Prabowo sworn in as Indonesian president

Prabowo Subianto was inaugurated on Sunday as Indonesia’s eighth president, succeeding Joko Widodo, who served for a decade. In his inaugural address, he pledged to be the "leader of all Indonesians."

The inauguration ceremony took place in Jakarta and was attended by various foreign dignitaries.

Having served as defense minister in Jokowi's Cabinet, Prabowo was elected in February after winning a landslide victory.

Following the ceremony, the 73-year-old president proceeded to the presidential palace, where he received a warm welcome from the outgoing president.

In an emotional speech, Prabowo emphasized his commitment to unity among Indonesians, regardless of political affiliations, and vowed to advocate for the protection and welfare of the nation’s most vulnerable groups.

He highlighted national unity and food security as the primary focuses of his administration and promised that Indonesia’s natural resources would be managed for the benefit of all citizens.

He also committed to continuing the policies of his predecessor, including the industrialization of mining commodities and the ban on exporting raw minerals and ores.

"We will carry out this oath to the best of our ability and with accountability, prioritizing all the people, including those who did not vote for us," Prabowo stated.

His running mate, 37-year-old Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the son of Jokowi, was also sworn in as vice president.

Drone strikes Netanyahu’s residence

According to media reports, a drone launched from Lebanon struck the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea on Saturday.

The Netanyahu's office confirmed in a statement that the drone was aimed at Netanyahu's private home, but noted that the premier and his family were not present at the time of the attack.

Earlier, the Israeli army reported that three drones were fired from Lebanon, with two successfully intercepted and the third crashing into a building in Caesarea. Fortunately, there were no reported casualties from the incident.

This drone attack occurs amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, which have intensified since the Gaza conflict began last October.

Israel has escalated its offensive in Lebanon, resulting in significant casualties, including the deaths of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several other commanders.

The extensive airstrikes, followed by a ground invasion, have claimed over 1,500 lives and displaced approximately 1.2 million people.

PSX witnesses 16.5%WoW decline in average daily trading volume

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained volatile during the week, with the benchmark index losing 233 points or 0.3WoW to close at 85,250 points on Friday, October 18, 2024.

Commercial Banks and Power sectors were the primary drags on the index, as concerns over additional ADR-based taxation to weigh on banks’ expected profitability for the last quarter, while continued government scrutiny on IPPs added pressure to the Power sector.

Fertilizer sector also remained laggard due to lower than expected payouts by EFERT.

On the political front, the successful conclusion of the SCO summit was a positive development. However, heightened political noise towards the weekend kept market sentiments subdued.

Textiles and food exports remained elevated.

Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) crossed the US$11 billion mark for the first time in last two and half years, as of October 11, 2024.

In the T-Bills auction held on Wednesday, GoP raised PKR716 billion as against a target of PKR400 billion, with 3 and 6 month yields falling to 15.3% and 14.3%, respectively.

In its recent fortnightly review, GoP hiked diesel prices by PKR5/litre, while keeping petrol prices unchanged.

Market participation plunged by 16.5%WoW, with average daily traded volume dropping to 432 million shares from 518 million shares in the earlier week.

On the currency front, the PKR remained largely stable against the greenback, closing the week at PKR277.6 to a greenback.

Other major news flows during the week included: 1) GoP pays off PKR1.2 trillion domestic debt in first quarter of the current financial year, 2) Roshan Digital Accounts surpass US$8.749 billion in remittances, 3) LSM output rises by 4.68MoM in August, and 4) Urea off takes decline by 35YoY in September.

Tobacco, Close-end Mutual Funds, and Engineering were amongst the top performing sectors. Woollen, Property, and Transport were amongst the worst performers.

Major selling was led by Banks, with a total outflow of US$16.6 million, primarily due to NBP offloading its entire stake in AGL to FFC. Foreigner followed with net sell of US$11.1 million.

Companies absorbed most of the selling with a net buy of US$25.8 million.

