NEWS

Leaders of the BRICS bloc have sharply rebuked the United States and Israeli bombardments of Iran in June, calling them a “blatant breach of international law” while voicing strong support for the creation of a Palestinian state.

But their joint declaration on Sunday, issued at a summit in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, was largely silent about another major war that is now in its fourth year and in which a founding BRICS member – Russia – is the aggressor: the conflict in Ukraine. Instead, it criticised Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil.

The carefully worded declaration, released amid escalating trade tensions with the US, condemned aggressive economic policies without directly naming US President Donald Trump. Almost all 10 members of BRICS, a bloc of emerging world economies, are currently engaged in sensitive trade talks with the US and are trying to assert their positions without provoking further tensions.

However, the BRICS statement did take aim at “unilateral tariff and non-tariff barriers” that “skew global trade and flout WTO [World Trade Organization] regulations”, a clear, though indirect critique of Trump’s protectionist agenda, before a deadline on Wednesday for new US tariffs to potentially kick in.

Trump responded to the BRICS declaration within hours, warning on his social media platform, Truth Social, that countries siding with what he termed “anti-American policies” would face added tariffs.

“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” he wrote.

Which countries are part of BRICS, and who attended the summit?

The first BRICS summit was held in 2009 with the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China coming together. South Africa joined in 2010, and the bloc has since become a major voice for the Global South.

Last year, Indonesia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates joined the group, expanding its influence further and turning the bloc into a 10-nation entity.

There is growing interest from emerging economies to join the bloc with more than 30 nations queueing up for membership. Argentina was expected to join but withdrew its application after ultra-conservative President Javier Milei, an ally of Trump, took office in December 2023.

The Rio summit was led by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Most other member countries were represented by their leaders with three exceptions: Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian were absent.

Xi had attended all previous BRICS summits since taking office in 2013 while Putin has avoided most international trips since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against him over his role in the war on Ukraine in March 2023. Brazil is a member of the ICC and would have been required under the Rome Statute, which established the court, to arrest Putin if he visited.

Russia and Iran were represented by their foreign ministers and China by Premier Li Qiang.

This was the first summit attended by Indonesia after its induction into the bloc this year.

The BRICS statement also welcomed Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Nigeria, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uganda and Uzbekistan as new BRICS partner countries – a status that places them on a perch below full membership and allows the bloc to increase cooperation with them.

Condemnation of US-Israel strikes on Iran

In their declaration, member states described the recent Israeli and American attacks on Iran as a “violation of international law”, expressing “grave concern” about the deteriorating security situation in the Middle East.

The conflict began on June 13 when Israel launched air strikes on Iranian military, nuclear and civilian sites, killing at least 935 people, including top military and scientific leaders. Iran’s Ministry of Health reported 5,332 people were injured.

Tehran retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Israel, killing at least 29 people and injuring hundreds more, according to figures from Israeli authorities.

A US-brokered ceasefire came into effect on June 24 although the US had supported Israeli strikes just days earlier by dropping bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 21.

The BRICS statement underscored the importance of upholding “nuclear safeguards, safety, and security. … including in armed conflicts, to protect people and the environment from harm”.

Gaza war and Palestinian statehood

As Israel’s 21-month-long war on Gaza continues, BRICS denounced the use of starvation as a weapon of war and rejected the politicisation or militarisation of humanitarian aid.

The bloc threw its support behind UNRWA, the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, which has been banned by Israel.

In late May during its blockade on aid for Gaza, Israel allowed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private US organisation, to provide food to the people in the enclave. The move has been widely criticised by global rights bodies, especially since hundreds of Palestinians seeking aid have been shot and killed while approaching the GHF’s aid distribution sites.

BRICS also reaffirmed its position, one that is widely held globally, that Gaza and the occupied West Bank are both integral parts of a future Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

On October 7, 2023, nearly 1,200 people were killed in Israel in Hamas attacks, during which Palestinian fighters also took more than 240 people captive. Since then, Israel has waged a war on Gaza, killing more than 57,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, and destroying more than 70 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure. In that same period, Israel has also killed more than 1,000 people in the West Bank.

Opposition to unilateral sanctions

The BRICS declaration strongly condemned the imposition of “unilateral coercive measures”, such as economic sanctions, arguing that they violate international law and harm human rights.

BRICS members Iran and Russia have been targets of longstanding US sanctions.

After the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the attack on the US embassy in Tehran, Washington imposed a wide range of sanctions. Those were ramped up in the 2010s as the US under then-President Barack Obama tried to pressure Iran to negotiate a nuclear deal in exchange for sanctions relief. But two years after that deal came into effect, Trump, who succeeded Obama as president, pulled out of the agreement and slapped tough sanctions back on Iran. Since then, the US has imposed more sanctions on Iran, including a set of measures last week.

Russia, formerly the US’s Cold War rival, has also faced repeated waves of sanctions, particularly after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Trump tariffs called a ‘threat’

With the global economy in turmoil over Trump’s trade policies, BRICS voiced concern over his tariffs regime.

Trump has set Wednesday as a deadline to finalise new trade agreements, after which countries failing to strike deals with Washington will face increased tariffs.

The BRICS bloc, a major force in the global economy, is projected to outpace global average gross domestic product growth in 2025.

According to April data from the International Monetary Fund, the economies of BRICS countries will collectively grow at 3.4 percent compared with a 2.8 percent global average.

The world’s top 10 economies by size include the wealthy Group of Seven nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and US – and three BRICS nations – Brazil, China and India.

The group warned that protectionist trade policies risk reducing global trade, disrupting supply chains and heightening economic uncertainty, undermining the world’s development goals.

Pahalgam attack condemned

Two months after the Pahalgam attack in India-administered Kashmir, in which gunmen killed 26 civilians, BRICS condemned the incident “in the strongest terms”.

