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   Cyclone Ditwah hits Sri Lanka’s peak tourism season Small operators, backbone of tourism, suffer most Cancellations low at about 1% for now, says hoteliersTourism is country’s third-largest foreign exchange earner November-January are usually the busiest season for Herath Gedara Rohan Anil Kumara’s three-bedroom homestay in Sri Lanka’s hill country, famed for its tea plantations, historic sites and quaint villages. But after Cyclone Ditwah tore through the island last week, killing nearly 500 people, Kumara now finds himself in a relief centre, uncertain when he can rebuild his business.His now-damaged house used to earn him more than $30 a night, enough to support his family, but the 37-year-old has been forced to cancel all bookings for December and January. “I’m still getting inquiries, but we can’t accept them,” Kumara said from the Kithulbedda relief centre, where he moved with his family of six last Friday. “I don’t know when we will be able to rebuild and return to normal.” **media[390361]**  His story underscores the vulnerability of small operators who form the backbone of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, the country’s third-largest foreign exchange earner after remittances and apparel, amounting to 4% of GDP. A revival in tourism has helped Sri Lanka recover from its debilitating economic crisis, which peaked in 2022, but the extensive damage caused by Cyclone Ditwah has been a setback.It has affected nearly 10% of Sri Lanka’s 22mn population, damaged or destroyed thousands of houses and killed at least 486, with hundreds still missing.The cyclone also hit roads, power lines, and telecom networks, alongside significant losses to agriculture. The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, however, is hopeful of a fast recovery because cancellations have remained low at about 1%, said association president Asoka Hettigoda.  **media[390362]**  “Hotels across the island are operational,” he told Reuters. “Even in Kandy and Nuwara Eliya (among the worst-affected areas), tourists are safe and enjoying their stay, though access is still difficult due to blocked roads.” Tourist arrivals crossed 2mn by mid-November, and the government hopes to reach 2.6mn by the end of the year, the highest since the Covid-19 pandemic, driven by visitors from India, Russia, Germany, France, and the UK. Authorities have airlifted stranded tourists, waived fees for overstaying visas, and allowed free flight rescheduling. The industry is also pushing for an expanded visa-free programme and launching social media campaigns to reassure travellers. Tour guides have adjusted itineraries to avoid the worst-hit areas. For Estelle Burgess, a 71-year-old tourist from Australia, the cyclone became just another chapter in her Sri Lankan adventure. She arrived about a week ago and plans to stay for another six days. “We’re hoping the weather improves so we can enjoy the beach,” Burgess said outside Kandy’s Temple of the Tooth, one of Sri Lanka’s most sacred Buddhist shrines and a Unesco World Heritage Site.“Sri Lanka truly is an adventure. You never know what’s going to happen next.” 

As G20 leaders met in Johannesburg last month, they faced a grim reality: many developing-country governments are spending more than they can afford on debt service. To keep funds flowing to foreign creditors, policymakers have been forced to cut spending on education, healthcare, and infrastructure. These countries have so far avoided default, but at the expense of their own development.The fact that governments across Africa, Asia, and Latin America must close hospitals and cancel school-lunch programmes to service their debt is not only a moral failure; it is also a strategic one. A world where countries cannot invest in sustainable growth and development will struggle to achieve stability, prosperity, and climate resilience.Five years ago, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the G20 launched the Common Framework for Debt Treatment to help heavily indebted countries restructure their debts in an orderly, prompt, and equitable manner. But the promised relief has not materialised. According to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, 37 out of 67 low-income countries eligible for concessional funding are in or at high risk of debt distress, yet only four – Chad, Zambia, Ghana, and Ethiopia – have applied for restructuring under the mechanism. Their experiences have revealed the weaknesses of the Common Framework: it offers far too little relief – and too late.In response, the G20 has outsourced the problem to technocratic bodies, tasking them with accelerating the process and increasing relief. While this technical work is important, it is not enough. Debtor countries still fear that the policy is half-hearted. Policymakers now talk less about a “debt crisis” and more about a “debt morass” – a world where everyone is stuck, waiting for a change that never comes.Meanwhile, foreign private creditors have been withdrawing their capital from developing economies since 2022. The message is clear: the risks are too high, and no meaningful solution is in sight. When investors leave, governments are left scrambling to borrow from other sources.Multilateral development banks (MDBs) and the IMF have come to the rescue. As a result, their share of developing countries’ external debt has soared, exceeding 75% in around 20 countries. This creates a vicious cycle: when multilateral organisations that don’t take a haircut in restructurings hold most of a country’s sovereign debt, private creditors become even more reluctant to invest.To escape the debt morass, G20 leaders must restore confidence in the Common Framework and act with a sense of urgency. That means reassuring debtor countries that applications for relief will be handled quickly, fairly, and generously. The recent G20 leaders’ communiqué, and their finance ministers’ declaration on debt sustainability, merely reiterated the technical work and thus fell short of what is needed. Stronger commitments must be backed by tangible action.First, G20 leaders must reduce the stigma of restructuring. When debt becomes a drag on growth, seeking relief and committing to reform should be seen as responsible economic governance.Second, relief must be meaningful. A token reduction that leaves countries with still-limited fiscal space only prolongs the crisis. G20 leaders must proactively replenish debt-relief funds. While taxpayers in high-income countries, many with their own ballooning debts, may balk at these costs, continuing to bail out private creditors indirectly through MDBs is also expensive. The sooner debt relief is provided, the cheaper it will be.Third, private creditors should be required to do their part. Based on the comparability-of-treatment principle, every dollar of debt relief from official creditors must be matched by private creditors. G20 leaders must support national legislation that enforces this policy. The self-regulatory approach taken over the past two decades by bondholders has not worked with other private creditors – and all it takes is a single holdout creditor to scupper a debt-restructuring process.Some argue that debt relief will make borrowing more expensive for debtor countries in the future. The reality is their borrowing costs are already prohibitively high. Cleaning up their balance sheets would attract investors more quickly than implementing austerity measures. Investors, having incurred losses, will become more discerning and demand risk premiums from countries that fail to improve their debt management – a welcome incentive for good governance.The G20 must contend with a confluence of geopolitical, climate, and economic shocks. But the developing world’s debt morass cuts across them all. Only by addressing this underlying challenge can we hope to overcome all the others. G20 leaders have already committed to debt relief. Now they need the courage to finish the job.  