Top performing scrips of the week were: ATRL, PAKT, HGFA, FCEPL, and JDWS, while laggards included: NPL, JVDC, BNWM, KAPCO, and PIOC.

Market is expected to remain positive going forward, supported by declining interest rates, anticipated to continue channeling investment flows into equities.

Additionally, with the ongoing earnings season, corporate results would stay in focus.

Despite the recent upward trend, the market remains attractively valued, currently trading at a P/E of 3.7x with a dividend yield of 11.9%.

AKD Securities proposes focusing on sectors that are likely to benefit from monetary easing and structural reforms, particularly high dividend yield stocks, likely to re-rate as yields converge with fixed income returns. Top picks include, OGDC, PPL, MCB, UBL, MEBL, FFC, PSO, LUCK, MLCF, FCCL and INDU.

 

Join Sanders to stop weapons sale to Israel

In the United States, Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a congressional resolution to stop US$20 billion in weapons sales to Israel to stop the United States patronizing genocide in Gaza by Israel.

 According to sanders, “Much of this carnage in Gaza has been carried out with US-provided military equipment.”

He added, “Providing more offensive weapons to continue this disastrous war would violate US and international law.”

As long as bombs and other weapons are being supplied to Israel, the US administration is supporting the genocide in Gaza and the killing of over 42,000 Palestinian civilians.

Not only the members of Congress must join with Sanders people from around the world must demand halt to weapons sales to Israel and end to the genocide.

The measure led by Sanders could help in halting sales of missile systems, tank rounds, and other weapons, including munitions, causing the worst destruction in Gaza. 

What after Sinwar assassination?

The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is raising new questions over the course of the war and the fate of hostages still held by Hamas. While the United States is pressing both the sides to seize the opportunity to end the fighting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems adamant at continuing the genocide.

Sinwar was considered the main obstacle in achieving a cease-fire and hostage deal over the course of a year of negotiations, Netanyahu has also been criticized as moving the goal posts in talks and prioritizing the military operation to eliminate Hamas over diplomacy to release hostages. 

US President Biden and Vice President Kamala the Democratic presidential nominee, said in reaction to Sinwar’s killing that there is now an opportunity for a “day after” in Gaza without Hamas in power.

“This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, and it must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination,” Kamala said in remarks from Wisconsin. 

Netanyahu, in a recorded speech confirming Sinwar’s death, showed no signs of letting up Israel’s military operations, which have succeeded in devastating Hamas’s leadership and military capabilities, while also devastating the Strip, causing a mass humanitarian crisis, and resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians. 

“Now it is clear to everyone in Israel and the world why we insisted on not ending the war, why we persisted in the face of all pressure,” Netanyahu said. 

“The war is not over yet and it is hard and it is exacting a heavy price from us. Citizens of Israel, we are in the war of resurrection, great challenges are still ahead of us … together we will fight and with God’s help together we will win.”

In his remarks, Netanyahu said Israel would give amnesty to anyone who willingly releases remaining hostages — Hamas or other armed groups in Gaza like Palestinian Islamic Jihad and civilian families.

“I call on everyone who holds our hostages: Whoever lays down his weapon and returns our hostages — we will allow him to go out and live.”

He added that the return of hostages would bring “the end of the war closer.” 

Biden congratulated Netanyahu on the killing in a call from Air Force One as he traveled to Germany.

The White House said the two leaders agreed there is an opportunity to advance the release of the hostages “and to bring the war to a close with Israel’s security assured and Hamas never again able to control Gaza.”

Netanyahu’s office, in their description of the call, did not address ending the war, but focused on advancing the release of hostages.  

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made calls Thursday to his counterparts in Qatar and Saudi Arabia as part of the administration’s push to “redouble its efforts” to end the conflict and secure the release of hostages, the State Department said. 

Now there’s a question, who will speak for Hamas? Khaled Meshaal, a senior Palestinian political official in exile in Qatar, is one name being raised as a possible replacement.

In an interview marking one year since Hamas’s attack, Meshaal said the armed group will “rise like a phoenix” even if its military and leadership are devastated. 

