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Dubai: Dubai has retained its leading position in the MENA region on Kearney’s Global Cities Index, ranking 23rd globally and claiming a spot in the top 25 for the third consecutive year.

According to the report, prominent emerging hubs around the world, particularly in the Middle East, have seen incredible gains in their global city performance amid a changing profile of globalization—and a new distributed geography of opportunity is emerging. Abu Dhabi, for instance, climbed ten spots on the global rankings as it strengthened its position as a leading international hub.

The Global Cities Index (GCI) seeks to quantify the extent to which a city can attract, retain, and generate global flows of capital, people, and ideas. Cities are measured against five key dimensions: Human Capital, Information Exchange, Cultural Experience, Political Engagement, and Business Activity.

Average GCI scores have remained steady following several years of decline, with cities in the Middle East and Africa improving markedly. In particular, the capitals of the Gulf nations made major improvements in their overall scores, with Riyadh, Muscat, and Doha improving their overall rankings by nine, eight, and seven, respectively.

This growth was primarily driven by strong performance in the Human Capital dimension, as they capitalized on the return to pre-pandemic levels of freedom of international travel to attract large volumes of migrant talent and tourism.

Rudolph Lohmeyer, Kearney Partner, National Transformation Institute, commented, “As global trade returns to normalized levels, key cities in the Gulf have emerged as beacons of prosperity, resilience, and opportunity. Their resilient economic performance amid challenging global conditions, combined with a concerted focus on promoting liveability and talent attraction, has drawn ever-greater numbers of expats, making them a remarkable success story in the post-pandemic world. A strong commitment to delivering on ambitious national visions and maintaining a regenerative mindset is paying off.”

While the GCI captures the current state of global city leadership, the Global Cities Outlook (GCO) aims to identify those cities most likely to achieve global prominence in the future. Here, the emergence of a distributed geography of opportunity was also present.

The report added that the European cities maintained a strong presence in the top 30 rankings, while Asia’s global hubs, including Seoul, Osaka, and Chennai, made significant strides. In the US, second-tier metropolitan areas performed particularly well, having successfully attracted talent and capital over the turbulent past few years, positioning themselves as increasingly formidable rivals to more established global cities.

As the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies continues, the intersection of this trend with the already-underway shift toward remote work is expected to further reduce the significance of physical proximity in domains traditionally linked to major cities, potentially causing even greater disruption to global cities.

Brenna Buckstaff, Kearney Manager, National Transformations Institute, said, “In this shifting global landscape of distributed opportunity, top-tier global cities cannot take their positions for granted. The traditional hierarchy of leading cities will only become more fluid in the future as opportunities for growth and enhanced productivity become less concentrated during the coming waves of AI-driven innovation. Those cities that adopt a regenerative model—one that moves beyond resilience and thinks proactively—will have a competitive advantage.”

ANI/WAM

Islamabad: ​​​​​​​Pakistan is setting up deportation centers for migrants who are in the country illegally, including an estimated 1.7m Afghans, officials said Thursday. Anyone found staying in the country without authorization from next Wednesday will be arrested and sent to one of centers.

The move is the latest development in a Pakistani government crackdown to expel foreigners without registration or documents.

Jan Achakzai, a spokesman for the government in southwestern Pakistan's Baluchistan province, said three deportation centers were being set up there. One will be in Quetta, the provincial capital.

Azam Khan, the caretaker chief minister for northwest Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the region also would have three deportation centers. More than 60,000 Afghans have returned home since the crackdown was announced, he said.

Migrants who are living in the country illegally should leave before a Tuesday deadline to avoid arrest, he said.

Pakistan's caretaker interior minister, Sarfraz Bugti, says the deadline will not be extended.

Bugti said during a news conference Thursday that no migrants living in Pakistan without authorization illegally would be mistreated after their arrests. “They will not be manhandled,” he said, adding that they would get food and medical care until their deportations.

They are allowed to take a maximum of $180 out of the country, he said.

The minister warned Pakistanis that action would be taken against them if they are found to be sheltering migrants who are in the country illegally after Nov 1.

The government has information about the areas where these migrants are hiding, Bugti said. Deporting them is a challenge for the state, but “nothing is impossible to achieve it,” he added.

