Category: 2. World

After his talks with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and representatives from the United Nations in Jerusalem, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul tried to put more pressure on the Israeli government.

On Friday he made an urgent appeal to the Israelis: The government should immediately allow the UN to help the hungry people in Gaza.

“That is why we call on Israel to allow the UN to transport and distribute the aid safely,” Wadephul said, while in Jerusalem. “This was also part of my discussion with the Israeli government yesterday. The humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip must be ended now, with the help of the efficient, established UN system.”

The day before Wadephul had described the situation in Gaza in dramatic tones. The death and suffering there was “unimaginable,” he said. Wadephul also appealed to the militant group Hamas, asking them to stop fighting and to return all the hostages they still held. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Germany, the US, Israel and other countries.

Germany ‘a friend of Israel’

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar didn’t publicly express an opinion on Germany’s suggestions. But Wadephul told reporters he thought Germany’s message had been understood.

Saar did reject accusations from his colleague in the Israeli government, the far-right extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security. On social media platform X, Ben-Gvir said that 80 years after the Holocaust, Germany was once again supporting Nazis.

Before he left Germany, Wadephul had warned that Israel was becoming increasingly isolated internationally. He also said Berlin would respond to any unilateral actions by Israel and was critical of potential Israeli plans to annex the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s Saar answered Ben-Gvir on social media too. “I strongly reject Minister Ben-Gvir’s statements about Germany. They are unnecessary and harmful. Germany is a friendly country and Foreign Minister Wadephul is a friend of Israel. This does not change, even when there are differences of opinion between us.”

Germany is still pushing for a two-state solution to the intractable problems in the Middle East. Wadephul confirmed the right of the Palestinians to their own state after he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday. However Netanyahu’s government has rejected that idea in the recent past. Even as Germany criticizes the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Israel’s foreign minister sees the settlements as justified.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had sent Wadephul to Israel after a meeting of the country’s so-called security cabinet. This group includes the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, interior and finance, as well as various intelligence services. Wadephul’s mission was to make it clear that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza must be resolved and he was also to assess whether and how the Israeli government could be convinced to do this. Over this weekend, he is to report back to the Chancellor and the security cabinet.

The results of this are hard to predict. Whether the German government would use sanctions against Israel, stop weapons deliveries or recognize a Palestinian state is unclear. However observers in Berlin says it’s unlikely any concrete steps will be taken, because of Germany’s special responsibility towards Israel, after committing the Holocaust.

Germany unlikely to sanction Israel

Criticism is likely but sanctions won’t happen, says Martin Huber, the secretary general of the conservative, Bavaria-based Christian Social Union, or CSU. Even so, the tone German politicians are using is becoming sharper, as more and more pictures of starving children in Gaza emerge.

The leader of the Social Democrats’ parliamentary group, Dirk Wiese, told local journalists that the time for talk has passed. “We need political pressure and concrete progress,” he said. The Social Democrats are part of Germany’s governing coalition together with the CSU and the Christian Democratic Union, or CDU.

Up until now the German government has been holding back, Andreas Reinicke, the director of the German Orient-Institute, told public radio Deutschlandfunk. But that’s for good reasons, he argued, in reference to the Holocaust. However if the world now really wants a two-state solution, “then we will have to do this not only verbally, but also with an active process,” Reinicke said. “I believe Germany’s influence [on Israel] is greater than is commonly assumed.”

Meanwhile the Israeli government disputes that locals in Gaza are going hungry and insists that the siltation is actually better than depicted in the international press. Foreign Minister Saar accused media of showing misleading pictures of hungry children. “This is what a modern blood libel looks like,” he wrote on social media platform X, referring to a-now-well-known picture of Osama al-Raqab, an emaciated 5-year-old. Al-Raqab has cystic fibrosis and was evacuated to Italy in June, Saar pointed out.

The Israeli government’s position on the issue is in opposition to what international aid agencies have observed and eyewitnesses have reported.

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation increasingly controversial

Wadephul also said that the thesis often insisted upon by the Israeli government — that Hamas will benefit from any aid shipments they allow in — is no longer justified. It could well be that Hamas previously diverted some of the shipments, he said. “But the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip is now so great that it is not justified to put up further hurdles here,” Wadephul insisted.

