According to state media reports, Iran has executed a man who was accused of spying on Israel.
According to the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news outlet, Rouzbeh Vadi allegedly shared information about a nuclear scientist who was killed during Israel’s June attacks on the Islamic Republic.
According to Mizan, he was executed on Wednesday and had previously worked for one of Iran’s “important and sensitive organizations.”
At least eight Iranians who have been found guilty of spying for Israel have received at least eight death sentences in recent months.
Israel launched 12 airstrikes in June, some of which targeted Iran’s top generals and nuclear scientists, and Iran responded with a barrage of missiles and drones in response. Since the start of the war, Iran has promised to bring swift trials for those detained for alleged collaboration with Israel.
According to Mizan, Vadi committed “a number of crimes against the country’s internal and external security, which have severely harmed public order.”
Vadi allegedly met Mossad, an Israeli intelligence service officer, five times online and in Vienna, Austria.
According to another report, Iran hanged an ISIL (ISIS) member on Wednesday after he was charged with plotting sabotage.
Mehdi Asgharzadeh was allegedly a member of the group that organized military training in Syria and Iraq before entering Iran without authorization with a team of four members who were killed in a confrontation with Iranian security, according to the news site.
A hunger crisis affecting the most vulnerable, particularly those who are imprisoned in el-Fasher, the capital of Sudan, is compounding the country’s 27-month civil war.
Aid organizations claim they have been denied access to el-Fasher despite numerous appeals for assistance from the insiders.
According to the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies, about 740, 000 people are now suffering from hunger.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global hunger monitor, declared a famine in the camps of Zamzam and Abu Shouk, which house hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in North Darfur, and warned that it might spread to el-Fasher by May.
How did things in El-Fasher escalate to such a gloom? What information is necessary here:
What’s going on with El-Fasher?
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) placed a siege on El-Fasher in April 2024 in protest of local armed groups’ pledge of allegiance to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
The RSF, which has been fighting SAF since April 2023, has tightened its hold on the city’s entry and exit, as it has gradually weakened.
Local media, the UN, and relief organizations report that food costs are rising, making the majority of people unable to purchase staples like sorghum and wheat.
Local journalist Mohamed Zakaria told Al Jazeera that the markets are frequently bare, citing the UN’s report that food costs in El-Fasher to be four times as much as the rest of the nation.
Additionally, he claimed, communal kitchens have been shut down because of the siege’s food shortages, which were crucial for feeding civilians throughout the nation.
Who is el-Fasher’s prisoner?
In the capital are trapped el-Fasher residents and generations of displaced people who have sought refuge over the past 20 years.
During the first Darfur war in 2003, some people escaped government-backed nomadic “Arab” Janjaweed militias. These armed organizations are currently engaged in combat with the RSF.
As the RSF swept through South, East, West, and Central Darfur, which included the other four states, others fled to North Darfur to escape.
Families emigrated to El-Fasher recently after the RSF invaded the nearby Zamzam camp, which provided shelter for more than a million people.
About half of the people trapped in and around El-Fasher, according to UNICEF, were children, in March.
In North Darfur, Sudan, on April 23, 2019, Sudanese children who have fled the internally displaced people’s (IDP) Zamzam camp in North Darfur, Sudan, rest while making their way to the Tawila camp.
Who or what was responsible for the crisis?
According to Al Jazeera’s earlier reporting, Sudan is experiencing a hunger crisis, primarily as a result of the country’s continuing civil war and its use of starvation as a means of conflict.
The RSF’s attempt to elude the city in El-Fasher, which would give it complete control over Darfur’s crucial strategic region, is to blame for the catastrophic hunger in El-Fasher.
Sudan could be split into the western and southern regions if it is successful, with the SAF retaining control over the central, north, and east.
Since the first Darfur war, the SAF has largely relied on sedentary “non Arab” armed groups to thwart repeated RSF attacks since the siege first started.
These armed organizations are collectively known as the “Joint Forces,” and despite holding El-Fasher so far, they are losing ground.
No campaign has been launched to liberate the city despite the SAF conducting some aerial bombardment missions over the area.
How do people survive?
Many people are currently turning to animal feed.
They are consuming ambaz, a local term for the leftovers from pressed oilseeds like peanuts, sesame, and sunflower seeds. These pellets are now being ground to create a slurry that will keep them alive.
Zakaria added that while people are attempting to survive, they are unable to grow enough food in their huts.
The most vulnerable to starvation are children.
Has anyone been able to flee?
Many people have escaped in the last 15 months.
