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Japan eked out modest growth in the second quarter despite painful US tariffs, official data showed Friday, in welcome news to embattled Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.A preliminary estimate showed gross domestic product (GDP) in the world’s number four economy growing 0.3 percent in the three months to June, above market forecasts of 0.1 percent.The cabinet …

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Israel’s finance minister backed plans on Thursday to build 3,400 homes in a particularly contentious area of the occupied West Bank, calling for the territory’s annexation in response to several countries’ plans to recognise a Palestinian state.The United Nations chief warned that building Israeli homes in the area would “put an end to” hopes for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Israel has long had ambitions to build on the sensitive parcel of land east of Jerusalem known as E1, but the plan has been frozen for decades amid international opposition.Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, while critics and the international community have warned construction on the roughly 12 square kilometres would undermine hopes for a contiguous future Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.The site sits between the ancient city and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, near routes connecting the north and south of the Palestinian territory. There are also separate, frozen plans to expand Israel’s separation barrier to envelop the area.”Those who want to recognise a Palestinian state today will receive a response from us on the ground… Through concrete actions: houses, neighbourhoods, roads and Jewish families building their lives,” said Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, who was speaking at a pro-settlement event on the advancement of plans for the E1 parcel.”On this important day, I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, to abandon once and for all the idea of partitioning the country, and to ensure that by September, the hypocritical European leaders will have nothing left to recognise,” the far-right figurehead added, using the Biblical term for the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.Britain and France are among several countries to announce in recent weeks plans to recognise a Palestinian state later this year, saying they wanted to keep the two-state solution alive.- ‘Breach of international law’ -Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said “If this went ahead — which we call on the Israeli government not to do… it would sever the northern and southern West banks.”He added that “it would put an end to the prospects of a two-state solution”.The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the plans and called for “genuine international intervention and the imposition of sanctions on the occupation to compel it to halt the implementation”.”Colonial construction in the E1 area is a continuation of the occupation’s plans to destroy the opportunity for the establishment of a Palestinian state,” it added.The European Union’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said the plan “further undermines the two-state solution while being a breach of international law” and called on Israel “to desist”.Germany said it “strongly objects” to the plan and called on the Israeli government to “stop settlement construction”, while Saudi Arabia also condemned the move “in the strongest possible terms”.Israeli NGO Peace Now, which monitors settlement activity in the West Bank, denounced the E1 plan as “deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution”.The NGO said the final approval hearing would be held next Wednesday by a technical committee under the defence ministry that has already rejected all objections to the proposals.After the bureaucratic steps are completed, “infrastructure work in E1 could begin within a few months, and housing construction within about a year”, Peace Now said.The West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as about 500,000 Israeli settlers.

Tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on dozens of countries have so far not affected container ship traffic through the Panama Canal, its administrator said Thursday.Allies and adversaries alike are facing higher levies on exports to the United States as Trump’s long-threatened “reciprocal” tariffs go into effect over trade practices he considers unfair.Analysts have …

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Wall Street stocks finished little changed Thursday as markets absorbed a disappointing inflation report, while oil prices shot higher on the eve of a US-Russia summit on Ukraine.After a negative start, major US indices worked their way back up to even following July wholesale price data.The producer price index rose 0.9 percent on a month-on-month …

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The United Nations warned Israel and Russia on Thursday that their militaries faced being listed as parties suspected of committing sexual violence in conflict in light of credible evidence of violations.UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s report said the two countries risked being added to a list of parties thought to use sexual violence including rape in conflict that includes Myanmar’s military, Sudan’s army and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.”Due to significant concerns regarding patterns of certain forms of sexual violence perpetrated by Israeli armed and security forces and Russian armed and security forces and affiliated armed groups, these parties have been put on notice for potential listing in the next reporting period,” said the annual report. “These concerns relate primarily to violations recorded in detention settings.”In the case of Israel, the report alleges “credible information” military and security forces perpetrated patterns of sexual violence including “genital violence, prolonged forced nudity and repeated strip searches conducted in an abusive and degrading manner.”In February, the Israeli army said it had charged five soldiers for abusing a Palestinian detainee at a site used to hold Palestinians following the start of the war in Gaza in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.Among the charges was an allegation that the accused had stabbed a man with a sharp object “which had penetrated near the detainee’s rectum.”The report said there was “credible” evidence of violations “against Ukrainian prisoners of war, in 50 official and 22 unofficial detention facilities in Ukraine” and Russia.”These cases comprised a significant number of documented incidents of genital violence, including electrocution, beatings and burns to the genitals, and forced stripping and prolonged nudity, used to humiliate and elicit confessions or information,” it said.In 2024, the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine documented 209 cases of conflict-related sexual violence, including rape, the report added.Israel has cooperated with a special representative on the issue of sexual violence in conflict, whereas Russia has not, the report said.The report said however that Israel’s refusal to grant access to inspectors had frustrated her ability to determine patterns and trends.Israel rejected the report’s findings and called a letter that accompanied it from Guterres “unusual.” “The UN must focus on the shocking war crimes and sexual violence of Hamas and the release of all hostages,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said.”Israel will not shy away from protecting its citizens and will continue to act in accordance with international law.”Russia’s embassy to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.