Nasheman News : Visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has expressed optimism about the economic future of Pakistan, saying his country had been waiting for a leadership like that of Prime Minister Imran Khan to partner with Islamabad in various areas.

Addressing a reception dinner on Sunday night at the Prime Minister House hours after he landed here, the Crown Prince said Pakistan was a “dear country” to all Saudis and that the two countries “have walked together in tough and good times”, Dawn news reported.

“We believe that Pakistan is going to be a very, very important country in the coming future and we want to be sure we are part of that,” he said.

“Pakistan today has a great future in store with a great leadership.”

The Saudi royal said his country would collaborate with Pakistan economically, politically and in terms of security. “We believe in our region, that is why we are investing in it.”

“This is my first trip (to the) east since I became the Crown Prince (in 2017) and the first country (that I have visited) is Pakistan,” he added.

Before the dinner, the two countries signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) for bilateral cooperation worth $20 billion.

The deals include exploration of investment opportunities in refining and petrochemical sectors; cooperation in the field of sports; financing agreement for the import of Saudi goods; power generation projects; and development of renewable energy projects.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Khan during his speech at the reception dinner said that Saudi Arabia had always been a “friend in need” to Pakistan.

He invited Riyadh to avail opportunities from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Pakistan’s close links with Beijing. 

The Prime Minister also put forward two requests in front of the Crown Prince: First, he requested the Saudi royal to allow Pakistani Haj pilgrims to undergo immigration at the three major Pakistani airports before leaving for Saudi Arabia for their convenience.

Second, Khan urged the Saudi authorities to look into the hardships of the Pakistani labourers working in the Kingdom.

Also on Sunday, Khan and the Crown Prince held a one-on-one meeting which was followed by the inaugural session of the Saudi-Pakistan Supreme Coordination Council, Dawn news said.

Amid heightened security and arrangements in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the Crown Prince arrived at Nur Khan Air Base in Rawalpindi on Sunday evening. He was received by the Prime Minister, Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and other senior Cabinet Ministers.

The Crown Prince was given a 21-gun salute.

Breaking protocol, Khan personally drove the Saudi royal to the Prime Minister’s House.

The visit was initially scheduled for February 16, but was delayed by a day for unknown reasons.

After Pakistan, the Crown prince will travel to India, where he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

[Nasheman news] Brussels,Italy will spiral into a deep social and economic crisis like Venezuela’s if it leaves the single currency, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani has warned.

“Whoever from the ruling majority imagines that leaving the euro will be the miracle cure for our ills wants to take us where Venezuela finds itself today,” Tajani wrote on social media on Friday.

“Only an irresponsible government could want Italy’s exit from the euro and it should immediately clarify where it wants to take the country,” he added.

Tajani’s remarks came after Claudio Borghi, an MP from the ruling eurosceptic League party, suggested Italy should leave the single currency rather than suffer the strictures of existing eurozone rules.

“If Germany wants to continue doing as it pleases in Europe, we are better off leaving,” said Borghese, who chairs the lower house of parliament’s budget committee.

Borghese made the comments in an interview with website Affaritaliani.it on Friday.

[Nasheman news] New Delhi US National Security Advisor Ambassador John Bolton, in a telephonic conversation with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval, has extended support for India’s bid to designate Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, an MEA statement said on Saturday.

Washington extended and reiterated its support towards India’s right to self-defence against cross-border terrorism under the 1267 Committee of the UN Security Council after the toll in the deadly Jaish attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama on Thursday reached 49.

The suicide attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy carrying troopers towards Srinagar had blown up a bus when an explosive-packed SUV rammed into the paramilitary vehicle, causing the death of some 40 troopers at the spot.

Doval and Bolton have resolved to hold Pakistan to account for its obligations under UN resolutions and to remove all obstacles to designate Azhar as a global terrorist under the UN Security Council Resolution which has already designated JeM as a terror body.

It was China, who has been stonewalling the process. Beijing on Friday indicated it would continue to block India’s bid to declare Azhar as an international terrorist even after JeM claimed responsibility for the worst-ever attack in Jammu and Kashmir on security forces since militancy erupted in the state in 1989.

“The two NSAs vowed to work together to ensure that Pakistan cease to be a safe haven for JeM and terrorist groups that target India, the US and others in the region,” the External Affairs Ministry statement said. 