The country hosts millions of Afghans who fled their country during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation. The numbers swelled after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in Aug 2021.

Pakistan says the 1.4m Afghans who are registered as refugees need not worry. It denies targeting Afghans and says the focus is on people who are in the country illegally, regardless of their nationality.

In the southwest Pakistani border town of Chaman, tens of thousands of people protested the crackdown and new plans requiring the town's residents to obtain a visa to cross the border into Afghanistan. They previously had special permits. The protesters included Afghans.

“We have relatives in Afghanistan. We also do business there; we have our shops there,” Allah Noor Achakzai, a 50-year old Pakistani, said

He said Afghans crossed the border into Pakistan everyday and returned home before the crossing closed, and that locals from both countries have gone back and forth on a daily basis for decades.

Last week, a group of former US diplomats and representatives of resettlement organizations urged Pakistan not to deport Afghans awaiting US visas under a program that relocates at-risk refugees fleeing Taliban rule.

The UN issued a similar appeal, saying the crackdown could lead to human rights violations, including the separation of families.

AP

Achham: The historic Bimkot Durbar (palace), located in Mellekh Rural Municipality in Achham, has been handed over to the local government. Janak Bahadur Shah, the former ruler of Bimkot, transferred ownership of the palace to the local government during a ceremony held on Wednesday.

The palace covers an area of 6.5 ropani (one ropani is equivalent to 5,476 square feet), and Rural Municipality Chair Jwalasingh Saud assumed ownership.

This transfer of ownership signifies that the responsibility for preserving and promoting this historical heritage now rests with the local government. The palace is situated within a jungle area, with no human settlement in close proximity. The temple of Shodshadevi is positioned above the temple, surrounded by the Bimkotigadh and Chote River on two sides. 

This temple, established in the 16th century, received official recognition in 1997 BS. A stone inscription in Farsi language was discovered in the temple and has been placed on the Shodasadevi Temple premises.

According to Shah, the old Bimkot Palace was flattened by the major earthquake of 1990 BS. His grandfather, Nagendra Bahadur Shah, constructed the existing structures, a project that took 13 years to complete. 

The descendants of the rulers of Bimkot resided in the palace until the onset of the armed conflict. Historical documents and other valuable items associated with the palace were destroyed during the conflict. As a result, the palace is in urgent need of renovation.

Lekhanath: The reconstruction of the renowned Talbarahi Temple in Baidam, Pokhara Metropolitan-6, Kaski, has commenced. Metropolis Mayor Dhanaraj Acharya performed a puja to mark the beginning of the temple’s reconstruction during a ceremony today. The temple is located in the middle of the famous Fewa Lake in Pokhara.

During the event, local representatives emphasized that the responsibility for preserving and reconstructing the Talbarahi Temple lies with the people of Pokhara and the three levels of government.

As announced, the temple will be restored to its original form. The temple sustained damage in the 2015 earthquake, which caused it to tilt three inches southward.

The reconstruction project will be carried out in coordination with the Talabarahi Temple Guthi Management Committee and the Department of Archaeology. According to Committee Chair Hikmat Bahadur Kunwar, the estimated cost of the reconstruction project is Rs 14.5m. Of this amount, Rs 2.5m has been provided by the Department of Archaeology, with additional support expected from federal, provincial, and local governments, as well as the local community to complete the project.

With the demolition of the temple, a silver idol of goddess Barahi has been placed nearby through established rituals so that devotees can pay homage to the deity from there until the new structures are ready.

It is said that the main temple will be rebuilt within a year. The most recent temple structures were constructed in 2017 BS.

The temple’s existence dates back to 1667 AD, with some records even suggesting it might have been established as early as 1447 AD. The temple, initially founded by the then King of Kaski, Kulmandan Shah, holds significant historical importance.

Washington: Economic crises are rippling through the countries bordering Israel, raising the possibility of a chain reaction from the war with Hamas that further worsens the financial health and political stability of Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon and creates problems well beyond.

Each of the three countries is up against differing economic pressures that led the International Monetary Fund to warn in a September report that they could lose their "sociopolitical stability." That warning came shortly before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7, triggering a war that could easily cause economic chaos that President Joe Biden and the European Union would likely need to address.

