Category World News

Israel’s bombing of a residential building in the capital, Doha, that was housing Hamas leaders, has drawn global condemnation.

Fighter jets fired missiles into a residential compound in central Doha, where leaders of Hamas were meeting to discuss a US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The attack has been widely condemned as a violation of international law and Qatar’s sovereignty.

Can Doha continue playing the role of mediator between Hamas and Israel?

How will this attack affect security in the region?

Presenter: Cyril Vanier

Guests:

Ali Ghanem al-Hajri – Political commentator, expert in public international law and a former professor at Qatar University

Stephen Zunes – Professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco and an expert on the Middle East and Israeli-Arab conflict

Kuldeep Yadav returned figures of 4-7 to lead holders India to a crushing nine-wicket win over hosts United Arab Emirates in their opening match of the Asia Cup.

Kuldeep struck three times in one over with his left-arm wrist spin as tournament favourites India skittled UAE for a paltry 57 in 13.1 overs after they elected to field first in the T20 in Dubai on Wednesday.

India romped home to victory in 4.3 overs after left-handed opener Abhishek Sharma hit 30 off 16 balls and vice-captain Shubman Gill stood unbeaten on 20.

But it was the bowlers who set up victory for the reigning T20 World Cup champions as medium-pacer Shivam Dube claimed three before Kuldeep wrapped up the innings.

Put in to bat, UAE opener Alishan Sharafu started briskly with boundaries before falling to pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah for 22 off 17 balls.

Skipper Muhammad Waseem struck 19 to be the only other batsman to make double figures in an otherwise shambolic show by the rest of the team.

Kuldeep’s three wickets, including Waseem, in his second over rattled the opposition batting, which soon fell apart.

In reply, Sharma came out attacking as he smashed left-arm spinner Haider Ali for a six and a four.

He hit two more sixes in his blitz before being caught out by off-pace bowler Junaid Siddique.

Gill finished off the chase with a boundary as skipper Suryakumar Yadav, unbeaten on seven, looked on from the other end.

India won the previous Asia Cup, which was played in a 50-over format in 2023, when they beat hosts Sri Lanka in the final in Colombo.

Klarna, the Swedish buy-now-pay-later company, has made its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year.

Klarna sold 34.3 million shares to investors at $40 a share late on Tuesday and was listed on the exchange on Wednesday. That is above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share and values the company at more than $15bn.

Shares of Klarna opened 30 percent above their offer price in their NYSE debut on Wednesday, giving the Swedish fintech a valuation of $19.65bn.

The amount of money raised in Klarna’s initial public offering, approximately $1.37bn, is the largest IPO this year, according to Renaissance Capital. That’s notable because 2025 has been one of the busier years for companies going public.

Other IPOs this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin. Investors are also looking forward to the expected market debuts of the ticket exchange StubHub and the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, which is majority-owned by twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

Founded in 2005 as a payments company, Klarna entered the United States buy-now-pay-later market in 2015 in partnership with department store operator Macy’s. Since then, Klarna has expanded to hundreds of thousands of merchants and embedded itself in internet browsers and digital wallets as an alternative to credit cards. The company recently announced a partnership with Walmart.

Klarna will trade under the symbol “KLAR.” While the company was founded in Sweden and is a popular payment service in Europe, company executives said they made the decision to go public in the US as a signal that Klarna’s future growth opportunities lay with the US shopper.

“It’s the largest consumer market in the world, and it’s the biggest credit card market in the world. It’s a tremendous opportunity, from our perspective,” said CEO and co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of the IPO.

Over the years and in multiple interviews, Siemiatkowski has made it clear that Klarna wants to steal away customers from the big credit card companies and sees credit cards as a high-interest, exploitative product that consumers rarely use correctly.

Split purchases

Klarna’s most popular product is what’s known as a “pay-in-4” plan, where a customer can split a purchase into four payments spread over six weeks. The company also offers a longer-term payment plan where it charges interest. The business model has caught on globally, particularly among consumers who are reluctant to use credit cards. The company said 111 million consumers worldwide have used Klarna.

Klarna and other buy-now-pay-later companies have attracted increased public interest in recent years as the business model has caught on. State and federal regulators, as well as consumer groups, have expressed some degree of worry that consumers may overextend themselves financially on buy-now-pay-later loans just as much as they do with credit cards.

Siemiatkowski says the company is actively monitoring how consumers use their products, and the average balance of Klarna users is less than $100. Because the company issues loans that are six weeks or less, Klarna argues it can more easily adjust its underwriting standard depending on economic conditions.

Klarna reported second-quarter revenue of $823m in August before going public and said that it had an adjusted profit of $29m. The delinquency rate on Klarna’s “pay-in-4” loans is 0.89 percent, and on its longer-term loans for bigger purchases, the delinquency rate is 2.23 percent. Those figures are below the average 30-day delinquency rates on a credit card.

Klarna will now be the second-largest buy-now-pay-later company by market capitalisation behind Affirm. Shares of Affirm have surged more than 40 percent so far this year, putting the value of the US-based company around $28bn, helped by a belief among investors that buy-now-pay-later companies may take away market share from traditional banks and credit cards. Affirm fell slightly on Wednesday.

Canada is evaluating its relationship with Israel after the attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar, its foreign minister has said, in the latest sign of unhappiness with the Israeli government.

Anita Anand on Wednesday said the country considered the attack in Doha to be unacceptable, especially given Qatari attempts to facilitate peace in the Middle East.

“We are evaluating our relationship with Israel,” Anand told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the governing Liberal Party in Edmonton, when asked whether Canada might follow the lead of the European Commission.

Earlier today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans to cut support for Israel and implement sanctions.

Asked specifically whether Canada was considering any kinds of sanctions against Israel, Anand replied, “We will continue to evaluate our next steps.”

Canada has noticeably hardened its line on Israel under Prime Minister Mark Carney, who replaced Justin Trudeau in January. Carney announced in July that Canada would recognise Palestinian statehood, angering Israel.

Trudeau was generally supportive of Israel’s campaign against Hamas, while occasionally criticising the actions of the Israeli military.

Carney on Tuesday condemned the Israeli air strike, calling it “an intolerable expansion of violence” that risked escalating conflict throughout the region.