The conversations took place during a telephone call between Doval and Bolton on Friday evening. 

During the conversation, Bolton expressed condolences and outrage over the Pulwama attack by the Pakistan-based terror group.

The American diplomat also offered all assistance to India to bring the perpetrators and sympathisers of the attack promptly to justice. 

Doval appreciated the US support. 

President Donald Trump of the United States will sign a border security bill to avert another government shutdown, but will also declare a national emergency to obtain funds for his promised US-Mexico border wall, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement on Thursday. 

In an attempt to bypass Congress to get money that politicians have denied him for his wall, Trump on Thursday appeared headed towards triggering a swift court challenge from Democrats on constitutional grounds.

“President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action – including a national emergency – to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border,” Sanders said.

“The president is once again delivering on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country,” she added. 

‘End run around Congress’

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi responded to the announcement, saying she was prepared to respond appropriately to a national emergency declaration. 

Pelosi said there was not a crisis at the border with Mexico that required a national emergency order. 

She has not said if House Democrats would legally challenge the president. But Pelosi did say if Trump invoked an emergency declaration it should be met with “great unease and dismay” as an overreach of executive authority. READ MORE

The US gov’t may be open again, but fears remain for contractors

She added that such a declaration would mean Trump was making an “end run around Congress”. 

The top Democrat in the Senate echoed Pelosi’s harsh comments. 

Senator Chuck Schumer said if Trump declared a national emergency to build the wall, he would be committing a “lawless act”. He also warned that Congress would take steps to stop the president. 

He added that Trump would be committing “naked contempt for the rule of law and congressional authority”. 

Bill goes to House

Thursday’s White House announcement came as Congress prepared to vote on bipartisan legislation that would provide more than $300bn to fund the Department of Homeland Security and a range of other federal agencies through September 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Funding is due to expire for those agencies on Friday. 

Later on Thursday, the Republican-controlled Senate passed the bill 83-16. It then went to the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, which also passed it, 300 to 128, sending it to Trump. READ MORE

US Senate, House pass bill to avert government shutdown

The bill does not provide the $5.7bn Trump requested for his border wall – a demand that triggered the previous shutdown, which lasted for 35 days. Democrats oppose the wall, calling it ineffective, immoral and expensive. 

The bill does allocate $1.37bn in new money to help build 88.5km of new physical barriers on the border. It is the same level of funding Congress appropriated for border security measures last year, including barriers but not concrete walls. 

A border wall was a central 2016 campaign promise by Trump. He originally said Mexico would pay for the wall along the 3,200km border, an idea Mexico dismissed.

“Just so you know – we’re building the wall anyway,” Trump said at a rally in the border city of El Paso, Texas, earlier this week. 

Agencies

Nasheman News : America’s public debt has reached a record high of more than $22 trillion, according to data released by the US Treasury Department.

The amount of the debt as of February 11 was quoted in a daily statement by the department on Tuesday.

“The national debt has now eclipsed $22 trillion, as we added $1 trillion in debt over just the last 11 months,” said Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a non-partisan organisation dedicated to addressing America’s long-term fiscal challenges.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in January estimated that federal budget deficit was about $900 billion in 2019 and exceeds $1 trillion each year beginning in 2022.

Because of persistently large deficits, the public debt is projected to grow steadily, reaching 93 per cent of US gross domestic product (GDP) in 2029 and about 150 per cent of the US GDP in 2049, according to the CBO.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has warned that the rising public debt in the US could lead to the next economic recession.

Analysts said the Trump administration’s $1.5-trillion tax cut and increased government spending have fueled the rapid increase in budget deficits and public debt.

“Reaching this unfortunate milestone so rapidly is the latest sign that our fiscal situation is not only unsustainable, but accelerating,” Xinhua quoted Peterson as saying.

“As we borrow trillion after trillion, interest costs will weigh on our economy and make it harder to fund important investments for our future,” Peterson said.

“We already pay an average of $1 billion every day in interest on the debt, and will spend a staggering $7 trillion in interest costs over the next decade,” he said, adding “we must put our fiscal house in order and begin to manage our national debt”.

Nasheman News : The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the arrest of Maria Ressa, the chief of news portal Rappler, who was arrested earlier on Wednesday in Manila for an alleged “cyber libel” case.

