French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa to Paris, in his first trip to Europe since taking office in January. Al-Sharaa will discuss post-war reconstruction and economic cooperation while France restates its support for a free and stable Syria.
Published On 7 May 20257 May 2025
The papal conclave has begun as Archbishop Diego Ravelli declared ‘extra omnes’, signaling non-voters to exit the Sistine Chapel. Only 133 cardinal electors remain to vote for the 267th pope after the doors of the chapel are closed.
Published On 7 May 20257 May 2025
How has Russia’s leader maintained his longevity – and how has it shaped the world?
Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrates 25 years in power this week, along with a Victory Day parade to celebrate the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, which will be attended by leaders from around the world. We chart Putin’s rise to power, how his worldview has changed and what we can expect from him next.
Rohit will continue to play ODIs and remains skipper in that format, having won the Champions Trophy in March. He retired from T20 internationals after winning the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Rohit has played 67 Tests and has been India’s captain since replacing Virat Kohli in 2022.
He won half of his 24 Tests as skipper, giving him the best win percentage as India captain behind Kohli, and reached the final of the World Test Championship in 2023, where India lost to Australia.
But last year Rohit oversaw the 3-0 home defeat by New Zealand – India’s first Test series defeat at home for 12 years – and the 3-1 loss in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.
Rohit was dropped for the decisive fifth Test in Sydney after a run of poor form.
The elegant right-hander retires having made 4,301 Test runs at an average of 40.57 with 12 centuries. His top score was 212 against South Africa in Ranchi in 2019, scored off just 255 balls.
He had made only one fifty in 15 innings since his last Test hundred – 103 against England in Dharamsala in March 2024.
The highly-anticipated five-match series against England begins in Leeds on 20 June and marks the start of the new World Test Championship cycle for both sides.
Pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah deputised for Rohit when he missed the first Test in Australia through injury and did so again when Rohit sat out the series finale.
At least two people were killed in a Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
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Indian and Pakistani forces have been attacking across the contested frontier between Indian- and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, after India launched overnight strikes into Pakistan. Several people have been reported killed. Here’s what we know so far.
Published On 7 May 20257 May 2025
Israel’s far-right government has approved a “plan” to carve up and ethnically cleanse Gaza, analysts told Al Jazeera.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the plan, couching it in claims that its goal is to dismantle Hamas and retrieve the 24 or so living captives taken from Israel on October 7, 2023.
Asserting that the “powerful operation in Gaza” was necessary, he went on to emphasise that “there will be a movement of the population to protect it.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Israel will expel hundreds of thousands of hungry Palestinians from the north of Gaza and confine them in six encampments.
It says food will be provided to the Palestinians in these encampments, and that it will allow aid groups and private security contractors to distribute it. Palestinians will be forced to move – or starve.
Some 5,000 to 6,000 families will be pushed into each camp, according to The Washington Post. Each household will send someone to trek miles to pick up a weekly food parcel from what the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Jan Egeland called “concentration hubs”.
It is unclear how the rest of the population – possibly some 1.5 million people – will eat.
Israel says it will use facial recognition to identify people picking up food parcels, to deny aid to “Hamas” – yet Israel treats every fighting-age male as a Hamas operative.
The private security companies from the United States would also guard within the designated areas.
Experts and UN agencies are decrying the plan as impractical and inhumane.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues, and Palestinians will continue to suffer.
Since Israel began its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, it has cloaked its mass expulsions in what it claims are humane “advance warnings” in which families have mere hours to pack their belongings and flee to a zone Israel determines. Israel often bombs those safe zones anyway.
“If you are viewing this plan through aid distribution, it makes no sense,” Diana Buttu, legal scholar and former adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization, told Al Jazeera.
“If you view it through a political project, which is ethnic cleansing and cantonisation by using food as a weapon of war, then this plan does make sense,” she said, adding that the “plan” is consistent with Israel’s aim of carrying out a genocide in Gaza.
That they are afraid, and starving, after two months of Israel blocking all aid and regular shipments of food.
“If there is a plan to expand the war and reoccupy Gaza and repeat the displacement, why were we allowed to return to the north again?” Noor Ayash, 31, asks.
“What more does Netanyahu want? We’re dying in every way.”
Mahmoud al-Nabahin, 77, who has been displaced for the past 18 months, says Netanyahu’s threats are meaningless.
He has lost everything; Israel killed his wife and daughter in a raid months ago, and their home and farm are gone.
“[This] means nothing but our annihilation. We’ve lost all hope. Let him do whatever he wants,” he says from his tent in Deir el-Balah.
“We don’t have weapons. We’re civilians left in the wind. People will refuse displacement, but will be forced by the army.”
They want to finish their genocide under the guise of facilitating food aid and rescuing Israeli captives, Omar Rahman, an expert on Israel-Palestine for the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said.
“Israel has been telegraphing its real intentions from the start of this campaign: Destroy Gaza and eliminate its population both by starvation and mass killing,” he said.
Israel’s “plan” signals its intent to starve Palestinians who resist being expelled from north Gaza, said Heidi Matthews, a legal scholar at York University, Canada.
“It is inconceivable that the population can be adequately provided for … whilst being crowded into southern Gaza,” she said.
“This indicates the genocidal intent to inflict on the Palestinian population of Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
Not clear.
Israel plans to hire two US private security firms, Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions, to provide security and possibly help with food distribution.
The first is headed by Phil Riley, a former CIA intelligence officer. The second is run by Jameson Govoni, a former member of the US Army Special Forces.
These companies could give Israel plausible deniability if abuses or atrocities occur, said Mairav Zonszein, an expert on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group.
She added that Israel will also call up thousands of reservists to maintain a physical occupation over northern Gaza, despite many soldiers being fatigued by war and financial troubles.
“There is definitely a lower … turnout among reservists than at the start of the war. But that doesn’t mean there is actually a manpower shortage,” Zonszein told Al Jazeera.
In addition, she noted, despite Israeli society opposing expanding the war on Gaza without first retrieving the captives, Netanyahu is more concerned with appeasing far-right ministers in his coalition by fighting on.
Netanyahu risks losing power and standing trial for corruption charges if the coalition collapses.
Not UN agencies.
A UN spokesman said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “alarmed” by Israel’s plan and that it will “inevitably lead to countless more civilians killed and the further destruction of Gaza”.
“Gaza is, and must remain, an integral part of a future Palestinian state,” said spokesman Farhan Haq.
The UN also issued a statement saying Israel’s plan for Gaza would “contravene fundamental humanitarian principles” and deepen suffering for civilians.
But the UN may conclude that it must participate in Israel’s scheme out of fear that even more Palestinians in Gaza will starve if it doesn’t, said Buttu, putting the onus on Western states, who primarily fund UN agencies, to support the UN’s position by sanctioning Israel.
ReutersTwo weeks after a deadly militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, India has launched a series of strikes on sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The Indian defence ministry said the strikes – named “Operation Sindoor” – were part of a “commitment” to hold those responsible for the 22 April attack which left 25 Indians and one Nepali national dead “accountable”.
But Pakistan, which has denied any involvement in last month’s attack, has described the strikes as “unprovoked”, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif saying the “heinous act of aggression will not go unpunished”.
