BENGHAZI: A third oil storage tank was set on fire during clashes at the Libyan oil port of Ras Lanuf on Thursday, an oil engineer and a witness said.
Two storage tanks had been set alight over the past week as forces loyal to eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar and rival factions clashed, causing extensive damage.
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Third oil storage tank at Libya's Ras Lanuf oil terminal set alight during clashes
Third oil storage tank at Libya's Ras Lanuf oil terminal set alight during clashes
PM Sharif hails Ramadan relief success, orders digital wallet model for future welfare programs
- Government transferred cash directly into digital wallets to provide Ramadan relief to deserving citizens
- Over 951,000 digital wallets were used and 1.9 million payments made, according to official statistics
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday lauded the successful implementation of Pakistan’s Ramadan Relief Package 2025, praising the transparent use of digital wallets for fund distribution and instructing officials to adopt the model for future government programs, state media reported.
The premier made the comments during a meeting in Islamabad to review the execution of the nationwide relief scheme, which aimed to provide financial support during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The package, rolled out across the country including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, utilized digital tools to deliver assistance to beneficiaries and was promoted as a step toward the country’s broader digital transformation agenda.
Under the initiative, aid was transferred directly into recipients’ digital wallets — secure mobile accounts linked to national ID numbers — allowing beneficiaries to access funds via mobile apps, ATMs or designated agents without needing a traditional bank account.
“Appreciating the effective and transparent implementation of the Ramazan Relief Package 2025, [the prime minister] directed the authorities concerned to emulate this model in future government schemes,” the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency reported the PM Office as saying.
It said 1.9 million digital payments were made and over 951,000 digital wallets used, marking what officials described as a significant move toward realizing the “Digital Nation Pakistan” vision.
More than 823,000 women and over 2,500 persons with disabilities accessed the funds through digital platforms, APP added.
Authorities said 79 percent of the allocated funds had been disbursed, with a team of 2,224 employees resolving over 1,200 complaints during the scheme’s implementation.
Millions of robocalls, SMS alerts and outbound calls were also made to raise awareness, the report added.
Patrick Reed leads by two, DeChambeau’s Crushers GC show way in team race at LIV Golf Miami
- In LIV Golf’s first US event of 2025, it was fitting that the top four players are all past major champions, three of them with at least one green jacket to their name with the Masters a week away
- DeChambeau’s team, Crushers GC, also holds a narrow two-shot lead in the team competition through one round
MIAMI: Despite a double bogey on his closing hole, Patrick Reed shot a 5-under par 67 and grabbed the first-round lead at LIV Golf Miami on Friday at Trump National Doral.
Reed began his round on the 10th hole and put seven birdies on his card, reaching 7 under with a tap-in at the par-5 eighth. But at the par-3 ninth, he missed the green wide left and compounded the mistake by putting his second shot into a bunker.
Reed came back to the pack a bit, but he still held a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson (3-under 69).
“I mean, the first 17 were great,” Reed said. “No, as a whole I played solid. I hit the ball pretty well off the tee, hit some quality iron shots and made some putts, and I think that’s what you have to do around this place.
.”.. Yeah, for the back tee with this kind of wind direction here on 9, I don’t know what to do. I don’t have a club for it that I feel like I can hit a straight shot, and it’s hard to start it over the water and get it turning back. It was just an unfortunate finish, but at the end of the day, it’s still a solid round of golf.”
In LIV Golf’s first US event of 2025, it was fitting that the top four players are all past major champions, three of them with at least one green jacket to their name with the Masters a week away.
Reed won the Masters in 2018, Mickelson has captured three green jackets and Dustin Johnson won the 2020 edition that was delayed to November.
“Obviously I was playing really good at the end of 2020,” Johnson said Friday. “But the game I feel like it’s getting pretty close to that. Obviously it’s a really fine line to being that good or just a little bit off, but yeah, I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game right now.”
Johnson had a three-birdie run at Nos. 14-16 late in his round to get to 3 under, while DeChambeau was steady with four birdies and just one bogey.
