Emir of Qatar’s state visit to deepen investment, security ties with UK

Emir of Qatar’s state visit to deepen investment, security ties with UK
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (L) is greeted by the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London, Dec. 3 (AFP)
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Updated 03 December 2024
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Emir of Qatar’s state visit to deepen investment, security ties with UK

Emir of Qatar’s state visit to deepen investment, security ties with UK
  • Prime minister said Qatar and the UK are working to increase investments and improve security cooperation
  • Foreign secretary described Qatar as one of the UK’s most important trading partners in the Middle East
  • Qatari investments in the UK economy amount to nearly $50 billion

LONDON: The state visit of Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, to the UK this week is an opportunity to strengthen economic, cultural and security ties between Doha and London, according to Britain’s top political officials. 

“We highly value our relationship with Qatar,” said UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a statement to Qatar News Agency on Tuesday. 

Starmer added that Qatar and the UK are working to deepen their cultural ties, mutual investments, and cooperation in security and defense. 

“This is an opportunity to accelerate progress ... in economic growth, which creates opportunities for our countries, and in regional security which supports global stability,” he said. 

Foreign Secretary David Lammy described Qatar as “one of the UK’s most important trading partners in the Middle East.”

This is the emir’s first visit to the UK since the general election in July, which brought a Labour government to Downing Street after 14 years of Conservative rule. 

Lammy said that Doha played a definitive role as a mediator in various conflict zones in Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, where it secured a temporary truce and an exchange of captives between Hamas and Israel in November 2023. 

“Qatar has a tremendous capacity and a vision based on integrity in resolving conflicts and international mediation, and this is one of the unique features enjoyed by Qatari foreign policy,” he added to QNA. 

Doha and London’s ties extend to military cooperation. According to Minister of Defense John Healey they recently operated the British-Qatari squadron of Typhoon aircraft.

He told QNA that the joint squadron “is the first and only one in which the UK has participated since World War II.”

He added: “The UK and Qatar enjoy strong and continuous friendly relations ... They are working together to protect their countries and support peace and stability in the Middle East.”

On Monday, two British Royal Air Force combat planes saluted and accompanied Sheikh Tamim’s plane as it entered UK airspace.

His visit comes as the UK prepares to announce a free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Qatar, Alastair King, the new lord mayor of the City of London, said. 

King highlighted Qatar’s investments in the most prominent landmarks in London and southeast England, alongside other Qatari companies operating in the British capital.

“It is also great to see British banks well represented in Qatar, as Qatari funds are invested in other British financial institutions, and there are some other financial institutions in Qatar, which attract some British investments,” King said. 

He pointed out that the GCC countries are the UK’s fourth largest trading partner and the trade between the two sides is expected to grow by 16 percent to around £57 billion ($72 billion).

The president of the Qatari Businessmen Association, Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al-Thani, told QNA that Qatari investments in the UK economy amount to £40 billion. 

“Qatar is the third largest market for British exports in the Middle East and North Africa region,” he said. 

Qatar invested in various landmarks and projects in the UK over the years, including the Canary Wharf Group, The Shard — the tallest skyscraper in Europe — and the famous Harrods store.

“Qatar is one of the most important investors in the UK,” Sheikh Faisal said, “whether at the government or private sector level. These investments are focused on the energy, infrastructure, real estate and tourism sectors.”

On the other hand, 79 British companies with a total capital of nearly 8 billion Qatari riyals ($2.1 billion) and 650 Qatari-British companies operate in Doha in the oil and gas, infrastructure, information technology, engineering consulting and contracting sectors. 

On Tuesday, King Charles welcomed Sheikh Tamim. 

Qatar’s emir and his wife Sheikha Jawaher bint Hamad bin Suhaim Al-Thani arrived by car at Horse Guards Parade in London with Prince William and his wife Catherine, who was marking her return to formal state visit duties after undergoing preventative chemotherapy for cancer. 

Charles, who is continuing his cancer treatment, and the emir inspected the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards while a military band played. 

The reception was followed by a trip to Westminster, where the emir addressed both chambers of the British Houses of Parliament.