But even with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi present, the statement did not mention Pakistan, which New Delhi has accused of supporting the attackers in April.

The two countries fought a four-day war in May after Indian strikes inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Pakistan has denied involvement in the Pahalgam attack and called for a “credible, transparent, independent” investigation.

The BRICS statement urged “zero tolerance” for “terrorism” and rejected any “double standards” in counterterrorism efforts.

Silence on Ukraine war

The lengthy statement made no direct mention of Russia’s war in Ukraine except to call for a “sustainable peace settlement”.

However, it did condemn Ukrainian strikes on Russian infrastructure in May and June, citing civilian casualties and expressing its “strongest” opposition to such actions.

US President Donald Trump says a ceasefire deal on Gaza could be reached within days, but major hurdles include the status of the US- and Israeli-backed food distribution system that has been described as a ‘death trap’.

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Letters going out

What trade deals has the US agreed?

Who: Chelsea vs Fluminense

What: Semifinal, FIFA Club World Cup 2025

Where: MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, United States

When: Tuesday, July 8 at 3pm local time (19:00 GMT)

How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from noon (16:00 GMT) in advance of our live text commentary stream.

Chelsea will be hoping to seal their spot in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup (CWC) final with victory against Brazil’s Fluminense in the opening semifinal on Tuesday.

The Blues are striving to become the first side to win the CWC for a second time but face a formidable task against the Rio de Janeiro giants, who are unbeaten in the tournament.

Here is all to know before their semifinal showdown at MetLife Stadium, just outside New York:

How did Chelsea reach the semifinals?

Chelsea finished second in Group D to another Brazilian super club, Flamengo.

The London-based club opened their campaign with a 2-1 win over Los Angeles FC, before stumbling to a tough 3-1 loss against Flamengo. They qualified for the knockout stage with a 3-0 defeat of Esperance de Tunisie.

Enzo Maresca’s side faced the Group C winners Benfica in the last 16, beating the Portuguese side 4-1 after extra time.

The Blues then played a second Brazilian club in the quarterfinals, beating Palmeiras 2-1 to qualify for the final four.

How did Fluminense reach the semifinals?

Fluminense, who qualified for the CWC as winners of the 2023 Copa Libertadores, were unbeaten in Group F, finishing second behind Borussia Dortmund with one win and two draws.

They played out a 0-0 scoreline with Dortmund in their tournament opener, then defeated South Korean side Ulsan HD 4-2. In their final group fixture, they played out 0-0 against Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa.

In the knockout phase, Fluminense upset Inter Milan 2-0 in Charlotte, then ended the fairytale run of Saudi club Al Hilal in the quarterfinal, winning 2-1 and booking their place in Tuesday’s semifinal.

Did Fluminense captain Thiago Silva play for Chelsea?

The inspirational 40-year-old, regarded by many as one of the greatest defenders of all time, is the former skipper of Chelsea, having played more than 150 matches for the English club from 2020 until 2024.

Silva was a fan favourite at Stamford Bridge and won three trophies during his time with Chelsea, including the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.

Silva is expected to be in the starting XI against his old club.

Head-to-head

This will be the first competitive meeting between Fluminense and Chelsea.

When did Chelsea win the FIFA Club World Cup?

Chelsea won the 18th edition of the CWC in 2021, hosted in the United Arab Emirates.

The Blues won the final 2-1 against Palmeiras at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

The tournament was originally planned to take place in late 2021 in Japan, but was moved to February 2022 in the UAE due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Is this the first CWC appearance for Fluminense?

Fluminense made their Club World Cup debut at the 2023 tournament in Saudi Arabia, making it all the way to the final in Jeddah where they lost to Manchester City 4-0.

Team news: Chelsea

Chelsea will be without Levi Colwill and Liam Delap after both received their second yellow cards of the tournament against Palmeiras in the quarterfinal.

Moises Caicedo will rejoin the Blues squad after serving his suspension.

On the injury front, Romeo Lavia and Reece James were both held back against Palmeiras and are questionable heading into Tuesday’s match. Omari Kellyman is unavailable for selection.

Team news: Fluminense

Fluminense will be without Juan Pablo Freytes and Mathues Martinelli – who scored the game-winner against Al Hilal in the quarterfinal – after both received their second yellow cards of the tournament in their last-eight final against the Saudi club.

Key defender Rene returns to the club from suspension and is expected to reclaim his place in the starting XI at the expense of Gabriel Fuentes, whom coach Renato Gaucho might redeploy in an attacking midfield role against Chelsea.

Talisman Jhon Arias should again lead Fluminense’s forward line.

Central midfielder Otavio was a pretournament scratching after suffering a season-ending Achilles tendon tear in May.

Possible lineups:

Chelsea: Sanchez; Gusto, Tosin, Chalobah, Cucurella; Fernandez, Caicedo; Neto, Palmer, Nkunku; Pedro

Fluminense: Fabio; Ignacio, Silva, Rene; Xavier, Hercules, Bernal, Nonato, Fuentes; Arias, Cano

What the coaches had to say

Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca said: “I watched some games that they [Fluminense] have played. And you can see that they are very well-organised. They have some very good players. The manager [Gaucho] is doing a fantastic job.”

“And again, it will be the same [in the semi] final. The energy from the Brazilian team in this competition has been high … Probably … because you are starting now the season, while we are finishing the season. So, the energy is normal. It is different. And we try to deal with that in a different way.”

Renato Gaucho, who has helped Fluminense defy the odds to knock out Champions League runners-up Inter Milan in the last 16 and Al Hilal in the quarterfinals, spoke after his side qualified for the semifinal against Chelsea.

