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Stock markets mostly dropped on Tuesday as investors awaited a Federal Reserve interest-rate decision while anticipating US trade deal breakthroughs that have yet to materialize.Stocks had risen most of the last two weeks in anticipation of progress on the trade front as US President Donald Trump and top appointees play up the negotiations. But major …

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War-weary civilians have looked up at a blackened sky in Port Sudan this week as the two-year war they had fled finally reached their once-safe haven on Sudan’s Red Sea coast.”Panic is setting in, people are terrified,” Port Sudan native Sami Hussein Abdel Wahab told AFP as smoke billowed behind him.Giant plumes of thick smoke have hung in Port Sudan’s skies since Sunday, when the first drone strikes, blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), struck the city.Tuesday’s dawn attack on the wartime de facto capital struck the airport, fuel depots and a power substation, grounding all international flights in and out of Sudan and causing a city-wide blackout.”It’s us, the citizens, that they’re targeting,” Mohamed Ahmed Karar, 57, told AFP, referring to the RSF, at war with the regular army since April 2023.Another resident, Salem Omar Ibrahim, said: “They hit everything that benefits civilians.”Port Sudan, a strategic target for the RSF, is also Sudan’s largest operational port and a “lifeline for humanitarian operations”, the United Nations said Tuesday.Nearly all aid into the country — home to nearly 25 million people suffering dire food insecurity — transits through Port Sudan, where massive fires raged in fuel depots for over 36 hours.At petrol stations across the city, queues of cars stretched for more than a kilometre (0.6 miles) as drivers scrambled to fill their tanks, an AFP correspondent reported.Drivers waited for hours in the rising heat, engines off, hoping for a few litres before supplies ran dry again.But most were unsure where they would go. Even territories the army has reclaimed, including parts of the capital Khartoum, suffer without basic services.”Yesterday and today just confirm to us that this war will follow us no matter where we go,” said Hussein Ibrahim, 64, who has fled RSF attacks on his hometown in Al-Jazira state, about 1,000 kilometres away.In markets and street corners, anxious neighbours exchanged half-formed plans. They could stay, waiting for more attacks, or head back to where they had been uprooted from.- ‘No alternative’ -Until Sunday, Port Sudan had been a rare safe refuge in the war between the army and the RSF that has ripped the country apart.The city has hosted government ministries and the United Nations and sheltered hundreds of thousands of people, mostly displaced from Khartoum and central Sudan.The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted 13 million and created what the UN describes as the world’s worst largest hunger and displacement crises.The conflict has effectively divided the country in two, with the army controlling the north, east and centre and the RSF holding nearly all of the western Darfur region and parts of the south.Now, the sense of safety that had defined Port Sudan has been shattered.”The sound of the explosion was terrifying, it’s caused us to panic,” said Soad Babiker, 45, who had also fled the violence in Al-Jazira.Ahmed Ali, a shopkeeper near the market, said the atmosphere was unlike anything he had seen before.”There is no electricity, no water,” he said.”The market is half-asleep. People are scared. Some families fled their homes overnight.”Despite the fear, some residents cautiously clung to their daily routine.Though schools were closed on Tuesday, central Port Sudan bustled with an eerie semblance of normal life. Shops in the city’s main market were open and long rows of public minibuses waited for passengers as usual.”There’s no alternative,” said resident Al-Nour Mokhtar Othman.”What are people supposed to do? We just have to keep going and hope for stability.”

