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London stock market hits record high as global equities rally

London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index reached an all-time high Friday as global equities rallied and the dollar climbed on renewed optimism for the global economy.The index jumped to 8,490.84 points, surpassing an intra-day record achieved in May last year of 8,474.41. Around 1015 GMT, it stood at 8,484.67 points, up 1.1 percent compared with Thursday’s close.”After …

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Russia, Iran to harden military, trade ties in new pact

Russia and Iran are poised to sign a new treaty on Friday to cement military and economic ties between two of the world’s most heavily sanctioned nations, in a pact likely to worry the West.The agreement comes just days before Iran-hawk Donald Trump enters the White House and as Moscow and Tehran seek to formalise years of deepening cooperation. The details of the document have not been released, but the Kremlin has said it will strengthen Tehran and Moscow’s “military-political and trade-economic” relations.Moscow has looked to the Islamic republic as a strategic ally since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, worrying Western officials who see both as malign actors on the world stage.Iran has already supplied Russia with self-detonating “Shahed” drones that Moscow fires on Ukraine in nightly barrages, according to Ukrainian and Western officials, while both have ramped up trade amid Western sanctions.Tehran has given little detail on the new treaty, but has ruled out a mutual defence clause like the one included in Moscow’s pact with North Korea last year, Russian state media reported, citing Tehran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi.Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who arrived in the Russian capital earlier, is expected to meet counterpart Vladimir Putin later for talks and to sign the agreement, Russian state news agencies reported.The two will also give a joint press conference, according to the Kremlin.- ‘Global hegemony’ -The two sides had been working on a new treaty for years. Their current relationship is governed by a 2001 document that they have renewed periodically.Russia says its upcoming pact with Iran and the already-signed treaty with Pyongyang are “not directed against any country”.”The treaty … is constructive in nature and is aimed at strengthening the capabilities of Russia, Iran, and our friends in various parts of the world,” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.It is set to be valid for 20 years, Russia’s TASS news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Iranian ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali.Russian President Vladimir Putin has made building ties with Iran, China and North Korea a cornerstone of his foreign policy as he seeks to challenge what he calls as a US-led “global hegemony”. Both Russia and Iran are under heavy Western sanctions that include restrictions on their vital energy industries.At a summit of the BRICS group in Kazan last year, Putin told Pezeshkian he valued “truly friendly and constructive ties” between Russia and Iran.Iran has also sought closer ties with Russia, after suffering a series of foreign policy setbacks last year.A rebel offensive overthrew Russian and Iranian-backed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad last month, and a war last year between Israel and Tehran-ally Hezbollah substantially weakened the Islamist militant group.Pezeshkian’s visit to Russia also comes just days before Iran-hawk Trump returns to power.The US president-elect, who is seeking a rapid end to the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, has made repeated military threats against the Islamic republic.During his first term, the Republican pulled out of an international deal that provided Iran sanctions relief in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme.In 2020, Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike in Iraq on Trump’s orders, prompting a wave of fury in Iran.Trump last year warned the US would “wipe (Iran) off the face of the Earth” if an alleged Iranian plot to kill him last year had been succesful.

