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Rising Nile Floods Hit Egypt And Sudan, Revive Ethiopian Mega-Dam Dispute
Rising Nile waters flooded homes and farmland in northern Egypt over the weekend, forcing residents to evacuate by boat and escalating tensions between Cairo and Addis Ababa over whether Ethiopia’s massive Nile dam has aggravated seasonal flooding.
In the Nile Delta village of Dalhamo, in Menoufia Governorate, some 50 km (31 miles) northwest of Cairo, men paddled wooden boats through narrow lanes where water lapped at the walls of their homes.
“We lost everything,” said fisherman Saied Gameel, standing knee-deep in his flooded house. “The water level is extremely high, much higher this year … before it would rise for two days and then recede.”
Floods In Sudan Displace Thousands
The Nile has long been affected by seasonal flooding due to monsoon rainfall in the Ethiopian Highlands that usually peaks in July and August. But this year, a late-season surge has pushed north from Ethiopia, through Sudan, and into Egypt.
In Sudan, the U.N. migration agency said floods in Bahri, Khartoum state, displaced about 1,200 families last week and destroyed homes, compounding an 18-month war that has crippled the country’s response.
Egypt’s Water Resources and Irrigation Ministry has accused Ethiopia of “reckless unilateral” operation of its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, saying sharp, unannounced swings in water releases after the dam’s September 9 inauguration helped trigger a “man-made, late flood”.
It said, in a statement on October 3, that discharges jumped to about 485 million cubic metres on September 10 and as high as 780 million on September 27 before easing, straining Sudan’s Roseires Dam and pushing excess water through to Egypt.
Ethiopia, which sees the $5 billion dam as central to its development, rejected Cairo’s claims, describing Egypt’s statement as “malicious and riddled with numerous baseless claims”.
In a statement on October 4, its Water and Energy Ministry said regulated releases from the Blue Nile project had reduced flood impacts and that without it, heavy rain “would have caused historic destruction in Sudan and Egypt”.
Ethiopia inaugurated the dam on September 9, with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed saying it was built “to prosper, to electrify the entire region, and to change the history of black people”, insisting it was “not to harm its brothers”.
The dam is designed to generate 5,150 megawatts of power and hold up to 74 billion cubic metres of water in its lake.
Cairo bitterly opposed the dam from the start, arguing that it violated water treaties dating back to the early part of the last century and posed an existential threat.
‘Nowhere Else To Go’
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said in a press conference on October 2 that authorities had anticipated higher-than-normal flows this month and warned that low-lying tracts in Menoufia and neighbouring Beheira, long encroached by informal building and farming on the river’s floodplain, were at risk.
Health teams were deployed to flooded areas over the weekend.
Back in Dalhamo, Gameel said residents were still waiting for help.
“People were warned before the water rose, but there’s nowhere else for anyone,” he said. “When the water rises, everyone ends up staying on top of their houses.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
Two Years After Gaza War, Trump ‘Optimistic’ About Ceasefire Deal
Two years after the Gaza conflict began, President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed U.S. backing for Gaza’s security assurances and said he believes a deal to free the remaining hostages is nearing completion.
Talking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said, “I think there’s a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East” beyond just Gaza. He said he would discuss Gaza with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
A U.S. official said U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who was Trump’s Middle East envoy during his first term, were headed to Egypt on Tuesday to join the negotiations there.
The talks seem to represent the most promising negotiations yet for ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.
“We are very close to making a deal on the Middle East that will bring peace to the Middle East after all of these years,” Trump said at the start of an Oval Office meeting with Carney.
Asked what security guarantees the United States was willing to offer, Trump pledged help without offering specifics.
“We are going to do everything possible – we have a lot of power – and we’re going to do everything possible to make sure everybody adheres to the deal,” he said.
Hamas Seeks Deal
Hamas said on Tuesday it wants to reach a deal to end the war in Gaza based on U.S. President Trump’s plan, but still has a set of demands, a statement signalling that indirect talks with Israel in Egypt could be difficult and lengthy.
Senior Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum set out Hamas’ position on the second anniversary of the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, and one day after the indirect negotiations began in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Hamas ‘Serious’ About Trump’s Gaza Plan But Sets Tough Conditions
Hamas said on Tuesday it is seeking a Gaza ceasefire deal based on U.S. President Trump’s proposal, but maintained several key demands, indicating that indirect negotiations with Israel in Egypt may prove challenging and protracted.
Trump, however, expressed optimism on Tuesday about progress toward a Gaza deal and said a U.S. team had just left to take part in the negotiations.
