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German investor morale slid to its lowest level in over three years in April, a survey showed Tuesday, as the Middle East war threatens to snuff out a tentative recovery in Europe's top economy.

Sentiment among investors on the future of the Germany economy fell 16.7 points in the past month and now sits at minus 17.2 points, the survey said.

Investor morale is now at its lowest point since December 2022, in the aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as surging energy costs exacted a heavy toll on German manufacturers.

It is even lower than April last year, when US President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping global tariffs.

"Expectations are turning negative," ZEW head Achim Wambach said, adding that concerns about energy supplies due to the Iran war were "holding back investment and undermining the impact of government stimulus measures".

A splurge in public spending by Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government was expected to kickstart a turnaround for the manufacturing powerhouse this year after several years in the doldrums.

But the surge in oil and gas prices triggered by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and near total closure of the Strait of Hormuz have led economists to slash forecasts for this year.

The ZEW survey showed that, while expectations around the car industry were largely flat, there were plunges of 11 and 21 points for the energy-intensive chemical and metals industries.

The ZEW institute surveyed 192 analysts and institutional investors for its latest survey.

Speaking to reporters in Frankfurt earlier this month, Anne-Marie Grossmann, head of steelmaker Georgsmarienhuette, said the hostilities were "having a massive effect on our costs" and warned that repeated energy price spikes meant that industry could not plan and invest for the future.

"Imagine you have to make a financial model and you cannot put in your operating expenses because you simply do not know what they are," she said.

"We need to get back to the cost level there was before Ukraine," she added.

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American logistics giant FedEx has been targeted in France by a legal complaint alleging "complicity in the crime of genocide" over claims it transported parts for Israeli aircraft involved in bombing Gaza.

The French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP), an anti-Zionist group, said it had filed the complaint against FedEx's French subsidiary for "the transport and delivery of essential combat aircraft components from the United States to Israel via France".

Those parts were used "to maintain and repair F-35 combat aircraft used by the Israeli air force" over the Gaza Strip, it added in the document filed with anti-terrorism prosecutors and seen by AFP.

FedEx told AFP: "We do not make any international deliveries of weapons or ammunition."

The UJFP said they based their case on a recent report by campaign group Urgence Palestine (Palestine Emergency), which catalogued 117 cargoes that it said transited through Paris via FedEx's French subsidiary between April and October last year.

Of those, 22 went straight on to Israel, including three on FedEx planes registered in France, according to the complaint, whose authors claim that FedEx "must have known the contents".

Across the border in Belgium, federal prosecutors confirmed to AFP that they had opened a probe into one of the deliveries, which transited via Liege airport on June 20, 2025.

Israel has said it will end all weapons imports from France after diplomatic differences over Paris's September recognition of the State of Palestine.

Thomas Nayla, who coordinated the complaint against FedEx, called for a "total embargo" on the delivery of military components from the French side.

Despite an October 10 ceasefire, both the Israeli military and Hamas accuse one another of breaching the Gaza truce, which followed two years of war triggered by the Palestinian militant group's cross-border attack on October 7, 2023.

Rights groups and NGOs, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have accused Israel of carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a term the Israeli government vehemently rejects.

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Iran said Tuesday it has not yet sent a delegation for new peace talks with the United States, as the temporary ceasefire which paused the Middle East war was set to expire.

Iran and the US have accused each other of breaching the two-week truce that is set to end by Wednesday, as uncertainty grows over a push to stop the war from resuming.

During initial talks in Pakistan earlier this month, the highest-level discussions between the foes since the founding of the Islamic republic in 1979, analysts pointed to the seniority of the delegations as an indicator of a willingness to strike a deal.

But those talks collapsed without an agreement, with Iran since closing the Strait of Hormuz again and US President Donald Trump announcing a blockade of Iranian ports. 

"So far, no delegation from Iran has departed for Islamabad, Pakistan; whether it is the main or subsidiary delegation; primary or secondary," Iranian state TV said, dismissing reports suggesting otherwise. 

Trump has accused Iran of firing on ships in the crucial trade route it has choked, while Tehran says the US blockade and seizure of a ship violated the ceasefire deal.

Iranian officials say they feel the Trump administration has not acted in good faith in negotiations and refused to back down from what it called excessive demands.

Its parliament speaker said the country would not accept talks "under the shadow of threats" from the US leader and would "show new cards on the battlefield" if conflict resumed.