“Freedom of the press is an essential pillar of democracy and Human Rights. The arrest in the Philippines of Maria Ressa, founder and executive editor of the news website Rappler, is an alarming development,” CPJ said in a statement to the media

It also called on the government to “immediately release” the journalist and “drop all charges” against her, Efe news reported. Rappler’s investigative report linked Keng to alleged drug and human trafficking.

CPJ’s board chair Kathleen Carroll said that “the arrest of Maria Ressa is an outrage”, adding that “she should be freed immediately and the Philippines government needs to cease its multi-pronged attack on Rappler, its talented leader, and its brave staff”.

The organisation said on Wednesday the letter was launched after its board of directors, made up of influential journalists, approved an exceptional resolution in a meeting held at their New York headquarters.

Ressa was arrested in her office at the Rappler headquarters in Manila, for a story published in May 2012 about local businessman Wilfredo Keng.

The Justice Department of the Philippines filed charges of “cyber libel” against Rappler, Ressa, as the portal’s CEO, and investigative journalist Reynaldo Santos for the story published in 2012.

Three Justice Department prosecutors ruled in Keng’s favour in January even though Keng filed his complaint five years after the report was published, even though the statute of limitations established by Philippine law for a defamation charge is only one year.

Rappler has been very critical of the administration of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. However, this not the only case pending against Ressa.

Last November, an arrest warrant was issued against her on five charges of alleged tax evasion. Ressa had posted bail at the time and the case is still pending trial.

The Philippine President has made no secret of his hostility towards Rappler, accusing it of being financed by the CIA and banning its reporters from the presidential palace in February 2018.

Nasheman News : Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will be on a two-day state visit India next week when he will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a range of issues including energy security, trade and investment and defence.

Beginning February 19, it will be first state visit of Prince Salman, who is also the Vice President of the Council of Ministers and Defence Minister, to India. 

He will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Modi on wide range of issues of mutual interest. 

A Ministry of External Affairs statement said that there has been significant progress in bilateral cooperation in key areas of mutual interest, including energy security, trade and investment, infrastructure, defence and security.

Modi had visited Saudi Arabia in April 2016 during which the two countries agreed to further elevate the existing strategic partnership.

Prince Salman will be accompanied by a high-level delegation including ministers, senior officials and leading Saudi businessmen. 

Saudi Arabia is India’s fourth largest trading partner with bilateral trade reaching $23.24 billion in April-November 2018. It supplies about 20 per cent of crude requirements to India.

Recently, Saudi ARAMCO, in partnership with ADNOC of the UAE, has entered into a Joint Venture for $44 billion Ratnagiri Refinery and Petro-Chemical Project Ltd. 

The release said that nearly 2.7 million strong Indian community forms the largest expatriate group in Saudi Arabia. 

“Their positive and highly-appreciated contribution to the development of their host country has been an important anchor of our excellent bilateral engagement. 

Over 1,75,000 Indians visit Saudi Arabia every year for Haj pilgrimage. 

During his visit, the Saudi Prince will also call on President Ram Nath Kovind. 

[Nasheman news] San Francisco Microsoft-owned professional networking platform LinkedIn is launching a live video feature on its app to enable users to broadcast real-time videos.

The beta version of “LinkedIn Live” is first launching as an invite-only feature in the US, and it remains unclear if and by when would the feature be available for everyone to create LinkedIn Live videos. 

“Video is the fastest growing format on our platform right now and Live has been the most requested feature,” TechCrunch quoted Pete Davies, Director of Product Management at LinkedIn as saying on Tuesday. 

LinkedIn’s live video effort is supported by a part of Microsoft’s cloud division — Azure Media Services — that is providing encoding for LinkedIn Live.

“The feature is intended to allow users to ask questions or make suggestions in the comments in real time where hosts could moderate those comments in real time too,” Davies said. 

The initial live content that LinkedIn hopes to broadcast and cover includes conferences, product announcements, questions and answers, events led by influencers, earnings calls, graduation and awards ceremonies and more. 

LinkedIn introduced its first native video features in 2017 which have proven to be a strong engine for engagement and revenue growth at the company.