DeChambeau’s team, Crushers GC, also holds a narrow two-shot lead in the team competition through one round. The four-man team of DeChambeau, Charles Howell III, Englishman Paul Casey and India’s Anirban Lahiri combined to go 2 under par, with Johnson’s 4Aces GC sitting second at even par.
“There’s a reason we won here (at the LIV Team Championship) in 2023,” DeChambeau said. “They like this golf course. They like a tough, challenging golf course where you can strategically play and let everybody kind of mess up on their own, and we just plot along and make a couple birdies where we can and move along when it’s a really brutal hole.”
US Senate Republicans pass measure to move forward on Trump’s tax cuts
- House Republicans now must weigh Senate’s work
- Plunging stock market hovers over fiscal outlook
WASHINGTON: The US Senate approved a Republican budget blueprint early on Saturday that aims to extend trillions of dollars worth of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and sharply reduce government spending.
The 51-48 vote, following a late-night legislative session, unlocks a maneuver called budget reconciliation that will allow Republicans to bypass the Senate’s filibuster — a rule that imposes a 60-vote threshold on most legislation — and pass Trump’s tax, border security and military priorities later this year without Democratic votes.
“Tonight, the Senate took one small step toward reconciliation and one giant leap toward making the tax cuts permanent, securing the border, providing much-needed help for the military and finally cutting wasteful Washington spending,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said.
Two Republicans — Senators Susan Collins and Rand Paul — joined Democrats in opposing the measure.
The Senate’s action sent the measure on to the Republican-led House of Representatives, which is expected to take it up next week.
Non-partisan analysts say the Trump agenda, if enacted, would add about $5.7 trillion to the federal government’s debt over the next decade. Senate Republicans contend the cost is $1.5 trillion, saying that the effects of extending existing tax policy that was scheduled to expire at the end of this year should not be counted in the measure’s cost.
The measure also aims to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling by $5 trillion, a move Congress has to make by summer or risk defaulting on $36.6 trillion in debt. It aims to partly offset the deficit-raising costs of tax cuts by cutting spending. Democrats have warned that Republican targets would imperil the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income Americans.
Republicans warned that allowing the 2017 tax cuts to expire would hit Americans hard, imposing a 22 percent tax hike on the average taxpayer. The cuts, Trump’s signature legislative achievement of his first term, reduced the top corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, a move that is not set to expire.
The remainder of the cuts, for individual Americans, were set to expire, a decision made to limit the 2017 bill’s deficit-raising effects.
“Donald Trump has betrayed the American people. Tonight, Senate Republicans joined him in that betrayal. In voting for this bill, Senate Republicans sided with billionaires against the middle class, in total obeisance to Donald Trump,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said after the vote.
BRUTAL SELL-OFF
Hanging over the debate, which began late on Thursday, was a brutal stock market sell-off following Trump’s sweeping new trade tariffs, which economists warned will drive up prices and could trigger a recession.
Some Republicans said economic uncertainty could slow the path forward for Trump’s agenda if market weakness continues.
“My concern is, if we are having the kind of conversation today three weeks from now, then the distraction will be so great that it will slow down what we try to do,” Republican Senator Thom Tillis told reporters.
During a six-hour “vote-a-rama” session to consider amendments, Senate Republicans altered the blueprint to add a deficit-neutral reserve fund to help protect Medicaid and the Medicare health care program for the elderly.
Republicans also turned away dozens of Democratic amendments aimed at rescinding Trump trade tariffs and protecting Medicaid, Medicare, nutrition support for low-income women and children, the Social Security retirement system, veterans benefits and other government assistance.
Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski, Josh Hawley and Collins backed Democratic measures to safeguard social safety-net programs, but their support was not enough.
If House Republicans get their way, Congress could enact $2 trillion in spending cuts by overhauling Medicaid and food assistance programs and by eliminating popular environmental policies.
The budget blueprint would also make room for tighter security measures along the US border with Mexico, fund administration efforts to significantly ramp up immigrant deportations and bolster US military readiness.
Verstappen takes pole for Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Norris
- Motor racing-Verstappen conjures up stunning pole lap at Suzuka
SUZUKA, JAPAN: Four-time world champion Max Verstappen smashed the track record to snatch pole position for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, as Yuki Tsunoda qualified a lowly 15th in his Red Bull debut.
