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‘Dialogue’ must be at heart of China, Australia ties, PM tells Xi

“Dialogue” must be at the heart of ties between Canberra and Beijing, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday as he met President Xi Jinping in the Chinese capital.Albanese is on his second visit to China as prime minister, seeking to bolster recently stabilised trade ties even as geopolitical tensions remain high.Relations between Beijing …

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Syrian forces enter Druze city after deadly clashes

Syrian government forces entered the majority Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday, the interior ministry said, aiming to end clashes with Bedouin tribes that have killed nearly 100 people.The southern city had been under the control of armed factions from the Druze minority, whose religious leaders said they had approved the deployment of Damascus’s troops and called on fighters to hand over their weapons.A curfew was to be imposed on the southern city in a bid to halt the violence, which erupted at the weekend and has since spread across Sweida governorate.Government forces said they intervened to separate the two sides but ended up taking control of several Druze areas around Sweida, an AFP correspondent reported.Military columns were seen advancing toward Sweida on Tuesday morning, with heavy artillery deployed nearby.The defence ministry said later that they had entered the city, and urged people to “stay home and report any movements of outlaw groups”.An AFP correspondent heard explosions and gunshots as soldiers moved into Sweida.Troops had begun heading towards the city on Monday, taking control of at least one Druze village, with one Druze faction saying talks were underway with the Damascus government.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported 99 people killed since the fighting erupted on Sunday — 60 Druze, including four civilians, 18 Bedouin fighters, 14 security personnel and seven unidentified people in military uniforms.The defence ministry reported 18 deaths among the ranks of the armed forces.While Druze religious authorities had called on Monday evening for a ceasefire and said they didn’t oppose the central government, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, one of the three Druze spiritual leaders in Sweida, opposed the arrival of the security forces and called for “international protection”.Israel, which has attempted to portray itself as a protector of the Druze in Syria and sees them as potential allies, bombed several Syrian tanks on Monday.The strikes were “a clear warning to the Syrian regime — we will not allow harm to be done to the Druze in Syria”, said Defence Minister Israel Katz, whose country has its own Druze population.- ‘Extreme terror’ -The fighting underscores the challenges facing interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose Islamist forces ousted president Bashar al-Assad in December after nearly 14 years of civil war.Syria’s pre-war Druze population was estimated at around 700,000, many of them concentrated in Sweida province.The Druze, followers of an esoteric religion that split from Shiite Islam, are mainly found in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.Following deadly clashes with government forces in April and May, local and religious leaders reached an agreement with Damascus under which Druze fighters had been providing security in the province.”We lived in a state of extreme terror — the shells were falling randomly,” said Abu Taym, a 51-year-old father.Amal, a 46-year-old woman, said: “We fear a repeat of the coastal scenario”, referring to massacres in March of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in northwest Syria, where groups affiliated with the government were blamed for most of the killings.”We are not against the state, but we are against surrendering our weapons without a state that treats everyone the same,” she added.In a post on X, Syrian Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra urged his troops to “protect your fellow citizens” from “outlaw gangs”, and to “restore stability to Sweida”.The violence began on Sunday when Bedouin gunmen abducted a Druze vegetable vendor on the highway to Damascus, prompting retaliatory kidnappings.The Observatory said members of Bedouin tribes, who are Sunni Muslims, had sided with security forces during earlier confrontations with the Druze.Bedouin and Druze factions have a longstanding feud in Sweida, and violence occasionally erupts between the two sides.

Egypt grand museum delay puts tourism hopes on hold

In the shadow of the Grand Egyptian Museum, souvenir shop owner Mona has been readying for the tourist boom she hoped the long-awaited opening would bring — now once again out of reach.”I had bet everything on this opening,” she told AFP from her shop, just steps from the iconic pyramids of Giza, which the much-anticipated museum overlooks.Originally scheduled to fully open this month, the museum was expected to attract up to five million visitors annually, fuelling optimism across Cairo’s battered tourism sector.”We planned our entire summer and fall packages around the museum opening,” said Nadine Ahmed, a 28-year-old agent with Time Travel tours.”But with group cancellations, refunds and route changes, we’ve lost tens of thousands of dollars.”Though parts of the museum have been open for months, the main draw — the treasures of Tutankhamun — will remain under wraps until the official launch.Less than three weeks before its July 3 opening, the government announced another delay, this time pushing the landmark event to the final quarter of the year.Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly cited regional security concerns and the desire to host an event of “global scale”.- Decades in the making -The vast museum, two decades in the making, has faced repeated delays — from political upheaval and economic crises to the Covid-19 pandemic.Ahead of the expected launch, Mona, who asked to be identified by her first name only, took out a loan to renovate her store and stock up on goods inspired by the museum’s collection.A few streets away, Mohamed Mamdouh Khattab, 38, prepared months in advance, hiring and training extra staff and expanding his inventory.”The opening of the museum is a key milestone,” said Khattab, who owns a sprawling bazaar of handcrafted jewellery and ancient replicas.”It’s a project that should have been launched a long time ago,” said the vendor, whose family has been in the industry since the 1970s.Tourism accounts for about 10 percent of Egypt’s workforce, but the sector has struggled — from the fallout of the 2011 Arab Spring to militant attacks and the Covid shutdown.Still, signs of recovery have emerged: Egypt welcomed 3.9 million tourists in the first quarter of 2025, up 25 percent from the same period last year — itself a record.- Fragility -At a Giza papyrus workshop, 30-year-old tour guide Sara Mahmoud hopes the opening will revive visitor numbers.”Big openings have brought a lot of tourism to Egypt before,” she said, pointing to the 2021 Pharaohs’ Golden Parade and the reopening of the Avenue of the Sphinxes.”These events get people excited — we saw the crowds coming in.”Such momentum could make a real difference, said Ragui Assaad, an economist at the University of Minnesota.”Any initiative that directly increases foreign exchange earnings is likely to have a good return on investment,” he told AFP.”If you compare it with all the other mega-projects, which do not increase foreign exchange earnings… this is a far better project.”He was referring to a sweeping infrastructure drive under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, including the construction of a massive new administrative capital east of Cairo.The stakes are high: since 2022, Egypt’s currency has lost two-thirds of its value, squeezing household budgets and straining every layer of the economy.”There were days when I sold just one bracelet,” Mona lamented, thinking back to the years when “tourists arrived in droves”.