Eid 2023 moon sighting: When Saudi Arabia predicts the date of Eid al-Fitr and how Ramadan’s end is calculated

Image: Canva

Muslims around the world are currently fasting as they observe the final days of Ramadan. The end of the holy month and the arrival of Eid al-Fitr will be marked with celebrations centred around a large feast.

Eid al-Fitr is one of two Eid festivals in the Islamic calendar, and gives worshippers the opportunity to gather and commemorate the completion of a month without eating or drinking during daylight hours.

Like Ramadan and other Muslim observances, the date of Eid is calculated by the sighting of the moon, which means it cannot be predicted with complete accuracy too far in advance.

Moon sighting predictions suggest that Eid al-Fitr will likely be celebrated on Friday 21 April this year, according to the charity Islamic Relief and moonsighting.com, as Saudi Arabia is expected to sight the new crescent moon on Thursday night.

However, Saudi Arabia’s International Astronomy Centre has said the moon sighting may actually come on Friday, which would push Eid back to Saturday 22 April.

The centre said in a tweet: “We note that the International Astronomy Center is not an advertising agency, but rather a scientific centre that provides astronomical information.

The original article contained many details showing the conditions of sighting the crescent in various countries of the world, and based on it, the beginning of the month can be determined by the concerned authorities. Note that the criteria adopted for the beginning of the month in the Islamic world are multiple, and the sighting of the crescent may depend on non-local places.”

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development in Saudi Arabia has declared a four-day break for Eid Al-Fitr 2023, for both private sector employees and non-profit organizations. This holiday will commence on Thursday, April 20, after the completion of the workday.

مواعيد إجازة #عيد_الفطر_المبارك للقطاعين الخاص وغير الربحي. pic.twitter.com/XTjL0nqawj

— وزارة الموارد البشرية والتنمية الاجتماعية (@HRSD_SA) April 10, 2023

Across the region, moon-sighting committees announced the start of Ramadan, and many countries have introduced reduced working hours for the month.

Saudi Ramadan working hours

The ministry advised that office hours should be 10am to 3pm throughout the Holy month.

However, it advised that government agencies are able to be flexible depending on work requirements. A two-hour window is provided where agencies can start earlier or later than the advised start times.

If the Moon is spotted on Thursday, then Eid Al Fitr will be celebrated on Friday, April 21. Saudi Arabia has already declared a four-day weekend for Eid Al Fitr, which will run from April 20 to April 23.

Aside from Saudi Arabia, the UAE Moon sighting committee also called on all Muslims to spot the crescent Moon on Thursday night to mark the beginning of Eid Al Fitr 2023.

The UAE has officially declared a four-day holiday on account of Eid Al Fitr for both private and public sector employees, which will run from Thursday, April 20 until Sunday, April 23

On Sunday, the International Astronomy Centre said that Eid Al Fitr could fall on Saturday, April 22, based on moon sighting.

“The countries of the Islamic world will investigate the crescent of the month of Shawwal (Eid al Fitr 1444 AH) on Thursday, April 20, 2023 AD. Seeing the crescent on Thursday is not possible with the naked eye from anywhere in the Arab and Islamic world,” the International Astronomy Centre said via a Twitter post.

#Saudi Supreme Court to sight #Shawwal crescent on Thursday.#UAE_BARQ_EN pic.twitter.com/qHexYFQ7sO

— UAE BARQ (@UAE_BARQ_EN) April 18, 2023

“Seeing the crescent on Thursday is not possible with a telescope in most countries of the Arab and Islamic world, with the exception of parts of West Africa starting from Libya, but vision remains very difficult and requires an accurate telescope, a professional observer and exceptional weather conditions, and the combination of these factors is rare, and therefore it is not expected to see the crescent, even using a telescope, from anywhere in the Arab world, unless the aforementioned conditions are available.

Russian forces control almost all of Artyomovsk, says DPR head’s advisor

©Valentin Sprinchak/TASS

Russian forces have taken control of almost 90% of the city of Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut in Ukraine), Yan Gagin, an advisor to the Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DPR) leader, told TASS on Tuesday.

"The Wagner private military company controls about 90% of Artyomovsk and its advance is inevitable," he said.

Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on April 11 that Russian forces controlled more than 80% of Artyomovsk, including all administrative buildings.

Gagin specified that Ukrainian troops were booby-trapping and blowing up major infrastructure facilities before leaving the western outskirts of Artyomovsk. "The Ukrainian armed forces are okay with using scorched earth tactics. This is what they did in Volnovakha and Mariupol, and now, they are blowing up and booby-trapping major infrastructure facilities in Artyomovsk before retreating from the western outskirts of the city. A local community center was one of the buildings that they blew up recently," Gagin noted.

