Israeli forces destroyed homes in the occupied West Bank and killed dozens in Gaza as Palestinians marked 77 years since the Nakba. Israel’s ‘brutality’ has displaced 85-year-old Nakba survivor Mohammed once again, but he says this time it’s worse.
Brussels is drawing up plans to use trade tariffs and capital controls to maintain financial pressure on Russia, even if Hungary decides to use its veto to block an extension of the European Union’s sanctions regime, which lapses in July of this year.
The European Commission has told ministers that a large part of the EU’s sanctions, which included freezing 200 billion euros ($224bn) of Russian assets, could be adapted to a new legal framework to bypass Budapest’s veto, according to the United Kingdom’s Financial Times newspaper.
Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, has repeatedly held up EU boycotts on Moscow as the central European country gets 85 percent of its natural gas from Russia. Orban’s nationalist government is also one of the most friendly to Moscow in all of Europe.
In any event, the EU’s recent proposals have emerged as Moscow and Kyiv hold their first direct peace talks since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukrainian and Russian representatives are convening today in Istanbul, Turkiye. However, Vladimir Putin will not travel to Istanbul for face-to-face talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Last weekend, European leaders held talks in Ukraine to put pressure on Russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire in the run-up to the Istanbul talks. Ukraine agreed to it. Russia did not.
The EU adopted its 17th sanctions package against Moscow, designed to stifle Russia’s economy and force President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, on Wednesday. This package has been signed off by Budapest and will be formally ratified by the European Commission next week.
Brussels has progressively expanded sanctions against Moscow since 2022, introducing import bans on Russian oil, a price cap on Russian fuel and the freezing of Russian central bank assets held in European financial institutions.
Vast swaths of Russia’s economy – from media organisations to aviation and telecommunications – are now under EU restrictions, in addition to trade bans and measures targeting oligarchs and politicians.
Under the 17th package, some 200 “shadow fleet” tankers have been sanctioned. These are ships with opaque ownership and no Western ties in terms of finance or insurance, allowing them to bypass financial sanctions.
The latest sanctions will also target Chinese and Turkish entities that the EU says are helping Russia to evade embargoes. New restrictions will be imposed on 30 companies involved in the trade of dual-use goods – products with potential military applications.
“Russia has found ways to circumvent the blockage imposed by Europe and the United States, so closing the tap would grab Russia by the throat,” France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, told BFM TV.
Alongside military support for Kyiv, sanctions have been the EU’s main response to Russia’s war on Ukraine. But sanctions have so far failed to stop the war. What’s more, due to high oil prices and elevated military spending, Russia’s economy has outperformed expectations since the start of 2022.
Barrot acknowledged on Wednesday that the impact of sanctions has been insufficient. “We will need to go further because the sanctions so far have not dissuaded Vladimir Putin from continuing his war of aggression … we must prepare to expand devastating sanctions that could suffocate, once and for all, Russia’s economy,” said Barrot.
While the 17th round of sanctions was only agreed on Wednesday, EU ministers are already considering what more might be done to undermine Putin’s political clout if the war in Ukraine persists.
Capital controls, which would be aimed at restricting money flowing in and out of Russia, and trade measures such as tariffs, are two options that have been mentioned by the European Commission in recent weeks. Capital controls can take a variety of forms, including restrictions on foreign investment, limiting currency exchange or imposing taxes on the movement of capital.
The commission also aims to share proposals next month that would allow Brussels to implement a ban on new Russian gas spot market contracts – deals for immediate delivery and payment – with European companies in 2025, and a total phase-out by 2027.
Despite oil export restrictions, Russia still earns billions of euros from natural gas sales into the EU through liquefied natural gas (LNG) and TurkStream (a pipeline connecting Russia to southeastern Europe via the Black Sea). Banning spot market contracts would lower Moscow’s revenue from these sources.
Brussels may also propose tariffs on enriched uranium as part of its effort to cut EU reliance on Russian fuels.
According to The Financial Times, the EU insists that these measures would not amount to sanctions and therefore would not need the unanimous backing of all 27 EU countries, which is normally required to extend sanctions.
“I think the EU cooked up these potential punishments to try and get Russia to agree to the 30-day ceasefire … it was the stick they were brandishing,” said an analyst familiar with the matter who asked not to be named.