“I think there’s a possibility that we could have peace in the Middle East” beyond just Gaza, he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Senior Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum set out Hamas’ position on the second anniversary of the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, and one day after the indirect negotiations began in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The talks appear the most promising yet for ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.
But officials on all sides urged caution over the prospects for a rapid agreement, as Israelis remembered the bloodiest single day for Jews since the Holocaust and Gazans voiced hope for an end to the suffering brought by two years of war.
Hamas Sets Out Conditions
“The (Hamas) movement’s delegation participating in the current negotiations in Egypt is working to overcome all obstacles to reaching an agreement that meets the aspirations of our people in Gaza,” Barhoum said in a televised statement.
He said a deal must ensure an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip – conditions that Israel has never accepted. Israel, for its part, wants Hamas to disarm, something the group rejects.
Hamas wants a permanent, comprehensive ceasefire, a complete pullout of Israeli forces and the immediate start of a comprehensive reconstruction process under the supervision of a Palestinian “national technocratic body”, he said.
Underlining the obstacles lying ahead at talks, an umbrella of Palestinian factions, including Hamas, issued a statement vowing a “resistance stance by all means” and saying “no one has the right to cede the weapons of the Palestinian people”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately comment on the status of the talks.
U.S. officials have suggested they want to initially focus talks on a halt to the fighting and the logistics of how the hostages and Palestinian prisoners in Israel would be freed. But Qatar, one of the mediators, said many details had to be worked out, indicating that any agreement was not imminent.
In the absence of a ceasefire, Israel has pressed on with its offensive in Gaza, increasing its international isolation.
Opponents of Israel’s actions in Gaza held protests in Sydney, Australia and a handful of European cities on the anniversary of Hamas’ attack, despite denunciations by politicians who said such marches risked glorifying violence.
Hopes Of A Breakthrough
On the anniversary, some Israelis visited the places that were hit hardest that day.
Orit Baron stood at the site of the Nova music festival in southern Israel beside a photo of her daughter Yuval, who was killed with her fiancé Moshe Shuva. They were among 364 people who were shot, bludgeoned or burned to death there.
“They were supposed to get married on February 14th, Valentine’s Day. And both of the families decided because actually they were found (dead) together and they brought them to us together (that) the funeral will be together,” said Baron.
“They are buried next to each other because they were never separated.”
Israelis are hoping the talks in Sharm el-Sheikh will soon lead to the release of all the 48 hostages still held in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.
“It’s like an open wound, the hostages, I can’t believe it’s been two years and they are still not home,” said Hilda Weisthal, 43.
In Gaza, 49-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Dib hoped for the end of a conflict that has caused a humanitarian disaster, displaced many Palestinians multiple times and killed more than 67,000 Palestinians.
“It’s been two years that we have been living in fear, horror, displacement and destruction,” he said.
No Ceasefire After Two Years Of War
In the latest violence, residents of Khan Younis in southern Gaza and Gaza City in the north reported new attacks by Israeli tanks, planes and boats in the early hours of Tuesday.
The Israeli military said militants in Gaza fired rockets into Israel, setting off air raid sirens at the Israeli kibbutz Netiv Haasara, and that Israeli troops continued to tackle gunmen inside the enclave.
Israel and Hamas have endorsed the overall principles behind Trump’s plan, under which fighting would cease, hostages would go free, and aid would pour into Gaza. It also has the backing of Arab and Western states.
But an official involved in ceasefire planning and a Palestinian source said Trump’s 72-hour deadline for the hostages’ return may be unachievable for the dead hostages, as their remains may need to be located and recovered.
Even if a deal is clinched, questions will linger over who will govern Gaza and rebuild it, and who will finance the huge cost of reconstruction. Trump and Netanyahu have ruled out any role for Hamas.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Ecuador: Rocks And Bullets Strike President’s Car, Five Arrested
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa escaped unharmed on Tuesday after his motorcade came under attack from a crowd throwing rocks. Authorities detained five people following the incident, which a senior minister described as an assassination attempt, saying the president’s vehicle showed visible signs of bullet impact.
Environment and Energy Minister Ines Manzano, who filed a formal report of an assassination attempt on the president, said five people were detained after Noboa’s motorcade surrounded by around 500 protesters throwing stones.
Noboa’s office said those arrested would be processed under charges of terrorism and attempted assassination. It could not be verified whether a bullet was fired at the president’s car during the protest, which was over the president’s removal of fuel subsidies last month.
Noboa Condemns The Attack
Speaking afterwards at a student event in Cuenca, some 77 km (48 miles) south of where the attack took place, Noboa said his government would not tolerate such actions.
