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  • Israeli protesters demand hostage deal as cabinet meets

    Israeli protesters demand hostage deal as cabinet meets

    Tel Aviv: Thousands of demonstrators massed in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, seeking to push the government to end the war in Gaza and strike a deal to return hostages, as the security cabinet convened.

    The first protests began at daybreak as demonstrators blocked roads in the commercial hub, where they waved Israeli flags and held up pictures of the hostages, AFP journalists reported.

    Israeli media said others rallied near the US embassy branch in the city, as well as outside the houses of various ministers.

    Hours later as the sun set over Tel Aviv, thousands more gathered in “Hostage Square”, which has served as a focal point for the protest movement for months.

    People in the crowd sounded air horns, blew whistles and banged on drums as they chanted: “The government is failing us, we won’t give up until every hostage is home.”

    “I’m here first and foremost to protest, and to call for the government to make a deal and bring all the hostages home and to end the war,” said demonstrator Yoav Vider, 29.

    Following the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later spoke at an event Tuesday evening, remaining vague about the government’s intentions as Israeli media reported the meeting had been inconclusive.

    “We have just come from a cabinet meeting. I don’t think I can elaborate too much,” said Netanyahu.

    “But I will say one thing: It started in Gaza, and it will end in Gaza.”

    Israel is under mounting international pressure to wrap up its Gaza campaign, with Donald Trump’s envoy saying the US president would host a meeting on post-war plans for the shattered enclave Wednesday.

    “We’ve got a large meeting in the White House tomorrow, chaired by the president, and it’s a very comprehensive plan we’re putting together on the next day,” Steve Witkoff said on Fox News Tuesday, without offering more details.

    – Cabinet meeting –

    The security cabinet approved a plan in early August for the military to take over Gaza City, triggering fresh fears for the safety of the hostages and a new wave of protests that has seen tens of thousands take to the streets.

    Netanyahu last week ordered immediate talks aimed at securing the release of all remaining captives in Gaza, while also doubling down on the plans for a new offensive to seize Gaza’s largest city.

    That came days after Hamas said it had accepted a new ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators that would see the staggered release of hostages over an initial 60-day period in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

    In Doha on Tuesday, Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a regular news conference that mediators were still “waiting for an answer” from Israel to the latest proposal.

    “The responsibility now lies on the Israeli side to respond to an offer that is on the table. Anything else is political posturing by the Israeli side.”

    Earlier in the day, the families of hostages in Tel Aviv lambasted the government for failing to prioritise a deal that could see those still held captive in Gaza released.

    “Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu prioritises the destruction of Hamas over releasing the hostages,” said Ruby Chen, whose son was abducted by militants in October 2023.

    “He believes it is OK and it is a valid alternative to sacrifice 50 hostages for political needs,” he said in a speech to one of Tuesday’s demonstrations.

    – Journalists killed –

    Pressure is building on Israel both at home and abroad to end its campaign in Gaza, where famine has been declared and much of the territory has been devastated.

    On Monday, Israeli strikes hit a Gaza hospital, killing at least 20 people, including five journalists working for Al Jazeera, the Associated Press and Reuters, among other outlets.

    Governments around the world, including staunch Israeli allies, expressed shock at the attack.

    The Israeli military on Tuesday said its forces were targeting a camera operated by Hamas in two strikes that killed the reporters.

    Hamas later rejected the allegations, calling them baseless.

    The war in Gaza has been one of the deadliest for journalists, with around 200 media workers killed in the nearly two-year Israeli assault, according to press watchdogs.

    Later Tuesday, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that at least 35 people were killed in attacks throughout the Palestinian territory.

  • UN nuclear watchdog chief says inspectors ‘back in Iran’

    UN nuclear watchdog chief says inspectors ‘back in Iran’

    WASHINGTON: The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has said a team of its inspectors are “back in Iran,” the first to enter since Israeli and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities this year.

    Iran suspended cooperation with the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency following a 12-day war with Israel in June, with Tehran pointing to the IAEA’s failure to condemn Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities.

    “Now the first team of IAEA inspectors is back in Iran, and we are about to restart,” director general Rafael Grossi told Fox News’ “The Story” in an interview aired on Tuesday.

    “When it comes to Iran, as you know, there are many facilities. Some were attacked, some were not,” Grossi said.