The possible fallout is now starting to be recognized by world leaders and policy analysts. For a Biden administration committed to stopping the Israel-Hamas war from widening, the conflict could amplify the economic strains and possibly cause governments to collapse. If the chaos went unchecked, it could spread across a region that is vital for global oil supplies—with reverberations around the globe.

“The more unstable things are economically, the easier it is for bad actors in the region to stir the pot," said Christopher Swift, an international lawyer and former Treasury Department official. "The notion that you can divorce politics from economics is a little bit myopic, and naive. Politics, economics and security go together very closely.”

World Bank head Ajay Banga warned at a conference in Saudi Arabia this week that the war puts economic development at a “dangerous juncture.”

The financial situation is serious enough that Charles Michel, president of the European Council, met with the IMF last Thursday and told officials there that they needed to do more to support the Egyptian government, which he said is under pressure due to the possibility of migrants arriving from Hamas-controlled Gaza as well as people fleeing a civil war in Sudan.

“Let’s support Egypt," Michel told reporters afterward. “Egypt needs our support and we need to support Egypt.”

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi refuses to take in Palestinian refugees, fearing that Israel wants to force a permanent expulsion of Palestinians and nullify Palestinian demands for statehood. The Egyptian leader also said a mass exodus would risk bringing militants into the Sinai Peninsula.

Already, over a million people have been displaced within Gaza, and the threat of the war's escalation looms with clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border between the Israeli military and Hezbollah militants.

“To presume that there won’t be a movement of people is naïve and premature,” said Swift. “Any sudden blow to the el-Sissi regime from the outside, whether it’s an economic blow, or whether it’s the sudden migration of a lot of people out of Gaza into the Sinai could have destabilizing effects.”

Swift said that while el-Sissi’s regime is heavily dependent on US economic and military assistance, it's increasingly going to be popular opinion within Egypt that determines his actions, a lesson learned from the Arab Spring protests that brought down the Mubarak regime in 2011.

In April, the IMF concluded that Egypt's financing needs for the year were equal in size to 35 percent of its gross domestic product. On Oct 5, Moody’s downgraded Egyptian debt that was already at junk status. The downgrade came as past efforts have failed to help Egypt’s economy, which was saddled with about $160bn in debt as of the end of last year.

Mirette F. Mabrouk, director of the Middle East Institute’s Egypt Studies program, said, “Egypt is in the worst economic crisis I can remember in at least five decades” and that only complicates the current turmoil from the war.

“If you have this conflagration in Gaza, you need the rest of the region to be stable for everyone to take appropriate and correct action,” Mabrouk said. “You don’t need more instability in a region that is already quite unstable.”

Mabrouk said one of the most immediate signs of increasing distress is that Egypt’s central bank has in the past week imposed foreign currency restrictions on cards linked to local bank accounts.

One major potential setback for Egypt stemming from the latest Israel-Hamas War would be the loss of tourists seeking to explore the country's ancient pyramids and history. Tourism is one of Egypt's leading economic sectors, and along with foreign investment provides needed access to the rest of the global economy.

A representative from the Egyptian government did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

Nearby Jordan is struggling due to slower economic growth and less foreign investment, according to the IMF. Its debt outlook is healthier than Egypt's, but its unemployment rate is in the double digits, according to financial data provider FactSet.

The size of the Lebanese economy shrank by more than half from 2019 to 2021, according to the World Bank. Lebanon's currency, which since 1997 had been pegged to the US dollar at 1,500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, now trades around 90,000 pounds to the dollar.

While many businesses have taken to charging in dollars, public employees who still get their wages in lira have seen their purchasing power crash, with many now relying on remittances from relatives abroad to stay afloat. International donors including the United States and Qatar have been subsidizing the salaries of Lebanese army soldiers.

The country’s leaders reached a tentative agreement with the IMF in April 2022 for a bailout package but they have not implemented most of the reforms required to finalize the deal. The IMF warned in a report earlier this year that without reforms, public debt in the small, crisis-ridden country could reach nearly 550 percent of GDP.

Before the latest Israel-Hamas war, some officials had pointed to Lebanon’s rebounding tourism industry as an economic lifeline. But since the conflict has threatened to envelop Lebanon—with regular small-scale clashes already taking place between militants from Hamas-allied Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the country’s southern border—foreign embassies have warned their citizens to leave and airlines have canceled flights to the country.

