AFP Asia Business

A raucous group of elderly investors held court at a Shanghai securities company on Tuesday, chatting loudly about the stock prices flickering on LED boards as Chinese markets stutteringly recovered from the brutal day before.Asian and European equities collapsed on Monday after China retaliated to President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs against US trading partners, as …

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French President Emmanuel Macron visited the Egyptian city of El-Arish, a key transit point for Gaza-bound aid, on Tuesday to call on Israel to lift its blockade of aid deliveries to the war-battered Palestinian territory.Alongside his Egyptian host Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Macron toured a hospital in the port city, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of the Gaza Strip, and met with medical professionals and sick and wounded Palestinians evacuated from Gaza.Carrying a bouquet of red roses to give to patients, the French president visited several wards as well as a play area for children.His office said the trip was aimed at piling pressure on Israel for “the reopening of crossing points for the delivery of humanitarian goods into Gaza”.Israel cut off aid to Gaza in early March, during an impasse over next steps in a ceasefire with Hamas. Later in March, Israel resumed intense bombardment across the territory and restarted ground operations.Emergency department doctor Mahmud Mohammad Elshaer said the hospital had treated around 1,200 Palestinian patients since the Gaza war began in October 2023.”Some days we can receive 100 patients, others 50,” Elshaer said, adding that many had sustained limb amputations or eye or brain injuries.In Cairo, Macron, Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II called for an “immediate return” to the ceasefire.The three leaders met on Monday to discuss the war and humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s 2.4 million people, the vast majority of whom have been displaced at least once during the war.In a joint statement on Monday, the heads of several UN agencies said many Gazans are “trapped, bombed and starved again, while, at crossing points, food, medicine, fuel and shelter supplies are piling up, and vital equipment is stuck” outside of the blockaded territory.

A rare blue diamond valued at $20 million went on pre-auction display on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, capital of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.The 10-carat Mediterranean Blue, which will go on sale in Geneva next month, is the showpiece of a collection estimated at $100 million, organisers said.”Included in the group are the largest flawless diamond in the world… the second largest red diamond known to exist and several diamonds over 100 carats,” Sotheby’s auction house said in a statement.The chiseled stones were on display next to lavish jewellery, including a white-diamond encrusted necklace featuring a 100.26-carat pear-shaped brown diamond pendant.The blue diamond will be showcased in Taipei, Hong Kong and New York before its exhibition and sale in Geneva in mid-May.”At the top of the rarity pyramid are blue diamonds,” said Quig Bruning, head of jewels for Sotheby’s in North America, Europe and the Middle East.”The Gulf is, in my mind, the core of where the luxury market is headed,” he added.The resource-rich, largely tax-free Gulf, including the UAE’s trade and tourism hub Dubai, has long been a magnet for high-net-worth individuals and the ultra-wealthy.

Indonesian stocks closed down nearly eight percent on Tuesday after a weeklong public holiday break, its biggest fall in more than a decade as uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs roil markets.Trump upended the world economy last week with sweeping tariffs that have raised fears of an international recession and triggered criticism even …

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