Man killed by automatic gunfire in French city of Dijon

Man killed by automatic gunfire in French city of Dijon
Updated 7 sec ago
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Man killed by automatic gunfire in French city of Dijon

Man killed by automatic gunfire in French city of Dijon

LYON: A 29-year-old man was fatally shot overnight in the eastern French city of Dijon, the local prosecutor said on Sunday, adding that a gangland killing was suspected.
The southern Chenove district where the killing occurred was known for drug trafficking, the prosecutor, Olivier Caracotch, said in a statement.
“A dozen shell casings used by an automatic weapon” were found in the street where the killing took place, he said.
Nearby vehicles and a third-floor apartment were hit by some of the shots, but there were no other casualties, he said.
The police criminal investigation unit determined the shooter had approached a group that included the victim around midnight, opened fire, then escaped by car, Caracotch said.
The man killed lived in the city and had no police record for drug-related crimes, he said, adding that the investigation opened was for organized gang murder and criminal association.


Australia airdrops supplies to farmers stranded by floods

Australia airdrops supplies to farmers stranded by floods
Updated 56 min 2 sec ago
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Australia airdrops supplies to farmers stranded by floods

Australia airdrops supplies to farmers stranded by floods
  • Recovery is under way in the mid-north coast region of New South Wales state after days of flooding
  • About 32,000 residents of Australia’s most populous state remained isolated due to floodwaters

GHINNI GHINNI, Australia: Helicopters were airdropping animal feed on Sunday to farmers in Australia stranded by floods that have killed five and isolated tens of thousands in the country’s southeast.
Recovery was under way in the mid-north coast region of New South Wales state after days of flooding cut off towns, swept away livestock and destroyed homes. At least 10,000 properties may have been damaged in the floods, which were sparked by days of incessant rain, authorities estimate.
The floodwaters “trashed” Dan Patch’s house in rural Ghinni Ghinni near hard-hit Taree, and some cattle on the property have gone without food for days, he said.
“It’s the worst we’ve ever seen,” Patch told Reuters. “It’s the worst everybody’s seen around this area.”
About 32,000 residents of Australia’s most populous state remained isolated due to floodwaters that were slowly starting to recede, the state’s Emergency Services posted on the X platform.
“The New South Wales government is providing emergency fodder, veterinary care, management advice and aerial support for isolated stock,” state Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty said in a statement.
It said 43 helicopter drops and around 130 drops by other means had provided “isolated farmers with emergency fodder for their stranded livestock.”
At their peak, the floods isolated around 50,000 people, submerging intersections and street signs in mid-north coast towns and covering cars up to their windshields, after fast-rising waters burst river banks.
Five deaths have been linked to the floods, the latest a man in his 80s whose body was found at a flooded property about 50km from Taree, police said. Taree sits along the Manning River more than 300km north of the state capital, Sydney.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday that conditions remained critical in flood-affected regions as clean-up efforts began.
Australia has been hit with increasing extreme weather events that some experts say are the result of climate change. After droughts and devastating bushfires at the end of last decade, frequent floods have wreaked havoc since early 2021.


Bangladesh’s Yunus seeks unity with fresh political talks

Bangladesh’s Yunus seeks unity with fresh political talks
Updated 25 May 2025
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Bangladesh’s Yunus seeks unity with fresh political talks

Bangladesh’s Yunus seeks unity with fresh political talks
  • The South Asian nation has been in political turmoil since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in August 2024
  • There are 54 registered political parties in Bangladesh – not including the now-banned Awami League of fugitive former leader Hasina

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim leader will meet multiple parties on Sunday in marathon talks as he seeks to build unity and calm intense political power struggles, party leaders and officials said.

Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who leads the caretaker government as its chief adviser until elections are held, has called for rival parties to give him their full support.

The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by a student-led revolt in August 2024, ending her iron-fisted rule of 15 years.

The talks come after meetings that stretched late into Saturday evening with major political parties, including those who have protested against the government this month.

“Chief adviser professor Muhammad Yunus will meet the leaders of several parties on Sunday,” his press secretary Shafiqul Alam said.

There are 54 registered political parties in Bangladesh – not including the now-banned Awami League of fugitive former leader Hasina.

Alam did not specify how many parties were invited to this round of talks.

Mamunul Haque, leader of the Islamist Khelafat-e-Majlish party, said he was attending discussions expected to focus on “the ongoing crisis.”

Zonayed Saki of the liberal Ganosamhati Andolon party said he was also attending.

