12/09/2025

FRIDAY | SEPT 12, 2025

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report is the acute deterioration in press freedom,” Casas-Zamora said. Between 2019 and last year, it saw “the biggest drop over the past 50 years”. “We’ve never seen such an acute deterioration in a key indicator of democratic health,” he said. Press freedoms declined in 43 countries across all continents. “There’s a toxic brew that is coming together, which involves, on the one hand, heavy-handed interventions on the part of governments.” On the other hand, “you have the very negative impact of disinformation, some of which is real disinformation and some of which is used as a pretext by governments to clamp down on press freedoms”. The think tank is concerned about the consolidation of traditional media, as well as the “disappearance of local media which plays an important role in supporting a democratic debate”, Casas-Zamora said. – AFP GENEVA: The World Health Organisation (WHO) said its workers will remain in Gaza City despite calls from Israel’s military for people to flee an assault it is mounting. The agency is appalled by the latest evacuation order, demanding that one million people move from Gaza City to a humanitarian zone in the south designated by Israel. “The zone has neither the size nor scale of services to support those already there, let alone new arrivals. A crippled health system cannot afford to lose any more facilities.” – Bernama UK SACKS MANDELSON AS AMBASSADOR LONDON: Britain has sacked Peter Mandelson as its ambassador to the United States over his relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson came under scrutiny after a book was released including a letter from Mandelson describing Epstein as “my best pal”. The Foriegn Ministry said: “The prime minister has asked the foreign secretary to withdraw him as ambassador. The emails show the depth and extent of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein is different from that known at the time of his appointment.” It said the revelation of Mandelson’s suggestion that Epstein’s first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged was “new information”. – Reuters BELGIAN FESTIVAL AXES GERMAN ORCHESTRA FRANKFURT: A German orchestra’s performance at a Belgian festival has been cancelled over concerns about its Israeli conductor. The Munich Philharmonic had been due to perform yesterday at the Flanders Festival Ghent, led by its future chief conductor, Lahav Shani. But Shani, who officially takes over as conductor of the Munich orchestra for the 2026/27 season, is music director of the Israel Philharmonic. As a result, festival organisers said they were “unable to provide sufficient clarity about his attitude” towards the Israeli government. “We have chosen to refrain from collaboration with partners who have not distanced themselves from that regime.” – AFP HEALTH AGENCY TO REMAIN IN GAZA CITY

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Palestinians looking for salvageable items amid the rubble of the Tiba tower after Israeli strikes targeted the building in Gaza City on Wednesday. – AFPPIC

Bring Netanyahu to justice, says Qatar

DOHA: Qatar’s prime minister warned that an Israeli strike in Doha targeting Hamas killed hope for Gaza hostages, calling for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to be brought to justice. His comments came after deadly strikes targeted Hamas leaders in Qatar, a US ally, a first in the oil-rich Gulf that rattled a region long shielded from conflict. “I think that what Netanyahu has done, he just killed any hope for those hostages,” said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Doha is reassessing its involvement in ceasefire talks and discussing next steps with Washington, he said in comments cited in CNN’s live blog after an interview with the broadcaster. The attack, just three months after Iran launched a retaliatory strike on a US airbase in Qatar, also cast serious doubt on Qatar mediated Gaza ceasefire talks and undermined security reassurances to the Gulf from Washington. ZURICH: Swiss lawmakers are seeking to water down government proposals to help prevent financial crime, saying the country needs to stay competitive in cross-border wealth management where rival centres are gaining ground. Switzerland is the world’s largest wealth management hub, but could lose that crown as early as this year, according to a forecast from Boston Consulting Group. The focus on competitiveness has intensified since the country was hit with a 39% US import tariff by President Donald Trump, making lawmakers keen to find ways to strengthen the economy. The lawmakers say Switzerland needs to slow down its anti-money laundering drive on competitive grounds, an argument also used in other areas, including in the debate over proposed new capital rules for UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank.

Israeli military destroyed another high-rise building as it intensified its assault on the territory’s largest urban centre, despite mounting calls to end its campaign. The military issued an evacuation warning to those living in and around the Tiba 2 tower, before later saying it had “struck a high-rise building used by Hamas”. In the aftermath, young girls rushed to pick dust-covered dough out of the rubble. Tenant Siham Abu al-Foul said she couldn’t take anything with her when the army issued the evacuation orders. She said: “They brought down the tower and there was nothing left. Everything we fixed in two years was gone in a minute.” – AFP

o Doha reassessing ceasefire talks, ties

asked his envoy Steve Witkoff to warn Qatar immediately but the attack had already started. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, sought to justify the decision, telling an Israeli radio station: “It was not an attack on Qatar; it was an attack on Hamas.” Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran said Israel “represents a real danger to the security and stability of the region”. “It is in an open war with everyone, not just with the Palestinian people,” he said. In Gaza City on Wednesday, the year, ahead of other major financial centres. But lawmakers are pushing back against tougher rules in the legislation designed to prevent rogue lawyers, trustees or other advisers facilitating money laundering, describing the curbs as unnecessary and burdensome. The transparency drive must not lead to over-regulation, said Simone Gianini of the centre-right Liberals. The Liberals, the Swiss People’s Party and centrist party The Centre, which together hold a majority in parliament, rejected an anti-money laundering Bill in 2020. “When we pass laws, they are implemented down to the last detail,” The Centre lawmaker Beat Rieder told parliament in June, suggesting that Switzerland already has a more sophisticated system to combat money laundering than other financial centres. – Reuters

Qatar has hosted Hamas’ political bureau since 2012 with Washington’s blessing and has been a key mediator in Gaza talks alongside Egypt and the United States. Hamas said six people were killed in Tuesday’s strikes in Qatar, but its senior leaders had survived, affirming “the enemy’s failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation”. The White House said Trump did not agree with Israel’s decision to take military action. Trump said he was not notified in advance and when he heard, The Swiss anti-money laundering legislation seeks to implement requirements by the Financial Action Task Force, an international finance watchdog, which has called for countries to come clean on shell companies. Barbara Steinemann, a federal lawmaker for the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, told Reuters that for years, whenever there was foreign pressure on financial transparency, Switzerland dutifully implemented rules, driving up bureaucracy and eroding competitiveness, even as other financial centres held back. “This is about a war between financial centres and economic interests. The Americans and other European countries would like to take over our business,” she said Switzerland implemented last year the OECD’s minimum 15% tax rate for large multinationals and final Basel III banking standards this

Netanyahu urged Qatar to expel Hamas officials or hold them to account, “because if you don’t, we will”. Swiss water down financial crime law

Press freedoms take dive

STOCKHOLM: Press freedoms have declined significantly over the past five years to hit their lowest level in 50 years, a report showed yesterday. Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and Myanmar, already among the poorest performers in press freedoms, posted the biggest falls, the report by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) said. The fourth-biggest drop was in South Korea, it said, citing “a spike in defamation cases initiated by the government and its political allies against journalists and raids on journalists’ residences.” “The state of democracy in the world is concerning,” said IDEA secretary-general Kevin Casas-Zamora. More than half of countries in the world (54%), registered a drop in one of the five key democracy indicators between 2019 and last year, the report said. “The most important finding in our