Thailand, Cambodia ceasefire ends days of deadly border clashes
Thailand and Cambodia agreed to an immediate, unconditional ceasefire after five days of deadly border clashes. At least 35 people were killed and 270,000 displaced on both sides. The Malaysia-brokered truce follows talks involving US and Chinese diplomats.
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Al Jazeera
10 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump says Israel will ‘preside over' US aid distribution in Gaza
United States President Donald Trump has suggested that Israel will run food distribution centres in Gaza, a move that critics say would further entrench the Israeli occupation and endanger the safety of aid seekers. Speaking to reporters onboard his presidential jet on Tuesday, Trump stressed the Israeli talking point that Hamas steals food assistance distributed in Gaza — a claim that has been denied by aid groups and United Nations officials. Even Israeli officials have anonymously told news outlets like The New York Times that there is no evidence food is being diverted to Hamas. Still, Trump suggested otherwise. 'A lot of things have been stolen. They send money. They send food. And Hamas steals it,' Trump told reporters on Air Force One. 'So it's a tricky little game.' He added that he trusted Israel to handle the distribution of US aid, in spite of chaotic operations that have resulted in Israeli troops firing on hungry Palestinians. 'We're going to be dealing with Israel. And we think they can do a good job of it,' Trump said. 'They want to preside over the food centres to make sure the distribution is proper.' It is not clear where and when the sites would be set up, and whether Israel would run them directly or through the GHF, a controversial US-backed aid foundation accused of unsafe practices. Trump's comments suggest that the US is not ready to support the resumption of aid distribution in Gaza through the UN and its partners on the ground. Israel has tightened its blockade in Gaza since May, allowing food into the territory almost exclusively through GHF, which has four sites set up in the south of the enclave. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire while attempting to reach or leave GHF centres. The siege has sparked an Israeli-imposed hunger crisis in the territory, and dozens of people have died of malnutrition. Whistleblowers from the Israeli military and GHF have shared testimonies detailing the abuses committed at the foundation's sites in recent weeks. Anthony Aguilar, a US army veteran who worked with GHF, said that the group has failed to adequately deliver food in Gaza. Nevertheless, he said, it has served as a vehicle for displacement, forcing Palestinians to the south of the territory. 'What I saw on numerous occasions are the Israeli [military] firing into the crowds of the Palestinians, firing over their head, firing at their feet … not just with rifles or machine guns, but tanks, tank rounds, artillery, mortars, missiles,' Aguilar told Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen in an interview posted on social media. He stressed that the aid seekers were targeted 'not because they were combatants or because they were hostile or because they were Hamas but simply as a means to control the crowd'. As starvation worsens by the day in Gaza, the Netanyahu govt has been using food as a weapon of war — with complicity from Trump & U.S. taxpayer dollars. This is painful to listen to but here's what a U.S. Army veteran & Green Beret who witnessed it first-hand recounted to me: — Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) July 29, 2025 Critics say that putting Israeli troops in charge of food distribution sites risks further atrocities against aid seekers. Israel has maintained that there is no actual hunger in Gaza, dismissing the well-documented spread of starvation in the territory as Hamas propaganda. On Monday, Trump acknowledged that there is 'real starvation' in the territory, but he stopped short of criticising Israel. Instead, on Tuesday, he stressed that Israel should be the side delivering the aid. 'I think Israel wants to do it, and they'll be good at doing it,' Trump told reporters. 'If they do it — and if they really want to do it, and I think they do — they'll do a good job. The food will be properly distributed.' He also likened any pressure on Israel to a 'reward' for Hamas. 'If you do that, you really are rewarding Hamas, and I'm not about to do that,' he told a reporter who asked about the possibility of the US pushing Israel towards a long-term solution to end the conflict. Last year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on the basis of alleged war crimes, including using starvation as a weapon of war. UN-backed food security experts announced on Tuesday that the 'worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza'.
Al Jazeera
16 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US stopover by Taiwan's president cancelled; Trump mulls China trip: Report
Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te has cancelled a trip to three allies in Central and South America after a planned stopover in the United States was reportedly nixed by his US counterpart, Donald Trump. Lai was preparing to visit Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize in early August, with stopovers planned in New York and Dallas on the first and last leg of the trip, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. The Taiwanese leader's trip was called off when US officials said they opposed his stop in New York, the newspaper said, citing three people close to the matter. Lai's office had never formally announced his trip to Latin America, but on Monday, it said the president had cancelled all overseas travel to focus on tariff negotiations with the US and a cleanup operation following a typhoon in southern Taiwan. The president of Taiwan cannot officially visit the US, which does not recognise its government. But Taiwanese leaders have made use of 'transit stops' in the US over the years to liaise with top administration officials outside Washington, DC. In 2023, then-Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen used a transit stop to visit New York and Los Angeles while Joe Biden was still the US president. Beijing, which claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory, held military exercises in the Taiwan Strait after Tsai's US stop-off to demonstrate its anger. Trump's reported decision to block Lai's stopover follows news that the US president is angling for a trip to China himself, although he said he does not want a 'summit' with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. 'The Fake News is reporting that I am SEEKING a 'Summit' with President Xi of China. This is not correct, I am not SEEKING anything! I may go to China, but it would only be at the invitation of President Xi, which has been extended,' Trump wrote on Truth Social late Monday night. Reuters reported that Trump may be aiming to visit China around the time of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea, which runs from October 31 to November 1. Whether the meeting will take place will depend on the outcome of ongoing trade talks between the US and China to resolve Trump's tariff war launched earlier this year. US and Chinese officials are in Stockholm this week to try to hammer out a tariff agreement before a 'truce' expires on August 12, but they have many issues to discuss, including export controls, which could drag out talks.