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday meets France’s Emmanuel Macron in Paris on his first visit to Europe since taking power after the fall of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.The visit comes with Syria’s new authorities, who have roots in the Al-Qaeda jihadist network, under increasing pressure from Europe to show their seriousness on protecting human rights as Damascus seeks the full lifting of Assad-era sanctions. “This meeting is part of France’s historic commitment to the Syrian people who aspire to peace and democracy,” the Elysee Palace said on Tuesday.Macron will “reiterate France’s support for the construction of a new Syria, a free, stable, sovereign Syria that respects all components of Syrian society,” the presidency said.Macron will also emphasise “his demands on the Syrian government, primarily the stabilisation of the region, including Lebanon, and the fight against terrorism,” it said.Sharaa was the head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which spearheaded Assad’s overthrow after 14 years of civil war and formerly had links to Al-Qaeda. He is still subject to a UN travel ban and France most likely had to request an exemption from the United Nations, as was the case for his recent trips to Turkey and Saudi Arabia, according to a source familiar with the matter.EU spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said, referring to the Syrian leader by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, that exemptions can be granted in certain cases if UN officials determine “that the entry or transit is justified”.Macron is due to welcome al-Sharaa to the Elysee Palace at 1515 GMT followed by a joint news conference.- Humanitarian crisis -France, a former colonial-era ruler of Syria, is eyeing an opportunity to increase its influence in the country after years of Russian presence, with French companies also seeking business contracts.Last week, French logistics giant CMA CGM signed a 30-year contract to develop and operate the port of Latakia.Macron had first invited Syria’s new leader to visit France in February.In March, he repeated the invitation but made it conditional on the formation of an inclusive Syrian government representing “all components of civil society”, describing his initial negotiations with the interim leaders as “positive”.Mehad, a French NGO which has operated in Syria since 2011, warned of the worsening humanitarian crisis in the country and called for “a strong response” from France.”Emmanuel Macron’s strong commitment must now be translated into action, not only by maintaining the budget allocated to humanitarian aid in Syria, but also by disbursing it quickly,” said Mehad director Mego Terzian.”Otherwise we are heading for a humanitarian and health disaster in the country.”- ‘Shock and dismay’ -Syria’s new Islamist authorities have vowed inclusive rule in the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country.But sectarian clashes in March in which more than 1,700 people were killed, mostly from Assad’s Alawite minority, sparked condemnation.More recent clashes involving fighters from the Druze community, as well as reports of abuses from NGOs, have also raised doubts about the interim government’s ability to control extremists in its ranks.Adding to pressure on the new Syrian government, Israel has also launched hundreds of strikes on the country since Assad’s overthrow, including one near the presidential palace in Damascus on Friday.The interim government described the strike as a “dangerous escalation”, while the United Nations urged Israel to halt its attacks on Syria “at once”.The French far right criticised the upcoming talks.Far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused Macron of hosting talks with “a jihadist” who has been involved with the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda, adding such a meeting would be “provocative and irresponsible”.”Shock and dismay,” Le Pen said on X.Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who met with the Syrian leader on a visit to Damascus in January, defended the talks.Not engaging with the leaders of Syria and Lebanon would amount to “rolling out the red carpet for Daesh,” Barrot told broadcaster RTL, referring to the Islamic State jihadists.

Britain on Tuesday struck a free trade agreement with India, its biggest such deal since leaving the European Union, after negotiations relaunched in February following US tariff threats.Britain has sought to bolster trade ties across the world since it left the EU at the start of the decade under Brexit, a need that became more …

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Israeli warplanes bombed the airport in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa on Tuesday, the latest retaliation for a missile strike by the Iran-backed Huthis that targeted Israel’s main airport.Plumes of thick, black smoke were seen billowing from the airport area after a series of strikes shook the impoverished Arab country’s capital.Residents reported power outages in Sanaa and the Huthi-controlled port city of Hodeida, after the Israelis struck three electricity stations in and around the capital, according to the rebels.Israel’s military said it took the airport “fully” out of action after hitting runways and aircraft. There were no immediate reports of casualties.A previous Israeli attack on the airport in December killed six people, according to Huthi media.Israel has now launched two volleys of strikes after a Huthi missile penetrated the perimeter of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport for the first time on Sunday, leaving a large crater and wounding six people.Huthi authorities said that on Monday four people were killed and 35 wounded as Israel’s initial reprisal strikes hit a cement factory and targets in Hodeida.On Tuesday, the Israeli military said in a statement that its “fighter jets struck and dismantled Huthi terrorist infrastructure at the main airport in Sanaa, fully disabling the airport”.”Flight runways, aircraft and infrastructure at the airport were struck.”Israel targeted the airport because it “served as a central hub for the Huthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons and operatives”, the statement said.Just before Tuesday’s attacks, Israel’s military urged Yemeni civilians to “immediately” evacuate the airport and “stay away from the area”.”Failing to evacuate may put you at risk,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X in Arabic.- ‘Grave escalation’ -The Huthis promised to hit back.The “aggression will not pass without a response and Yemen will not be discouraged from its stance in support of Gaza”, the Huthi political bureau said in a statement.The Huthis have been attacking Israel and shipping in the Red Sea trade route since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, claiming solidarity with the Palestinians.Yemen, much of it under Huthi control for more than a decade, has already been under sustained US attack since mid-March, when the US military began near-daily strikes after months of sporadic raids.The latest exchanges come as regional tensions soar anew over Israel’s plan to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip and displace much of the besieged territory’s population.The Huthis blamed both Israel and its ally the United States for the latest strikes. While Israel claimed responsibility, US officials have denied any involvement.”US forces did not participate in the Israeli strikes on Yemen today,” a US defence official told AFP on Tuesday.As well as the airport and power stations, the latest raids also hit a cement factory in Amran, rebel media said.They may not be the last. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said retaliation “will not happen in one bang, but there will be many bangs”.Hans Grundberg, the United Nations’ special envoy for Yemen, called the exchange of strikes “a grave escalation in an already fragile and volatile regional context”.”I once again urge all stakeholders to exercise the utmost restraint and refrain from escalatory actions that risk inflicting further suffering on civilians,” he posted on X.Israel says it has targeted Yemen five times since July 2024, with Huthi authorities reporting a total of 29 people killed. Israel’s army regularly intercepts missiles from Yemen.Sanaa’s airport, which reopened to international flights in 2022 after a six-year blockade by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Huthis, offers a regular service to Jordan on the home-grown Yemenia airline. 

