7/09/2025

READ OUR

HERE

theSun on Sunday SEPT 7, 2025

WORLD 8

Malaysian Paper

/thesun

Arab states endorse joint statement End hostilities, Israel told

Trump signs order for blacklist WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order paving the way for Washington to designate countries a state sponsor of wrongful detention and impose punitive measures, including sanctions, on those it deems are wrongfully holding Americans. Senior administration officials said the United States would target countries holding wrongfully detained Americans as well as those that engage in “hostage diplomacy”, which one official said would be reviewed for designation. “The bottom line: Anyone who uses an American as a bargaining chip will pay the price. This administration is not only putting America first but also putting Americans first,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. A second senior administration official said the penalties imposed on countries will be similar to how the United States deploys the Foreign Terrorist Organisation designations and include measures such as sanctions, export controls and barring those deemed associated with wrongful detentions from entering the US. The officials said under the new policy, the US will give notice to a country after identifying that there has been a wrongful detention, allowing them time to act before Washington begins to impose sanctions. It could also lift sanctions if there is progress. – Reuters Putin nudges rocket makers MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin urged aerospace industry leaders on Friday to press on with efforts to develop booster rocket engines for space launch vehicles and build on Russia’s reputation as a leader in space technology. Putin flew to the southern Russian city of Samara, where he met industry specialists and toured the Kuznetsov design bureau aircraft engine manufacturing plant. He said Russia remained a leading force in the development of the aerospace industry. “It is important to consistently renew production capacity in terms of engines for booster rockets,” he said. “We must not only meet our own current and future needs but also move actively on world markets and be successful competitors.” Putin also highlighted Russian success in developing innovations in terms of producing engines, particularly in the energy sector, despite the imposition of sanctions by Western countries linked to Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He pointed to the development of the PD-26 aircraft engine, saying it would allow for the development of military transports and wide-bodied passenger planes. – Reuters

occupying power” remain major obstacles to “peaceful coexistence” in the region. The resolution was part of a wider meeting in Cairo, at which foreign ministers endorsed a “Joint Vision for Security and Cooperation in the Region”. The meeting came as Israeli forces intensified a military offensive around Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban centre, and days after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for annexation of swathes of the West Bank to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”. In the resolution, a copy of

which was obtained by AFP, the Arab bloc said lasting peace, cooperation and coexistence in the Middle East are not possible while Israel continues to occupy Arab land or “issues implicit threats to occupy or annex Arab lands”. Egypt and Jordan have signed treaties with Israel. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalised relations with Israel in 2020 under the Jared Kushner-brokered Abraham Accords. However, Saudi Arabia’s own normalisation talks with Israel were frozen.

billion (RM49.8 billion), according to Forbes magazine. “Every fashion show was pure magic,” fashion student Pietro Angeleri, 20, told AFP as he queued to pay his last respects. “No one has managed to make women stand out like he did. He will be missed.” The company has not revealed the cause of Armani’s death, but Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper reported he had been suffering from liver failure. He was hospitalised with viral bronchopneumonia in June in Milan, it said, which left him weakened, even if he seemed to recover. After his 91st birthday on July 11, which he celebrated with a small family party, long-standing problems with his liver returned, Corriere said. He had kept working almost to the end, finalising outfits for the show celebrating his 50th anniversary at Milan Fashion Week at the end of the month, which will now serve as his final farewell. – AFP In its resolution, the League said any lasting settlement must be based on a two-state solution and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which offers a full normalisation of relations in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territories it occupied in 1967. Egypt said on Friday there was “no room for allowing any party to dominate the region or enforce unilateral security arrangements that compromise its security and stability”. The Israeli military said early yesterday it was establishing a humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area of Gaza’s Khan Younis, as it plans to expand military activities. The military said the area will be provided with field hospitals, water pipelines, desalination facilities and food supplies. A spokesperson for the military called on residents to evacuate to the area. In New York, the UN General Assembly decided to resume a conference on the two-state solution on Sept 22, reviving a process that was put on hold this summer amid escalating violence in the Middle East. The assembly adopted an oral decision proposed by Saudi Arabia on the resumption of the High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two State Solution. After its adoption, Israel and the United States declared their disassociation from it, saying the resumption of the conference would prolong the war in Gaza. – Agencies

CAIRO: The Arab League has said peaceful coexistence in the Middle East cannot be achieved without a Palestinian state and an end to what it described as Israel’s “hostile practices”. In a resolution submitted by Egypt and Saudi Arabia and adopted on Thursday, the League said “the failure to reach a just solution to the Palestinian cause and the hostile practices of the

Palestinians run as a building hit by an Israeli airstrike collapses in Gaza City. – REUTERSPIC

Thousands pay respects to fashion legend Armani MILAN: Thousands of mourners paid homage yesterday to Italian fashion legend Giorgio Armani, who died this week aged 91, as his casket was put on public display in Milan.

Crowds filed past the wooden closed casket in a darkened room lit by paper candles and an image of the designer on a big screen. Armani, the head of a luxury fashion empire, died on Thursday after months of fragile health and will be laid to rest after a private funeral tomorrow in Milan. Hundreds of people queued up for the start of the two-day public viewing at the Teatro Armani, the company’s minimalist but luxurious headquarters in Milan. Among the first mourners through the door was a group of Armani group staff, all in black mourning wear and black sunglasses. “It’s so emotional,” said Silvia Albonetti, an Emporio Armani saleswoman. “He was an incredible man ... sometimes rude, but human.” Tributes flooded in for Armani following his death on Thursday

A mourner pays tribute as Armani lies in state at his headquarters in Milan. – REUTERSPIC

control of his company as it moved from fashion into luxury hotels, cosmetics, accessories and interiors. When he died, he was one of the richest men in the world, with a net worth estimated at US$11.8

from across the fashion industry and also Hollywood, where his understated but exquisitely tailored creations were beloved by the A-listers. Throughout his remarkable career, he kept top-to-bottom