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More than 160 people remain unaccounted for after devastating floods in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott announced, marking a dramatic increase in the number of missing from a disaster that has already killed 109 people.

Four days after flash floods ravaged several Texas counties, some striking while residents slept, hopes of finding survivors by Tuesday have dwindled – and Abbott warned that the number of missing people could still rise further.

“Just in the Kerr County area alone, there are 161 people who are known to be missing,” he told reporters on Tuesday as the grim search continued.

“There very likely could be more added to that list,” he added, explaining that the figure comes from individuals reported missing by friends, relatives and neighbours.

Kerr County, located in central Texas’s “Flash Flood Alley,” suffered the most catastrophic impact, with at least 94 confirmed deaths.

This toll includes at least 27 girls and counsellors who were staying at a youth summer camp along the Guadalupe River when it overflowed early on Friday morning as the Fourth of July holiday began.

Powerful floodwaters surged through the camp, demolishing cabins while hundreds slept.

As of Tuesday evening, five campers and one counsellor remained missing, according to Abbott, along with another child not associated with the camp.

“There’s nothing more important in our hearts and minds than the people of this community, especially those who are still lost,” Abbott said.

Throughout the rest of the state, at least 15 additional deaths have been recorded, the governor added.

Ben Baker with the Texas game wardens explained that search and rescue operations using helicopters, drones and dogs face tremendous obstacles due to water and mud.

“When we’re trying to make these recoveries, these large piles can be very obstructive, and to get in deep into these piles, it’s very hazardous,” Baker said.

“It’s extremely treacherous, time-consuming. It’s dirty work, the water is still there.”

Nairobi, Kenya – On June 7, Albert Ojwang was visiting his parents in his home village of Kakoth in Kenya’s Homa Bay County. His mother had just served him ugali (maize meal) and sukuma wiki (kale) for lunch when police officers on motorbikes arrived at the family’s compound.

Before Ojwang could take a first bite, they arrested him, taking him to the local Mawego police station before transporting him 350km (200 miles) to the Central Police Station in the capital, Nairobi.

The officers told his parents he had committed an abuse against a senior government official and was being arrested for publishing “false information” about the man on social media.

Ojwang, a blogger and teacher, had no criminal record and was just a month shy of his 31st birthday. But it was a celebration he would not live to see because less than a day later he was dead.

Police said he died by suicide after “hitting his head” against the wall of a cell where he was being held alone. But after an uproar from the public and rights groups and further investigation, the claim did not hold up. Eventually, two police officers were arrested.

Still, the public anger that erupted after Ojwang’s death did not abate.

Kenyans have been on tenterhooks since mass antigovernment protests erupted across the country a year ago – first against tax increases in a finance bill and later for the resignation of President William Ruto.

In the time since, police have been accused of human rights abuses, including allegations of government critics and activists being abducted and tortured.

Ojwang was seen by many as yet another victim of a system trying to silence those attempting to hold the government to account.

And in the month since his death, angry protests have soared; state violence – and deaths – against civilians have continued; and young people seem determined not to give in.

‘False and malicious information’

Ojwang was the only child of Eucabeth Ojwang and Meshack Opiyo, a retired quarry worker who had endured hard labour for 20 years in Kilifi County to send his son to school.

Opiyo left the back-breaking job after Albert Ojwang had secured a job as a teacher, hoping his son would help take care of the family after earning a degree in education.

“I had only one child. There’s no daughter. There’s no other son after him,” he told Al Jazeera. “I have suffered … while [working] in a quarry in Timbo for 20 years so that my child could go through school and earn a degree,” he added, saying Ojwang left behind a three-year-old son.

Ojwang was a promising teacher at Kituma Boys’ Secondary School in the coastal Taita Taveta County, about 700km (435 miles) southeast of his childhood home, his family said.

Media reports said he was linked to an account on X that several people used to publish news about Kenya’s government and politics. That’s what drew the attention of the authorities who came to his father’s house that June afternoon.

That day, the arresting officers assured Opiyo his son would be safe when they took him into custody. Overnight, the father left for Nairobi – taking his land title deed with him to use as a surety to bail his son out because he had no other money. But the news he received was of his son’s death.

“I thought we would come and solve this issue. I even have a title deed here in my pocket that I had armed myself with, so that if there were going to be need for bail, we would talk with a lawyer to bail him,” Opiyo told journalists the Sunday morning after his son’s death, having just learned what had happened to him.

Despite police claims that Ojwang died from self-inflicted injuries, his family and the public were sceptical. Human rights advocates and social media users alleged foul play and an official cover-up by police.

As public pressure mounted on the police to offer clarity, Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja confirmed that his deputy, Eliud Lagat, was the senior official who had made a “formal complaint” that led to Ojwang’s arrest.

“The complaint alleged that false and malicious information had been published against him [Lagat] in the X – that is, formerly Twitter – social media platform. The post claimed that he was involved in corruption within the National Police Service,” Kanja said before Kenya’s Senate and the media on June 11.

At first, Kanja repeated to the media that Ojwang had hit his head on the wall, killing himself in the process. But when questioned by lawmakers in the Senate, he admitted that was incorrect.

“Going by the report that we have gotten from IPOA [Independent Policing Oversight Authority], it is not true; he did not hit his head against the wall,” Kanja said. “I tender my apology on behalf of the National Police Service because of that information.”

A team of five government pathologists also released a report that revealed severe head injuries, neck compression and multiple soft tissue traumas. The cause of Ojwang’s death, they determined, was a result of the injuries, not a self-inflicted incident.

Meanwhile, Ann Wanjiku, the IPOA vice chairperson, told senators that preliminary findings showed Ojwang was alone in the cell but two witnesses who were in the next cell said they heard loud screams from where Ojwang was held.

The IPOA report also suggested there was foul play at the Nairobi Police Station because CCTV cameras had been tampered with on Sunday morning after Ojwang’s death.

Subsequently, several people were arrested and investigated, including two police officers who have been charged.

Police Constable James Mukhwana, an officer arrested and arraigned in court over Ojwang’s death, told IPOA investigators that he had acted on orders of his boss.

“It is an order from the boss. You cannot decline an order from your superior. If you refuse, something may happen to you,” he said in a statement to the IPOA. He added that his superior told him: “I want you to go to the cell and look at those who have been in remand for long. Tell them there is work I want them to do. There is a prisoner being brought in. Take care of him.”

Mukhwana pleaded not guilty in court but said he was sorry about the death in his statement, adding: “Ojwang was not meant to be killed but to be disciplined as per instruction.”