    “So we are discussing what kind of… practical modalities can be implemented in order to facilitate the restart of our work there.”

    The announcement came as Iran held talks with Britain, France and Germany in Geneva on Tuesday, with Tehran seeking to avert a sanctions snapback which the European powers have threatened to impose under a moribund 2015 nuclear deal.

    Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who attended the talks, said it was “high time” for the European trio “to make the right choice and give diplomacy time and space”.

    Britain, France and Germany — parties to the 2015 deal — have threatened to trigger the accord’s “snapback mechanism” by the end of August.

    Tuesday’s meeting was the second round of talks with European diplomats since the end of the June war, which was triggered by an unprecedented Israeli attack.

    The conflict derailed Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the United States.

    It also cast a chill on Iran’s ties with the IAEA, with Tehran blaming the UN agency in part for the attacks on its nuclear facilities.

    The 2015 nuclear deal was torpedoed in 2018 by Donald Trump, during his first term as president, when he unilaterally withdrew the United States and slapped sanctions on Iran.

  • Trump to chair ‘large meeting’ on post-war Gaza: US envoy

    Trump to chair ‘large meeting’ on post-war Gaza: US envoy

    WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will host a meeting on Wednesday on post-war plans for Gaza, his envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday.

    “We’ve got a large meeting in the White House tomorrow, chaired by the president, and it’s a very comprehensive plan we’re putting together on the next day,” Witkoff said in a Fox News interview, without providing more details.

    He was asked if there was “a plan for a day after in Gaza,” referencing the end of Israel’s war in the Palestinian territory that began in October 2023.

    Trump stunned the world earlier this year when he suggested the United States should take control of the Gaza Strip, clear out its two million inhabitants and build seaside real estate.

    Trump said the United States would remove rubble and unexploded bombs and turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the proposal, which was heavily criticized by many European and Arab states.

    Witkoff did not elaborate on the plan he touted Tuesday, but said he believed that people would “see how robust it is and how it’s, how well meaning, it is.”

    The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

    Israel’s offensive on Gaza has killed at least 62,819 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

  • US 50% tariffs on Indian goods over Russian oil take effect

    US 50% tariffs on Indian goods over Russian oil take effect

    WASHINGTON: US tariffs of 50 percent took effect Wednesday on many Indian products, doubling an existing duty as President Donald Trump sought to punish New Delhi for buying Russian oil.

    Trump has raised pressure on India over the energy transactions, a key source of revenue for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, as part of a campaign to end the conflict.

    The latest salvo strains US-India ties, giving New Delhi fresh incentive to improve relations with Beijing.

    While Trump has slapped fresh duties on allies and competitors alike since returning to the presidency in January, this 50-percent level is among the highest that US trading partners face.

    Crucially, however, exemptions remain for sectors that could be hit with separate levies — like pharmaceuticals and computer chips.

    The Trump administration has launched investigations into these and other sectors that could culminate in further duties. Smartphones are in the list of exempted products as well.

    Industries that have already been singled out, such as steel, aluminum and automobiles, are similarly spared these countrywide levies.

    The United States was India’s top export destination in 2024, with shipments worth $87.3 billion.

    But analysts have cautioned that a 50-percent duty is akin to a trade embargo and is likely to harm smaller firms.

    Exporters of textiles, seafood and jewelry were already reporting cancelled US orders and losses to rivals such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, raising fears of heavy job cuts.

    ‘Eroded trust’

    New Delhi has criticized Washington’s move as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.”

    The world’s fifth-largest economy is looking to cushion the blow, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi promising to lower the tax burden on citizens during an annual speech to mark India’s independence.

    Modi earlier vowed self-reliance as well, pledging to defend his country’s interests.

    The foreign ministry previously said India had begun importing oil from Russia as traditional supplies were diverted to Europe over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    It noted that Washington actively encouraged such imports at the time to strengthen stability in the global energy market.

    Russia accounted for nearly 36 percent of India’s total crude oil imports in 2024. Buying Russian oil saved India billions of dollars on import costs, keeping domestic fuel prices relatively stable.

    But the Trump administration held firm on its tariff plans in the lead-up to Wednesday’s deadline.

    Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters last week that “India doesn’t appear to want to recognize its role in the bloodshed.”

