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• Indian stock markets opened higher, with the Nifty index rising 0.46% driven by gains in the banking and financial sectors. • Banks and financials saw increases of approximately 1% each following a Reserve Bank of India decision to allow lenders access to a concessional swap facility for overseas borrowings. • The market rally was further supported by a positive shift in global sentiment as tensions between Israel and Iran began to ease.

Penny Wong issues statement overnight announcing joint action with western allies to combat ‘horrific levels of settler violence against Palestinian civilians’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastGood morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.Australia has joined the UK and other western allies in introducing sanctions against “extremist settlers” accountable for the “horrific levels of settler violence against Palestinian civilians”. More coming up. Continue reading...

Labour backbenchers disappointed as new trade guidance over illegal settlements stops short of outright banThe UK in alliance with a group of other western powers including France and Norway has announced it is imposing sanctions on six firms and one individual involved in enabling and financing the recent upsurge in settler violence in the West Bank.However, the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, disappointed many of her own backbenchers by stopping short of banning trade, saying instead the government was only issuing updated advice to British firms not to become involved in any economic activity with the illegal settlements. Continue reading...

Governor urges public to report fake images posted on X of him and Reform UK leader in fake Question Time clashThe Bank of England has warned the public against falling for AI-generated scams after deepfake videos of Nigel Farage fighting its governor spread online.Andrew Bailey, the head of the BoE, said AI-generated content related to central banks was spreading and urged people to be “vigilant”. Continue reading...

JPMorgan Chase leads 65 banks making decisions incompatible with restraining rising temperatures, researchers sayThe world’s largest banks committed $906bn in financing to the fossil fuel industry last year, an “unfathomable” increase in investment locking in years more of coal, oil and gas production as the world continues to overheat, a new report has found.The surge in new fossil fuel lending, up $64bn or nearly 8% on 2024, shows that the world’s largest 65 banks are making decisions incompatible with international agreements to restrain rising global temperatures, according to the coalition of environmental groups behind the new analysis. Continue reading...

Move comes as 137 Labour MPs sign letter demanding ‘urgent, concrete action’ to stop settler violenceThe UK Foreign Office and a group of western countries are due to announce a package of sanctions against Israel this week designed to deter companies from becoming involved in a new proposed West Bank settlement that would split the territory in two and render the concept of a two-state solution near impossible.The package follows a warning by nine countries including France, the UK and Australia that settlement violence must stop and no company should be involved in what is known as the E1 development. Tenders were opened this month for the development of more than 3,000 homes between Jerusalem and the Ma’ale Adumim. The development would split the West Bank between north and south, and so effectively make a contiguous Palestinian West Bank impossible. Continue reading...

The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was in his mother’s arms when he was hit in the incident in HebronIsraeli troops killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby in the occupied West Bank and injured one of the child’s parents on Friday after opening fire on the family’s car, despite it having complied with an order to stop.Soldiers opened fire on a car carrying the infant and his parents in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was critically injured, evacuated in critical condition to a local hospital, where he later died. His parents were also injured. Continue reading...