Australia’s flame-haired populist Senator Pauline Hanson and her anti-immigration party have rocketed up opinion polls, nearing a peak seen three decades ago when she first entered politics and pushed conservative parties to harden border policies. The resurgence of Hanson’s One Nation coincides with US President Donald Trump’s tougher message on migration, which has included the US embassy in Australia being instructed to collect migrant-linked crime data as Washington urged US diplomats to lobby against mass migration.Yet Hanson’s revival as a political force is likely more driven by local factors including cost-of-living pressures, housing shortages and historically high migration which have driven voter dissatisfaction, analysts and party officials say.Hanson was ‘the original Trump’Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left Labour Party won national elections decisively in May, and remains ahead in polling.The conservative opposition Liberal Party, which lost its leader and a swath of seats at the May election, is at a historic low — another factor encouraging right-wing voters to look to One Nation, several analysts said.“One would argue that Pauline was the original Trump,” James Ashby, Hanson’s chief of staff, told Reuters in an interview. “Other politicians and the public have caught up with where her mindset was at. We are being swamped by mass migration in this country.” Hanson, 71, made global headlines striding through the Australian parliament in a burka last month, and was barred from the chamber for seven days.One Nation holds just four seats in the parliament’s 76-seat upper house, but recent polls indicate it could win more at the next election due by 2028. A Roy Morgan survey of 5,248 people in November showed support for One Nation at 14% nationally, the highest since 1998.Three analysts, including a Liberal Party official, told Reuters One Nation’s polling is putting pressure on the opposition Liberal-National coalition. A former deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, quit the rural-focused National Party last week, and is considering joining One Nation at the next election, his office confirmed.The Liberals will announce a revised policy to “slow” migration before Christmas, party officials said.One nation influence set to grow, pollster saysOne Nation could gain an influential position in the next parliament’s upper house, benefiting from Australia’s preferential voting system, said pollster Gary Morgan, executive chairman of Roy Morgan.“Her vote will be up, no question it will be up, unless a strong leader comes into the Liberal Party,” he told Reuters.Unlike Nigel Farage’s Reform in Britain, One Nation will not become a contender for government, because it is unlikely to win lower house seats, he added.Minor parties and independents took a third of the vote at the 2025 election, continuing a trend which has seen Australia’s traditional two-party system eroding. But this was mostly independent moderates who champion action on climate change winning formerly Liberal-held city seats, and such voters aren’t swayed by Hanson, said Morgan.One Nation’s goal at the next election is to win lower house seats, Ashby said. He devised the party’s strategy to bypass traditional media, directly appealing to voters on social media with a satirical animation series that lampoons myriad ‘woke’ issues.“We need to reach voters of all ages, not just with policy, but we also need to reach them with the general understanding of the pain and the hurt they are going through,” he said.The party spent around A$300,000 ($197,000) for 100 episodes of the satire featuring Hanson, which he says has drawn 50mn views.It plans to stream an animated movie to draw voters to town hall meetings with Hanson and raise funds.Immigration concerns grow in AustraliaA study released last week showed concern over immigration at the 2025 election doubled to 6%, the highest on record, attributed to “the post-pandemic influx of immigrants and the resulting pressure on housing and infrastructure.”“Immigration is clearly getting more political oxygen in the last few months than in the campaign,” said Simon Jackman, co-author of the long-running Australian Election Study.Arthur Sinodinos was chief of staff to Liberal Prime Minister John Howard when One Nation first burst into politics in 1997. He said a revised Liberal immigration policy could neutralise Hanson’s resurgence, as it did previously.At the 2001 election, Howard won a come-from-behind victory by adopting a tough border policy after polls highlighted voter concerns over asylum seekers arriving by boat.“The response was offshore processing to deter boat arrivals and that reinforced the Coalition’s electoral position at the expense of fringe groups like One Nation,” he said.However, Sinodinos said immigration levels need to be set with an eye on the economy, and not as a “silver bullet for housing” and cautioned migrant voters would “react negatively if they perceive scapegoating of immigrants for society’s ills”.In recent television interviews, Liberal leader Sussan Ley has emphasised infrastructure problems were not caused by migrants.A Liberal Party official said while One Nation has eaten into the party’s base, immigration policy was not about chasing One Nation, but holding the centre.Australia, population 27mn, saw a net migration gain of 739,000 in 2023 and almost 600,000 last year, mostly due to a backlog of students and workers on temporary visas entering the country after borders were closed during Covid-19, Home Affairs Department data shows.Labor’s immigration minister Tony Burke, who declined to comment for this article, told the ABC last month immigration was “too high, it needed to come down”, and would continue to fall.Australia is a multicultural nation and its citizens feel it deeply when the topic is debated, he added. — Reuters 

Japan is entering a new phase of economic policy as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the country’s first woman to hold the office, assumes the leadership of the country, QNB stated in its latest commentary.PM Takaichi has vowed to revive Japan’s economic growth through what she calls a “responsible proactive fiscal policy.” This policy aims to strike a difficult balance between deploying spending in strategic sectors, while preserving fiscal sustainability and maintaining control over Japan’s already-large public debt. Boosting growth is a formidable task for a country that faces significant structural challenges and an uncertain global outlook, QNB stated.Japan’s economic performance has been underwhelming in recent years. After the post-Covid pandemic rebound, annual real GDP growth fluctuated around 0.8% during 2022-2024. This year, the economy showed a modest recovery, supported by increasing real income that boosted consumption, fiscal stimulus, and a depreciated currency that backed exports. Growth in 2025 is expected to reach 1.1%, above the pre-Covid pandemic average of 0.9%. But tailwinds are again weakening, and adverse dynamics are gaining traction, worsening the outlook for the next couple of years, according to QNB.“In our view, given the significant headwinds weighing on the Japanese economy, it is unlikely that the new government will be able to revert a deceleration of growth. In this article, we discuss the key factors that support our analysis.“First, stagnating consumption represents a substantial drag on economic growth. Consumption accounts for approximately 60% of the Japanese economy and is therefore a major factor in determining its performance. Despite an improvement this year relative to 2024, consumption has recently stagnated,” QNB stated.Behind weak consumption lies the erosion of the purchasing power of households due to high inflation rates. After several months of gains at the end of last year, workers’ earnings adjusted for prices have contracted throughout this year, a trend that is expected to continue.Adding to the variables that weigh on consumption, the Bank of Japan continued its process of monetary policy normalisation, bringing the benchmark policy rate to 0.5% from an ultra-low negative 0.1%, increasing the cost of credit for households, as well as reducing the room for fiscal policy due to the higher costs of debt. Given the importance of consumption in the economy, these negative trends are dragging on Japanese economic growth, QNB stated.“Second, external tailwinds for exports have weakened, implying less support for growth of the highly globally integrated Japanese economy. After a period of exceptional uncertainty regarding US trade policy during the first semester of this year, a trade agreement was finally reached in July between Japan and the US. The agreement established a baseline 15% tariff on nearly all Japanese imports entering the US.