Another contentious point: While the German foreign minister and others argue that the UN and the World Food Program should be taking care of supplies into Gaza, Israel and its main ally, the US, insist the newly created and increasingly controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF should be.

On Friday, Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, demonstratively visited a GHF aid distribution site near Rafah, in Gaza. The US ambassador in Israel, Mike Huckabee, claims the GHF has given out 100 million meals in two months. 

However the UN and other aid organizations say the GHF is not working properly. During past weeks, there have been reports of hundreds of people killed or wounded while trying to get aid from the GHF.

On Friday, the German air force began to help, dropping palettes of aid into the Gaza Strip, flying out of Jordan. However even Germany’s foreign minister considers this more a symbolic than anything particularly helpful. The crucial thing now is to send hundreds of trucks carrying food into the Gaza Strip daily, Wadephul said while in Jerusalem.

This story was originally published in German.

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Indian oil refineries will continue to buy oil from Russia, officials have said, before threatened US sanctions next week against Moscow’s trading partners over the war in Ukraine.

Media reports on Friday had suggested India, a big energy importer, would stop buying cheap Russian oil. Trump told reporters on Friday that such a move would be “a good step” if true.

“I understand that India is no longer going to be buying oil from Russia,” he said. “That’s what I heard. I don’t know if that’s right or not. That is a good step. We will see what happens.”

However, official sources in India, quoted by the news agency ANI, rebutted Trump’s claim, saying Indian oil companies had not paused Russian imports and that supply decisions were based on “price, grade of crude, inventories, logistics and other economic factors”.

Trump’s remarks came a day after the White House announced tariffs of 25% on all Indian goods, along with a penalty for buying arms and energy from Russia amid the war in Ukraine.

Trump has given an 8 August deadline for Vladimir Putin to stop the war or risk further sanctions on tariffs on countries that import Russian oil.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Indian state-owned refineries had suspended Russian oil purchases amid the tariff threats and narrowing price discounts.

But on Saturday the New York Times cited two unnamed senior Indian officials who said there had been no change in Indian government policy related to importing Russian oil. One said the government had “not given any direction to oil companies” to cease buying oil from Russia.

“These are long-term oil contracts,” one of the sources said. “It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight.”

The sources cited by ANI said Indian oil refineries operated in full compliance with international norms, and that Russian oil had never been directly sanctioned by the US or EU. “Instead, it was subjected to a G7-EU price-cap mechanism designed to limit revenue while ensuring global supplies continued to flow.”

They added: “India’s purchases have remained fully legitimate and within the framework of international norms.”

The sources also noted that if India had not “absorbed discounted Russian crude combined with Opec+ production cuts of 5.8 mb/d [millions of barrels a day], global oil prices could have surged well beyond the March 2022 peak of US$137/bbl [a barrel], intensifying inflationary pressures worldwide”.

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Russia is the top oil supplier to India, responsible for about 35% of the country’s supplies. India says that as a major energy importer it must find the cheapest supplies to protect its population against rising costs.

On Friday India’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, said: “We look at what is available in the markets, what is on offer, and also what is the prevailing global situation or circumstances.”

Jaiswal added that India had a “steady and time-tested partnership” with Russia.

This partnership has been a point of contention for the White House, with Trump posting on Truth Social on 30 July that while India was “our friend”, it had always bought most of its military equipment from Russia and was “Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE – ALL THINGS NOT GOOD!”

In a second post, Trump added: “I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care.”

Ukraine’s military said on Saturday it had hit oil facilities inside Russia, including a refinery in Ryazan, causing a fire on its premises. The strike also hit an oil storage facility, a military airfield for drones and an electronics factory.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest wave of tariffs on exports from dozens of trading partners sent global stock markets tumbling on Friday and countries and companies scrambling to seek ways to strike better deals.

As Trump presses ahead with plans to reorder the global economy with the highest tariff rates since the early 1930s, Switzerland, “stunned” by 39% tariffs, sought more talks, as did India, hit with a 25% rate.