Pakistan’s military says it has shot down five Indian aircraft and a drone. India has yet to respond to these claims.
Pakistan’s military spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said at least 26 people were killed and 46 injured. India’s army said at least 10 civilians were killed and 32 injured by Pakistani shelling on its side of the de facto border.
Delhi said in the early hours of Wednesday morning that nine different locations had been targeted in both Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Pakistan.
It said these sites were “terrorist infrastructure” – places where attacks were “planned and directed”.
It emphasised that it had not hit any Pakistani military facilities, saying its “actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”.
In the initial aftermath of the attacks, Pakistan said three different areas were hit: Muzaffarabad and Kotli in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Bahawalpur in the Pakistani province of Punjab. Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif, later said six locations had been hit.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told GeoTV in the early hours of Wednesday that the strikes hit civilian areas, adding that India’s claim of “targeting terrorist camps” is false.
The strikes come after weeks of rising tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours over the shootings in the picturesque resort town of Pahalgam.
The 22 April attack by a group of militants saw 26 people killed, with survivors saying the militants were singling out Hindu men.
It was the worst attack on civilians in the region in two decades, and the first major attack on civilians since India revoked Article 370, which gave Kashmir semi-autonomous status in 2019.
Following the decision, the region saw protests but also witnessed militancy wane and a huge increase in the number of tourists visiting the region.
The killings have sparked widespread anger in India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country would hunt the suspects “till the ends of the Earth” and that those who planned and carried it out “will be punished beyond their imagination”.
However, India has not named any group it suspects carried out the attack in Pahalgam and it remains unclear who did it.
But Indian police have alleged two of the attackers were Pakistani nationals, with Delhi accusing Pakistan of supporting militants – a charge Islamabad denies. It says it has nothing to do with the 22 April attacks.
In the two weeks since, both sides had taken tit-for-tat measures against each other – including expelling diplomats, suspending visas and closing border crossings.
But many expected it would escalate to some sort of cross-border strike – as seen after the Pulwama attacks which left 40 Indian paramilitary personnel dead in 2019.
Kashmir is claimed in full by India and Pakistan, but administered only in part by each since they were partitioned following independence from Britain in 1947.
The countries have fought two wars over it.
But more recently, it has been attacked by militants which have brought the two countries to the brink. Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an armed insurgency against Indian rule since 1989, with militants targeting security forces and civilians alike.
In 2016, after 19 Indian soldiers were killed in Uri, India launched “surgical strikes” across the Line of Control – the de facto border between India and Pakistan – targeting militant bases.
In 2019, the Pulwama bombing, which left 40 Indian paramilitary personnel dead, prompted airstrikes deep into Balakot – the first such action inside Pakistan since 1971 – sparking retaliatory raids and an aerial dogfight.
Neither spiralled, but the wider world remains alert to the danger of what could happen if it did. Attempts have been made by various nations and diplomats around the world to prevent this.
UN chief Antonio Guterres quickly called for “maximum restraint” – a sentiment echoed by the European Union and numerous countries, including Bangladesh.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged “dialogue” and “de-escalation”.
US President Donald Trump – who was one of the first to respond – told reporters at the White House that he hoped the fighting “ends very quickly”. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, said he was keeping a close eye on developments.
When Azeezat Babatunde gave birth to her daughter, the baby was visibly underweight and lethargic. She was born prematurely. The 20-year-old single mother who lives in Alagbado, a densely populated area of Lagos, South West Nigeria, watched as her daughter was rushed to an incubator at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Now three years old, the child’s earliest battles with malnutrition still echo through her mother’s memory.
Her skin was paper-thin, revealing the delicate network of veins beneath. Her ribs jutted out beneath a sunken chest that rose and fell in shallow yet rapid gasps.
According to Azeezat, the medical report from LUTH indicated that her daughter’s condition stemmed from poor maternal nutrition and inadequate prenatal care. The malnutrition had left the child’s muscles underdeveloped, and her movements were feeble.
Despite working long hours at a factory, Azeezat’s meagre earnings could barely cover her needs, let alone provide the balanced meals she and her child desperately needed. Her journey into motherhood was one overshadowed by financial hardships. With her parents’ insufficient income barely stretching to cover rent and utilities, nutritious meals were a luxury they couldn’t afford.
In those first days at LUTH, Azeezat’s daughter struggled to suckle. A nurse, recognising the danger, told her about the Lagos Food Bank, a non-profit organisation providing a lifeline to malnourished mothers and children.
Faced with her child’s severe condition, Azeezat did not hesitate.
“I was scared of losing my baby,” she said. Her child weighed barely 1.2 kilograms, less than half the global average for a healthy newborn, which the World Health Organisation places between 2.5 and 4.5 kilograms.
When she received her first nutritious pack, Azeezat recounts that it “felt like hope in a bag.” Within a few weeks of consistent support and dietary adjustments, her daughter’s health began to improve, as she recovered from the cruel imprint of malnutrition and premature birth etched across her tiny body.
“My baby’s weight increased to 5kg. She was energetic, and her cheeks gained a healthy glow,” she told HumAngle.
Azeezat’s daughter is one of over 5.4 million children in Nigeria at risk of acute malnutrition. This year alone, approximately 1.8 million children have faced severe acute malnutrition, according to Save the Children, an international humanitarian organisation.
Florence Uchendu, a nutritionist and the former FCT chapter president of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, said malnutrition is a public health concern in the country, and the data on hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition keeps soaring.
The nutritionist revealed that child food poverty has been identified mainly as the predisposing factor of malnutrition in children and has significantly contributed to “making them more susceptible to diseases.”
“Even though the government has instituted several committees on nutrition at the moment, without implementation, we will still be talking about this issue for some years to come,” she said.
In December 2023, the Nigerian government launched a “high-powered” Nutrition Core Working Committee. “We are determined to upturn the negative nutrition indices of this country,” said Vice President Kashim Shettima at the time. However, little has been heard about the committee’s work since its announcement. The federal government has also recently stated plans to review the National Policy on Food and Nutrition, nearly a decade after its introduction.
Yet, despite these policy-level efforts, the situation on the ground remains dire. In 2024, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that around 11 million children in Nigeria were experiencing severe child food poverty. That same year, the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning revealed that more than 31.8 million Nigerians were grappling with acute malnutrition, food insecurity, and the daily consequences of inadequate nutrition policy implementation.
While government efforts are yet to be felt in some communities, non-governmental organisations are stepping in to fill the gap. Based in Nigeria’s most populous city, the Lagos Food Bank Initiative is leading one such response. Since 2019, the organisation has run the Nutritious Meal Plan Intervention (NUMEPLAN), designed to bridge the country’s food and nutrition gap by tackling malnutrition among vulnerable mothers and children under five, beginning in Lagos. The programme offers weekly nutrient-dense meals, nutrition education, and regular health check-ups for mothers like Azeezat, who are striving to keep their children healthy amid growing hardship.
Since its inception eight years ago, with most of its activities concentrated in South West Nigeria, the group says it has treated over 3,000 lactating mothers and children.
