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World Monthly Headline News Page 1
Reuters

Aid groups in the worst-hit areas of Myanmar said there was an urgent need for shelter, food and water after an earthquake that killed more than 2,700 people, but said the country’s civil war could prevent help from reaching those in need.

The death toll had reached 2,719 and is expected to rise to more than 3,000, Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing said in a televised address on Tuesday. He said 4,521 people were injured, and 441 were missing.

The 7.7 magnitude quake, which hit around lunchtime on Friday, was the strongest to hit the Southeast Asian country in more than a century, toppling ancient pagodas and modern buildings alike.

In neighboring Thailand, rescuers pressed on searching for life in the rubble of a collapsed skyscraper in the capital, Bangkok, but acknowledged time was against them.

In Myanmar’s Mandalay area, 50 children and two teachers were killed when their preschool collapsed, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
By HUIZHONG WU and JOHNSON LAI

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The Chinese military announced large-scale drills in the waters and airspace around Taiwan on Tuesday that include an aircraft carrier battle group, as it again warned the self-ruled island democracy against seeking formal independence.

The joint exercises involve navy, air ground and rocket forces and are meant to be a “severe warning and forceful containment against Taiwan independence,” according to Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command. No operational name for the drills was announced nor previous notice given.

China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary, while most Taiwanese favor their de-facto independence and democratic status. Any conflict could bring in the U.S., which maintains a series of alliances in the region and is legally bound to treat threats to Taiwan as a matter of “grave concern.”

Taiwan’s Presidential Office posted on X that “China’s blatant military provocations not only threaten peace in the #Taiwan Strait but also undermine security in the entire region, as evidenced by drills near Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, the Philippines & the SCS. We strongly condemn China’s escalatory behavior.”

The SCS refers to the South China Sea, the strategic waterway that China claims almost in its entirety. China’s navy also recently held drills near Australia and New Zealand for which it gave no warning, forcing the last-minute rerouting of commercial flights.
Palestinians flee Rafah after new displacement order
By Nils Adler

  Israel’s army orders forced displacement of residents from Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya and the neighbourhoods of Sheikh Zayed, al-Manshiya and Tal al-Zaatar in northern Gaza.
   Israeli forces bombard the Lebanese capital, Beirut, for a second time in a week, killing at least four people and endangering the ceasefire with Hezbollah.
By Kat Lonsdorf

NABLUS, West Bank — As the sun starts to come up over the old city of Nablus, workers light a giant blaze of a furnace at the Touqan soap factory right off the main square. The blasting flames start to slowly heat a giant vat holding hundreds of gallons of goopy, waxy sludge above. It's a morning ritual that's been happening at the factory for more than 150 years.

Musa Assakhal scrapes a metal spatula through the mixture — a combination of virgin olive oil, water and lye — checking the consistency. He flips a switch and a big metal blade starts slowly rotating, gently sloshing the thick liquid onto the surrounding surfaces as it mixes. It's been boiling on and off for several days.

"I'm waiting for it to boil," he says. "Once it boils, I'll know whether it's ready or not."

Assakhal has been doing this job for most of his life. His father had the job before him. He used to sometimes come and help when he was a child.

"This job gives me great joy, to be able to do something the way my ancestors did it," he says, smiling.

The Palestinian city of Nablus has been known for its olive oil soap for centuries, the tradition of making it passed down from generation to generation. In December, the tradition was added to the list of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, after Palestinian representatives nominated it.
Story by Craig Simpson

The BBC has claimed that Elon Musk’s commitment to free speech on social media is enabling the spread of misinformation.

Corporation bosses issued the warning in the broadcaster’s annual plan, published on Monday, as they vowed to ramp up their controversial fact-checking unit BBC Verify.

The broadcaster said it would help tackle worldwide “challenges to democracy” such as fake news.

The annual plan said: “Social media companies are relaxing content moderation while positioning themselves as champions of free speech, in a move that is likely to increase misinformation.”