Verstappen clocked a blistering lap of 1min 26.983sec in his Red Bull, 0.012sec ahead of championship leader Norris, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri third.
Verstappen set a new Suzuka track record with his final lap in Saturday’s qualifying, pipping Norris right at the death.
“Each session we kept making little improvements, then the last lap was flat out,” said Verstappen, who has won the Japanese GP for the last three years.
“In a Formula One car around here is insane. This is a proper highlight for us to be back on pole here.”
It was Verstappen’s first pole position of the season.
The Dutchman is still looking for his first grand prix win of the new campaign.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli sixth and RB’s Isack Hadjar seventh.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was eighth, followed by Williams’s Alex Albon and Haas’s Oliver Bearman.
Norris is looking for his second grand prix win of the season, after triumphing in the season opener in Australia.
He finished second behind Piastri in China a fortnight ago in a dominant start to the campaign for McLaren.
“I’m happy, congrats to Max, he did a good job,” said Norris.
“You have to credit something when it is a lap that good that he must have done. I got everything out of the car today, the gaps are tiny.
“Good but not enough.”
Tsunoda was eliminated in Q2 in a disappointing first qualifying drive for Red Bull after being promoted in place of Liam Lawson last week.
The Japanese driver finished one place behind Lawson, who returned to RB after just two races for Red Bull in a ruthless driver swap.
Verstappen has not looked comfortable this week and he again complained to his team over the radio in Q1.
“I still have the same problem, the tires are not gripping on the front,” the Dutchman said.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Williams’s Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso were eliminated in Q2 along with Lawson and Tsunoda.
Sauber pair Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, Haas’s Esteban Ocon, Alpine’s Jack Doohan and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll were all eliminated in Q1.
Doohan’s practice on Friday ended when he crashed heavily into a barrier and mechanics had to work through the night to repair his badly damaged car.
Qualifying was suspended for about eight minutes in Q2 when a small trackside fire broke out as sparks from the cars ignited the grass in the dry conditions.
It was the fifth such incident of the weekend, with the second and third practice sessions also disrupted by fires.
Rain has been forecast for Sunday’s race.
Thousands rally for South Korea’s impeached ex-president Yoon
- The Constitutional Court unanimously ruled on Friday to remove Yoon over the December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule
SEOUL: Thousands protested in the South Korean capital Saturday in support of disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office a day earlier over his bungled martial law declaration.
South Korea’s Constitutional Court unanimously ruled on Friday to remove Yoon over the December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule, triggering fresh elections to be held by June after months of political turmoil.
A long wait for the court’s ruling had heightened tensions in the Asian nation, fueling far-right support for Yoon and weekly rival rallies in capital Seoul.
His supporters took to the streets in the capital and braved the rain on Saturday, chanting “impeachment is invalid!” and “nullify the snap election!“
“The Constitutional Court’s decision destroyed our country’s free democracy,” said protester Yang Joo-young, 26.
“Speaking as someone in my 20s or 30s, I’m deeply worried about the future.”
Yoon had defended his martial law attempt as necessary to root out “anti-state forces” and what he claimed were threats from North Korea.
But there were many scenes of jubilation in Seoul on Friday from those opposed to Yoon’s rule, with people hugging and crying after the ruling was delivered.
Yet Yoon had found backing from extreme religious figures and right-wing YouTubers who experts say used misinformation to court support for the former star prosecutor.
“Yoon’s presidency has revealed the societal cracks based on political polarization and misinformation,” Minseon Ku, a postdoctoral fellow at William & Mary Global Research Institute, told AFP.
The court ruled that Yoon’s actions in December had posed a “grave threat” to the country’s stability.
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is seen as the frontrunner in the next election, experts say, and his party has taken a more conciliatory approach toward North Korea.
Some Yoon supporters were worried about the prospect of a Lee presidency.
“I honestly believe South Korea is finished,” said pro-Yoon supporter Park Jong-hwan, 59.
“It feels like we’ve already transitioned into a socialist, communist state.”
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