“This implies a significant burden relative to the average tariff of 1.5% as of last year. Since the US is Japan’s second-largest export market after China, accounting for around 20% of foreign sales per year, the new US tariffs represent a relevant barrier for foreign sales,” QNB stated.The expected slowdown in global trade, amid high trade-policy uncertainty and ongoing geopolitical fragmentation, adds to the pessimism for the Japanese economy, where exports represent 20% of GDP and are a key driver of industrial production. Given their importance for Japan, the weakening prospects for exports represent a major headwind for its economic performance.Amid the significant challenges affecting the economy, the new government will attempt drastic measures to boost growth. Within weeks of taking office, Takaichi unveiled a ¥21.3tn (about $135bn) stimulus package plan, her first major economic initiative and a signal of policy direction. The plan combines new public works outlays, household support measures, and targeted investment incentives to sustain demand.“In our view, however, it is unlikely that the stimulus package can generate a major shift in growth trends. Hence, Japanese economic growth is set to decelerate to 0.6% per year over 2026-2027, down from 1.1% expected for this year,” QNB stated. 

Motorsport fans and enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting one of the most prominent events of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship this weekend when the Lusail International Circuit hosts the Qatar Airways Formula 1 Grand Prix, the 23rd and penultimate round of the world championship, which could crown McLaren's Lando Norris with his first world title.The Qatar Grand Prix will officially begin its three-day event starting tomorrow with the participation of 20 of the best racing drivers in the world in 10 Formula 1 teams for a chance to win the title in the Sprint race on Saturday evening and the main race on Sunday evening.Doha promises to deliver an exceptional round in the world championship, especially since the results of the Qatar Grand Prix may determine the 2025 Formula 1 world champion.Qatar will host the Formula 1 championship for the third year in a row and for the fourth time in its history, the first of which took place in 2021, replacing Australia as it dealt with restrictions imposed to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic at that time.Qatar officially entered the Formula 1 World Championship calendar for 10 consecutive years starting from 2023, as part of the partnership between Doha and Formula 1, under which Qatar has become an important annual venue for the world’s biggest motor racing event.This year’s Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix will be the fourth race held at the Lusail International Circuit, following the first in the 2021 season, the second in 2023, which marked the official start of the circuit’s inclusion in the international calendar, and in 2024.The first edition of the Qatar Grand Prix in 2021 saw Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, seven-time world champion (2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020), crowned champion after outperforming his Red Bull rival Max Verstappen, four-time world champion (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024).In 2023, Verstappen came in first place at the Lusail International Circuit, securing his third world title. McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris came in second and third, respectively.In 2024, Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix once again, edging past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Piastri, who came in second and third.The fourth edition of the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix will feature a particularly intense competition between 20 drivers representing 10 teams, especially between the top three: Norris, Piastri, and Verstappen.The battle for the World Drivers' Championship title will be fierce between the three drivers. Norris is currently leading with 390 points, whilst Piastri and Verstappen each have 366 points. Norris has a great chance of securing his first ever World Championship title at the Lusail International Circuit.Meanwhile, McLaren have already won the Constructors' Championship by a high margin of 756 points, 325 points clear of its closest rival Mercedes in second place with 431 points. Red Bull currently sits in third with 391 points.With 58 points still up for grabs in the penultimate Qatar (33 points) and final Abu Dhabi (25 points) rounds of the World Championship, Norris has a great chance of winning the title. He needs to win the Qatar Grand Prix and finish with a 26-point lead over his rivals in the overall standings to be officially crowned world champion for the 2025 season, regardless of the results of the final round.The Lusail International Circuit, which, after its redevelopment, has retained its famous 5.380 km (3.343 mi) track, is one of the world's most prominent circuits, especially as it is one of the few circuits in the world that hosts both the Formula 1 and MotoGP World Championships.By hosting the most prominent global events in motorsport, the Lusail Circuit has contributed to introducing technology to the sport and changing the history of motorsport culture. It has also changed the FIA's rules, from holding the championship with daytime rules to nighttime rules, after Qatar was the first country to hold a night race for MotoGP.The Lusail International Circuit is also one of the most prominent circuits that hosts a round of the Formula 1 World Championship under floodlights, in addition to five other races held in the circuits of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Las Vegas, and Abu Dhabi.The distinctive role played by the circuit since its establishment in 2004 has made it a leader in circuit sports over the years by providing a great addition to motorsports, thanks to the support of officials and their keenness to provide all means to achieve success, which ultimately contributes to Qatar National Vision 2030.The Qatar Airways Formula 1 Grand Prix, which includes Formula 2 and the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East, kicks off tomorrow, Friday. The race program will have official activities extending over three days, beginning Friday and continuing until the main race on Sunday, which will be held at 7 p.m. Doha time.Friday morning will feature free practice sessions where drivers will familiarize themselves with the circuit. It will begin with the first free practice session for the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East, followed by the Formula 2 practice session, then the first Formula 1 practice session. After that, it will be followed once again by the second free practice session for the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East, the Formula 2 qualifying session, and the Formula 1 sprint qualifying session. Press conferences will be held between these sessions.Starting on Saturday, the pressure will increase on the drivers, as the qualifying sessions for the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East will take place, followed by the Formula 1 Sprint race at 5 p.m., the last of the season. This will be followed by the Formula 2 Sprint race at 7:20 p.m., with qualifying sessions taking place at 9 p.m. to determine the starting positions for the main race on Sunday. After that, the first main race of the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East will take place, which will last for 11 laps or 25 minutes.On the final Sunday, participants are allowed to do a round of practice and warm-up, followed by the second main race of the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East at 1:45 p.m., then the main Formula 2 race consisting of 32 laps or 60 minutes + 1 lap, at 3:00 p.m., after which the round concludes with the main Formula 1 race consisting of 57 laps or 120 minutes, which will start at 7:00 p.m. Doha time, to determine the champion of the Qatar Grand Prix, which constitutes the penultimate round of the World Championship.Last year, the Lusail International Circuit underwent a comprehensive development process to increase the grandstand capacity to 40,000 spectators, with the introduction of state-of-the-art facilities and buildings with world-class specifications. However, no modifications were made to the track itself, which retained its famous design, as it was only repaved and safety measures were provided.

