Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday admitted for the first time his country played a role in the 2024 crash of an Azerbaijani passenger plane, describing it as a “tragedy”.

The Azerbaijan Airlines flight crash landed in Kazakhstan on December 25, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, after being diverted from a scheduled landing in the southern Russian city of Grozny.

In a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Putin said Russia had deployed two missiles to destroy Ukrainian drones on the morning of the incident, and that they exploded “a few meters away” from the aircraft.

“The two missiles that were fired did not directly hit the aircraft. If that had happened, it would have crashed on the spot,” Putin said.

Russian air traffic controllers advised the pilot attempt a landing in the Russian city of Makhachkala, but he instead attempted to land at his home airport and then in Kazakhstan, where the plane came down, Putin said.

“Russia will do everything necessary in such tragic cases to provide compensation, and the actions of all officials will be legally assessed,” he said.

Aliyev previously accused Russia of attempting to conceal the true cause of the crash.

On Thursday, he thanked Putin for providing “detailed information about the tragedy”, the Kremlin said in a readout.

Initial statements by Russia’s air transport agency suggested that the plane, an Embraer 190, was forced to divert after a bird strike.

Russia’s handling of the incident dramatically soured relations with Azerbaijan, an oil-rich post-Soviet state with historically close links to Moscow.

US President Donald Trump says the deal agreed between Israel and Hamas marks the first steps toward a “strong, durable, and everlasting peace” that will end the two-year-old Gaza war.

Yet, the agreement signed after indirect talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, a favoured location for Middle East peace conferences over the decades with a patchy record of success, is only an initial phase involving a ceasefire, a handover of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners inside Israel, and a partial withdrawal of Israel from the enclave.

Plenty of pitfalls remain after negotiators left for later discussions about some of the thornier issues on which previous initiatives have foundered, such as the full extent of an Israeli withdrawal, the disarmament of Hamas, how to guarantee that war will not resume after this phase — and who could provide such a guarantee.

Have the guns fallen silent?

Not yet. Trump demanded Israel halt its bombing when Hamas first indicated partial acceptance of his 20-point plan on Friday. That has not happened. Scores of Palestinians have been killed since then in airstrikes and shelling, particularly in and around Gaza City, the focus of a recent Israeli offensive.

However, the bombardment has been more sporadic since Trump declared a deal had been secured on Wednesday, prompting celebrations in Israel, where families of hostages were jubilant in Tel Aviv’s hostages square, and in Gaza, where people gathered among the ruins even as blasts could be heard.

How does this differ from ceasefires that collapsed?

While this is a partial deal, a notable difference from previous ceasefire arrangements is that there is no deadline for reaching a full deal. It does not set a deadline of a few weeks, after which hostilities could resume if talks falter.

The jury is still out on whether that makes this deal more durable. There are those among Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious nationalist coalition who are already talking of more war. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a staunch opponent of any concession to Palestinians, has called for Hamas to be destroyed after the captives are returned.

But on this occasion, Trump has been far more vocal in his determination to hold feet to the fire on both sides, leaving less room for Israel to relaunch its offensive or Hamas to delay, even if past experience counsels caution over too much optimism.

Trump announced his plan, standing next to Netanyahu in Washington last week, with what seemed a “take-it-or-leave-it” offer for Hamas.

Yet when Hamas gave only a partial acceptance, Trump immediately demanded Israel stop bombing. And as the days ticked by in the Sharm el-Sheikh talks, he warned Hamas, “all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out” if it did not sign up.

By stamping his authority, Trump may have gone some way to answering the key question of who will guarantee this deal does not collapse at the next hurdle.

So what happens next?

The timeline is emerging but still seems fluid.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the ceasefire would take effect once the agreement is ratified by his government, which would convene after a security cabinet meeting on Thursday.

An Israeli government spokeswoman said a ceasefire would go into force within 24 hours of the cabinet meeting. After that 24-hour period, the hostages held in Gaza will be freed within 72 hours, she said.

A source briefed on details of the agreement said earlier that Israeli troops would begin pulling back within 24 hours of the deal being signed.

Humanitarian aid to Palestinians should then start to flow. Calling for full access for humanitarian workers in Gaza, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations was ready to help and “prepared to move — now.”

Trump’s plan also calls for an international stabilisation force, which could start taking shape after a meeting of European ministers and top officials from Arab states in Paris on Thursday.