The report cited the example of Mr Musk’s X platform, formerly known as Twitter.

The Tesla billionaire, who bought the social media site in 2022 with the intention of making it a forum for free speech, has sacked thousands of its content moderators.

The corporation also highlighted Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which owns platforms such as Facebook. Following Donald Trump’s victory in last year’s US presidential election, the company announced it would step back from direct moderation of online content.

The BBC said that, within this context, there were concerns that people accessing news on social media were “less trusting of democratic institutions”.
By Eugenia Yosef, Kareem Khadder and Irene Nasser, CNN

CNN — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday a major expansion of the military’s operation in Gaza involving the seizure of large areas of land that would be “incorporated into Israel’s security zones.”

In the statement, Katz said the operation would also involve a “large-scale evacuation of Gaza’s population from combat zones,” without specifying details.

Signs of the operation’s expansion are yet to be seen on the ground, although the enclave saw heavy airstrikes that have so far killed dozens people in the last 24 hours, according to local authorities, including at least nine children when a UN shelter was hit.

According to the defense minister’s statement, the military operation would expand to “crush and clear the area of terrorists and terror infrastructure, while seizing large areas that will be incorporated into Israel’s security zone.”

The Israeli military’s spokesperson for Arabic media late on Tuesday ordered residents in Gaza’s southern Rafah area to leave their homes and move north.
The US president’s new tariff regime on every country threatens to unleash a global trade war. Here we explore how the world is responding
Amy Hawkins

Global markets and businesses were reeling on Thursday, as US president Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on major trade partners and struggling countries alike.

Trump’s new policies set a baseline tariff of 10% on all goods coming into the US, taking the a maximum rate to more than 50% on imports from some countries. It marks the biggest upheaval of global trade norms since the second world war. The US president said that these levies were aimed at targeting decades of unfair trade practices which had disadvantaged the US.

The 10% universal tariff will go into effect on 5 April while the “reciprocal tariffs” on specific countries will begin on 9 April.

Trump has imposed a 20% tariff on goods from the European Union. Mexico and Canada escaped Wednesday’s whirlwind but will still be subject to 25% tariffs imposed earlier this year.

The reaction to the upending of decades of US foreign and trade policy has been swift and dramatic, with Asian markets plunging on Thursday morning. You can follow the latest on our business liveblog.

Here we break down the individual responses by country to the new global economic order as they come in.
Story by Akhtar Makoii

Iran has ordered military personnel to leave Yemen, abandoning its Houthi allies as the US escalates an air strike campaign against the rebel group.

A senior Iranian official said the move aimed to avoid direct confrontation with the US if an Iranian soldier was killed.

The official said Iran was also scaling back its strategy of supporting a network of regional proxies to focus on the direct threats from the US instead.

Tehran’s primary concern, the source said, was “Trump and how to deal with him”.

“Every meeting is dominated by discussions about him, and none of the regional groups we previously supported are being discussed,” the source said.

There have been near-daily attacks on the Houthis from the US since group chat messages from senior Trump officials discussing the strikes were leaked to the media last month.

The strikes, which Donald Trump described as “unbelievably successful”, have destroyed important military targets and killed commanders.

A Pentagon spokesman said more warplanes would be sent to the region but did not provide specific details.
Barbara Tasch & Anna Holligan

Hungary is withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC), its government has announced.

A senior official in Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government confirmed this hours after Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is sought under an ICC arrest warrant, arrived in Hungary for a state visit.

Orban had invited Netanyahu as soon as the warrant was issued last November, saying the ruling would have "no effect" in his country.

In November, ICC judges said there were "reasonable grounds" that Netanyahu bore "criminal responsibility" for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas. Netanyahu has condemned the ICC's decision as "antisemitic".
By Mark John, Francesco Canepa and Leika Kihara

LONDON/TOKYO, April 3 (Reuters) - The latest round of U.S. trade tariffs unveiled on Wednesday will sap yet more vigour from a world economy barely recovered from the post-pandemic inflation surge, weighed down by record debt and unnerved by geopolitical strife.