New tariffs also include a 35% duty on many goods from Canada, 50% for Brazil, 20% for Taiwan, which said its rate was “temporary” and it expected to reach a lower figure.

The presidential order listed higher import duty rates of 10% to 41% starting in a week’s time for 69 trading partners, taking the U.S. effective tariff rate to about 18%, from 2.3% last year, according to analysts at Capital Economics.

U.S. stocks reeled. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI closed down 1.23% at 43,588.58, the S&P 500 .SPX 1.6% to 6,238.01 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC 2.24% at 20,650.13.

Global shares stumbled, with Europe’s STOXX 600.STOXX tumbling 1.89% on the day.

Markets also reacted to a disappointing jobs report. Data showed U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July while the prior month’s data was revised sharply lower, pointing to a slowdown in the labor market.

Trump responded by ordering the firing of the commissioner of the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, and claiming, without evidence, that the job figures were “rigged.”

Meanwhile, Canadian negotiators said a deal with the U.S. could still be weeks away.

Trump’s new tariffs have created yet more uncertainty, with many details unclear. They are set to take effect on Aug 7 at 0401 GMT, a White House official said.

Trump administration officials defended the president’s approach.

“The uncertainty with respect to tariffs … was critical to getting the leverage that we needed to create the circumstance in which the president could create the trade deals we’ve seen over the last few weeks, which have been nothing short of monumental,” Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran said on CNBC.

The European Union, which struck a framework deal with Trump on Sunday, is still awaiting more Trump orders to deliver on agreed carve-outs, including on cars and aircraft, EU officials said, saying the latest executive orders did not cover that.

Also, it is unclear how the administration intends to define and police the transshipment restrictions, which threaten 40% levies on any exporter deemed to have tried to mask goods from a higher-tariffed originator, such as China, as their own product.

Trump’s tariff rollout also comes amid evidence they have begun driving up prices.

U.S. Commerce Department data released Thursday showed prices for home furnishings and durable household equipment jumped 1.3% in June, the biggest gain since March 2022.

NO WINNERS?

Some countries hit with hefty tariffs said they will seek to negotiate with the U.S. in hopes of getting a lower rate.

Switzerland said it would push for a “negotiated solution” with the U.S.

“It’s a massive shock for the export industry and for the whole country. We are really stunned,” said Jean-Philippe Kohl, deputy director of Swissmem, representing Switzerland’s mechanical and electrical engineering industries.

South Africa’s Trade Minister Parks Tau said he was seeking “real, practical interventions” to defend jobs and the economy against the 30% U.S. tariff it faces.

Southeast Asian countries, however, breathed a sigh of relief after the U.S. tariffs on their exports that were lower than threatened and leveled the playing field with a rate of about 19% across the region’s biggest economies.

Thailand’s finance minister said a reduction from 36% to 19% would help his country’s economy.

“It helps maintain Thailand’s competitiveness on the global stage, boosts investor confidence and opens the door to economic growth, increased income and new opportunities,” Pichai Chunhavajira said.

Australian products could become more competitive in the U.S. market, helping businesses boost exports, Trade Minister Don Farrell said, after Trump kept the minimum tariff rate of 10% for Australia.

But businesses and analysts said the impact of Trump’s new trade regime would not be positive for economic growth.

“No real winners in trade conflicts,” said Thomas Rupf, co-head Singapore and CIO Asia at VP Bank. “Despite some countries securing better terms, the overall impact is negative.”

“The tariffs hurt the Americans and they hurt us,” winemaker Johannes Selbach said in Germany’s Moselle Valley, adding jobs and profits on both sides of the Atlantic would be hit.

L’Oreal OREP.PA and a growing number of European fashion and cosmetics companies are exploring use of an obscure, decades-old U.S. customs clause known as the “First Sale” rule as a potential way to soften the impact of the tariffs.

The “First Sale” rule allows companies to pay lower duties by applying tariffs to the value of a product as it leaves the factory – much lower than the eventual retail price.

CANADA, INDIA

Trump has tapped emergency powers, pressured foreign leaders, and pressed ahead with trade policies that sparked a market sell-off when they were first announced in April.