Earlier, he told TASS that Ukraine was redeploying troops to Artyomovsk but the majority of new soldiers were getting killed on their approach to the city.

Artyomovsk, located in the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), is an important transport hub in terms of Ukrainian military supplies. Heavy fighting is raging in the area.

Special operation, 16 April. Main:

▪️Russian air defense systems over the past day shot down 4 Ukrainian drones, three HARM anti-radar missiles and 10 HIMARS and Uragan MLRS shells, the Russian Defense Ministry said

▪️Wagner detachments liberated two more quarters in Artemovsk, the Russian Defense Ministry said

▪️The southern group of troops of the Russian Armed Forces in the Donetsk direction destroyed up to 145 Ukrainian military and 14 pieces of equipment in a day, the Russian Defense Ministry reported

▪️In the Kupyansk and Krasnolimansky directions, Kyiv lost about 115 military personnel per day, the Russian defense department said

▪️French journalists arrived in Gulyaipole, probably to prepare provocative videos about Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure, the Russian Defense Ministry reported

▪️Italy transferred about 20 M109L self-propelled artillery mounts to Kyiv, the train with them passed through the railway station of the northern city of Udine on Saturday, the newspapers la Repubblica and Corriere della Sera reported on Sunday

▪️Pope Francis congratulated all Christians who this Sunday celebrate the feast of the Holy Resurrection of Christ, and especially addressed the believers in Russia and Ukraine, wishing them peace

▪️On Easter night, Ukrainian troops shelled Donetsk, hitting the area of ​​the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral, where the Easter service was taking place, the DPR representative office in the JCCC reported, a civilian was killed, seven people were injured.

Special operation, 17 April. Main:

▪️Assault detachments captured two quarters in the north-west and in the center of Artemovsk, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

▪️US resources for military assistance to Ukraine are not unlimited, the Pentagon said.

▪️They noted that the supply of F-16 fighters to Ukraine will take 1.5 years if such a decision is made, and the White House noted that they do not intend to accept it.

▪️Slovakia has completed the transfer of MiG-29 fighters to Kyiv, the Minister of Defense said: 13 aircraft are "already in Ukraine."

▪️Political will and ability to help Kyiv are declining in 10 European countries, Newsweek writes, citing classified documents.

▪️More than $45 billion of international aid has been received by the Ukrainian budget since the beginning of the Russian special operation, said the MP Zheleznyak.

▪️The Cabinet of Ministers of Slovakia followed the example of Poland and Hungary - approved a ban on the import of certain Ukrainian products, it will come into force on April 19 and may affect grain, vegetables and fruits.

▪️The SBU announced the detention of the ex-head of the Kherson railway station, he is accused of cooperation with Russia.

The start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive is scheduled for April 30, the West is actively preparing Ukraine for it, Newsweek writes, citing secret documents leaked to the network.

▪️The US Ambassador was invited to a meeting of the State Duma Commission on April 18 to give explanations about the activities of biological laboratories in Ukraine, but she refused to come.

▪️Russia is interested in the conflict in Ukraine to end as soon as possible, Lavrov said.

Maling Berkedok Petugas PLN Beraksi di Leuwiliang

Aksi maling, pelaku berpura - pura mengaku sebagai petugas PLN, yang beraksi di Desa Kalong, Kecamatan Leuwiliang, Kabupaten Bogor, pada hari Senin, 17/04/2023.

Kapolsek Leuwiliang, Kompol Agus Supriyanto menjelaskan, pelaku beraksi seorang diri tersebut, masuk ke kamar rumah warga yang tidak terkunci, lalu mengambil handphone tergeletak di lantai sedang dicharge.

“Modusnya itu, dia jadi petugas PLN hendak memeriksa meteran listrik. Terus dia masuk ke kamar yang tidak terkunci, lalu ada handphone di lantas lagi dicharge kemudian diambil pelaku,” kata Agus Supriyanto, pada hari Selasa, 18/04/2023.

Pelaku yang melihat rumah sedang sepi, masuk dalam kamar yang kondisinya tidak terkunci. Ia pun langsung mengambil sebuah handphone yang tergeletak di lantai karena sedang di-charge.

Korban yang mengetahui aksi pelaku, kemudian coba menghentikan pelaku yang coba melarikan diri dengan sepeda motor. Korban pun sempat terseret sejauh lima meter namun pelaku berhasil melarikan diri

“Korban sempat terseret dan mengalami luka memar dan lecet pada bagian pipi, mata, lutut, lengan dan pundaknya,” kata Agus.

Korban kemudian melapor ke Polsek Leuwiliang yang kemudian melakukan olah TKP sebagai upaya mengungkap pelaku.

