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China and US agree to fresh trade talks

China and the United States agreed Saturday to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle.Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports …

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Chinese leaders to hash out strategic blueprint at key meeting

China’s ruling Communist Party will on Monday kick off four days of key closed-door discussions, formulating core economic strategy for coming years as growth flags and trade headwinds mount.The gathering of the Central Committee — an elite body composed of around 200 members and 170 alternates — will be crucial in determining longstanding policy objectives …

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US court bars NSO Group from installing spyware on WhatsApp

A US judge on Friday granted an injunction barring Israeli spyware maker NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users but slashed a $168 million damages award at trial to just $4 million.District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that NSO Group’s behavior fell short of a “particularly egregious” standard needed to support the jury’s calculations on a financial penalty.But in the ruling, seen by AFP, she said the court “concluded that defendants’ conduct causes irreparable harm, and there being no dispute that the conduct is ongoing” the judge granted WhatsApp owner Meta an injunction to stop NSO Group’s snooping tactics at the messaging service.”Today’s ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again,” WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart said in a statement.”We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society.”Evidence at trial showed that NSO Group reverse-engineered WhatsApp code to stealthily install spyware targeting users, according to the ruling.The spyware was repeatedly redesigned to escape detection and bypass security fixes at WhatsApp, the court concluded.The lawsuit, filed in late 2019, accused NSO Group of cyberespionage targeting journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and others using the encrypted messaging service.Hamilton ruled however that the $168 million damages verdict awarded to Meta earlier this year was excessive.”There have simply not yet been enough cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance in the smartphone era for the court to be able to conclude that defendants’ conduct was ‘particularly egregious’,” Hamilton wrote in the ruling which was seen by AFP.”As time goes on, more of a shared societal consensus may emerge about the acceptability of defendants’ conduct.”- ‘Malicious code’ -Founded in 2010 by Israelis Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, NSO Group is based in the seaside high-tech hub of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.Media website TechCrunch reported Friday that a US investment group has acquired controlling interest in NSO Group.The Israeli firm produces Pegasus, a highly invasive tool that can reportedly switch on a target’s cell phone camera and microphone and access data on it, effectively turning the phone into a pocket spy.The suit filed in a California federal court contended that NSO tried to infect approximately 1,400 “target devices” with malicious software to steal valuable information.Infecting smartphones or other gadgets being used for WhatsApp messages meant the content of messages encrypted during transmission could be accessed after they were unscrambled.The complaint said the attackers “developed a program to enable them to emulate legitimate WhatsApp network traffic in order to transmit malicious code” to take over the devices.The software has been pinpointed by independent experts as being used by nation states, some of them with poor human rights records.NSO Group has maintained it only licenses its software to governments for fighting crime and terrorism.

Hamas gives Israel another hostage body, vows to return rest

Hamas handed over to Israel the remains of one more hostage on Friday night, after insisting it was committed to returning all the dead captives still unaccounted for under Gaza’s ruins after two years of war.”Israel received, via the Red Cross, the coffin of a deceased hostage who was returned” to its security forces in Gaza and would be identified at a medical analysis centre in Israel, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.Under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, the Palestinian militant group returned all 20 surviving hostages and the remains of nine out of 28 known deceased ones, not counting the remains handed over Friday night.In exchange, Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from its jails and halted the military campaign it launched in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.- Bodies under Gaza rubble -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday reaffirmed his determination to “secure the return of all hostages”, and his defence minister has warned that the military will restart the war if Hamas fails to do so.Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad on Friday called those threats “unacceptable pressure tactics”.”The issue of the bodies is complex and requires time, especially after the occupation changed the landscape of Gaza,” Hamad said in a statement.”We will return the bodies and adhere to the agreement as we promised.”Turkey dispatched a team of specialists to help retrieve remains buried under the rubble, but the group was still waiting Friday for Israeli permission to enter the territory.”It remains unclear when Israel will allow the Turkish team to enter Gaza,” a Turkish official told AFP, noting that the team’s mission included locating both Palestinian and hostage remains.A Hamas source told AFP the Turkish delegation was expected to enter by Sunday.Gaza’s civil defence agency, a rescue force that operates under Hamas authority, said more than 280 bodies had been recovered from the rubble since the ceasefire went into effect.- Aid enters Gaza -The ceasefire deal has seen the war grind to a halt after two years of agony for the hostages’ families, and constant bombardment and hunger for Gazans.The UN’s World Food Programme said on Friday it had been able to move close to 3,000 tonnes of food supplies into Gaza since the ceasefire took hold.But it cautioned it would take time to reverse the famine in the Strip, saying all crossings needed to be opened to “flood Gaza with food”.Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza calls for renewed aid, with international organisations eagerly awaiting the reopening of southern Gaza’s strategic Rafah crossing.UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said he entered Gaza on Friday, where he watched a convoy of aid head to Rafah from Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing and later visited a bakery making pita bread.”We’ve begged for this access for months and finally we’re seeing goods moving at scale: food, medicine, tents, fuel, a lot of fuel got in today,” he said, in a video message posted to social media.- Identifying the dead -Families of surviving hostages rejoiced in their return while others buried the returned remains of their loved ones.”We’ve been waiting for this for so long, two years that we’ve been fighting for him every single day,” said 30-year-old Gal Gilboa Dalal, the older brother of Guy Gilboa Dalal, who was released after two years in Hamas captivity.Gal told AFP that Hamas had intentionally starved his brother and another prisoner for three and a half months to use him as a prop in a propaganda video about hunger.”Their bones hurt, their muscles hurt. Their recovery will be very long.”At the Nasser Hospital in Gaza, meanwhile, families searched for their loved ones among the bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel.One, Akram Khalid al-Manasra, told AFP he identified his son “thanks to the birthmark on his nose and his teeth”.Others were clearing the rubble from their destroyed homes.”I’m right under the threat of death. It could collapse at any moment,” said Ahmad Saleh Sbeih, a Gaza City resident. “But there is no choice.”The war has killed at least 67,967 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory — figures the United Nations considers credible.The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