“It is another step forward, thanks to everyone’s efforts. Participating in the Club World Cup is a unique opportunity … We do not know when we will have the chance to participate again. I dedicate this qualification [victory over Al Hilal] to our fans, and I imagine the wonderful atmosphere in Rio de Janeiro, just as it was wonderful here in the stadium, it was a deserved victory.”

US President Donald Trump has criticised Elon Musk’s plan to launch and fund a new US political party, calling it “ridiculous”. The America Party has yet to announce a platform and Musk is not eligible to run for the presidency.

Berlin, Germany – In 1979, Kien Nghi Ha lived in Hanoi with his parents, who worked as electricians at a power plant, and his 12-year-old sister in a one-bedroom apartment.

They shared the toilet and an outdoor kitchen area along with their neighbours. One of them, an elderly woman, would sometimes look after Ha, then seven years old, and his sister.

He remembers the cool, smooth tiled floor offering comfort during the blistering summer heat. He would lie on it listening to the lively street noise and occasional sound of a tram beyond a green steel entrance door.

Four years earlier, in 1975, North Vietnamese communist forces had defeated United States-aligned fighters in South Vietnam to take the whole country under a one-party system that remains in power today.

Ha was part of an ethnically Chinese mixed Hoa Kieu minority. Communities like his, especially in the early post-war years, felt vulnerable.

He remembers how children turned away from him after Vietnam invaded Cambodia, then an ally of China at that time in 1978, because of his heritage.

“Some even threw stones at me. This was very shocking, and I didn’t understand at that time what was going on,” he said.

The family decided to leave. His parents sold their valuables and embarked on a dangerous and costly trip by boat to Hong Kong. Despite no guarantees of safety, an estimated two million people would ultimately leave this way.

At that time, those who feared for their future under the new Communist authorities could choose to resettle in one of three countries – West Germany, Australia or the United States.

The choice was not available for long. When his uncle left Vietnam just three months later, people were only allowed to migrate to the US.

Ha’s parents opted for West Germany as they believed it offered a better work-life balance than the US.

The fractures in Vietnam mirrored divisions in Germany, with North Vietnam backed by the USSR-aligned East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and the capitalist West Germany supporting South Vietnam.

After arriving in Hong Kong, the family travelled by plane to Frankfurt and then on to Tegel airport in West Berlin, where journalists were waiting, eager to document the country welcoming so-called “boat people”.

“I don’t recall much from the arrival, but I do remember many journalists there wanting to take pictures of us,” Ha said.

The family were provided an apartment within a social housing complex where thousands of people lived near the Berlin Wall on the west side. His father became a transport worker, while his mother was a cleaner in a children’s nursery.

Compared with other social housing at the time, Ha says, the flat was in good condition, with central heating and individual toilets.

But the transition was not easy. Ha felt isolated as one of the only children from a minority background in his primary school.

A different path

Within months of the war’s end, Vietnam signed diplomatic relations with the GDR, paving a different kind of path for Huong Mai to fly overseas a few years later.

At 21, she left Hanoi for Moscow and then travelled to Schonefeld airport in East Berlin. She was among the first groups of contract workers and was soon employed at a factory that made drinking glasses.

Now aged 64, Mai has a 27-year-old son and runs a textile shop in the town where she has lived since she arrived in the GDR.

On April 30, Vietnam marked 50 years since the end of the war. For the large Vietnamese-German diaspora, who arrived as refugees and contract workers, this year’s milestones have stirred a sense of reflection.

Mai said she felt joy on the anniversary.

“My father resisted against the French colonialists, and then my older brother fought against the Americans. So, for me, the end of this war is very meaningful because of the blood that was shed by my family in all of these wars,” she said.

Her brother followed in her footsteps, arriving in Germany in the 1990s alone. His family joined him two decades later, in 2009.

His daughter, 26-year-old Dieu Ly Hoang, now lives in Prenzlauer Berg, which is coincidentally the same neighbourhood as Ha. It is a sought-after area of the German capital, formerly in the GDR, now home to cosy cafes, posh restaurants, yoga studios and affluent expatriate families where English is heard on the streets more often than German.

“It’s been a very important aspect for me to see what my family went through, and how resilient they have been. I know I’m very lucky not to have experienced an evacuation and I can’t imagine what it was like for my grandparents,” Ly said, as she recalled hearing stories about the wartime rations of rice.

“I acknowledge the sacrifices they made to migrate for a better life so that I could be born and live in peace,” said Ly, an art historian.

Ha, now 53 and a father to two sons, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Asian German diaspora at the University of Tubingen and holds a PhD in cultural studies. Friendly, open and knowledgeable of the complex history he is a part of, Ha also said the commemorative events have felt significant.

“There’s an intellectual and cultural discussion going on through which we are trying to make sense of this history and what this history means for us living in the German-Vietnamese diaspora,” he said.

“Questions pop up in private and public conversations, articles, books, and artworks. And knowing more about this history will improve our sense of self in German society, because we are able to discover more about a past that we, the younger generations, didn’t experience on a personal level. This allows us to connect the past with the present.”

An estimated 35,000 refugees arrived in West Germany in 1979, while 70,000 contract workers began to arrive in the GDR in 1980.

When Germany unified in 1990, it brought together, at least physically, two communities.

“In the GDR, people were proud to show international solidarity, and this went hand in hand with hatred of the capitalist West, while the West German government saw the Vietnam War as part of the global struggle against communism,” explained German historian Andreas Margara.

Ly said some of her relatives still mention it when they hear a southern Vietnamese accent.

“They do not become stressed nor do they act differently, but they notice the accent verbally, like ‘Oh, this person is from the south’. They do not go further into details, but I can feel a certain differentiation there because there is this history there. My parents’ generation, including people like war veterans, don’t have the spaces in the diaspora to meet, share their experiences and understand each other more,” she said. “Unified Germany, though, can be a space for more reconciliation.”

