Record Shanghai listing fuels semiconductor ambitions, though company still trails South Korean and U.S. rivals technologically A large screen shows the latest stock exchange and economy data in Shanghai, China, 15 June 2026. Photo by ALEX PLAVEVSKI / EPA July 28 (Asia Today) -- China's successful »»»

Doha: Qatar's General Directorate of Civil Defense has intensified fire prevention efforts during the summer season, focusing on public awareness campaigns and compliance with safety requirements to reduce risks to lives and property. Despite increased awareness, officials said some unsafe practice»»»

The European Union needs a coalition of key member states to overcome political divisions and prepare the bloc for its next enlargement wave, including the possible accession of Ukraine, Moldova and Western Balkan countries, a report by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said. The rep»»»

In the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, few historical figures are as awkwardly placed as artist Ivan Aivazovsky. Born in Feodosia, Crimea, on the Black Sea coast in 1817, the city of Aivazovsky’s birth now under Russian occupation but still internationally recognised as part of Ukraine. In »»»

ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia has appointed Dr. Rajeh bin Tami Al-Baqami as its new ambassador to Pakistan, replacing Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki, as the longtime allies deepen cooperation on defense, investment and regional security amid growing instability in the Middle East. Al-Baqami was among eight newl»»»

Dubai: An explosion struck the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Egypt's Damietta Port during cargo discharge on Wednesday, with Egyptian security sources saying gas storage tankers at the port might have been targeted by drones. British maritime security firm Ambrey said a US- owned and oper»»»

OpenAI released an update Wednesday on a July 22 cyberattack by one of its bots into another company's system. File Photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA July 29 (UPI) -- OpenAI released an update on its investigation into a recent breach by its AI model into another company's data, saying the bot was used for»»»

The Afghan Taliban's growing investment in drone technology is a direct response to their lack of a conventional air force, and Pakistan's defence establishment — built around fighter jets, tanks and artillery — is struggling to keep pace, Umair Jamal of the Diplomat Risk Intelligence consultancy a»»»

The European Union needs a coalition of key member states to overcome political divisions and prepare the bloc for its next enlargement wave, including the possible accession of Ukraine, Moldova and Western Balkan countries, a report by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said. The rep»»»

PRISTINA - A basic court in Pristina placed two Serb men arrested in Zubin Potok, Kosovo-Metohija, on suspicion of allegedly committing a war crime against civilians in 1999 in 30-day custody on Wednesday. Their defence announced it would appeal the decision, made by a preliminary proceedings judge»»»

San Francisco: ChatGPT maker OpenAI has revealed that an autonomous artificial intelligence agent which hacked a popular platform for computer programmers also attempted to breach four other companies during the incident. In an update late Tuesday to a blog post detailing its probe into the inciden»»»

LONDON: Dusseldorf became the fourth European city — after Amsterdam, Bucharest, and Moscow — to be directly connected to the Syrian Arab Republic following a flight on Wednesday by German carrier LEAV Aviation that landed at Damascus International Airport. The flight restored a direct aviation rou»»»

Geneva: Two years after the International Court of Justice said Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful, settler violence and territorial annexation is “only getting worse”, the UN said Wednesday. The United Nations’ human rights office said that with attacks by Israeli settlers and the c»»»

NAHARIYA, Israel: The Israeli military was about to launch a nighttime strike on a group of men in southern Syria when the soldiers noticed the long curls dangling from the temples of their targets. The troops held their fire. These were not Syrian militants attempting to breach Israel’s border, bu»»»

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday issued another round of Iran-related sanctions, taking aim at Iran’s efforts to “monetize the Strait ​of Hormuz” with designations of 10 entities and eight more tankers, the US Treasury Department said. Six of the entities targeted for sanctions were based»»»

A sightseeing boat capsized Tuesday during a Macuco Safari excursion on the Iguazu River inside Brazil's Iguazu National Park, prompting authorities to suspend the attraction's operations and begin an investigation. File Photo by Carlos Moreno/EPA July 29 (UPI) -- A Dutch tourist died after a sight»»»

Zawtar Al Gharbieh: Mahasen Faqih and her husband returned this week to their village in southern Lebanon, digging through the debris of their home in search of their belongings, as part of the US-brokered “pilot zones” agreement in which Israel agreed to withdraw in exchange for the disarmament of»»»