Depending on how President Donald Trump and leaders of other nations proceed now, it may also go down as a turning point for a globalised system that until now had taken for granted the strength and reliability of America, its largest component.
By Lauren Izso, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Ibrahim Dahman and Pauline Lockwood, CNN

CNN — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s military is “switching gears” in Gaza, dividing and seizing more parts of the strip, a move observers say could mean Israel establishing deeper, more long-term control over the territory.

Israel says it will escalate its campaign against Hamas in Gaza until it agrees to revised ceasefire terms, with the defense minister vowing to seize “large areas” of the Strip. Gaza has seen an intense bombing campaign, with the territory’s health ministry saying at least 100 people have been killed in the space of 24 hours, bringing the total number of the dead to 1,163 since Israel renewed its military operations in the strip on March 18.

It remains unclear how much land Israel is prepared to seize or whether permanent annexation is being considered, however Netanyahu gave some hints, in particular saying his troops would wrest control over another key strip of land.

“Last night in the Gaza Strip, we switched gears. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is seizing territory, striking the terrorists and destroying the infrastructure,” Netanyahu said in a video speech on Wednesday.

“We are now dividing the strip and increasing the pressure step by step, so that they will give us our hostages. And as long as they do not give them to us, the pressure will increase until they do.”
Story by Jeremiah Hassel

The European Union is poised to fine Elon Musk's social media platform X a record $1 billion after it broke landmark laws combatting illicit content and disinformation, sources told The New York Times.

The move will likely ratchet up tensions with the U.S. as it targets one of President Donald Trump's closest advisers. The penalties will reportedly include a fine and demands for product changes.

The penalties will reportedly be announced this summer and will be the first under the new EU law intended to force social media companies to police their platforms.
Beijing imposes punitive 34% extra tariffs on all goods imported from US, exacerbating stock market sell-off
Heather Stewart and Amy Hawkins

China hits back hard at ‘bullying’ Trump tariffs as global recession fears grow

Beijing imposes punitive 34% extra tariffs on all goods imported from US, exacerbating stock market sell-off

China has hit back hard against Donald Trump’s “bullying” tariffs, raising fears that the escalating trade war could trigger a global recession and prompting fresh turmoil in financial markets.

Beijing retaliated on Friday with punitive 34% additional tariffs on all goods imported from the US – mirroring the US decision and exacerbating a sell-off on global stock markets.

Almost $5tn (£4tn) has been wiped off the value of global stock markets since Trump’s Rose Garden address on Wednesday evening, analysts calculated.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed more than 7% lower than Monday – its worst week’s trading since late February 2020, when anxiety about the Covid-19 pandemic was gripping the markets.

The dramatic escalation in trade hostilities between the world’s two largest economies magnified concerns among investors about the risks to global growth.
Story by Patrick Sawer, Jacob Freedland

A journalist who appears prominently on the BBC’s Arabic channel to report on Gaza has been accused of describing Israelis as less than human and Jews as “devils”.

Ahmed Alagha has appeared on BBC Arabic reporting from the conflict numerous times since January last year.

He appeared last Sunday reporting from close to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, moments after Israeli forces assassinated Ismail Barhoum, a senior Hamas leader, in an air strike on the medical facility.

The bombing was caught on camera and Mr Alagha’s dispatch also featured on BBC News.

It has now emerged that Mr Alagha, who is billed on air as a Palestinian journalist, appears to have singled out Jews for condemnation and described Israelis as worse than “beasts” on his social media accounts.

Responding to footage of Gaza tower blocks being bombed by Israel following Hamas’ attacks on Oct 7 2023, Mr Alagha posted on X a few days later: “This is not a Hollywood film; this is what was done to these towers in Gaza City at the hands of the Israeli occupation, and it’s happening to us in Gaza.

