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Singapore key exports slip in July as US shipments tumble 42.7 pct

Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports slipped 4.6 percent in July from a year earlier, government data showed Monday, as shipments to the United States plunged by more than 40 percent.Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy is heavily reliant on international trade and is vulnerable to any global slowdown induced by the tariffs — even if Singapore only faces …

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Tourism deal puts one of Egypt’s last wild shores at risk

In Egypt’s Wadi al-Gemal, where swimmers share a glistening bay with sea turtles, a shadowy tourism deal is threatening one of the Red Sea’s last wild shores.Off Ras Hankorab, the endangered green turtles weave between coral gardens that marine biologists call among the most resilient to climate change in the world.By night in nesting season, they crawl ashore under the Milky Way’s glow, undisturbed by artificial lights.So when excavators rolled onto the sand in March, reserve staff and conservationists sounded the alarm.Thousands signed a petition to “Save Hankorab” after discovering a contract between an unnamed government entity and an investment company to build a resort.The environment ministry — which has jurisdiction over the park — protested, construction was halted and the machinery quietly removed.But months later, parliamentary requests for details have gone unanswered, and insiders say the plans remain alive.”Only certain kinds of tourism development work for a beach like this,” said Mahmoud Hanafy, a marine biology professor and scientific adviser to the Red Sea governorate.”Noise, lights, heavy human activity — they could destroy the ecosystem.”Hankorab sits inside Wadi al-Gemal National Park, declared a protected area in 2003.- Coastal expansion -The UN Development Programme (UNDP) describes it as home to “some of the last undisturbed natural beaches on the Southern Red Sea coast” — an area now caught between environmental protection and Egypt’s urgent push for investment.Egypt, mired in its worst economic crisis in decades, is betting big on its 3,000 kilometres of coastline as a revenue source.A $35-billion deal with the United Arab Emirates to develop Ras al-Hekma on the Mediterranean set the tone, and similar proposals for the Red Sea have followed.In June, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi allocated 174,400 square kilometres (67,300 square miles)of Red Sea land to the finance ministry to help cut public debt.The Red Sea — where tourism is the main employer — is key to Cairo’s plan to attract 30 million visitors by 2028, double today’s numbers.Yet the UNDP warned as early as 2019 that Egyptian tourism growth had “largely been at the expense of the environment”.Since then, luxury resorts and gated compounds have spread along hundreds of kilometres, displacing communities and damaging fragile habitats.”The goal is to make as much money as possible from developing these reserves, which means destroying them,” said environmental lawyer Ahmed al-Seidi.”It also violates the legal obligations of the nature reserves law.”- Legal limbo -At Hankorab, Hanafy says the core problem is legal.”The company signed a contract with a government entity other than the one managing the reserve,” he said.If true, Seidi says, the deal is “null and void”.When construction was reported in March, MP Maha Abdel Nasser sought answers from the environment ministry and the prime minister -— but got none.At a subsequent meeting, officials could not identify the company behind the project, and no environmental impact report was produced.Construction is still halted, “which is reassuring, at least for now”, Abdel Nasser said. “But there are no guarantees about the future.”For now, the most visible change is a newly built gate marked “Ras Hankorab” in Latin letters.Entry now costs 300 Egyptian pounds ($6) — five times more than before — with tickets that do not name the issuing authority.An employee who started in March recalls that before the project there were “only a few umbrellas and unusable bathrooms”.Today, there are new toilets, towels and sun loungers, with a cafe and restaurant promised soon.The legal and environmental uncertainty remains, leaving Hankorab’s future — and the management of one of Egypt’s last undisturbed Red Sea beaches — unresolved.

