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Federal prosecutors are investigating whether the Islamic fanatic accused of repeatedly knifing Salman Rushdie onstage last year had ties to any foreign governments or terrorist groups, according to a report.

Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt, who is overseeing the New York state case against 25-year-old Hadi Matar, told Semafor that the US Attorney’s Office has launched a separate probe into the suspect’s potential links to international organizations.

Matar, the son of Lebanese immigrants living in New Jersey, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and attempted murder in the frenzied attack on the celebrated British American author at a literary festival in upstate New York last August.

Rushdie, 75, who was the target of an infamous Islamic death edict in 1989 over his book “The Satanic Verses,” was left blinded in his right eye.

Schmidt said his office is wrapping up its preparations for Matar’s trial, which could start as early as next year. Hadi Matar, 25, who is accused of nearly killing celebrated author Salman Rushdie, is reportedly being probed by the Department of Justice over his potential ties to a foreign government or a terrorist group. Dan Cappellazzo

But the Department of Justice’s concern, which Schmidt said was outside his jurisdiction and above his “pay grade,” is whether Matar, who was known to have spent time in Lebanon, may have been radicalized or trained by the Islamist militant group Hezbollah.

At the time of his arrest on Aug. 12, 2022, Matar was found to be carrying a fake driver’s license bearing the name of a top Hezbollah commander.

There are some areas that we have to sort of confine ourselves to the four corners of the charges that we’ve asserted, which is essentially an ‘attempted murder in the second degree’ charge. That’s our top count, Schmidt told the outlet. That gets us away from some of the underlying motivations that went into the intent. Some of that have been sort of removed from us in our jurisdiction, and that’s something that the US Attorney’s Office has been looking at and they are dealing with. Rushdie, 75, lost sight in his right eye after being repeatedly stabbed at a literary festival in upstate New York last August. PA Images via Getty Images

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a Post request for comment Friday.

A main question from the attack has been whether Matar was a lone wolf or acted on behalf of Hezbollah or the Iranian regime.

Matar’s mother, Silvana Fardos, has told the New York Times that her son traveled to Lebanon in 2018 and likely stayed with his father in the town of Yaroun, which is known to be controlled by Hezbollah. Pro-Iranian Hezbollah fundamentalists burn an effigy of Rushdie on Feb. 26, 1989, accusing him of blasphemy for his book “The Satanic Verses.”AFP via Getty Images

Matar returned from that trip a Shiite zealot devoted to Iran’s Islamic revolution, according to his mom, who publicly disowned him in the wake of the attack on Rushdie.

The famous victim — and Indian-born Booker Prize winner — spent years in hiding with police protection after Irans Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, in 1989 calling for his death over the alleged blasphemy of the novel The Satanic Verses.

Nearly a decade later, the Iranian government distanced itself from the order, saying it would not back any effort to kill Rushdie — but the fatwa was never officially revoked.

In an exclusive jailhouse interview with The Post just days after his arrest, Matar praised the late Khomeini as a “great person” but would not say whether he was inspired by his fatwa against Rushdie.

The suspect denied being in contact with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and indicated that he was acting alone when he decided to drive up to Chautauqua after coming across a tweet about Rushdies upcoming visit.

I dont like the person. I dont think hes a very good person, he said about the Midnights Children writer. I dont like him. I dont like him very much. Hes someone who attacked Islam, he attacked their beliefs, the belief systems.

Tehran denied any role in the near-fatal attack on Rushdie last year but said, “Regarding the attack against Salman Rushdie in America, we don’t consider anyone deserving reproach, blame or even condemnation, except for [Rushdie] himself and his supporters.”

Rushdie, who also suffered nerve damage to his hand, has not blamed any foreign entities for the stabbing that nearly ended his life.

Asked about Matar’s upcoming trial, Rushdie told BBC News in July that he is not sure if he can “be bothered” to face him in court.

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Technology

Uber to acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan business for $950 million, creating a potential monopoly

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Uber to acquire Foodpanda's Taiwan business for 0 million, creating a potential monopoly

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – 2021/07/19: A foodpanda delivery man wearing a face mask rides past a Taiwanese flag ahead of the COVID-19 alert Level 3 restriction lift in Taipei. (Photo by Walid Berrazeg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Uber Technologies will acquire the Taiwan business of Delivery Hero-owned Foodpanda for $950 million in cash, as Foodpanda focuses on other markets.

The deal, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first half of 2025, the firms said in a joint statement on Monday.

In a separate agreement, Delivery Hero will sell $300 million in newly issued ordinary shares to Uber.

“We need to focus our resources on other parts of our global footprint, where we feel we can have the largest impact for customers, vendors and riders,” said Niklas Östberg, co-founder and CEO of Delivery Hero.

Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, senior vice president of delivery at Uber, said the Taiwan market is “fiercely competitive” and the acquisition would help them grow in the market “where online food delivery platforms today still represent just a small part of the food delivery landscape.” 

Foodpanda is one of the largest online food and grocery delivery platforms in Asia with a presence in markets including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, The Philippines and Hong Kong. In 2016, Germany’s Delivery Hero acquired the company.