Paul Salem, president of the Middle East Institute in Washington, said that “if tensions spread to the Gulf, this conflict will have the potential to severely impact international markets and struggling economies and populations around the globe.”

AP

Washington: In the midst of two active and potentially world-changing conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, the US is hoping to find at least a small measure of common ground with China as China’s top diplomat visits Washington this week.

Over three days of meetings that begin Thursday, top Biden administration officials, including possibly the president himself, will press Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, are both expected to urge China to play a constructive role in both the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars. Those meetings could set the stage for a summit between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders gathering in San Francisco.

The US has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the Middle East. In addition, the world's two largest economies are at odds on issues such as human rights, climate change, Taiwan, the South China Sea and North Korea.

Still, both sides have expressed a willingness to talk with each other since Blinken canceled a planned visit to China in February after the shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon over the U.S., which marked a low point in recent relations.

In the months that followed that crisis, however, Blinken rescheduled his trip and went to China in June. He was followed in quick succession by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, climate envoy John Kerry and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

In addition, Sullivan met with Wang in Malta in mid-September ahead of Blinken's discussions with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng later that month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. And Blinken spoke just last week with Wang about the Israel-Hamas crisis.

The goal, according to U.S. officials, is to set the stage for another Biden-Xi summit at which the two leaders could explore cooperation or at least easing outright hostility on the most pressing matters of the day.

“Wang Yi’s visit will serve as one of the final touchpoints in laying the groundwork” for the Biden-Xi meeting, said Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institute, a Washington-based think tank. “Wang’s meetings in Washington will set the contours for the topics the two leaders will discuss when they meet in November.”

“It opens the possibility of the world’s two largest powers pursuing coordinated efforts to limit escalation or expansion of violence in Ukraine and the Middle East,” he said.

Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, another Washington think tank, said Wang's trip signals that the Xi-Biden summit is almost certain.

“Wang is here to pave the ground for Xi's San Francisco trip. That’s the core focus of the trip. It means issues will be negotiated, solutions will be discussed and details will be deliberated and inked,” Sun said. “The APEC summit is 20 days away, so time is of essence. His trip means that Xi is coming. Xi’s coming means meeting with Biden. The Xi-Biden summit means efforts to stabilize bilateral ties.”

Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Wang’s trip could yield results such as additional direct flights between the two countries, visas for more journalists and even agreements on climate change and resumption of high-level military dialogue.

But while it is important for Wang and the Americans to discuss points of contention in the Indo-Pacific region and elsewhere, Kennedy said it is unlikely the two sides will reach much agreement.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wang will “have in-depth exchanges of views” with US officials on a range of issues and “state China’s principled position and legitimate concerns” on relations between the two countries.

The Chinese president last came to the US in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on US soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

Wang's trip is one of a string of meetings and activities to warm up Xi's visit to the US.

California Gov Gavin Newsom, who is visiting China this week, had a surprise meeting with Xi on Wednesday in Beijing. The Chinese president told the governor that “the achievements of China-US relations have not come easily and should be cherished all the more,” according to the official news agency Xinhua.

Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer led a delegation of six senators to China, in the first visit by US lawmakers since 2019. Schumer was also received by Xi, who said the Thucydides Trap is “not inevitable.” The Thucydides Trap is a political term for the tendency of major clashes when an emerging power challenges an existing power.

The US-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on $50bn worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the Covid-19 pandemic.

AP

Lewiston: A man shot and killed at least 16 people at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday and then fled into the night, sparking a massive search by hundreds of officers while frightened residents stayed locked in their homes.

A police bulletin identified Robert Card, 40, as a person of interest in the attack that sent panicked bowlers scrambling behind pins when shots rang out around 7 pm. Card was described as a firearms instructor believed to be in the Army Reserve and assigned to a training facility in Saco, Maine.

The document, circulated to law enforcement officials, said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023. It did not provide details about his treatment or condition but said Card had reported “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” the military base. A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service.

Lewiston Police said in an earlier Facebook post that they were dealing with an active shooter incident at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) away.

One bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about 10 shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping.

“I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon—he was holding a weapon—I just booked it,” he told The Associated Press.