Spain's Supreme Court Thursday ordered a former close ally of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez into custody in a corruption investigation that has threatened to topple the leftist government.The probe into Jose Luis Abalos, a former transport minister and Socialist party heavyweight who helped propel Sanchez to power in 2018, is one of several corruption affairs rattling his fragile minority coalition.Abalos, his ex-adviser Koldo Garcia and another former senior Socialist figure, Santos Cerdan, are suspected of pocketing kickbacks for the awarding of public contracts for sanitary equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.Abalos and Garcia will be remanded in custody without bail on suspicion of bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement and for an "extreme" flight risk, the Supreme Court said in a statement."Numerous rational indications of criminality exist against both," and the measures ordered against them came "combined with a foreseeably imminent trial", the court added.Prosecutors have demanded 24 years in jail for Abalos, who was expelled from the Socialist party and sits as an independent MP in parliament, and 19 and a half years for Garcia.Cerdan, who was released last week, spent almost five months in jail after relinquishing his powerful post as Socialist organisation secretary and as an MP.The scandal has rocked a government that came to power promising to clean up Spanish politics after the main conservative Popular Party was convicted in its own graft affair.The crisis also briefly threatened to rip apart the Socialist-led coalition with the far-left Sumar party and heightened speculation of early elections.Sanchez has denied any irregular funding of the Socialist party and refused to call snap elections, saying last month that "all spending has been accounted for, credited and audited".Separate corruption probes have ensnared the prime minister's wife Begona Gomez as well as his younger brother David Sanchez.The legal troubles compound woes for the minority government, which struggles to pass legislation. 

The 11th FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2025, scheduled from Dec. 1 to 18, 2025, will be exceptional and is poised to break records in attendance and global fan engagement, Executive Director of Communications and Media at the Local Organizing Committee for Football Events, Fatma Al Nuaimi, told Qatar News Agency (QNA).She stated that the committee finalized all preparations for the tournament a long time ago to present the finest edition in terms of organization, fan experience, and coaching dimensions, in line with Qatar's long-established standards when hosting major sporting events and football tournaments.Al Nuaimi stressed that Qatar has become a preferred global hub for sporting events, not only on the Gulf and Arab stages but also on the global stage.Qatar has staged several world-class competitions under FIFA's umbrella, including the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the 10th 2021 FIFA Arab Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup, and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup, culminating with the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup, the first of five consecutive tournaments to be held in Doha through 2029, Al Nuaimi pointed out.She emphasized that the upcoming December 11th FIFA Arab Cup will be completely different from the previous edition hosted by Qatar in 2021, which took place under strict COVID-19 preventive measures.Despite those restrictions, the 2021 tournament delivered remarkable success, she noted, and this year's tournament, staged across six FIFA World Cup 2022 stadiums, will feature full-capacity crowds, enabling unprecedented attendance and followership.Al Nuaimi elaborated on the extraordinary demand for match tickets, with nearly 500,000 sold so far, underscoring fans' strong appetite to follow a tournament held under FIFA's umbrella for the second time since its official recognition in 2021.The unprecedented media interest is evident in the 3,500-plus media accreditation requests received from outlets worldwide.Several regional and global broadcasters have secured broadcasting rights while negotiations are ongoing with others, particularly as the Qualification Stage, featuring 14 teams competing for seven spots in the Final Stage, has yet to conclude, said Al Nuaimi.She added that the committee has dedicated two broadcast centers in Souq Waqif from which fourteen daily programs will be aired by Arab channels holding media rights for the tournament.The committee gives foremost priority to the fan experience, aiming to leave an indelible impression on all visitors attending major events in Qatar, including this tournament, both inside and outside stadiums, with partners across the country organizing a broad range of activities in major tourist and cultural hubs, including Katara Cultural Village, Doha Port, Msheireb, Lusail, Souq Waqif, and The Pearl, in collaboration with Visit Qatar to ensure fans enjoy a bountiful blend of cultural and entertainment experiences, Al Nuaimi explained. She added that the committee staged several fan-oriented activations, including the fan parade at Doha Port, showcasing supporters from all 23 participating nations across both the Qualification and Final Stages, including official fan leaders.The parade was designed to reflect the essence of the championship as a platform showcasing Arab unity, shared passion for football, and the power of sport in bringing people together under one banner, she underlined.Additionally, she stated that fan zones will be set up around all six stadiums hosting the Final Stage, offering recreational activities with gates opening early on match days to provide a unique pre-match experience, ensuring memorable moments for supporters.Al Nuaimi further explained that the committee organized a FIFA Arab Cup Trophy Tour across multiple Arab countries, similar to the FIFA World Cup 2022 tours, giving fans the chance to see and photograph the official trophy.The tour generated widespread excitement and directly contributed to increased ticket sales in each country visited, she noted, affirming that engagement continues to rise as the tournament approaches, especially after the launch of the official mascot "Juha" and the official tournament song, both of which significantly boosted fan enthusiasm.This growing momentum reflects the tournament's rising importance, especially now that it carries FIFA ranking value in the monthly FIFA World Ranking, Al Nuaimi said.She praised the committee's approach to engaging with leaders of fan groups from various expatriate communities in Qatar and noted that it has operated a dedicated Fan Engagement Department since 2021, maintaining a comprehensive database of fan groups and communication channels, moving beyond reliance on conventional media and social media platforms.Direct engagement with supporter groups enabled the committee to gather their feedback on accommodation, ticketing, transportation, and other matters.The LOC holds regular consultation meetings to review fan experiences from past tournaments, starting with the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup, then the FIFA World Cup 2022, AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023, and now the FIFA Arab Cup 2025, to resolve concerns and facilitate fans' needs, thereby consolidating a robust data system that continues to evolve 