Who is ‘sanctioning’ these killings?

Since Ojwang’s death, Kenyan rights organisations have condemned what they say is his “murder”, calling the failure by authorities to hold accountable those responsible for police brutality as disrespect for human rights.

“The savage beating to death of Albert Ojwang and the subsequent attempts to cover this up shatter once more the reputation of the leadership of the Kenyan Police Service,” Irungu Houghton, the executive director at Amnesty International Kenya, told Al Jazeera.

“Amnesty International Kenya believes the failure to hold officers and their commanders accountable for two successive years of police brutality has bred the current impunity and disrespect for human rights,” he said.

Houghton also called for all those implicated to step aside and allow for investigations to take place.

“To restore public confidence and trust, all officers implicated must be arrested. … Investigations must be fair, thorough and swift. This moment demands no less.”

Amnesty has previously called out police abuses, including “excessive force and violence during protests”, and reported abductions of civilians by security forces. Rights groups said more than 90 people have been forcibly disappeared since June 2024.

“Albert Ojwang’s killing in a police station comes after persistent repeated police denials that the normal chain of police command is not responsible for the 65 deaths and 90-plus enforced disappearances seen in 2024,” Houghton said.

“Who are the officers abducting and killing those who criticise the state? Who is sanctioning or instructing these officers? Why has the government found it so difficult to trigger deep reforms to protect rather than stifle Kenyans’ constitutional freedom of speech and assembly as well as act on public policy opinion?” he asked.

Speaking in an interview with Kenya’s TV47 on June 24, the National Police Service Spokesperson Michael Muchiri acknowledged police brutality within the service, saying it was wrong.

“We accept and we acknowledge that within our ranks, we’ve gotten it wrong multiple times,” he said. But he added: “An act by one of us, and there have been a couple of them many times over, should not in any way be a reflection of the whole organisation.”

Al Jazeera reached out to Deputy Inspector General of Police Lagat to comment on the allegations against him, but he did not respond.

Shot at protests

Many of the Kenyans reportedly targeted by police and other “state agents” were young, vocal participants in the antigovernment protests that engulfed the capital and other cities last year.

After Ojwang’s death, the Gen Z protesters once again erupted in anger.

On June 17, they staged a demonstration in Nairobi to demand justice for their fallen comrade. Things soon got out of hand as the police used force, resulting in fatalities among the young people.

Boniface Kariuki, a mask vendor in Nairobi, was caught between the police and protesters, and the police fired a rubber bullet at his head at close range, sending him to an intensive care unit at the Kenyatta National Hospital. He was declared brain dead after a few days and died on June 30.

An autopsy report released on Thursday said Kariuki “died from severe head injuries caused by a single close-range gunshot”. It further revealed that four bullet fragments remained lodged in his brain.

Two officers who had been caught on camera firing the deadly bullet have been charged.

This came about the time Kenyan youth also marked a year since the antigovernment protests began on June 25, 2024.

In line with the anniversary, many young people across the country took to the streets to express their anger against the government.

Those protests also became violent. Many businesses were destroyed in Nairobi, and some police stations in other places were set ablaze.

That same day, three 17-year-olds, among others, were shot dead in different parts of the country. While the police have not commented on the deaths, the victims’ families and rights groups say all three were killed in crossfire during the protests.

Dennis Njuguna, a student in his final year of secondary school, was shot in Molo, Nakuru County, as he headed home from school for his mid-term break.

In Nairobi’s Roysambu area on the Thika Superhighway, police reportedly also shot dead Elijah Muthoka, whose mother said he had gone to a tailor but did not come back. That evening, she would receive the news that he was hospitalised at the nearby Uhai Neema Hospital. He was then transferred to the Kenyatta National Hospital and pronounced dead the next morning.

Outside Nairobi in Olkalou, Nyandarua County, Brian Ndung’u was shot twice in the head, according to an autopsy report released by pathologists at the JM Kariuki County Referral Hospital. Margaret Gichuki, Ndung’u’s sister, said her brother had just completed his secondary school education and learned photography so he could help raise his college fees together with their mother, who is a daily wage labourer.

“He had gone out to do street photography, which was his passion, and that is where he got shot. I was home and learned about his shooting through Facebook images that were shared by friends,” Gichuki told Al Jazeera.

Gichuki described her brother as a hardworking young man who had a lot of dreams, but which were cut short by the bullet. “After the autopsy, we could not get further information about the identity of the bullet that was removed from his head, as the police took it,” she said, explaining that one bullet was fragmented in his brain while another was removed by doctors and handed to the police during autopsy.

Together with their cousin Margaret Wanjiku, Gichuki then called to inform their mother that Ndung’u was missing – not wanting to immediately shock her with the news that her son had died.

“Ndung’u had been pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital, but this was news that carried weight for [our mother], and we wanted to have her come home before we could break it other than tell her over the phone,” Wanjiku said.

‘Surge’ in harassment

Less than two weeks after that, Kenyans again took to the streets in demonstrations that once again turned deadly.

On Monday, they rallied for “Saba Saba” meaning “Seven Seven” in Kiswahili to mark the date on July 7, 1990, when people demanded a return to multiparty democracy after years of rule by then-President Daniel arap Moi.

This year, the protest turned into a wider call for Ruto to resign and also a moment to remember Ojwang.

Four days earlier, Ojwang’s body had arrived at his home in Homa Bay for a nighttime vigil before his burial the next day.

When it arrived, angry youth took hold of the coffin and marched with it to the Mawego police station, where he was last seen alive before he was taken to Nairobi.

At the station, the youth set the station ablaze before making their way back to Ojwang’s home with his body.

The next day at the funeral, Anna Ngumi, a friend of Ojwang’s, told mourners: “We are not going to rest. We are not going to rest until justice is done. Remember we are still celebrating Seven Seven here. We will do Seven Seven for Albert Ojwang.”

But at the rallies, police were once again heavy-handed. In Nairobi, they fired live rounds and water cannon at the protesters. Eleven people were killed.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said people were also abducted and arrested, adding that it was “deeply concerned by the recent surge in harassment and persecution of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) accused of organizing the ongoing protests”.

‘Why did you kill my child?’

Within his circles, Ojwang is said to have been a humble person who never quarrelled with anyone and instead sought peace whenever there was a conflict.

His university friend Daniel Mushwahili said Ojwang was modest and sociable.

“I knew this person as a very cool and outgoing person. He had many friends. … He was not an arrogant person, not a bully, and did not even participate in harassing anybody,” Mushwahili said. He was “a person who seeks peace”.

