New Zealand’s exporters are diverting shipments originally bound for China into other markets as demand from the country’s biggest trading partner cools, an official from the antipodean country’s central bank said Thursday.

“We’ve certainly seen many of our exporters looking at, and actively diverting, product that they would have been looking to put into China, into other markets as well,” said Karen Silk, assistant governor at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. “It is not the only export market.”

Silk’s remarks reflect how the slowdown in China’s economy has rippled through to businesses elsewhere. Growth in the world’s second-largest economy slowed to multi-year lows in the second quarter, weighed down by tepid domestic demand and a prolonged real estate slump. She spoke to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday, a day after the central bank delivered its second consecutive interest rate hike to curb inflation.

China has been New Zealand’s largest trading partner and top market, buying roughly a quarter of New Zealand’s total exports over the 12 months ending in July. New Zealand’s China-bound goods in 2025 were close to double that of the next two biggest export markets — the U.S. and Australia — combined, according to the New Zealand China Council.

New Zealand supplies more than half of China’s dairy imports, a dominance built under a bilateral trade agreement since 2008, that later granted duty-free access for all its dairy products in 2024. Any sustained pullback in Chinese demand tests how quickly that trade can be diversified.

The Middle East war and the resulting shipping disruption through the Strait of Hormuz drove up global commodity costs, further squeezing Beijing’s own appetite for commodity imports.

Elevated global commodity prices, including for wheat, have handed New Zealand’s pasture-based farmers a relative cost advantage even as China-bound volumes soften, Silk said.

“In some ways, New Zealand actually benefits from a price perspective when we have those supply factors going on globally,” she said.

The RBNZ raised its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.75% on Wednesday to combat inflation, and signaled another increase could follow by year’s end.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged airlines to avoid Russian airspace as Kyiv expands its drone operations.

“We want to warn every airline that uses Russian airspace, every insurer, and everyone who still uses Russia’s key airports: Russian airspace is becoming completely unsafe,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday in his evening address.

His warning follows Ukraine stepping up its long-range drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and logistics hubs, as it seeks to raise the cost of the war for Moscow.

Ukraine’s president said it is important that airlines currently flying into airports in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other key destinations in Russia take note of the elevated airspace risk.

Zelenskyy insisted that civilian aviation would not be in danger, before adding: “There will simply be drones in Russia’s skies on a scale that has to be taken into account.”

Most Western commercial airlines do not fly into Russian airspace due to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Some Chinese and Gulf state carriers, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, continue to use Russian airspace, however.

In response to Zelenskyy’s comments, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the threat amounted to a declaration of “state terrorism.” He added that the Kremlin would continue intensifying its own attacks on Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday, Putin also dismissed the idea of resuming negotiations, saying: “You don’t negotiate with terrorists.”

Ukraine closed its airspace to civilian aircraft after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and our other institutions will provide international organizations with full information about the dangers in Russian airspace. Drone-infested skies are no place for civilian aviation,” Zelenskyy said.

Earlier in the week, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it is planning “massive strikes” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, amplifying fears of another winter assault.

Russian forces have ramped up missile strikes on Ukrainian cities as Kyiv faces a shortage of air defense equipment.

Nepal’s renowned adventure tourism industry faces a sobering reality check, according to local mountain tourist associations and hostel owners, following devastating flooding on Nepal’s border with China.

The death toll from last week’s disaster, which tore through villages along the Nepal-Tibet border, stood at 987, authorities said Tuesday. Nearly 4,250 people were missing, they added.

The catastrophe began on Aug. 26 in the Himalayas, a mountain range that contains some of the world’s highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest.

A massive glacial collapse in northern Nepal triggered a landslide of ice and rock and meltwater into the valleys below, with powerful floods sweeping away or cutting off entire communities and damaging roads, bridges and hydropower facilities.

The tragedy, which prompted Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah to push for international climate action, underscores the growing impact of climate change on adventure tourism.

Rajendra Bahadur Lama, general secretary of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, described the floods as a “serious warning” for Nepal’s tourism industry.

“This disaster should not be seen as the end of Nepal’s adventure tourism; it should be a wake-up call,” Lama told CNBC in an email. “Climate change is changing the Himalayas, and Nepal must now build a tourism industry that is not only adventurous, but safer, smarter and climate-resilient.”