Michael Sunbola, founder of the Lagos Food Bank Initiative, told HumAngle that NUMEPLAN operates by partnering with primary health care centres in underserved communities where malnutrition rates are particularly high.
“In Lagos, we are connected with about 300 health centres, and we are working with a lot of them. The PHC is the first point of call for the indigent mothers who can’t afford a standard health care system. When they go there, the health workers refer malnourished individuals to the programme, where they undergo nutritional assessments and receive tailored meal plans that can help the child and mother out from malnutrition.
“We initiated the NUMEPLAN programme by working with a group of nutritionists to help address the hunger gap and malnutrition scourge. A lot of families today find it difficult to make ends meet. Socioeconomic and dwindling disposable income and poverty are driving a lot of hunger,” he said
The sustainable food systems advocate emphasised that NUMEPLAN is not a one-off aid effort. Rather than just handing out food packages, the initiative integrates long-term solutions. After the nutrition intervention, vulnerable women are trained and empowered in agricultural activities, leading to financial stability through backyard farms established via the family farming programme.
“It is a consistent nutritious intervention for two to three months because of the solution we are trying to provide and the fact that most of these babies are malnourished, not because they have an underlying health condition, but because their parents can’t just afford to buy them nutritious and healthy food,” Sunbola said.
“During monitoring and evaluation, they come in biweekly for checkups so that we can track the progress,” he added. “Afterwards, we empower the mothers with sustainable skills that will ensure food security for themselves and their families.”
One key aspect of the initiative is its counselling sessions, which educate mothers on balanced diets and proper feeding practices. Mary Aduku, one of the programme’s beneficiaries, says she knows firsthand how useful the intervention can be.
Three months after she gave birth, her child’s health began to deteriorate. The baby’s weight dropped to 2kg. Alarmed by the baby’s thinness and weak cry, she rushed to a nearby primary health care centre, where the infant was diagnosed with acute malnutrition. It was there she heard about the food bank.
“After two weeks, my baby increased to 5.3 kg,” Mary told HumAngle. “Every two weeks, we receive milk, rice, and other nutritious food items. They also counselled me on how to feed my baby with a nutritious meal like egg custard, and they advised me on maintaining proper hygiene during and after the process.”
The programme’s holistic approach ensures that beneficiaries not only receive immediate relief but also acquire the knowledge and skills to sustain their health in the long term. Today, Azeezat’s and Mary’s children are thriving, and the women share their newfound knowledge with other mothers in their communities.
While malnutrition is most acute in Nigeria’s northern states, the southwest is far from immune. A study published by the International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health revealed that acute malnutrition in children under five, as well as in pregnant and lactating mothers, remains a major concern in the region. Roughly 31 per cent of children there are underweight.
Dr. Uchendu believes that the strategy adopted by the Lagos Food Bank in addressing malnutrition in the southwest is commendable, but stressed that state and federal governments must key into such initiatives to expand their reach.
“Though it is a temporary way to ameliorate hunger and malnutrition among indigent mothers and children in the country, for the sustainability of such initiatives, the government at the state level should step down to reach more people battling with malnutrition in Nigeria,” she noted.
The Lagos Food Bank Initiative has some limitations.
One is the organisation’s slow adoption of digital tools to streamline operations. In an age where technology can greatly improve data tracking and feedback systems, the food bank still relies heavily on manual processes for monitoring and evaluation.
“In terms of technology, we are still working on that. It has not yet materialised,” the founder noted. “We are looking at a system where we can track the progress of the child from the baseline of malnutrition all through to success, which will rely on the support of the mother as well.”
Another pressing issue is mistrust among potential beneficiaries. Many indigent mothers find it hard to believe that the food and nutritional packages being offered are truly free. This mistrust, often rooted in past disappointments with aid programmes or fear of hidden costs, discourages many vulnerable families from participating or fully engaging with the initiative.
“Some of these mothers see the initiative as a scam when they’re being referred to us,” Sunbola told HumAngle. “There are situations where we had to visit their homes to convince them that the initiative is absolutely free before they visit our centre. I don’t blame them. We are in times where trust is scarce.”
While initiatives like NUMEPLAN are making a tangible difference, they also operate against the backdrop of a broader food security crisis in Nigeria.
The passage of the Right to Food Act in 2023 marked a significant step toward addressing food insecurity in the country. This legislation mandates the government to ensure access to adequate food for all Nigerians, laying the groundwork for more comprehensive interventions. The reality on the ground is far from addressing the persistent food insecurity, two years later.
In 2024, however, the Global Hunger Index ranked Nigeria 110th with a score of 28.8 out of the 127 countries with sufficient data to calculate last year’s global index. The data revealed that 18 per cent of Nigeria’s population is undernourished, with 31.5 per cent of its children stunted, while about 11 per cent of them die before their fifth birthday—largely due to inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments.
The rise in malnutrition reflects a broader pattern of the intensifying humanitarian and systemic crises across Nigerian states. The drivers of this crisis are intertwined with broader challenges, including inflation, decreasing crop yields, persistent insecurity, and climate disasters that have disrupted livelihoods.
Rising food prices and inflation have continued to make it increasingly difficult for families to afford nutritious meals. The organisation’s website shows that the cost of essential supplies per pack is approximately ₦32,500 for children and ₦14,500 for mothers.
The funding constraints have equally contributed to threatening the sustainability of nutrition programmes, including that of the NUMEPLAN.
UNICEF has warned that due to funding shortfalls exacerbated by funding cuts from the US, vital supplies for malnourished children in Nigeria and Ethiopia could deplete within months.
Though the funding cut has not directly affected the NUMEPLAN initiative, as the programme is still ongoing, it has paved the way for tight competition between them and those affected.
“We are a privately driven entity with no foreign aid or support from the government,” said Sunbola. “However, those that are affected by the funding cuts are now competing with us to get funding from the corporate sector, where a large chunk of our funding comes from. So, it has become difficult to secure funding. But with the government’s support, we will not just impact thousands but millions of mothers and their children across Nigeria,” he emphasised.
For Dr Uchendu, “One way to solve this issue of food insecurity and malnutrition is to find a lasting solution to insecurity and support farmers to farm so that prices of food staples will drop for people to afford nutritious meals.”
New Delhi, India – In the first hours of Wednesday, Indian armed forces said they struck nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where residents woke up to loud explosions, as the nuclear-armed rivals edged to the precipice of a full-blown military conflict.
New Delhi said its missiles precisely targeted “terrorist infrastructure” across the border while demonstrating “considerable restraint”. The Indian Army, in a statement, said the attack was “non-escalatory in nature” and pointed out that Pakistani military facilities were deliberately not targeted.
Yet a fuming Islamabad claimed that Indian attacks in six Pakistani cities killed at least 8 civilians, including two children. Pakistani ministers also claimed that the country’s air force had shot down several Indian military jets.
India’s missile attacks – called Operation Sindoor – were the country’s response to the deadly April 22 attack in Indian-administered-Kashmir’s Pahalgam, in which 26 people were killed. India blamed Pakistan for that attack, while Islamabad denied it had any role. Since then, Indian armed forces have combed the forests near Pahalgam, arrested more than 2,000 people and raided homes in an unsuccessful manhunt for the gunmen who fled after shooting tourists dead.
