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South Korean cryptocurrency specialist Do Kwon pleaded guilty to fraud charges in front of a New York judge on Tuesday following his firm’s multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy, court filings showed.Do Kwon, who founded Terraform and nurtured two cryptocurrencies central to the bankruptcy, had faced nine counts in a superseding indictment filed by prosecutors in January 2025 to …

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Egypt said Tuesday it was working with fellow Gaza mediators Qatar and the United States to broker a 60-day truce, as part of a renewed push to end the Israel-Hamas war.Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty made the announcement at a press conference in Cairo, as two Palestinian sources told AFP that a senior Hamas delegation was due to meet Egyptian officials for talks on Wednesday.Diplomacy aimed at securing an elusive ceasefire and hostage release deal in the 22-month-old war has stalled for weeks, after the latest round of negotiations broke down in July.Abdelatty said that “we are working very hard now in full cooperation with the Qataris and Americans”, aiming for “a ceasefire for 60 days, with the release of some hostages and some Palestinian detainees, and the flow of humanitarian and medical assistance to Gaza without restrictions, without conditions”.One of the Palestinian sources earlier told AFP that the mediators were working “to formulate a new comprehensive ceasefire agreement proposal” that would include the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza “in one batch”.Mediation efforts led by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to secure a breakthrough since a short-lived truce earlier this year.The Hamas delegation expected in Cairo, led by the group’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, is scheduled to meet Egyptian officials on Wednesday to “discuss the latest developments” in negotiations, said the second Palestinian source.News of the potential truce talks came as Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel has intensified its air strikes on Gaza City in recent days, following a government decision to expand the war there.- Intensified strikes -Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has not provided an exact timetable on when forces may enter the area, but civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said on Tuesday that air raids had already begun increasing over the past three days.Bassal said the neighbourhoods of Zeitun and Sabra have been hit “with very heavy air strikes targeting civilian homes”.”For the third consecutive day, the Israeli occupation is intensifying its bombardment” using “bombs, drones, and also highly explosive munitions that cause massive destruction”, he said.Bassal said that Israeli strikes across the territory, including on Gaza City, killed at least 33 people on Tuesday.”The bombardment has been extremely intense for the past two days. With every strike, the ground shakes,” said Majed al-Hosary, a resident of Gaza City’s Zeitun.”There are martyrs under the rubble that no one can reach because the shelling hasn’t stopped.”An Israeli air strike on Sunday killed five Al Jazeera employees and a freelance reporter outside a Gaza City hospital, with Israel accusing one of the slain Al Jazeera correspondents of being a Hamas militant.Israel has faced mounting criticism over the war, which was triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 2023 attack.UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in the territory, where Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allowed in.Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to secure the release of the remaining hostages — 49 people including 27 the Israeli military says are dead — as well as over his plans to expand the war.The Israeli premier has vowed to keep on with or without the backing of Israel’s allies.Hamas’s 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s offensive has killed at least 61,599 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, whose toll the United Nations considers reliable.

Nestled among shops in a bustling market in north Lebanon’s Tripoli, Mohammed al-Shaar is at his workshop making traditional tarboosh hats, keeping up a family craft despite dwindling demand.With a thimble on one finger, Shaar, 38, cuts, sews and carefully assembles the pieces of the conical, flat-topped felt hat also known as a fez, attaching a tassel to the top.Reputedly the last tarboosh craftsman in Lebanon, the Tripoli native has been making the hats for 25 years in know-how passed on by his grandfather.”Our family has been carrying on this craft for 125 years,” said Shaar, who also studied tarboosh making in Egypt.The brimless hats made with maroon, black or green felt, some bearing floral motifs or embroidered with Lebanon’s national emblem, the cedar, sit on display in the small workshop.While the tarboosh has been around in Lebanon for several centuries, it became particularly common during the late Ottoman period.”The tarboosh used to have great value — it was part of day-to-day dress, and the Lebanese were proud of it,” Shaar said, noting the hat now is largely seen as a traditional item or appealing to tourists.”Nowadays, people barely wear the tarboosh, except for traditional events,” he said.As well as a onetime symbol of prestige or social status, the hat was used for non-verbal communication, Shaar said.”When a man wanted to woo a beautiful young woman, he used to slightly tip his tarboosh to the left or right,” he said, while knocking someone’s tarboosh off was offensive. As successive crises have hit Lebanon, including a catastrophic 2020 port explosion in Beirut and a recent war between Israel and Hezbollah, tourism has diminished.Shaar said his “work has slowed, and demand for the tarboosh has dropped” as a result.Sales have plummeted to just four or five of his handmade hats a month compared to around 50 before the crisis, he said.Recent customers have mainly been music and dance troops, or religious figures who wear the tarboosh covered with a turban.Shaar said he used to employ three others but now works alone, selling his handmade hats for around $30.But he said he wasn’t about to close up shop or abandon his passion for tarboosh making.”I feel like my soul is linked to this craft. I don’t want to shut or to stop working,” he said.

Embattled property giant China Evergrande Group said Tuesday it will delist from Hong Kong Stock Exchange as a heavier-than-expected debt burden weighed on its liquidation process.The Hong Kong bourse’s listing committee decided to cancel Evergrande’s listing as it had failed to meet a July deadline to resume trading, according to an exchange filing.Once China’s biggest …

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Labourer Shuai Hang went a week without work earlier this year when sky-high US tariffs on Chinese goods overwhelmed the warehouse he works at and slowed the company’s US-bound parcels to a trickle.But on Tuesday, after US President Donald Trump announced a truce on those duties would be extended, the depot in southern China’s manufacturing …

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The Council of Europe urged its member states on Tuesday to halt deliveries of weapons to Israel if they could be used for human rights violations.Michael O’Flaherty, the Council’s commissioner for human rights, said member states should do “their utmost to prevent and address violations of international human rights” in the conflict.”This includes applying existing legal standards to ensure that arms transfers are not authorised where there is a risk that they may be used to commit human rights violations,” he said, in a statement.It was also “essential to intensify efforts to provide relief to those affected by the conflict, by supporting efforts to ensure unhindered access for humanitarian assistance and by pressing for the immediate release of hostages”, O’Flaherty said.The call by the Council —  a human rights organisation representing 46 states — comes shortly after Germany said it would halt delivery to Israel of some weapons that could be used in Gaza as part of Israeli plans to take control of Gaza City.O’Flaherty said the Council had taken note of this and other government initiatives, and also of contributions by some national human rights structures in raising awareness.”However, more needs to be done, and quickly,” he said.Several world leaders have condemned Israel’s decision to widen the Gaza war.But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the plan to target the remaining Hamas strongholds in Gaza was “the best way to end the war”.