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China, the European Union and several other members of the International Maritime Organization reaffirmed their support on Tuesday for ambitious plans to cut shipping emissions, despite US threats.Initially approved in April, the London-based IMO are set to vote on Friday on formally adopting the Net Zero Framework (NZF), the first global carbon-pricing system.However, Washington’s threat …

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US President Donald Trump’s lightning summit in Egypt, meant to cement a ceasefire in Gaza, was more a celebration of one man’s newfound peacemaker persona than a high-level political negotiation, according to diplomats.Trump and the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey — guarantors to the Israel-Hamas deal — signed a document on Monday that one diplomat called “more of a vision statement than anything”.In devastated Gaza, the ceasefire is mostly holding, but most of the details of Trump’s 20-point peace plan have yet to be thrashed out.These include significant possible stumbling blocks, like Hamas’s disarmament, the Palestinian territory’s future governance and the role of a supervisory so-called “Board of Peace”.While Trump held what amounted to a victory rally in the Israeli Knesset on Monday, more than two dozen world leaders — including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and UN chief Antonio Guterres — were kept waiting all day in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.- Red carpet shuffle -In a meeting held ahead of his arrival, they intended to press him on aid and governance, according to a participant.But when he arrived, four hours behind schedule, they lined up in a queue that snaked all the way around the room to greet the man who claims he can “bring peace to the Middle East”.One after the other, they stepped onto a red carpet to shake hands with a beaming Trump, over a giant sign that read “PEACE 2025″.”It was a very bizarre day… Just the show, the speech with all these leaders lined up, it was crazy,” one diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity in order to speak freely about diplomatic events.”I’ve never seen anything like it, and I don’t think many people have.”As Trump and Sisi delivered addresses, most of the leaders stood dutifully behind them in an unorthodox configuration that even Trump questioned.Some refused to take part, with France’s Macron, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas remaining seated.”He’s not going to stand behind a leader as he speaks,” said a French diplomat travelling with Macron, who also accompanied Abbas on stage for a reportedly unplanned handshake, which ended up being one of Trump’s longest.- The chosen one -Egypt — whose leaders have taken every opportunity to praise Trump as the “only one in the world capable of achieving peace” — pulled out all the stops.Sharm el-Sheikh was covered in billboards featuring Trump and Sisi’s smiling faces alongside slogans of peace.As Air Force One entered Egyptian airspace, it was accompanied by Egypt’s US-made F16 fighter jets, which Trump then quipped that Cairo had “paid a lot of money for” but “got a good deal”.Sisi announced Trump had been awarded the Order of the Nile, Egypt’s highest civilian honour, hours after he received the equivalent medal in Israel.One Egyptian source said Monday’s document was meant to “simply commemorate peace efforts”, for which Cairo credits Trump.But the former reality TV star’s penchant for theatrics nearly derailed even that.In a surprise three-way call while he was in Israel, Trump pushed Sisi into inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the summit — sandbagging the leaders waiting in Egypt, some of whose governments have no relations with Israel.According to a diplomatic source, Sisi only agreed to the call in order to “be the star pupil”.Diplomats said several states bristled at the idea of rubbing shoulders with the Israeli leader, who is wanted by the ICC on suspicion of war crimes.AFP journalists witnessed Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plane circle Sharm el-Sheikh twice before it landed. Turkish media reported Erdogan refused to land after he learnt of the invite.By the time Netanyahu had rushed out a statement saying he would not attend because of a Jewish religious holiday and Trump had landed, several leaders had run out of time.Faced with the risk of having to rush to their planes without a single soundbite, the leaders of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands were forced to walk out of their closed-off meeting area to meet the sequestered press.”It was a ridiculous day,” another diplomat said in the aftermath, echoing an incredulity that was shared by every diplomat to whom AFP spoke.”But ultimately we’re better off today than where we were yesterday. The question is if he’s going to keep this up going forward, and keep that firm line with Netanyahu.”