    “It’s cozying up to Xi Jinping,” Navarro added, referring to the Chinese president.

    Wendy Cutler, senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told AFP: “One of the most troubling developments in the Trump tariff saga is how India moved from a promising candidate for an early trade deal to a nation facing among the highest tariffs imposed by the US against any trading partner.”

    Cutler, a former US trade official, said India has been reforming and opening despite its history of being tough on trade matters.

    But these trends may be called into question with Trump’s sharp levies.

    “The high tariffs have quickly eroded trust between the two countries, which could take years to rebuild,” she said.

    Trump has used tariffs as a tool for addressing everything from what Washington deems as unfair trade practices to trade imbalances.

    US trade deficits were a key justification behind his higher duties on dozens of economies taking effect in early August — hitting partners from the European Union to Indonesia.

    But the 79-year-old Republican has also taken aim at specific countries such as Brazil over the trial of its former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of plotting a coup.

    US tariffs on many Brazilian goods surged to 50 percent this month, but with broad exemptions.

  • Typhoon death toll rises in Vietnam as downed trees hamper rescuers

    Typhoon death toll rises in Vietnam as downed trees hamper rescuers

    VINH, Vietnam: The death toll from Typhoon Kajiki rose to three in Vietnam on Tuesday, as rescue workers battled uprooted trees and downed power lines and widespread flooding brought chaos to the streets of the capital Hanoi.

    The typhoon hit central Vietnam on Monday with winds of up to 130 km/h (80 mph), tearing roofs off thousands of homes and knocking out power to more than 1.6 million people.

    Authorities on Tuesday said three people had been killed and 13 injured, and warned of possible flash floods and landslides in eight provinces as Kajiki’s torrential rains continue to wreak havoc.

    On the streets of Vinh, in central Vietnam, AFP journalists saw soldiers and rescue workers using cutting equipment to clear dozens of trees and roof panels that had blocked the roads.

    “A huge steel roof was blown down from the eighth floor of a building, landing right in the middle of the street,” Tran Van Hung, 65, told AFP.

    “It was so lucky that no one was hurt. This typhoon was absolutely terrifying.”

    Vietnam has long been affected by seasonal typhoons, but human-caused climate change is driving more intense and unpredictable weather patterns.

    This can make destructive floods and storms more likely, particularly in the tropics.

    “The wind yesterday night was so strong. The sound from trees twisting and the noise of the flying steel panels were all over the place,” Vinh resident Nguyen Thi Hoa, 60, told AFP.

    “We are used to heavy rain and floods but I think I have never experienced that strong wind and its gust like this yesterday.”

    Flooding has cut off 27 villages in mountainous areas inland, authorities said, while more than 44,000 people were evacuated as the storm approached.

    – Chaos in Hanoi –

    Further north in Hanoi, the heavy rains left many streets under water, bringing traffic chaos on Tuesday morning.

    “It was impossible to move around this morning. My front yard is also flooded,” Nguyen Thuy Lan, 44, told AFP.

    Another Hanoi resident, Tran Luu Phuc, said he was stuck in one place for more than an hour, unable to escape the logjam of vehicles trapped by the murky brown waters.

    “The flooding and the traffic this morning are terrible. It’s a big mess everywhere,” he told AFP.

    After hitting Vietnam and weakening to a tropical depression, Kajiki swept westwards over northern Laos, bringing intense rains.

    The high-speed Laos-China railway halted all services on Monday and Tuesday, and some roads have been cut, but there were no immediate reports of deaths.

    In Vietnam, more than 100 people have been killed or left missing from natural disasters in the first seven months of 2025, according to the agriculture ministry.

    In September last year Typhoon Yagi battered northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, triggering floods and landslides that left more than 700 people dead and causing billions of dollars’ worth of economic losses.

  • Tokyo protests to Beijing over gas field in East China Sea

    Tokyo protests to Beijing over gas field in East China Sea

    TOKYO: Japan has lodged a protest with China after discovering what it says were efforts by Beijing to develop gas fields in disputed waters of the East China Sea.

    Tokyo’s foreign ministry said late Monday it had confirmed that Beijing was setting up drilling rigs in the area — where the two countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) claims overlap — and submitted a complaint to the Chinese embassy.

