Former employees bid farewell to Giorgio Armani
Milan — Former staff at Giorgio Armani's fashion empire joined crowds gathering on Sunday to pay their final respects to the designer who kept Italy at the forefront of global fashion.
The death of Armani at the age of 91 sparked an outpouring of international grief, with tributes flowing in from Hollywood celebrities and ordinary people alike.
“We are retired former employees and it was our duty and it was obvious that we would come here because it was a great privilege and honour to work for him,” said Ornella Gagliolo.
“For all of us, he was like a father, that I can tell you,” she said.
His wooden casket, adorned with white roses, was on display at a vast exhibition space at his company’s headquarters in Milan where catwalk shows are held, surrounded by dozens of small lanterns on the floor.
His funeral on Monday will be held privately. Reuters
ALSO READ: OBITUARY: King of Italian fashion Giorgio Armani combined simplicity and elegance
Stellantis CEO urges flexible EV transition in EU
London — The new CEO of carmaker Stellantis has urged the EU to show flexibility on the transition to electric vehicles to protect the auto industry.
“A strategic dialogue is very important, but now it’s vital to act with urgency. There is no time for delays,” said Antonio Filosa, who became Stellantis CEO in June. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is set to host automotive sector executives on September 12 to discuss the future of the sector, which is facing twin threats of Chinese competition in electric vehicles and US tariffs.
Filosa, head of a group whose brands include Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Chrysler, Jeep and Opel called on the European Commission to support the sale of cars such as hybrids to bring down the average age of vehicles on the road.
“A European policy that encourages the replacement of older cars with new cars and a wider choice of power trains would have a greater impact on global CO2 emissions than the annual new car market does,” he said in a joint interview with Italy’s Il Sole 24 Ore and France’s Les Echos.
Filosa said the light commercial vehicle sector was facing an emergency and added that the period over which CO2 emissions in the category were calculated should be extended to five years from three. Reuters
China’s foreign exchange reserves rise in August
Hong Kong — China’s foreign exchange reserves were up more than expected in August, official data showed on Sunday, as the dollar weakened against other major currencies.
The country's foreign exchange reserves, the world’s largest, rose by $29.9bn last month to $3.322-trillion, while analysts expected $3.310-trillion in a Reuters poll. The reserves were $3.292-trillion in July.
The yuan strengthened 0.87% against the dollar in August, while the dollar was down 2.19% against a basket of other major currencies. Reuters
US court allows gender identities on passports
Boston — A federal appeals court last week declined to allow US President Donald Trump’s administration to refuse to issue passports to transgender and nonbinary Americans that reflect their gender identities.
A three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put on hold an injunction issued by a trial judge barring the US department of state from enforcing a policy it adopted at Trump's direction.
“We’re thankful the court rejected this effort by the Trump administration to enforce their discriminatory and baseless policy,” said Li Nowlin-Sohl, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which pursued the case.
The White House had no immediate comment. Reuters
Fibre cuts in Red Sea disrupt Middle East internet
Bengaluru — Microsoft said on Saturday that its Microsoft Azure users may experience increased latency due to multiple undersea fibre cuts in the Red Sea.
In an updated status message for its Azure system, the company said its users may experience service disruptions on traffic routes through the Middle East.
“We do expect higher latency on some traffic that previously traversed through the Middle East. Network traffic that does not traverse through the Middle East is not impacted. We'll continue to provide daily updates, or sooner if conditions change,” Microsoft said.
As a result of the disruption, Azure, the world’s second largest cloud provider after Amazon’s AWS, has rerouted traffic through alternate network paths and network traffic is not interrupted. Reuters
Close race expected as Norwegians head to polls
Oslo — Norwegians went to the polls on Sunday for the first of two days of voting in a close race between a left-wing bloc led by the incumbent Labor Party and a right-wing bloc headed by the populist Progress Party and the Conservatives.
At least nine political parties are expected to win seats in the parliamentary election which ends on Monday evening, but only the leaders of the three major parties are candidates for prime minister.
Top issues in the campaign have included the cost of living, taxation and public services, and the outcome could have an impact on energy and power supplies to Europe as well as the management of Norway’s $2-trillion sovereign wealth fund.
Labour and four smaller parties are seen winning 88 seats in Norway’s parliament, three more than the minimum needed to secure a majority and down from a combined 100 seats for the left in 2021, according to an average of recent opinion polls. Reuters
Japan’s prime minister resigns over election losses
Tokyo — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigned on Sunday, ushering in a potentially lengthy period of policy uncertainty at a shaky moment for the world’s fourth-largest economy.
Having just ironed out final details of a trade deal with the US to lower President Donald Trump’s punishing tariffs, Ishiba, 68, told a press conference he must take responsibility for a series of bruising election losses.
Since coming to power less than a year ago, the unlikely premier has overseen his ruling coalition lose its majorities in elections for both houses of parliament amid voter anger over rising living costs.
He instructed his Liberal Democratic Party — which has ruled Japan for almost all of the post-war period — to hold an emergency leadership race, adding he would continue his duties until his successor was elected. Reuters
Five migrants die, one badly injured as boats collide
Ankara — Five people were killed and another severely injured when a boat carrying migrants hit a Turkish coast guard vessel off northwest Turkey on Sunday, a local governor’s office said, adding a search operation was under way for a missing person.
In a statement, the governor’s office said a high-speed boat carrying 34 migrants and one migrant trafficker hit the coast guard vessel off Ayvalik district’s Badavut coast.
“As a result of the search and rescue operations in the region, it was determined that five people who fell into the sea lost their lives. One person, a woman, was severely wounded and sent to hospital,” it said, adding authorities were still searching for one missing person.
An investigation has been launched into the incident by the Ayvalik prosecutor’s office, it said. Reuters
Boko Haram murder 60 in night attack on village
Maiduguri — Boko Haram militants killed more than 60 people, including seven soldiers, in a night-time assault on a village in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state to which people had returned only last month after years of displacement, residents told Reuters.
Nigeria’s military says it has stepped up counterinsurgency operations in recent months in Borno state to try to contain militias as well as militants from Boko Haram and its splinter group, Islamic state West Africa Province (Iswap).
Analysts and residents say the operations have failed to stem attacks. Northwest Nigeria has also been plagued by violence. Reuters
Greek PM’s tax cuts aimed at boosting birth rate
Athens — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ruled out a snap election on Sunday and said that a string of tax cuts planned for 2026 were aimed at boosting a tumbling birth rate and stemming a protracted cost of living crisis.
Mitsotakis, who was re-elected in 2023 but whose centre-right party has been sliding in opinion polls, ruled out an election before his term ends in 2027, and said he was considering a third term.
On Saturday, the Greek premier announced income tax breaks worth €1.6bn during an annual economic policy speech. Reuters
Iraq hoping Oman pipeline will boost global sales
Baghdad — Iraq is considering building a pipeline to export crude oil to Oman, which would help it market Iraqi crude globally and keep a planned storage facility in the sultanate well supplied, the head of Iraq’s state oil marketer said on Sunday.
“There is already agreement in principle,” said Somo director-general Ali Nazar, adding that discussions on the pipeline’s route and capacity will be part of future contract negotiations.
The pipeline would deliver crude oil to an integrated storage facility at Ras Markaz, which is planned to have an initial capacity of 10-million barrels, Nazar said on the sidelines of an energy forum in Baghdad. Reuters
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