Once one of the country’s biggest growth drivers, China’s property market has been in a downward spiral for four years with no signs of abating. Real estate values continue to plummet, households in financial distress are being forced to sell properties, and apartment developers that racked up enormous debt on speculative projects are on the brink of collapse.There was some optimism that government measures to end the crisis had been working to reinvigorate the market, but in March, government-linked developer China Vanke Co reported a record 49.5bn yuan ($6.8bn) annual loss for 2024, showing just how deep the problems run. Then in August, property giant China Evergrande Group delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange — making the shares effectively worthless — marking a grim milestone for the nation’s property sector.China is now considering further measures to revive its struggling property sector, particularly after new and resale homes recorded their steepest price declines in at least a year in October. The slump has heightened concerns that further weakening could destabilise the country’s financial system.What happened to Evergrande?Evergrande’s downfall is by far the biggest in a crisis that dragged down China’s economic growth and led to a record number of distressed builders.Founded in 1996 by Hui Ka Yan, Evergrande’s rapid expansion was from the outset fuelled by heavy borrowing. It became the most indebted borrower among its peers, with total liabilities reaching about $360bn at the end of 2021. For a time it was the country’s biggest developer by contracted sales and was worth more than $50bn in 2017 at its peak. Founder and Chairman Hui became Asia’s second-richest person. Over the years the company also invested in the electric vehicle industry and bought a local football club.In 2020, Beijing started to crack down on the property sector. The new measures put a cap on the developer’s borrowing capacity, effectively cutting off its lifeline from credit markets. Following failed restructuring attempts, Evergrande was given a winding-up order in Hong Kong in 2024. Later that year, a mainland Chinese court accepted a liquidation application filed against one of its major onshore units.After a long trading suspension, the Guangzhou-based company was formally delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange on August 25. Evergrande still has two other units listed in Hong Kong: a property service provider — which liquidators are seeking to sell off — and an electric vehicle maker. The latter, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd, has been suspended since April.How did some Chinese developers get into this mess?In 1998, China created a nationwide housing market after tightly restricting private sales for decades. Back then, only a third of its people lived in towns and cities. That’s risen to two-thirds, with the urban population expanding by 480mn. The exodus from the countryside represented a vast commercial opportunity for construction firms and developers.Money flooded into real estate as the emerging middle class leapt upon what was one of the few safe investments available, pushing home prices up sixfold over the 15 years ending in 2022. Local and regional authorities, which rely on sales of public land for a chunk of their revenue, encouraged the development boom. At its peak, the sector directly and indirectly accounted for about a quarter of domestic output and almost 80% of household assets. Estimates vary, but counting new and existing homes, plus inventory, the sector was worth about $52tn in 2019 — about twice the size of the US real estate market.The property craze was powered by debt as builders rushed to satisfy expected future demand. The boom encouraged speculative buying, with new homes pre-sold by developers who turned increasingly to foreign investors for funds. Opaque liabilities made it hard to assess credit risks. The speculation led to astronomical prices, with homes in boom cities such as Shenzhen becoming less affordable relative to local incomes than those in London or New York. In response, the government moved in 2020 to reduce the risk of a bubble and temper the inequality that unaffordable housing can create.Anxious to rein in the industry’s debts and fearful that serial defaults could ravage China’s financial system, officials began to squeeze new financing for developers and asked banks to slow the pace of mortgage lending. The government imposed stringent rules on debt ratios and cash holdings for developers that were called the “three red lines” by state-run media. The measures sparked a cash crunch for developers that was exacerbated by the impact of aggressive measures to contain Covid-19, such as the suspension of construction sites.Many developers were unable to adhere to the new rules as their finances were already stretched. In 2021, Evergrande defaulted on more than $300bn, triggering the beginning of China’s property crisis. Two more property giants defaulted — Sunac China Holdings Ltd in 2022 and Country Garden Holdings Co in 2023.How did the crackdown affect the property market?After years of insatiable demand from buyers, the market ground to a halt. In addition to the government’s lending restrictions, the economic shock of Covid lockdowns reinforced a culture of frugality, and a deteriorating job market meant people were suddenly facing layoffs and salary cuts.Property prices began to fall in 2022. In August 2024, the country recorded its steepest annual drop in property values in nine years. On top of the millions of square feet of unfinished apartments that indebted developers left to gather dust, the imbalance in supply and demand meant 400mn sq m of newly completed flats remained unsold as of May 2024.With household debt at a high of 145% of disposable income per capita at the end of 2023, homeowners are increasingly under financial pressure. The country’s residential mortgage delinquency ratio – which tracks overdue mortgage payments – jumped to the highest in four years as of late 2023. Some homeowners are being forced to sell their properties at a discounted rate, which is only exacerbating the problem.The weakness has continued to shake more cash-strapped developers. Mid-sized builder China South City Holdings Ltd was ordered to liquidate by Hong Kong’s High Court on Aug. 11 after a default more than a year ago. Hong Kong’s courts have issued at least eight wind-up orders for Chinese developers since the crisis began in 2021.How is the government trying to prop up the market?In 2022 authorities realised the rules to rein in the market had gone too far. Aiming to avoid a “Lehman moment” — when the failure of the US bank in 2008 sent shock waves through global markets — the government unveiled measures centred on boosting equity, bond and loan financing for developers to alleviate the liquidity crunch.