Israel vows not to threaten Arab neighbours' security in its response to Iranian attack

Israel has assured its Arab neighbours that it would not threaten their security in its response to the barrage of drones and missiles that Iran launched towards its territory on April 13, The Economist reports via local media.

America and Europe are planning to impose fresh sanctions on Iran. Janet Yellen, America’s treasury secretary, said she would act “in the coming days”. Iran’s chargé d’affaires in London, however, said that Israel is trying to trap the West into a war in the Middle East.

Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, said it was “likely to take longer than expected” to lower interest rates, given stubborn inflation. Most analysts had expected America’s central bank to start cutting rates in June. But “given the strength of the labour market and progress on inflation”, said Mr Powell, “it’s appropriate to allow restrictive policy further time to work.”

Australia unveiled its first-ever national defence strategy, which “unambiguously” focuses on the Asia-Pacific region to counter China’s “coercive tactics”. Richard Marles, the defence minister, said that “projecting” defence further into Asia is “what the world would expect of us”. Under the proposed plan, defence spending would increase to 2.4% of GDP over the next decade, up from 2.1% currently.

A congressional committee in America said that Chinese subsidies are fuelling America’s opioid crisis. In findings released on Tuesday, it claimed that China is offering tax rebates for companies that produce ingredients used in fentanyl—so long as they sell them abroad. Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the committee, accused China of wanting “chaos and devastation” in America.

Vietnam has reportedly launched a rescue of Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank. According to Reuters, it did so via “special loans” worth nearly $24bn as of early April. SCB has ties to Truong My Lan, a businesswoman whose arrest sparked a run on the bank and who was sentenced to death last week for fraud worth $12bn. SCB will collapse without government assistance, Reuters reported.

Venezuela cut ties with Ecuador in solidarity with Mexico. Last week police raided the Mexican embassy in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, to arrest Jorge Glas, a former vice-president of Ecuador and a convicted criminal. Mexico had granted Mr Glas asylum. The country subsequently cut ties with Ecuador. Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president and an ally of Mexico, announced his country’s split during a meeting of a regional bloc.

Wind farms added a record 117 gigawatts (GW) of capacity last year, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. That marked a 50% increase from 2022. But the industry body warned that more must be done to meet global targets set at COP28, the UN’s climate conference. It called for at least 320GW of extra capacity to be added each year by 2030.