“It [the Israeli occupation] is the embodiment of filth, the unrivalled swamp of wickedness. As for the Jews, they are the devils of the hypocrites.”
Story by Andy Hall

Geologists are closely monitoring the eastern coast of Africa where all of the continent’s tectonic activity is taking place. For the past few decades, the region has been the most active in Africa due to seismic-related events and the gradual shifting of the three tectonic plates which is creating deep fissures and ravines in the Ethiopian desert. Both are related.

The East African Rift (EAR) system, the largest active continental rift on Earth, is a fissure, which stretches 4,000 miles long and 30–40 miles wide along the deserts of Ethiopia. This plate fragmentation has been ongoing for billions of years and its effects are now clearly visible with deep 10-meter fissures appearing as landmasses separate.

Three African plates moving apart
The EAR consists of numerous sedimentary basins, two large plateaux (Ethiopian and East African), and many volcanic formations.

The Nubian Plate makes up most of mainland Africa, while the smaller plate that is pulling away has been named the Somalian Plate. These two plates are moving away from each other and also away from the Arabian plate above the Red Sea to the north.
Phone footage contradicts IDF claims vehicles were not using emergency lights when troops opened fire
Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem and agencies

Israel’s military has backtracked on its account of the killing of 15 Palestinian medics in Gaza last month after footage contradicted its claims that their vehicles did not have emergency signals on when Israeli troops opened fire.

The military said initially it opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” on nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations late on Saturday, said that account was “mistaken”.

The almost seven-minute video, which the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Saturday was recovered from the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the men killed, appears to have been filmed from inside a moving vehicle. It shows a red fire engine and clearly marked ambulances driving at night, using headlights and flashing emergency lights.

The vehicle stops beside another that has driven off the road. Two men get out to examine the stopped vehicle, then gunfire erupts before the screen goes black.

Fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, including at least one UN employee, were killed in the incident in Rafah on 23 March, in which the UN said Israeli forces shot the men “one by one” and then buried them in a mass grave.
Threats against Bayrou are increasing a week after Le Pen was effectively banned from running for president.
By Victor Goury-Laffont

PARIS — Two high-ranking officials from France’s biggest far-right party publicly opened the door on Monday to bringing down the government a week after Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement and subsequently barred from running for president.

National Rally President Jordan Bardella and party Vice President Sébastien Chenu revealed in separate interviews that the party is contemplating ousting Prime Minister François Bayrou, just four months after backing the French left’s effort to take down his predecessor, Michel Barnier.

Both National Rally politicians framed their party’s decision as a response to Bayrou’s supposed failures to act on their legislative priorities, such as lowering energy prices or adopting a proportional voting system. Bardella told RTL that “this government isn’t doing much” while Chenu accused Bayrou trying to kick the can down the road and “wear out members of parliament.”

The timing of their messaging, however, is unlikely a coincidence. Le Pen last week was found guilty of misappropriating European Parliament funds and hit with an immediate five-year ban on running for public office, which will knock her out of the 2027 presidential election unless an appeals court rules in her favor.

Since the verdict, party officials have focused much of their public messaging on framing the case as a judicial witch hunt against Le Pen, who polling shows as the front-runner for the next presidential election. But the underlying threat of eventually voting to topple the government has lingered.
Story by Joe DePaolo

Even as some of his most loyal defenders jump ship, there is at least one constituency President Donald Trump can count on for support — Russian state media.

According to a translation from Daily Beast columnist Julia Davis — who monitors Russian State media — the analysts on the show The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov went wild for the Trump tariffs.

Among those to praise him was political scientist Dmitry Kulikov, who lauded Trump for wanting “to break everything” and mused that “It looks like the end of the global system is coming, the global system that is about fifty years old.”

“The price of goods will certainly go up in the United States,” Kulikov predicted. “The old political and economic global system is practically dead.”

Host Vladimir Solovyov added, “Trump destroyed the trust” — and called for a statue to be built in his honor.
Myles Burke

In 1966, the remote Spanish village of Palomares found that the "nuclear age had fallen on them from a clear blue sky". Two years after the terrifying accident, BBC reporter Chris Brasher went to find what happened when the US lost a hydrogen bomb.