    “It is extremely regrettable that China is advancing unilateral development,” the ministry said, noting it had taken place on the Chinese side of the de facto maritime border.

    The ministry accused China of positioning 21 suspected drilling rigs, with Tokyo fearing gas on the Japanese side could also be extracted.

    Japan “issued a strong protest” to the Chinese embassy, the ministry said.

    It “strongly urged China for an early resumption of talks on the implementation” of a 2008 bilateral agreement regarding the development of resources in the East China Sea, it added.

    That agreement saw Japan and China agree to jointly develop undersea gas reserves in the disputed area, with a ban on independent drilling by either country.

    But negotiations over how to implement the deal were suspended in 2010.

    Japan has long insisted the median line between the two nations should mark the limits of their respective EEZs.

    China, however, insists the border should be drawn closer to Japan, taking into account the continental shelf and other ocean features.

    The two countries are embroiled in a separate row over disputed islands elsewhere in the East China Sea.

    China claims the string of islands — which Japan refers to as the Senkakus and are known as the Diaoyu by Beijing — as its own, and regularly sends ships and aircraft into the area to test Tokyo’s response times.

    China also has disputes with several other nations in the South China Sea, which it claims in its entirety.

  • Australia expels Iran ambassador over antisemitic attacks

    Australia expels Iran ambassador over antisemitic attacks

    SYDNEY: Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador on Tuesday, accusing the country of being behind antisemitic arson attacks in Melbourne and Sydney.

    It marks the first time Australia has expelled an ambassador since World War II.

    Intelligence services reached a “deeply disturbing conclusion” that Iran directed at least two antisemitic attacks, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

    Tehran was behind a fire attack on a kosher cafe, the Lewis Continental Cafe, in Sydney’s Bondi suburb in October 2024, the prime minister told a news conference.

    It also directed an arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024, the prime minister said, citing the intelligence findings.

    No physical injuries were reported in the two attacks.

    “These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” Albanese said.

    “They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community. It is totally unacceptable.”

    Australia declared Iranian ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi “persona non grata” and ordered him and three other officials to leave the country within seven days.

    Australia also withdrew its own ambassador to Iran and suspended the embassy’s operations in Tehran.

    The Australian diplomats were all “safe in a third country”, the prime minister said.

    Australia will also legislate to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, he said.

    Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it was the first time in the post war period that Australia had expelled an ambassador.

    Australia would maintain diplomatic lines with Iran to advance the interests of Australians, Wong said.

    ‘Web of proxies’

    Australia has had an embassy in Tehran since 1968.

    Though Australians have been advised not to travel through Iran since 2020, Wong said that Canberra’s ability to provide consular assistance was now “extremely limited”.

    “I do know that many Australians have family connections in Iran, but I urge any Australian who might be considering traveling to Iran, please do not do so,” she said.

    “Our message is, if you are an Australian in Iran, leave now if it is safe to do so.”

    Australia’s spy chief Michael Burgess said a “painstaking” intelligence service investigation had uncovered links between the antisemitic attacks and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

    The probe found that the Guard directed at least two and “likely” more attacks on Jewish interests in Australia, said Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

    The Revolutionary Guard, the ideological arm of Iran’s military, used a complex web of proxies to hide its involvement in the attacks, he said.

    Iran’s embassy in Australia and its diplomats were not involved, however, the spy chief said.

    The Australian intelligence service is still investigating possible Iranian involvement in a number of other attacks, Burgess said.

  • New-look Alcaraz eases past Opelka at US Open

    New-look Alcaraz eases past Opelka at US Open

    Carlos Alcaraz unveiled a striking new hairstyle before giving Reilly Opelka the chop at the US Open on Monday. (more…)

  • Trump says he wants to meet North Korea’s Kim again

    Trump says he wants to meet North Korea’s Kim again

    US President Donald Trump said Monday he hoped to meet again with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, possibly this year, as he held White House talks with South Korea’s dovish new leader that got off awkwardly.

    Hours before President Lee Jae Myung arrived for his long-planned first visit to the White House, Trump took to social media to denounce what he said was a “Purge or Revolution” in South Korea, apparently over raids that involved churches.

    Forty minutes into an Oval Office meeting in which Lee profusely praised Trump, the US leader dismissed his own sharply worded rebuke, saying, “I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding” as “there is a rumor going around.”