But residents in the Iranian capital who spoke to Paris-based AFP journalists say life has only got worse, squeezed by the government and the war's impact.

"This cursed ceasefire has broken us. There is no light at the end of the tunnel," said Saghar, 39.

"The situation is terrible. I don't know anyone around me who is doing well."

- 'Bombs start' -

The truce theoretically ends overnight Tuesday, though in comments to Bloomberg, Trump said the end was a day later, on Wednesday evening Washington time and it would be "highly unlikely" he would extend the truce.

Trump told PBS News that Iran was "supposed to be there" at the talks in Pakistan.

"We agreed to be there," he said, warning that if the ceasefire expired "then lots of bombs start going off".

He said the US blockade of Iran's ports would not end until there was a deal, in which Washington is pressing for Iranian concessions on its contested nuclear programme.

Experts said Iran's signalling was part of a bid to put pressure on Washington, with its leadership wary of signing a deal after US strikes last year in the middle of diplomatic efforts.

"The current standoff between the United States and Iran is no longer a clash of capabilities but rather a struggle of political endurance and bargaining leverage," Daniel Byman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in a commentary.

Trump said he was not under any time pressure despite the ceasefire deadline.

"I read the Fake News saying that I am under 'pressure' to make a Deal. THIS IS NOT TRUE! I am under no pressure whatsoever, although, it will all happen, relatively quickly!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Despite the ongoing brinkmanship, oil prices fell on Tuesday while stocks rose on lingering hopes for a deal to end the conflict.

In Islamabad, heavily armed police and soldiers on Tuesday secured the city's government quarter, which was virtually shut down.

That included the Serena hotel, which hosted the last round of negotiations and where guests had been asked to vacate the premises in recent days.

The rest of the city also saw a beefed up police presence, with offices, businesses and schools braced for shutdown orders. 

Some schools and universities had already moved their students to distance learning for the week, and city authorities have banned the entry of trucks and other heavy vehicles.

- New Lebanon talks -

A separate 10-day ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon was announced on Friday and included Hezbollah, whose rocket fire in support of Iran drew Lebanon into the war.

Israel and Lebanon, which have no diplomatic relations, will hold a second round of talks in Washington on Thursday, a State Department official told AFP.

Sporadic violence has continued and Israel's military warned civilians against returning to dozens of villages in southern Lebanon, claiming Hezbollah's activities were violating the truce.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 2,387 people since the start of the war, a Lebanese government body said in its latest toll.

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A NASA rover has discovered more building blocks of life on Mars after carrying out a chemistry experiment never before conducted on another planet, scientists said Tuesday.

The organic molecules are not definitive evidence of past life, the NASA-led team emphasised, because they could also have formed on the red planet or crash-landed on meteorites.

But it proves that these important clues to Martian history have been preserved on the surface for more than three billion years, they added.

Back then, the surface of Mars was thought to have been dotted with huge lakes and rivers full of liquid water, a key ingredient for life as we know it.

NASA's Curiosity rover landed in a former lake bed called the Gale crater in 2012, and has been searching for signs of possible past life since.

The car-sized rover carried two tubes of a chemical called TMAH, which can break apart organic matter to see what it is made out of.

"This experiment's never been run before on another world," Amy Williams, an astrobiologist working on the Curiosity mission told AFP.

The team were under pressure because they only had "two shots to get it right", added Williams, the lead author of a new study describing the results.

The experiment, conducted in 2020, detected more than 20 organic molecules, including several that had never before been confirmed on Mars.

These included a molecule called benzothiophene, which has also been found in meteorites and asteroids.

"The same stuff that rained down on Mars from meteorites is what rained down on Earth, and it probably provided the building blocks for life as we know it on our planet," Williams said.

Another molecule containing nitrogen "is a precursor to how DNA is eventually built," she added.

"We're seeing the building blocks for life -- prebiotic chemistry on Mars -- preserved in these rocks for billions of years."

- Future missions -

But none of this can prove that life -- even tiny, microbial organisms -- once flourished on Mars.

One way to potentially make such an "extraordinary claim" would be to bring some Martian rocks back to Earth so scientists can study them more closely, Williams said.

NASA's Perseverance rover has already collected a bunch of rocks for such a mission, called Mars Sample Return. 

However the mission has effectively been cancelled by the administration of President Donald Trump following a US Congress vote in January.