“We don’t know who will be on the other end of the negotiating table now, but it certainly won’t be Sinwar,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Even Netanyahu’s opponents in Israel are signaling support for continuing the war against Hamas and an ongoing Israeli military presence in the Strip. 

Benny Gantz, chair of the National Unity Party who resigned from Netanyahu’s wartime Cabinet, said in a statement that the Israeli military “will have to continue operating in Gaza for years,” although he added that “this moment must be seized and leveraged to bring the hostages home and topple the Hamas regime.” 

“Sinwar, who was described as a major obstacle to a deal, is no longer alive. It is critical that all attention is now focused on achieving the goal of a deal which will secure the release of our son Omer and the rest of the hostages,” the Neutras said in a statement. 

“We’re calling on the Israeli government and the US administration to act swiftly and do whatever is needed to reach a deal with the captors. We are at an inflection point where the goals set for the war with Gaza have been achieved, all but the release of the hostages.”

Members of the US Congress also reacted to Sinwar’s death with support for the revival of cease-fire and hostage release talks. 

“It is my hope that Sinwar’s elimination will result in further progress toward the release of all hostages still held in Gaza, as well as to a cease-fire for Palestinians who have suffered under Hamas’s grip for far too long,” said Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. 

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he hopes Sinwar’s death “marks a turning point in this war.” 

“Let us all unite in praying that, at last, the door will open to the end of this terrible war, the remaining hostages will be released, the recovery in Gaza will begin, and the efforts toward securing peace will be renewed.”

 

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar killed

Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and the architect of the Octtober 07 attack on Israel, was killed on Thursday during an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar,” the IDF posted on X Thursday, after NewsNation reported his death in the morning.

The IDF and Shin Bet, its internal security service, released a statement confirming some details of the operation.

“Yahya Sinwar was eliminated after hiding for the past year behind the civilian population of Gaza, both above and below ground in Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip,” it said.

“The dozens of operations carried out by the IDF and the ISA over the last year, and in recent weeks in the area where he was eliminated, restricted Yahya Sinwar’s operational movement as he was pursued by the forces and led to his elimination.”

Sinwar was Israel’s top target in Gaza, but survived in Hamas’s underground tunnel network for more than a year as the war of his making raged above.  

A messianic psychopath is how one US official described Sinwar. Among Hamas leadership, he was viewed as “a nasty guy,” said one analyst. As an enforcer in the 1980s, he earned the moniker “Butcher of Khan Yunis.”

Sinwar viewed tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in a war with Israel “as necessary sacrifices” to achieve his goal of destroying the Jewish State. That appeared to be the inspiration for Hamas launching the attack against Israel on October 07; committing a massacre of such brutality it would trigger a massive Israeli response. 

“For Netanyahu, a victory would be even worse than a defeat,” Sinwar told an Italian journalist in 2018, of the Israeli prime minister, according to a profile by the Wall Street Journal.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the time that the “depravity defies comprehension,” in viewing the aftermath of the 1,200 people killed on October 07, Of the 250 people taken hostage, about 101 hostages remain in Hamas captivity.  

Dubbed a “dead-man walking,” by Israel’s military in the aftermath of the attack, Sinwar evaded Israeli forces by hiding among the armed groups subterranean tunnel system; surrounding himself with hostages; and communicating through letter-writing to avoid electronic detection. 

Believed to be between 61-63 years, Sinwar came of age in the Gaza Strip during the 1967 six-day war, when Israel captured the Strip from Egypt; and the first intifada, or uprising, against Israel, in the 1980s. Raised in a refugee camp, Sinwar joined the burgeoning Hamas movement, charged with hunting down and killing suspected Palestinian informants to Israel. 

He was arrested by Israeli forces in 1988 and given four life sentences for the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers. But his time in jail served as an education to understand his enemy, learning the Hebrew language and studying Israeli culture and politics. He published a novel in 2004 that centered on themes of oppression and resistance. 

