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BRICS nations hit out at Trump tariffs

BRICS leaders descended on sunny Rio de Janeiro Sunday, but issued a dark warning that US President Donald Trump’s “indiscriminate” import tariffs risk hurting the global economy.The 11 emerging nations — including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — represent about half the world’s population and 40 percent of global economic output.The bloc is …

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Syria fights ‘catastrophic’ fires for fourth day

Syrian authorities said some 100 square kilometres (40 square miles) of forest had “turned to ash” in wildfires as firefighters from neighbouring Jordan arrived Sunday to battle a fourth day of blazes in the province of Latakia.Syrian emergency workers have faced tough conditions including high temperatures, strong winds, rugged mountainous terrain in the coastal province and the danger of explosive war remnants, in a country worn down by years of conflict and economic crisis.An AFP correspondent in Latakia’s Rabiaa region saw emergency workers battling a blaze near homes, while vast swathes of forest and olive groves were burnt and smoke filled the air over a long distance.Jordanian civil defence teams crossed into Syria on Sunday morning, the Syrian ministry for emergencies and disaster management said, after Turkey sent assistance a day earlier.Minister Raed al-Saleh said on X that “hundreds of thousands of forest trees over an estimated area of around 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) in 28 locations have turned to ash”. He later decried “a real environmental disaster” at a press conference in the province.More than 80 teams including civil defence personnel have been helping battle the blaze, he said, noting local organisations and residents were also providing assistance, in addition to teams and firefighting aircraft from neighbouring Jordan and Turkey.Saleh said it would take days to declare the blazes completely extinguished once the fire was brought under control, calling them “catastrophic”.- More assistance needed -Syria’s defence ministry said the air force was assisting, publishing images of a helicopter collecting and dropping water.Jordan’s public security directorate said in a statement that the “specialised firefighting teams from the civil defence… have been provided with all the modern equipment and machinery necessary to carry out their duties to the fullest extent”.Swathes of forested area and farmland have burnt and some villages evacuated as the fires raged including near the Turkish border.The United Nations deputy envoy to Syria Najat Rochdi said in a statement Sunday on X that Damascus “needs more international assistance” to face the fires.A statement from the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Syria Adam Abdelmoula said that “UN teams are on the ground conducting urgent assessments to determine the scale of the disaster and to identify the most immediate humanitarian needs”.Nearly seven months after the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Syria is still reeling from more than a decade of civil war that ravaged the country’s economy, infrastructure and public services.With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been battered by heatwaves and low rainfall.In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation told AFP that Syria had “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years”.

Gaza truce talks to resume in Doha before Netanyahu heads to US

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are set to resume Sunday in Doha for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal, ahead of a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.Netanyahu had earlier announced he was sending a team to Qatar, a key mediator in the conflict, though he said Hamas’s response to a draft US-backed ceasefire deal contained “unacceptable” demands.Under mounting pressure to end the war, now approaching its 22nd month, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet on Monday with US President Donald Trump, who has been making a renewed push to end the fighting.A Palestinian official familiar with the talks and close to Hamas said international mediators had informed the group that “a new round of indirect negotiations… will begin in Doha today”.The talks would focus on conditions for a possible ceasefire, including hostage and prisoner releases, and Hamas would also seek the reopening of Gaza’s Rafah crossing to evacuate the wounded, the official told AFP.Hamas’s delegation, led by its top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, was in Doha, the official told AFP. Israel’s public broadcaster said the country’s delegation had left for the Qatari capital in the early afternoon.Netanyahu met Israeli President Isaac Herzog for talks on Gaza and efforts to expand ties with Arab states before his departure for the United States at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT).In Tel Aviv on Saturday, protesters gathered for a weekly rally demanding the return of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which triggered the war.Macabit Mayer, the aunt of captives Gali and Ziv Berman, called for a deal “that saves everyone”.- ‘Enough’ -Two Palestinian sources close to the discussions told AFP the proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.However, they said, the group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system.On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency said 14 people were killed by Israeli forces on Sunday.The agency said 10 were killed in a pre-dawn strike on Gaza City’s Sheikh Radawn neighbourhood, where AFP images showed Palestinians searching through the rubble for survivors with their bare hands.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it could not comment on specific strikes without precise coordinates.Sheikh Radawn resident Osama al-Hanawi told AFP: “The rest of the family is still under the rubble.””We are losing young people, families and children every day, and this must stop now. Enough blood has been shed.”Since the Hamas attack sparked a massive Israeli offensive with the aim of destroying the group, mediators have brokered two temporary halts in fighting, during which hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Recent efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire.- ‘Dying for flour’ -The war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.Karima al-Ras, from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, said “we hope that a truce will be announced” to allow in more aid.”People are dying for flour,” she said.A US- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, took the lead in food distribution in the territory in late May, when Israel partially lifted a more than two-month blockade on aid deliveries.UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.The UN human rights office said more than 500 people have been killed waiting to access food from GHF distribution points.The Hamas attack of October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,418 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.burs/dv/ami