Ojwang’s mother Eucabeth, speaking at a reception by comedian Eric Omondi, lamented her son’s killing, saying she had lost her only child and did not know how the family would cope without him.

“I had hope this child would assist me in building a house. He even had a project to plant vegetables, so we could sell and make money. Now I don’t know where to start without him,” she said.

“I feel a lot of pain because there are people who came home and took my son. … I feel a lot of pain because he is dead.”

Meanwhile, as the investigation into Ojwang’s death continues, his father says he misses his “trustworthy” son, who he relied on to take care of the family’s most valuable things, even with the little they had.

Opiyo said that when the officers came to their house to arrest his son, they saw how little the family had and knew they would not fight back. In his grief, he said he now wants answers from the police and in particular Deputy Inspector General Lagat, who made the complaint against Ojwang.

“Today, my son is dead from injuries inflicted through beating. I need you to explain to me why you killed my child,” Opiyo said.

“My son did not die in an accident or in war. He died in silence in the hands of those who were supposed to protect him.”

North Koreans’ repatriation comes as South Korea’s newly-elected president is working to improve inter-Korean ties.

South Korea has repatriated six North Koreans who were rescued at sea earlier this year after their vessels drifted across the de facto maritime border, Seoul’s Unification Ministry has said.

The North Koreans, who were picked up by South Korean authorities in separate vessels in March and May, were transported across the Northern Limit Line on Wednesday morning with their “full consent” and after they had repeatedly expressed their wish to return home, the ministry said.

The repatriation was successfully completed with the cooperation of North Korean authorities despite repeated failed attempts by Seoul to contact Pyongyang about their return, according to the ministry.

The development comes as South Korea’s newly-elected president, Lee Jae-myung, is working to bolster ties between the two Koreas, which remain in a technical state of war after hostilities in the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Speaking at a news conference to mark his first month in office last week, Lee said that Seoul should work to improve relations in coordination with its ally, the United States, and that cutting off dialogue completely would be a “foolish act”.

Last month, South Korea’s military turned off loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korea propaganda across the inter-Korean border in one of the Lee administration’s first steps towards rapprochement.

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defence at the time said the move would help “to restore trust in inter-Korean relations” and “promote peace on the Korean Peninsula”.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for British support to recognise the state of Palestine and help defend Ukraine as he arrived in the United Kingdom for the first state visit by a European leader since Brexit.

Macron, in a rare address to both houses of the British parliament on Tuesday, celebrated the return of closer ties between France and the UK, and said the two countries must work together to end “excessive dependencies” on the United States and China.

The French president’s three-day trip came at the invitation of King Charles III. Macron was earlier greeted by the royal family, including heir-to-the-throne Prince William and his wife, Princess Catherine, before they travelled in horse-drawn carriages to Windsor Castle.

Macron then set out to parliament where he said the two countries needed to come together to strengthen Europe, including on defence, immigration, climate and trade.

“The United Kingdom and France must once again show the world that our alliance can make all the difference,” the French president said in English. “The only way to overcome the challenges we have, the challenges of our times, will be to go together hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder.”

Macron also promised that European countries would “never abandon Ukraine” in its war against invading Russian forces, while demanding an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.

He then urged the UK to work together with France on recognising a Palestinian state, calling it “the only path to peace”.

“With Gaza in ruin and West Bank being on a daily basis attacked, the perspective of a Palestinian state has never been put at risk as it is,” Macron said. “And this is why this solution of the two states and the recognition of the State of Palestine is… the only way to build peace and stability for all in the whole region.”

He listed the geopolitical threats France and the UK face, and argued they should also be wary of the “excessive dependencies of both the US and China”, saying they needed to “de-risk our economies and our societies from this dual dependency”.

Macron went on to set out the opportunities of a closer union, saying they should make it easier for students, researchers and artists to live in each other’s countries, and seek to work together on artificial intelligence and to protect children online.

The speech symbolised the improvement in relations sought by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s centre-left Labour Party, as part of a broader reset of ties with European allies following the rancour over London’s departure from the European Union.

‘Entente Amicale’

Later on Tuesday evening, King Charles hosted a banquet for the Macrons at Windsor Castle, with 160 guests, including politicians, diplomats and celebrities such as Mick Jagger and Elton John.

Charles used his speech at the opulent state banquet to christen a new era of friendly relations, upgrading the “entente cordiale” – an alliance dating from 1904 that ended centuries of military rivalries – to an “entente amicale”.

“As we dine here in this ancient place, redolent with our shared history, allow me to propose a toast to France and to our new entente. An entente not only past and present, but for the future – and no longer just cordiale, but now amicale,” the king said.

The UK and France marked the three-day visit with an announcement that French nuclear energy utility EDF would invest 1.1 billion pounds ($1.5bn) in a nuclear power project in eastern England.

The two also said France would lend the UK the Bayeux Tapestry, allowing the 11th-century masterpiece to return for the first time in more than 900 years, in exchange for London loaning Paris Anglo-Saxon and Viking treasures.

Politics will take centre stage on Wednesday, when Macron sits down for talks with Starmer on migration, defence and investment.

Despite tensions over post-Brexit ties and how to stop asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel in small boats, the UK and France have been working closely to create a planned military force to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia.

The two leaders will dial in to a meeting of the coalition on Thursday “to discuss stepping up support for Ukraine and further increasing pressure on Russia”, Starmer’s office confirmed on Monday.

They will speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, according to the French presidency.

Starmer is hoping the UK’s support for Ukraine will help persuade Macron to take a different approach to stopping people smuggling, with London wanting to try out an asylum seekers’ returns deal.

This would involve the UK deporting one asylum seeker to France in exchange for another with a legitimate case to be in the country. A record number of asylum seekers have arrived in the UK on small boats in the first six months of this year. Starmer, whose party is trailing Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party in the polls, is under pressure to find a solution.

France has previously refused to sign such an agreement, saying the UK should negotiate an arrangement with all EU countries.

United States President Donald Trump has met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for a second time in 24 hours to discuss a possible ceasefire deal in Gaza.

The unscheduled talks on Tuesday evening lasted just over an hour, with no media access.

Ahead of the meeting, Trump said he would be speaking with Netanyahu “almost exclusively” about Gaza.

“We gotta get that solved. Gaza is… it’s a tragedy, and he wants to get it solved, and I want to get it solved, and I think the other side wants to,” he said.

