Category: 2. World

Israel’s forces have destroyed a high-rise tower in a densely populated part of Gaza City and have warned of further attacks to multi-storey buildings as it intensifies its campaign to seize control of the capital.

On Friday, the Israeli military ordered people in Mushtaha Tower, a 12-storey building located on the western side of Gaza City and surrounded by hundreds of makeshift tents, to evacuate, and later struck the building, claiming it was “Hamas infrastructure” and was used to plan and carry out operations against Israeli forces.

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Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said the building was one of the biggest high-rises in the heart of Gaza City.

“Israeli forces hit it with two air strikes – the first was a warning and then it was hit again with another F-16 strike,” she said.

The management of the Mushtaha Tower has denied Israeli claims that the high-rise was being used by Hamas fighters, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. The building’s management said the site was only accessible to displaced people.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, also reporting from Deir el-Balah, said a number of civilians were wounded in the Israeli attack on the 12-storey tower and were transported to al-Shifa Hospital to receive emergency treatment.

“The shock wave of the attack spread over the entire area, triggering chaos. A number of makeshift tents have been affected by the attack, which signals a new phase of the Israeli military campaign,” he said.

‘Gates of hell are opening’

Prior to the attack on the tower, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said on X that Israel’s military activity in Gaza City is intensifying. He said the “gates of hell are opening now” in Gaza and warned that they will not be closed until Hamas “accepts Israel’s conditions for ending the war – led by the release of all the hostages and disarmament”.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said Israel’s attacks on high-rises in the region are not yet over.

He said another five-storey building is facing Israel’s forced evacuation order.

“This is a building near a gas station and the YMCA, a nonprofit organisation. People are being given a short amount of time to evacuate,” he said.

Military analyst Elijah Magnier told Al Jazeera that Israel is targeting high-rise buildings in Gaza to minimise its potential troop casualties when they advance on the ground, while also spreading “panic and fear” among the civilian population.

“It also has a psychological advantage,” he noted. “Destroying the skyline creates shock, disorientation, fear and panic among civilians” who have “no visibility of the future or when this war will end”.

“This is a preparation to occupy Gaza City,” he said.

‘The operation will continue’

On Friday, an Israeli military spokesperson claimed that Israel controls 40 percent of Gaza City.

“We continue to damage Hamas’s infrastructure. Today we hold 40 percent of the territory of Gaza City,” Israeli Brigadier General Effie Defrin told a news conference, naming the Zeitoun and Sheikh Radwan neighbourhoods. “The operation will continue to expand and intensify in the coming days.”

Israeli forces killed at least 44 people across Gaza on Friday, with at least seven children killed in attacks in Gaza City alone.

Al Jazeera’s Khoudary said Palestinians have begun heading south due to the attacks in Gaza City.

“Tents have been filling up in az-Zawayda, al-Mawasi, Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah,” she said. “Palestinians must either survive by going south or stay in Gaza City – and we do not know what’s going to happen if they stay. There’s fear and desperation here.”

Palestinian and United Nations officials, however, say nowhere is safe in Gaza, including areas Israel designates as humanitarian zones.

Since the start of Israel’s war in October 2023, at least 64,231 people have been killed and 161,583 wounded across Gaza. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and about 200 were taken captive.

Hamas releases video of two hostages

On Friday, Hamas released a video of two Israeli captives seized from a music festival in Israel in October 2023. Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Alon Ohel are two of 48 people still being held by Hamas in Gaza, with 20 thought to be still alive.

The video was edited and featured an exhausted-looking Gilboa-Dalal speaking for around three-and-a-half minutes. He says he is being held in Gaza City along with several other captives and that he is afraid of being killed by Israel’s offensive on the city.

Gilboa-Dalal appears to be in the backseat of a car that is being driven around. As the car passes by buildings, he identifies one as belonging to the Red Cross. At one point, Ohel is also seen.

After the release of the video, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on X urged Israeli negotiators to resume truce talks on a deal to secure the captives.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have also staged weekly demonstrations calling for an end to the war to secure the release of the remaining captives.