Hamas on Tuesday dismissed as pointless ceasefire talks with Israel, accusing it of waging a “hunger war” on Gaza, where famine looms, as the Israeli military prepared for a broader assault.The comments from Hamas political bureau member Basem Naim followed Israel’s approval of a military plan involving the long-term “conquest of the Gaza Strip”, according to an Israeli official.Nearly all of the Palestinian territory’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. A two-month Israeli blockade since early March has worsened the humanitarian crisis.”There is no sense in engaging in talks or considering new ceasefire proposals as long as the hunger war and extermination war continue in the Gaza Strip,” senior Hamas official Naim told AFP.The former Gaza health minister said the world must pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to end the “crimes of hunger, thirst, and killings”.Qatar, a key mediator in the conflict, said that “our efforts remain ongoing” despite major obstacle to a ceasefire.Israel’s military has said the expanded operations approved by the security cabinet on Sunday would include displacing “most” of Gaza’s population.Before that phase begins, a senior Israeli security source has said that the timing of troop deployments allowed a “window of opportunity” for a possible hostage deal coinciding with US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East next week.Israel’s military resumed its offensive on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month truce that saw a surge in aid into the war-ravaged territory and the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Tuesday that six Palestinians including a young girl were killed in Israeli dawn attacks.- ‘Dust and destruction’ -Moaz Hamdan, who lost family members in a strike in Nuseirat in central Gaza, said he was awoken by “a very large explosion”.The whole area was “covered in dust and destruction”, he said. “We were unable to rescue the wounded.”The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 2,507 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in mid-March, bringing the overall death toll from the war to 52,615.Hamas’s 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Out of the 251 people abducted by militants that day, 58 are still held in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the Gaza Strip should be “entirely destroyed” and its inhabitants “leave in great numbers to third countries” after the war.His comments came a day after United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq said that “Gaza is, and must remain, an integral part of a future Palestinian state.”For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba”, or catastrophe — the mass displacement in the war that led to Israel’s creation in 1948.- ‘No aid’ -The UN and aid organisations have repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, exacerbated by the total blockade since early March, heightening fears of famine.The United Nations’ humanitarian agency OCHA accused Israel of trying to “weaponise” the flow of aid into Gaza.”There’s no aid to distribute anymore because the aid operation has been strangled,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said.Israeli military spokesman Effie Defrin said the planned offensive approved by the cabinet would include “moving most of the population of the Gaza Strip… to protect them”.Hundreds of Israelis demonstrated Monday outside parliament in Jerusalem to express their opposition to the government plan.Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, urged leaders to “go the extra mile, make an extra effort, take the extra step, so that we can see our hostages home immediately.”China said it opposed Israel’s military actions in Gaza and was “highly concerned” by the situation, urging all parties to “effectively implement the ceasefire agreement”.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Paris “very strongly” condemns Israel’s planned offensive, calling it “unacceptable”, and adding that its government was “in violation of humanitarian law”.bur-az-mib-csp/ami