Future missions could still benefit from Curiosity's demonstration that experiments using the TMAH chemical work on other worlds, the new study in Nature Communications said.

The European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin rover, which has a much longer drill than Curiosity, will take the chemical to Mars.

After years of delays, NASA announced last week that the ESA's rover is now scheduled to blast off towards the red planet in late 2028.

The chemical will also be on board the Dragon rotorcraft, which is planned to launch in 2028 on a mission to explore Saturn's moon Titan.

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Russia and North Korea held a ceremony Tuesday to mark the joining of the first road bridge connecting the countries, set to open for traffic this summer, Moscow said.

Ties between the two heavily sanctioned countries have surged amid Russia's war on Ukraine, with Moscow and Pyongyang deepening economic, political, cultural and military links.

South Korea warned last week that Chinese and Russian support was helping revive the North Korean economy, which has struggled for years under sweeping international sanctions, almost complete international isolation and huge military investment.

Moscow's foreign ministry said the opening of the bridge would "become a truly landmark stage in Russian–Korean relations. Its significance goes far beyond a purely engineering task".

The bridge, which crosses the Tumen river that marks the border between the two countries, will be able to handle up to 300 vehicles and 2,850 people a day, Russia's transport ministry said.

Russia and North Korea inked a defence treaty in 2024 that calls for military support in the case of either country being attacked.

Pyongyang that year sent thousands of troops to Russia to support its war on Ukraine. They were deployed to the western Kursk region to held fend off a months-long counter-offensive by Kyiv's troops.

Several senior Russian officials have visited North Korea recently, including the interior minister, currently in the country.

Russia's foreign ministry said the bridge would help "develop trade, economic and humanitarian exchanges" between Russia's Far East and North Korea.

North Korea does not publish official data on the size of its economy.

Its nominal gross domestic product was equivalent to about $30 billion in 2024, according to Seoul's official estimate -- a tiny fraction of the South Korean economy, one of the most developed in the world.

North Korea has long faced shortages. A famine in the mid-1990s killed hundreds of thousands of people, and reports indicate that the Covid-19 pandemic also pushed many into extreme hunger.

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Sheikh Nadeem sat on a plastic chair outside his bedding store in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, scrolling through his phone as he waited for customers he knew were not coming.

Between rising fuel costs and rolling blackouts due to the US-Israel war on Iran, and government restrictions on opening hours aimed at saving electricity, he said the effect on business owners has been "devastating".

"We can't cover our expenses, and neither do we have the income to be able to pay our workers' salaries," the 40-year-old told AFP this week.

Pakistan has been enjoying the diplomatic spotlight as it mediates between the United States and Iran, burnishing its credentials as a regional power -- but it has a pressing economic imperative to resolve the crisis, too.

Ravaged by decades of external shocks and mismanagement, Pakistan's economy is heavily dependent on oil and natural gas imports from the Gulf, and a sustained supply and price shock could push the country's nascent macroeconomic recovery back over the edge.

Some say the process has already begun. Petrol prices are up by more than 14 percent at the pump, and last week authorities ordered widespread rolling blackouts to save precious natural gas.

"When petrol goes up, everything becomes more expensive," said Waqar Saleem, a day labourer at an Islamabad shoe store. "Flour, sugar, everything. When we go to get vegetables they tell us that freight transportation is closed."

For economic analyst Khurram Husain, the blackouts are the main problem, with knock-on effects for both industries and households.

"This is the real crisis," he said.

The shock is hitting just as the country was cautiously emerging from the depths of one of its cyclical economic upheavals.

- 'Where is the growth?' -

Consumer inflation hit 7.3 percent in March, according to official data, but Pakistanis have been reeling from years of double-digit pandemic-era price increases, which hit a peak of 38 percent in May 2023.

Unemployment was at 7.1 percent last year, as per government data, but around 29 percent of the country's more than 250 million people remain in poverty -- up from 23 percent in 2018-19.

While policymakers have touted a recovery from the brink of sovereign default three years ago, people say macroeconomic stability has not translated to better opportunities.

"They say that our country is going towards prosperity, but we do not see it," said Saleem, the shoe-store worker.

The real conundrum for Pakistan's economy has always been finding drivers for GDP growth, and that challenge remains. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) this month lowered its 2026 growth forecast to 3.6 percent -- down 0.8 percentage points due to the Middle East war.

The country remains heavily indebted, and is currently locked into a $7 billion IMF programme.

