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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) is welcomed by North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui upon arriving on a two-day visit at Pyongyang International Airport Thursday.…
Iranians react after a ceasefire announcement at the Enqelab square, in Tehran, yesterday.(AFP) While some Iranians in the capital Tehran fear the ceasefire with the United States will lead to nothing, others declared victory and most breathed a sigh of relief after weeks of war.“Everyone is at ease now, we are more relaxed,” Sakineh Mohammadi, a 50-year-old housewife, said, saying she was “proud” of her country. Just the day before, US President Donald Trump threatened to eradicate “a whole civilisation” in Iran if its leaders did not heed his ultimatum to accept Washington’s war demands.That was enough to cause a “nervous breakdown” for Simin, a 48-year-old English teacher, after more than a month of bombing. “I couldn’t feel my legs or arms anymore,” she said.“We were terrified to our very core… The shock and psychological pressure were so intense that even now, we don’t know whether to feel relieved by the truce or not.” That same evening, panicked residents of Tehran tried to flee north to the shores of the Caspian Sea, where many had sought refuge during the very first days of the war.For those who stayed, the night was long and anxious. Their eyes were glued to the latest developments on television until Trump announced the two-week truce, which came in the middle of the night for Iranians.Since the truce was declared, the bombs have fallen silent in Tehran, and the Iranian capital now has the air of a public holiday. Many shops were closed and outdoor cafes were packed in upscale neighbourhoods, as Tehran’s legendary traffic jams vanished yesterday.So did the checkpoints manned by armed men which had spread throughout the city in recent weeks, with only barriers and signs remaining on the roadside where they once stood. The smell of burning hangs from a closed airport and buildings that have been destroyed or gutted.On the facade of one building, giant portraits of the Islamic republic’s founder, R Khomeini, and his successor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed on the first day of the war, overlook a field of ruins. Despite thousands of people dead and widespread damage inflicted, Behrouz Ghahramani is “not afraid” of the American-Israeli enemy.If the war resumes, “we will attack them again”, he said.“We were the ones who imposed this ceasefire on the United States by demonstrating our military power,” the 67-year-old said, boasting of Iran’s millennia-long history. Source link
A woman walks along the Huangpu River as the city’s skyline is seen in the background in Shanghai Thursday. (AFP) China has banned for 40 days civil aviation from a large airspace off Shanghai without specifying the reasons, according to a notice to aviators published by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).The aviation notice (NOTAM) announcing the access restriction was posted online on March 27 at 1150 GMT and took effect a few hours later.It will remain in place until May 6 and affects an area twice the size of Taiwan a few hundred kilometres north of the island, covering 73,000sq km in total.China has not provided any explanation for the ban as of April 8, but “there is no possible use other than military” for this type of airspace restriction, maritime security expert Benjamin Blandin told AFP.”It could be to fire missiles, carry out air exercises, etc. We don’t know,” he added.This is “the very first time” that China has restricted access to its airspace in a way that is “so sudden, geographically extensive, prolonged over time, and so poorly documented”, according to Blandin, a researcher at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR).Aviation and defence consultant for Aviation NXT, Xavier Tytelman, also believes that the restriction is “out of the ordinary” in terms of its size, duration and the lack of any limits on altitude, either high or low.NOTAMs are intended to inform aviators of unusual circumstances affecting certain airspaces.They are generally issued ahead of military exercises or during exceptional events such as fires or volcanic eruptions.In this particular case, it means that “the government is reserving a zone for itself,” said Tytelman.Restricted access applies to civil aviation but not necessarily to military planes, helicopters or drones.The ban covers two zones over the Yellow Sea, between China and South Korea, and three others straddling the Yellow Sea and East China Sea, between China and its neighbour Japan.”Normally this is announced weeks or months in advance, and there are explanations and justifications,” said Blandin, adding that the reserved airspace is limited in altitude “to allow the passage of commercial aircraft”.The areas closed to civil aviation are separated by an air corridor about 100 kilometres wide, allowing access to Shanghai from the Yellow Sea.”Access denials”According to a Taiwan senior security official, China is taking advantage of the United States being distracted by the Middle East war to expand its active military presence and conduct harassment in the Indo-Pacific.China aims to deter the US’s allies in the region and weaken the US’s military influence in the Indo-Pacific, he said.For Blandin this NOTAM is part of a “continuing series of access denials” and “bolsters China’s strategy of nibbling away at the land and sea borders of its neighbours” over the past 15 years.Tytelman, a former flight navigator for the French navy, expects this type of operation to be repeated in the months and years to come, in order to “lower our guard before an aggressive action.” Related Story Source link