Sinwar had his life saved in prison, when an Israeli dentist signaled that he had something wrong with his brain, and was rushed into emergency surgery. But he showed no easing of his religious fervor to liberate what he viewed as Islamic land. 

He was released from prison in 2011, one of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who Hamas held hostage for five years. 

Sinwar’s life experience would help write the blueprint for the October 07 attack. In 2012, Hamas, for the first time, demonstrated that its rocket arsenal could hit Tel Aviv, and that was part of a short, but critical war that laid out a pattern of escalation between Hamas and Israel, and negotiation for periods of calm. Similar scenarios were repeated in 2014, 2018 and 2021. 

The Israeli security establishment, under the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during this time, began to refer to these operations as “mowing the lawn.”

It’s that sense of control that critics say lulled Israel’s intelligence into complacency ahead of October 07, despite warnings from young, female intelligence observers that a major attack was being prepared.  

Sinwar’s death marks a major operational success for the Israel Defense Forces, an ongoing psychological blow to Israel’s adversaries of Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iran – where the most senior leaders, and who were vaults of operational knowledge, have been picked off one by one.

This includes Hezbollah’s long-time chief Hassan Nasrallah, killed in a bomb strike in September, the assassination of his successors; and the assassination of top Hamas political chief Ismael Haniyeh at a guesthouse in Tehran in July. Israel allegedly killed Hamas’s number three official, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut in January. 

It’s unclear how Sinwar’s absence from the battlefield will impact Israel’s intent to eliminate Hamas completely from the Gaza Strip, whether it will change the dynamics of hostage talks that have stalled for months, or Israel’s operations in Lebanon or plans to respond to recent attacks from Iran.

 

US Deploys B2 Stealth Bombers to Attack Yemen without Congressional Approval

The Biden administration on Wednesday deployed B-2 stealth bombers to launch multiple airstrikes on Yemen, attacks that underscored the United States' deep involvement in a deadly regional war that is threatening to engulf the entire Middle East.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement that the strikes targeted "numerous Iran-backed Houthi weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that contained various advanced conventional weapons used to target US and international military and civilian vessels navigating international waters throughout the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden."

CENTCOM said its assessment of the damage inflicted by the strikes is ongoing and does not thus far "indicate civilian casualties." The US military has routinely refused to investigate, acknowledge, or apologize for killing civilians in Yemen and elsewhere in the world.

The Houthis have repeatedly attacked vessels in the Red Sea this year in what they say is an effort to stop Israel's decimation of the Gaza Strip. The Biden administration has, in turn, bombed Yemen multiple times this year, strikes that progressive US lawmakers have denounced as dangerous as well as illegal given that the White House did not seek congressional authorization, as required by the Constitution.

"Why is the US bombing Yemen—with a B-2 bomber no less—with zero congressional authorization?" asked Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), following Wednesday's strikes. "Are these members of Congress literally asleep or drugged?"

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that "at the direction" of President Joe Biden, he "authorized these targeted strikes to further degrade the Houthis' capability to continue their destabilizing behavior and to protect and defend US forces and personnel in one of the world's most critical waterways."

The strikes on one of the poorest nations in the world, Austin said, were "a unique demonstration of the United States' ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified"—a message that observers interpreted as a warning to Iran.

"The employment of US Air Force B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers demonstrate US global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere," Austin added.

Wednesday's airstrikes reportedly marked the United States' first use of the stealth bombers against Yemen, a country that has been devastated by years of relentless attacks by a US-backed, Saudi-led coalition.

The strikes came days after the Pentagon announced the deployment of American troops and an advanced antimissile system to Israel ahead of the Israeli military's expected attack on Iran.

A coalition of progressive lawmakers warned in response to the troop deployment that "military force will not solve the challenge posed by Iran."

"We need meaningful de-escalation and diplomacy—not a wider war," the lawmakers said. "Addressing the root causes is the only route to achieving long-term security and stability in the region. Nothing in current law authorizes the United States to conduct offensive military action against Iran. We risk becoming entangled in another catastrophic war that will inevitably harm innocent civilians and may cost billions of US taxpayer dollars."