"This regime has been on for about three years and beyond stabilisation they have nothing to show for it," said a Pakistani economic official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Three years down the line, everybody is asking: where is the growth going to come from?"

The textile sector -- one of the country's largest exporters -- will be first in line to feel the pain from a prolonged energy shock, the official added.

Medium-scale factories and small-scale businesses such as Nadeem's bedding store will likely be the next in line.

"For the last year I have been paying out of my own pocket, how much longer can I go on like this?" he asked.

- 'Hand to mouth' -

The war has posed serious challenges for Pakistani households, too.

The country is shielded from the fertiliser shortages caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz because it produces most of its own supply.

That sector, however, is dependent on imported natural gas. The government has not yet cut supplies, but as imports grow more expensive, there will be a knock-on effect on food prices.

"Food security is a big problem because when there isn't gas then there won't be fertiliser," said the economic official.

Husain was more optimistic about fertiliser prices being managed, but said food prices would likely increase due to higher transportation costs.

Battered by years of economic uncertainty, Muhammad Ahsan said the current crisis has put him at his wits' end.

"If this goes on for another two or four months then our entire business will be finished," he said, sitting at the counter of his small jewellery kiosk.

"We are hand-to-mouth people. We earn in a day so that we can spend it (the same day)."

He was glad to hear Pakistan is taking the lead on mediating an end to the war, but wanted more from policymakers on the home economic front.

"Fine, you are taking the country forward on the diplomatic front, no doubt," he said.

"But the people are being strangled. They are dying."

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Hollywood was clad in black and glittering sequins on Monday to host the Los Angeles premiere of Michael Jackson's biopic, drawing fans of the King of Pop to the iconic California boulevard.

The film "Michael" chronicles the legendary artist's rise from a child star to one of the world's most famous pop icons, and arrives 16 years after his death. 

It was initially released in Europe and will hit US theaters on Friday.

"It's beautiful to see all these people here to support Michael Jackson and support the movie, and to show love for Michael," the film's director Antoine Fuqua told AFP.

Its premiere in Los Angeles -- the adopted home of the "Billie Jean" performer -- also became a family affair, led by the film's star and icon's nephew Jaafar Jackson.

"(This) being the first time that I've ever got into acting and to be able to portray my Uncle Michael, it's so surreal," Jaafar told AFP.

"I'm still taking it in and not really realizing how much it's going to hit me or when it's going to hit me. But, you know, it's incredible," he added.

Jaafar's performance won praise from his uncles, who highlighted the acting newcomer's "wonderful job" in portraying a figure they knew with an intimacy few others shared.

"When I watch the movie, I think I'm watching Michael on the stage... He did such a wonderful job. (It) brings tears to my eyes," Michael's brother, Jackie Jackson, said on the black carpet.

Marlon Jackson -- another member of the Jackson 5, the youth group where Michael got his start as an artist -- reflected on how the film might offer a window into the famous family's home life.

"I think people understand and realize that the Jackson family is no different than any family. We go through our trials and tribulations, ups and downs, but we learn to agree to disagree," he said.

- Family affair -

Marlon, Jackie, Jaafar and La Toya Jackson -- one of Michael's sisters -- shared embraces on the black carpet, where they met the actors who portrayed them and their parents in the film.

Nia Long, who stepped into the shoes of Katherine -- Michael's mother and close ally -- remarked that, in a male-dominated world, the women of the clan "set the baseline for how the family moved."

The actress hopes the film will allow audiences to view Michael Jackson as "an artist who was a master of his artistry" and someone who "cared deeply about humanity."

As for Colman Domingo, who portrays Michael's strict father Joe Jackson: "Everyone has a story, and everyone has something you can learn from -- just like a great album."

"Hopefully this film is a great album for someone, and if they could take something from it, then we did our job."

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The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- No Iranian departure -

Iranian state television said that no Iranian delegation had yet departed for talks in Pakistan with the United States. 

"So far, no delegation from Iran has departed for Islamabad, Pakistan; whether it is the main or subsidiary delegation; primary or secondary," state TV said, dismissing reports suggesting otherwise.

A source familiar with the US planning for the talks told AFP that an American delegation will head to Pakistan "soon" for a new round of peace negotiations.

- Israel pressure -

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said his country's campaign in Lebanon relied on both military and diplomatic pressure to disarm Iran-allied Hezbollah. 