The two men had also met for several hours during a dinner at the White House on Monday during Netanyahu’s third visit to the US since the president began his second term on January 20.

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, said the latest meeting was “tightly sealed with very little information coming out”.

“The fact that it was so hermetically sealed, the fact that there has been no clear readout of exactly what was discussed, the fact that the meeting lasted just over an hour before the prime minister returned to his residence – all of it may indicate that there’s some kind of stumbling block, something that is clouding the optimistic position that the two leaders have adopted over the past 24 hours,” Hanna said.

Shortly before the unscheduled meeting, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said the issues keeping Israel and Hamas from agreeing had dropped to one from four, and he hoped to reach a temporary ceasefire agreement this week.

“We are hopeful that by the end of this week, we’ll have an agreement that will bring us into a 60-day ceasefire. Ten live hostages will be released. Nine deceased will be released,” Witkoff told reporters at a meeting of Trump’s Cabinet.

But Netanyahu, meeting with the speaker of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said Israel’s campaign in the Palestinian enclave was not done and that negotiators are “certainly working” on a ceasefire.

“We have still to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas’s military and government capabilities,” the Israeli leader said.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Jordan, said Israeli media are reporting that Netanyahu is facing “extreme pressure” to reach a deal on Gaza.

“But still, there’s been no breakthrough,” she said from the Jordanian capital, Amman.

“Israeli media is also talking about a delay in the travel plans of Witkoff to Doha, although earlier in the night, he had sounded very optimistic about possibly reaching a deal. Because according to him, only one issue remained problematic – which is, ‘Where will the Israeli army redeploy to?’” Odeh said.

“Now, this is important, because Israel wants to maintain control over the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. According to the Israeli minister of defence, Israel plans to build a tent city in Rafah, where it will concentrate the population, control who enters, not allow anyone to leave, and then push the population out of Gaza to implement, according to the Israelis, the Trump plan of depopulating Gaza and taking over the enclave,” she added.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed at least 57,575 Palestinians and wounded 136,879 others. Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the war, and nearly half a million people are facing famine within months, according to United Nations estimates.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.

Some 50 captives remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.

Trump has strongly supported Netanyahu, even wading into domestic Israeli politics by criticising prosecutors over a corruption trial against the Israeli leader on bribery, fraud and breach-of-trust charges, which Netanyahu denies.

In his remarks to reporters at the US Congress, Netanyahu praised Trump, saying that there has never been closer coordination between the US and Israel in his country’s history.

Joao Pedro hits a brace on debut against former club Fluminense to send Chelsea into FIFA Club World Cup 2025 final.

England’s Chelsea defeated Fluminense of Brazil 2-0 to reach the final of the FIFA 2025 Club World Cup, with Blues debutant Joao Pedro netting twice against his boyhood club.

The Brazilian forward, who was at Fluminense from age 10 until leaving for Watford in 2020, curled his new club in front at MetLife Stadium on Tuesday from the left side of the box in the 18th minute.

The 24-year-old, who joined the Londoners from Brighton for $81.5m last week, sealed the win in the drilled effort that went in off the underside of the bar early in the second half.

The Blues will face the winner of Real Madrid against Paris Saint-Germain, who play in the second semifinal on Wednesday.

Temperatures were soaring in New Jersey, which will stage next summer’s FIFA 2026 World Cup, ahead of the 3pm kickoff.

A crowd of 70,556, which was only 10-15 percent short of capacity, attended the game, despite the 34 degrees Celsius (93F)  at kickoff, with humidity that made it feel like 40C (104F).

FIFA had, however, cut ticket prices from $473.90 to $13.40 last week.

It did not take long for the action on the field to reach similarly heated levels soon after Pedro’s opener, when Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah handled in his own area.

Video Referee Assistant (VAR) intervened, and the original awarding of the penalty was overturned. Fluminense were incensed, but Chalobah’s arm was in a natural position by his side.

Fluminense’s best opening came moments earlier, when Marc Cucurella was forced to clear Hercules’s shot off the line in the 27th minute.

Former Chelsea defender Tiago Silva, who appeared 113 times for Brazil, lined up against his former club since departing the London club last October.

The 40-year-old was far busier than his former teammates in their defensive lines, with his keeper, Fabio, drawn into a number of saves.

There was little the oldest player in the tournament, at 44, could do about either of Pedro’s strikes, the second a brilliant finish following a counterattack early in the 56th minute. Cole Palmer set the move in motion by dribbling past three players before laying off for Enzo Fernandez, who in turn laid on to Pedro.

Much like his first goal, where he took two steps to start to celebrate, then stopped and clasped his hands, Pedro showed respect to his former club by muting his response to both strikes.

Chelsea will now seek to secure a second FIFA Club World Cup, following their 2021 victory.

European teams will win their 12th straight Club World Cup title, and 17th in 18 tries, the lone exception a 2012 victory by Brazil’s Corinthians over Chelsea.

The London-based club has earned $88.4m to $103.8m for reaching the final, the amount depending on a participation fee FIFA has not disclosed.

Opposition leader Ghannouchi, ex-prime minister and former presidential aide sentenced amid President Saied’s crackdown on dissent.

A Tunisian court has handed jail terms to 21 high-profile politicians and former top officials, including opposition leader and ex-Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, the Tunis Afrique Press (TAP) news agency reports.

The rulings on Tuesday are the latest move in President Kais Saied’s widening crackdown on critics and political opponents.

Ghannouchi, the leader of the Ennahdha party who has been in jail since 2023, was sentenced to up to 14 years in jail. Several others, including former Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs Rafik Abdessalem Bouchlaka, were sentenced in absentia to 35 years.

Nadia Akacha, Saied’s former chief of staff, who was considered a close and influential aide to the president, was also handed a 35-year prison sentence in absentia, according to the TAP.

The charges against the defendants cover a wide range of alleged offences, including forming and joining a “terrorist” organisation and conspiring against internal state security.

On Tuesday, Bouchlaka, the former foreign minister, dismissed the sentences as unserious, saying that the Tunisian government has become a “mockery in front of the world with its immaturity, recklessness and craziness”.

“Sooner or later, this lying, deceptive coup regime will leave like the dictators, tyrants and fraudsters that left before it,” Bouchlaka wrote in a social media post.

Many opposition leaders, some journalists and critics of Saied have been imprisoned since he suspended the elected parliament and began ruling by decree in 2021 – moves the opposition has described as a coup.

Critics have accused Saied of using the judiciary and police to target his political opponents. Many warn that democratic gains in the birthplace of the Arab Spring in the years since the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali are being steadily rolled back.