Former Israeli hostage Noa Argamani spoke out Tuesday after her partner was released under the Gaza ceasefire deal, to describe the differences in their treatment in captivity in the Palestinian territory. “Two years passed since the last moment I saw Avinatan, the love of my life,” Argamani, who was freed during an Israeli military operation in June 2024, said in a post on X.Argamani, 28, described being separated from Avinatan Or from the moment they were abducted at the Nova music festival, in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, until Or’s release on Monday.Like several other hostages, Argamani was taken from the festival grounds in southern Israel to the Gaza Strip on the back of a motorcycle, she described in her post.A widely circulated video at the time showed her being forcibly taken by armed men on a motorcycle, crying out for help as her boyfriend was led away separately on foot.That footage became one of the most recognised images of the hostage-taking during the attack.It was only after Or was released that he learnt Argamani had been freed over a year earlier.According to Israel’s Channel 12 television, Or lost 30 to 40 percent of his body weight and was kept in total isolation for two years. “I was held captive with children, women, and the elderly, while Avinatan was held alone,” Argamani said of her partner, who was 32 at the time of the abduction.- ‘Against all odds’ -“I was mostly kept inside houses, while Avinatan was only in the tunnels,” Argamani wrote.”I was held captive by Hamas for 246 days, while Avinatan was held for 738 days. I came back in a heroic rescue operation, and Avinatan returned in a deal,” she said.In her post, Argamani praised both the Israeli military for its efforts in Gaza and US President Donald Trump for securing a ceasefire deal.”But both of us, against all odds, came home and were reunited!” she said.”At last, we can begin our healing together. The recovery will be long; we still haven’t truly processed what has happened here over these past two years. But we won,” Argamani said.”And now, the time has come to begin our shared journey together.”Hamas is still holding the bodies of 24 hostages, which are expected to be returned under the terms of the ceasefire agreement.”We will never forget the fallen and the murdered, and we will not stop fighting until every fallen soldier and hostage is brought home for a proper burial in Israel,” Argamani said.As Israelis awaited the return of the remaining bodies, the hostages released on Monday were gradually recovering.Noa Eliakim Raz, director at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where some of the surviving hostages are being treated, explained that being underground, as the hostages had been, “affects all the body’s systems”.

Chipmaker Nexperia said Tuesday the Chinese government had banned it from exporting goods from China, after Dutch authorities seized control of the Netherlands-based firm citing management concerns.Nexperia has found itself at the centre of a tug-of-war between China and the Netherlands over semiconductors, an increasing source of global geopolitical tension.In its first statement since the …

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The Israeli military said Tuesday that the remains of four deceased hostages returned by Hamas have been identified, including those of a Nepalese student.Separately, a Gaza hospital said it has received the bodies of 45 Palestinians that had been handed back by Israel, also as part of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war. In a statement, the Israeli military named two of the victims as Guy Iluz, an Israeli national, and Bipin Joshi, an agriculture student from Nepal.The names of the other two hostages have not yet been released at the request of their families, the statement added.Iluz, who was 26 at the time of the attack, had been attending the Nova music festival when Hamas-led militants launched their assault on October 7, 2023. He reportedly tried to flee and hid in a tree, from where he made his last contact with his parents before being captured.The military said Iluz was wounded and abducted alive, but later died of his injuries due to a lack of medical treatment while in captivity.It did not specify when he died, though his death was announced in December 2023.The military said the final causes of death for the four hostages will be determined following the completion of forensic examinations.Joshi, who was 22 at the time of the attack, was part of a Nepalese agricultural training group that had arrived in Israel three weeks before the Hamas assault.He was abducted from Kibbutz Alumim.”It is assessed that he was murdered in captivity during the first months of the war,” the military said.- ‘Courageous’ Joshi -Joshi’s Nepalese friend Himanchal Kattel, the group’s only survivor, told AFP that the attackers had thrown a grenade into the shelter, which Joshi caught and threw away before it exploded, saving Kattel’s life.Joshi was a “courageous” student, his teacher Sushil Neupane said.”We were deeply hoping that Bipin would return home. This news hurts us all… our hope has died,” he said. Hamas returned the four bodies on Monday, following the release of all 20 surviving captives as part of the ceasefire deal brokered by Trump.”It’s difficult. You know, we kind of had the rollercoaster on the up yesterday and now we’re on the down,” said Rotem Kuper, son of Amiran Kuper, whose remains are still held in Gaza.”We need to re-gather and continue strongly. You know, we pretty much have no choice,” Kuper told journalists.Meanwhile, the bodies of 45 Palestinians that had been in Israeli custody were handed over to the Nasser Medical Centre in Gaza, the hospital said.Under the Trump deal, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.