They were also due to discuss issues such as future governance of Gaza, aid, reconstruction and demilitarisation.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s office said Trump was expected to be in Jerusalem on Sunday.

What are the political calculations facing Hamas and Israel?

Both Israel and Hamas have shown a readiness to respond positively to pressure from Trump and others, but each side faces its own political calculations.

For Netanyahu, agreeing to the plan seems based on a calculation that he can stay on the right side of the United States, Israel’s vital ally, and win over an Israeli public desperate to see an end to the war, while conceding as little as possible to avoid alienating his religious nationalist coalition partners.

The 20-point plan, for example, offers a possible pathway, albeit highly conditional, to a Palestinian state, although Netanyahu has said that it will never happen.

Hamas has dropped its opposition to any deal that was only partial because of the risk of war resuming once hostages were handed over. It has also signed up to a deal calling for demilitarisation, which it had repeatedly rejected.

Hamas may be calculating that Trump’s determination is the best guarantee that war will not resume for now, while the talks in Sharm el-Sheikh have put the resistance group at the negotiating table to shape the future for Palestinians, even though the deal seeks to sideline it.

• Five new rare earth elements added to export control list.
• Overseas defence users barred from obtaining export licences.
• New rules to affect chipmakers using Chinese materials worldwide.

China tightened its rare earth export controls on Thursday, saying it planned to limit exports to overseas defence firms and semiconductor users and adding five rare earth elements to its list.

The world’s largest rare earth producer also added dozens of pieces of refining technology to its control list and announced rules that will require compliance from foreign rare earth producers who use Chinese materials.

The Ministry of Commerce’s announcements follow US lawmakers’ call on Tuesday for broader bans on the export of chipmaking equipment to China.

They expand controls Beijing announced in April that caused shortages around the world, before a series of deals with Europe and the US eased the supply crunch.

The new curbs come weeks ahead of a scheduled face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.

“This helps with increasing leverage for Beijing ahead of the anticipated Trump-Xi summit in (South) Korea later this month,” said Tim Zhang, founder of Singapore-based Edge Research.

China produces over 90% of the world’s processed rare earths and rare earth magnets. The 17 rare earth elements are vital materials in products ranging from electric vehicles to aircraft engines and military radars.

Exports of 12 of them are now restricted after the Ministry of Commerce added five— holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium— along with related materials.

Foreign companies producing some of the rare earths and related magnets on the list will now also need a Chinese export license if the final product contains or is made with Chinese equipment or material. This applies even if the transaction includes no Chinese companies.

The regulations mimic rules the United States has implemented to restrict other countries’ exports of semiconductor-related products to China.

The ministry also added dozens of pieces of mining and refining equipment and materials to its control list.

China’s latest restrictions on the five additional elements and processing equipment will take effect on November 8, just before a 90-day trade truce with Washington expires.

The rules on foreign companies that make products using Chinese rare earths equipment or material are to take effect on December 1. Shares in China Northern Rare Earth Group, China Rare Earth Resources and Technology and Shenghe Resources surged by 10%, 9.97% and 9.4%, respectively, on Thursday.

Chips and defence

The ministry also said overseas defence users will not be granted licenses, while applications related to advanced semiconductors will be approved on a case-by-case basis.

The new rules apply to 14-nanometer chips or more advanced chips, memory chips with 256 layers or more, and equipment used in production of such chips, as well as to related research and development. These advanced chips are used in products from smartphones to AI chipsets that require powerful computing performance.

The rules will also apply to research and development of artificial intelligence with potential military applications.

South Korea, home to major memory chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, is assessing the details of the new restrictions and will continue discussions with China to minimise their impact, its industry ministry said in a statement to Reuters.

Samsung declined to comment. SK Hynix and Taiwan’s TSMC did not immediately respond to questions.

Shares in TSMC rose 1.8% on Thursday, as the company reported forecast-beating third-quarter revenue. South Korea’s financial markets were closed on Thursday for a public holiday.

Chinese rare earth shipments have been growing steadily over the past few months as Beijing grants more export licenses, although some users still complain they are struggling to obtain them.

In a nod to concerns about access, the ministry said the scope of items in its latest restrictions was limited and “a variety of licensing facilitation measures will be adopted”.