War in Gaza ‘must end now', urge UK and 24 allies
'We urge the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire,' the grouping added in a joint statement.
'Further bloodshed serves no purpose. We reaffirm our complete support to the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to achieve this.'
The signatories — which also included Japan, several EU countries, Switzerland and New Zealand — added they were 'prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire'.
The wide-ranging statement branded the controversial Israeli-supported relief effort in Gaza as 'dangerous' and said it deprives Gazans of 'human dignity'.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
an hour ago
- Business Recorder
US, China to launch new talks on tariff truce extension, easing path for Trump-Xi meeting
STOCKHOLM: Top US and Chinese economic officials will resume talks in Stockholm on Monday to try to tackle longstanding economic disputes at the centre of a trade war between the world's top two economies, aiming to extend a truce by three months and keeping sharply higher tariffs at bay. China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with President Donald Trump's administration, after Beijing and Washington reached preliminary deals in May and June to end weeks of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a cut-off of rare earth minerals. Without an agreement, global supply chains could face renewed turmoil from U.S. duties snapping back to triple-digit levels that would amount to a bilateral trade embargo. The Stockholm talks come hot on the heels of Trump's biggest trade deal yet with the European Union on Sunday for a 15% tariff on most EU goods exports to the U.S., including autos. The bloc will also buy $750 billion worth of American energy and make $600 billion worth of U.S. investments in coming years. No similar breakthrough is expected in the U.S.-China talks but trade analysts said that another 90-day extension of a tariff and export control truce struck in mid-May was likely. An extension of that length would prevent further escalation and facilitate planning for a potential meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in late October or early November. A U.S. Treasury spokesperson declined comment on a South China Morning Post report quoting unnamed sources as saying the two sides would refrain from introducing new tariffs or other steps that could escalate the trade war for another 90 days. Trump's administration is poised to impose new sectoral tariffs that will impact China within weeks, including on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, ship-to-shore cranes and other products. 'We're very close to a deal with China. We really sort of made a deal with China, but we'll see how that goes,' Trump told reporters on Sunday before European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck their tariff deal. Deeper issues Previous U.S.-China trade talks in Geneva and London in May and June focused on bringing U.S. and Chinese retaliatory tariffs down from triple-digit levels and restoring the flow of rare earth minerals halted by China and Nvidia's H20 AI chips and other goods halted by the United States. So far, the talks have not delved into broader economic issues. They include U.S. complaints that China's state-led, export-driven model is flooding world markets with cheap goods, and Beijing's complaints that U.S. national security export controls on tech goods seek to stunt Chinese growth. US, China to resume tariff talks in effort to extend truce 'Geneva and London were really just about trying to get the relationship back on track so that they could, at some point, actually negotiate about the issues which animate the disagreement between the countries in the first place,' said Scott Kennedy, a China economics expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. 'I'd be surprised if there is an early harvest on some of these things but an extension of the ceasefire for another 90 days seems to be the most likely outcome,' Kennedy said. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has already flagged a deadline extension and has said he wants China to rebalance its economy away from exports to more domestic consumption – a decades-long goal for U.S. policymakers. Analysts say the U.S.-China negotiations are far more complex than those with other Asian countries and will require more time. China's grip on the global market for rare earth minerals and magnets, used in everything from military hardware to car windshield wiper motors, has proved to be an effective leverage point on U.S. industries. Trump-XI meeting? In the background of the talks is speculation about a possible meeting between Trump and Xi in late October. Trump has said he will decide soon on a landmark trip to China, and a new flare-up of tariffs and export controls would likely derail planning. Sun Chenghao, a fellow at Tsinghua University's Center for International Security and Strategy in Beijing, said that a Trump-Xi summit would be an opportunity for the U.S. to lower the 20% tariffs on Chinese goods related to fentanyl. In exchange, he said the Chinese side could make good on its 2020 pledge to increase purchases of U.S. farm products and other goods. 'The future prospect of the heads of state summit is very beneficial to the negotiations because everyone wants to reach an agreement or pave the way in advance,' Sun said. Still, China will likely request a reduction of multi-layered U.S. tariffs totaling 55% on most goods and further easing of U.S. high-tech export controls, analysts said. Beijing has argued that such purchases would help reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China, which reached $295.5 billion in 2024.