The Philippine Coast Guard command centre on Thitu Island in the South China Sea Thursday. (AFP) The Philippine Coast Guard unveiled Thursday its first dedicated command centre in the Spratly island chain, a flashpoint in the disputed South China Sea that has been the site of repeated confrontations with Chinese vessels.The headquarters of a newly established coast guard district, formerly overseen from neighbouring Palawan, will cover an area of about 68,000sq km (26,000 square miles).An AFP journalist travelling to the new command centre on Pagasa Island, known as Thitu in the Philippines, saw multiple Chinese Coast Guard vessels patrolling nearby waters. The vessels issued radio warnings to the plane carrying the journalist.Beijing claims the South China Sea in nearly its entirety, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.Pagasa will now have a commodore-level commander on site, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Ronnie Gil Gavan told reporters after “activation” ceremony Thursday, along with a permanently stationed ship, more response vessels and an unspecified number of specialists.”The establishment of the coast guard district here will also enhance the psyche, the mindset of each and every coast guard member, that… the defence of Kalayaan island group is a top priority,” Gavan said, using the Filipino name for the Spratlys.The move will also include the dredging of a deeper port that will allow for the docking of coast guard vessels, which must currently ferry personnel to and from Pagasa on small boats.The far-flung Kota and Parola islands will also see their substations raised to full station status, coast guard spokesman Jay Tarriela said.The Pagasa upgrade, meanwhile, will mean a bigger budget for greater community assistance to the island’s inhabitants, including more teachers and doctors, he said.Pagasa Island is home to about 400 Filipinos, mostly fishermen and their families, who China accuses of living there illegally.The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Thursday.The Philippines last month revealed plans to rename more than 100 island features in the Spratlys in a bid to reinforce its “sovereignty” in the South China Sea.China subsequently accused Manila of breaking international law while threatening unspecified measures to protect its own claims. Source link
People stand at the site of an Israeli strike, in Al-Mazraa in Beirut, Lebanon, April 8, 2026. REUTERS/Yara Nardi * Israel launches heaviest Lebanon strikes despite Iran ceasefire* Lebanon’s Aoun and France’s Macron urge Lebanon’s inclusion in ceasefire Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, killing more than 250 people yesterday even as the group paused its attacks under a two-week US-Iran ceasefire.The strikes raised questions about regional truce efforts, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian saying a ceasefire in Lebanon was an essential condition of his country’s agreement with the US. Yesterday afternoon, at least five consecutive strikes rocked the capital Beirut, sending columns of smoke into the sky as Israel’s military said it had launched the largest co-ordinated strike of the war. More than 100 Hezbollah command centres and military sites were targeted in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon within ten minutes, it said. A total of 254 people were killed and over 1,100 wounded across Lebanon, the country’s civil defence service said. The highest toll was in Beirut, where 91 people were killed. The health ministry gave a toll of 182 dead across the country and said it was not a final figure. It was the deadliest day of the war that erupted on March 2, when Hezbollah fired into Israel in support of Tehran after the US-Israeli attack on Iran two days earlier. Israel launched a fully fledged air and ground campaign in response. Reuters reporters saw civil defence workers guiding an older woman onto a crane to evacuate her from a building in a western part of Beirut. Half of the building had been sheared off in an Israeli strike, leaving residents on the upper floors trapped. Earlier, Reuters reporters saw people on motorcycles picking up the wounded and transporting them to hospitals because there were not enough ambulances to get to them in time. One of Beirut’s biggest medical facilities said it needed donations of all blood types. “The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. “Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief.”Late yesterday evening, a strike hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to a Reuters live broadcast. In a televised address yesterday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire with Iran and the Israeli military was continuing to strike Hezbollah with force. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Vice President JD Vance also said that Lebanon was not included in the truce. “I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t,” Vance told reporters in Budapest.Earlier, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key intermediary in the US-Iran ceasefire talks, had said the truce would include Lebanon. In a statement, Hezbollah condemned what it called Israel’s “barbaric aggression” and said the attacks underscored its right to respond. Hezbollah had stopped attacking Israeli targets early yesterday, three Lebanese sources close to the group told Reuters. The group’s last public statement on its military activity was posted at 1 a.m. (2200 GMT Tuesday), saying it had targeted Israeli troops inside Lebanon on Tuesday evening. “Hezbollah was informed that it is part of the ceasefire — so we abided by it, but Israel as usual has violated it and committed massacres all across Lebanon,” senior Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi told Reuters. Another Hezbollah lawmaker, Hassan Fadlallah, told Reuters there would be “repercussions for the entire agreement” if Israel’s attacks continued.