Mass rally in Tel Aviv calls for end to Gaza war, hostage deal

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered on Sunday evening in Tel Aviv to call for an end to the war in Gaza and the release of hostages, one of the largest demonstrations in Israel since the start of the fighting in October 2023.The rally was the culmination of a day of nationwide protests and a general strike to pressure the government to halt the military campaign.”Bring them all home! Stop the war!” shouted the vast crowd which had converged on the so-called “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv plaza — a focal point for protesters throughout the war.The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, the initiator of the day of protest, estimated that about 500,000 people joined the evening demonstration in Tel Aviv — a figure not confirmed by the police.”We demand a comprehensive and achievable agreement and an end to the war. We demand what is rightfully ours — our children,” said Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan and a leading figure of the protest movement. “The Israeli government has transformed a just war into a pointless war,” she told the crowd.National media published a video message by Matan Zangauker on Sunday, in which the hostage, weak and emaciated, addressed his family and told them he missed them. The video was filmed by Hamas and found in Gaza by the army, the family said.”This is probably the last minute we have to save the hostages,” demonstrator Ofir Penso, 50, told AFP.- A day of protests -The protests come more than a week after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to capture Gaza City, 22 months into a war that has created a dire humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group vowed Sunday that protesters would “shut down the country” with the goal of bringing back the hostages and ending the war.Throughout the country, demonstrators blocked traffic arteries, set tyres on fire and clashed with the police. More than 30 protesters were arrested, law enforcement said.In many places, though, AFP journalists saw businesses carrying on unimpeded.In Jerusalem’s main shopping district, it was business as usual.A shop assistant in the city centre said the owner supported the campaign for the hostages’ return but chose not to participate in the strike.”Everyone is helping the way they can,” she said, declining to give her name.Netanyahu slammed the protesters, saying their actions “not only harden Hamas’s position and draw out the release of our hostages, but also ensure that the horrors of October 7 will reoccur”.Egypt said in recent days mediators were leading a renewed push to secure a 60-day truce deal that includes hostages being released, after the last round of talks in Qatar ended without a breakthrough.Some Israeli government members who oppose any deal with Hamas slammed Sunday’s demonstrations.Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich decried “a perverse and harmful campaign that plays into the hands of Hamas” and calls for “surrender”.However, Benny Gantz, an opposition leader, condemned the government for “attacking the families of the hostages” while “bearing responsibility for the captivity of their children by Hamas for nearly two years”.- Famine warnings -The Israeli plan to expand the war into Gaza City and nearby refugee camps has sparked an international outcry as well as domestic opposition.On Sunday, Israeli military chief of staff Lieutenant General Eya Zamir said the army was moving ahead with a plan “focusing on Gaza City”.Hamas warned it would result in “a new wave of extermination and mass displacement”.Army Radio said residents would be evacuated before troops encircled and seized Gaza City in the coming weeks, with tens of thousands of reservists called up.UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in the territory, where Israel has heavily limited the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in.Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire on Sunday killed over sixty Palestinians, including at least 37 waiting to collect food aid near two sites.The conflict began with Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, during which 251 people were taken hostage. Forty-nine captives remain in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Hamas’s assault resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,944 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza which the United Nations considers reliable.

Tens of thousands of Israelis protest for end to Gaza war

Clutching pictures of hostages, waving yellow flags, banging on snare drums and shouting chants to bring captive Israelis home, tens of thousands took to Tel Aviv’s streets Sunday to call for an end to the war in Gaza.”We’re here to make it very clear to the Israeli government that this is probably the last minute we have to save the hostages that are being held in the Hamas tunnels for almost 700 days,” Ofir Penso, a 50-year-old Arabic teacher, told AFP.Demonstrations have been held regularly through most of the 22 months of war in the wake of the Hamas attacks in 2023, but Sunday’s protests appeared to be one of the largest yet.The renewed energy of the movement came with the government deciding just over a week ago to seize Gaza City and nearby camps in a new offensive.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to conquer the most populated swathes of the Gaza Strip has triggered an international backlash while aid agencies and UN experts have warned of unfolding famine in the territory.Recent video footage released by Palestinian militants showed hostages heavily emaciated and pale — spurring fears that the captives’ health is more fragile than ever.Many in the crowd wore makeshift patches on their shirts made with pieces of tape with the number 681 — the number of days the hostages have been held captive in Gaza — scrawled in marker pen.Of the 251 people taken hostage by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 49 remain in the Gaza Strip, including 27 the Israeli military has said are dead.- ‘Enough is enough’ -Snaking along downtown streets, shadowed by glass towers, the crowd converged on Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square — the focal point of movement.”The Israeli government has never offered a genuine initiative for a comprehensive agreement and an end to the war,” Einav Tzangauker, whose son Matan is being held captive in Gaza, told the crowd.”We demand a comprehensive and achievable agreement and an end to the war. We demand what is rightfully ours -– our children.”The war has also touched on other frustrations for many who took to the streets.”The whole country is fighting with each other, our image around the world has completely changed, worse than it ever was, and enough is enough,” Nick, a 31-year-old tech worker, told AFP, asking not to use his last name.Others worried about the fate of their own children enlisted in the Israeli military who had been sent to Gaza and feared that they might soon be recalled to fight.”We are hoping and praying that our government will hear us and listen to us,” said Ella Kaufman from Kadima Zoran, who has two sons serving as officers in the Israeli army.”I’m also a concerned mother.”While thousands took to the streets, there were others in Tel Aviv who hoped for an end to the war but in different circumstances.”No, I won’t be protesting against Bibi, because I think that he has to finish the work, he has to finish the war,” said Patrick Menache, a 69-year-old real estate investor in Tel Aviv, using a common nickname for Netanyahu.Nevertheless, he admitted the war had taken a toll.”Everybody is tired, the hostages are tired, the families are tired, the Palestinians are tired, everybody is tired.”