Express Tribune
2 hours ago
- Express Tribune
27 Palestinians dead in Israeli strikes
Gaza civil defence agency said Israeli army fire killed 27 Palestinians, 12 of them near aid distribution areas. However, Jordanian and Emirati planes dropped food into Gaza on Sunday, as Israel began a limited "tactical pause" in military operations to allow the UN and aid agencies to tackle a deepening hunger crisis. UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher welcomed the tactical pauses, saying he was in "contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window". But the UN's World Food Programme said a third of the population of Gaza had not eaten for days, and 470,000 people were "enduring famine-like conditions" that were already leading to deaths. The Israeli decision came as international pressure mounted on Netanyahu's government to head off the risk of mass starvation in the territory. Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz joined the chorus of concern on Sunday, urging Netanyahu "to provide the starving civilian population in Gaza with urgently needed humanitarian aid now." Since Israel imposed a total blockade on aid entering Gaza on March 2, the situation inside the territory has deteriorated sharply. More than 100 NGOs warned this week of "mass starvation". Though aid has trickled back in since late May, the UN and humanitarian agencies say Israeli restrictions remain excessive and road access inside Gaza is tightly controlled. The Jordanian military said its planes, working with the United Arab Emirates, had delivered 25 tonnes of aid in three parachute drops over Gaza on Sunday. Truckloads of flour were also seen arriving in northern Gaza through the Zikim area crossing from Israel, according to AFP journalists. The charity Oxfam's regional policy chief Bushra Khalidi warned that the supply could prove insufficient. "Starvation won't be solved by a few trucks or airdrops," she said. "What's needed is a real humanitarian response: ceasefire, full access, all crossings open, and a steady, large-scale flow of aid into Gaza. "We need a permanent ceasefire, a complete lifting of the siege." In general, humanitarian officials are deeply sceptical airdrops can deliver enough food safely to tackle the hunger crisis facing Gaza's more than two million inhabitants. In Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa district, 30-year-old Suad Ishtaywi said her "life's wish" was to simply feed her children. She spoke of her husband returning empty-handed from aid points daily.
Express Tribune
3 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Tariff threat forces EU to hedge bets
Listen to article Barely months into Donald Trump's return to power, America's global standing has been bleeding credibility at a staggering pace, forcing many nations to prepare for a post-American world as tariff theatrics rattle the world. The American president's decision to impose a sweeping 30% tariff on EU exports has ruptured the fragile scaffolding of trust that long upheld the US-EU relationship. Although Europe has repeatedly aligned itself with Washington, often to the bewilderment of its own citizens, it appears to be showing signs of hedging its bets. EU allies, long and strangely willing to toe the American line on so-called "common" security and economic interests, are beginning to scramble for cover from Washington's whims, as the facade of shared purpose wears thin. The push for self-reliance is beginning to forge a rare moment of cohesion in the EU, finding an alternative to the disunity that marked the Brexit years. The shift was plain when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while signing a cooperation pledge with Japan recently, remarked that the EU was now seeking "more reliable partners" to counter economic coercion and unfair trade practices — a barbed formulation that conspicuously sidesteps the US. Timing, too, is everything. The EU has yet to clinch a free trade deal with Washington, and the sudden tariff spike has landed like a hammer blow amid delicate negotiations with a looming deadline set by Washington. However, Europe's response is not simply reactive. European officials warned that such a tariff would "practically prohibit" transatlantic trade and inflict deep damage on economies that export over 20% of their goods to the US, with Germany alone sending over $174.5 billion worth of products in 2024. Brussels activated a first wave of counter-tariffs, suspended only until August 6, covering €21 billion of US goods. A second package, initially targeting €95 billion, was whittled down through fierce internal lobbying to €72 billion, sparing items like diagnostic reagents, semiconductor-manufacturing machines and key medical devices deemed too critical to Europe's own supply chains. Anti-Coercion Instrument Meanwhile, EU diplomats quietly dusted off their most potent, never-used