She added that her generation has “more chances and spaces for dialogue” as she recalled recently meeting a Vietnamese German art history student and having plenty about which to talk.

Mai agreed that there are not many opportunities in her life to meet southerners, yet she feels no animosity.

“Even though Vietnam has been damaged a lot, we are all Vietnamese and came to Germany to build a better life for ourselves,” she said.

Australian woman Erin Patterson is guilty of murdering three relatives with a toxic mushroom lunch, a jury has found.

The 50-year-old has also been found guilty of the attempted murder of the sole guest who survived the beef Wellington meal in 2023.

Patterson’s much-watched trial in the small Victorian town of Morwell heard evidence suggesting she had hunted down death cap mushrooms sighted in nearby towns, before trying to conceal her crimes by lying to police and disposing of evidence.

Her legal team had argued she unintentionally foraged lethal fungi, then “panicked” upon accidentally poisoning family members she loved. The jury on Monday ruled she did it intentionally.

Three people died in hospital in the days after the meal on 29 July 2023: Patterson’s former in-laws, Don Patterson, 70, and Gail Patterson, 70, as well as Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.

Local pastor Ian Wilkinson – Heather’s husband – recovered after weeks of treatment in hospital.

Patterson’s estranged partner Simon Patterson had also been invited to the lunch but pulled out at the last minute. She was originally accused of attempting to murder him too – on several occasions – but those charges were dropped on the eve of the trial and the allegations were not put to the jury.

The case captured the world’s attention, becoming one of the most closely watched trials in Australian history.

Over nine weeks, the Victorian Supreme Court heard from more than 50 witnesses – including Patterson herself. Detectives described rifling through her garbage bins for leftovers, doctors outlined the gradual but brutal decline of the victims’ health, and Patterson’s estranged husband emotionally explained the souring nature of their relationship.

The only thing the case was missing was a motive – something key to Patterson’s defence.

Prosecutors argued Patterson had faked a cancer diagnosis to coax the guests to her house, then poisoned them and feigned illness to ward off suspicion.

She admitted to lying to police and medical staff about foraging for wild mushrooms, dumping a food dehydrator used to prepare the meal, and repeatedly wiping her mobile phone – all evidence of her guilt, prosecutors said.

From the witness box, Erin Patterson told the court she loved her relatives and had no reason to harm them.

She repeatedly denied intentionally putting the poisonous fungi in the meal, and said she realised days after the lunch that the beef Wellingtons may have accidentally included dried, foraged varieties that were kept in a container with store-bought ones.

She also told the court she had suffered from bulimia for years, and had made herself throw up after the beef Wellington meal – something her defence team said explained why she did not become as sick as the others who ate it.

The lie about having cancer was because she was embarrassed about plans to get weight-loss surgery, Ms Patterson said. She also claimed she didn’t tell authorities the truth about her mushroom foraging hobby because she feared they might blame her for making her relatives sick.

Ultimately, after a week of deliberation, the jury decided: returning four guilty verdicts which could see Patterson spend the rest of her life in jail.

Coroner’s finding comes five years after acquitted policeman Zachary Rolfe fatally shot 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker.

An Australian police officer who shot dead an Indigenous teenager was a racist drawn to “high adrenaline policing”, a landmark coronial inquiry has found.

Racist behaviour was also “normalised” in Zachary Rolfe’s Alice Springs police station, said the 682-page findings released in a ceremony in the remote outback town of Yuendumu in central Australia on Monday.

The findings were delivered five years after the shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker, leading to protests around the country. But Rolfe was found not guilty of murder in a trial in the Northern Territory capital of Darwin in 2022.

Walker was shot three times during the attempted arrest in Yuendumu – one of 598 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died in custody since 1991 when detailed records began.

“I found that Mr Rolfe was racist,” said Northern Territory coroner Elisabeth Armitage, delivering her conclusions after a nearly three-year inquiry.

Northern Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage has handed down her Findings into the death of Kumanjayi Walker #auslaw https://t.co/4uAEzIkwhd pic.twitter.com/hNb6UPnDUT

— NT Courts (@CourtsinNT) July 7, 2025

Rolfe, who was dismissed from the police force in 2023 for reasons not directly related to the shooting, worked in an organisation with the hallmarks of “institutional racism”, she said.

There was a “significant risk” that Rolfe’s racism and other attitudes affected his response “in a way that increased the likelihood of a fatal outcome”, she said.

Walker’s family and community will always believe racism played an “integral part” in his death, the coroner said. “It is a taint that may stain the [Northern Territory] police.”

The coroner cited offensive language used in a so-called awards ceremony for the territory’s tactical police, describing them as “grotesque examples of racism”.

“Over the decade the awards were given, no complaint was ever made about them,” she said.

The policeman’s text messages also showed his attraction to “high adrenaline policing”, and his “contempt” for some more senior officers as well as remote policing. These attitudes “had the potential to increase the likelihood of a fatal encounter with Kumanjayi”, she said.

In a statement shared before the coroner released her findings, Walker’s family said the inquest had exposed “deep systemic racism within the NT police”.

“Hearing the inquest testimony confirmed our family’s belief that Rolfe is not a ‘bad egg’ in the NT Police force, but a symptom of a system that disregards and brutalises our people,” the family said in the statement shared on social media.

“Crucially, the inquest heard evidence backing a return to full community-control, stating what yapa have always known: when we can self-determine our futures and self-govern our communities, our people are stronger, our outcomes are better, our culture thrives,” the statement said, referring to the Warlpiri people, also known as Yapa.