Those freed so far were released as a result of diplomatic negotiations mediated by the United States and Arab states, but the last round of talks collapsed in July.

While Hamas has said it would accept the proposal put forward in July that would see the release of some captives in exchange for a temporary ceasefire, Netanyahu has been pushing for an all-or-nothing deal with Hamas in which the group releases all captives and surrenders.

KARACHI: During a two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)’s summit held recently in China, China’s President Xi Jinping announced the Global Governance Initiative (GGI). Economic nationalists and strategists dub the GGI as a new world order. Pakistan can stand to benefit from such regional and global formations, they said while talking to Business Recorder.

Economic strategist and regional expert Dr Mehmoodul Hassan Khan said the ‘Shanghai Spirit’ features mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and the pursuit of common development, as the bedrock of regional cooperation of the SCO.

He believes the SCO’s participation in regional e-commerce, digitalization, modernization and social development have been both impressive and indispensable, in stark contrast to the Western style of “carrot and stick” diplomacy, Cold War mentality, conditional economic aid, political compulsion and geostrategic preferential arrangements.

He said it has been an instrumental force for global shared prosperity, a regional economic stabilizer, an industrial stimulator and a champion of peace – qualities that dwarf any Western organization, including North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

According to him, “official statistics show that China’s annual bilateral trade with other SCO member states has surpassed $500 billion while its investment stock in other SCO member states has exceeded $84 billion.“

At the recent Tianjin summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to provide 2 billion yuan ($280 million) in grants to SCO member states within this year.

China will also issue an additional 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in loans to the member banks of the SCO Interbank Consortium over the next three years.

Dr Khan said the SCO stands for economic prosperity, trans-regional connectivity and regional integration and being an important member of it, Pakistan can develop and diversify its macro-economy and its bilateral and trilateral relations with all its member countries.

He said Pakistan’s socio-economic drive, with all the member countries of the SCO from Central Asia, has been immensely increased in terms of trade, investment, industrial cooperation, services exports, energy cooperation, joint ventures, people-to-people contacts and enhanced political and diplomatic understanding with each other.

He said interestingly, Pakistan’s national capacity of fighting against terrorism has been further modernized and sustained because of the regional anti-terrorist structure of the SCO, and formation of trilateral dialogue among Pakistan, China and Afghanistan.

According to reports, Pakistan’s foreign trade, remittances, agricultural exports, and energy cooperation have been rising since its inclusion in the SCO a couple of years back.

China’s Xi at centre of world stage after days of high-level hobnobbing

According to reports, the combined GDP of SCO members (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus) has reached about $24.6 trillion, accounting for around 23 percent of global GDP and 42 percent of the global population.

In 2024, the total trade volume between China and other SCO member states amounted to 3.65 trillion yuan ($512.4 billion), 36.3 times the level recorded when the organization was established.

Economically, the SCO is gaining momentum, experts say. Its future prospects are bright, indicating a collective nominal GDP of $70.4 trillion and a GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms of $81.8 trillion for the year 2025.

Analysts also say the GGI will further enhance Pakistan’s economy, industrial productivity and socio-economic integration with other SCO members and the ‘GGI Global Family’ in the days to come.

Pakistan, China agree to continue working closely for upgraded CPEC-II

After its inclusion in the GGI, Pakistan could be in a better position to receive loans and expertise from all the member countries, especially China, Russia, and other big economies.

It would be the first big “systematic” step towards achieving a “strategic equilibrium” in the working, efficacy and productivity of the international world order, catering to the genuine causes and concerns of developing countries. It would be supportive to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), transforming communities, countries and continents in the world.

Pakistan is passing through difficult times because of the ongoing onslaught of severe floods in the country. A World Bank report has also confirmed that Pakistan is highly vulnerable to natural disasters including earthquakes, landslides, and water scarcity all of which greatly damage the country’s infrastructure and, consequently, negatively affect people’s welfare, Unfortunately, Pakistan has been ranked fifth among nations most affected by extreme weather events driven by climate change.