Brandon said he scrambled down the length of the alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery. He was among a busload of survivors who were driven to a middle school in the neighboring city of Auburn to be reunited with family and friends.

“I was putting on my bowling shoes when when it started. I’ve been barefoot for five hours,” he said.

Melinda Small, the owner of Legends Sports Bar and Grill, said her staff immediately locked their doors and moved all 25 customers and employees away from the doors after a customer reported hearing about the shooting at the bowling alley less than a quarter-mile away. Soon, the police flooded the roadway and a police officer eventually escorted everyone out of the building.

“I am honestly in a state of shock. I am blessed that my team responded quickly and everyone is safe,” Small said. “But the same time, my heart is broken for this area and for what everyone is dealing with. I just feel numb.”

After the shooting, police, many armed with rifles, took up positions while the city descended into eerie quiet—punctuated by occasional sirens—as people hunkered down at home.

The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office released two photos of the suspect on its Facebook page that showed the shooter walking into an establishment with a weapon raised to his shoulder.

Two law enforcement officials told that at least 16 people were killed and the toll was expected to rise. However, Michael Sauschuck, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, declined to provide a specific estimate at a news conference, calling it a “fluid situation.”

The two law enforcement officials said dozens of people also had been wounded. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

On its website, Central Maine Medical Center said staff were “reacting to a mass casualty, mass shooter event” and were coordinating with area hospitals to take in patients. The hospital was locked down and police, some armed with rifles, stood by the entrances.

Meanwhile, hospitals as far away as Portland, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) to the south, were on alert to potentially receive victims.

An order for residents and business owners to stay inside and off the streets of the city of 37,000 was extended Wednesday night from Lewiston to Lisbon, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) away, after a “vehicle of interest” was found there, authorities said.

Gov Janet Mills released a statement echoing instructions for people to shelter. She said she had been briefed on the situation and will remain in close contact with public safety officials.

President Joe Biden spoke by phone to Mills and the state's Senate and House members, offering “full federal support in the wake of this horrific attack,” a White House statement said.

Maine Sen Angus King, an independent, said he was “deeply sad for the city of Lewiston and all those worried about their family, friends and neighbors” and was monitoring the situation. King’s office said the senator would be headed directly home to Maine on the first flight possible.

Local schools will be closed Thursday and people should shelter in place or seek safety, Superintendent Jake Langlais said, adding: “Stay close to your loved ones. Embrace them."

Wednesday's death toll was staggering for a state that in 2022 had 29 homicides the entire year.

Maine doesn't require permits to carry guns, and the state has a longstanding culture of gun ownership that is tied to its traditions of hunting and sport shooting.

Some recent attempts by gun control advocates to tighten the state’s gun laws have failed. Proposals to require background checks for private gun sales and create a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases failed earlier this year. Proposals that focused on school security and banning bump stocks failed in 2019.

State residents have also voted down some attempts to tighten gun laws in Maine. A proposal to require background checks for gun sales failed in a 2016 public vote.

AP

Bharatpur: The motorboat service in the Narayani River has come back to operation with an exit of monsoon. The motorboat operation along the river was temporarily suspended due to rising water levels caused by the monsoon rains. 

Monsoon rains tentatively forced the service closure for a complete three months from mid-June to mid-September. However, this year the closure extended due to a delayed monsoon, according to Narayani Motorboat Entrepreneurs Association chair Ashesh Malla. 

In recent times, the availability of motorboat services on the river has attracted a growing number of domestic tourists. Around 2,000 people visit the riverbanks daily to enjoy a motorboat ride and this number remains higher during the Dashain and Tihar festivals.

The motorboat service on the river was initiated in 2019 with just one motorboat. Currently, there are 32 registered large and small motorboat companies, with 19 already serving visitors.

The service offers various packages and is available from the Narayani Bridge to Majuwa Tapu Pokhara Bus Park, Majuwa Tapu Pokhara Bus Park to Radha Krishna Temple in Gaidakot, Majuwa Tapu to Parijat Park, and from the Narayani Bridge to Devghat. Large motorboats can accommodate 18 to 25 passengers at once, while small motorboats can carry up to 12 passengers for short distances. The service charges are Rs 250 per person for the short route and Rs 1,500 for the long route.

The Bharatpur Metropolitan City imposes a 15 percent tax on the revenue generated from this service.