🇺🇸🇨🇳US and China extend trade truce to avoid tariffs hike
The US and China have extended their trade truce for another 90 days, just hours before the world's two biggest economies were set to raise tariffs on imports of each other's goods.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep the pause in place until 10 November, while Beijing also announced an extension.
It means the US will hold its levy on Chinese imports at 30%, while China will keep a 10% tariff on American goods.
Washington had threatened trade taxes as high as 145% on Chinese products earlier this year, with Beijing hitting back with 125% duties on US shipments. The rates for both countries were scaled back after a round of trade talks held in Geneva in May.
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🇨🇳🇵🇭China rams own warship while chasing Philippine vessel
A Chinese warship ploughed into its own coast guard vessel on Monday while the latter was chasing a Philippine vessel in the South China Sea, Manila said.
Philippine coast guard officials were distributing aid to fishermen in the disputed Scarborough Shoal, Commodore Jay Tarriela said, when the Chinese coast guard "performed a risky manoeuvre" which inflicted "substantial damage" on the Chinese warship's forward deck.
China confirmed that a confrontation took place and accused the Philippines of "forcibly intruding" into Chinese waters, but did not mention the collision.
The South China Sea is at the centre of a territorial dispute between China, the Philippines and other countries.
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🇺🇸🇷🇺Trump and Putin to meet in Alaska for Ukraine talks next week
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Alaska next Friday to discuss the future of the war in Ukraine.
Trump announced the 15 August meeting on social media and it was later confirmed by a Kremlin spokesperson, who said the location was "quite logical" given Alaska's relative proximity to Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said any solutions must include Ukraine, adding he is ready to work with all partners towards a "lasting peace".
The announcement of the meeting came just hours after Trump had signalled that Ukraine might have to cede territory in order to end the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
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🇲🇲Myanmar's figurehead president dies after long illness
Myanmar's figurehead president who came to power after a 2021 coup, Myint Swe, has died, the South East Asian nation's military leaders said. He was 74.
Before his death, Myint Swe had been on medical leave for over a year due to declining health.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has been performing Myint Swe's largely ceremonial duties since July 2024.
The country's junta named Myint Swe acting president after it overthrew the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
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🇺🇸🇮🇳Trump orders India tariff hike to 50% for buying Russian oil
US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order hitting India with an additional 25% tariff over its purchases of Russian oil.
That will raise the total tariff on Indian imports to the United States to 50% - among the highest rates imposed by the US.
The new rate will come into effect in 21 days, so on 27 August, according to the executive order.
A response from India's foreign ministry on Wednesday said Delhi had already made clear its stance on imports from Russia, and reiterated that the tariff is "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable".
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🇺🇸🇷🇺Trump's envoy Witkoff meets Putin as ceasefire deadline looms
A meeting between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russia's Vladimir Putin is under way at the Kremlin, Russian media has said.
Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Wednesday as Donald Trump's deadline for Russia to agree a ceasefire in Ukraine looms.
The US president has said Russia could face hefty sanctions or see secondary sanctions imposed against all those who trade with it if it doesn't take steps to end the "horrible war" with Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, has warned that Russia would only make serious moves towards peace if it began to run out of money. He welcomed the threat of tougher US sanctions and tariffs on nations buying Russian oil.
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🇷🇴Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu dies aged 95
Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu, who presided over the country's chaotic transition from communism to democracy, has died aged 95.
Iliescu had been diagnosed with lung cancer and hospitalised in early June in Romania's capital, Bucharest.
"It is with deep regret that the government announces the passing of the former President of Romania, Mr Ion Iliescu," a government statement said.
Iliescu was Romania's first freely elected president, and served twice, between 1990-1996 and 2000-2004.
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🇮🇳🇺🇸India calls Trump's tariff threat over Russian oil 'unjustified'
India has called Donald Trump's threat of "substantially" higher tariffs over its purchase of oil from Russia "unjustified and unreasonable".
In a post on Truth Social, the US president warned he would raise levies, saying India "don't care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine".
India is currently among the largest buyers of Russian oil. It has become an important export market for Moscow after several European countries cut trade when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Trump did not specify what the new tariff would be, but it comes just days after he unveiled a hefty 25% levy on India.
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⚠️Hamas refuses to disarm until Palestinian state established
Hamas has reaffirmed that it will not agree to disarm unless a sovereign Palestinian state is established, in response to one of Israel's key demands in talks about a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Palestinian armed group said it was responding to remarks it attributed to US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff that Hamas had "expressed its willingness" to lay down its weapons.
Israel considers the disarmament of Hamas one of several key conditions for any deal to end the conflict.
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🇨🇴Twelve years house arrest for Colombian ex-leader Álvaro Uribe
Colombian former President Álvaro Uribe has been sentenced to 12 years of house arrest for witness tampering and a fraud charge.
The 73-year-old is the first former president in the country's history to be convicted of a crime. He has also been barred from public office and fined $578,000 (£435,000).
Uribe, who maintains his innocence, told a judge in Bogotá he would appeal against his conviction. He said the case was meant to "destroy a voice for the democratic opposition".