    Trump said he believed he was on the same page on North Korea as Lee, a progressive who supports diplomacy over confrontation.

    Trump, who met Kim Jong Un three times in his first term, hailed his relationship with the young totalitarian and said he knew him “better than anybody, almost, other than his sister.”

    “Someday I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me,” Trump told reporters, saying he hoped the talks would take place this year.

    Trump contended that North Korea has been firing fewer rockets since he returned to the White House on January 20.

    The president has boasted that he has solved seven wars in as many months back in the job — a claim that is contested — but had been quiet on North Korea despite the unusually personal diplomacy during his 2017-2021 tenure.

    Trump once said that he and Kim “fell in love.” Their meetings reduced tensions but failed to produce a lasting agreement.

    Pyongyang rebuffed overtures from Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, which Trump said showed they did not respect him.

    But Kim has also been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from Russia after sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight.

    North Korea has dug in and refused any talk of ending its nuclear weapons program.

    ‘Trump Tower’ in Pyongyang

    Lee, a former labor rights lawyer who has criticized the US military in the past, immediately flattered his host and said Trump has made the United States “not a keeper of peace, but a maker of peace.”

    “I look forward to your meeting with Chairman Kim Jong Un and construction of Trump Tower in North Korea and playing golf” there, Lee told him.

    He even cited propaganda from North Korea that denounced South Korea by noting that Pyongyang said the relationship with Trump was better.

    Kim “will be waiting for you,” Lee told him.

    Lee was elected in June after the impeachment of the more hawkish Yoon Suk Yeol, who briefly imposed martial law.

    The raids denounced by Trump likely referred in part to investigations surrounding Yoon’s conservative allies.

    Seeking to buy base

    Lee spoke through an interpreter, breaking the pace of Trump, who does not hesitate to pick fights with his guests.

    Trump, who frequently accuses European allies of freeloading off the United States, made clear he would press hard for greater compensation by South Korea over the 28,500 US troops in the country.

    He suggested the United States could seek to take over base land, an idea likely to enrage Lee’s brethren on the South Korean left.

    “We spent a lot of money building a fort, and there was a contribution made by South Korea, but I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base,” Trump said.

    He also spoke bluntly about one of South Korea’s most delicate issues: so-called “comfort women” who were forced into sexual slavery during Japan’s 1910-1945 rule.

    The South Korean left has historically been outspoken about Japan’s legacy, although Lee visited Tokyo on his way to Washington, a highly symbolic stop praised by Trump.

    Japan had agreed to compensate comfort women but the deal was criticized by survivors who questioned Tokyo’s sincerity.

  • Israeli bulldozers uproot hundreds of trees in West Bank village

    Israeli bulldozers uproot hundreds of trees in West Bank village

    Al Mughayyir: Israeli bulldozers uprooted hundreds of trees in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir on Sunday in the presence of the Israeli military, according to AFP journalists who witnessed the scene.

    Most of the felled vegetation appeared to be olive trees, essential to the economy and culture of the West Bank, while olive groves have also long been a flashpoint for violent clashes between farmers and encroaching Israeli settlers.

    Abdelatif Mohammed Abu Aliya, a local farmer from the village near Ramallah, said he lost olive trees that were over 70 years old on about one hectare of land.

    “They completely uprooted and levelled them under false pretences,” he said, explaining he and other residents had already begun replanting the pulled-up trees.

    AFP photographers on the ground saw overturned soil, olive trees lying on the ground, and several bulldozers operating on the hills surrounding the village.

    One bulldozer had an Israeli flag, and Israeli military vehicles were parked nearby.

    “The goal is control and forcing people to leave. This is just the beginning — it will expand across the entire West Bank,” said Ghassan Abu Aliya, who leads a local agricultural association.

    Residents said the bulldozing began on Thursday. A Palestinian NGO reported 14 people had been arrested in the village over the past three days.

    When asked about the incident, the Israeli army told AFP late on Sunday it had “launched intensive operational activity in the area” following a “serious shooting attack near the village”.

    – ‘Heavy price’ –

    On August 16, the Palestinian Authority reported that an 18-year-old man had been shot and killed by the Israeli army in the same village.

    The army said its forces responded to stones thrown by “terrorists” but did not directly link the incident to the young man’s death.