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned the US and Israel it would deliver a “regret-inducing response” if attacks on Lebanon did not stop. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned yesterday’s strikes and said French President Emmanuel Macron had told him he was ready to make a diplomatic push for Lebanon to be included in any ceasefire.A senior Lebanese official had earlier told Reuters that Lebanon had not taken part in correspondence leading up to the ceasefire.Most of yesterday’s strikes were in civilian-populated areas, Israel’s military said. Hours before the attacks, the military had issued warnings for some areas of southern Beirut and southern Lebanon. No such warning was given for central Beirut, which was also hit. Following the strikes, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X that Hezbollah had moved out of its traditional stronghold in southern Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighbourhood to religiously mixed areas elsewhere.He said Israel’s military would pursue Hezbollah wherever it was. Source link
Cuba’s Vice-Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal, accompanies a women protest against the sanctions imposed by the United States, in Havana on Tuesday. (AFP) Talks between Cuba and the United States on de-escalating tensions are still at a “very preliminary” stage, Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal told AFP on Tuesday.Cuba has been bracing for a possible US attack following threats from US President Donald Trump about “taking” the communist-run island after ousting Venezuela’s leader and attacking Iran.The former Cold War rivals have, at the same time, held exploratory talks.”We are in a very preliminary, very initial phase, and there are still no structured negotiations between the two governments,” Vidal told AFP during a demonstration in Havana to denounce the impact of US sanctions on the impoverished island.Trump effectively shut down oil exports to Cuba in January after US forces ousted Havana’s main regional ally and crude supplier, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.Trump also threatened tariffs on other countries that ship oil to Cuba, deepening an energy crisis on the island marked by recurring blackouts.Last week, however, Washington allowed through a Russian oil tanker.Vidal, 65, was a key figure in the restoration of relations between Washington and the communist-run island during Barack Obama’s presidency in 2015.In February, the Miami Herald listed her as one of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s interlocutors, along with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, grandson of former president Raul Castro.Cuba has taken apparent steps in recent weeks to ease tensions, notably releasing groups of prisoners in two batches, in what it called a “humanitarian gesture.”Last week it announced the pardon of more than 2,000 prisoners. However, none of these were political prisoners, according to human rights NGOs.At least 20 political prisoners were released in mid-March.Vidal contrasted the current talks with the negotiations between the Obama and Raul Castro administrations, which led to an historic rapprochement that Trump later walked back.In 2015, “we worked to create a relationship that was not without differences, but that did not place those differences at the centre,” Vidal stressed.She insisted however that “Cuba has always believed in dialogue” and “not in confrontation.” Related Story Source…
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah discussed today, in a telephone call with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, the latest developments in the region and the efforts underway.The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Sheikh Al-Sabah praised during the call the diplomatic efforts undertaken by Pakistan, which contributed to a ceasefire between the United States of America and Iran. Source link
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends a press conference on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress, in Beijing. (Reuters/File Photo) China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit North Korea this week, his ministry said Wednesday, signalling efforts by the East Asian neighbours to revitalise ties that chilled after the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Wang’s last publicly known visit to North Korea as China’s foreign minister was in late 2019, following reciprocal visits by the two countries’ top leaders earlier that year.”China is willing to strengthen strategic communication with North Korea and enhance exchanges and cooperation,” a Chinese ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, said during a regular press conference.She called Wang’s upcoming visit-scheduled over April 9 to 10-“an important move to advance bilateral ties”.Beijing has worked to draw Pyongyang back into its orbit, after the Covid-19 pandemic froze exchanges and as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shored up relations with Moscow, sending troops and weapons in support of Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.Passenger train service between Beijing and Pyongyang resumed in March after being suspended for six years since the onset of the pandemic in 2020.China’s flag carrier Air China has also restarted flights between the two capitals. However, the reopened links have not benefited Chinese tourists so far, with bookings available only for some business travellers and exchange students.North Korean leader Kim Jong-un travelled to Beijing in September on board an armoured train to join Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders for a massive military parade in the Chinese capital, where Kim met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.That meeting was followed by a visit to Pyongyang in October by China’s No 2 official, Premier Li Qiang.”Preserving, consolidating, and developing China-DPRK relations has always been an unwavering strategic policy of the party and government of China,” Mao said Wednesday.Wang’s Pyongyang visit also comes ahead of an expected summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump next month. Co-ordination between North Korea and China could take place before the China-US summit, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Wednesday.Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in resuming direct talks with the North Korean leader in his second term, but no meeting has materialised.North Korea analysts have been watching the possibility of a fourth meeting between Trump and Kim after they met three times during Trump’s first term, most recently in 2019.In February, Kim said there is “no reason” North Korea and the US cannot “get along well” if Washington recognises North Korea as a nuclear-armed state and abandons its “hostile” policy against Pyongyang.Subsequent state media messages have refrained from overtly criticising Trump. Related Story Source link
Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud discussed with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Jeddah the latest regional and international developments, particularly those in the region and their security and economic repercussions. The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported Thursday that the meeting emphasized support for all efforts aimed at strengthening regional security and stability, in addition to discussing several issues of mutual interest, including aspects of the strategic partnership. Source link
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that imports from countries supplying Iran with military weapons will face immediate 50% tariffs with no exemptions, threatening the new duties just hours after agreeing to a two-week ceasefire with Tehran. After more than five weeks of air strikes against Iran’s missile launchers, military installations and weapons industry, Trump returned to a favourite foreign policy pressure tool — tariffs — effectively warning China and Russia in a social media post against restocking Tehran’s military inventories. But the US Supreme Court stripped the US president of his fastest and broadest tariff authority, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, in February when it ruled that his broadest global tariffs imposed under the 1977 law were illegal. “A Country supplying Military Weapons to Iran will be immediately tariffed, on any and all goods sold to the US of America, 50%, effective immediately, There will be no exclusions or exemptions! President DJT,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social site, without naming any countries. China and Russia have helped Iran build military capacity to counter US and Israeli pressure, supplying missiles, air-defence systems and dual-use technologies intended to bolster deterrence. That support appeared capped during the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran. Both Beijing and Moscow have denied supplying any weapons recently, although allegations against Russia have persisted. Reuters reported in February, prior to the first U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, that Tehran was considering a purchase of supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles from China. Reuters also reported in March that China’s top semiconductor maker, SMIC , has sent chipmaking tools to Iran’s military, according to two senior Trump administration officials. “This is a China-related threat, the way I read it. And China will read it that way,” said Josh Lipsky, vice president and chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council. Although drone and missile parts routinely flow from Chinese entities to Iran, evading US sanctions, Lipsky said Trump was unlikely to follow through with new tariffs in the near term because that would derail his planned trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. On Tuesday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Trump would seek to maintain the current stability in the US-China relationship, to preserve US access to Chinese-produced rare-earth minerals and magnets while maintaining prior tariff levels. Greer said Trump wanted to avoid a “massive confrontation” with Xi. Of Trump’s still available trade tools, an active “Section 301” unfair trade practices action against Chinese goods from his first term would be the most likely vehicle for adding new tariffs quickly, Lipsky said.A more limited tool would be Section 232 of the Cold War-era Trade Expansion Act of 1962, aimed at protecting strategic domestic industries on national security grounds, but it would limit duties to specific sectors, lacking the broad economy-wide impact of the prior IEEPA-based tariffs. Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods over nearly eight years already have cut US imports from China sharply, from a peak of $538.5bn in 2018 to $308.4bn in 2025, with further declines recorded in January and February of 2026. Russia has been another source of arms technology for Iran, but US imports of Russian goods also have shrivelled since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the wave of financial sanctions imposed on Moscow as a result of that move. US imports from Russia, one of the only countries not subject to Trump’s now-cancelled “reciprocal” tariffs, jumped 26.1% to $3.8bn in 2025. These imports are dominated by palladium, which is used in automotive catalytic converters, fertilisers and their ingredients, and enriched uranium for nuclear reactors. The Commerce Department already is moving to impose punitive tariffs on Russian palladium after an anti-dumping investigation. Source link