Tourism infrastructure, routes and destinations will need to be assessed and redesigned with better protection for floods, landslides and other extreme events, Lama said, noting that international tourists are “increasingly conscious” of climate change and safety.

To rebuild from the catastrophe, Nepal, one of the least developed countries in South Asia, has reportedly estimated a cost of between $4 billion and $5 billion, equivalent to nearly one-tenth of its economy.

The tourism industry is a core tenet of the Nepalese economy and serves as a major source of foreign exchange and revenue. The country of nearly 30 million is world-renowned as a hotspot for trekking and mountaineering, as well as a premier global destination for spiritual travel.

Tourists have cancelled bookings in the last several days, however, just as Nepal heads into its most popular travel season from Sept. 15 to Nov. 15, said Saroj Bhandari, owner of the Wander Thirst hostel in the capital city of Kathmandu, more than five hours’ drive from the flood site.

Bhandari expects that, at best, his 122-bed hostel will reach 60% occupancy during that peak tourist season this year, down from 100% last year. Most of the cancellations have come from European tourists, he said.

“This time only the one part of Nepal is little damaged by the flood and a lot of the tourists think it’s not safe to go to Nepal because of that,” he said, noting the country does not only consist of mountains but also flatland.

Bhandari said Nepal is nearing the end of its rainy monsoon season. He emphasized the government’s system for landslide alerts and road closures, noting the state typically shares warnings about floods and landslides with the hostel every day, which the hostel then passes on to guests.

While he was not aware whether China had sent an alert, Bhandari said people who first saw the flood had warned those living downstream of it, but that those downstream had underestimated its size.

A spokesperson for Nepal’s government was not immediately available to respond when contacted by CNBC. China’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, has said it is preparing a third batch of emergency aid for Nepal and will continue to “stand firmly together” with its neighboring country.

Tibet Vista, a regional tour organizer with offices in Nepal and China, meanwhile, said in a statement to CNBC that all its travelers and team members were safe.

“None of our guests were at Gyirong Port when the flooding occurred, and no travelers with Tibet Vista were affected by the disaster,” Tibet Vista said Monday. “We are deeply saddened by what happened, and our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and everyone affected by this tragedy.”

The U.S. embassy in China on Aug. 30 noted the risk of further landslides and flooding due to additional rainfall through Sept. 1. Beijing had sent Premier Li Qiang to visit the flood site on Aug. 27 and focused a regular month-end meeting of top leaders on response to the catastrophe, with a readout noting the disaster occurred in a cold plateau region surrounded by glaciers and potential hazards.

An assistant secretary-general at the United Nations on Tuesday warned that millions of people in the Himalayan region were at risk from glacial floods, with fears that entire riverbanks might become effectively uninhabitable.

“Technology cannot move fast enough to prevent loss along these massive river systems that catch the overflow of the glacier lakes,” Kanni Wignaraja, an assistant secretary-general at the U.N., told Reuters in an interview.

Researchers have previously identified 47 dangerous glacial lakes in Nepal, China and India, although the real number has since been estimated to be far higher.

“The devastating impacts of the Nepal floods cannot be understated,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (CS3), told CNBC by email.

“While the precise chain of events that led to this disaster will take time to reconstruct, the wider picture is already clear: the world’s frozen regions are losing mass, and as they do, they are becoming less stable.”

Indeed, as the climate warms, Buontempo said the loss of glacial ice around the world would have important consequences for mountainous landscapes.

“Glaciers buttress the slopes around them; frozen ground holds fractured rock in place; meltwater collects in lakes behind fragile natural dams. As the ice thins and the permafrost thaws, mountains that were held together for millennia begin to loosen their grip,” he added.

This process typically happens slowly, but sometimes it can happen suddenly — such as when a massive ice and rock collapse onto Switzerland’s Birch Glacier buried the Alpine village of Blatten in May last year.

“The Nepal floods underscore the importance of continued satellite monitoring for early-warning signs, to inform future risk planning and be able to save villages, as in the case of Blatten where residents were evacuated before the landslide. It is evident that the climate of the past has shifted – we must redouble our efforts in preparing for the future,” Buontempo said.