On 7 April 1966, almost 60 years ago this week, a missing nuclear weapon for which the US military had been desperately searching for 80 days was finally found. The warhead, with an explosive power 100 times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, was carefully winched from a depth of 2,850ft (869m) out of the Mediterranean Sea and delicately lowered onto the USS Petrel. Once it was on board, officers painstakingly cut into the thermonuclear device's casing to disarm it. It was only then that everyone could breathe a sigh of relief – the last of the four hydrogen bombs that the US had accidentally dropped on Spain had been recovered.

"This was not the first accident involving nuclear weapons," said BBC reporter Chris Brasher when he reported from the scene in 1968. "The Pentagon lists at least nine previous accidents to aircraft carrying hydrogen bombs. But this was the first accident on foreign soil, the first to involve civilians and the first to excite the attention of the world."
BuzzFeed

Well, Donald Trump recently placed tariffs on dozens of nations and US trading partners, putting a baseline of 10% tax on imported goods. Many nations, including Cambodia, Vietnam, China, and the EU will face higher tariffs, ranging from 20–49%. Notably, Russia is not on Trump's tariff list.

Though Trump believes imposing tariffs will "make America wealthy again," economists are warning that this tariff plan will accelerate inflation and hurt the United States economy. That said, discourse on social media indicates that people are bracing for a recession, comparing the potential downward trend of the economy to that of the 1929 Great Depression and the 2008 Great Recession.
Story by Alex Galbraith

President Donald Trump once again suggested that the United States should control Gaza after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

Gaza is home to over 2.1 million people. The United Nations estimates nearly 7 in 10 of its buildings have been destroyed or damaged in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Speaking to reporters, the president called the area "a great location that nobody wants to live in."

Trump floated removing all of the Palestinians from the area to create a "freedom zone," further suggesting that "plenty of countries" are willing to take in Palestinian refugees.

“If you take the people, the Palestinians, and move them around to different countries — and you have plenty of countries that will do that — and you really have a freedom zone," he said. "You call it the freedom zone, a free zone, a zone where people aren’t going to be killed every day,”
Beijing accuses US of blackmail and adding a ‘mistake on top of a mistake’ as Wednesday deadline for latest levies looms
Helen Davidson in Taipei and agencies

China’s government says it will “fight to the end” if the US continues to escalate the trade war, after Donald Trump threatened huge additional tariffs in response to China’s retaliatory measures.

On Tuesday, China’s commerce ministry accused the US of “blackmail” and said the US president’s threats of additional 50% tariffs if Beijing did not reverse its own 34% reciprocal tariff were a “mistake on top of a mistake”.

It vowed to “resolutely take countermeasures”, adding: “China will fight to the end if the US side is bent on going down the wrong path.”

On Tuesday Asian markets appeared to improve slightly in early trading, a day after torrid day on the global markets that prompted the billionaire investor Bill Ackman, one of the US president’s backers in the 2024 race for the White House, to call for a moratorium.
Story by HUIZHONG WU

BANGKOK (AP) — China again vowed to “fight to the end" Wednesday in an escalating trade war with the U.S. as it announced it would raise tariffs on American goods to 84% from Thursday.

Beijing also added an array of countermeasures after U.S. President Donald Trump raised the total tariff on imports from China to 104%. Beijing said it was launching an additional suit against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization and placed further restrictions on American companies' trade with Chinese companies.

“If the U.S. insists on further escalating its economic and trade restrictions, China has the firm will and abundant means to take necessary countermeasures and fight to the end,” the Ministry of Commerce wrote in a statement introducing its white paper on trade with the U.S.

The government declined to say whether it would negotiate with the White House, as many other countries have started doing.