The May 7 attacks on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir offer Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a chance to bolster his strongman image at home, analysts told Al Jazeera. But the Indian government’s emphasis on signalling “restraint” points to an attempt to balance that domestic message with a different narrative for the rest of the world.
Amid it all stands an undisputed fact, say analysts: India’s attacks have raised the risks of the region spiralling into a wider conflict.
The Indian attacks were the most expansive since the neighbours last fought a full-fledged war in 1971 – a time when neither had nuclear weapons at their disposal as they do now.
Of the six places that Indian missiles struck, two are cities – Muzaffarabad and Kotli – in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The region of Kashmir – one of the world’s most militarised zones – is claimed in full, and ruled in parts, by India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars over it.
But the other four targets that India struck are in Punjab -Bahawalpur, Muridke, Sialkot and Shakar Garh. Among them, Bahawalpur falls in southern Punjab province, facing the Thar desert, while Muridke is just next to Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, with a population of 14 million.
The Indian military has not hit Punjab, Pakistan’s economic heartland that is also home to 60 percent of the country’s population, since 1971.
Indian air attacks since then have mostly targeted remote parts of Pakistan or Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Six years ago, Indian jets fired missiles at Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, after a suicide bomber killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers in Indian-administered Kashmir.
These May 7 attacks are different. Lahore, next to Muridke, is close to the Indian border and is Pakistan’s second-most populous city, pointed out Sumantra Bose, an Indian political scientist whose work focuses on the intersection of nationalism and conflict in South Asia. Bahawalpur, in southern Punjab, is also a key city.
The Indian government claims that it strategically hit only “terror infrastructure”. And in a post on X, the Indian army said, “Justice is served.”
But Bose said the attacks were “a very concerning development”.
“Surgically targeted precision strikes do not change the fact that there have been these large explosions in major Pakistani population centres,” said Bose. “This is proper Pakistan, not Pakistan-administered-Kashmir [claimed by India].”
Two days after the Pahalgam attack, Modi said, in an address at an election rally in the poll-bound state of Bihar, that his government would “identify, trace, and punish every terrorist and their backers”, promising to pursue them “to the ends of the Earth”.
Following the attack, India suspended its participation in the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) that Pakistan counts on for its water security. Islamabad has threatened to walk out of past peace deals. Both nations have also expelled each other’s diplomats, military attaches and hundreds of civilians.
But there has been growing domestic pressure on the Modi government, said political analysts, to attack Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack.
“There was a high level of pressure on Modi to respond with muscle,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC. “It would have been unfathomable for India’s government not to respond militarily, given Modi’s self-projection as an administrator who is strong, confident, decisive, determined to hit back hard against terrorism.”
Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst in New Delhi, said the Pahalgam attack had “emotionally” driven a desire in the Indian public for retribution against the attackers and those seen as their enablers. And Modi, with his image as someone who delivers on national security, was catering to those sentiments. “India is retaliating in a precise manner,” Kidwai said.
In many ways, the May 7 Indian missile attacks were in keeping with the script New Delhi had outlined since the April 22 killings in Pahalgam, said Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Like Kugelman and Kidwai, Donthi referred to the image that the Modi government has created for itself domestically. “This moment aligns with India’s self-projection as a strong security state with zero tolerance for terrorism, primarily directed against Pakistan, and Modi’s strongman persona. It was a self-created litmus test that the Indian government needed to ace,” he told Al Jazeera. “There are likely domestic dividends for it.”
But, Donthi warned, the Indian attack on Pakistan also “portends future risks”.
Kugelman agreed, describing the Wednesday missile attacks as “the most intense levels of Indian military actions we’ve seen in Pakistan for quite a few years now”.
Back in Pakistan, as officials pledge retaliation against what they call India’s “act of war”, Kugelman said the situation suits Islamabad’s military leadership, too.
The attacks “will actually bolster Pakistan’s current regime because the military leadership can use these attacks to rally the public around the military leadership,” he said. “The military has tended to derive its legitimacy from this idea that it needs to protect the country from the threat posed by India. We could see a rally around the flag effect [in Pakistan].”
Since the Indian attack, both armies have traded heavy artillery and gunfire across the de facto border in disputed Kashmir. Currently, Kugelman said, there is “a pretty strong possibility of escalation, given that both countries have nuclear weapons”.
“The more hostilities that are used through conventional military force under a nuclear umbrella, the higher the risk of nuclear escalation.
“We’re not there,” he noted. “But certainly, the escalation risks are quite high.”
India fired missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory in several locations, killing at least 26 people, including a child, in what Pakistan’s leader called an act of war.
Retaliatory Pakistani shelling has killed at least 10 in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials said.
India said the attacks on Wednesday targeted infrastructure used by fighters linked to last month’s attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.
Pakistan said it had shot down several Indian fighter jets in retaliation as three planes fell onto villages in India-controlled Kashmir.
Tensions have soared between the nuclear-armed neighbours since an attack in which gunmen killed 26 people, mostly Indian Hindu tourists, at a popular meadow in the disputed territory of Kashmir, in some cases killing men before their wives’ eyes.
India has blamed Pakistan for backing the attack, something Islamabad has denied.
Kashmir, which is divided between the two countries but claimed in its entirety by each, has been at the centre of tensions for decades with two wars fought over it.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned Wednesday’s air attacks and said his country would retaliate.
“Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,” Sharif said.
The country’s National Security Committee met Wednesday morning, and Pakistan summoned India’s charge d’affaires to lodge a protest.
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a special meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security.
Golden State Warriors take the opening game of their NBA Western Conference, second-round playoff series against Minnesota Timberwolves despite Stephen Curry’s exit from game with a leg strain.
Buddy Hield scored 24 points as the Golden State Warriors held on for a 99-88 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinals series in Minneapolis, despite losing star Stephen Curry to an injury.
Jimmy Butler III notched a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds for the seventh-seeded Warriors, who won for the second time in three nights after eliminating the Houston Rockets in a seven-game, first-round series. Draymond Green finished with 18 points and eight rebounds.
“Jimmy is as good as any star in the league at reading the game and controlling the tempo,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr on Tuesday.
Anthony Edwards missed his first 10 shots from the field but finished with 23 points and 14 rebounds for Minnesota, which appeared rusty after a five-day break between games. Naz Reid scored 19 points off the bench and Julius Randle finished with 18 points.
“It didn’t look like us at all,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “It didn’t feel like us at all.”
Curry, 37, dropped out in the second quarter because of a left hamstring strain and did not return. He scored 13 points in 13 minutes on 5-for-9 shooting overall and 3-for-6 shooting from 3-point range before his injury.
Curry appeared to sustain the injury after driving for a layup. He favoured his left leg after the shot and lifted his arm to signal to the bench that something felt wrong.
Kerr told reporters after the game that Curry would undergo an MRI on his left hamstring on Wednesday. He described Curry’s status as day-to-day.
“We’re definitely game-planning for him to not be available on Thursday,” Kerr said. “We don’t know yet, but with the hamstring, it’s hard to imagine that he would play Thursday.”