His order said some trading partners, “despite having engaged in negotiations, have offered terms that, in my judgment, do not sufficiently address imbalances in our trading relationship or have failed to align sufficiently with the United States on economic and national-security matters.”

Trump issued a separate order for Canada that raises the rate on Canadian goods subject to fentanyl-related tariffs to 35%, from 25% previously, saying Canada had “failed to cooperate” in curbing illicit narcotics flows into the U.S.

The higher tariffs on Canadian goods contrasted sharply with Trump’s decision to grant Mexico a 90-day reprieve from higher tariffs of 30% on many goods to allow time to negotiate a broader trade pact.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was disappointed by Trump’s decision, and vowed to take action to protect Canadian jobs and diversify exports.

India is in trade talks with the U.S. after Washington imposed a 25% tariff on New Delhi, a move that could impact about $40 billion worth of its exports, an Indian government source with knowledge of the talks told Reuters on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper, Julia Payne, Dan Burns, Alun John and Brendan O’Brien. Writing by Ingrid Melander and James Oliphant. Editing by Jane Merriman and Alistair Bell)

Protestors gathered in Tel Aviv’s “Hostage Square” on Saturday to stage an emergency protest following the release of propaganda videos showing emaciated Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

Videos released by militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad this week showed Israeli hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski in a visibly fragile state. The undated footage of David is juxtaposed with images of starving Palestinian children.

They are among fifty hostages that remain in the territory, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

The militant groups released the videos with ceasefire talks stalled and as Palestinians face a mounting starvation crisis in the enclave.

Steve Witkoff, the United States’ special envoy to the Middle East, attended the public plaza on Saturday amid the protests, one day after he visited a controversial US-backed aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip.

Witkoff later held a “very emotional meeting” that lasted nearly three hours with around 40 representatives of the hostage families, a source who was in attendance at the meeting told CNN.

During the meeting, Witkoff said ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas should be “all or nothing,” with all 50 hostages in Gaza being returned to Israel in one go, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum cited him as saying.

“The plan is not to expand the war, but to end it. We think the negotiations should be changed to all or nothing. End the war and bring all 50 hostages home at the same time – that’s the only way,” Witkoff reportedly said.

“Someone will be to blame” if the remaining living hostages do not return to Israel still alive, Witkoff said, according to the forum.

According to the forum, Witkoff said that the US will “get your children home and hold Hamas responsible for any bad acts on their part” and “do what’s right for the Gazan people.”

“We have a plan to end the war and bring everyone home,” he reportedly added.

CNN has reached out to Witkoff’s team to confirm if he made these comments.

The hostage families – who have frequently said that ongoing fighting in Gaza endangers their loved ones – on Saturday called for an end to the war in the territory and a “comprehensive deal” that would see the remaining hostages freed.

“Against the backdrop of horrifying footage and harsh reports about the hostages’ condition – hostage families will cry out this morning in the heart of Tel Aviv,” a statement from Israel’s hostage families said. “We appeal to the Israeli government and the US administration – look our loved ones – and us – in the eyes.”

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Friday that fighting will continue “without rest” in Gaza if there is no hostage deal.

“I estimate that in the coming days we will know whether we will succeed in reaching a partial deal for the release of our captives. If not, the fighting will continue without rest,” he said.

On Friday, the armed wing of Hamas released an undated video showing 24-year-old David – who was taken hostage at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023 – being held in a narrow cell.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters initially cautioned against using imagery from the video, but later said that David’s family had authorized the publication of a still image.

The video was released one day after a similar propaganda video was published by Palestinian Islamic Jihad showing Braslavski also in a frail state. Islamic Jihad said it was the last video taken of the hostage before the group lost contact in July with the militants holding him.

“People talk a lot about what is happening in Gaza, about hunger, and I want to ask everyone who spoke about hunger: Did you see our Rom? He is not receiving food, he is not receiving medicine. He has simply been forgotten there,” Braslavski’s family said in a statement.

“We ask that Witkoff see this video. And we make an urgent plea to President Trump: Bring our son home,” the family said.

Earlier this week, a UN-backed food security agency warned that “the worst case scenario of famine” is unfolding in Gaza, its starkest alert yet as Israel faces growing international pressure to allow more food into the territory.

Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday that seven people had died from malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including one child, bringing the total death toll from starvation since the conflict began in 2023 to 169.

In addition, at least 39 people were killed and more than 800 injured in the same period while waiting for aid in different parts of the territory, the ministry added.

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

“Over 18,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war. That’s an average of 28 children a day, the size of a classroom, gone. Children have lost loved ones, they are hungry and scared, and they are traumatised…”

UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban gave this chilling reminder following his recent travel to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, as he insisted, “What children need – children from all communities –  is a sustained ceasefire and a political way forward.”

Mr. Chaiban, who serves as UNICEF’s Executive Director for Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations, discussed the humanitarian crisis hitting new extremes following his most recent travel there, warning that Gaza is on the verge of famine and needs are enormous.

UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, works to protect children’s rights everywhere, and does so across more than 190 countries and territories.

Grave risk of famine

“Gaza now faces a grave risk of famine,” the UN agency official stated, acknowledging that even if this has been building up, two indicators have now exceeded the famine threshold.  “One in three people in Gaza are going days without food, and the malnutrition indicator has exceeded the famine threshold, with global acute malnutrition now at over 16.5 per cent [in Gaza City].”

“Today,” he decried, “more than 320,000 young children are at risk of acute malnutrition.”

While UNICEF is doing everything possible to address the situation, including supporting breastfeeding, providing infant formula, and treating children with severe acute malnutrition, he cautioned, “the needs are enormous after 22 months of war and two months of a blockade.” Even if that blockade has now been eased, he said, it is still having an impact, for “the aid is not getting in fast enough or at the required scale as of yet.”

Failure to protect civilians and children

In the midst of all this, he said that despite many having suffered devastating personal losses, their staff in Gaza continue to work day and night.

UNICEF is delivering safe water, some 2.4 million liters per day in northern Gaza, which reaches some 600,000 children; but, he laments, this is still far below survival thresholds.

Mr. Chaiban added that they have pressed for a review of their military rules of engagement to protect civilians and children.

“Children,” he underscored, “should not be getting killed waiting in line at a nutrition centre or collecting water, and people should not be so desperate as to have to rush a convoy.”

In addition, he shared, “We called for more humanitarian aid and commercial traffic to come in – moving closer towards 500 trucks a day – to stabilize the situation and reduce the desperation of the population.” 

He said this was important to try to prevent or reduce cases of self-distribution, when the population goes after a convoy, and looting, when armed groups go after it because the price of food is so high.

“In order to address that, we need to flood the strip with supplies using all channels and all gates,” he reasoned, warning, “This is not going to be achieved through humanitarian aid alone, and so we also pushed for commercial goods to get into the strip –  eggs, milk and other essential supplies that complement what the humanitarian community is bringing in.”

Devastating heat, risk of disease outbreak looming

Speaking on other infrastructure issues, he decried, “It is very hot in Gaza – 40 degrees  -and water is in short supply, with the risk of disease outbreak looming everywhere.

In this dramatic scenario, he said they pressed for ‘dual-use’ items and more fuel to be allowed in so that the water system can be repaired, including pipes, fittings, and generators, and “will continue to advocate so that the humanitarian pauses do not lead to further displacement, pressing the population into an ever smaller area.”

The UNICEF Director remembered witnessing the children under threat during his recent visit to the West Bank, but said he would continue discussing Gaza where the suffering is most acute and where children are dying at an unprecedented rate.

Need for real ceasefire and return of all remaining hostages

“We are at a crossroads,” he candidly expressed, suggesting, “The choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die. We know what must be done and what can be done.”

“The UN and NGOs that form the humanitarian community,” he reminded, “can address this, along with commercial traffic, if the measures are in place to allow access and eventually have enough goods in the Strip that some of the issues that are there with law and order abate.”

The UNICEF official also acknowledged that UNICEF’s appeal for Gaza is “critically underfunded” as “only 30 percent of health and nutrition needs are covered.”

“We need to remember that humanitarian pauses are not a ceasefire,” Mr. Chaiban noted, saying, “We hope that the parties can agree on a cease-fire and the return of all remaining hostages by Hamas and other armed groups.”