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US and European stock markets mostly pushed higher Wednesday as investors tracked earnings and President Donald Trump’s policy plans as artificial intelligence shares rallied.However, Hong Kong and Shanghai’s indices fell after Trump warned China could be included in a list of countries to be hit with tariffs on February 1.The latest batch of corporate earnings helped boost …

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Syria’s top diplomat said Wednesday that lifting economic sanctions imposed during the rule of ousted president Bashar al-Assad was “key” to restoring stability in the war-torn country.For weeks, Syria’s new authorities have been lobbying Western powers to scrap restrictions that had targeted Assad’s administration over his brutal 2011 crackdown on anti-government protests, which triggered the country’s civil war.But the international community has been hesitant to roll back the measures, with many countries — including the US — saying they are waiting to see how Syria’s new rulers exercise their power before doing so.”Removing economic sanctions is the key for the stability of Syria,” Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said in a conversation with former British prime minister Tony Blair at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The sanctions, he added, were imposed for the benefit of Syrians, but are now “against the Syrian people”.On December 8, rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist group seized control of Damascus and ousted Assad, ending more than 50 years of his family’s iron-fisted rule.Nearly 14 years of conflict have killed more than half a million Syrians, destroyed the country’s infrastructure and impoverished its people, forcing millions to flee their homes.”The reason for these sanctions is now in Moscow,” Shaibani said, referring to Assad, who fled to the Russian capital.He added that “the Syrian people shouldn’t be punished” by measures levelled against the now-deposed ruler.- ‘Collapsed state’ -Shaibani also insisted in Davos that Syria would not be “a threat for any country in the world”.HTS, whose chief Ahmed al-Sharaa is Syria’s new leader, has its roots in a former branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria, but it broke ties with the jihadist group in 2016 and has sought to soften its image.”We inherited a collapsed state from the Assad regime, there is no economic system,” Shaibani said, adding that “the economy in the future will be open”.The new authorities would focus on five sectors, he said: energy, telecoms, roads and airports, education and health. “If we succeed in these five sectors, the basic services for our Syrian people” will be provided, he added.Earlier Wednesday, Shaibani told the Financial Times that a committee had been created to study “Syria’s economic condition and infrastructure and would focus on privatisation efforts, including of oils, cotton and furniture factories”.Syria will also “explore public-private partnerships to encourage investment into airports, railways and roads”, according to his interview with the FT.On January 6, the US announced that it was providing limited sanctions relief on some activities in Syria for the next six months to ease access to basic services following Assad’s fall.Earlier this month, the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said that the bloc could begin lifting sanctions if Syria’s new rulers took steps to form an inclusive government that protected minorities.EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss proposals to ease some measures at a meeting in Brussels on January 27.

Iranian Vice President Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday his government had put off enforcing the country’s strict Islamic dress code in order “not to put women under pressure”.Covering the neck and head and dressing modestly became mandatory for women in Iran following the Islamic revolution that overthrew the US-backed Shah in 1979.”If you go to the streets of Tehran, you will find women not covering their hair. It’s against the law, but the government has decided not to put women under pressure,” Zarif told the World Economic Forum in Davos.He said President Masoud Pezeshkian “did not implement the law, with the consent of the head of parliament, the head of the judiciary and others in the National Security Council”.He said “we are moving in the right direction”, acknowledging that “it is not enough, but it is a step in the right direction”.In September 2023, Tehran approved what is officially known as the “Law on Supporting the Family through the Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab”.It imposes tougher penalties on women who refuse to wear the mandatory hijab and significant fines and prison sentences for those deemed to be promoting “nudity” or “indecency”.The bill was initially meant to be referred in December to Pezeshkian, who has expressed “reservations” about the text, citing numerous “ambiguities”.Earlier this month, government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said the bill had been “delayed” over some of its provisions, which “could have had serious social consequences”.In late 2022, Iran was rocked by a wave of mass protests following the death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the dress code.The months-long unrest resulted in hundreds of deaths, including many security personnel, and the arrest of thousands of demonstrators.

Procter & Gamble is seeing encouraging signs in China, but a full recovery is still a ways off, executives said Wednesday as the consumer products giant reported solid earnings.P&G, whose brands include Tide detergent and Charmin toilet paper, saw improvement in China in the just-finished quarter in sales of SK-II, a premium skin care product.Chief …

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French officials said Wednesday the body of a young man from Yemen had been found on a beach in northern France from where many migrants seek to cross the channel in small boats to England.The body was not far from the water on the sandy beach in Sangatte outside the northern port of Calais, surrounded by about 10 police officers, an AFP photographer saw.”It is a young man aged around 20 of Yemeni nationality,” the regional prefecture told AFP.Bodies have been found washed up repeatedly on the beaches around Calais in recent months. The small boats used by migrants to cross the Channel often capsize or suffer from chaotic embarkations during which some passengers are left in the water.After a record year for deaths in the Channel, clandestine crossings have continued in the middle of winter, despite sometimes freezing temperatures.Fifty-nine migrants aboard a boat in difficulty were rescued Tuesday at sea in French waters, local officials said.At least 77 migrants died in 2024 while trying to reach England on board small boats, a record since the start of this type of crossing in 2018. On January 11, a 19-year-old Syrian died during an attempted crossing, “probably crushed” by other migrants during departure, according to the authorities.Both London and Paris have vowed to crack down on the people smugglers who are paid sometimes thousands of euros by migrants to organise the crossing to England.But the issue has also repeatedly caused tensions between the French and British governments. Paris has claimed that London’s lax enforcement of employment rules attracts migrants.There have been high-profile arrests of people smugglers, but activists say the traffickers are now trying to pack more people into the small boats, making the crossings even more dangerous.sad-cnp-etb-sjw/jj