Minnesota trailed by as many as 23 points but pulled within single digits in the fourth quarter. A 13-2 run by the Timberwolves cut their deficit to 85-76 with 6:02 remaining.
On the next possession, Hield drilled one of his five 3-pointers to increase the Warriors’ lead back to 12 points. Butler followed with a driving jump shot to put Golden State on top 90-76 with 5:19 remaining and the Warriors maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the way.
Golden State held a commanding 80-60 advantage at the end of the third quarter.
Hield had two points at halftime but erupted for 16 in the third quarter. He made a 3-pointer as part of a 10-0 run that gave Golden State a 76-53 lead with 2:23 remaining in the quarter.
Golden State led 44-31 at the half as Minnesota scored only 11 points in the second quarter.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is in Minneapolis on Thursday.
Business reporters, BBC News
Getty ImagesThe UK and India have agreed a trade deal to make it cheaper and easier to buy and sell goods and services to one another.
The hope is that the deal will benefit the economies of both countries.
The British government said the deal was the “biggest and most economically significant” trade agreement the UK had signed since leaving the European Union in 2020.
Here’s a quick guide to what’s been agreed and what it could mean for you.
The UK has lowered taxes on goods imported from India including:
India has cut taxes on goods imported from the UK including:
The deal will also allow British firms to compete for more services contracts in India.
The trade deal won’t come into force for up to a year, so don’t expect to notice any immediate changes.
Over time though, the UK government says lowering tariffs on the likes of clothing, jewellery, and frozen prawns “could” lead to cheaper prices and more choice.
This deal could also be a big win for UK businesses which manufacture the goods which have seen tariffs slashed, such as car makers and whisky distillers.
For example, tariffs on whisky and gin being imported to India from the UK will be halved from 150% to 75% before reducing to 40% by the 10th year of the deal. Car tariffs will fall from more than 100% to 10%.
That will provide a boost to those two industries, which look set to be hit hard by US tariffs, as it will mean Indian companies wanting to import those products will pay less import charges than before.
If businesses end up exporting more goods to India and make higher profits, this could lead to them spending more on hiring staff, investing and also paying more tax.
In India, consumers could see much more choice among the goods which have been included under the deal. Clothing manufacturing businesses and jewellers will also be able to access the UK market which will boost their margins.
This deal has been a long time in the making, with on-off negotiations going on for some three years.
However it appears US President Donald Trump’s introduction of tariffs on goods entering America has prompted other world leaders to consider striking free-trade deals with one another.
The UK’s deal with India is its third biggest after its agreements with Australia and Japan. For context, the UK has signed trade deals and agreements in principle with about 70 countries and one with the EU.
The EU is the biggest trade partner for both the UK and India. Therefore, a free trade agreement between India and the EU would be more significant than the one with the UK. Both India and the EU have said they aim to finalise this by the end of 2025.
Last year trade between the UK and India totalled £42bn. The UK government has said this deal would boost that trade by an additional £25.5bn a year by 2040.
It is said over time it will boost the UK economy by £4.8bn. This is a tiny proportion of the UK economy which was worth £2,851bn last year.
However, India is also forecast to become the world’s third-largest economy in a few years. It is also home to 1.45bn people – about 20 times the population of the UK -which is a lot of potential customers.
The UK is also a high priority trading partner for India, which has an ambitious target to grow exports by $1tn (£750bn) by 2030.
One of the reasons the UK India free trade deal has taken so long to reach is that India had made big demands about visas for Indian professionals and students to work and study abroad.
The British government said this deal does not include any change in immigration policy, including towards Indian students studying in the UK.
But it does includes a three-year exemption on the social security paid by Indian employees working in the UK, on short-term visas.
This agreement, known as the Double Contribution Convention, designed to ensure social security contributions are not made in more than one country, was one of the elements India had pushed for during negotiations.
The UK’s Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the deal would make it easier for people with certain skills to work in the UK temporarily.
“It opens up a small number of visas from an existing route for chefs and musicians and yoga teachers, very, very small, about 1,800,” he added.
Nations call for restraint as India launches ‘Operation Sindoor’, attacking several sites in Pakistan, which in response claims to down Indian jets.
India has launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, a military operation targeting multiple locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir that New Delhi alleges are “terrorist” training sites.
In response, Islamabad claimed it struck Indian army positions and shot down several warplanes, calling India’s strikes “an act of war”.
At least 26 people have been killed overnight in Pakistan and 10 in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials said.
This is what global leaders are saying about the escalation in hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours:
“It’s a shame. Just heard about it. I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for a long time. They’ve been fighting for many, many decades. I hope it ends very quickly,” Trump said.
The US administration said it was closely following the military escalation in South Asia.
“I am monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan closely. I echo @POTUS’s comments earlier today that this hopefully ends quickly and will continue to engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership towards a peaceful resolution,” Rubio posted on X.
I am monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan closely. I echo @POTUS‘s comments earlier today that this hopefully ends quickly and will continue to engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership towards a peaceful resolution.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 6, 2025
“The Secretary-General is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border. He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries,” a spokesperson for Guterres said in a statement.
“The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” it added.
France has called on India and Pakistan to show restraint as the worst violence in two decades flared between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
“We understand India’s desire to protect itself against the scourge of terrorism, but we obviously call on both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint to avoid escalation and, of course, to protect civilians,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in an interview on TF1 television.
“In regard to the terrorist act that occurred in Kashmir on April 22, our country firmly condemns such acts of terrorism. Furthermore, we express strong concern that this situation may lead to further retaliatory exchanges and escalate into a full-scale military conflict.
“For the peace and stability of South Asia, we strongly urge both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and stabilize the situation through dialogue,” Hayashi stated.
UAE Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah bin Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan called on India and Pakistan to show restraint, reduce tensions and prevent further escalation, according to a government statement.
“His Highness reaffirmed that diplomacy and dialogue remain the most effective means of peacefully resolving crises, and achieving the shared aspirations of nations for peace, stability, and prosperity,” the statement said.
Israel’s ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, said in a statement that Israel supports India’s right to self-defence. Posting on X, Azar said, “Israel supports India’s right for self defense. Terrorists should know there’s no place to hide from their heinous crimes against the innocent. #OperationSindoor.”
Israel supports India’s right for self defense. Terrorists should know there’s no place to hide from their heinous crimes against the innocent. #OperationSindoor
— 🇮🇱 Reuven Azar (@ReuvenAzar) May 7, 2025
Today programme presenter
BBCIn an exclusive and remarkably candid interview – the first since he left office – Joe Biden discusses what he really thinks of his successor’s first 100 days, plus his fears for the future if the Atlantic Alliance collapses
It is hard to believe that the man I greet in the Delaware hotel where he launched his political career more than half a century ago was the “leader of the free world” little over 100 days ago.
Joe Biden is still surrounded by all the trappings of power – the black SUVs, the security guys with curly earpieces, the sniffer dogs sent ahead to sweep the room for explosives. And yet he has spent the last three months watching much of what he believes in being swept away by his successor.
Donald Trump has deployed the name Biden again and again – it is his political weapon of choice. One recent analysis showed that Trump said or wrote the name Biden at least 580 times in those first 100 days in office. Having claimed that rises in share prices were “Trump’s stock market” at work, he later blamed sharp falls in share prices on “Biden’s stock market”.