Residents in the UAE can now earn rewards worth more than AED3,000 by simply inviting family members and friends from overseas to visit Dubai under a new tourism initiative launched by the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET). Called "A Dubai Invite," the programme encourages UAE residents»»»

Doha: President of the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) HE Eng. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al Meer said that Ashghal is committed to delivering more projects using the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. This came during His Excellency's visit to inspect the project of constructing 14 new schools, »»»

The Islamic Republic publicly executed two Iranian protesters in Isfahan at dawn on July 28. Several hundred people gathered near a stage set up in the city’s Alikhani Square, but instead of cheering the execution, they chanted slogans against the police, prompting anti-riot units to disperse the c»»»

After a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Japan on July 28, the country's prime minister said 13 people had died so far and many were injured. The rescue work is ongoing to find those still missing. The earthquake struck the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu, forcing over 260,000 pe»»»

Hungary has begun shutting down one of the four reactor units at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant after the Danube reached exceptionally low water levels, highlighting the growing impact of the country’s prolonged heatwave and severe drought. The operator, MVM Paks Nuclear Power Plant Ltd., announced o»»»

Doha: Qatar's Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) has concluded its 2026 summer camps after weeks of cultural, artistic and scientific activities involving nearly 190 children from different age groups. Held from July 5 to 29, the program featured 11 specialized camps across Katara facilities, off»»»

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military accused Hezbollah of a “blatant violation of the ceasefire” in Lebanon on Wednesday, saying the Iran-backed militant group had fired a drone at an Israeli vehicle there.The army said the incident took place in a strip of territory where Israeli forces are operating t»»»

The lull did not last. After several days in which direct fighting had eased, the conflict accelerated again on Wednesday. Iran fired missiles at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, where US forces are stationed. Washington and Riyadh launched strikes on Iran-backed groups in Iraq. Iran's Revolution»»»

GERB-UDF has prepared a constitutional challenge against the 2026 State Budget Act and is seeking backing from other parliamentary groups, GERB-UDF MP and former finance minister Temenuzhka Petkova told a briefing in Parliament on Wednesday, after President Iliana Iotova announced that she will pro»»»

PARIS: The Esports Foundation and Lenovo have announced an expanded partnership, with the technology company becoming a global partner of the Esports World Cup 2026 and powering the world’s largest esports event with its high-performance Legion gaming devices. The EWC 2026 brings the world’s larges»»»

LONDON: Jordan’s air defense systems shot down five missiles fired from Iran on Wednesday, as the conflict between Tehran and the US entered its sixth month. The Jordanian Armed Forces said the missiles were detected through the military’s surveillance and monitoring network, the Jordan News Agency»»»

JAKARTA: Nine Indonesians among global activists detained while trying to take aid to Gaza in May filed a complaint against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday alleging crimes against humanity, their lawyer told AFP. The men were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla intercepted by I»»»

BEIRUT: More than a dozen Lebanese lawyers filed a complaint at the prosecutor’s office in Beirut on Wednesday against a prominent local banker, saying he violated the country’s laws by meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington this week. Lebanon and Israel have been hold»»»

Positions deemed to carry a high risk of corruption will be filled only after candidates successfully pass an integrity test, according to amendments to the Civil Servants Act adopted by Parliament at first reading on Wednesday. The bill was submitted by the Council of Ministers. The amendments wer»»»

France has ordered Russian journalist Xenia Fedorova to leave the country, the interior ministry said on Wednesday, amid accusations that she spread Kremlin propaganda through French television and radio ahead of next year's presidential election. Fedorova's lawyer said the journalist would “immedi»»»

BusinessGermanyBMW to cut up to 8,000 jobs Isaac Holmberg with AFP, Reuters, dpaNearly half of BMW's German staff will receive a voluntary redundancy offer in the carmaker's bid to reduce staff by about 8,000 people. https://p.dw.com/p/5HxfLLast year, BMW's vehicle deliveries in China were already »»»