Saied rejects the accusations and says his actions are legal and aimed at ending years of chaos and rampant corruption.

Ennahdha denies allegations against the group. The party had emerged as one of Tunisia’s largest after the 2011 uprising, and Ghannouchi led a power-sharing agreement with late President Beji Caid Essebsi to transition the country to democracy.

Last year, the Tunisian government closed down Ennahda’s headquarters in Tunis. Ghannouchi, 84, is already serving other jail sentences for charges that his supporters say are political.

In February, he was given a 22-year sentence for “plotting against state security”.

Ennahdha called the ruling “a blatant assault on the independence and impartiality of the judiciary and a blatant politicisation of its procedures and rulings”.

Trump aide says Washington ‘hopeful’ a 60-day truce between Israel and Hamas can be reached by the end of the week.

An aide to United President Donald Trump has suggested a Gaza ceasefire is close, saying Washington hopes to see an agreement finalised by the end of the week.

“We’re in proximity talks now, and we had four issues, and now we’re down to one after two days of proximity talks,” special US envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.

“So we are hopeful that by the end of this week, we will have an agreement that will bring us into a 60-day ceasefire.”

Witkoff said the deal would see the release of 10 Israeli captives and the bodies of nine. He added that the Trump administration thinks the deal “will lead to a lasting peace in Gaza”.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters in Washington, DC, that while Israel “still has to finish the job in Gaza”, negotiators are “certainly working” on a ceasefire.

Trump and Netanyahu dined together on Monday at the White House during the Israeli leader’s third US visit since the president began his second term on January 20.

The two leaders are to meet again later on Tuesday.

“He’s coming over later. We’re going to be talking about, I would say, almost exclusively Gaza. We’ve got to get that solved,” the US president told reporters at a cabinet meeting in the White House on Tuesday.

“It’s a tragedy, and he wants to get it solved, and I want to get it solved, and I think the other side wants to.”

Qatar confirmed on Tuesday that Hamas and Israeli delegations are in Doha to discuss the ceasefire proposal.

“There is a positive engagement right now. The mediation teams – the Qataris and the Egyptians – are working around the clock to make sure that there is some consensus built on the framework towards the talks,” Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 57,500 Palestinians, internally displaced nearly the entire population of the enclave and placed hundreds of thousands of people on the verge of starvation.

United Nations experts and rights group have described Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a genocide.

Netanyahu suggested on Monday that the US and Israel are working to ensure the mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza – an idea first proposed by Trump in February.

Israeli officials have been framing the push to remove all Palestinians from Gaza Gaza as an effort to encourage “voluntary migration” from the territory.

“If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave. It shouldn’t be a prison. It should be an open place and give people a free choice,” Netanyahu told reporters.

Rights advocates said the removal of Palestinians from Gaza, which would amount to ethnic cleansing, cannot be considered voluntary.

Prominent legal expert Ralph Wilde said that with the widespread destruction, siege and daily attacks in Gaza, the concept of free choice to stay there or leave “is a lie”.

“It’s forced displacement because that isn’t a choice that is made freely,” Wilde told Al Jazeera.

Wildfires near Marseille, France have forced the airport to close and injured nine firefighters as more than 700 hectares burned. Officials urged residents to stay indoors as heatwaves and strong winds fuel fire risks across southern France.

US President Donald Trump said he is tired of the meaningless “b*******” from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during negotiations over the war on Ukraine. He added that extra sanctions could be on the table.

Could Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s third trip to the United States during President Donald Trump’s administration mean a ceasefire in Gaza is close at hand? As Netanyahu lands in Washington, DC, for a week of discussions on topics such as Gaza and Iran, what pressures is he facing at home?

US President Donald Trump and his Middle East envoy both claimed the talks could happen next week, following the Iranian president’s comments on being open to dialogue.

Iran says it has not requested talks with the United States over its nuclear programme, as claimed by US President Donald Trump.

“No request for a meeting has been made on our side to the American side,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Tuesday in comments carried by the country’s Tasnim news agency.

The clarification came a day after Trump, during a dinner in the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Iran was actively seeking negotiations on a new nuclear deal following the 12-day war with Israel last month, which the US also joined.

“We have scheduled Iran talks. They want to talk,” Trump told reporters. “They want to work something out. They are very different now than they were two weeks ago.”

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff – also present during the dinner – had even said the meeting could take place in the next week or so.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times newspaper on Tuesday that Tehran remains interested in diplomacy but “we have good reason to have doubts about further dialogue”.

Sanctions relief

On June 13, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign on Iran that targeted military and nuclear sites as well as residential areas, killing senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. Iranian authorities say the Israeli strikes killed at least 1,060 people. Israel says retaliatory drone and missile fire by Iran killed at least 28 people.

The US joined the war, bombing Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz, just days before a planned meeting between Tehran and Washington, DC on reviving the nuclear talks. Trump then went on to announce a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

The negotiations, aimed at limiting Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, would replace the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – a deal signed with the US, China, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union – which Trump ditched during his first term in office.

Floating the prospect of more talks on Monday, Trump also dangled the prospect of lifting punitive US sanctions on Iran, imposed after the US withdrawal from JCPOA, with further restrictions piled on this year.

This month, the US issued a new wave of sanctions against Iranian oil exports, the first penalties against Tehran’s energy sector since the US-backed ceasefire ended the war between Israel and Iran.

“I would love to be able to, at the right time, take those sanctions off,” said Trump.

Towards the end of last month, Trump said he was working on “the possible removal of sanctions”, but dropped his efforts after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed “victory” in the Iran-Israel war.

Tehran’s denial regarding talks with the US came after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told US journalist Tucker Carlson that Iran had “no problem” resuming talks so long as trust could be rebuilt between the two sides.

The interview, aired on Monday, provoked a backlash in Iran, with the critics accusing Pezeshkian of being “too soft” in the wake of last month’s attacks on the country.

“Have you forgotten that these same Americans, together with the Zionists, used the negotiations to buy time and prepare for the attack?” said an editorial in the hardline Kayhan newspaper.

The conservative Javan daily also took aim at Pezeshkian, saying his remarks appeared “a little too soft”.

In contrast, the reformist Ham Mihan newspaper praised Pezeshkian’s “positive approach”.

Celebrities are all too familiar with the world of deepfakes, the colloquial term for artificial intelligence-generated videos that depict actors and other Hollywood talent falsely doing or saying things that they never agreed to.