“Microsoft reported in its last quarterly earnings that revenues at LinkedIn were up 29 per cent, with a reference to growing its ads business specifically with record levels of engagement highlighted by LinkedIn sessions growth of 30 per cent,” the report noted. 

The platform recently announced that it has touched the 50 million user-mark in India with 562 million global members. 

Nasheman News :  Saudi Arabia does not know where murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s body is, the Kingdom’s Foreign Affairs Minister Adel al-Jubeir has said, despite having in custody the Saudi team that killed him.

In an interview to US’ CBS’ “Face the Nation” show that was broadcast on Sunday, Al-Jubeir said: “The death of Jamal Khashoggi was a mass-massive tragedy. It was a mistake…. committed by officials of the Saudi government acting outside their scope of authority.” 

He said that 11 individuals have been charged with the crime and the trials have begun. “We have said we will investigate. We will hold those accountable- those responsible accountable and we will punish them.”

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a supporter-turned-critic of Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman, was murdered inside the Kingdom’s consulate in Turkey’s Istanbul on October 2 and his body was reportedly dismembered with a bone saw. His remains are yet to be found. 

Al-Jubeir told the US programme that “we don’t know” where is Khashoggi’s body and that the public prosecutor responsible for the case had sought evidence from Turkey but had received no response.

“We are still waiting to receive any evidence they (Turkey) may have.”

On being asked why those in detention can’t reveal where Khashoggi’s body was, Al-Jubeir said: “We are still investigating. We have now a number of possibilities and we’re asking them what they did with the body. 

“… I think this investigation is ongoing, and I would expect that eventually we will find the truth.”

The minister again denied the Crown Prince’s involvement in the murder. “Nobody in Saudi Arabia knew about the murder except the people who did it.”

He also dismissed the New York Times’ report detailing how US intelligence intercepted communications of Bin Salman telling a top aide in 2017 that he would “use a bullet” on the journalist if he did not return to the Kingdom. 

“This was not a government sanctioned operation. We have an investigation and we have a trial. And many things have been put out that turned out to be incorrect.”

The US’ Central Intelligence Agency has, however, concluded the Saudi operation was likely directed by the Crown Prince.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said his nation needed “painful” economic reforms to cut back on its debt soon after meeting the head of the IMF.

In a speech at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Sunday, Khan said his government faced a massive fiscal deficit when it took office in 2018 and was making efforts to slash it.

“I repeat the reforms are painful … It’s like a surgery. When you conduct surgery for a while, the patient suffers, but that improves,” Khan said.

“The worst thing that can happen for society is that you keep postponing reforms because of the fear that you would have opposition, the vested interests stand up and you don’t do reforms.”

Pakistan, the IMF and China: Imran Khan’s economic challenges

Before taking the stage, Khan met the head of the IMF Christine Lagarde.

‘Strong package’

Pakistan has about $100bn in external debt and liabilities, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.

“I reiterated that the IMF stands ready to support Pakistan,” a statement from Lagarde said.

“I also highlighted that decisive policies and a strong package of economic reforms would enable Pakistan to restore the resilience of its economy and lay the foundations for stronger and more inclusive growth.”

Pakistan, a regular borrower from the IMF since the 1980s, last received an IMF bailout in 2013 to the tune of $6.6bn.

Forecasts by the IMF and World Bank suggest the Pakistani economy is likely to grow between 4.0 and 4.5 percent for the fiscal year ending June 2019, compared with 5.8 percent growth in the last fiscal year.

The annual World Government Summit sees global leaders cross paths at a luxury hotel near Dubai’s iconic, sail-shaped Burj al-Arab hotel.

Major investments

Two Saudi sources told the AFP news agency that heir apparent to the Gulf kingdom’s throne, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will visit Islamabad soon, without giving a date.

A number of major investment deals are expected to be signed during the visit.

“The outcome of the talks so far has been very positive and this is going to be one of the biggest-ever Saudi investments in Pakistan,” a senior finance ministry official was quoted as saying.

“We hope that an agreement to this effect will be signed during the upcoming visit of the Saudi crown prince to Pakistan,” said the official, requesting anonymity.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Islamabad’s biggest trading partner in the Middle East, have offered Khan some $30bn in investment and loans.

Khan also visited Saudi rivals Qatar and Turkey, as well as China seeking investment in recent weeks.