Arab News Headlines
Milan, Italy’s biggest union of metal workers FIM-CISL said on Friday that the transition to electric cars puts at risk 60,000 jobs in the country.
“In spite of the complaints and requests from trade unions and companies, in the budget law the government has not included any intervention to support a sector overwhelmed by changes caused by the energy and ecological transition,” said in a statement Ferdinando Uliano, head of FIM CISL, Reuters said.
Source: Bahrain News Agency
Tokyo, Japan unveiled a record $490 billion spending package on Friday to cushion the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic, bucking a global trend towards withdrawing crisis-mode stimulus measures and adding strains to its already tattered finances.
Spending has ballooned due to an array of payouts including those criticised for being unrelated to the pandemic, such as cash handouts to households with youth aged 18 or below, and will likely lead to additional bond issuance this year, Reuters reported.
The massive spending would underscore the resolve of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida – once considered a fiscal conservative -to focus on reflating the economy and redistributing wealth to households.
“The reflationary monetary policy and go-big-or-go-home fiscal policy pioneered by (former Premier) Shinzo Abe is now the orthodoxy,” said James Brady, an analyst at Teneo.
“Though Kishida has been known in the past for being somewhat hawkish, he appears set to continue the Abenomics paradigm for several more years.”
The package, finalised at a cabinet meeting on Friday, included 55.7 trillion yen ($490 billion) in spending for items ranging from cash payouts to households, subsidies to COVID-hit firms and reserves set aside for emergency pandemic spending.
The size of spending was much bigger than the 30-40 trillion yen estimated by markets, and will be mostly funded by an extra budget of around 32 trillion yen to be compiled this year. The remainder will likely be funded by next year’s budget.
The total package, which includes funds that do not lead to immediate spending, will likely reach 78.9 trillion yen.
“We’ll mobilise all available tools to fund the package, including issuing deficit-covering bonds,” Kishida said in a group interview. He did not say how much debt could be issued.
Critics of the package focused on its eye-popping scale.
“Inflating the size may have become the purpose with little discretion made on whether the spending would be effective,” said Takumi Tsunoda, senior economist at Shinkin Central Bank Research Institute. “It’s a lot of wasteful spending.”
Japan has lagged other economies in pulling out of the pandemic-induced slump, forcing policymakers to maintain massive fiscal and monetary support even as other advanced nations dial back crisis-mode policies.
Policymakers hope the new spending will help underpin the economy, which shrank more than expected in the third quarter due to the hit to consumption and exports from pandemic curbs and global supply disruptions.
Japan’s three massive spending packages to counter the pandemic have left it with outstanding long-term debt roughly double the size of its $5 trillion economy.
Source: Bahrain News Agency
Doha: H.E. President of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al-Thani has met today with H.E. President of the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan Timur Kulibayev, who is currently visiting Doha to attend 2021 Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix.
Mr. Mohammed Yousef Al Mana, the President of Qatar’s Weightlifting and Fencing Federation, and the Asian Weightlifting Federation also attended the meeting.
Source: Qatar Olympic Committee
Doha: H.E. President of the Qatar Olympic Committee Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al-Thani attended the semifinals of the 2021 Qatar Ooredoo World Padel Championship, being organized by the Qatar Tennis, Squash and Badminton Federation from November 15-20.
In women’s semifinals, Argentina defeated Italy 3-0 while Spain edged past France 3-0.
In men’s event, Argentina is taking on Brazil while France is facing Spain.
The final day competitions will bring together a huge number of fans as Padel has become the fastest growing sport in the region and the world.
Source: Qatar Olympic Committee
London, The Premier League said on Thursday it has agreed to a six-year U.S. broadcast rights agreement with NBC Sports as it looks to further strengthen its popularity in the United States.
Financial terms of the deal, which covers all 380 soccer matches every season and includes exclusive rights for Spanish language coverage, were not disclosed, but a report on The Athletic said it was worth over $2 billion, Reuters reported.
On a media call with reporters on Thursday, NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua said that nine different entities were interested in acquiring Premier League rights as of last week when the initial bids were submitted.
The games will be broadcast across NBC, USA Network, Telemundo, the company’s Peacock streaming service and other platforms. Bevacqua on Thursday described the league as a “driving force” on Peacock, where NBC also streamed some of the most popular events in the Tokyo Olympics as well as the Notre Dame University football team’s opening home game.
NBC Sports, part of Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O)-owned NBCUniversal, became the home of Premier League coverage in the United States in 2013.