To protect themselves, actors including Steve Harvey, Beverly Hills talent agency WME and studios have enlisted the help of Vermillio, a Chicago-based company that tracks famous people’s digital likenesses and intellectual property online. Depending on what its clients want, it can have the material taken down .

But as AI technology continues to improve and becomes more widely available to the general public, regular people are getting scammed too.

Now, Vermillio says it is offering a version of its service for free to everyone.

The move comes as more and more convincing deepfakes continue to proliferate online, making it difficult for social media sites to police such activity. In 2019, there were about 18,000 deepfakes globally and this year, there have been roughly 2 trillion generative creations, said Vermillio Chief Executive and co-founder Dan Neely.

That leaves average Joes at a growing risk of being impersonated online, with little recourse.

“We can’t wait for governments to solve this problem,” Neely said. “We can’t wait for legislators to solve this problem. We can’t wait for other people to solve this problem. We just said it’s the right thing to do, so we should just be doing it.”

With this move, Vermillo is adopting a classic “freemium” model — offering partial service for no charge and up-selling for additional features.

Here’s how it works.

Using its TraceID technology, the company flags problematic content. For paying clients, Vermillio can send take-down requests to sites such as YouTube or Instagram. Additionally, Vermillio says clients can monetize their data by licensing it.

People who sign up for the free version enter information about themselves such as their name, date of birth and social media handles on sites including Instagram or YouTube.

Then, Vermillio will use that information to build a “likeness model” to scour the Internet for potential red flags involving the user’s identity. Then Vermillio alerts the user to what exists online. For example, if someone has created a fake Instagram account of that user, Vermillio would flag that.

Users are notified of this type of content and can decide for themselves what they would like to allow, or take action to remove. If the user wants Vermillio to request take-downs of the inappropriate content, users would need to upgrade to a paid account, which starts at $10 a month and includes five monthly take down requests.

While many social media platforms give an option to users to flag problematic content, Vermillio said it is faster and more effective than having users go directly to YouTube or Instagram to rectify the situation. It has built a network of partners and can escalate take-downs in as quickly as an hour, the company said.

Vermillio executives said some real life examples of deep fakes include celebrity voices used to raise money for fake charities or terrorist organizations, and high school students creating fake pornography of their classmates.

“It’s affecting regular people in the sense that they’re getting scammed by deep fakes, but it’s also affecting teenagers, so people need to understand where they stand,” said Kathleen Grace, Vermillio’s chief strategy officer. “This is an easy way for them to do that.”

While fake social media profiles have existed for years, “generative AI just poured gasoline on it,” Grace said.

The company said hundreds of people use Vermillio’s services, but didn’t specify numbers. By the end of the year, the company expects to have thousands.

Neely said the company isn’t profitable and declined to share revenue figures. Time magazine reported that revenue from Vermillio’s TraceID has increased tenfold from April 2023 to April 2024. The company makes money through the paid versions of its service and licensing. Vermillio has raised $24 million in funding.

Hollywood companies and talent are navigating artificial intelligence in different ways.

Groups such as performers guild SAG-AFTRA are pushing for more state and federal protections against deepfakes. Some celebrities such as Academy Award-winning supporting actor Jamie Lee Curtis struggled to get a fake ad of her on Instagram taken down showing her falsely endorsing a dental product.

WME announced a partnership with Vermillio last year.

“The scale of the issue is extraordinary, so if you’re a rights holder, just trying to understand how much of these AI outputs are based on or utilized my data, my IP in some way, shape or form, is a massive need,” said Chris Jacquemin, WME’s head of digital strategy.

“They’ve obviously proven that TraceID can protect the most important, most high profile public figures in the world,” Jacquemin added. “Opening it up in a much broader application, I think is a huge step forward in really democratizing how anybody can start to police use of their likeness with respect to AI and AI platforms.”

Published on
08/07/2025 – 13:54 GMT+2

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Fast fashion giant Shein has confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

The Chinese-founded, Singapore-based retailer privately filed a draft prospectus last week with Hong Kong’s exchange (HKEX) and sought the blessing of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The application is a means for Shein to increase pressure on UK regulators as it seeks approval for its London listing. The firm filed to list in the UK capital around 18 months ago, but has since struggled to obtain the green light.

Chinese and UK regulators have notably failed to agree on the language included in the risk disclosure section of its prospectus, particularly where this relates to human rights abuses.

Shein faces claims that it sources cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, where the US and NGOs have accused the Chinese government of forced labour and human rights abuses targeting Uyghur people.The US banned imports from the area in 2021.

In January, Yinan Zhu, a senior lawyer representing Shein, refused to say whether the firm was using cotton from Xinjiang when questioned by UK lawmakers on the Business and Trade committee.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority approved a version of Shein’s prospectus earlier this year, but it wasn’t accepted by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Hong Kong’s exchange is expected to be more flexible than its UK counterpart when it comes to risk descriptions, although FT sources noted that London would still be the preferred listing location.

Shein had originally sought to list in New York, although changed its plans in response to significant political opposition in the US, linked to its labour practices as well as national security concerns.

Financially, Shein’s IPO would provide a boost to the London market that has seen a number of recent defections. Delisted firms include Just Eat Takeaway, Wise, Ashtead and Flutter Entertainment.

According to data from Dealogic, IPO fundraising in the UK market fell to at least a 30-year low in the first half of this year.

Euronews has reached out to Shein for further comment.

The UN says almost half a million Afghans have left Iran in just a month, as Iranian authorities continue a mass deportation drive of undocumented migrants. Iranian authorities have accused some Afghans of spying for Israel and say undocumented migrants present a security threat.

Published on 08/07/2025 – 13:04 GMT+2•Updated
13:13

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The EU and the US are preparing for a trade deal involving the US imposing a baseline 10% tariff on EU goods, according to several sources briefed by EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.

A preliminary agreement is expected to be concluded by Wednesday, with legal implementation by 1 August — the new deadline set by US President Donald Trump before additional tariffs come into effect if no deal is signed, sources said.

“The US will not drop the baseline tariffs, because they’re a revenue source,” the Parliament’s trade committee head MEP Bernd Lange (Germany/S&D) told reporters on Tuesday.

He said that aircraft and spirits would be exempted from the baseline 10% tariffs. Whether wines are included remains unclear.

The US currently apply 25% tariffs on EU cars, 50% tariffs on steel and aluminium and 10% tariffs on all other EU imports.

Lange said negotiations are ongoing on attempts to remove tariffs on cars, with much at stake for the German automotive industry, which is highly exposed to trade with the US.