He was president from 2002-2010 and remains popular in Colombia, despite being accused of working with right-wing paramilitaries to destroy leftist rebel groups. A claim he denies.
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🇦🇫Top MoD civil servant to leave in wake of Afghan data breach
The chief civil servant at the Ministry of Defence will be replaced in the wake of the Afghan data breach, the department has announced.
The move follows one of the worst UK data breaches for decades being revealed to the public last month, in a major embarrassment for defence and intelligence services.
The leak, which went undetected for months and was then subject to a super-injunction, put the identities of British spies, soldiers, and vulnerable Afghan allies at risk.
Permanent Secretary David Williams will leave this autumn and recruitment for his successor has started, the MoD confirmed.
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🇺🇸Trump signs order ending global tariff exemption for low-cost goods
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending a global tariff exemption used by shoppers of low-cost goods.
The order, signed on Wednesday, comes into force on 29 August and broadens earlier presidential action that specifically targeted cheap products from China and Hong Kong to now cover the rest of the world.
The de minimis exemption had allowed goods valued at $800 or less to enter the US without paying any tariffs. US consumers relied on the exemption to buy cheap clothes and household items from online commerce sites like Shein and Temu.
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⚠️What does recognising a Palestinian state mean?
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced the UK will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel meets certain conditions, including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza and reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted furiously to the announcement, saying the decision rewarded "Hamas's monstrous terrorism".
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⚠️Tsunami warning sparks evacuations in Japan and US after powerful Russia earthquake
A powerful earthquake off the coast of Russia has triggered tsunami warnings across the Pacific, prompting emergency evacuations in Russia's far-east, northern Japan, Hawaii and the US west coast.
The 8.8 magnitude quake struck near Russia's far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula at 11:25 local time on Wednesday (23:00 GMT on Tuesday).
It is one of the 10 most powerful earthquakes ever recorded, the US Geological Survey said.
In Russia, the tremor triggered tsunami waves of up to 5m (16ft) in some areas. Pictures showed waves surging through the port town of Severo-Kurilsk, home to around 2,000 people, but no serious injuries or damage has been reported.
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💶🇺🇸EU and US agree trade deal, with 15% tariffs for European exports to America
The United States and European Union have agreed a trade deal, ending a months-long standoff between two of the world's biggest economic partners.
After make-or-break negotiations between President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland, the pair agreed a US tariff on all EU goods of 15%.
That is half the 30% import tax rate Trump had threatened to implement starting on Friday. He said the 27-member bloc would open its markets to US exporters with zero per cent tariffs on certain products.
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🇺🇸🇷🇺Trump says he will try to get back territory for Ukraine in talks with Putin
US President Donald Trump has said he will try to get some territory back for Ukraine during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
"Russia's occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They occupied prime territory. We're going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine," he told a news conference at the White House.
He and the Russian president are due to hold talks in Alaska at the end of the week. Trump claimed that he could know within two minutes of meeting Putin whether progress was possible.
He said Friday would be a "feel-out meeting" aimed at urging Putin to end the war - suggesting he may view the summit as just an initial encounter.
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🇲🇽🇺🇸Mexico rejects Trump's reported military plan against drug cartels
Mexico has said US military would not be entering its territory following reports that President Donald Trump had directed the Pentagon to target Latin American drug cartels.
"The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military," President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday. "We co-operate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out."
The New York Times reported on Friday that Trump had secretly signed a directive to begin using military force on foreign soil.
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🇦🇿🇦🇲Azerbaijan and Armenia sign peace deal at White House summit with Trump
The leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia signed an agreement aimed at ending decades of conflict as they were hosted by President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday.
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan shook hands after the US president described the event as "historic".
"It's been a long time coming," Trump said of the agreement, which will reopen some key transport routes between the countries and increase US influence in the region.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, in the 1980s and 1990s and violence has flared up in the years since.
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🇮🇹Italy gives final approval for world's longest suspension bridge to Sicily
Rome has given final approval to a €13.5bn ($15.6bn) project to build the world's longest suspension bridge, connecting the island of Sicily to the region of Calabria, on the tip of Italy's boot.
The designers claim the bridge – which is due to be built on one of the most seismically active areas in the Mediterranean – will be able to withstand earthquakes.
It is the latest attempt by Italian officials to launch the Messina Bridge project - several have tried over the years but plans have later been scrapped due to concerns over cost, environmental damage, safety or potential mafia meddling.
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🇮🇪Irish president welcomes Princess Anne to Dublin
Irish president Michael D Higgins has welcomed the Princess Royal to his official residence in Dublin.
Princess Anne visited Áras an Uachtaráin in what has been described as "a courtesy call".
The King's sister met President Higgins and his wife, Sabina, on her second visit to the president's residence.
She is also attending the official opening day of the 150th Dublin Horse Show at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS).
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🇬🇧Rwanda says it has agreed to take up to 250 migrants from the US
Rwanda has said it will accept up to 250 migrants from the US in a deal agreed with President Donald Trump's administration.