“NBC Sports’ Premier League Mornings programming is now a real institution among supporters in America, with fans getting up early to come together and cheer on their favourite club, week in, week out,” Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters said in a news release.
“The broad demographic that it brings in, how it’s really kind of a sport in general that continues to grow in the U.S. and I think there’s no reason that that should slow down,” Bevacqua said.
Source: Bahrain News Agency
Washington, NBC has achieved one of its major objectives over the past year, retaining U.S. rights to broadcast the Premier League for another six years.
The Premier League announced the deal on Thursday. NBC will pay more than $2.7 billion to continue showing the world’s richest soccer competition, reports AP.
NBC won the rights to England’s top league in October, 2012, for $250 million over three years. When the new deal kicks in next season, it will average $450 million per season.
The previous six-year deal, which began in 2016, was worth $1.1 billion, an average of $183.3 million per season.
Interest in the Premier League has grown significantly since NBC first gained the rights from Fox for the 2013-14 season. Matches are averaging 609,000 viewers this season, its highest average through this point since 2015-16 and up 14% from last year.
Premier League matches average 220,000 during the 2012-13 season on Fox and ESPN, which broadcast under a sublicense from Fox.
The partnership has paid off in other ways. NBC ran promos during the first year featuring Jason Sudeikis as a college football coach named Ted Lasso going abroad to coach Tottenham. That evolved into an immensely popular sitcom on Apple TV+ that captured seven Emmy Awards this year.
NBC faced heavy competition in bidding from CBS and ESPN, who put in a joint offer during the second round of bidding. Fox, which holds rights to the 2022 and 2026 FIFA men’s World Cups, did not put in an individual bid during the second round, but partnered with other groups.
International rights have provided a significant uplift in revenue for the Premier League after British rights were extended for another three years with Sky Sports, BT Sport and Amazon Prime Video for 5 billion pounds (around $7 billion). Due to the pandemic, the deals were reached based on existing terms.
The new NBC deal covers the 2022-23 season — which will be interrupted by the World Cup in November and December — and runs through 2027-28. It will cover all 380 matches every season.
Matches will continue to air on NBC and Peacock as well as USA Network, which takes over NBCSN’s schedule when the channel shuts down at the end of the year.
The Premier League also extended for another six years in Australia with Optus Sports.
Source: Bahrain News Agency
Berlin, Bayern Munich midfielder Joshua Kimmich is in quarantine again.
The German club said Friday that the unvaccinated Kimmich would miss the team’s game at Augsburg. Although Bayern didn’t give any more details, the 26-year-old Kimmich is also a doubt for the team’s Champions League game at Dynamo Kyiv on Tuesday, The Associated Press (AP) said.
Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann said Thursday that Kimmich missed training that day because he had contact with a person suspected of having the coronavirus.
Kimmich also had to isolate last week and missed Germany’s final World Cup qualifier after having contact with Bayern teammate Niklas Süle, who tested positive for COVID-19.
Süle and Josip Stanišic, who tested positive for the virus after returning from international duty with Croatia, are also in quarantine. Stanišic was fully vaccinated and had also previously contracted COVID-19.
Kimmich previously caused a furor in Germany for voicing his reservations about getting vaccinated against the coronavirus. Vaccine opponents seized on his comments to further their cause, while medical experts expressed their dismay as the number of infections continued to climb.
“There are very good fact-based arguments to answer his questions and doubts,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
Kimmich’s reticence to get vaccinated means he faces a longer quarantine period than a fully vaccinated player.
Nagelsmann, who is vaccinated but recently missed four Bayern games because of his own coronavirus infection, refused to directly criticize Kimmich for his stance, despite it now affecting his availability for the team.
“I get on quite normally with them, they’re not bad people for me,” Nagelsmann said of the unvaccinated players.
Kimmich could miss Bayern’s game against Bundesliga rival Borussia Dortmund on Dec. 4.
“That is a fact,” Nagelsmann said Thursday. “I think that the players who are not vaccinated understand that the risk of missing games or training sessions is much greater as an unvaccinated person than as a vaccinated person.
I don’t think I need to make that clear to a player. It’s obvious.”
Bayern state premier Markus Söder, who is a fan of the team, also appealed for unvaccinated players to get vaccinated.
“Any player who does not agree to go down this route will not be doing his club any favors, nor the sport, in the end,” Söder said.
Lothar Wieler, the head of Germany’s disease control agency, said the country is in a “nationwide state of emergency” because surging coronavirus infections have already overstretched some hospitals and intensive care wards. Infections topped 50,000 for the third straight day on Friday.
Source: Bahrain News Agency