The RSF instead established a “humanitarian corridor” to Tawila, a town that is 40 kilometers (24. 8 miles) away, in response to requests to grant aid organizations access to civilians.
A major cholera outbreak is threatening the lives of already malnourished children in Tawila, where countless people have traveled there.
However, some aid organizations have been able to assist there.
In contrast to those who were captured and killed by the RSF when they attempted to escape El-Fasher, those who made it to Tawila consider themselves fortunate despite the health crisis.
According to the Emergency Lawyers, a local monitor, young men are frequently accused of fighting for army-aligned armed groups, as happened on August 2, when the RSF attacked a village along the way from El-Fasher, killing 14 people and injuring many others.
Is it getting worse?
Daily, it seems.
According to the Sudanese Doctors’ Network, 239 children in El-Fasher passed away from hunger in the first six months of this year. If aid isn’t quickly delivered to the besieged city, people in the city may grow in numbers, warn UN agencies.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has stated in a statement that the city has been under the siege and that thousands of people are facing starvation.
According to Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, an elderly woman from El-Fasher shared a video on TikTok in which she pleaded for the army to establish a corridor so that aid can reach those trapped in the besieged city.
“All of you and your families are outside [El-Fasher], and nobody is starving like this,” she said.
In the midst of the ongoing conflict between the army and paramilitary forces, a displaced Sudanese woman walks on February 11, 2025, at a camp near Tawila in North Darfur.
A truck carrying humanitarian aid flipped on a crowd of people in central Gaza, killing at least 20 Palestinians, and injuring many more, according to the government media office in the area.
In the middle of a growing humanitarian crisis, a large number of Palestinians gathered in central Gaza on Wednesday to search for food and basic supplies.
According to local officials who were quoted by the Palestinian news agency Wafa, the car flipped after Israeli forces reportedly directed it to an “unsafe road.”
According to a spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defense, Mahmud Bassal claimed that hundreds of civilians were waiting for aid while 20 people were killed and dozens were hurt in the incident.
The Gaza Government Media Office stated in a statement that “the occupation intentionally obstructs the safe passage and distribution of this aid.”
It makes drivers navigate roads filled with starving civilians who have been waiting for the ugliest of things for weeks. This frequently results in desperate crowds swarming the trucks and enforcing their contents.
The incident comes as humanitarian organizations are putting a stop to the spread of famine and disease in the area, and more people are dying from starvation and malnutrition.
According to medical sources, at least three people passed away on Wednesday from malnutrition. A source at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza confirmed that a young child had malnourished. According to the source, a child also perished from malnutrition. Additionally, it is reported that a Jabalia adult died from malnutrition.
According to UNRWA, the Israeli military approved 95 aid trucks entering Gaza on Monday, which is far below the daily 600 needed to meet basic needs. 85 trucks are on average right now, on average.
Since the notorious GHF began operating in late May, Palestinians who approach aid distribution sites have frequently been subject to Israeli fire. Near its sites in central and southern Gaza, such shootings have become nearly daily occurrences.
While some aid was entering the enclave, according to Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for OCHA, “there should be hundreds and hundreds of trucks entering Gaza every day for months or years.”
Every day, people pass away. He continued, “This is a crisis that is on the verge of famine,” noting that tons of life-saving aid are still stranded at border crossings because of bureaucratic delays and a lack of safe access.
In addition, several Palestinians were killed in Israeli-caused attacks across the border in Gaza.
In an Israeli raid on a home north of the Nuseirat refugee camp, five people were killed and two children were hurt, according to Al-Awda Hospital.
Taipei, Taiwan – Southeast Asia’s export-driven economies are facing new uncertainty from United States President Donald Trump’s trade war, as his administration cracks down on exports directed through third countries to avoid his tariffs on China.
Under an executive order issued by Trump last week, goods imported into the US face a punitive 40 percent tariff, plus penalties and any applicable country-of-origin duties, if US Customs and Border Protection determines they have been “transshipped”.
The tariff is set to go into effect on Thursday, along with Trump’s latest country-specific tariffs ranging from 10 to 41 percent.
While China is the main target of the new tax on transhipments, which applies to all redirected goods irrespective of country of origin, Southeast Asia could suffer much of the fallout, because of the region’s highly integrated supply chains with Chinese manufacturers, trade experts say.
The effect will depend on exactly how the Trump administration defines transhipments, which is still unclear, said Puan Yatim, an associate professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Graduate School of Business.
“If Washington maintains a narrow interpretation – targeting only those goods that are imported from China, minimally processed or relabeled and then re-exported to the US – the economic impact on ASEAN may be limited,” Yatim told Al Jazeera, referring to the Southeast Asian regional bloc.