Until this week, President Biden himself (former presidents keep their titles after they leave office) has largely observed the convention that former presidents do not criticise their predecessors at the start of their time in office. But from the moment we shake hands it is clear that he is determined to have his say too.
In a dark blue suit, the former president arrives smiling and relaxed but with the determined air of a man on a mission. It’s his first interview since leaving the White House, and he seems most angry about Donald Trump’s treatment of America’s allies – in particular Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I found it beneath America, the way that took place,” he says of the explosive Oval Office row between Trump and Zelensky in February. “And the way we talk about now that, ‘it’s the Gulf of America’, ‘maybe we’re going to have to take back Panama’, ‘maybe we need to acquire Greenland, ‘maybe Canada should be a [51st state].’ What the hell’s going on here?
“What President ever talks like that? That’s not who we are. We’re about freedom, democracy, opportunity – not about confiscation.”
After just over 100 action-packed days of Trump there was no shortage of targets for President Biden to choose from.
But his main concern appears to be on the international stage, rather than the domestic one: that is, the threat he believes now faces the alliance between the United States and Europe which, as he puts it, secured peace, freedom and democracy for eight decades.
Just before our interview, which took place days before the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Biden took a large gold coin out of his pocket and pressed it into my hand. It was a souvenir of last year’s D-Day commemoration. Biden believes that the speech he delivered on that beach in Normandy is one of his most important. In it, he declared that the men who fought and died “knew – beyond any doubt – that there are things worth fighting and dying for”.
I ask him whether he feels that message about sacrifice is in danger of being forgotten in America. Not by the people, he replies but, yes, by the leadership. It is, he says, a “grave concern” that the Atlantic Alliance is seen to be dying.
“I think it would change the modern history of the world if that occurs,” he argues.
“We’re the only nation in a position to have the capacity to bring people together, [to] lead the world. Otherwise you’re going to have China and the former Soviet Union, Russia, stepping up.”
ReutersNow more than ever before that Alliance is being questioned. One leading former NATO figure told the BBC this week that the VE Day celebrations felt more like a funeral. President Trump has complained that the United States is being “ripped off” by her allies, Vice President JD Vance has said that America is “bailing out” Europe whilst Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has insisted that Europe is “free-loading”.
Biden calls the pledge all members of Nato – the Atlantic Alliance – make “to defend each and every inch of Nato territory with the full force of our collective power” a “sacred obligation”.
“I fear that our allies around the world are going to begin to doubt whether we’re going to stay where we’ve always been for the last 80 years,” Biden says.
Under his presidency, both Finland and Sweden joined Nato – something he thinks made the alliance stronger. “We did all that – and in four years we’ve got a guy who wants to walk away from it all.
“I’m worried that Europe is going to lose confidence in the certainty of America, and the leadership of America in the world, to deal with not only Nato, but other matters that are of consequence.”
I meet President Biden in the place he has called home since he was a boy, the city of Wilmington in Delaware. It is an hour and a half Amtrak train ride from Washington DC, a journey he has been making for 50 years since becoming a Senator at the age of just 30. He has spent more years in government than any other president.
He was 82 when he left the Oval Office. His age has invited no end of scrutiny – an “at times addled old man” is how the journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson describe him in their book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.
His calamitous live TV debate performance last June prompted further questions, as Biden stumbled over his words, lost his thread mid-sentence and boasted, somewhat bafflingly, that “We finally beat Medicare!”. He withdrew from the election campaign soon after.
ReutersToday, Biden is still warm and charismatic, with the folksy charm that made him an election winner but he is a much slower, quieter and more hesitant version of the leader he was once. Meeting with him in person, I found it hard to imagine he could have served for another four years in the White House, taking him closer to the age of 90.
I ask Biden if he’s now had to think again about his decisions last year. He pulled out of the presidential race just 107 days before election day, leaving Kamala Harris limited time to put together her own campaign.
“I don’t think it would have mattered,” he says. “We left at a time when we had a good candidate, she was fully funded.
“What we had set out to do, no-one thought we could do,” he continues. “And we had become so successful in our agenda, it was hard to say, ‘No, I’m going to stop now’… It was a hard decision.”
One he regrets? Surely withdrawing earlier could have given someone else a greater chance?
“No, I think it was the right decision.” He pauses. “I think that… Well, it was just a difficult decision.”
Biden says he went into politics to fight injustice and to this day has lost none of his appetite for the fight. Last year at the D-Day celebrations he warned: “We’re living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since the end of World War Two.”
Today, he expands on this: “Look at the number of European leaders and European countries that are wondering, Well what do I do now? What’s the best route for me to take? Can I rely on the United States? Are they going to be there?”
“Instead of democracy expanding around the world, [it’s] receding. Democracy – every generation has to fight for it.”
Penske Media via Getty ImagesSpeaking in Chicago recently, Biden declared that “nobody’s king” in America. I asked him if he thinks President Trump is behaving more like a monarch than a constitutionally limited president.
He chooses his reply carefully. “He’s not behaving like a Republican president,” he says.
Though later in our interview, Biden admits he’s less worried about the future of US democracy than he used to be, “because I think the Republican Party is waking up to what Trump is about”.
President Biden relished his role as the leading figure in Nato, deploying normally top secret intelligence to tell a sceptical world back in 2022 that Vladimir Putin was about to launch a full scale invasion of Ukraine.
Since taking office President Trump has charted a different course, telling Ukraine that it must consider giving up territory to Russia if it wants the war to end.
“It is modern day appeasement,” Biden says of Trump’s approach.
Putin, he says, sees Ukraine as “part of Mother Russia. He believes he has historical rights to Ukraine… He can’t stand the fact that […] the Soviet Union has collapsed. And anybody who thinks he’s going to stop is just foolish.”
He fears that Trump’s approach might signal to other European countries that it’s time to give in to Russia.
Yet Biden has faced accusations against him concerning the Ukraine War. Some in Kyiv and her allies, as well as some in the UK, claim that he gave President Zelensky just enough support to resist invasion but not enough to defeat Russia, perhaps out of fear that Putin would consider using nuclear weapons if cornered.
When Putin was asked point blank on TV this week whether he would use nuclear weapons to win the war, he declared that he hoped that they would “not be necessary,” adding that he had the means to bring the war to what he called his “logical conclusion”.
I point out to Biden that it has been argued that he didn’t have the courage to go all the way to give Ukraine the weapons it needed – to let Ukraine win.
“We gave them [Ukraine] everything they needed to provide for their independence,” Biden argues. “And we were prepared to respond more aggressively if in fact Putin moved again.”
He says he was keen to avoid the prospect of “World War Three, with nuclear powers,” adding: “And we did avoid it.
“What would Putin do if things got really tough for him?” he continues. “Threaten the use of tactical nuclear weapons. This is not a game or roulette.”
Biden’s belief in the Atlantic Alliance of the last living President born during World War Two is clearly undiminished.
When he first arrived in the Oval Office, Biden hung a portrait of America’s wartime leader Franklin D. Roosevelt on the wall. He was born two and a half years after the defeat of the Nazis into the world FDR helped to create – a world of American global leadership and solidarity. But the United States voted to reject Biden’s policies and values and instead to endorse Donald Trump’s call to put America First.