However, SCO Plus and the GGI could facilitate Pakistan to protect its vested interests of economic security, environment balance, ecological diversity and green transformation. Pakistan is one of the biggest importers of solar panels from China, being part of the SCO.

As Pakistan desires to officially launch the CPEC 2.0, the combination of the SCO and GGI could be immensely beneficial for it. Thus there is an urgent need to form Corridor of Disaster Management, Corridor of Anti-Global Warming and Corridor of the protection of glaciers with the SCO and the GGI, analysts say.

Pakistan is also a staunch supporter of SCO Development Bank which could help its local community and social development.

The flood crisis in south Punjab intensified on Friday as with rivers Chenab and Sutlej breaching embankments and submerging dozens of villages. This flood spell has claimed at least 68 lives across the province as per the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and left scores injured.

River water from the Chenab engulfed large parts of Sher Shah in Multan. Flood waves as high as 12 to 14 feet washed away dozens of settlements. Boats were summoned to evacuate stranded families, who had rushed to their rooftops to escape the flood.

Displaced residents from inundated Basti Khoor have set up camp along the Sikandari canal embankment, where many families are living in the open. Tents are limited, and livestock and household goods are scattered along a one-kilometre stretch near the canal. Rescue and relief teams were yet to reach the site by the time this report was filed.

Read: ECP postpones Punjab by-elections due to devastating floods

Meanwhile, Sutlej River swept through dozens of villages in Vehari and Bahawalpur districts. Hundreds of homes, schools and dispensaries were destroyed.

In Vehari, water levels at Head Islam were reported to be 102,000 cusecs, and over 335,000 cusecs at Head Ganda Singh. Discharge at Head Siphon stood at 93,000 cusecs and at Head Mian Haakim outfall touched nearly 200,000 cusecs. Several protective embankments gave away and Kuttabpur Wagi, Jhoke Fazil, Jhoke Jando, Jhoke Sathu, Kaliya Shah and Hasan Shah villages, among others, were completely submerged.

Design by Ibrahim Yahya 

Similarly in Bahawalpur, the Sutlej caused widespread destruction with over 90% of protective embankments collapsing. The flood water surged into over a 100 villages, as high as 100,000 cusecs at Empress Bridge for instance.

Emergency medical support was rolled out through 26 “clinic-on-wheels” units and a field hospital at Jhangra Sharqi. Livestock vaccination campaigns were launched as well. Some 82 schools were converted into temporary relief camps.

Read more: Punjab devastation raises red flag for Sindh’s crops

The district administration said around 42,000 people and nearly 25,000 livestock have been relocated. The floods devastated residential settlements besides thousands of acres of sugarcane, maize, sesame crops and fodder.

According to the PDMA, nearly 4,000 mouzas (pieces of land) have been affected across Punjab, leaving near 3.9 million people impacted. Of these, 1.8 million people are evacuaees. Relief agencies have established as many as 416 relief camps, 356 medical camps and 318 veterinary camps. Over 1.3 million livestock has also been moved to safer ground.

Water levels also remained high at Kot Mithan and Rojhan in Rajanpur district. At the former, water level was recorded at 490,000 cusecs. As per PDMA data, since mid-June at least 183 people have died, 646 injured and 237 houses have been destroyed in monsoon rains and flooding across Punjab. As many as 121 cattle have perished. District data shows heavy losses in Bahawalpur, Muzaffargarh and Vehari.

 

United States President Donald Trump on Friday said India and Russia seem to have been “lost” to China after their leaders met with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, highlighting his split from New Delhi and Moscow as Beijing pushes a new world order.

“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” Trump wrote in a social media post accompanying a photo of the three other world leaders together at Xi’s summit in China.

Asked about Trump’s post, the Indian foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters in New Delhi that he had no comment.

Representatives for Beijing and Moscow could not be immediately reached for comment on Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform.