After a week of escalation during which rival parties protested on the streets of the capital Dhaka, the government led by Yunus warned on Saturday that political power struggles risked jeopardizing gains that have been made.

“Broader unity is essential to maintain national stability, organize free and fair elections, justice, and reform, and permanently prevent the return of authoritarianism in the country,” it said in a statement.

Microfinance pioneer Yunus, who returned from exile at the behest of protesters in August 2024, says he has a duty to implement democratic reforms before elections he has vowed will take place by June 2026 at the latest.

The caretaker government has formed multiple reform commissions providing a long list of recommendations – and is now seeking the backing of political parties.

Yunus last held an all-party meeting – to discuss efforts to overhaul Bangladesh’s democratic system – on February 15, and some parties cited frustration at the lack of contact.

But on Saturday, the government warned that it had faced “unreasonable demands, deliberately provocative and jurisdictionally overreaching statements,” which it said had been “continuously obstructing” its work.

Sources in his office and a key political ally said on Thursday that Yunus had threatened to quit, but his cabinet said he would not step down early.

Yunus on Saturday met with the the key Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as the election front-runners, who are pushing hard for polls to be held by December.

According to Bangladeshi media and military sources, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman also said this week that elections should be held by December, aligning with BNP demands.

Yunus also met with leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the Muslim-majority nation’s largest Islamist party, and the National Citizen Party (NCP) made up of many students who spearheaded the uprising that ended Hasina’s rule.

NCP leader Nahid Islam warned on Saturday that rival parties were pushing for swift elections to skip reforms and “assume power,” and that he believed there were “indications” that a “military-backed government could re-emerge.”


Opposition vows boycott as Venezuela holds new divisive vote

Opposition vows boycott as Venezuela holds new divisive vote
Updated 25 May 2025
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Opposition vows boycott as Venezuela holds new divisive vote

Opposition vows boycott as Venezuela holds new divisive vote
  • President Nicolas Maduro secures himself another term despite not producing detailed polling results
  • The opposition party published its own tally of results showing a win for Gonzalez Urrutia instead

CARACAS: Can Venezuelans be persuaded to return to the polls on Sunday, ten months after President Nicolas Maduro claimed a third term in elections marred by violence and allegations of fraud?
The issue of voter participation is the big unknown as the sanctions-hit Caribbean country returns to the polls to elect a new parliament and 24 state governors.
The main opposition led by Maria Corina Machado, an engineer and former MP, has urged Venezuelans not to legitimize what they see as yet another sham election by voting.
A small opposition faction led by two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles rejected the boycott call, arguing that previous voter stayaways had merely allowed 62-year-old Maduro to expand his grip on power.
“We must vote as an act of resistance, of struggle,” Capriles, who is running for parliament, said.


Tensions were high in the run-up to the election.
More than 400,000 security agents were deployed to monitor the vote.
On Friday, a leading opposition member and close ally of Machado, Juan Pablo Guanipa, was arrested on charges of heading a “terrorist network” planning to attack Sunday’s vote.
Cabello linked Guanipa, a former MP, to a group of 50 people arrested earlier in the week on suspicion of being mercenaries in the pay of foreign powers.
Venezuela, which frequently alleges foreign-backed coup plots, said the suspects entered the country from Colombia and closed the busy border with its neighbor until after the election.
Guanipa is just the latest opposition leader to be targeted by the authorities.
Opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia went into exile in Spain last year after a bounty was put on his head.
A message on Guanipa’s X account, shortly after his arrest, declared he had been “kidnapped by the forces of Nicolas Maduro’s regime” but would continue the “long fight against the dictatorship.”


Many opposition supporters in Venezuela lost any remaining faith they had in the electoral process after the July presidential election.
Maduro claimed to have won a third term, without producing detailed results to back his claim.
The opposition published its own tally of results from polling stations, which appeared to showed a convincing win for Gonzalez Urrutia.
A deadly crackdown on protests that erupted over Maduro’s victory claim cemented Venezuela’s pariah status on the world stage.
Only a handful of countries, including longtime allies Russia and Cuba, have recognized Maduro as the country’s rightful leader.
Sunday’s election comes as the country’s economy — once the envy of Latin America, now in tatters after years of mismanagement and sanctions — faces even further turmoil.
US President Donald Trump has revoked permission for oil giant Chevron to continue pumping Venezuelan crude, potentially depriving Maduro’s administration of its last lifeline.
Washington has also revoked deportation protection from 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in the United States and expelled hundreds of others to a brutal prison for gangsters in El Salvador.
The pressure has failed to sway Maduro, who continues to defy the world and spar with his neighbors.
On Sunday, Venezuela will for the first time hold elections for parliament and state governor in the disputed oil-rich region of Essequibo, on its border with Guyana.
Guyana has administered the region for decades but Caracas has threatened to partially annex it.