Israel army bulldozers plough through homes at West Bank camps

In the West Bank city of Tulkarem, the landscape has been transformed after Israeli army bulldozers ploughed through its two refugee camps in what the military called a hunt for Palestinian militants.The army gave thousands of displaced residents just a few hours to retrieve belongings from their homes before demolishing buildings and clearing wide avenues through the rubble.Now residents fear the clearances will erase not just buildings, but their own status as refugees from lands inhabited by generations of their ancestors in what is now Israel.The “right of return” to those lands, claimed by Palestinian refugees ever since the creation of Israel in 1948, remains one of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The army said it would demolish 104 more buildings in the Tulkarem camp this week in the latest stage of an operation that it launched in January during a truce in the Gaza war, billing it as an intensive crackdown on several camps that are strongholds of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel.”We came back to the camp and found our house demolished. No one informed us, no one told us anything,” said Abd al-Rahman Ajaj, 62, who had been hoping to collect his belongings on Wednesday.Born in Tulkarem camp after his parents fled what is now the Israeli city of Netanya, about 12 kilometres (seven miles) to the west, Ajaj said he had not foreseen the scale of the Israeli operation.- Thousands displaced -It began with a raid on the northern West Bank city of Jenin, a longtime stronghold of Palestinian militants, and quickly spread to other cities, including Tulkarem, displacing at least 40,000 people, according to UN figures.Vacating the camp after a warning of a raid, “we would usually come back two or three days later”, Ajaj told AFP.Now left without a house, he echoed the sentiments of Palestinians of his parents’ generation, who thought their own displacement in 1948 would also be temporary.”The last time, we left and never returned,” he said.In Tulkarem, the Israeli army’s bulldozers ploughed through the dense patchwork of narrow alleyways that had grown as Palestinian refugees settled in the area over the years.Three wide arteries of concrete now streak the side of Tulkarem camp, allowing easy access for the army.Piles of cinder blocks and concrete line the roadside like snowbanks after a plough’s passage.- ‘Eliminate the refugee issue’ -Ajaj said the destruction had been gradual, drawn out over the course of the operation, which the army has dubbed “Iron Wall”.Beyond the military value of wide access roads, many residents believe Israel is seeking to destroy the idea of the camps themselves, turning them into regular neighbourhoods of the cities they flank.Residents fear this would threaten their refugee status and their “right of return” to the land they or their forebears fled or were expelled from in 1948.The current Israeli government — and particularly some of its far-right ministers, who demand the outright annexation of the West Bank — are firmly opposed to this demand, which they see as a demographic threat to Israel’s survival as a Jewish state.”The aim is clearly to erase the national symbolism of the refugee camp, to eliminate the refugee issue and the right of return,” said Suleiman al-Zuheiri, an advocate for residents of nearby Nur Shams, Tulkarem’s other refugee camp, where he also lives.Zuheiri’s brother’s house was destroyed last week by the bulldozers.”The scene was painful and tragic because a house is not just walls and a roof. It holds memories, dreams, hopes and very important belongings that we couldn’t retrieve,” he said.Each demolished building housed at least six families on three floors, he added.The land allocated to the camps was limited, so residents have had little choice but to build upwards to gain space, adding an extra storey with each new generation.- Explosions rock camp -Back at Tulkarem camp, 66-year-old Omar Owfi said he had managed to make two trips into the camp now occupied by Israeli soldiers to retrieve belongings on Wednesday.He feared becoming homeless if his home was demolished.”They don’t care what the house is worth. All they care about is demolishing. We’re the ones losing. We’ve lost everything,” he told AFP.”They want to erase the camp — to remove as many buildings as possible and leave just streets.”He said he feared for his children and grandchildren, as they dispersed to live with various relatives.The Israeli supreme court froze the military order for mass demolitions in Tulkarem camp on Thursday, giving the state two months to answer a petition against them, said the Palestinian human rights group Adalah, which filed it.But the physical damage has already been done as the army’s manhunt for militants continues.As residents retrieved mattresses, wardrobes and air conditioning units from the camp on Wednesday under the surveillance of Israeli troops, gunshots rang out through the streets.A loud explosion echoed across the city, followed by a column of dust rising as another building was apparently blown up, sending the smell of gunpowder wafting in the wind.