tool: the Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI). Designed in 2023 to deter economic blackmail, the ACI can impose duties, quotas, investment restrictions and limits on public procurement against any country that "coerces" EU members. Where WTO courts have failed, the mechanism allows qualified majority action — 15 states representing 65% of the EU population — circumventing the need for unanimity. Analysts observe that just floating the ACI sends a powerful signal: Europe is done being a passive victim of trade bullying. Germany, once cautious about escalation, now publicly supports considering the ACI. France has long championed it. Even Italy's far-right leadership, initially tipped to cosy up to Trump, has resisted side deals and endorsed a firm, collective stance. The recent EU-Japan pledge to deepen cooperation was one sign of the recalibration. So too is the EU's intensified internal debate over "strategic autonomy", a term that gained currency after Trump's earlier attacks on Nato and withdrawal from key international agreements. The sentiment was even more audible in the Spanish prime minister's recent statement. At a business forum in Paraguay, he not only decried the US for "unfounded and unfair" measures, but also proposed using retaliatory funds to create an EU solidarity fund for affected industries. Similarly, Denmark reported a record 74% public trust in the EU — up from 63% five years ago — crediting a shared sense of resisting external coercion. Earlier this month, the UK, still navigating post-Brexit independence, joined the WTO's interim appeals mechanism (excluding the US) to safeguard its ability to challenge future trade distortions. Asian allies are likewise on edge: Singapore's defence minister lamented that the US has shifted "from liberator... to a landlord seeking rent". Strategic autonomy A decade ago, the talk of "strategic autonomy" in Brussels elicited polite nods and little action. Today, it has become doctrine. In a recent interview with BBC, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that Europe can no longer be a free rider on US security guarantees, announcing stepped-up defence spending and trilateral security dialogues with France and the UK (the so-called E3). Together, the UK, Germany and France are working on a triangular alliance of major European powers, which Merz says will focus not just on security and foreign policy but on economic growth as well. France and Germany have extended joint procurement plans, while Spain and Italy have explored loosening Nato's centrality in favour of EU-driven defence cooperation. Similarly, Spain and the Netherlands, once sceptical of EU defence, now champion flexibility in EU budget rules to fund military modernisation. Even before taking office, the German chancellor had made waves on the night of his election victory by declaring that the Trump administration was "largely indifferent to the fate of Europe". Asked in the BBC interview whether his view had shifted, he responded that it had not, noting that Trump was "not as clear and as committed as former US presidents were, former US administrations were". Observers point out that European defence budgets, long kept low relative to GDP, are now under political pressure to rise. The EU's joint procurement loan facility — €150 billion in shared borrowing — aims to accelerate drone and artillery acquisitions. An Institute for Global Affairs (Eurasia Group) report finds that Western Europeans are urging their leaders to "stand up to Trump" and even seek partial autonomy from Washington. Even before Trump's return, think tanks were noting how Washington's browbeating of Europe and Latin America was prompting those regions to forge independent arrangements — from a European "army of Europe" to new Asian trade pacts — to hedge against US caprice. One Pew report found that in the past year, only 27% of Europeans have confidence in Trump and fear is growing that a faltering US will neglect Nato and other security guarantees. Remarkably, the 2025 Democracy Perception Index shows China overtaking the US as the world's most positively viewed major power. Beijing is now negotiating a standalone climate pact with the EU. Analysts calculate that Chinese clean tech exports reduced global emissions by roughly 1% in 2024, strengthening Beijing's claim to climate leadership. Latin American nations are doing the same. Brazil, fresh from calling US tariffs "overtly political", established a new Brazilian tax office in Beijing — only the fifth of its kind — signalling where Rio now sees its most dependable partner. The old trust in American stewardship is obsolete, and Europe's halting steps toward strategic autonomy and the assertive postures of others show that a shared resolve to envision a world without Uncle Sam's shield is gaining momentum. The writer is a Lahore-based senior journalist