On Friday, China announced a 34% tariff on all goods imported from the U.S, export controls on rare earths minerals, and a slew of other measures in response to Trump's “Liberation Day” tariffs. Trump then added an additional 50% tariff on goods from China, saying negotiations with them were terminated.
Brussels is now set to strike back against U.S. president’s steel and aluminum measures.
By Koen Verhelst and Camille Gijs

BRUSSELS — The EU can apply retaliatory tariffs on around €22 billion of U.S. products like soybeans, motorcycles and orange juice after the bloc’s 27 countries assented to the measures on Wednesday, the European Commission announced.

"The EU considers U.S. tariffs unjustified and damaging, causing economic harm to both sides, as well as the global economy. The EU has stated its clear preference to find negotiated outcomes with the U.S., which would be balanced and mutually beneficial," the EU executive said in a statement.

Hitting back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, the European Union’s countermeasures will apply in three rounds. After some go into force next week, others will apply from mid-May and the final round follows in December.
By Sophie Tanno, Ana Melgar and Verónica Calderón, CNN

CNN — Dominican Republic authorities have ended their rescue operation and turned to recovery efforts following the collapse of a nightclub roof on Tuesday, which left more than 200 people dead.

The deadly incident in the early hours of Tuesday morning at the Jet Set nightclub sent shockwaves around the country, with three days of mourning declared in the wake of the disaster.

The removal of bodies from the wrecked building accelerated overnight Wednesday into Thursday after civil protection services removed a large chunk of debris, according to Snayder Santana, an engineer from the Dominican Republic civil protection services.

According to Santana, the majority of the bodies recovered overnight were female and are still being identified.

An official statement from the country’s Emergency Center Operations on Wednesday said that “all reasonable possibilities of finding more survivors” had been exhausted, and the focus of the operation is now on recovering bodies.
By Joe Cash and Yukun Zhang

BEIJING, April 11 (Reuters) - China hiked its levies on imports of U.S. goods to 125% on Friday, hitting back at Donald Trump's decision to single out the world's No.2 economy for higher duties, while dismissing the U.S. president's tariff strategy as "a joke."

Investors had been waiting to see how Beijing would respond to Trump's move on Wednesday to effectively raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% while announcing a 90-day pause on duties on dozens of other countries' goods. The yuan slipped to levels last seen during the global financial crisis on Thursday but rebounded slightly on Friday.
By Nayera Abdallah

DUBAI, April 11 (Reuters) - Iran said on Friday it was giving high-level nuclear talks with the United States on Saturday "a genuine chance", after President Donald Trump threatened bombing if discussions failed.

Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that Washington and Tehran would begin talks in Oman, a Gulf state that has mediated between the West and the Islamic Republic before.

Investors had been waiting to see how Beijing would respond to Trump's move on Wednesday to effectively raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% while announcing a 90-day pause on duties on dozens of other countries' goods. The yuan slipped to levels last seen during the global financial crisis on Thursday but rebounded slightly on Friday.
By Alex Marquardt, Abbas Al Lawati and Kylie Atwood, CNN

CNN — Iran and the United States began high-stakes talks to reach a new nuclear deal on Saturday, foreshadowed by President Trump’s threat of military strikes as a consequence of failure and Tehran’s warning any attack on it would drag the US into a broader Middle Eastern conflict.

The meeting, being held in the Gulf Arab nation of Oman, could be the first direct talks between Iranian and American officials in a decade, though Iran insists they will be indirect – with mediators acting as go-betweens for the two nations.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said on X on Saturday that “Indirect talks” between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff “began with the mediation of Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi.”
Story by Tim Lister and Oren Liebermann

The Israeli military is extending its ground operations deep into Gaza, creating a large buffer zone between the Strip and Israeli territory and pushing hundreds of thousands of civilians into an ever-smaller area on the Mediterranean coast.

By CNN’s tally, the Israel Defense Forces has issued 20 evacuation orders since March 18, encompassing large parts of Gaza, including all of Rafah in the south.