“Do not follow the bad example of those who wanted to stop us from attending this event with you and who tried to attack us,” he said. “Such attacks will not be accepted in the new Ecuador and the law applies to everyone.”
“Shooting at the president’s car, throwing stones, damaging state property – that’s just criminal,” said Manzano, after reporting the attack to prosecutors. “We will not allow this.”
The national Indigenous federation CONAIE, however, said orchestrated violence had broken out against people who mobilized for Noboa’s arrival, saying elderly women were among those attacked in a “brutal police and military action.”
“At least five of us have been arbitrarily detained,” it said in a post on X, which included a video of a woman in traditional dress being marched off by four police officers in body armour, their faces covered by black bandanas.
Protests Against Decree
CONAIE launched strike action 16 days ago, organizing marches and blockading some roads, in a protest against the government ending diesel subsidies. Critics say further dialogue is needed and that the measure will increase the cost of living particularly for small-scale farmers and Indigenous communities.
Noboa signed the executive decree eliminating subsidies in mid-September, and his government declared emergency measures in several provinces to maintain order.
The government has defended ending the subsidy, which it said will free up some $1.1 billion a year that it has already begun to redistribute in compensation payments to small-scale farmers and people working in the transport sector.
Noboa, who was reelected in April, has frequently granted emergency powers to armed forces and police as part of his tough-on-crime approach to security.
Defence Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo shared a photo of 37-year-old Noboa standing outside the damaged car in sunglasses.
“Nothing stops this president, which is the best sign that the country won’t be stopped either,” he said.
A video from inside a car published by the presidency showed people throwing rocks on the side of the road and cracks on the car’s window. A separate image published by the presidency showed a car with smashed windows and a badly cracked windscreen.
The attack drew condemnation from some foreign governments, including Costa Rica, Honduras and Panama.
In a separate event, some 200 people took to the streets in capital Quito on Tuesday evening to protest against Noboa’s government. Police blocked the march from proceeding and the crowd dissolved peacefully.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Starmer Rules Out Visa Deal As UK Focuses On Trade Ties With India
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the United Kingdom would not seek a visa agreement with India, emphasizing that his government’s focus remains on strengthening economic relations following this year’s bilateral trade deal.
He added that the focus remains on fostering economic growth and strengthening business partnerships rather than easing migration or mobility arrangements.
Starmer begins a two-day trip to India on Wednesday, bringing a trade mission of businesses to promote the trade deal, which was agreed in May, signed in July and due to come into effect next year.
Starmer said that visas had blocked up previous efforts to seal a trade deal, and that, having reached an agreement which had no visa implications, he didn’t wish to revisit the issue when he meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks on Thursday.
Visa Not Part Of Plan
“That isn’t part of the plans,” he told reporters en route to India when asked about visas, adding the visit was “to take advantage of the free trade agreement that we’ve already struck”.
“Businesses are taking advantage of that. But the issue is not about visas.”
Starmer is trying to take a more restrictive stance on both immigration amid high public concern about the issue, as his Labour Party trails the populist Reform UK party in polls.
He said visas would not be on the table in order to attract tech sector professionals from India, after U.S. President Donald Trump hiked fees on H-1B visas, though he said more broadly he wanted to have “top talent” in Britain.
Asked if he would stop issuing visas to arrivals from countries who won’t take back foreign criminals or people wanted to deport, Starmer said it was a “non-issue” with India as there is a returns agreement, but it was something he would look at more broadly.
“We are looking at whether there should be a link between visas and returns agreements,” he said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Russian Forces Gained Almost 5,000 Sq Km In Ukraine This Year: Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russian troops had taken control of nearly 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles) of territory in Ukraine this year, asserting that Moscow now holds full strategic advantage on the battlefield.
Russia’s 2025 gains would amount to nearly 1% of Ukraine’s land area, and the country controls nearly 20% in total.
Putin, addressing a meeting with Russian top military commanders on his 73rd birthday, said Ukrainian forces were retreating in all sectors of the front. He said Kyiv was trying to strike deep into Russian territory, but it would not help it to change the situation in the more than 3 1/2-year-old war.
“At this time, the Russian armed forces fully hold the strategic initiative,” Putin told the meeting in northwestern Russia near Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg, according to a Kremlin transcript.
“This year, we have liberated nearly 5,000 square km of territory – 4,900 – and 212 localities.”
Ukrainian forces, he said, “are retreating throughout the line of combat contact, despite attempts at fierce resistance.”
Russia’s Defence Ministry on Tuesday reported the capture of two more villages along the front, which Ukraine’s top commander says now extends over 1,250 km (775 miles).