“However, a broader and more punitive interpretation – where goods with any significant Chinese input are also deemed in violation – could prove economically devastating for countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Malaysia,” she added.
Chinese manufacturers have for years been steadily expanding into Southeast Asia as part of a strategy known as “China Plus One”.
The strategy has helped Chinese firms avoid US tariffs, exploit cheaper labour, and diversify their supply chains – a particular concern during China’s COVID-19 lockdowns.
From 2020 to 2024, Chinese foreign direct investment into the 10 ASEAN nations grew from $7.1bn to $19.3bn, according to ASEAN data.
During the same period, exports from China to Southeast Asia rose from $385bn to $587bn, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The surge in Chinese exports, including goods illegally mislabeled to conceal their origin, has placed Southeast Asia in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.
“[Companies] need intermediate imports from China to create products which get shipped to the US, but because companies have been embroiled in illegal transshipments in the region, there’s a huge bias in the Trump administration that ASEAN is the predominant channel,” Priyanka Kishore, principal economist at Asia Decoded in Singapore, told Al Jazeera.
A key example of trade that invoked Washington’s ire centred on the solar cell industry.
Following a years-long investigation, the US Department of Commerce in April announced tariffs of up to 3,500 percent on Southeast Asian manufacturers alleged to have illicitly exported Chinese goods.
Southeast Asia is now in a “sticky situation” where it must appease the US – the region’s top export market – while not alienating China, Kishore said.
Beijing has threatened to “resolutely take countermeasures” against countries that agree to trade deals with the US that go against its interests.
In May, Malaysia announced that it would no longer allow nongovernmental organisations such as chambers of commerce to issue certificates of origin, as part of its efforts to ensure the integrity of its exports.
Vietnam similarly agreed to a 40 percent transshipment tariff in a framework deal reached with the US in May, while Indonesia’s Trade Minister Budi Santoso said last month that his country was opposed to transshipping.
Despite Southeast Asian governments’ efforts to mollify the US, the transshipment tariff could create major compliance issues for the private sector, said Steve Okun, founder and CEO of APAC Advisors in Singapore.
A top concern will be how the US treats products made with components from multiple countries.
US tariffs are typically determined by the location where a product underwent “substantive transformation”, but if the Trump administration were to apply duties based on the presence of even small amounts of Chinese components, compliance and enforcement would be extremely difficult, Okun said.
“You’re going to have to be doing due diligence on supply chains that you never had to do before,” Okun told Al Jazeera.
The changes would “potentially redefine trade,” he said.
A truck drives past stacks of containers at Jakarta International Container Terminal at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, on July 9, 2025 [Tatan Syuflana/AP]
A strict interpretation of transshipping could further dim Southeast Asia’s appeal, at a time when the Trump administration is already chipping away at its China Plus One competitive advantage with his tariffs on the region’s economies, said Richard Laub, CEO and cofounder of Dragon Sourcing, a global procurement service provider.
Under Trump’s latest tariffs, Singapore is subject to a 10 percent rate, while Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia are subject to rates of 19 or 20 percent – less than the 30 percent rate proposed for China under the White House’s latest tariff framework.
Trump’s transshipment tariff potentially eats into that advantage.
“A lot of the Chinese supply strategy has been to establish some kind of facility abroad with limited content, limited value, adding those facilities to basically circumvent those transshipments. I suspect that that will come to a standstill,” Laub told Al Jazeera.
A Washington, DC-based consultant who advises businesses on trade and supply chain issues in China, said he had observed a similar phenomenon, but to the detriment of US exporters.
“We are seeing [multinational corporations] from around the globe, particularly those that served the China market from the United States, doing more to localise supply chains for China in China,” the consultant told Al Jazeera, asking not to be named.
Companies in sectors that rely on materials like foreign-sourced steel – which is subject to separate tariffs – have found manufacturing becoming too expensive in the US and started moving manufacturing out of the country, the consultant said.
“This is a terrible outcome and the opposite of what the administration intends,” he said.
Nick Marro, principal economist for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said despite the uncertainty, the direction of the policy in Washington is ambiguously bad for Southeast Asia.
“Clearly, the US is concerned about transshipments,” Marro told Al Jazeera.
According to Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a South Korea-based religious group, over 4,000 members of the church who recovered from COVID-19 are willing to donate plasma for developing a new treatment.
Mr. Man Hee Lee, founder of the Shincheonji Church, said that members of the church are advised to donate plasma voluntarily. “As Jesus sacrificed himself with his blood for life, we hope that the blood of people can bring positive effects on overcoming the current situation,” said Mr. Lee.