It may. On May 1, Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he had the commitment of 72 colleagues for a bill that would enact “bone-crushing” sanctions on Russia.
Graham, a close ally of President Donald Trump, is spearheading a draft bill that seeks to impose a 500 percent tariff on imports from countries that buy Russian oil and fossil fuels.
Trump himself, who seemingly welcomes the possibility of a rapprochement with Russia, said in March that he was “considering” imposing sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a peace agreement is reached with Ukraine.
“Most Russian people want life to return to normal and business owners are getting tired of war-related costs,” the anonymous analyst told Al Jazeera. “There is a growing sense of unease.”
She said she doubted whether the EU’s touted measures would bring Putin any closer to signing a peace agreement, however. “Only because sanctions haven’t been able to do that,” she said, “and there’s already a maze of them.”
According to Castellum.AI, a global risk platform, Russia has been slapped with 21,692 sanctions since the start of the war – the majority of them against individuals.
“On past performance, it’s hard to see how even more sanctions and additional punishments will stop the fighting,” the analyst said.
When examining the on-again, off-again tariff proclamations of United States President Donald Trump during his second term in office, it is unclear what has actually been achieved.
What is clear is that Trump’s tariff announcements have roiled global markets, wiping out trillions in value, and leaving many businesses stumped on how to plan for the future amid the never-ending uncertainty.
Within days of being sworn into office for his second term, Trump imposed 25-percent tariffs on Mexican and most Canadian imports and 10 percent on China, arguing they needed to do more to stem the flow of fentanyl and undocumented migrants into the US. He soon suspended those on Canada and Mexico for 30 days – but not on China – in return for concessions on border and law enforcement.
Since then, he has raised 25-percent tariffs on steel, aluminium, and auto and auto parts, and brought back levies on Mexico and Canada and doubled fentanyl-related tariffs on all Chinese imports to 20 percent.
He then went back and forth on tariffs on car imports from Canada and Mexico, finally settling on a 25-percent on global car imports.
Then, in April, he announced his “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries around the world, with a 10-percent baseline tariff on all countries around the world. He paused the “reciprocal” tariffs for 90 days after a bloodbath on Wall Street, but maintained the 10-percent global tax and instituted a 145-percent tax on China – which then retaliated with a 125-percent tax on US goods entering the country.
Soon after, Trump started rolling back some tariffs as the US struck trade deals. The first came last week, in the form of a limited trade agreement with the United Kingdom, which kept in place the 10-percent levy on many products, but did lower US tariffs on British auto imports to 10 percent from the current 27.5 percent, annoying domestic US car-makers.
But the one that everyone was watching for came earlier this week on Monday: The US and China announced a pause and scale back of tariffs for 90 days, with the US lowering its tax to 30 percent and China to 10 percent, while the two rivals hammer out a trade agreement.
But even before the May 12 announcement, the US had already carved out exceptions for smartphones, computers and other tech products, that it largely imports from China.
Then, per the Monday agreement, it also slashed the tariff on low-value, “de minimis” imports from China, reducing duties to 54 percent from 120 percent for items valued at up to $800. Such goods were previously brought into the US without having to pay any import duties and with minimal inspections.
Such imports were heavily criticised, not only accused of flooding the country with cheap products, but for being used by traffickers to bring in drugs, including fentanyl. Fentanyl-trafficking was the justification for the initial tariffs placed on China, Mexico and Canada, so it’s not clear if the US government is still concerned about that route being potentially abused by drug hauliers.
While the various tariff rollbacks and pauses have been welcomed by businesses, the respite has not removed uncertainty entirely. Brief pauses in tariffs are not sufficient for many companies to make longer-term investment or supply chain decisions.
It’s small businesses, which employ 45.9 percent of the US workforce and account for 43.5 percent of the US gross domestic product (GDP), that feel the effects most keenly because of their limited buffer, as we reported last week.
There are fears that the uncertainty is taking a toll on the US economy. A Bloomberg poll of economists put the chances of a recession next year at almost 50-50, the news agency reported on Monday.
And while inflation has so far been kept in check – consumer prices rose 2.3 percent in April from a year ago, down from 2.4 percent in March – economists have said they expect inflation to rise by the middle of the year, and consumer confidence has hit a 13-year low even before sky-high prices return.
