Qatar has claimed that at least 40 women and children being held hostage in Gaza are not in the hands of Hamas – and are unaccounted for.
Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani said they may “never be able to reach them” – despite their communication lines with Hamas – and that locating the missing would be key to extending the current ceasefire.
Hamas leaders have previously blamed other militant groups for hostages going missing – saying they took advantage of damage done to the Israeli border from 7 October to smuggle their own captives into Gaza.
Israel has said it is “evaluating” the list of hostages still due to be freed under the current ceasefire.
So far 117 of 150 Palestinian prisoners promised by the Israelis have been freed – in exchange for 40 of the 50 hostages agreed to by Hamas.
Who might be holding them?
Although the Qataris say more than 40 hostages are missing, one of Hamas’s rival militant groups, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has claimed it is holding 30 of them.
Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at the transatlantic thinktank the Counter Extremism Project, says the situation is “terribly unclear”.
“It’s important to note that Islamic Jihad and Hamas don’t have a co-operative relationship – they’re actually competitors,” he tells Sky News. “So it’s not entirely clear if Hamas can get Islamic Jihad to release any of the hostages it may be holding.
“And it seems it wasn’t just them and Hamas involved in the 7 October attack.
Image: Members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza City on 4 October
“There’s been a well-developed smuggling economy in Gaza for decades – long before Hamas took control – organised by networks of crime families.
“So it’s possible hostages are neither under the control of Hamas nor Islamic Jihad – but these crime organisations.”
Independent criminals would have looked to take their own hostages in the chaos of 7 October for their own gain, he adds.
Could Hamas be lying?
Qatar’s links to Hamas, hosting many of its leaders in Doha, mean that Sheikh Mohammed’s claims about missing hostages are likely to have come from the group.
Mr Schindler says he “wouldn’t put it past Hamas to lie to the Qataris” as a way of indirectly misleading Israel.
But if they are, this is a strategy they need to consider “very, very carefully”, Professor Michael Clarke, security and defence analyst, tells Sky News.
“It’s in Hamas’s interests to keep these negotiations going, for two reasons.
“First, they want Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons, but second, so they can stall Israel’s second offensive.
“So, on the one hand, they want to play mind games, but they also don’t want to ruin the arrangement.”
Continuing the hostage-prisoner exchange is also important for Hamas’s legitimacy with the people of Gaza, Mr Schindler adds.
“This is a two-part negotiation. One with Israel and then one internally – to show the Palestinian community this was all worth it – Gaza destroyed, Palestinians used as human shields.
“They want to use this hostage situation to their maximum benefit – because before 7 October, 70% of Gazans said they didn’t like Hamas and I don’t think it’s going to get much better.”
Image: Air strike damage near the Rafah border with Egypt
Could they have died?
From late-October, Hamas has claimed that between 50 and 60 hostages have been killed in airstrikes.
Abu Ubaida, spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, the group’s military wing, said the bodies of 23 missing Israeli hostages had been found in rubble.
Professor Clarke claims, however, that with hostages being likely held in tunnels underneath Gaza, they are safer than most in the territory and are unlikely to have been killed.
He also notes that Hamas did not identify any hostages supposedly confirmed dead.
“It would have been to their advantage to name them because it would increase pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to pause airstrikes on Gaza, as the families could say ‘our relatives died from Israeli bombs – please stop them’.”
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Image: Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
Image: The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
Image: The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
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Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
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5:07
The latest numbers on tariffs
‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
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3:27
How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”