- Slow recovery -Palestinian militants are still holding the bodies of 24 hostages, which are expected to be returned under the terms of the ceasefire agreement.”We will not rest untill all 24 hostages are brought home,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main Israeli group campaigning for the release of all hostages. As Israelis awaited the return of the remaining bodies, the hostages released on Monday were gradually recovering.”Being underground affects all the body’s systems,” said Noa Eliakim Raz, director at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where some of the surviving hostages are being treated.”There is no fixed timetable — each person is recovering at their own pace. It’s important that they heal slowly,” she told journalists, adding that many hostages had experienced weight loss.Twins Ziv and Gali Berman, who were reunited on Monday, said they had been separated throughout their captivity and held in complete isolation, according to Channel 12.The two, who were 28 when abducted, described enduring long periods of hunger, alternating with short intervals when they were better fed, the report said.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday lifted its outlook for global growth this year, flagging a milder-than-expected economic hit from President Donald Trump’s tariff policies while warning of risks ahead. In its flagship World Economic Outlook (WEO) report — compiled before the most recent US-China tariff spat — the IMF hiked its 2025 global growth forecast to 3.2 percent, up from 3.0 in July, while leaving its prediction for 2026 unchanged at 3.1 percent. The global inflation rate is expected to remain elevated at 4.2 percent this year, and 3.7 percent in 2026, underpinned by elevated inflation in several countries including the United States. “The tariff shock itself is smaller than initially feared,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told reporters in Washington on Tuesday, adding that the private sector had also supported growth by responding to Trump’s tariffs in an agile way.Other factors, including the AI boom and fiscal policies in Europe and China had also helped to prop up the global economy, he said.But, he warned, “the tariff shock is here, and it is further dimming already weak growth prospects.”Since returning to office, Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on top trading partners including China and the European Union in a bid to reshape US trading relationships and boost domestic manufacturing. Over the weekend, the US president threatened fresh tariffs of 100 percent on China, on top of current steep levies, criticizing Beijing’s recent decision to tighten export controls on the rare earth minerals crucial to the defense and high-tech sectors. “Everything is very fluid,” Gourinchas told AFP in an interview. “But I think it’s a very useful reminder that we live in a world in which this kind of increase in trade tensions, increase in policy uncertainty, can flare up at any time.”- US upgraded, China unchanged -The IMF raised its prospects for economic growth for the United States, the world’s largest economy, by 0.1 percent this year and next, to 2.0 percent in 2025, and to 2.1 percent in 2026. However, this still represents a marked slowdown from 2024, when US growth hit 2.8 percent.Despite the trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, the Fund still expects China’s economy to slow to 4.8 percent this year from 5.0 percent in 2024, before cooling sharply to just 4.2 percent in 2026, in line with previous estimates. China’s slowdown has been driven by a reduction in net exports, which have been at least partly offset by growing domestic demand fueled by policy stimulus, the Fund said. Elsewhere in Asia, the IMF raised India’s 2025 growth forecast to 6.6 percent from 6.4 percent in the last outlook update in July, and hiked its prediction for growth in Japan to 1.1 percent — up 0.4 percentage points.  – Europe’s growth troubles continue -The outlook for Europe has improved slightly from July, with the Eurozone now expected to grow by 1.2 percent this year and by 1.1 percent in 2026. But despite the upgrade, Europe’s growth trajectory still significantly lags the United States.Germany’s economy is expected to bounce back from recession to register growth of 0.2 percent this year, up 0.1 percentage point, before picking up to 0.9 percent next year. And France, which is in the midst of a prolonged political crisis, is expected to see growth cool to 0.7 percent this year, before rising slightly to 0.9 percent in 2026.The one market exception in the Eurozone is Spain, which saw an upgrade and is now expected to see growth remain resilient at 2.9 percent this year and 2.0 percent in 2026.Growth in the United Kingdom is now expected to hit 1.3 percent this year and next. As the war in Ukraine continues, the Russian economy is likely to see a marked slowdown in growth this year to just 0.6 percent this year from 4.3 percent in 2024, the IMF said, cutting its outlook by 0.4 percentage points.