Yazeed al-Rajhi and Sanders record maiden Dakar Rally triumphs

Yazeed al-Rajhi made history on Friday by becoming the first driver from host nation Saudi Arabia to win the Dakar Rally.The Overdrive pilot held onto his overnight lead to beat South Africa’s Henk Lategan in a Toyota by 3min 57sec with Mattias Ekstrom of Sweden third in his Ford, more than 20min adrift.Rajhi, 43, had previously recorded a best finish of third in 2022.Saudi Arabia have hosted the Dakar Rally since 2020, when it moved from South America.”I am very, very happy to do it, it is not an easy race, it’s the toughest one that I’ve done in the last eleven years,” said Rajhi.”For sure, we have made a lot of records today: the first Saudi driver to win and also in the last twenty-five years no private team beat a factory team but we did it this time.”Also, it’s the first time there is a winner on the Dakar from the same country in which it is raced, with a Saudi guy winning a Saudi Dakar.”There was also a first win in the world’s most famous endurance rally for Australia’s KTM rider Daniel Sanders in the motorbike category.The car category lost a lot of its gloss with two high-profile retirements early in the race.Four-time winner and defending champion Carlos Sainz exited on the second stage after an accident.A stage later it was France’s nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb who departed, his Dakar jinx continuing as he was disqualified by the race stewards after his Dacia car was damaged in a crash.Five-time winner Nasser al-Attiyah never really landed a blow but the Qatari took final stage honours on Friday and finished fourth overall.      Sanders, 30, dominated from the moment he won the prologue and finished a comfortable 8min 50sec faster than Spanish runner-up Tosha Schareina on his Honda.Sanders is the first rider to record three successive stage wins since Spain’s Joan Barreda achieved the feat in the 2017 edition held between Bolivia and Argentina.Sanders is the second Australian to prevail in the motorbike category after Toby Price emerged victorious in 2016 and 2019.”It was a tough race,” said Sanders.”The last three days couldn’t come quick enough. It was really, really exciting to see the finish line when we came over one dune.”You see the whole bivouac, I just smiled and had chills go through my whole body. Super special, won’t forget that moment.”Schareina, 29, said second place did not leave a bitter taste in the mouth, indeed he revelled in the achievement considering what the grizzled veterans of the event had told him. “I’m super happy to be here on the finishing line,” he said.”It was a really hard race and many of the veterans have told me that.”It was the toughest ever edition, so I’m super happy to be here on the finishing line, so happy for the team and for everybody taking this second place we have earned.”I’m super happy for Daniel, he has done a great job and had a great two weeks.”I think the ten minutes more or less he took on the first day allowed him to control the race from then, but I’m super happy for them.”

Israeli security cabinet meets on ceasefire deal

Israel’s security cabinet met Friday to vote on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal that should take effect this weekend.If approved, the agreement would halt fighting and bombardment in Gaza’s deadliest-ever war and initiate on Sunday the release of dozens of hostages held in the territory since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.Under the deal struck by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, the ensuing weeks should also see the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.Israeli strikes have killed dozens of people since the deal was announced, while Israel’s military said Thursday it had hit about 50 targets across Gaza over the past day.The ceasefire would take effect on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States.”The security cabinet meeting to discuss and vote on the deal has started,” an Israeli official told AFP.Should the plan be approved, “the release of the hostages can proceed according to the planned framework, with the hostages expected to be released as early as Sunday”, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.Even before the start of the truce, Gazans displaced by the war to other parts of the territory were preparing to return home.”I am waiting for Sunday morning when they will announce the ceasefire,” said Nasr al-Gharabli, who fled his home in Gaza City for a camp further south in the territory.”I will go to kiss my land, and I already regret leaving Gaza and my land. If I die on my land, it would be better than being here as a displaced person.”In Israel, there was joy but also pain over the fate of hostages who have died or been killed since their capture.In Tel Aviv, pensioner Simon Patya said he felt “great joy” that some hostages would return alive, but also “great sorrow for those who are returning in bags, and that will be a very strong blow, morally”.- ‘Confident’ -The lead-up to Friday’s meeting has been fraught with uncertainty, with Netanyahu’s office accusing Hamas of reneging on key parts of the deal to extort last-minute concessions — an allegation Hamas denied.Once the security cabinet votes on the agreement, it will go to the government for final approval.At least two far-right cabinet members had voiced opposition to the deal, but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose government is Israel’s close ally, said he believed the ceasefire would go ahead on schedule.”I am confident, and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday,” he said.- Dozens killed – Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel pounded several areas of the territory after the deal was announced on Wednesday, killing more than 100 people and wounding hundreds since then.Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned that Israeli strikes were risking the lives of hostages due to be freed under the deal, and could turn their “freedom… into a tragedy”.The war began with the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.During the attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, Palestinian militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s ensuing campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,788 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.- Trump and Biden -The ceasefire agreement followed intensified efforts from mediators after months of fruitless negotiations, and with Trump’s team taking credit for working with US President Joe Biden’s administration to seal the deal.”If we weren’t involved in this deal, the deal would’ve never happened,” Trump said in an interview Thursday.A senior Biden official said the unlikely pairing had been a decisive factor in reaching the deal.Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, announcing the agreement on Wednesday, said an initial 42-day ceasefire would see 33 hostages released, including women, “children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded”.Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas and allow displaced Palestinians to return “to their residences”, he said.Two sources close to Hamas told AFP three Israeli women soldiers would be the first to be released on Sunday evening.They would be received by Red Cross aid workers as well as Egyptian and Qatari teams, one source said on condition of anonymity.”They will then be transported to Egypt, where they will be handed over to the Israeli side present there to complete the handover and conduct necessary medical examinations,” the source said.”Afterward, they will be transported directly to Israel. (Israel) is then expected to release the first group of Palestinian prisoners, including several with high sentences,” the source added.Biden said the second phase of the agreement could bring a “permanent end to the war”.He added the deal would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families”.burs-ser/ysm