The world is changing from what people like Joe Biden have taken for granted.
“Every generation has to fight to maintain democracy, every one,” Biden says. “Every one’s going to be challenged.
“We’ve done it well for the last 80 years. And I’m worried there’s the loss of understanding of the consequences of that.”
This interview broadcasts on BBC Radio 4’s Today on 7 May. You can hear it later on BBC Sounds. Listen to the full version on Political Thinking with Nick Robinson: The Joe Biden One, also on BBC Sounds.
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Criminals who refuse to attend sentencing in England and Wales could face an additional two years in prison, under a new bill to be introduced to Parliament on Wednesday.
Additional powers for judges to punish offenders absent from sentencing will mean they cannot “opt out” of justice, victims’ families have said.
“It is not about punishment through force – but about ensuring that perpetrators cannot remove themselves from the consequences of their actions,” said the families of murdered primary school teacher Sabina Nessa, law graduate Zara Aleena and mother-of-three Jan Mustafa.
All of their loved ones’ killers did not attend their sentencing hearings, prompting calls to change the law.
The bill will only become law once it has been approved by MPs and the House of Lords.
Powers already exist to compel people to attend court but they are often not used.
New measures under the Victims and Courts Bill could apply to any case in the Crown Court, including those who attend proceedings but are removed from court for disruptive behaviour – like Southport killer Axel Rudakubana.
Offenders already facing whole life orders could be confined to their cells and be stripped of privileges, like extra gym time, under the new bill.
In a joint statement, the victims’ families said the development was a “step in the right direction, and that new punishments indicated “this change is being taken seriously”.
“It gives families a moment of recognition and a form of reparation. It is a moment of reckoning for the convicted,” they added.
In January, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promised to follow through on the legislation – initiated by the previous Conservative government – after meeting Cheryl Korbel.
Her daughter, Olivia Pratt-Korbel, was shot dead in her home in August 2022, aged nine. Thomas Cashman, the gunman who killed Olivia, did not attend court to be jailed for 42 years.
Anneliese Midgley, Ms Korbel’s MP, said: “This law is down in no small part to my constituent Cheryl Korbel. I am so proud of her.”
“Sentencing is not just a legal formality; it is the culmination of justice. That’s why it’s so important that justice is not only done, but seen to be done.”
Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones said: “I would like to thank the remarkable families of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, Jan Mustafa, Sabina Nessa and Zara Aleena and countless others who have campaigned tirelessly for offenders to have to face the reality of their crimes by attending their sentencing.”
“Justice isn’t optional – we’ll make sure criminals face their victims,” she added.
Business reporter
China Correspondent
Getty ImagesUS and Chinese officials are set to start talks this week to try to deescalate a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will attend the talks in Switzerland from 9 to 12 May, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer will represent Washington at the meeting, their offices announced.
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has imposed new import taxes on Chinese goods of up to 145%. Beijing has hit back with levies on some goods from the US of 125%.
But global trade experts have told the BBC that they expect negotiations to take several months.
It will be the first high-level interaction between the two countries since Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng attended Trump’s inauguration in January.
Mr Bessent said he looked forward to rebalancing the international economic system to better serve the interests of the US.
“My sense is that this will be about de-escalation, not about the big trade deal, but we’ve got to de-escalate before we can move forward,” he said in an interview with Fox News.
“If the United States wants to resolve the issue through negotiations, it must face up to the serious negative impact of unilateral tariff measures on itself and the world,” a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday morning.
Chinese State Media reported that Beijing had decided to engage with the US after fully considering global expectations, the country’s interests and appeals from American businesses.
The report added that China’s is open to talks but reiterated that if the country decides to continue to fight this trade war – it will fight to the end.
The trade war has triggered turmoil in financial markets and sent shockwaves across global trade.
Two trade experts told the BBC that they were not particularly optimistic about the talks, at least in the initial phase.
“You have to start somewhere, so I’m not saying it isn’t worthwhile. Just unlikely to be the launch event people are hoping to see,” said Deborah Elms, Head of Trade Policy at the Hinrich Foundation.
“We should expect to see a lot of back and forth, just like what happened last time in 2018,” Henry Gao, Professor of Law at Singapore Management University and a former Chinese lawyer on the World Trade Organization secretariat said.
“I would expect the talks to drag on for several months or even more than a year”.
Financial markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed after the announcements, while US stock futures rose.
Stock futures are contracts to buy or sell an underlying asset at a future date and are an indication of how markets will trade when they open.
Investors are also waiting for the US central bank to make its latest announcement on interest rates on Wednesday afternoon.
Additional reporting by Bianca Mascarenhas
Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
Beirut, Lebanon – More than five years into an economic crisis that sent inflation spiralling and saw the Lebanese lira plummet, Lebanon’s government is facing its biggest infrastructure project in years: Post-war reconstruction.
After 14 months of war with Israel, Lebanon needs $11bn to rebuild, according to World Bank estimates.
But, experts say, donors do not trust the Lebanese political class, which has a track record of funnelling construction contracting money to politically connected businessmen.
In addition to more than 4,000 deaths, the war took a vast material toll on the country already reeling from a multi-year economic crisis.
About 10 percent of the homes in Lebanon – some 163,000 units – were damaged or destroyed, to say nothing of the more than $1bn in infrastructure damage.
Most observers, and the new government formed in February, say Lebanon will again need foreign aid, as it did after a previous war with Israel in 2006.
But that aid has been slower to arrive than in 2006, with donor attention divided between Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, and major donors like the United States pushing for the Hezbollah group’s disarmament as a precondition.
Hezbollah, until recently the most powerful political and military force in the country, suffered severe blows during the war and has seen its power curtailed, although many Lebanese continue to support it.
The country’s south, east, and Beirut’s southern suburbs bore the brunt of Israel’s offensive. Together, they are home to most of Hezbollah’s constituents, so restoring their homes and livelihoods is a priority for the party.
That translates into leverage for foreign donor states.
Politically connected companies overcharged the state’s main infrastructure buyer, the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR), by 35 percent between 2008 and 2018, a 2022 study by local think tank The Policy Initiative found.
And the primary contracting regulation was so riddled with exceptions that as little as 5 percent of tenders were under the Central Tenders Board’s oversight.
All that came to a head in 2020, when a huge blast in Beirut’s port tore through much of the capital and donors decided they wanted nothing to do with the state, according to Khalil Gebara, economist and former World Bank consultant who previously advised the Lebanese government.
“Donors stopped transferring money to national authorities or to the treasury,” he said, because they had “a total lack of trust in national mechanisms”.
Instead, donors controlled spending directly or via a World Bank-managed trust fund, or worked through NGOs, Gebara added.
That year, the state, which was stalling on implementing International Monetary Fund conditions in exchange for a partial bailout, spent just $38m on its physical investments, down from more than $1.1bn in 2018, the year before the economic collapse, according to Ministry of Finance data.
A year later, Lebanon passed what many considered a landmark reform to state contracting, one of the few reform laws passed in recent years.