In all, according to the United Nations, some 400,000 people have been told to move over the past three weeks, as the Israeli military intensifies efforts to force Hamas to free Israeli hostages. In the process much of Gaza has become uninhabitable or out of bounds.

The streets of Gaza City were crammed with waves of fleeing civilians Friday, carrying what they could as they left other parts of central and northern Gaza.

One displaced man, Raed Radwan, watched as hundreds more people entered the neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan, describing it as “completely filled with tents and displaced families.”

“I see tents and people lining both sides of the road in heartbreaking conditions.

Bulldozers are clearing the rubble of bombed homes to make space for more tents,” he told CNN.

Hatem Abdulsalam, also in Gaza City, told CNN that he could not “describe what we’re suffering due to garbage, flies, mosquitoes and strange insects, they are everywhere due to the waste piling up in the streets.”
Story by Richard Ashmore, John O'Sullivan

Europe appears to be shifting its gaze from west to east, as leaders lean towards China for trade agreements rather than aligning with President Donald Trump of the United States, with the news coming just days after China's huge economic decision that was described as an 'act of hybrid warfare' and designed to 'punish Trump.'

Euronews has reported that following President Trump's infamous "reciprocal tariffs" - which China responded to with huge tariff hikes on certain goods - speech at the White House earlier this month, the first call made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was to China.

The European Commission, which had previously provided President Trump a stern warning over his tariffs, issued an official statement saying: "In response to the widespread disruption caused by the US tariffs, President von der Leyen stressed the responsibility of Europe and China, as two of the world's largest markets, to support a strong reformed trading system, free, fair and founded on a level playing field.
Story by PRC

Beijing has responded tit for tat in Donald Trump's trade war. In reaction to the steep tariffs, numerous restrictions, and additional fees, China has halted imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States.

The import of American LNG to China has been completely halted for over 10 weeks, according to shipping data reported on Friday by the "Financial Times."

Analytics firm Kpler, which monitors shipping data, has confirmed that no cargoes from the U.S. are currently being received in China. As assessed by "Bloomberg," this pause marks the longest break in five years.
Story by Conor Wilson, Hannah Broughton

According to a renowned Russian scholar, former President Donald Trump emerges as a "Soviet leaders' dream" due to his policies towards Ukraine since assuming office. As reported in the Russian weekly newspaper Argumenty I Fakty and translated by BBC Russia Editor Steven Rosenberg, the scholar compliments Trump for "driving a wedge" between the US and "the European part of NATO".

Following Vladimir Putin's unauthorized annexation of Ukraine in 2022, Russia found itself isolated internationally. Nonetheless, under Trump's lead, the US stance towards Russia has mellowed, highlighted by phone conversations between Trump and Putin and meetings of high-ranking officials from both nations in neutral territories.

Concurrently, America adopted a stringent approach toward Ukraine, briefly halting military support and intelligence sharing, while pushing the Ukrainian government to end the conflict, which implied potentially ceding land.

Moreover, Trump's rhetoric has often mirrored that of Moscow; he branded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a "dictator" and blamed Ukraine for initiating the hostilities.
By Liz Lee and Laurie Chen

BEIJING, April 21 (Reuters) - China on Monday accused Washington of abusing tariffs and warned countries against striking a broader economic deal with the United States at its expense, ratcheting up its rhetoric in a spiralling trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

Beijing will firmly oppose any party striking a deal at China's expense and "will take countermeasures in a resolute and reciprocal manner," its Commerce Ministry said.

The ministry was responding to a Bloomberg report, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the Trump administration is preparing to pressure nations seeking tariff reductions or exemptions from the U.S. to curb trade with China, including imposing monetary sanctions.

President Donald Trump paused the sweeping tariffs he announced on dozens of countries on April 2 except those on China, singling out the world's second largest economy for the biggest levies.

In a series of moves, Washington has raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 145%, prompting Beijing to slap retaliatory duties of 125% on U.S. goods, effectively erecting trade embargoes against each other. Last week, China signalled that its own across-the-board rates would not rise further.
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