Aid agencies ready Gaza push but warn of mammoth obstacles

An Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal expected to take effect on Sunday has sparked hope for life-saving aid to reach Palestinians, but aid agencies warn of obstacles from destroyed infrastructure, massive need and collapsed law and order.Announcing the truce, United States President Joe Biden said on Wednesday it would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians”.The United Nations’ humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called it “a moment of hope and opportunity” but said “we should be under no illusions how tough it will still be to get support to survivors.”  On the ground in the territory, where nearly all 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once, aid workers worry nothing will be enough to meet the need.”Everything has been destroyed. Children are on the streets. You can’t pinpoint just one priority,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) coordinator Amande Bazerolle told AFP by phone from Gaza.Speaking from the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, Mohammed al-Khatib, of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said local aid workers haven’t stopped for 15 months even though they themselves are displaced.”Everyone is exhausted,” he said.In the hunger-striken makeshift shelters set up in former schools, bombed-out houses and cemeteries, hundreds of thousands lack even plastic sheeting to protect from winter rains and biting winds, Gavin Kelleher, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told AFP.- Aid surge ‘not feasible’ -Even if the bombs stop, agencies like his have to focus on the basics of emergency response, including bringing in “tarpaulins, rope and fixtures to close gaping holes” in buildings.”At least until we stop seeing children dying of hypothermia,” he said via text message from Gaza.By last week, hypothermia had killed at least eight people — four newborns, three infants and one adult — according to a health ministry toll used by the World Health Organisation.On Wednesday, Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported coordination was underway to reopen the Rafah crossing on the Gaza border. It was one of the main humanitarian entry points but has been closed since Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side in May.The truce is based on a plan Biden presented in mid-2024 that foresaw a surge in aid to 600 trucks per day, or more than eight times the December average reported by the United Nations.The World Food Programme said Thursday it had enough food for one million people “waiting outside Gaza or on its way”.On the Egyptian side of the border, a source in the Egyptian Red Crescent told AFP up to 1,000 trucks are waiting “for their entry into Gaza”.But with air strikes continuing to pound the territory, where aid groups and the UN have regularly accused Israel of impeding aid flows — which Israeli denies — aid workers were sceptical.MSF’s Bazerolle said the promise of hundreds of trucks a day “is not even feasible technically”.”Since Rafah has been destroyed, the infrastructure is not there to be able to cope with that level of logistics,” she explained, with bombs audible in the background.- New ‘chapter of suffering’ -Aid that does arrive is subject to looting by both armed gangs and desperate civilians.”The Israelis have targeted the police, so there’s no one to protect the shipments” from looting, which Bazerolle said will continue “as long as there’s not enough aid entering”.After more than a year of the “systematic dismantling of the rule of law” in Gaza, NRC’s Kelleher called for “the resumption of a Palestinian civilian police force.”The situation is especially dire in northern Gaza.Bazerolle, who says MSF missions in the area have been targeted by Israel, says the group hopes to send teams to the north “to at least treat patients where they are,” in the absence of hospitals.According to the WHO, only one hospital, Al-Awda, is partially functioning in the north.WHO’s Rik Peeperkorn said that, in addition to hospital capacity, his agency will focus on “the very basic things” including water, electricity and waste management systems in Gaza.Still, the displaced will hope to head back — including Khatib himself — if the truce holds.Many, he said, “will return to find their entire neighbourhoods destroyed” and without food or shelter.”People aren’t even talking about rebuilding their houses, but just the most basic essential needs,” he continued.”We’re closing one chapter of suffering and opening a new one,” he predicted, before adding: “At least there is some hope of the bloodshed ending.”