**media[386054]**Developers were allowed to access more money from apartment pre-sales, the industry’s biggest source of funds, and 200bn yuan ($27bn) was advanced as special loans to complete stalled housing projects. The government tweaked financial rules, allowing the central bank to increase support for distressed developers and instructing banks to ensure growth in both residential mortgages and loans to developers in some areas.Since mid-2024, the government has cut borrowing costs on existing mortgages, relaxed buying curbs in big cities and lowered taxes on home purchases. It also trimmed purchasing costs for people seeking to upgrade dwellings in some big cities. In August 2025, Beijing authorities removed a cap to allow eligible families to buy an unlimited number of homes in outer suburban areas, and Shanghai and Shenzhen soon followed.Despite these measures, the property market continues to deteriorate. Bloomberg reported in November that Chinese policymakers were now weighing a new round of measures. Proposals include subsidising mortgage interest payments to lure back wary homebuyers into a market still in free fall. Other ideas being discussed include bigger income tax rebates for borrowers and lowering transaction fees on home sales.What’s at stake if China’s property market worsens?Government officials are clearly eager to bring the property crisis under control. They aim to limit the damage to developers and stem the bleeding to other vulnerable parts of the economy. This includes banks with heavy exposure to real estate; the construction industry, which employs 51mn people; and local governments that rely on land sales to developers to sustain their public spending.Chinese banks’ bad debt — loans they no longer expect to recover — hit a record 3.5tn yuan ($492bn) at the end of September. Fitch Ratings has warned the situation could deteriorate further in 2026 as households struggle to repay mortgages and other loans.A prolonged property slump could also deepen deflationary pressures. Former finance minister Lou Jiwei recently warned that households’ worsening outlook — driven by falling home values — will affect consumption levels and intensify price declines.According to economists at Morgan Stanley and Beijing-based think tank CF40, the property sector’s drag on inflation could even be greater than official data suggest. They argue that the methodology used to determine China’s official Consumer Price Index understates falling rents, and, by extension, the broader deflationary impact.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that a key theme of his interviews for the next chair of the Federal Reserve has been simplifying the US central bank, which he indicated has become too complex in how it manages money markets.“One of the things in terms of the criteria that I’ve been looking for” has been the interplay of the Fed’s various instruments, Bessent said on CNBC on Tuesday. “I realise the Fed has become this very complicated operation.”Bessent said his final second-round interview with the five candidates to succeed Chair Jerome Powell will be today, and reiterated that President Donald Trump may make his announcement on the nomination before December 25. The administration has previously said the finalists are Fed Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, former Governor Kevin Warsh, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and BlackRock Inc executive Rick Rieder.The Fed now maintains a so-called ample reserves approach in controlling its policy interest rate, which involves holding a sizeable amount of Treasuries on its balance sheet. As part of the current operating system, it pays interest on the reserves that banks park with it, and for any cash that money market funds temporarily place at the Fed.“The Fed has taken us into a new regime — what is called ample reserves regime — and it looks like that might be fraying a bit here in terms of whether the reserves are actually ample in the system,” Bessent said.Policymakers last month decided to halt the contraction of the Fed’s balance sheet as of December 1 in an effort to ensure that liquidity remains “ample.” It had been shrinking its portfolio since June 2022 after its holdings of Treasuries and mortgage securities had soared during the Covid crisis.“There are all these facilities and operations, the standing repo facilities, and I think we’ve got to simplify things,” Bessent said. He didn’t specify how he thought the central bank ought to overhaul its current operations.The Standing Repo Facility allows eligible institutions to borrow cash in exchange for Treasury and agency debt. It has seen regular use in recent weeks, reaching $50.4bn on October 31 — the most since the tool was made permanent in 2021.“There’s this very complicated calculus between the monetary policy, the balance sheet and regulatory policy,” Bessent said. “And we’ve really emphasised in the interviews, what’s the interplay for that calculus?”The Treasury chief also said, “I think it’s time for the Fed just to move back into the background,” without detailing what that would entail. And he suggested central bankers may be speaking too often.“We just need to calm down all these speeches by these bank presidents that are just redundant,” Bessent said, appearing to single out reserve bank chiefs rather than Fed board members.He also suggested he had issues with some particular Fed presidents.“These regional presidents were supposed to be people from the district,” Bessent said. “And we’ve got at least three, maybe four, of the reserve banks where people were hired from outside the district. They don’t even live in their district. They commute back to New York.”The interest-rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee comprises seven governors and five reserve bank presidents — the New York Fed chief and four others on a rotating basis. The presidents, unlike the governors, aren’t nominated by the White House or confirmed by the Senate. The current roster of reserve bank presidents requires re-authorisation by the Fed board in a once-in-five-year exercise in February. The Atlanta Fed chief, Raphael Bostic, has said he plans to step down.Bessent also observed that “the governors seem to be leaning toward cutting rates.”Asked about Trump’s suggestion earlier this month that he would fire Bessent if the Treasury chief didn’t help secure lower rates, Bessent said, “If you were in the room, he was joking.”