Under the scheme the deportees would be given "workforce training, health care, and accommodation to jump start their lives in Rwanda", government spokesperson Yolande Makolo confirmed to the BBC.
A condition of the agreement was that Rwanda would have "the ability to approve each individual proposed for resettlement", she added.
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🇺🇸🇧🇷US condemns house arrest of Brazil's ex-president Jair Bolsonaro
Brazil's Supreme Court has ordered that the former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro be put under house arrest.
He is standing trial over allegations he plotted a coup, which he denies.
The judge in charge of investigating Bolsonaro, Alexandre de Moraes, said the decision was because Bolsonaro hadn't complied with restraining orders put on him last month.
In response to the order, Bolsonaro's legal team denied breaching any restraining order and said they would appeal the ruling, according to Reuters news agency.
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🇸🇬F1 tycoon pleads guilty to abetting the obstruction of justice
A Singapore-based billionaire hotelier has pleaded guilty to a charge connected to a rare corruption scandal that shocked the country last year.
Ong Beng Seng has admitted to abetting the obstruction of justice by helping ex-transportation minister Subramaniam Iswaran cover up evidence while he was being investigated for corruption.
Ong gave expensive gifts, including an all-expenses paid trip which included a private jet ride, to Iswaran while they were engaged in official business.
Ministers in Singapore cannot keep gifts unless they pay the market value of the gift to the government, and they must declare anything they receive from people they have business dealings with.
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Mali charges ex-PM with undermining the state over post on X
A former prime minister of Mali, which is now under military rule, has been charged with undermining the credibility of the state over comments on social media.
After a prison visit to see detained opposition figures in July, Moussa Mara declared on X his "unwavering solidarity with prisoners of conscience".
Mara, who served as prime minister for nine months a decade ago, has been a recent outspoken critic of the military government.
The junta, in power since coups in 2020 and 2021, dissolved all political parties in May following rare anti-government protests.
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🇷🇺Putin not swayed by Trump's Ukraine war ultimatum
Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced hopes for further peace talks with Ukraine - but stressed his troops were "advancing on the entire front line", despite the threat of looming US sanctions if a ceasefire was not agreed upon.
"All disappointments arise from inflated expectations," Putin said, in an apparent reference to Trump's "disappointment" with the Russian leader for not bringing an end to the war.
Speaking a day after one of the deadliest Russian air attacks on Kyiv, he repeated his demands for Ukrainian neutrality and recognition of the occupied territories, which Ukraine views as a capitulation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to meet Putin "any time".
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🇺🇸🇰🇷Trump announces deal to impose 15% tariff on South Korea
President Donald Trump says the US will charge a 15% tariff on imports from South Korea, in what he called a "full and complete trade deal".
It comes just a day before a 1 August deadline for countries to reach agreements with the US or be hit with higher tariffs. South Korea had been facing a 25% levy if it had not struck a deal.
Pressure on Seoul had been mounting after Japan, a key competitor in the car and manufacturing industries, secured a 15% tariff rate with the US last week.
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🇨🇦Canada follows France and UK with plan to recognise Palestinian state
Prime Minister Mark Carney has said Canada plans to recognise a Palestinian state in September, becoming the third G7 nation to make such an announcement in recent days.
Carney said the move depends on democratic reforms, including the Palestinian Authority holding elections next year without Hamas.
His remarks come a day after the UK announced it would recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agreed to a ceasefire and other conditions and a week after France unveiled a similar plan.
Israel's foreign ministry rejected Canada's announcement, calling it "a reward for Hamas". Most countries - 147 of the UN's 193 member states - formally recognise a Palestinian state.
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🇺🇸🇮🇳Trump says 'good friend' India may face up to 25% tariffs
India could face tariffs as high as 25% if it fails to finalise a trade deal with the US this week, President Donald Trump has said.
"Yeah, I think so," he told reporters on Tuesday when asked whether Delhi would face higher tariffs in the absence of an agreement.
The US has set a 1 August deadline for India and several other countries to either reach a trade agreement or face increased tariffs.
Indian and American officials have been negotiating a trade deal for the past few months, but officials have alternated between sounding optimistic and cautious about when it will be announced.
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🇨🇮Ivory Coast president, 83, says he will run for fourth term
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has announced he will run for a fourth term in October's election.
In a statement, the 83-year-old said his health was not an issue and his candidacy was driven by a need to "preserve national stability amid ongoing security and economic challenges".
Ouattara argues a new constitution approved in 2016 reset his two-term limit, meaning he is allowed to stand.
He will be the poll's frontrunner, as several potential challengers have already been barred from the race.
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😭Malnutrition in Gaza at alarming levels, WHO warns as aid airdrops resume
The World Health Organization has warned malnutrition has reached "alarming levels" in Gaza with rates on a "dangerous trajectory", as aid airdrops resumed in the Strip.
Jordan said it had worked with the United Arab Emirates and dropped 25 tonnes of aid into Gaza on Sunday after Israel began what it called a "tactical pause" in fighting.
Israel had said it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and allow aid corridors for UN convoys, to "refute the false claim of intentional starvation". Hamas accused it of "whitewashing its image".
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