Armitage’s presentation was postponed last month after 24-year-old Warlpiri man Kumanjayi White, who was also from Yuendumu, died in police custody in a supermarket in Alice Springs.

White’s death also prompted protests and calls for an independent investigation into his death.

The global economy is on tenterhooks in the run-up to United States President Donald Trump’s July 9 deadline for dozens of countries to reach trade deals or face sharply higher tariffs.

Wednesday’s deadline comes after Trump announced in April a 90-day pause on his steepest tariffs after his “Liberation Day” plans sent markets into a tailspin.

With billions of dollars in global trade at stake, US trade partners are racing to negotiate deals to avoid damage to their economies amid continuing uncertainty over Trump’s next moves.

What will happen when the deadline expires?

The Trump administration has indicated that trade partners that fail to reach deals with the US will face higher tariffs, but there are big question marks around which countries will be hit and how hard.

On Sunday, Trump said he would begin sending letters to particular countries this week outlining new tariff rates, while also indicating that he had sealed a number of new trade deals.

Trump told reporters that he would send a letter or conclude a deal for “most countries”, without specifying any by name, by Wednesday.

In an interview with CNN on Sunday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said countries that do not reach a deal would face higher tariffs from August 1.

Bessent disputed the suggestion that the deadline had moved and said tariffs for affected countries would “boomerang back” to the levels originally announced on April 2.

On Friday, however, Trump suggested the tariffs could go as high as 70 percent, which would be higher than the 50 percent maximum rate outlined in his “Liberation Day” plan.

Adding to the uncertainty, Trump on Sunday threatened to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on countries that aligned themselves with the “anti-American policies” of BRICS, a bloc of 10 emerging economies, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa as the founding members.

“There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“It’s getting harder to guess what might happen given conflicting information from the White House,” Deborah Elms, the head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore, told Al Jazeera.

“With the lack of ‘deals’ to announce before July 9, I’m not surprised that the US is both issuing threats of new, potentially higher rates to be imposed in letters and suggesting that deadlines could be extended to some if offers are deemed to be sufficiently attractive.”

Which countries have reached trade deals with the US?

So far, only China, the United Kingdom and Vietnam have announced trade deals, which have reduced Trump’s tariffs but not eliminated them.

Under the US-China deal, tariffs on Chinese goods were reduced from 145 percent to 30 percent, while duties on US exports fell from 125 percent to 10 percent.

The deal, however, only paused the higher tariff rates for 90 days, rather than scrapping them outright, and left numerous outstanding issues between the sides unresolved.

The UK’s agreement saw it maintain a 10 percent tariff rate, while Vietnam saw its 46 percent levy replaced by a 20 percent rate on Vietnamese exports and a 40 percent tariff for “transshipping”.

A host of other key US trade partners have confirmed that negotiations are under way, including the European Union, Canada, India, Japan and South Korea.

Trump administration officials have indicated that negotiations are primarily focused on a dozen-and-a-half countries that make up the vast bulk of the US trade deficit.

On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that the EU, the US’s largest trading partner, was working to conclude a “skeletal” deal that would defer a resolution on their most contentious differences before the deadline to avoid Trump’s mooted 50 percent tariff.

India’s CNBC-TV18 also reported on Sunday that New Delhi expected to finalise a “mini trade deal” within the next 24-48 hours.

The CNBC-TV18 report, citing unnamed sources, said the agreement would see the average tariff rate set at about 10 percent.

Andrew K McAllister, a member of Holland & Knight’s International Trade Group in Washington, DC, said while Trump is likely to announce a small number of deals that resemble those signed with China, Vietnam and the UK, most countries are probably looking at significant across-the-board tariffs.

“My view is that tariffs are here to stay,” McAllister told Al Jazeera.

“I view the bargaining chip to be the level at which the tariff is set. For countries in which the president and administration view tariffs and other non-tariff barriers against US products as significant, he is much more likely to impose higher levels of tariffs.”

What will be the economic impact of Trump’s trade war?

Economists widely agree that steep tariffs over a sustained period would push up prices and hinder the growth of both the US and global economies.

The World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) last month downgraded their outlook for the global economy, cutting their forecasts from 2.8 percent to 2.3 percent, and from 3.3 percent to 2.9 percent, respectively.

At the same time, anticipating the impact of Trump’s trade war has been made more challenging by his administration’s repeated U-turns and conflicting signals on tariffs.

Trump’s steepest tariffs have been put on pause, though a 10 percent baseline duty has been applied to all US imports and levies on Chinese exports remain at double-digit levels.

JP Morgan Research has estimated that a 10 percent universal tariff and a 110 percent tariff on China would reduce global gross domestic product (GDP) by 1 percent, with the hit to GDP falling to 0.7 percent in the case of a 60 percent duty on Chinese goods.

So far, the fallout from the tariffs introduced has been modest, though analysts have warned that inflation may still take off once businesses burn through inventory stockpiles built up in anticipation of higher costs.

Despite fears of sharp price rises in the US, annualised inflation came in at a modest 2.3 percent in May, close to the Federal Reserve’s target.

The US stock market, after suffering steep losses earlier this year, has bounced back to an all-time high, while the US economy added a stronger-than-expected 147,000 jobs in June.

Other data points to underlying jitters, however.

Consumer spending fell 0.1 percent in May, according to the US Commerce Department, the first decline since January.

“As for the economy generally, the jury’s out on whether we’re still waiting on the worst of the tariff hit,” Dutch bank ING said in a note on Friday.

“The delay in China’s tariff levels probably came just in time to avert a more serious recessionary threat. The latest jobs report certainly doesn’t point to the bottom falling out of the labour market, though if we’re talking about time lags, this is usually the last place economic damage shows up. Sentiment remains fragile, remember.”