LONDON: Syrian Civil Defense teams extinguished a large forest fire on Tuesday in Latakia province after more than 10 hours of work in what firefighters described as extremely hazardous conditions. The blaze began in the village of Kabineh during a mine-clearing operation by Syrian Defense Ministry»»»

Telegram fouinder and CEO Pavel Durov was the target of a international warrant issued by Moscow which wants him on charges the app was used to organize terror attacks in Russia. File Photo by Nick Lubushko/Wikipedia Commons July 29 (UPI) -- Russia issued an international arrest warrant Wednesday f»»»

Dubai: Some of the UAE's most important stories live quietly in family homes, passed down through conversations, photographs, and memories, until someone decides to preserve them. For 20-year-old Emirati filmmaker Noor Al Qasimi, that someone was her. As a third-year film student in Sharjah, she ha»»»

The Hungarian government led by Peter Magyar has alleged that the previous administration under Viktor Orban committed more than HUF70bn (€175mn) in state-funded infrastructure investment and an undisclosed direct subsidy worth billions of forints to Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD for its flags»»»

Private bank Lombard Odier has been fined 3mn Swiss francs ($3.7mn) for failing to prevent money laundering in relation to criminal activities of Gulnara Karimova, the 54-year-old disgraced daughter of former Uzbek president Islam Karimov. In a July 27 ruling, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court said »»»

Ukraine's scam call-centre industry generates as much as $1bn a month, according to a new report by the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), which estimates that around 60,000 Ukrainians — roughly two-thirds the headcount of the country's legal banking sect»»»

Democratic Bulgaria (DB) gave a briefing in Parliament on Wednesday after President Iliana Iotova announced that she will promulgate the 2026 State Budget Act. MP Yordan Ivanov said that the parliamentary group's vision for resolving the issues surrounding the 2026 and 2027 state budgets and "putti»»»

The deadlines for processing applications in the Commercial Register and the Register of Non-Profit Legal Entities were on the agenda of a meeting between the new management of the Registry Agency (RA), represented by Executive Director Eliana Ilieva and her deputy Nikolay Minev, and the nationally»»»

Tunis, July 29(TAP) - Trading on the Tunis Stock Exchange resumed on Wednesday under normal conditions following a one-hour suspension, after the mechanism provided for in the Trading Floor Regulations had been applied, said Sonia Ben Frej,...»»»

Share: Sources told Al-Hadath channel that Hezbollah communication lines had been discovered alongside electricity transmission infrastructure in Beirut, similar to the networks the group maintains in the South, the Bekaa Valley, and the Dahiyeh. The sources indicated that an international organiza»»»

London: Just over half of England has been declared in drought after “record-low rain and exceptionally high temperatures”, the UK government said Wednesday. It follows what is set to be the driest July on record, with just seven percent of expected rainfall nationwide and some parts of southern En»»»

Asked whether Bulgaria was negotiating the acquisition of MiG-29 aircraft, the Defence Ministry told BTA it had sent inquiries to several countries, including Poland and Hungary, about available aircraft and spare parts. It added that, in parallel, it was exploring options for acquiring used F-16 a»»»

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the US military will hit Iran “hard” after a missile attack against US bases in Jordan, Fox News reported.“We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating,” Fox’s correspondent quoted Trump as saying, adding that the US president used »»»

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index fell 134.01 points, or 1.25 percent, to close Wednesday at 10,544.10. Total trading turnover reached SR5.29 billion ($1.41 billion), with 305.45 million shares changing hands. Market breadth was negative, with 199 stocks declining and 55 advancing. The»»»

Continue the Change and other parliamentary groups will challenge before the Constitutional Court the 2026 State Budget Act, leader Assen Vassilev told a briefing in Parliament after President Iliana Iotova announced that she would promulgate the state budget act. According to Vassilev, Iotova’s de»»»

Washington, United States: President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the US military will be hitting Iran "hard" after a missile attack against US bases in Jordan, Fox News reported. "We'll be hitting them hard. They're going to get a beating," Fox's correspondent quoted Trump as saying, adding that»»»

Dubai: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank reported an 8% increase in first-half net profit after tax to Dh3.8 billion, supported by strong customer financing growth, higher revenue and continued expansion across its retail and wholesale businesses. Sign up for our daily business newsletter, Cheques & Balances.»»»