“There are already estimates that up to 50,000 jobs could be at risk,” Lange added.

Germany and Italy — the largest EU exporters of goods to the US along with Ireland — remain concerned by US proposals not to exempt key sectors such as cars, steel and aluminium or pharmaceuticals, according to an EU diplomat.

EU retaliatory measures remain on the table but have not yet been finalised by the Commission. The EU must still decide when to use them.

“There is no immediate plan to do anything with the list,” Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said on Monday.

A first list of measures covering €21 billion worth of US products has been suspended until 14 July.

A second list, reduced following lobbying by industries and EU member states from €95 billion to €72 billion worth of US products, according to the French news agency AFP, has yet to be submitted for final approval by EU member states. 

A confrontation between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Armenia’s top Christian clerics seems to be deepening, polarising the deeply religious South Caucasus nation of 3 million.

St Echmiadzin, the Armenian Apostolic Church’s headquarters, has been “taken over by the anti-Christian, immoral, antinational and antistate group and has to be liberated”, Pashinyan wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, adding: “I will lead this liberation.”

The dispute escalated late last month, with bells ringing tocsin over St Echmiadzin on June 27.

Usually, the loud and alarming sound signals an event of significance, such as a foreign invasion.

But on that parching-hot June day, the noise rang out to signal the detention of a top cleric who, according to Pashinyan, was part of a “criminal-oligarchic clergy” that was involved in “terrorism” and plotted a “coup”.

He said the “coup organisers” include the Church’s head, Karekin II, who has disputed with Pashinyan in a months-long personal feud.

But the conflict should not be seen as a confrontation between secular authorities and the entire Church, observers said.

“It’s a personal clash,” Richard Giragosian of the Regional Studies Center think tank based in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, told Al Jazeera.

But some Armenians still described the furore in almost apocalyptic terms.

“We lost our statehood so many times, so being part of the Church was equal to being Armenian,” Narine Malikyan, a 37-year-old mother of two from Armenia’s second-largest city of Guymri, told Al Jazeera. “Attacking the Church is like attacking every Armenian.”

The Church, whose doctrine differs from that of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox sees, has for centuries helped maintain the identity of Armenians while their lands were ruled by Iranians, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, Turks and Russians.

‘The Karabakh clan’

The conflict between Pashinyan and Karekin is rooted in the 2020 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan that ended a decades-old “frozen conflict”.

In the early 1990s, Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azeri enclave dominated by ethnic Armenians, broke away in a bloody war that uprooted up to a million.

Moscow-backed separatist leaders from Nagorno-Karabakh became part of Armenia’s political elite and cultivated ties with the Church.

The so-called “Karabakh clan” spawned two presidents who ruled Armenia for 20 years but were accused of corruption, cronyism and pocketing donations from Armenian diasporas in France, the United States and Russia.

In 2018, Pashinyan, an ex-lawmaker and popular publicist, led huge protests that toppled the “Karabakh clan”. He became prime minister with approval ratings of more than 80 percent.

Some protesters back then flocked to St Echmiadzin to urge Karekin to step down as they lambasted his penchant for luxurious cars and lavish parties.

‘An illegitimate child’

Two years later, Armenia lost Nagorno-Karabakh in a 44-day war that proved the superiority of drone attacks and hi-tech stratagems.

By 2023, Azerbaijan regained control of the entire Dubai-sized territory, while tens of thousands of its residents flocked to Armenia.

Karekin blamed Pashinyan for the defeat, even though observers have argued that the responsibility lies with his predecessors’s miscalculations.

Pashinyan struck back.

He claimed that 73-year-old Karekin – who was ordained in 1970, studied theology in Austria, Germany and Moscow and became the Church’s head in 1999, broke his vow of celibacy to father a child – and should, therefore, vacate his seat.

“If Karekin II tries to denounce this fact, I’ll prove it in all necessary ways,” Pashinyan wrote on Facebook on June 9.

He did not specify the details, but Armenian media “discovered” that Karekin’s alleged daughter is a medical doctor in Yerevan.

Karekin did not respond to the claim but accused Pashinyan of dividing Armenians.

“The anti-clerical campaign unleashed by authorities is a serious threat to our national unity, domestic stability and is a direct blow to our statehood,” the grey-bearded clergyman, clad in a ceremonial robe adorned with crosses, said on June 22 at a ceremony at St Echmiadzin.

A day later, a priest called Pashinyan “Judas” and claimed he was circumcised.

Pashinyan retorted by offering to expose himself to the priest and Karekin.

A failed detention

On June 27, dozens of intelligence officers interrupted a conference in one of St Echmiadzin’s tawny, centuries-old buildings to forcibly deliver another Pashinyan critic, Archbishop Mikael Adjapakhyan, to an interrogation.

But priests and parishioners summoned by the tocsin fought them off – while critics compared the incident to the 1938 killing of Armenia’s top cleric in St Echmiadzin during the Soviet-era crackdown on religion.

Hours later, Archbishop Adjapakhyan volunteered for an interrogation, telling supporters that he “was being persecuted illegally”.

He was arrested for two months – along with 14 alleged “coup organisers,” including another archbishop, Bagrat Galstanyan, opposition lawmakers and “Karabakh clan” figures.

The coup was supposed to take place on September 21, on Armenia’s Independence Day, according to its plan leaked to the Civic.am daily.

Also arrested was construction tycoon Samvel Karapetyan, who made his estimated $3.6bn fortune in Russia and owns Armenia’s main power company.

Karapetyan had threatened Pashinyan, saying if the conflict with Karekin is not solved, “we will take part in it all in our own way.”

The arrests were “a move by the Armenian government to preempt any potential Russian interference in the coming [parliamentary] elections that are set for June 2026”, analyst Giragosian said.

‘Pashinyan is hard to negotiate with’

Those opposed to Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party have accused him of siding with Azerbaijan and Turkiye.

But Baku has its qualms about Pashinyan.

“Pashinyan is by far not a peace dove,” Emil Mustafayev, chief editor of the Minval Politika magazine based in the Azeri capital, Baku, told Al Jazeera. “He is hard to negotiate with.”

However, after the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, Pashinyan “began to take heed of Baku’s position”, Mustafayev said. “Of all possible options in Yerevan, he’s the least problematic partner one can have a dialogue with, no matter how complicated it is.”

Analyst Gigarosyan agreed.

“Pashinyan is the best interlocutor [Baku and Ankara] could hope for because of predictability and also because he’s looking to turn the page,” he said. “He’s not looking for revenge.”