Xi hosted more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Putin and Modi were seen holding hands at the summit as they walked toward Xi before all three men stood side by side.

Modi’s warming ties with China come as Trump has chilled US-India ties amid trade tensions and other disputes. Trump earlier this week said he was ”very disappointed” in Putin but not worried about growing Russia-China ties.

India plans relief package for exporters hit by US tariffs

Separately, India will roll out a package of measures to help exporters hurt by a surge in US tariffs, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today.

The new US duties slapped on Indian goods last month included a 25 per cent punitive levy over New Delhi’s Russian oil purchases — taking overall duties as high as 50pc on a wide range of items from garments and jewellery to footwear and chemicals.

“Government will come out with something to handhold those who have been hit by 50pc tariffs,” Sitharaman told CNN TV18, without going into further detail.

The government plans to offer credit guarantees on loans overdue by up to 90 days for small businesses and exporters, Reuters reported earlier, citing government sources.

Exporters said labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, jewellery and seafood, particularly shrimp, which all operate on margins of just 3-5pc — have been hit hardest, causing job losses in industrial hubs in Tamil Nadu and Modi’s home state of Gujarat.

“Textiles and apparel manufacturers in Tiruppur, Noida and Surat have halted production amid worsening cost competitiveness,” SC Ralhan, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said.

The tariffs, among the highest imposed by the Trump administration, delivered a serious blow to ties between the two powerful democracies that had in recent decades become strategic partners.

Nearly 55pc of Indian exports to the US, worth about $48 billion, now face a cost disadvantage against rivals from Vietnam, China and Bangladesh, Ralhan said last week ahead of an exporters’ meeting with the finance minister.

Thousands of workers have already been laid off, exporters have said.

Sitharaman also said that India would continue to buy Russian oil as it proves economical.

New Delhi has said its purchases of Russian oil have kept the markets in balance.

“We will have to take a call [on] which [supply source] suits us the best. So we will undoubtedly be buying it,” the finance minister said, adding that India spends most of its foreign exchange on purchases of crude oil and refined fuels.

“Whether it is Russian oil or anything else, it’s our decision to buy from the place which suits our needs whether in terms of rates, logistics, anything,” Sitharaman added.

When Chinese leader Xi Jinping organised his first parade to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II, in 2015, he placed his two predecessors by his side in a show of respect and continuity of leadership.

Ten years on and having eliminated domestic opposition as he serves an unprecedented third term as president, Xi was flanked on Wednesday at the 80th anniversary parade by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Chinese Communist Party leaders were interspersed among overseas guests.
The parade followed Xi’s high-profile summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a weekend meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tianjin, and the Chinese leader’s rare visit to Tibet last month.

This display of diplomatic clout, stamina and geopolitical ambition has helped quell concerns among some China observers about the 72-year-old president’s vitality, linked to sporadic absences and — so far unknown — succession plans. It has also helped divert domestic attention from slowing growth, experts say.

Longevity was on the leaders’ minds as they walked up to the rostrum at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square — Xi and Putin were caught in a hot mic moment discussing organ transplants and the possibility that humans could live to 150 years old.

“This week of triumphant diplomacy for Xi shows that he remains totally in charge of the elite politics of the Communist Party,” said Neil Thomas of the Asia Society, a New York-based think tank. Unable to get the same legitimacy from economic growth as his predecessors, Xi has turned toward nationalism “to try and make up for it”, Thomas said.

“It’s a way to divert attention from economic challenges and to make his citizens proud to be Chinese, even if it’s harder to feel that from the day-to-day experiences of unemployment, falling house prices and stagnant wages.”

Xi underscored his elder statesman image with fashion choices: a grey suit in the style of those worn by Mao Zedong, matching his greying hair, in contrast to the black suits of his counterparts and his own black attire from a decade earlier.

His number two, Premier Li Qiang, whose role has diminished at home, was charged with relatively minor meetings with leaders of Malaysia and Uzbekistan. High-profile engagements with Kim, Modi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and several others fell to Cai Qi, who heads the party’s Central Secretariat, responsible for its sprawling administration.