"The overarching goal of the campaign in Lebanon is to disarm Hezbollah and remove the threat to the northern communities (of Israel), through a combination of military and diplomatic measures," Katz said.

- Iran hangs man -

Iran executed a man convicted of helping set fire to a major mosque in Tehran and of collaborating with Israel and the United States during pre-war protests, the judiciary said.

"Amir Ali Mirjafari... one of the armed elements collaborating with the enemy who had attempted to set fire to the Gholhak Grand Mosque and was the leader of the Mossad network's anti-security activities in that area, was hanged this morning," the judiciary's Mizan Online website reported. 

- Oil dips, stocks rise -

Oil prices fell while stocks rose on lingering hopes for a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Benchmark Brent North Sea Crude was down 0.7 percent at $94.78 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate fell 1.4 percent to $88.35 a barrel around 0715 GMT.

- Iranian ships slip blockade -

Shipping industry intelligence site Lloyd's List reported that more than 20 Iranian so-called "shadow vessels", had transited past the US blockade.

The channel in peacetime sees around 120 daily transits, according to the site. 

- Trump's 'difficult' uranium -

US President Donald Trump said Monday the United States obtaining uranium from Iran would be "long" and "difficult" in the aftermath of last year's US strikes on Tehran's nuclear sites.

"Operation Midnight Hammer was a complete and total obliteration of the Nuclear Dust sites in Iran," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding: "Therefore, digging it out will be a long and difficult process."

The US leader regularly uses the term "nuclear dust" to refer to Iran's stock of enriched uranium but he has also sometimes used it to refer to material left from US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

- US hosts Israel, Lebanon -

America's State Department will host new talks on Thursday between Israel and Lebanon, a US official told AFP on condition of anonymity, after a previous meeting saw the start of a tense ceasefire.

"We will continue to facilitate direct, good-faith discussions between the two governments," the official said.

- Trump backs blockade -

Trump said the United States would not lift its blockade of Iranian ports until Tehran had agreed a peace deal to end the war.

"They are losing $500 Million Dollars a day, an unsustainable number, even in the short run," he said on social media.

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One hundred and ten Turkish coal miners who had marched 200 kilometres (125 miles) to stage a hunger strike for their unpaid wages were arrested on Tuesday morning, their union said. 

After a nine-day march to Ankara from the neighbouring province of Ekisehir, the miners arrived on Monday for a topless sit-in outside the country's energy ministry building in the Turkish capital, before being surrounded by the police.

"We are hungry," several of them had written across their own bare skin.

"We were waiting to speak to someone outside the energy ministry, the only response we received was the arrest off 110 of our colleagues," the Bagimsiz Maden-Is miners' union said on X.

The lignite miners are demanding the payment of outstanding wages and redundancy pay from their employer, Doruk Mining.

"In this country, workers don't count, only money matters... Shame on those who run this country," mining union chief Gokay Cakir told the striking miners on Monday evening.

When questioned by AFP, the energy ministry declined to comment for the time being.

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Associated British Foods announced Tuesday that it would spin off its budget fashion chain Primark, splitting up one of the country's largest consumer businesses.

"A demerger of Primark is the best way to maximise long-term returns for shareholders, reflecting Primark's scale today and the need for a better understanding of the Food business," Michael McLintock, chair of ABF, said in a statement.

The demerger review was conducted in consultation with ABF's largest shareholder, Wittington Investments, which will maintain majority ownership in both companies.

Both entities are expected to be listed in London's top-tier FTSE 100 index. 

Ireland-headquartered Primark, which operates across 19 markets and has more than 80,000 employees,  accounts for roughly half of ABF's sales.

The rest of the business is focused on food, with ABF being a major producer of sugar and the owner of brands such as Twinings tea. 

The spin-off is expected to be completed by the end of 2027, with shareholders retaining shares in both businesses.

"The bigger Primark has got, the stronger the call to let it stand on its own," said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell. 

"The type of investor who wants to own shares in a food products and ingredients business is not necessarily the same as one seeking exposure to the retail sector," he said.

ABF unveiled the spin-off as it reported a fall in both profit and revenue.

"We knew the first half of this financial year was going to be challenging and that's borne out in our financial results," ABF's chief executive George Weston. 

But he said "Primark continued to make strong progress in re-energising its customer proposition in a difficult clothing market."

In November, ABF reported a full-year net profit drop of nearly 30 percent to £1 billion ($1.3 billion). 

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