Author: Finance for Sight

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said Thursday that Israeli bombardment killed at least 24 people since midnight in the war-ravaged territory, which has been under an Israeli aid blockade for nearly two months. Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18, after a two-month truce collapsed over disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, whose 2023 attack triggered the conflict. Civil defence official Mohammed al-Mughayyir said the toll included eight people killed in an Israeli air strike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Yunis refugee camp in the territory’s south. Four people…

KYIV/WASHINGTON: Ukraine and the U.S. on Wednesday signed a deal heavily promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump that will give the United States preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals deals and fund investment in Ukraine’s reconstruction. The two countries signed the accord in Washington after months of sometimes fraught negotiations, with uncertainty persisting until the last moment with word of an eleventh-hour snag. The accord establishes a joint investment fund for Ukraine’s reconstruction as Trump tries to secure a peace settlement in Russia’s three-year-old war in Ukraine. The agreement is central to Kyiv’s efforts to mend ties with Trump and…

Swarms of Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Dnipro late on Tuesday, killing at least one person and injuring at least 46, officials said. Kharkiv, which lies in the northeast near the Russian border and is Ukraine’s second-largest city, has been the target of regular Russian drone and missile attacks since Moscow began its full-scale invasion more than three years ago. The attack on the city late on Tuesday injured at least 45 people, including two children and a pregnant woman, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said. The attacks came as the United States, which had tried to…

SEOUL: About 600 North Korean troops have been killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine out of a total deployment of 15,000, South Korean lawmakers said on Wednesday, citing the country’s intelligence agency. North Korea has suffered some 4,700 casualties so far, including injuries and deaths, though its troops have shown signs of improved combat capabilities over about six months by using modern weapons like drones, the lawmakers said. In return for dispatching troops and supplying weapons to Russia, Pyongyang appears to have received technical assistance on spy satellites, as well as drones and anti-air missiles, they said. North Korea confirms…

BEIRUT: The Lebanese army has dismantled “over 90 percent” of Hezbollah’s infrastructure near the border with Israel since a November ceasefire, a security official said Wednesday. “We have dismantled over 90 percent of the infrastructure in the area south of the Litani,” the official, who requested anonymity as the matter is sensitive, told AFP. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun meanwhile said in an interview with Sky News Arabia that the army was now in control of over 85 percent of the country’s south. The November truce deal, which ended over a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, was based on…

SHANGHAI: China has created a list of US-made products that would be exempted from its 125% tariffs and is quietly notifying companies about the policy, two people familiar with the matter said, as Beijing seeks to ease the impact of its trade war with Washington. China has already granted tariff exemptions on select products including select pharmaceuticals, microchips and aircraft engines and was asking firms to identify critical goods they need levy-free, Reuters reported on Friday. However, the existence of a so-called ‘whitelist’ had not been previously reported. The quiet approach allows Beijing, which has repeatedly said it is willing…

UPPSALA/STOCKHOLM: Three people were killed in a shooting in the Swedish city of Uppsala on Tuesday and a murder investigation has been launched, police said. Police said it was investigating the shooting as a homicide and that it had no information about the incident being a terror or hate crime at this point. “We have information that a person left the scene on an electric scooter,” a police spokesperson told Reuters. “Whether this person is a perpetrator or a witness, or someone who has some connection to the incident, it is unclear at this time.” Police said the victims were…

KOLKATA: A fierce fire ripped through a hotel in the Indian city of Kolkata killing at least 15 people, police said Wednesday, with some clambering out of windows and onto the rooftop to escape. Several people were rescued from rooms and the roof of the budget hotel, Kolkata police chief Manoj Verma told AFP after the fire broke out on Tuesday evening. “The hotel turned into a gas chamber and it appears that many people suffocated to death,” said Verma, adding an investigation had been launched to determine the cause of the blaze. The Rituraj Hotel, which had 88 guests…

WARREN: President Donald Trump touted what he called a series of major economic wins and forcefully attacked Democrats during a rally in Michigan on Tuesday, as polling showed Americans growing more skeptical of his hardline approaches on trade and immigration. During a campaign-style rally meant to commemorate his first 100 days in office, Trump said his moves to impose tariffs on the U.S.’s trading partners could lead to a resurgence in domestic manufacturing. “We had the greatest economy in the history of our country,” Trump said of his first presidency, from 2017-2021. “We did great, and we’re doing better now.”…

GENEVA: More than 72,000 deaths and disappearances have been documented along migration routes around the world in the past decade, most of them in crisis-affected countries, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Last year saw the highest migrant death toll on record, with at least 8,938 people dying on migration routes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). “These numbers are a tragic reminder that people risk their lives when insecurity, lack of opportunity, and other pressures leave them with no safe or viable options at home,” IOM chief Amy Pope said in a statement. The report by her…