Ata mārie and welcome to your Tuesday summary of international events from overnight.
First up, Iran and Israel have promised to end attacks as ongoing violence threatened US President Donald Trump’s hopes for a lasting peace deal, Bloomberg reported.
Israel had launched attacks on Iran after Tehran fired missiles late on Sunday local time. Iran said its strikes were in retaliation for Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Beirut, Reuters reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cautioned the war against Lebanon-based Hezbollah “has not yet ended”. Trump promised that “final” peace negotiations were ongoing, CNBC noted.
“Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, Bagher Ghalibaf, said the US was “neither seeking a ceasefire nor seeking dialogue” and Iran should respond “decisively” to defend itself, Al Jazeera reported.
“We do not want to move forward with commitment or sloganeering, but rather we must seek an engineered victory with Iranian authority and rationality,” he said.
“If we consider diplomacy to be merely dialogue in closed rooms and diplomatic smiles, we will fail from the very beginning.”
US President Donald Trump.
The International Air Transport Association warned that profits could halve at global airlines this year because of the rising cost of jet fuel, CNBC reported.
Outgoing director general Willie Walsh said while travel demand remained resilient, airlines were raising fares and growth would inevitably be slower. As a result, net profits would fall from US$45 billion to US$23b in 2026, and net margins from 4.2% to 2%.
Sharemarkets in Asia fell during Monday trading as renewed conflict in the Middle East sent jitters through trading floors, the Guardian said. Earlier, Brent crude oil jumped about 5% to US$97.60 per barrel.
On Wall Street, the key indexes rose at the start of this week after red ink on Friday, when the Nasdaq dropped 4.2%, its worst fall since April last year.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for deeper cooperation during a visit to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the AFP and AP reported.
The two sides should strengthen exchanges in diplomacy, law enforcement, and the military, Xi said, as China was willing to expand cooperation in areas including trade, agriculture, construction, and technology.
Elsewhere, a powerful earthquake struck the Philippines, killing at least 32 people, destroying buildings and triggering tsunami alerts across Asia. More than 100 people were also injured during the 7.8 earthquake, Al Jazeera said.
The initial earthquake was followed by more than an hour of aftershocks. General Santos, a city with 722,000 people, suffered some of the most serious damage.
The quake also triggered tsunami warnings in the wider region with smaller waves recorded in Indonesia, Palau and southern Japan, CNN reported.
Sam Bankman-Fried.
FTX crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried has applied for a pardon from Trump. He was given a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted of multiple charges, the BBC reported.
Just two years into that sentence, the 34-year-old has filed an application for pardon after completion of sentence to the Department of Justice. He is also currently attempting to appeal against his sentence and has long maintained his innocence.
Meanwhile, a federal judge voided Trump’s requirement of a US$100,000 application fee for H-1B visas because he lacked authority to impose the new policy, CNN reported.
US District Judge Leo Sorokin said that only Congress had the power to change federal immigration policy to include such a requirement.
Finally, Spain is booming from a stronger tourism season as holidaymakers avoid the Middle East in search of sun, sand, and peace.
Spain's official tourist arrival figures showed the country received 9.1 million international visitors in April, a new high for the month. That was 5.2% above April last year, or 450,000 additional people, the BBC said.
Industry experts had originally expected modest growth in Spain this year, but the Middle East war had made Spain an attractive alternative compared to Dubai, Turkey and Cyprus.
