Morning Briefing: August 10, 2023

By Rabia Ali

ISTANBUL (AA) - Here’s a rundown of all the news you need to start your Thursday with, including, assassination of Ecuador's presidential candidate, last week’s deadly shipwreck off the coast of Italy, US restrictions in China, and dissolution of Pakistan's parliament.

TOP STORIES

• Ecuador presidential candidate assassinated days before elections

Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead Wednesday while leaving a campaign rally in the capital Quito.

The attack took place at 6.20 p.m. (2320GMT) as he was leaving the Anderson School. He was struck by three bullets by the gunman.

Villavicencio, 59, a journalist, was competing to fill the spot to be left early by current President Guillermo Lasso in elections on Aug. 20. He had built his campaign around the fight against corruption and organized crime.

• Dozens of migrants dead in shipwreck off coast of Italy

At least 41 migrants are believed to have died in a shipwreck in the central Mediterranean last week after departing from Tunisia, Italian prosecutors and local media said on Wednesday.

Four survivors told rescuers they were traveling on a boat carrying about 45 people, including three children. The boat left the Tunisian port last Thursday, but sank within a few hours after being hit by a big wave.

The survivors were rescued by a cargo ship, transferred to an Italian coast guard vessel, which disembarked them in Lampedusa on Wednesday.

• US to restrict technology investments in China

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to curb some of its investments in China's technology sector.

Multiple US officials who briefed reporters on the directive ahead of its public release said it is narrowly tailored to prohibit US firms from funding investment in Chinese firms that develop advanced technologies sensitive to national security.

Specifically, it will prohibit US investment in Chinese firms that develop semiconductors and micro electronics, quantum information technologies, and certain artificial intelligence systems.

• Pakistani president dissolves parliament on advice of prime minister
  

Pakistan's President Arif Alvi on Wednesday dissolved the country’s parliament on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the President's Office said.

Alvi signed the advice half an hour after it was sent by Sharif on late Wednesday night, paving the way for a caretaker setup that will hold general elections.

Sharif will continue to serve as acting prime minister until the caretaker premier takes oath.

NEWS IN BRIEF

• Niger's junta accused French troops of breaching the country's airspace and plotting to destabilize the West African nation.

• The Sudanese government threatened to end the UN mission in the war-torn country if Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' envoy briefed the Security Council, the US said Wednesday.

• Türkiye's National Security Council called for preventing acts that target Islam under the "guise of freedom of expression, at the presidential complex on Wednesday.

• Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran resumed its operations earlier this week after more than a seven-year hiatus, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

• At least 56 people were injured on Wednesday after a powerful explosion rocked a Russian optical plant outside the capital Moscow, authorities said.

• Around 152 people have lost their lives in the northeastern state of Manipur since the deadly ethnic clashes broke out in the state in May, said the Indian government on Wednesday.

• Firefighters on Wednesday recovered 11 bodies from the burned remains of a care home in northeastern France after a fire swept through it.

• The new COVID-19 variant of interest EG.5 represents a "low risk" to public health on a global scale, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

• Bangladesh has reported 12 deaths from the dengue virus and a record number of hospitalizations in the last 24 hours due to infections contracted from mosquito bites, the health authority said.

SPORTS

• UAE-based football club Emirates signs Andres Iniesta

United Arab Emirates-based Emirates Football Club announced Wednesday that they have signed Andres Iniesta.

The 39-year-old Spanish legend will play for the club until the end of the 2023-2024 season.

Four-time Champions League winner Iniesta is regarded by many as a Barcelona and Spanish football legend.

• Burnley forward Wout Weghorst joins Germany's Hoffenheim on loan

Burnley’s Dutch forward Wout Weghorst on Wednesday joined German Bundesliga club Hoffenheim on loan.

Weghorst, 31, previously played for Dutch clubs Emmen, Heracles, AZ Alkmaar, and Germany's Wolfsburg.

In 2022, Türkiye's Besiktas signed Weghorst on loan from Burnley, but after the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, he temporarily moved to Manchester United.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

• EU countries see soaring olive oil prices amid extreme heat

​​​​​​​Olive oil production decreased in southern Europe due to extreme hot weather and drought, sending prices soaring.

EU countries provide two-thirds of the global production and also produce 900,000 tons of table olive.

Spain is the biggest producer. Its production was nearly 1.8 million tons five years ago but decreased to some 663,000 tons in the 2022-2023 harvest season.

• Sony's PlayStation 5 sales soar 37% to 3.3 million from April - June

Sales of the Sony's PlayStation 5 gaming console jumped 37.5% annually to 3.3 million units in the April -June period of 2023, according to a financial results statement released Wednesday.

Sony sold 2.4 million units in the same period in 2022, which the company refers to as its first quarter on fiscal year 2022.