After more than a year hiding in tunnels and dodging air strikes, uniformed Hamas fighters returned to the ruined streets of Gaza hours into a ceasefire, defying Israel’s vow to crush them.With the world watching on Sunday as Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross, dozens of balaclava-wearing fighters in the group’s signature green headbands were seen at the packed Gaza City square marshalling the chaotic events.The day after, Hamas’s deputy interior minister for the territory was out and about in Gaza City, declaring that Gazans were “living in a moment of victory”.While Hamas was back on the streets, Israeli forces were withdrawing from the territory’s densely populated areas. The destruction they left behind was staggering, yet Hamas appears to have survived, in spite of Israel’s stated objective from the outset of the war of eradicating the group once and for all.”When you set yourself complete elimination (as a goal), if there is one man standing it can be regarded as failure,” said Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East expert at Chatham House.- ‘Fiercest bombardment’ -This could prove a problem for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who pledged in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel to destroy the group.”They were under the fiercest bombardment that such an organisation could ever sustain and they are still there and they are still recruiting,” Mekelberg said. Israel decimated Hamas’s ranks and killed many of its top leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh and his successor Yahya Sinwar. On Tuesday, Israel’s army chief said its campaign had killed “nearly 20,000 Hamas operatives”.Mekelberg cautioned that it was too early to assess Hamas’s overall condition, and acknowledged it had suffered heavy losses, but “on your TV, you see that they are still there, with their bandanas and all their masks”.Muhammad Shehada, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Israel had specifically targeted civil servants, police and ministers, as part of its efforts to dismantle Hamas’s governing ability.  “The continued presence of these officials and forces represents a symbol of defiance, showing they remain operational despite the onslaught,” he said.On Monday, Hamas presented itself as triumphant for having survived, saying in a statement that “Gaza, with its great people and its resilience, will rise again to rebuild what the occupation has destroyed and continue on the path of steadfastness until the occupation is defeated”.- ‘Game of whack-a-mole’ -The ceasefire is in its infancy and many questions remain about the future of the Gaza Strip and Hamas. Michael Horowitz, a Middle East analyst at the security consultancy Le Beck, said Hamas had made a show of strength both to deter rivals within the Palestinian ranks and to show Israel “that any additional rounds of fighting won’t lead anywhere”.That Hamas was not defeated was down to “one key reason”, he said, namely that Israel “hasn’t tried to replace Hamas as a governing entity in Gaza”. Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority have no role in the Gaza Strip. This “solely security-focused” vision, said Horowitz, meant “Israel has been stuck in a game of whack-a-mole”.Eva Koulouriotis, an independent Middle East analyst, said Hamas retained “overwhelming popularity” in Gaza, while “attempts… to provide a popular base for the Palestinian Authority and to reject Hamas’s rule have failed”.The destruction brought by the war did breed resentment towards Hamas among Gazans, said Shehada, but many were conflicted.People “also feel a sense of pride” that Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, defied Israel’s might, he noted.”It revolves around the fact that people have been humiliated… And then it brings a source of pride”.The humanitarian cost of the war for the people of Gaza has been immense. The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has put the death toll at more than 47,100, the majority civilians, figures the UN considers reliable.That devastation was in retaliation for Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Horowitz said the scale of destruction was among the worst of any urban battle in recent memory, adding it eclipsed the damage done to Mosul in Iraq during the campaign to dislodge the Islamic State group.But ultimately, said Mekelberg, Israel’s military campaign didn’t “deal with the root causes of the conflict”, echoing a call by UN chief Antonio Guterres for the ceasefire to be a “first step” towards a long-term political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.Only in that way, Mekelberg said, can Israel “create space between (Hamas) and the rest of the (Palestinian) people”.bur-az-dcp-lba/jd/smw

Syria’s defence minister said Wednesday that Damascus was open to talks with Kurdish-led forces on their integration into the national army but stood ready to use force should negotiations fail.”The door to negotiation with the (Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces) is currently open,” Murhaf Abu Qasra told reporters.”If we have to use force, we will be ready.”Last month, an official told AFP that an SDF delegation had met Syria’s interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who heads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that spearheaded the rebel offensive that ousted Bashar al-Assad.Sharaa had told Al Arabiya television that Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the new national army so that weapons are “in the hands of the state alone”.The US-backed SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted the Islamic State jihadist group from its last territory in Syria in 2019.The group controls much of the oil-producing northeast, where it has enjoyed de facto autonomy for more than a decade.”They offered us oil, but we don’t want oil, we want the institutions and the borders,” Abu Qasra said.- ‘New Syria’ -The US-backed SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted Islamic State group jihadists from their last territory in Syria in 2019.But Ankara, which has long had ties with HTS, accuses the main component of the SDF, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).In an offensive that coincided with the HTS-led advance on Damascus, Turkish-backed armed groups in northern Syria seized several areas from the SDF late last year.Earlier this month, then US secretary of state Antony Blinken said he was working to address Turkish concerns and dissuade it from stepping up its offensive against the SDF.UN envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen told reporters in Damascus on Wednesday that he hoped the warring parties would allow time for a diplomatic solution “so that this does not end in a full military confrontation”.Pedersen said Washington and Ankara “have a key role to play in supporting this” effort.”We are looking for the beginning of a new Syria and hopefully that will also include the northeast in a peaceful manner,” he said.