In response to a Reuters request for comment, China’s foreign ministry referred to news conference transcripts related to the recent diplomatic events, showcasing China’s partnerships with developing nations and positioning Beijing as committed to peaceful development and international cooperation.

Many countries that sent their leaders to China in the past week have been hit by US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs this year, including India, which remains a significant buyer of Russian oil, hit by sanctions over Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

In one of the most memorable moments in the flurry of diplomatic encounters, Modi and Putin walked over for a chat with Xi while holding hands, underscoring personal tensions between Trump and Modi, as well as Washington’s failure to draw historically non-aligned India in to counter Russia and China.

“Ultimately one of the biggest driving factors of the SCO show of solidarity has been US policy,” said Even Pay, a director at strategic advisory firm Trivium China.

Trump, who called the military parade “beautiful” and “very, very impressive”, made a barbed post on social media saying China was working with Putin and Kim to “conspire against The United States of America”.

The Kremlin responded that they were not conspiring and suggested Trump’s remarks were ironic.

Hit by Trump, welcomed by Xi

Analysts say Xi’s whirlwind of activity underscores China’s ambition in presenting itself as a reliable partner to developing nations on the global stage, offering advantages like investment opportunities and even a new development bank — a major step forward for the SCO, which has expanded markedly over past decades to also include India, Pakistan and Iran.

“China’s message as a more reliable, stable alternative to the United States is resonating with large swathes of the world, particularly across Asia, which sees the United States as an increasingly belligerent force in world affairs,” said Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of the China-Global South Project, a research agency.

“A lot of developing countries and middle-power states may still be a bit ambivalent about what China’s proposing with its new governance and development initiatives, but at least what China is talking about is forward-looking, which is crucial for economies with large populations of young people looking for better employment opportunities,” Olander said.

Xi faces considerable challenges in managing this large and often fractious coalition as he eyes a potential fourth term of office in 2027 to further cement his legacy as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao.

Entrenched Chinese foreign policy positions, including territorial disputes and industrial subsidies that have flooded foreign markets with cheap exports, will likely remain friction points, experts say, while India’s deep distrust of China will not dissipate because of one brief meeting.

“It’s not necessarily a big-picture shift towards a more China-led international order,” said the Asia Society’s Thomas.

GENEVA: The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have committed numerous crimes against humanity in Sudan’s civil war, in particular in their siege of El-Fasher in western Darfur, UN investigators said Friday.

The United Nations’ fact-finding mission for Sudan determined in a new report that the RSF had “committed crimes against humanity, notably murder, torture, forced displacement, persecution on ethnic grounds, and other inhumane acts.”

It also found evidence of war crimes by both sides in the conflict between the regular army and the RSF, which has killed tens of thousands of people since it broke out in April 2023.

“Our findings leave no room for doubt: civilians are paying the highest price in this war,” mission chief Mohamed Chande Othman said in a statement.

“Both sides have deliberately targeted civilians through attacks, summary executions, arbitrary detention, torture, and inhuman treatment in detention facilities, including denial of food, sanitation, and medical care,” he said.

“These are not accidental tragedies but deliberate strategies amounting to war crimes.”

While faulting both sides in the brutal conflict, the investigators highlighted in particular the paramilitary force’s brutality in El-Fasher, which it has besieged since May 2024.

“RSF, during the siege of El-Fasher and surrounding areas, committed myriad crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, enslavement, rape, sexual slavery, sexual violence,” the statement said, also pointing to “forced displacement and persecution on ethnic, gender and political grounds.”

“The RSF and its allies used starvation as a method of warfare and deprived civilians of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, medicine and relief supplies — which may amount to the crime against humanity of extermination,” it added.

The fact-finding mission demanded international action to bring perpetrators of such crimes to justice.

“Accountability is not optional — it is a legal and moral imperative to protect civilians and prevent further atrocities,” mission member Mona Rishmawi said in the statement.