and contaminated water through overcrowded displacement sites, the agency said.
Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, the WHO representative for the Occupied Territories, said microbiological contamination found in water samples had nearly tripled since the beginning of 2026.
Cases of acute watery diarrhea nearly doubled, from about 30,000 in March to more than 58,000 in August, she told a weekly briefing in Geneva.
Yousef said her husband was among those who became ill after drinking contaminated water.
“About two weeks ago, my husband started having stomach pains,” she said. His condition worsened and he needed to go to the hospital. With no transportation available, the family walked to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah.
At the hospital, she said, care was being delivered in tents and essential services were scarce. After running tests, they discovered that he suffered from an inflammation of the stomach lining caused by consuming contaminated water.
“Now he is forbidden from drinking water except imported bottled drinking water,” Yousef said. “No coffee, no soft drinks, and only limited vegetables and fruit, and so on.”
Gaza’s health system has been devastated by the war, with hospitals and other medical facilities damaged or destroyed and restrictions limiting the entry of medicines, medical supplies and fuel.
For Gaza’s residents, the algae bloom was not an isolated environmental disruption but another sign of a broader collapse: a water system already battered by war, damaged infrastructure and the loss of basic public health protections.