Erin Patterson, 50, found guilty of murdering her estranged husband’s parents and aunt with poisonous mushrooms.

An Australian woman has been found guilty of murdering her estranged husband’s parents and aunt by serving them a meal laced with poisonous mushrooms.

Erin Patterson was on Monday convicted of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder following a 10-week trial.

Patterson, 50, showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out in the courtroom in Morwell, a regional town located about 152km (94 miles) east of Melbourne.

Patterson’s parents-in-law, Donald and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, died after eating a lunch of beef Wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms on July 29, 2023.

Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, was also poisoned but survived after spending seven weeks in hospital.

Patterson, 50, had pleaded not guilty to all charges, with her lawyers arguing that she had unintentionally served her relatives the tainted food in a “terrible accident”.

Prosecutors did not allege a motive for Patterson, but told the jury that her relationship with her estranged husband, who declined an invitation to the lunch, had become strained over his child support contributions.

Prosecutors alleged that Patterson lied about being diagnosed with cancer to lure her guests to the lunch, and that she lied to police about owning a food dehydrator that was later found in a rubbish tip.

Patterson, who spent eight days on the stand, was the only witness called for the defence.

The trial, which began on April 29, captivated Australia, spawning multiple true-crime podcasts, and attracted significant media interest overseas.

Patterson, who faces a possible life sentence, will be sentenced at a later date.

The death toll from the catastrophic floods that hit the state of Texas in the United States has risen to 82, as the search for the missing continues and officials face questions over a failure to evacuate people in hard-hit Kerr County.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that at least 41 people remain unaccounted for across the southern state, three days after the deluge, and that more could be missing.

He promised authorities will continue to work around the clock to find the missing, and warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding.

In Kerr County, Sheriff Larry Leitha said on Sunday that searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, many of whom went missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls.

Leitha said 10 more girls and a counsellor remain missing and pledged to keep searching until “everybody is found”.

President Donald Trump sent his condolences to the victims and said he would probably visit the area on Friday. His administration had been in touch with Abbott, he added.

“It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible. So we say, ‘God bless all of the people that have gone through so much, and God bless… God bless the state of Texas’,” he told reporters as he left New Jersey.

The flooding occurred after the nearby Guadalupe River broke its banks after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday, the US Independence Day holiday.

Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said the destruction killed three people in Burnet County, one in Tom Green County, five in Travis County and one in Williamson County.

Kidd said rescuers were evacuating people from more places along the river, “because we are worried about another wall of river coming down in those areas”, with rain continuing to fall on soil in the region already saturated from Friday’s rains.

Questions over preparedness

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was activated on Sunday and is deploying resources to first responders in Texas after Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the Department of Homeland Security said.

US coastguard helicopters and planes were aiding search and rescue efforts.

Freeman Martin, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said on Sunday that he expected to “see the death toll rise today and tomorrow”.

Authorities, meanwhile, have faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding, and whether enough preparations were made.

Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from central Texas, said several communities along the Guadalupe River were evacuated after the National Weather Service sent out repeated warnings about the rising water levels, but not those in Kerr County.

“There are still no answers as to why those here weren’t alerted,” he said.

Rattansi said while Trump has activated FEMA assistance for Texas, the president had “made it clear in the past that he wants to phase out such aid, even once saying that if a state governor needs to ask for federal emergency help, perhaps they’re not up to the job”.

Trump, when asked by reporters whether he was still planning to phase out FEMA, said that it was something “we can talk about later, but right now, we are busy working”.

Rattansi also said that the Trump administration is phasing out “research and analysis of the changing climate because it feels it’s politicised and divisive”, even though “it’s exactly that sort of analysis that led to the warnings from the National Weather Service to municipal authorities to evacuate residents up and down the Guadalupe River”.

“Climate scientists have long warned that warmer air will hold more moisture and result in ever more intense storms,” he said. “Yet just as their predictions are being realised, federal resources to predict, mitigate and manage extreme weather events are at risk as never before.”

Rick Spinrad, a former director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Al Jazeera that less research will lead to less accurate predictions, making it harder for people to prepare.

“Without research, without staff to do the work, we can assume that the predictions, [for] hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought, wildfires, tsunamis, for that matter, are undoubtedly going to degrade, and that means that people’s ability to prepare for these storms will be compromised,” Spinrad said.

In February, the Trump administration announced cuts affecting the jobs of hundreds of staff at NOAA, including meteorologists at the National Weather Service.

Abbott, the Texas governor, declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.

“I urge every Texan to join me in prayer this Sunday – for the lives lost, for those still missing, for the recovery of our communities, and for the safety of those on the front lines,” he said in a statement.

In Rome, Pope Leo XIV also offered special prayers for those affected by the disaster.

“I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.”

Israeli military attacks ports of Hodeidah, Ras-Isa and as-Salif as Houthis continue to launch missiles towards Israel.

Israel’s military has bombed three ports and a power plant in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, prompting the rebel group to fire more missiles towards Israeli territory.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck the ports of Hodeidah, Ras-Isa and as-Salif on the Red Sea coast as well as the Ras Kathib power plant.

It said it also struck a radar system on the Galaxy Leader ship, which was seized by the Houthis and remains docked in the port of Hodeidah.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Israeli attacks late on Sunday were the first on Yemen in almost a month and came after the military claimed that it intercepted a missile fired by the Houthis in the early hours of the day.

The rebel group, which controls Yemen’s most populous areas, responded to the latest Israeli attacks by launching more missiles at Israel in the early hours of Monday.

The Israeli military said two missiles were fired from Yemen, and that it attempted to intercept the projectiles. The attack set off sirens in the cities of Jerusalem, Hebron and near the Dead Sea.

Israel’s emergency service said there have been no reports of injuries or impact from the projectiles.