UK govt aims to reverse ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans at Villa game

The UK government vowed on Friday to do everything to allow all fans to attend a match between Aston Villa and Tel Aviv Maccabi after anger at a ban on the Israeli team’s supporters.Birmingham-based Villa said on Thursday that the club had been informed by the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) — responsible for issuing certificates for matches — that no away fans would be permitted at the Europa League game on November 6.”The government is working with policing and other partners to do everything in our power to ensure this game can safely go ahead, with all fans present,” a government spokesperson said.”We are exploring what additional resources and support are required so all fans can attend.”A UK police commissioner asked local officials to review the decision as criticism of the ban mounted, including from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European governing body UEFA.Starmer, a keen football fan, called the move “wrong”.”We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets. The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation,” Starmer wrote on X.UEFA, which runs the Europa League, called on the clubs and authorities to “agree on the implementation of appropriate measures necessary to allow” Maccabi fans to attend.Birmingham has been the scene of huge pro-Palestinian rallies since the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas began.”Shameful decision! I call on the UK authorities to reverse this coward decision,” Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, posted on X.A new meeting of the SAG committee is now expected early new week, and West Midlands police are also due to set out what additional resources might be needed.Prince William, heir to the UK throne, is a keen Villa fan and often attends matches.A number of left-wing independent and Green politicians in Britain have backed the ban, with some calling for the wider exclusion of Israeli teams from international competitions due to the government’s actions in Gaza.- Public safety concerns -Villa said on Thursday that West Midlands police had advised the SAG that they had “public safety concerns outside the stadium bowl”.Police said that they had classified the fixture as “high risk”.”This decision is based on current intelligence and previous incidents, including violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 UEFA Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam,” a spokesperson for the West Midlands force said.Last November’s match between Dutch side Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv sparked two days of violent clashes between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli fans.Supporters of the Israeli team were assaulted in Amsterdam in hit-and-run attacks after skirmishes in which Maccabi fans chanted anti-Arab songs, vandalised a taxi and pulled down a Palestinian flag.Emily Damari, a British-Israeli captured during Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and held for more than a year, said the ban would prevent her from going to watch Maccabi, the team she supports.”Football is a way of bringing people together irrespective of their faith, colour or religion, and this disgusting decision does the exact opposite,” she said in a statement.Maccabi fan Tamir Nahson, 37, a wine importer in Israel, told AFP it was a “missed opportunity”.Britain “has become the UK for anti-Semitism. It’s very painful, it’s very unpleasant for us and I guess it’s also disappointing for Aston Villa fans.”Maccabi Tel Aviv chief executive Jack Angelides told BBC radio that the team had travelled to other countries where the sentiment is “not so kind towards Israeli teams”, but police “were out in force” and there were no incidents.The war has killed at least 67,967 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the territory run by the armed Palestinian group, Hamas. The United Nations considers the figures to be credible.Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Earlier this month, two Jewish men died in an attack on a synagogue in Manchester, England, that police linked to Islamist extremism.