On Thursday Walmart, the world’s largest retailer and the biggest container importer in the US a lot of which is from China, warned it would have to start raising prices by the end of this month due to the high cost of tariffs even after they had been slashed to 30 percent.
Trump has acknowledged a potential rise in prices – US children will have “two dolls instead of 30 dolls. So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally”, he said recently. But it’s not clear where he is headed with his tariffs, even as some companies have announced billions worth of new investments, and some that were recycling of previous ones – like Apple’s February announcement that it would invest $500bn in the US over the next four years, but which analysts said included current commitments.
India and Pakistan have traded accusations of nuclear weapons mismanagement, days after reaching a truce following four days of cross-border fighting.
India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh questioned the safety of nuclear weapons in Pakistan on Thursday at an army base in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir, calling the neighbouring country an “irresponsible and rogue nation”.
“I believe that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons should be taken under the supervision of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency),” Singh said.
In response to the minister’s comments, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Singh had revealed his “profound insecurity and frustration regarding Pakistan’s effective defence and deterrence”.
“The comments of India’s Defence Minister also show his sheer ignorance of the mandate and responsibilities of a specialised agency of the United Nations like the IAEA,” it read.
“If anything, the IAEA and the international community should be worried about the repeated theft and illicit trafficking incidents involving nuclear and radioactive material in India,” the statement added.
The UN nuclear watchdog monitors countries that have nuclear weapons to ensure that they are peaceful.
Under a 2008 agreement, the IAEA monitors several Indian civilian nuclear facilities.
After conducting tit-for-tat nuclear tests in 1998, India and Pakistan became nuclear powers, making the region one of the world’s dangerous nuclear flashpoints.
Last week, the two countries traded intense missile and drone attacks, leaving nearly 70 people dead.
The fighting followed an April 22 rebel attack on Pahalgam, in Indian-administered Kashmir, that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan – an accusation Islamabad denied.
On Saturday, United States President Donald Trump announced a surprise ceasefire agreement as world powers urged the two nuclear powers to avoid escalating tensions.
While the ceasefire is currently holding, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that India would strike at militant hideouts across the border again if there were new attacks on India and would not be deterred by what he referred to as Islamabad’s “nuclear blackmail”.
However, Pakistan rejected Modi’s statements as being “provocative and inflammatory assertions”, saying they represents a dangerous escalation.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, police in Indian-administered Kashmir said they killed three suspected fighters in the town of Tral, in Pulwama district south of Srinagar.
Police also said three other suspected fighters died in a gun battle with soldiers on Tuesday in the southern Kashmir valley.
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The administration of US President Donald Trump says it has accepted a plane worth an estimated $400m from the state of Qatar. While Trump is president, the White House says it would be used as the new Air Force One, then it would go to Trump’s presidential library after his term ends.
The aircraft would become the most expensive gift from a foreign government ever to a US elected official, ABC News reported. But some members of Congress say accepting it would be unconstitutional.
When asked about the potential gift at a May 12 executive order signing, Trump blamed Boeing’s lack of progress in building a new Air Force One. He said he would be “stupid” to refuse a free plane, and said he won’t use it after he leaves office. “It’s not a gift to me, it’s a gift to the Department of Defense,” he said.
Legal experts told PolitiFact that they believe accepting the gift would violate the US Constitution’s emoluments clause, which reads, “No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
The emoluments clause was designed “to prevent foreign nations from gaining improper influence” over US leaders, said David Forte, Cleveland State University emeritus law professor.
Experts differed on whether accepting the plane would be an impeachable offence.
Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor, said that if Trump accepts the gift, it could be an impeachable deed, because it would amount to “a fully corrupt act”.
Forte, however, said the gift wouldn’t necessarily amount to a bribe or an impeachable offence, but it “is a form of influence buying designed to gain the gratitude of the recipient by playing to his vanity.”
During Trump’s first term as US president, Congressional Democrats, private individuals and attorneys general from Maryland and Washington, DC, filed lawsuits against Trump stemming from the emoluments clause.
However, many of the cases were dismissed on procedural grounds, and the US Supreme Court did not rule on the transactions’ underlying constitutionality.
Trump’s possible acceptance of the aircraft is different, said Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri emeritus law professor.