Al Jazeera
21 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
As Trump's August 1 deadline looms, tariffs are here to stay, experts say
As United States President Donald Trump blasts his way through tariff announcements, one thing is clear, experts say: Some level of duties is here to stay. In the past few weeks, Trump has announced a string of deals – with the European Union, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines – with tariffs ranging from 15 percent to 20 percent. He has also threatened Brazil with a 50 percent tariff, unveiled duties of 30 percent and 35 percent for major trading partners Mexico and Canada, and indicated that deals with China and India are close. How many of Trump's tariff rates will shake out is anybody's guess, but one thing is clear, according to Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada: 'No one is getting zero tariffs. There's no going back.' Trump's various announcements have spelled months of chaos for industry, leaving businesses in limbo and forcing them to pause investment and hiring decisions. The World Bank has slashed its growth forecasts for nearly 70 percent of economies – including the US, China and Europe, and six emerging market regions – and cut its global growth estimate to 2.3 percent, down from 2.7 percent in January. Oxford Economics has forecast a shallow recession in capital spending in the Group of Seven (G7) countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US – lasting from the second quarter to the third quarter of this year. 'What we're seeing is the Donald Trump business style: There's lots of commotion, lots of claim, lots of activity and lots of b*******,' Robert Rogowsky, professor of international trade at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, told Al Jazeera. 'That's his business model, and that's how he operates. That's why he's driven so many of his businesses into bankruptcy. It's not strategic or tactical. It's instinctive.' Rogowsky said he expects Trump to push back his tariff deadline again, after delaying it from April to July, and then to August 1. 'It's going to be a series of TACO tariffs,' Rogowsky said, referring to the acronym for 'Trump Always Chickens Out', a phrase coined by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong in early May to describe the US president's backpedalling on tariffs in the face of stock market turmoil. 'He will bump them again,' Rogowsky said. 'He's just exerting the image of power.' Trump's back-and-forth policy moves have characterised his dealings with some of the US's biggest trade partners, including China and the EU. China's tariff rate has gone from 20 percent to 54 percent, to 104 percent, to 145 percent, and then 30 percent, while the deadline for implementation has shifted repeatedly. The proposed tariff rates for the EU have followed a similar pattern, going from 20 percent to 50 percent to 30 percent, and then 15 percent following the latest trade deal. The EU's current tariff rate only applies to 70 percent of goods, with a zero rate applying to a limited range of exports, including semiconductor equipment and some chemicals. European steel exports will continue to be taxed at 50 percent, and Trump has indicated that new tariffs could be on the way for pharmaceutical products. Despite the trade deals, many details of how Trump's tariffs will work in practice remain unclear. Whether Trump announces more changes down the track, analysts agree that the world has entered a new phase in which countries are seeking to become less reliant on the US. 'Now that the initial shock and anger [at Trump policies] has subsided, there is a quiet determination to build resilience and become less reliant on the US,' Nadjibulla said, adding that Trump was pushing countries to address longstanding issues that had been untouchable before. Canada, for instance, is tackling inter-provincial trade barriers, a politically sensitive issue historically, even as it looks elsewhere to increase exports, said Tony Stillo, director of Canada Economics at Oxford Economics. 'It would be foolhardy not to provide to the US, seeing as it's our largest market, but it also makes us more resilient to provide to other markets as well,' Stillo told Al Jazeera. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has reached out to the EU and Mexico and indicated his wish to improve his country's strained relations with China and India. This month, Canada expanded its exports of liquified natural gas beyond the US market, with its first shipment of cargoes to Asia. To mitigate the fallout of Trump's tariffs, Ottawa has been offering relief to Canadian businesses, including automakers, and has instituted a six-month pause on tariffs on some imports from the US to give firms time to re-adjust their supply chains. There is also 'some relief' in the fact that other countries 'don't seem to be imitating the Trump show [by levying their own tariffs]. They're witnessing this attempt to strong-arm the rest of the world, but it doesn't seem to be working,' Mary Lovely, the Anthony M Solomon senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), told Al Jazeera. But the world is watching how the tariffs will affect the US economy, as 'that will also be instructive to other countries', Lovely said. 'If we see a slowdown, as we expect, it becomes a cautionary tale for others.' Although the US stock market is near an all-time high, it is heavily weighted towards the 'magnificent seven', said Lovely, referring to the largest tech companies, and that reflects just one part of the economy. Re-emergence of industrial policy Trump's tariffs come on top of other growing challenges for exporters the world over, including China's subsidy-heavy industrial policy that allows its businesses to undercut its competitors. 'We've entered a period of global economic alignment with the reintroduction of industrial policies,' Nadjibulla said, explaining that more and more governments are likely to roll out support for their domestic industries. 'Each country will have to navigate these and find ways to de-risk and reduce overreliance on the US and China.' Still, countries seeking to support their homegrown industries will have to do so while reckoning with the World Trade Organization and rules-based trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, Nadjibulla said. 'It will take some tremendous leadership around the world to corral this wild mustang [Trump] before he breaks up the world order,' Rogowsky said. 'But it will break because I do think Donald Trump will drive us into a recession.'
