|
BBC News with Sue Montgomery.
The European Trade Commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič has said the EU stands prepared to defend its interests after President Trump said he would raise import taxes on all goods from the bloc to 50%. Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic fell in response to Mr. Trump's comments. Here's Faisal Islam. Mr. Šefčovičs remarks are the first formal EU response to Donald Trump's dramatic raising of the stakes in the standoff with Europe, accusing the bloc of being very difficult to deal with and saying negotiations had been going nowhere. Maroš Šefčovič said trade between the EU and the U.S. must be guided by mutual respect and not threats. He said the EU Commission would work in good faith but that it stood ready to defend its interests. A French court has given prison sentences of up to three years to members of a gang that robbed the American star, Kim Kardashian, of millions of dollars worth of jewelry at a Paris hotel in 2016. The mostly elderly perpetrators will not, though, return to prison because of time already served in pre-trial detention. From Paris, Andrew Harding. Kardashian had been in Paris for Fashion Week. The gang appears to have targeted her after seeing her with her jewelry on social media. She was bound and gagged at gunpoint before the thieves escaped. The jury found almost all of them guilty but no more time in prison for any of the elderly criminals who've waited nine years for justice. As for Kim Kardashian, in a statement tonight she thanked French justice, described the robbery as "the most terrifying experience" of her life and prayed for healing for all concerned. An official from Gaza's civil defense agency has said at least 71 people were killed in the territory on Friday as Israel continued its intense bombardment. In the north, the Al-Awda Hospital reported that Israeli drones targeted the facility, injuring three of its staff. Meanwhile, the U.N. secretary-general has criticized ongoing restrictions and aid supplies, saying people in Gaza were "enduring what may be the cruelest phase" of the war. Here's Wyre Davies. Under pressure from even its closest ally, the United States, to ease the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, Israel has partially lifted an 11-week-long blockade. António Guterres said that only a trickle of aid had crossed over and that the U.N. was best placed to supply the 2.1 million people of Gaza with their urgent needs. Israel, which blames Hamas for any shortages in Gaza, wants to bypass the U.N. and implement an alternative aid plan, but that would force hundreds of thousands of people to leave the north to receive food in distribution centers partially controlled by the Israeli military further south. BBC News. The U.S. Justice Department says it's reached an agreement in principle with Boeing over two fatal accidents involving its 737 MAX planes. The aircraft manufacturer will pay more than $1.1 billion in fines and compensation and avoid prosecution from misleading regulators over the safety of its flight control system. That's been blamed for crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, in which 346 people died. The former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, has accused the current government of being a dictatorship, a day after the Senate lifted his immunity from prosecution. The move leaves him open to charges of war crimes and treason over his alleged links to Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in the east of the DRC. The U.S. secretary of state has condemned what he called a new wave of repression in Venezuela ahead of parliamentary and regional elections. Marco Rubio also expressed concern over the detention of an opposition leader, Juan Pablo Guanipa. President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva has led the tributes to the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, who's died at the age of 81. Working in black and white, many of Salgado's projects focused on marginalized communities. His João Fellet. Born in 1944 in rural Brazil, Salgado's photographic style was deeply influenced by his early experiences in the countryside. He trained as an economist but discovered photography in the early 1970s after moving to France and never looked back. Salgado's photographs are now part of the collections of many major museums and art galleries around the world. And last year, he received the Sony World Photography Award for his outstanding contribution to photography, a tribute to a career that touched to audiences across the globe. BBC News. |