Ukraine Dismisses Russia’s Claims
Ukraine’s military in August dismissed Russia’s recent offensives as a failure, with Moscow’s forces failing to capture a single major Ukrainian city this year.
Ukrainian accounts say Kyiv’s troops have made gains in the Donetsk region, particularly around Dobropillia, a town near the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also said Ukrainian forces have regained ground in the border Sumy region, where Russia has established a foothold.
Russian Army General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces, told the meeting of top commanders that Russian forces were “advancing in practically all directions.” Ukrainian forces, he said, were focused on slowing the Russian advance.
Gerasimov, overall commander of Russia’s war effort, said the heaviest fighting was gripping Pokrovsk and areas towards Dnipropetrovsk.
Moscow’s troops were moving on the key cities of Siversk and Kostyantynivka in the main theatre of the Donetsk region.
Gerasimov said they were clearing Ukrainian forces from the city of Kupiansk, under Russian attack for months in Ukraine’s northeast, and were moving forward in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions further south.
They were also progressing in setting up buffer zones in Sumy and Kharkiv regions in the north.
In his remarks to the meeting, Putin said Russia’s objectives remained the same as when he launched its “special military operation” in February 2022, saying it was aimed at “demilitarising and denazifying” its smaller neighbour.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Global Trade Forecast Down To 0.5% For 2026 Due To Tariffs: WTO Report
The World Trade Organisation sharply lowered its 2026 forecast for global merchandise trade volume growth to 0.5% on Tuesday, citing expected delayed impacts from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
It marks a significant revision down from its previous estimate in August of 1.8% growth.
“The outlook for next year is bleaker … I am very concerned,” Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told reporters in Geneva.
Resilient Trading System
However, she said the world trading system is showing resilience, with the rules-based multilateral system providing some stability amid trade turmoil.
For 2025, the WTO upgraded its forecast for global trade volume growth to 2.4%, from 0.9% previously, driven primarily by the front-loading of imports into the United States ahead of tariff hikes and growth in the trade of AI-related goods. It is still below the 2.8% growth seen in 2024.
Trump’s tariff decisions since he took office in January have shocked financial markets and sent a wave of uncertainty through the global economy.
On August 7, Trump imposed higher tariffs on imports from dozens of countries, leaving major trade partners like Switzerland, Brazil and India scrambling for a better deal, while the EU struck a deal that set duties at 15% on most EU goods imported into the United States.
Gloomy Outlook For 2026
Overall, world merchandise trade volume growth is expected to slow from 2.8% last year to 2.4% this year and 0.5% next year.
The WTO also forecasts global GDP growth to ease slightly from 2.7% in 2025 to 2.6% in 2026.
“Tariff measures are weighing on trade, even though front-loading and the suspension of many duty hikes between April and August have pushed their effects back into the latter part of this year, and especially into next year,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
In the first half of 2025, world merchandise trade volume, measured by the average of exports and imports, increased by 4.9% year-on-year, with trade value rising 6% compared to 2% growth in 2024, according to the WTO report.
Consequently, WTO economists have upgraded their trade growth forecast for this year to 2.4%, above the April prediction of a 0.2% decline.
The rush of exporters to send goods, including machinery, motor vehicles, and lumber to the U.S. before the tariff increases, alongside a surge in demand for AI-related products, contributed to this growth, the report found.
Trade in AI-linked goods such as semiconductors and telecommunications equipment accounted for nearly half of overall trade growth, rising 20% year-on-year. Asia’s export performance was particularly strong, the report said.
Asia and Africa are expected to see the fastest export volume growth this year, while Europe’s export growth will slow, and North America’s is set to decline. All regions are projected to experience weaker import performance in 2026.
(with inputs from Reuters)
Global Renewable Power Output Exceeds Coal In 2025: Reports
For the first time ever, renewable energy sources generated more electricity than coal globally in the first half of 2025, driven by rapid growth in China and India, a report by think tank Ember showed on Tuesday.
Renewables, such as wind and solar, supplied 5,072 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity globally between January and June, surpassing coal’s 4,896 TWh, according to the report.
Growth Of Renewables
Curbing coal power generation, which emits around double the amount of carbon dioxide as gas generation, is regarded as vital by most scientists to meet global climate targets.”We are seeing the first signs of a crucial turning point,” said Małgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, senior electricity analyst at Ember.
“Solar and wind are now growing fast enough to meet the world’s growing appetite for electricity.”Global Leaders Global electricity demand increased 2.6%, or 369 TWh, in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, which was more than met by a 306 TWh increase in solar power and a 97 TWh increase in wind power output.