In his first term, Trump said payments were made to his businesses. This time, there would be no connection to Trump’s businesses. It would be a gift offered for free with no promise of payment from the president or the US Treasury, Bowman said.
NBC News, citing an anonymous senior Justice Department official, reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi approved a memo prepared by the agency’s Office of Legal Counsel that deemed it was legal for the Defense Department to accept the gift. Bondi has previously lobbied on behalf of the state of Qatar.
Trump, on his part, has thanked Qatar for the jet.
“If we can get a 747 as a contribution to our Defense Department, during a couple of years while they’re [Boeing is] building the other one, I think that’s a very nice gesture [from Qatar],” he said on May 12.
Legal experts said it’s unlikely that Congress, controlled by Republicans, will stop Trump from accepting the gift.
Meghan Faulkner, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that since it appears the Justice Department has signed off on receiving the gift, it “could make it harder to hold him accountable”.
Bowman said the Justice Department, according to longstanding policy, wouldn’t prosecute a sitting president.
United States President Donald Trump has claimed Washington is nearing an agreement with Iran to resolve a long-running nuclear dispute, despite ongoing diplomatic hurdles.
“We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” Trump said in Qatar during the second leg of his Gulf tour on Thursday, before heading to the United Arab Emirates.
“We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran,” he said. “I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this.”
Trump said he was basing his optimism on new statements by Iran. “You probably read today the story about Iran. It’s sort of agreed to the terms,” he said.
The president did not specify which remarks he was referring to, but an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ali Shamkhani, said in a US media interview this week that Tehran was willing to accept far-reaching curbs on its nuclear programme.
“I want them [Iran] to succeed, I want them to end up being a great country,” Trump added on Thursday, “but they can’t have a nuclear weapon; that’s the only thing, it’s very simple.”
Trump’s remarks come amid intensified negotiations between US and Iranian officials, most recently held in Oman last Sunday. A US official confirmed to Axios that a new proposal had been delivered to Tehran during the fourth round of talks.
While both sides say they prefer a diplomatic solution, serious differences remain.
On Tuesday, Trump called Tehran the “most destructive force” in the Middle East.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian responded forcefully to Trump’s remarks, accusing the US of fuelling instability in the region. “Trump thinks he can sanction and threaten us and then talk of human rights. All the crimes and regional instability is caused by them [the United States],” he said. “He wants to create instability inside Iran.”
On Thursday, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, said that Iran considers Trump the “murderer” of Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force. He was killed in Iraq in a drone strike on January 3, 2020, ordered by Trump during his first term in office.
Yet some signals from Tehran suggest a deal may be within reach. In an interview with NBC News on Wednesday, senior adviser Shamkhani indicated Iran would be open to curbing its nuclear programme if sanctions were lifted.
According to Shamkhani, Iran is prepared to commit to not developing nuclear weapons, diluting its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and accepting international inspections.
Still, major obstacles remain. Washington has insisted that Iran halt uranium enrichment entirely – something Iranian officials continue to reject, calling it a non-negotiable “red line”.
Iran is willing to lower enrichment levels and reduce stockpiles, but insists the reductions be gradual and no less than the limits set by the 2015 nuclear agreement, which the Trump administration abandoned in 2018.
Negotiators are also at odds over where Iran’s excess uranium should be transferred, further complicating talks.
Qatar has emerged as a central player in mediation efforts between the US and Iran, as momentum builds around talks to revive a nuclear deal.
Speaking in Doha, Trump said Iran should “say a big thank you” to Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who had pressed the US leader to avoid military action. “Iran is very lucky to have the emir because he’s actually fighting for them. He doesn’t want us to do a vicious blow to Iran,” Trump said.
Qatar’s involvement “is not really something new”, said Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Doha. “They played quite a crucial role in mediating between the Iranians and the Americans in the past.”
According to Ahelbarra, there is a “strong indication” that Qatar will be “enormously involved in mediating a settlement”.
On his regional trip, Trump visited Saudi Arabia, where he met Saudi and Syrian leaders on Wednesday, before heading to Qatar.
On Thursday, he addressed US troops stationed at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, before heading to Abu Dhabi. In the UAE, he is meeting Emirati leaders who are lobbying Washington for support in their ambitious bid to position the Gulf state as a world leader in artificial intelligence.