Ia pun menekankan, pihaknya telah menggelar olah TKP di lokasi kejadian. Beberapa saksi juga telah dimintai keterangan.

“Proses tindakan kepolisian dengan penyelidikan pun saat ini sedang terus didalami, sebagai bahan pengungkapan kasus,” tekannya.

Elon Musk says he will launch rival to Microsoft-backed ChatGPT

Billionaire Elon Musk said he will launch an artificial intelligence (AI), which he calls “TruthGPT”, to challenge the offerings from Microsoft and Google.

He criticised Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the firm behind chatbot sensation ChatGPT, for “training the AI to lie” and said that OpenAI has now become a “closed source”, “for-profit” organisation “closely allied with Microsoft”.

He also accused Google co-founder Larry Page of not taking AI safety seriously.

“I’m going to start something which I call ‘TruthGPT’, or a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe,” Mr Musk said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s anchor Tucker Carlson, which aired on Monday.

He said TruthGPT “might be the best path to safety” that would be “unlikely to annihilate humans”.

“It’s simply starting late. But I will try to create a third option,” Mr Musk said.

Mr Musk, OpenAI, Microsoft and Mr Page did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Mr Musk has been poaching AI researchers from Alphabet Inc’s Google to launch a start-up to rival OpenAI, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

In March, Mr Musk registered a firm named X.AI Corp, incorporated in Nevada, according to a state filing.

The firm lists him as the sole director and Mr Jared Birchall, managing director of Mr Musk’s family office, as a secretary.

The move came even after Mr Musk and a group of AI experts and industry executives called for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI’s newly launched GPT-4, citing potential risks to society.

Mr Musk also reiterated his warnings about AI during the interview with Mr Carlson, saying “AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production”, according to the excerpts.

“It has the potential of civilisational destruction,” Mr Musk said.

He said, for example, that a super intelligent AI can write incredibly well and potentially manipulate public opinions.

He also tweeted at the weekend that he met former United States president Barack Obama when Mr Obama was in office and told him that Washington needed to “encourage AI regulation”.

Mr Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but stepped down from the company’s board in 2018.

In 2019, he tweeted that he left OpenAI because he had to focus on Tesla and SpaceX.

He also tweeted at that time that other reasons for his departure from OpenAI were that “Tesla was competing for some of the same people as OpenAI and I didn’t agree with some of what (the) OpenAI team wanted to do”.

Mr Musk, who is chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, is also CEO of social media platform Twitter, which he bought for US$44 billion (S$58.6 billion) in 2022.

In the interview with Fox News, he said he recently valued Twitter at “less than half” of the acquisition price.

In January, Microsoft Corp announced a further multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, intensifying competition with rival Google and fuelling the race to attract AI funding in Silicon Valley.

Dmitry Medvedev Blasts Blinken for Nuclear Omission

FILE PHOTO: Dmitry Medvedev.
©Sputnik / Ekaterina Shtukina

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has lashed out at US Secretary of State Antony Blinken after the diplomat lamented the suffering of the Japanese people from atomic bombings while failing to mention that his country had carried out the attacks.

Following a summit of G7 foreign ministers in the Japanese town of Karuizawa on Tuesday, Blinken was asked if there was “tangible progress” towards the idea of a world free of nuclear weapons.

Japan is the current chair of the G7 and is set to host a summit of leaders in Hiroshima in May.

Blinken remarked that Hiroshima and Nagasaki offer “the most powerful reminder of unprecedented devastation and immense human suffering that the people of Japan experienced as a result of the atomic bombings of 1945.”

The US dropped nuclear bombs on the two cities in the latter stages of World War II, paving the way for the full occupation of Japan by American troops and undercutting military action by the USSR.

Blinken “did not mention his nation, which committed this crime,” former Russian leader Medvedev noted in response to the remarks.

“What deceitful creatures they are. They use nuclear weapons, but don’t repent for it,” added the official, who currently serves as deputy chair of the Russian National Security Council.

In his remarks in Japan, Blinken explained that G7 foreign ministers had discussed nuclear non-proliferation and arms control on the last day of their summit.

He criticized nations which he claimed posed “nuclear threats,” including North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China. Moscow was targeted by the US diplomat for its suspension of the New START treaty and supposedly “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric,” while Beijing was condemned for allegedly conducting an “opaque and rapid buildup of its own nuclear arsenal.”

New START is the last surviving Cold War-era treaty between Washington and Moscow on nuclear arms control. Moscow suspended its participation in February, claiming that the US had barred Russian inspectors from visiting nuclear sites and that Washington was using Ukraine to attack Russia’s nuclear forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the treaty had been signed at a time when the US and its allies, including nuclear powers France and the UK, were not attempting to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Moscow.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan arrives in Syria’s Damascus

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud arriving at Damascus International Airport. (Twitter/@KSAMOFA)

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan arrived Tuesday in Syria’s Damascus on an official visit, Saudi state TV al-Ekhbariya reported.