The Houthis say their attacks on Israel are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza who are under Israeli attack. The group has fired hundreds of missiles at Israel and launched more than 100 attacks on commercial vessels in the vital Red Sea corridor, since Israel’s war on Gaza began in 2023.

The Houthis paused their attacks after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in January, but resumed them after the United States launched attacks on Yemen on March 15, killing nearly 300 people in the weeks that followed.

Houthis downplay attacks

The latest escalation comes at a sensitive moment in the Middle East as a possible ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza hangs in the balance, and as Tehran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear programme following United States air strikes that damaged Iran’s most sensitive atomic sites.

In Yemen on Sunday night, the Houthi-affiliated news outlet Al Masirah TV reported that strikes hit the port city of Hodeidah, while the Saba news agency confirmed the attacks on the three ports as well as the power station.

A spokesman for the Houthis, Ameen Hayyan Yemeni, meanwhile, said the group’s air defences forced “a large portion” of Israel’s warplanes to retreat.

Locally-manufactured surface-to-air missiles were used to respond, “causing great confusion among enemy pilots and operations rooms”, he wrote in a statement on X.

Al Jazeera’s Nabil Alyousefi, reporting from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, said the Houthis were downplaying the impact of the strikes on Hodeidah.

“The Houthis say their air defences – using locally made surface-to-air missiles – were effective in responding to the Israeli assault, with sources indicating roughly 30 minutes of clashes between Houthi air defenses and Israeli forces,” Alyousefi said.

“The Houthis have not reported any material or human losses so far, reassuring that their armed forces repelled all Israeli aggression. They emphasized their readiness to confront any future Israeli attacks and stated they are prepared to target Israeli territory in response,” he added.

The hostilities also took place after a grenade and drone attack on a Red Sea cargo ship set the vessel on fire and forced its crew to abandon it.

No group has claimed the attack, but the United Kingdom maritime agency said it matched the “established Houthi target profile“.

Separately, Israeli forces also bombed Lebanon, claiming attacks on several Hezbollah targets in the country’s south as well as the eastern Bekaa region.

In a statement, the military said the strikes were directed at infrastructure used for “storing and producing strategic weapons” and a “rocket launch site”.

Since a November 27 ceasefire formally ended more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, Israel has continued sporadic strikes on Lebanon. It says the group’s activities run counter to the agreement, but does not provide evidence to back its claims.

In addition to its ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces have launched attacks on the occupied West Bank, Syria and Iran over the past year.

Here are the key events on day 1,229 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Monday, July 7:

Fighting

• Russian forces launched missile and drone attacks on the eastern Ukrainian province of Donetsk, killing four people in the town of Kostiantynivka and another in nearby Druzhkivka, according to officials.
• Donetsk Governor Vadim Filashkin urged residents of the front-line towns to evacuate, saying: “It is dangerous to stay here! Evacuate to safer regions of Ukraine!”
• Elsewhere in Ukraine, large-scale Russian drone attacks wounded three civilians in Kyiv, two in Kharkiv, and damaged port infrastructure in the central region of Mykolaiv, according to the governor.
• A woman who was wounded in a Russian attack on the city of Poltava in central Ukraine on July 3 died in hospital, taking the death toll from that attack to three, local officials said.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that Russian forces seized the village of Piddubne in the Donetsk region and the village of Sobolivka, near the town of Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv region.
• Ukraine, too, launched drone attacks on Russia, injuring two civilians in Belgorod near the border and disrupting flights at airports in the capital, Moscow.
• Russia’s aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, said that the Ukrainian attacks forced at least three airports in Moscow, St Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod to ground some 287 flights on Sunday.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during nighttime attacks, and 39 more before 2pm Moscow time (11:00 GMT) on Sunday.
• Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin later said that Russian air defence units downed six Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow.

Sanctions

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a new sanctions package, “targeting numerous Russian financial schemes, particularly cryptocurrency-related ones”.

Politics and diplomacy

• Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending the BRICS summit in Brazil this week, since he is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his role in the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Brazil is a signatory to the Rome Statute, and would be required to enforce the arrest warrant.
• Putin, speaking via a videolink, told the BRICS leaders that the era of liberal globalisation is obsolete and that the future belongs to swiftly growing emerging markets, which should enhance the use of their national currencies for trade.

Al-Zallaqa

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The latest round of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have ended without a breakthrough, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told the BBC.

According to the official, the session lasted for nearly three and a half hours and took place in two separate buildings in Doha.

Messages and clarifications were exchanged between the two sides through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, but no progress was achieved.

The official added that talks are expected to resume on Monday, as mediators plan to hold separate meetings with each delegation in an effort to overcome the obstacles and narrow the gaps between the two sides.

According to Reuters news agency who spoke with two Palestinian officials, the Israeli delegation was not “sufficiently authorised” to reach an agreement with Hamas because it had “no real powers”.

The latest round of indirect negotiations come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to Washington to meet Donald Trump.

Netanyahu said he thinks his meeting with the US president on Monday should help progress efforts to reach a deal for the release of more hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza.

He said he had given his negotiators clear instructions to achieve a ceasefire agreement under conditions Israel has accepted.

Hamas has said it has responded to the latest ceasefire proposal in a positive spirit, but it seems clear there are still gaps between the two sides that need to be bridged if any deal is to be agreed.

For now, Hamas still seems to be holding out for essentially the same conditions it has previously insisted on – including a guarantee of an end to all hostilities at the end of any truce and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Netanyahu’s government has rejected this before.

The Israeli position may also not have shifted to any major degree. As he was leaving Israel for the US, Netanyahu said he was still committed to what he described as three missions: “The release and return of all the hostages, the living and the fallen; the destruction of Hamas’s capabilities – to kick it out of there, and to ensure that Gaza will no longer constitute a threat to Israel.”