And even though Pashinyan’s current approval ratings are well below 20 percent, his party may become a political phoenix and win the June 2026 vote.

Armenian opposition parties are either centred around two former presidents from the “Karabakh clan” who are deeply mistrusted, or are too small and splintered to form sizeable coalitions and influence decision-making in the unicameral, 107-seat parliament.

“They’re likely to win,” Giragosian said of Pashinyan’s party. “Not because of a strong degree of support, but because the opposition is hated and feared more.”

The global economy is on edge as United States President Donald Trump’s July 9 deadline looms for the imposition of double-digit tariffs on most trading partners.

On Monday, Trump announced tariffs on 14 countries, ranging from 25 to 40 percent. The targeted countries include close US allies like Japan and South Korea, as well as Laos, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Tunisia, South Africa, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Indonesia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And with only a few trade deals in place, his administration is expected to announce the imposition of new levies on many more countries. Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday said those new tariffs would come into effect on August 1.

Trump’s initial April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement of across-the-board tariffs on countries around the world sent markets into a tailspin. Trump relented – temporarily – announcing a 90-day cessation on higher tariffs, while imposing a 10 percent baseline levy on all trading partners.

Now, some experts fear that higher tariffs, if imposed after July 9, could push the global economy into a recession.

Along with reducing the trade deficit, Trump’s argument for tariffs is that they will boost US manufacturing and protect jobs. He says tariffs will encourage US consumers to buy more US-made goods, increase the taxes raised and enhance investment in the US.

But what is the current state of manufacturing in the US, and how has it fared in recent months amid the economic churn stirred by Trump’s policies?

Where are we now?

In a bid to revitalise US industry, Trump announced a $14bn investment on May 30, brokering a partnership between US Steel and Nippon Steel tipped to create 70,000 jobs, according to the White House.

The Trump administration has also highlighted investments announced by automakers, tech firms and chocolate companies, among others, as evidence of the return of manufacturing to US soil.

According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, manufacturing contributed $2.9 trillion to the economy in the first quarter of 2025, a 0.6 percent increase from the corresponding period in 2024. That places it behind only finance, professional and business services, and government as the largest sectors contributing to the US economy.

However, building that manufacturing base back to the heydays of the sector, when it dominated the US economy, will not be easy, caution many experts. They point out that the US is today missing many of the essential elements of a robust manufacturing framework, including skilled labour, government support and technology.

Manufacturing accounted for more than 25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the 1970s, but that came down to 13 percent by 2005. Its share has since dropped further, to about 9.7 percent in 2024.

Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing value added as a percentage of GDP was 21 percent in 2024, followed by professional and business services (13 percent) and government (11 percent).

US manufacturing falls for a fourth month

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Manufacturing Index, also known as the purchasing managers’ index (PMI), is a monthly indicator of economic activity based on a survey of purchasing managers at manufacturing firms nationwide. It serves as a primary indicator of the condition of the US economy.

The PMI measures the change in production levels across the economy from month to month. A PMI above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction.

In June, it registered 49 percent, marking a fourth consecutive month of contraction, though the rate of decline has slowed.

At the start of 2025, the PMI was in expansion territory – 50.9 percent in January and 50.3 percent in February, before slipping below 50 in March.

Nine manufacturing industries reported growth in June, while six industries reported contraction.

According to the Reuters news agency, economists say the lack of clarity on what happens after July 9 has left businesses unable to make long-term plans.

How many people does manufacturing employ?

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in June 2025 there were some 12.75 million people employed in the manufacturing sector in the US.

Employment in manufacturing has increased from five years ago – in June 2020, some 11.95 million people were employed.

However, current employment levels are still far below the peak of nearly 20 million people hired in manufacturing jobs in the late 1970s, reflecting the long-term decline in the sector’s contribution to employment in the US.

US manufacturing job openings increased in May – 414,000, up from 392,000 in April – but actual hiring declined, hinting at uncertainties in the labour market over the Trump administration’s tariff policies.

US manufacturing compared to the rest of the world

The US has seen a decline in its share of global manufacturing, while China has taken over as the largest manufacturing country by value-added.

China contributed $4.8 trillion to the global GDP through manufacturing in 2022, followed by the US at $2.7 trillion that year.

Still, the US remains a major player and adds more manufacturing value than the third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-largest countries combined. And it does so with far fewer workers than its competitors.

Roman Starovoit was found dead near his car in the Moscow region hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him.

Russia’s top criminal investigation agency is probing the death of Roman Starovoit, a former transport minister whose body was found with a gunshot wound near his car, hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him from his post.

Authorities on Monday said the 53-year-old politician’s body was discovered near a Tesla vehicle abandoned near a park in the Moscow region, with a pistol, registered in Starovoit’s name, located nearby.

The Investigative Committee has opened a case to determine the full circumstances of his death, suggesting it could be suicide. Russian media, citing law enforcement sources, said the gunshot appeared to be self-inflicted.

However, the timing of the death has prompted speculation.

Putin issued a decree earlier on Monday, removing Starovoit as transport minister, a role he had held for just more than a year. No explanation was provided.

Political commentators quickly linked the decision to a long-running corruption investigation in the Kursk region, where Starovoit previously served as governor.

The probe centres on whether 19.4 billion roubles ($246m) allocated in 2022 to bolster border defences in Kursk were embezzled.

The funds were meant to reinforce Russia’s frontier with Ukraine, but Ukrainian forces launched a cross-border assault into the region three months into Starovoit’s ministerial term – the largest such incursion since World War II.

In April, his successor and former deputy in Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, was charged with embezzling defence funds. Several Russian outlets reported on Monday that Smirnov, who denies wrongdoing, had told investigators Starovoit was also involved in the alleged fraud.

The incident casts a shadow over Russia’s transport sector, already grappling with wartime pressures.

Western sanctions have left the aviation industry struggling for spare parts, while soaring interest rates have pushed Russian Railways – the country’s largest employer – into financial strain.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s drone attacks continue to disrupt domestic air traffic, forcing temporary airport closures and leading to logistical uncertainty.

Following Starovoit’s dismissal, the Kremlin announced that Andrei Nikitin, former governor of the Novgorod region, had been appointed as acting transport minister. Photographs released by state media showed him shaking hands with Putin.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin believed Nikitin had the necessary experience to steer the ministry through current challenges. At his meeting with the president, Nikitin pledged to modernise the sector by boosting digital infrastructure to improve cargo flows and cross-border trade.