Taiwan’s food delivery market is dominated by Foodpanda and Uber Eats. Data from insights platform Measurable AI up till August revealed that Foodpanda had a 52% market share by order volume in Taiwan, while Uber Eats held the remaining 48% share.

The deal would be one of the largest international acquisitions in Taiwan, not including those in the semiconductor chip industry, according to the joint statement.

Delivery Hero said in February it had ended talks to sell its Foodpanda business in selected Southeast Asian markets. Östberg told CNBC the same month that the firm was “happy” to hold on to its Foodpanda business in Southeast Asia “forever.”

– CNBC’s Ryan Browne and Dylan Butts contributed to this report.

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Business

Interest rate cut prospects threatened by pace of wage growth

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Interest rate cut prospects threatened by pace of wage growth

The prospects for an interest rate cut next month have not been helped by the latest wage growth figures which have come in higher than expected.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed regular wage growth, excluding the effects of bonuses, was 6% higher over the three months to March compared with a year earlier.

That was no lower than the sum reported the previous month.

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The ONS reported that total pay was also static, at an upwardly revised 5.7% for the period.

Economists had been expecting declines in both readings.

The data also showed a rise in the unemployment rate from 4.2% to 4.3%.

ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said: “We continue to see tentative signs that the jobs market is cooling, with both employment from our household survey and the number of workers on payroll showing falls in the latest periods.

“At the same time, the steady decline in the number of job vacancies has continued for a twenty-second consecutive month, although numbers remain above pre-pandemic levels.

“With unemployment also increasing, the number of unemployed people per vacancy has continued to rise, approaching levels seen before the onset of COVID-19.

“Earnings growth in cash terms remains high, with the recent falls in the rate now levelling off while, with inflation falling, real pay growth remains at its highest level in well over two years.”

The figures were released against a backdrop of intense speculation on the timing of a Bank of England interest rate cut.

The Bank, which last week signalled further progress in efforts to bring down inflation, has held the rate at 5.25% since last summer.

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‘Path is downwards’ on interest rates

The rate-setting committee wants to see a “sustainable” return to its 2% inflation target before imposing the first cut.

Wage growth has been among the stubborn factors of concern.

Read more:
UK no longer in recession
Interest rate cut is not far off – but there are complicating factors

The Bank feels that the pace, currently around double the rate of price growth, risks fuelling a second round of inflation because more discretionary spending could result in higher prices.

Its chief economist Huw Pill later said in a speech that the pay growth rates remain “quite well above” what would be consistent for meeting the target sustainably.

Inflation figures out next week, which cover the month of April, are tipped to show a sharp easing in the main consumer prices index (CPI) measure, largely due to plunging energy bills.

A figure just above 2% is forecast by economists.

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UK comes out of recession

The Bank has resisted the temptation to cut borrowing costs as it believes that figure could shift back up towards 3% in the second half of the year.

Financial markets saw a 53% chance of a rate cut on 20 June – the monetary policy committee’s (MPC’s) next meeting.

While restrictive monetary policy was largely blamed for the UK’s recession during the second half of 2023, the economy has since performed better than expected.

That complicates the picture for the MPC.

Separate ONS data last week showed a 0.6% rise in gross domestic product during the first quarter of the year.

As with the wage figures, the Bank will be anxious that a growth spurt risks fanning the flames of inflation.

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Policymakers have said their decisions will be data dependent.

There is a further employment report due from the ONS ahead of 20 June and two sets of inflation figures between today and that date.

Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said of the rate cut prospects: “Next month will be key in terms of pay data as it will provide initial evidence of the impact of April’s National Living Wage increase.

“If it comes in line with our expectations of only a modest boost, and sufficient to keep annual pay growth on a downward trajectory, this could ignite more dovish sentiment on the MPC ahead of their June vote.”

Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, believed the Bank would back a rate cut at its next meeting.

“Much as we have concerns over the jobs data, the labour market keeps gradually easing, and they give the MPC a hook to hang a June rate cut on,” he wrote.

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Technology

Tencent posts fastest profit growth in 3 years as online ads, business services offset slower gaming

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Tencent posts fastest profit growth in 3 years as online ads, business services offset slower gaming

Tencent has faced a number of headwinds in 2022 including a Covid-induced slowdown in the Chinese economy and a tougher market for gaming.

Bobby Yip | Reuters

Tencent beat analyst estimates for revenue and profit in the first quarter, thanks to slightly better sales in the Chinese tech giants core gaming business and improved profitability at its advertising and business services division.

Here’s how Tencent did in the March quarter versus LSEG consensus estimates:

  • Revenue: 159.5 billion Chinese yuan ($22 billion) versus 158.4 billion yuan expected.
  • Profit attributable to equity holders of the company: 41.9 billion yuan versus 36.64 billion yuan anticipated.

Tencent’s adjusted net profit was up 62% year-on-year, marking the fastest growth since the March quarter of 2021, according to LSEG data. Revenue jumped 6% year-on-year.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for more.

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