Four years after Algeria captain Rais M’Bolhi thrust the trophy into the night air at Qatar’s iconic Al Bayt Stadium, the FIFA Arab Cup is back.The four week-long football festival gets underway with the qualification phase to be held today and tomorrow before the 16-nation group stage swings into action on December 1.Lusail Stadium, the site of the FIFA World Cup Qatar final in 2022, will then reprise that role for the Arab Cup decider on December 18. With nine nations seeded directly through to the tournament proper, the remaining seven slots at the regional showpiece will be settled through a series of one-off qualifiers in Qatar.Three matches kick off today, with Mauritania facing Kuwait, Syria meeting South Sudan and Palestine taking on Libya. The remaining four fixtures — Oman v Somalia, Bahrain v Djibouti, Sudan v Lebanon and Comoros v Yemen — will be played tomorrow. Here is a preview of today’s matches of what is set to be a tense couple of days of action in Al Rayyan and Doha.Mauritania v Kuwait (kick-off at 4pm)Mauritania boss Aritz Garai has been able to call on the services of experienced European pair Lamine Ba and Bakari Camara as they look to reach the group stage for the second straight edition. Young Egypt-based attacking midfielder Maata Magassa is also a name to watch for the Northwest African nation. Garai said: “We have a very good generation of young players and this is an incredible opportunity to keep developing the national team and test ourselves against a strong opponent.”New Kuwait coach Helio Sousa faces his first competitive match at the helm of the Blues and does so off the back of a productive Cairo camp where they downed Tanzania and drew with Gambia.Fahad al-Hajeri, Kuwait defender, said: “Everyone probably knows that the Kuwaiti team has been in a state of flux recently and we haven't won a title in many years. But we're always a force, and we enter every tournament aiming to compete for the title.”Syria v South Sudan (kick-off at 7pm)Syria have been in sparkling form since the mid-2024 arrival of head coach Jose Lana and a thumping 5-0 win in Pakistan last week in an Asian Cup qualifier means that they have still only lost once this calendar year. Several of their European-based stars may be absent but in the likes of deadly marksman Omar Khrbin and electric winger Mohammad Al Salkhadi they still have plenty of quality.Jose Lana, Syria head coach, said: “We know it is going to be very difficult for us as we have some players who will not be able to come, others who are injured or have just recovered. As we always do though we will remain focused on the next match, being aware of how important it is.”By contrast, South Sudan remain winless in 2025 but they did pick up a credible draw at home to Togo last month in their final World Cup 2026 qualifier. Having been forced to withdraw on the eve of the qualifiers four years ago due to a Covid outbreak, the planet’s youngest nation are determined to reach the group stage at Qatar 2025. Majak Mawith, South Sudan goalkeeper, said: “The Arab Cup is a really important tournament for us, one that we've been targeting and a chance to show what South Sudan is all about. We’ve been together for the last three months, constantly playing matches and we feel that we’re ready.”Palestine v Libya (kick-off at 7pm)Palestine are fresh off a camp in Spain, where they lost narrowly to a pair of very strong, selective regional teams from Catalonia and the Basque Country last week. That followed on from an eye-catching 1-0 win against the defending Arab Cup champions Algeria last month that continued a strong run of form under coach Ehab Abu Jazar.Palestine goalkeeper Rami Hamada said: “My family, my city, my people, all of them are so proud of us and we want to say to the world that we have a dream, and we're dreaming like everyone else and that is to now play football, especially after how difficult things have been over the past years.”Likewise Libya have also had an impressive preparation, seeing off Mauritania 1-0 last week and drawing with World Cup-bound Cabo Verde last month. Forward Ezzeddin El Maremi looms as a major threat, having struck in four of the nation’s past six outings. Defender Ali Yousef said: "We respect every team, of course, but we fear no one. Right now we’re focused on the play-off, and only after that will we look at the group opponents." 

At the heart of the US shale industry in Texas, oil production is climbing. But you wouldn’t know that if you talked to Mark Waters, who owns a store that sells tools and safety equipment to oil firms.His small business, Tie Specialties, in Odessa, Texas, saw a 25% drop in oilfield sales over the last four to six months. Shelves are stacked with hand tools like wrenches, augers for digging holes, shovels, and other power tools. Peg boards show off hard hats, gloves, and various coloured overalls.“This is my sixth boom-bust. So I’ve been around it. I’d call it a slowdown, but everybody that I’ve talked to says the future is not very bright for the next couple of years,” said Waters, 65. US oil output has yet to register the full impact of the downturn. Waters and others who make their living around the oilfield are finding it more difficult to turn a profit as crude hovers around $60 a barrel, signalling bigger economic woes are on the way, Reuters interviews with 10 producers, service companies and residents around the Permian Basin show.The largest US oilfield has weathered previous downturns, but President Donald Trump’s policies have added to the slide in per-barrel profitability of US producers, already stifled by rising output from producer group Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and its allies (Opec+), as well as the biggest wave of consolidation in a generation.Economies of oilfield-dependent towns such as Midland and Odessa in West Texas are starting to show cracks, with local business owners seeing lower footfalls and sales.Waters is now banking on demand for electrical equipment from the building boom strong in data centres to offset the hit on the oilfield services side. He also owns a generator repair business, which is seeing a bump in business as companies avoid spending on new equipment. Evidence of the downturn is starting to appear in Midland’s skyline, as idled 100-foot rigs fill stockyards. Service firms are liquidating equipment. Top producers, including Chevron and ConocoPhillips, have laid off workers. Nationally, oil and gas production employment has dropped by 4,000 from January to July this year, the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. Roughly 370,000 Texans worked in oil and gas at the start of the year.While US output touched a record 13.9mn barrels per day (bpd) this month, are improvements in efficiency and technology mean producers are eking more oil out of fewer wells? Some analysts expect output to drop this year or next, as a result of the spending cuts. Any output growth in the next couple of years will likely come from deepwater offshore fields rather than the shale patch.The Permian rig count, a proxy for future output, has fallen by 52 to 252 at the end of October from a year earlier, the steepest decline since 2020, when Covid-19 slashed demand, data from energy analytics firm Enverus showed.“We’ve had dialogue with the administration letting them know that oil prices in the low to mid $50s make returns increasingly difficult for investment. This will eventually make current production levels unsustainable,” said Denzil West, CEO of Admiral Permian Resources, which produces about 25,000 bpd.Inflation and some of Trump’s trade tariffs have raised production costs for oil, which means oil companies need even higher prices to make money than they did in previous industry cycles.Drilling and completing a shale well costs about $10mn to $12mn, said Kirk Edwards, president of Texas-based producer Latigo Petroleum, 5% to 10% higher than last year.