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President Donald Trump’s punishing tariffs on countries around the world, including a 104 percent increase in duties on China, bear the fingerprint of Peter Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist who has long warned against a rising Beijing.Saying Washington’s trade deficit was a sign of unfair competition, Trump announced blanket 10 percent tariffs on countries and territories …

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Arriving in the deadly aftermath of an Israeli strike in northern Gaza last week, rescuer Nooh Al-Shaghnobi risked his life to aid the wounded despite warnings of another imminent attack.In a video that has since gone viral on social media, civil defence member Shaghnobi can be seen desperately trying to pull a wounded man out from under a mound of rubble after a strike on a school on Thursday.As he was working, a fresh evacuation order was issued by the Israeli military, warning of another strike on the same site, a school sheltering displaced people from across the territory.”The scene was terrifying” as people fled the building, Shaghnobi told AFP, referring to the Dar al-Arqam school which Gaza’s civil defence said served as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war.”I became anxious, and the injured person grew even more distressed,” he said.”I tried to calm him down, telling him, ‘I will stay with you until your last breath. We will die together if we must.'”Shaghnobi said he dug with his bare hands through the debris to reach the wounded man’s leg which was pinned under concrete.”He kept calling out: ‘Why did you come back, man? Leave me to die. Get out.'”Shaghnobi said at one point the pair were the only people left in the building as Israeli reconnaissance drones flew overhead.”I kept trying to pull him out, but I couldn’t. I said to myself: ‘This is the moment we die.'”It was then that one of Shaghnobi’s colleagues rushed over, warning that they had just 10 minutes to save anyone still alive before another strike hit.Together they pulled with all their strength until the man’s leg was freed.”In that moment, my eyes welled up with tears, my body shaking from exhaustion,” he said.While initially hesitant, Shaghnobi’s other colleagues arrived to help carry the wounded man to safety.Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 31 people, including children, were killed in last Thursday’s strike on the school in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, northeast of Gaza City.Since the Gaza war began after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge in schools and other facilities in a bid to escape the deadly violence.Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once since the war started.On Wednesday, a strike on a residential block in Gaza City that housed many displaced people killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 60, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.The Israeli military said it had targeted a “senior Hamas terrorist” in the attack.

The mother of an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza longs for her son’s return, fearing that Israel’s renewed bombardment of the territory puts his life at even greater risk.”Our children are in danger,” Herut Nimrodi told AFP in an interview. Her son, Tamir, was just 18 when he was taken to Gaza on October 7, 2023.”We don’t know much, but one thing that is certain is that military pressure on Gaza endangers the hostages,” she said.Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.A truce that lasted from January 19 to March 17 led to the return of 33 Israeli hostages -— eight of them in coffins -— in exchange for the release of around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.But on March 18, after weeks of disagreement with Hamas over next steps in the ceasefire, Israel resumed large-scale military operations in the Gaza Strip, beginning with heavy bombardments.- ‘Negotiations and pressure’ -Nimrodi described her son, a soldier with COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, as “happy, curious, altruistic and creative”.On October 7, Tamir managed to send her a message about the thousands of rockets that Hamas began launching at dawn that day.He was taken hostage 20 minutes later, along with two other soldiers killed two months later inside Gaza, under unknown circumstances.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government insist that increased military pressure is the only way to force Hamas to hand over the hostages, dead or alive.”For a year and a half, that hasn’t worked. What’s worked is negotiations and pressure (from US President Donald Trump),” said Nimrodi, accusing Israel of not prioritising the return of the hostages.Tamir, who turned 20 in captivity, is one of 24 hostages believed to be alive, though no proof of life has been sent since his abduction.His mother regularly joins other hostage families at rallies in Tel Aviv, though they don’t all agree on the best strategy to secure their return.Some, like Tzvika Mor, whose son Eitan was abducted at the Nova music festival, believe that strength rather than negotiation is the way to proceed.”Hamas will never free the hostages out of the goodness of their heart and without military pressure,” he said.A founder of the Tikva Forum — which means “hope” in Hebrew — Mor said: “Every time Hamas says ‘time out’, the government negotiates instead of increasing pressure to free all hostages at once.”- ‘Constant fear’ -Others like Dani Miran, whose 48-year-old son Omri was kidnapped from his home at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, disagree. “The fear that our hostages will be hurt by Israeli strikes is constant,” said Miran, a regular at the hostage rallies.The father, soon to turn 80, said the “hostages that got out said that when the Israeli army attacks Gaza, hostages suffer the consequences”.He said support from his community has given him the ability to stay strong for his son, who has two daughters.”We just celebrated the second birthday of Alma, his youngest. Her second birthday without her father -— it’s so hard,” he said.”I want to hold Omri in my arms and tell him how the whole country is fighting for all the hostages to come home together,” he told the crowd during the weekly rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening.Both Omri and Eitan are believed to be alive.A few days before Passover — a Jewish holiday celebrating the biblical liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt — Herut Nimrodi, whose name means “freedom”, said she is still waiting for her son.”He loves this holiday so much,” she said.

China is trying to tariff-proof its economy by boosting consumption and investing in key industries, but analysts say it remains critically vulnerable to the economic storm triggered by Donald Trump’s 104 percent levies on its goods.Beijing has vowed to “fight to the end” against Trump’s aggressive trade policy, with number two leader Li Qiang saying …

China seeks to ‘tariff-proof’ economy as trade war with US deepens Read More »