Qatari and Egyptian mediators will have their work cut out during the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in trying to overcome these sticking points, which have have derailed other initiatives since the previous ceasefire ended in March.

Israel has since resumed its offensive against Hamas with great intensity, as well as imposing an eleven-week blockade on aid entering Gaza, which was partially lifted several weeks ago.

The Israeli government says these measures have been aimed at further weakening Hamas and forcing it to negotiate and free the hostages.

Just in the past 24 hours, the Israeli military says it struck 130 Hamas targets and killed a number of militants.

But the cost in civilian lives in Gaza continues to grow as well. Hospital officials in Gaza said more than 30 people were killed on Sunday.

The question now is not only whether the talks in Qatar can achieve a compromise acceptable to both sides – but also whether Trump can persuade Netanyahu that the war must come to an end at their meeting on Monday.

Many in Israel already believe that is a price worth paying to save the remaining hostages.

Once again, they came out on to the streets on Saturday evening, calling on Netanyahu to reach a deal so the hostages can finally be freed.

But there are hardline voices in Netanyahu’s cabinet, including the national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and the finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who have once again expressed their fierce opposition to ending the war in Gaza before Hamas has been completely eliminated.

Once again, there is the appearance of real momentum towards a ceasefire deal, but uncertainty over whether either the Israeli government or Hamas is ready to reach an agreement that might fall short of the key conditions they have so far set.

And once again, Palestinians in Gaza and the families of Israeli hostages still held there are fervently hoping this will not be another false dawn.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attacks, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,338 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel says it has launched strikes on Houthi targets in three Yemeni ports, including the western port of Hodeidah, Ras Isa and Saif.

The attacks come shortly after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for civilians in the areas, warning of imminent air strikes.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz confirmed on social media the strikes on the Houthi-controlled sites including a power station and a ship that was hijacked by the group two years ago.

Houthi-run media in Yemen said the strikes hit the port of Hodeidah, but no further details were provided on damage or casualties.

Katz said the strikes were part of “Operation Black Flag” and warned that the Houthis “will continue to pay a heavy price for their actions”.

“The fate of Yemen is the same as the fate of Tehran. Anyone who tries to harm Israel will be harmed, and anyone who raises a hand against Israel will have their hand cut off,” he said in a post on X.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have regularly launched missiles at Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea.

The Israeli Air Force said the latest strikes on Yemen’s ports were in response to “repeated attacks” by the Houthis on Israel and its citizens.

It added that the targeted ports were being used to “transfer weapons from the Iranian regime to carry out terror plans” against Israel and its allies.

Shortly after the attack, Houthis confirmed its air defences had confronted Israel’s strikes with missiles, according to Reuters news agency.

Among the targets was a commercial ship the Galaxy Leader seized by the group in November 2023, which Israel said was being used to monitor maritime vessels in international waters.

The Ras Kanatib power station which supplies electricity to the nearby cities of Ibb and Taizz, was also hit, Israel said.

This latest attack on Hodeidah comes after Israeli navy ships struck targets in the port city last month.

Hodeidah port, which is the main entry point for food and other humanitarian aid for millions of Yemenis, has been the target of several Israeli strikes in the past year.

Jarry has fallen down the rankings because of an ear condition which affects his balance and vision, but has reminded everyone of his talent over the past fortnight.

After coming through three Wimbledon qualifying matches, he won another three in the main draw – starting with a stunning win from two sets down over eighth seed Holger Rune.

Opportunities against the world number 143’s serve are difficult to obtain – he hit 46 aces – and Norrie clinically took his chance in the first set to break for 5-3 before serving out.

A tight second set offered even fewer chances to either man, but it was again Norrie who struck at a crucial time.

Upping the aggression in his return of serve at the start of the tie-break led to a mini-break that he never relinquished, with a pinpoint cross-court winner on set point proving bold and brilliant.

The third and fourth sets were similarly balanced. With Jarry serving big and Norrie scrapping, it always felt likely they would be decided by tie-breaks.

Norrie led 4-2 in both but could not convert his advantage as Jarry roared back, but he reset wonderfully to eventually end his opponent’s resistance after striking early in the decider.

It sparked jubilant scenes in a partisan atmosphere on Court One, where Norrie has now won nine of his 10 career matches.

“It was a nice moment. It feels a little more deserved coming back from the injury and trying to push back into the top of the game,” said Norrie, who will climb back into the top 50 next week.

“All the hard work, it’s paid off. I’ve been a dedicated professional and have a good team around me. These moments are the icing on the cake.”

That leads nicely to England’s pace bowlers. Having opted to pick an unchanged side for Edgbaston, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue have now bowled 82, 77 and 81 overs respectively.

Mohammed Siraj is the only India quick to have bowled more than 62.

All three of England’s pacemen struggled at times in Birmingham. Woakes was not as threatening after his new-ball spell while Tongue has been played well by India’s top order and was not as successful against the tail as in the first Test.

Change will surely come at Lord’s given three days off is little time to recover and Jofra Archer is waiting in the wings.

Could England conceivably leave out all three?

Gus Atkinson, who has not played since May because of a hamstring injury, is back in the squad but it would be a risk to play Atkinson and Archer, who has bowled in two innings in a match once in four years, in the same XI.

Woakes, 36, may need a rest but England like variety in their attack and he averages 12.9 at Lord’s – the best of any bowler in Test history.

England would also need to replace his batting at number eight if he is left out – even more so if Carse, an able batter, was also absent at number nine.

Sam Cook is the Woakes replacement in England’s squad but does not offer that same batting depth.

Do not rule out bowling all-rounder Jamie Overton adding to his one Test cap, which was earned in 2022.