It dragged virtually the entire public sector into one unified framework, abolished a classification system that had frozen out contractors without political connections, and created a new regulator – the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).
As crisis-ridden state agencies were corralled into the new system, public investment continued to fall, hitting below $10m in 2022.
“Procurement is going to be a big thing … and absolutely the test for the procurement system and for the regulatory authority,” said Lamia Moubayed, head of an in-house research and training institute at Lebanon’s Finance Ministry.
Rana Rizkallah, a procurement expert at the same institute, says the law is solid, but it’s up to the government to implement what it promised, adding that a crucial part of that is staffing the regulator.
The PPA is supposed to be a board of five members backed by a team of 83 staffers but, three years after the law went into effect in 2022, it has a single member and five employees overseeing 1,400 purchasing bodies.
A four-member complaints board that the law established also has yet to be formed, so complaints still go to Lebanon’s slow, overburdened courts.
Jean Ellieh, the regulator’s president and sole member, says the state doesn’t have the “logistical capacity” to recruit dozens of regulators in one fell swoop, but he’s put in a request for new hires.
“We will work with determination and resolve, regardless of our capabilities,” Ellieh told Al Jazeera. “We will not give anyone an excuse to evade the application of the law.”
He added that donors have expressed “satisfaction” with the PPA’s abilities.
After several lean years in which the state had to keep spending to a bare minimum, the contracting scene remains dominated by the large companies that built up enough resources from earlier rounds of investment to stay afloat.
Wassim Maktabi, economist and co-author of the 2022 report on cartel behaviour in construction contracting, said it would be a tall order to ensure that reconstruction isn’t another bonanza for the well-connected.
“Rest assured that these political elites will not let this slip,” he said.
In addition, years of high-value contracts mean politically connected firms have accumulated the capital to be, in most respects, bigger and more experienced than competitors.
“Even if political influence was not a factor and you awarded these contracts purely based on merit,” he said, these firms “would still get a large piece of the pie”.
Regardless, Maktabi says, reconstruction is simply too important to stall in pursuit of perfection.
Al Jazeera has identified 152 reconstruction contracts totalling more than $30m that are already under way, via the PPA’s online portal. Of the top four contract winners in dollar terms, two have political connections mentioned in media reports.
The top four companies, Beta Engineering and Contracting, Elie Naim Maalouf Company, Al Bonyan Engineering and Contracting, and Yamen General Trading and Contracting, have won contracts totalling $10.6m, $4.7m, $1.8m, and $1.4m, respectively – 60 percent of the total amount awarded in the PPA contracts examined.
The new government is negotiating with the World Bank on a $980m plan, known as LEAP, to kick-start reconstruction and be funded by a World Bank loan and foreign assistance.
But LEAP would only take care of a fraction of the total reconstruction costs.
The government also started hiring for a long-stalled electricity regulatory board and new faces on the CDR board.
Moubayed says refreshing the CDR board is a World Bank requirement to approve LEAP, which would be a vital win for a government pushing to gain reformist credibility.
The World Bank declined to comment on whether refreshing the CDR board is a requirement.
It’s still unclear how the programme might be structured, but the government has endorsed the creation of a trust fund for post-war reconstruction, “characterised by transparency”.
But, Beirut residents were unhappy with a similar model used in 2020 for the Port blast reconstruction, architect and urbanist Abir Saksouk of Public Works Studio says.
A lack of equity between residents, based on which organisation took over repairing each area, further eroded a sense of shared citizenship, she says, calling it an experience that shouldn’t be repeated.
She is one of many calling for an inclusive reconstruction process led by all stakeholders, including people who have suffered damages, and with the involvement of relevant ministries, because they are a vital part of the process.
“We need a reconstruction framework where state institutions are present… But we also need other representation,” she said.
Oman says it brokers truce between Washington and Houthis, says neither side will target the other.
President Donald Trump has announced the United States is abandoning its daily bombing campaign of Yemen based on an understanding with the Houthis as Oman confirms that it has brokered a ceasefire between Washington and the armed group.
“The Houthis have announced to us that they don’t want to fight any more. They just don’t want to fight, and we will honour that, and we will stop the bombings,” Trump told reporters in the White House on Tuesday during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Trump claimed that the Iran-aligned Yemeni group “capitulated” and has promised not to carry out attacks on shipping. It launched those attacks in October 2023 shortly after the war in Gaza started, saying the attacks were in support of Palestinians.
“I will accept their word, and we will be stopping the bombing of Houthis, effective immediately,” the US president said.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said the two sides have agreed to a ceasefire.
“Following recent discussions and contacts conducted by the Sultanate of Oman with the United States and the relevant authorities in Sana’a, in the Republic of Yemen, with the aim of de-escalation, efforts have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides,” he wrote in a post on X.
“In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping.”
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the Houthis’ Supreme Political Council, wrote in a post on X that “Trump’s announcement of a halt to America’s aggression against Yemen will be evaluated on the ground first.”
“Yemen operations were and still are a support for Gaza to stop the aggression and bring in aid,” he added, suggesting that the group would not halt its attacks on Israel.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna said that the US State Department clarified that the agreement did not relate to the conflict between Israel and the Houthis.
“It was made very clear by the US State Department that the deal relates directly to Houthi operations in the coast of Yemen, specifically in regard to US shipping,” he said.
The ceasefire announcement comes hours after the Israeli military launched air strikes on the airport in Sanaa, inflicting devastating damage and rendering it inoperable.
Dozens of Israeli warplanes also launched several waves of large-scale overnight strikes on Yemen’s vital port of Hodeidah in what Israel said was a response after the Houthis hit the perimeter of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport with a ballistic missile.
The US military has been launching daily air strikes across Yemen for nearly two months, destroying infrastructure and killing dozens of people, including children and civilians.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem said it was “possible” that Iran helped to convince the Houthis to de-escalate their attacks.
“The Omanis have also been the main mediators between the US and Iran, and now the Houthis and the Americans. There are indications that the nuclear talks are advancing, with a framework shaping over sanctions lifting in exchange for nuclear restrictions,” he said.
“It is possible that the Iranians have helped in convincing the Houthis to de-escalate, especially if we see this reflected on the Iranian-American talks. It could have been an incentive for the nuclear talks to be done quicker.”
President Donald Trump orders 100 percent tariffs on imported films and those made outside the US.
In recent years, California – home to America’s film industry – has slipped to become the sixth most preferred location to shoot and produce movies.
Hollywood producers are moving to cities in Canada, the United Kingdom, Central Europe and New Zealand, lured by a range of financial benefits on offer.
US President Donald Trump wants to reverse this trend and says he wants to “make movies in America, again”.
And he’s using the stick to do so.
Trump has ordered 100 percent tariffs on imported movies and those made outside the United States.
The move has confused Hollywood and the European film industry.
So, how will the tariffs be implemented? Will a movie partly produced outside the US be punished?
And what about films made for streaming platforms? And how will the tariffs affect the movie industry globally?
Presenter: James Bays
Guests:
Jonathan Handel – Entertainment lawyer and journalist
Chris Southworth – Secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce United Kingdom
Kamran Pasha – Hollywood director, screenwriter and novelist