The shift to renewables was driven largely by China and India. China, the world’s largest electricity consumer, reduced fossil-fuel generation by 2% while its solar and wind generation grew by 43% and 16% respectively, the Ember report said.
In India, there were increases in wind and solar generation of 29% and 31% respectively, which helped the country reduce coal and gas use by 3.1%, the report showed.
Coal And Gas Demand
Fossil-fuel generation, however, rose in both the United States and European Union during the same period, as stronger demand growth and weaker wind and hydropower output forced greater reliance on coal and gas.
In the U.S., coal generation rose by 17% as gas generation fell by 3.9% while in Europe, gas-fired power generation rose by 14% and coal by 1.1%, the report said. U.S. President Donald Trump, a climate-change sceptic, earlier this year signed executive orders aimed at boosting coal production, and last month also pledged support for coal-fired power plants.
(with inputs from Reuters)
Scientists Behind Quantum Revolution Claim Nobel Physics Prize
U.S.-based scientists John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for “experiments that revealed quantum physics in action”, the award-giving body said on Tuesday.
“This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics has provided opportunities for developing the next generation of quantum technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
The Nobel winners carried out experiments in the mid-1980s with an electronic circuit built of superconductors and demonstrated that quantum mechanical properties could be made concrete on a much larger, macroscopic scale.
Technology Discoveries
Quantum technology is already ubiquitous, with transistors in computer microchips an everyday example.
“My feelings are that I’m completely stunned. Of course, it had never occurred to me in any way that this might be the basis of a Nobel Prize,” Clarke told the Nobel press conference by telephone.
“I’m speaking on my cell phone, and I suspect that you are too, and one of the underlying reasons that the cell phone works is because of all this work.”
British-born Clarke is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States.
Devoret, born in France, is a professor at Yale University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, also in the United States, where Martinis is also a professor.
Martinis, an American, headed Google’s Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab until he resigned in 2020.
“It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises. It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology,” Olle Eriksson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said.
Physics Nobel Prize
Past winners of the Nobel physics prize include some of the most influential figures in the history of science, such as Albert Einstein, Pierre and Marie Curie, Max Planck and Niels Bohr, himself a pioneer of quantum theory.
Last year’s prize was won by U.S. scientist John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton for breakthroughs in machine learning that spurred the artificial intelligence boom, a development about which both have also expressed concerns.
In keeping with tradition, physics is the second Nobel to be awarded this week, after two American and one Japanese scientist won the medicine prize for breakthroughs in understanding the immune system. The chemistry prize is due next, on Wednesday.
The peace prize, which will be announced on Friday, is awarded in a separate ceremony in Oslo.
(with inputs from Reuters)
Bonaire Residents In Caribbean Take Dutch Govt To Court Over Climate Inaction
Residents of the Caribbean island of Bonaire, a special municipality of the Netherlands, have urged a court to compel the Dutch state to accelerate its greenhouse gas cuts, arguing that worsening heat, drought, and rising sea levels are making life increasingly difficult.
Farmer Onnie Emerenciana, in his 60s, told the court that soaring temperatures are harming the health of the elderly and poor, while droughts devastate crops and encroaching seas threaten to erase the island’s historic slave huts.
“We are succumbing under the effects of greenhouse gas emissions that we have barely contributed to,” Emerenciana told the district court in The Hague.
Demand For Net Zero By 2040
Bonaire in the southern Caribbean is a former Dutch colony and became a special Dutch municipality in 2010. It has around 20,000 inhabitants who are Dutch citizens.
The eight named plaintiffs in the case, who are joined by environmentalist action group Greenpeace, want the Netherlands to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2040, 10 years ahead of its current plans, and say the Dutch government has not done enough to protect the island against rising sea levels.
Legal experts on climate change cases say the Dutch case is one of the first to test the obligations set in a landmark 2024 European climate ruling and this year’s World Court opinion on a national level.
“If successful, the Netherlands will need to increase its climate ambitions beyond the current European Union targets – setting a new bar for climate action in Europe,” Lucy Maxwell of the Climate Litigation Network told Reuters.
“Effective climate policy is not a political choice but a duty and a right,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Michael Bacon told judges.
Lawyers for the Dutch state argued that it was not up to courts to make government policy.
“The state is meeting its obligations towards Bonaire by complying with its own climate policy and joint European Union climate targets,” state attorney Edward Brans said.
The hearings will continue into Wednesday and there is no date for a ruling yet.
(With inputs from Reuters)