Bangladesh government calls for unity to prevent ‘return of authoritarianism’

Bangladesh government calls for unity to prevent ‘return of authoritarianism’
Updated 25 May 2025
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Bangladesh government calls for unity to prevent ‘return of authoritarianism’

Bangladesh government calls for unity to prevent ‘return of authoritarianism’
  • The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since ex-PM Hasina was ousted by student-led protests in 2024
  • Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who returned from exile at the behest of protesters, says he has a duty to implement reforms

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim government, which took over after a mass uprising last year, warned on Saturday that unity was needed to “prevent the return of authoritarianism.”

The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by student-led protests in August 2024, ending her iron-fisted rule of 15 years.

After a week of escalation during which rival parties protested on the streets of the capital Dhaka, the government led by Muhammad Yunus said political power struggles risked jeopardizing gains that have been made and pleaded for people to give it their full support.

“Broader unity is essential to maintain national stability, organize free and fair elections, justice, and reform, and permanently prevent the return of authoritarianism in the country,” it said in a statement.

Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who returned from exile at the behest of protesters last year, says he has a duty to implement democratic reforms before elections that are due by June 2026 at the latest.

However, the government warned that it had faced “unreasonable demands, deliberately provocative and jurisdictionally overreaching statements,” which it said had been “continuously obstructing” its work.

Sources in his office and a key political ally said on Thursday that microfinance pioneer Yunus had threatened to quit.

“If the government’s autonomy, reform efforts, justice process, fair election plan, and normal operations are obstructed to the point of making its duties unmanageable, it will, with the people, take the necessary steps,” Saturday’s statement said, without giving further details.

Wahiduddin Mahmud, who heads the finance and planning ministry, insisted that Yunus will not step down early.

“We are going to carry out the responsibilities assigned to us,” Mahmud told reporters on Saturday. “We can’t simply abandon our duties.”

Yunus held talks on Saturday evening with key political parties, including those who have protested against the government this month.

His press secretary Shafiqul Alam insisted that the parties all had “full trust” in Yunus, with an all-party meeting scheduled for Sunday.

Yunus met leaders of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as the election front-runners, who are pushing hard for polls to be held by December.

“Any excuse to delay the election may open the door for the return of dictatorship,” senior BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said after the meeting.

“The interim government and its allies will be held responsible for such a consequence.”

Yunus has said polls could be held as early as December but that holding them later — with the deadline of June — would give the government more time for reform.

But Hossain said that reforms, justice and elections were not “mutually exclusive goals.”

According to Bangladeshi media and military sources, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman also said this week that elections should be held by December, aligning with BNP demands.

Bangladesh has a long history of military coups, and the army retains a powerful role.

The upcoming elections will be the first since Hasina fled to India, where she remains in self-imposed exile in defiance of an arrest warrant to face trial for crimes against humanity related to last year’s police crackdown on protesters, during which at least 1,400 people were killed.

Shafiqur Rahman, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, the Muslim-majority nation’s largest religious party, said after his meeting with Yunus that he had asked for an election timetable — saying he was open to a later date if it allowed for reforms.

He also said he had sought “progress in the ongoing trials” of those from Hasina’s ousted regime.

Nahid Islam, leader of the National Citizen Party (NCP) made up of many students who spearheaded the uprising that ended Hasina’s rule, has said he wants later elections to allow time for “fundamental reforms.”

He fears rival parties want swift elections to “assume power.”

Speaking after meeting with Yunus, he said the NCP had “demanded a specific roadmap for reforms, trials, and the election of a constituent assembly.”

Islam, an ally of Yunus who previously served in his cabinet, speaking earlier on Saturday, warned that he had seen “indications” that a “military-backed government could re-emerge — one that is anti-democratic and anti-people.”