“The economics are completely upside down from where they were just in January. It’s more expensive to drill a well and you’re getting 20% less for your oil,” Edwards said. Companies need oil around $70 to maintain and grow production, executives said, but for over half the days since Trump became president, prices have settled under $65 a barrel as Opec and its allies ramp up output and as demand concerns persist. West Texas Intermediate crude, the main US benchmark used to price Permian Basin oil, It is forecast to average $51.26 in 2026, the US Energy Information Administration said this month.Surge Energy, one of the largest private producers in the Midland basin, will keep drilling at current prices, but at a slower clip, said CEO Linhua Guan. The company, which has run three rigs since 2021, dropped one in July, cutting capex by high single digits. Efficiency gains in the Permian, the largest US oilfield and the engine of US shale production, are getting harder to come by. Acreage with the best drilling economics is thinning, pushing producers into more expensive areas.“Investment returns at $55-60 per barrel are not what they were at the same price five years ago because the best wells have been drilled,” Admiral Permian’s West said.The company will evaluate necessary drilling, but potentially defer completing the wells if prices are in the $50 range. Return of investor equity will be the priority over increased capital deployment, West said.The pain is also hitting the oilfield services sector. Last month, Superior Energy Auctioneers liquidated equipment from Cleveland Lease Services’ contract well service division and Lone Star Directional Drilling.In one example, large trucks used to haul fracking trailers and equipment fetched about 30% less in August compared to April this year, a person familiar with the auction said.“There are more rigs than work,” said Terrel Hardin, president at King Well Service, which supplies workover rigs for maintaining existing production. About two to three of the company’s rigs were in use this year, versus four to five last year, he said.“These prices don’t pay the bills, and then everyone pulls back,” Hardin said. Top service provider SLB in October said it does not expect a significant near-term pickup in North American drilling. Rival Halliburton said it would idle equipment and cut costs. Both laid off staff this year.Midland’s unemployment rate rose by 0.5 percentage points to 3.6% in August, according to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, a level last seen in mid-2022 as the industry was recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic’s demand shock.“We got people coming in every day looking for a job,” Tie Specialties’ Waters said.Job losses are also starting to hit the local economy and small shops.Lines at DS Fabela’s Restaurant, a Mexican joint in Odessa frequented by oilfield workers, are thinning as people are let go, said manager Dulce Solis.When Yogashri Pradhan was laid off from the industry for a third time, she decided to launch IronLady Energy Advisors to consult on production data and reservoir engineering.“We’re seeing a lot more panic at $60 oil, and I think a lot of it has to do with the administration and the rhetoric of, oh, we could do it at cheaper prices,” said Pradhan, who was laid off by Chevron in June. — Reuters

Australia and England wrapped up their Ashes preparations today with the home side showing their hand with a pair of debutants while the visitors kept their final XI under wraps for the series-opening test. Injuries have torn up Australia’s best-laid plans twice in recent weeks but stand-in skipper Steve Smith was all calm as he confirmed that opener Jake Weatherald would face the new ball at Perth Stadium and paceman Brendan Doggett will slot into a depleted attack.The 31-year-old debutants may do little to reduce the ageing profile of the Australian squad but each offers something different on the menu for England.Initially sixth cab off the rank in Australia’s pace setup, Doggett will be thrown into the Ashes cauldron from today because of injuries to Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Sean Abbott.Aggressive left-hander Weatherald joins the more patient Usman Khawaja at the top of the order, having turfed Sam Konstas out of the position with his weight of domestic runs.Both the new boys face a baptism of fire against a team convinced by captain Ben Stokes that the urn England relinquished eight years ago is there for the taking.“Coming to Australia, playing against Australia, they’re a seriously good team,” Stokes told reporters Thursday. “Everyone, including myself, knows the record of England over the history of Ashes in Australia isn’t the best.“We’ve got an opportunity over the next two and a half months to write our own history,” he said.“We’ve obviously come with the goal and that goal is to get on that plane mid-January and return to England being Ashes winners.”The Perth Stadium curator has promised the wicket will be green, fast and bouncy but Stokes offered no thoughts on whether England would attack with four quicks or pick the specialist spinner, Shoaib Bashir, in their 11.“He was always going to be in the 12,” Stokes said. “We thought it was just about getting as many opportunities to bowl as possible. And we got to face him.”The decision may come later after a chat with coach Brendon McCullum, the skipper said.Pacer Mark Wood only sent down eight overs in the game last week before heading for scans on a hamstring niggle. He was cleared, but has barely played since knee surgery earlier this year. Stokes said he had no concerns about the 35-year-old, who was “flying”.“I know you guys say he only bowled eight overs in the game, but he’s been bowling for a long, long time,” he said.“He has always been someone who can just hit the ground running in the game, and he’s bowling rapid, which is good.”Australia had no hesitation picking spinner Nathan Lyon, who turned 38 on Thursday and embarks upon his eighth Ashes campaign.The man nicknamed “Goat” (Greatest Of All-Time) for claiming an Australian record 562 test wickets as an off-spinner would be hard to overlook at Perth Stadium where he has 29 wickets at an average of 20.86.“He’s done really well out here. He bowls nicely when the wicket’s bouncing,” said Smith.“So we’ll see how it pans out.”Smith will have Cummins keeping a close eye on proceedings and offering another calm voice in the dressing room.England will have travelling fans back in the terraces four years after they were barred from the deflating 2021/22 tour due to Australia’s stiff border controls during Covid.Touring in a Covid-restricted bubble, Joe Root’s England lost 4-0 for a second successive series.Only a few of the squad remain from that tour, leaving most in the current England setup free of the scarring. A tighter series is tipped even if the host nation would delight in another thrashing.“When battle lines are drawn on Friday, then I will certainly be hoping that it’s a 5-0 result in Australia’s (favour),” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on the eve of the opener.England have a mountain to climb to win back the urn for the first time in Australia since 2010/11, and they will be dodging flak from home fans and media all the way. Perth newspaper the Western Australian roasted England’s players as “arrogant Bazballing Poms” on its front page Thursday. Stokes said England would take things in their stride.“We know we’re going to be outnumbered ... and that’s going to be good fun.”