Prince Faisal was received by the Minister of Presidential Affairs of Syria, Mansour Fadlallah Azzam, at Damascus International Airport.

Last week, the Saudi prince held talks with his Syrian counterpart, Faisal al-Miqdad, in Jeddah.

A joint statement was issued confirming that the talks discussed achieving a settlement in Syria due to its return to its Arab surroundings, as well as ways to find a political solution that preserves the unity of Syria.

The joint statement stressed the importance of resolving the humanitarian difficulties in Syria, and finding appropriate means to deliver humanitarian aid.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Syrian state media reported, in the most significant step yet towards ending Syria’s decade-long regional isolation.

Bin Farhan landed in Damascus on Tuesday, a week after his Syrian counterpart visited Saudi Arabia. The two countries agreed to re-establish diplomatic ties last month.

The visit comes days after Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visited the Kingdom, on the first such trip since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

Foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq held a summit in Jeddah to discuss Syria’s possible return to the Arab fold following the Syrian official’s visit.

Saudi Arabia and Syria have agreed to resume diplomatic ties, where the flurry of political activity comes ahead of Arab League’s next summit in Riyadh on May 19.

C.Suisse to Move Forward Q1 Earnings, Report Before UBS

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen in front of a branch office in Bern, Switzerland November 29, 2022. REUTERS/Arnd WiegmannREUTERS

Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) will bring forward its first-quarter earnings by three days to April 24, it said on Tuesday, a move that could allow UBS (UBSG.S) to speak more freely at its earnings the following day.

The bank is being taken over by UBS in a government organised deal that will create a lender with more than $5 trillion in invested assets.

Credit Suisse and UBS both declined to comment on the change.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has approved the deal and European Union antitrust regulators granted it a temporary approval this month.

The Bank of England has approved the takeover in the United Kingdom, people familiar with the process have told Reuters.

UBS plans to acquire Credit Suisse. The combination is expected to create a business with more than USD 5 trillion in total invested assets and sustainable value opportunities. It will further strengthen UBS’s position as the leading Swiss-based global wealth manager with more than USD 3.4 trillion in invested assets on a combined basis, operating in the most attractive growth markets.

The transaction reinforces UBS’s position as the leading universal bank in Switzerland. The combined businesses will be a leading asset manager in Europe, with invested assets of more than USD 1.5 trillion.

UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher said: “This acquisition is attractive for UBS shareholders but, let us be clear, as far as Credit Suisse is concerned, this is an emergency rescue. We have structured a transaction which will preserve the value left in the business while limiting our downside exposure. Acquiring Credit Suisse’s capabilities in wealth, asset management and Swiss universal banking will augment UBS’s strategy of growing its capital-light businesses. The transaction will bring benefits to clients and create long-term sustainable value for our investors.”

UBS Chief Executive Officer Ralph Hamers said: “Bringing UBS and Credit Suisse together will build on UBS’s strengths and further enhance our ability to serve our clients globally and deepen our best-in-class capabilities. The combination supports our growth ambitions in the Americas and Asia while adding scale to our business in Europe, and we look forward to welcoming our new clients and colleagues across the world in the coming weeks.”

The discussions were initiated jointly by the Swiss Federal Department of Finance, FINMA and the Swiss National Bank and the acquisition has their full support.

Under the terms of the all-share transaction, Credit Suisse shareholders will receive 1 UBS share for every 22.48 Credit Suisse shares held, equivalent to CHF 0.76/share for a total consideration of CHF 3 billion. UBS benefits from CHF 25 billion of downside protection from the transaction to support marks, purchase price adjustments and restructuring costs, and additional 50% downside protection on non-core assets. Both banks have unrestricted access to the Swiss National Bank existing facilities, through which they can obtain liquidity from the SNB in accordance with the guidelines on monetary policy instruments.

The combination of the two businesses is expected to generate annual run-rate of cost reductions of more than USD 8 billion by 2027.

UBS Investment Bank will reinforce its global competitive position with institutional, corporate and wealth management clients through the acceleration of strategic goals in Global Banking while managing down the rest of Credit Suisse’s Investment Bank. The combined investment banking businesses accounts for approximately 25% of Group risk weighted assets.

UBS anticipates that the transaction is EPS accretive by 2027 and the bank remains capitalized well above its target of 13%.

Colm Kelleher will be Chairman and Ralph Hamers will be Group CEO of the combined entity.

The transaction is not subject to shareholder approval. UBS has obtained pre-agreement from FINMA, Swiss National Bank, Swiss Federal Department of Finance and other core regulators on the timely approval of the transaction.