Shares of Japanese beverage maker Ito En surged more than 8% Wednesday, following its fiscal first-quarter results, bucking a broader drop in the country’s stocks.

The maker of Oi Ocha green tea on Tuesday reported operating profit of 10.2 billion yen ($63.7 million) for the three months from May through July, up 22% from a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.3% to 135.18 billion yen over the same period.

Operating profit came in well above Citi’s forecast of 7.7 billion yen. The bank had expected profit to decline on the back of higher raw material and tea leaf costs, as well as expenses related to the company’s vending machine business.

More than half of the 2.5 billion yen profit beat was powered by the company’s vending machine business, which posted a 4% operating profit margin compared to the bank’s expectations for a loss. The company said it integrated its vending machine-related businesses in May to improve profitability and business efficiency. 

Citi called the first-quarter results “positive” for the shares, adding that the May-to-July period is the peak demand season for soft drinks. The bank said that the vending machine business’ profitability was “impressive,” given it had been loss-making until last year. 

The company reported that tea leaves and beverages segment’s operating profit rose 23.5% to 8.99 billion yen, while sales rose 2.7%. It attributed the improved profitability to lower promotional expenses and reduced depreciation, which helped offset rising costs. 

Ito En, whose Oi Ocha brand is marketed globally with baseball star Shohei Ohtani, said it aims to expand its overseas business to more than 60 countries and regions by the fiscal year ending April 2029, from 52 currently. It said sales volumes of beverages and tea bags were increasing in markets where it already operates. 

Ito En held the leading share of Japan’s green tea beverage market in 2025 and accounts for about 25% of crude tea transaction volumes in the country, according to the company. 

Oil prices extended gains Tuesday as tensions in the Middle East escalated, with the U.S. carrying out new strikes against Iran.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, were up 4.5% to $94.52 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures added about 5% to $90.03 per barrel, hitting levels not seen since July 24.

U.S. Central Command confirmed earlier reports on Tuesday that the U.S. “forces began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran. The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region.”

A tanker was struck by three unknown projectiles while transiting Hormuz on Monday, according to an incident report from the the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre. The tanker was sailing in the southern shipping lane close to the Omani coast, the UKMTO said, adding that no casualties were reported.

Iran launched an attack on two American bases in Jordan on Monday in retaliation for the U.S. strike on its Larak Island. American forces targeted two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island on Sunday, reportedly killing three, saying that Tehran intended to launch rockets carrying sea mines into the Hormuz Strait.

The small island, located in the strait, has been a critical military and shipping control point for Iranian forces, helping them keep a firm grip on vessel traffic through one of the world’s most critical maritime routes.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit on Tuesday that Tehran would immediately reciprocate if Washington agreed to return to its commitments under the interim deal signed in June, according to the Iranian Student News Agency.

The back-and-forth hostilities marked the first time that the U.S. and Iran traded strikes in over a month.

While neither side appeared to be seeking a return to full-scale war, both signaled they were prepared to respond to further attacks. “We are going to hit them hard,” President Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday, saying that “there will be a response” to Iran’s attacks on U.S. military bases in the region.

Analysts largely view the U.S. strike on Larak Island as an attempt to break a deadlock rather than a shift in strategy. “By hitting the launchers rather than broader Iranian military infrastructure, the U.S. appears to be punishing a specific behaviour rather than, at least for now, broadening its war aims,” said Ali Vaez, deputy program director at International Crisis Group.

“It is enforcing the blockade,” said Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, adding that the Trump administration’s goal was to further degrade Tehran’s capabilities to mine the Strait of Hormuz, while focusing on economic coercive measures as the midterm elections approach.

Washington has ramped up pressure to squeeze Iran’s already-torn economy with “secondary sanctions” that punish nations and businesses buying Iranian crude oil. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance ministers gathering, that Iran was “lashing out kinetically” because the new sanctions were taking a toll on its economy.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday, Trump reportedly said Iran’s financial systems, armed forces, and governing body have been largely degraded. “It doesn’t mean we won’t smack them to see what happens,” the president said.

The war, now stretching into its seventh month, has disrupted global energy supplies and sent shock waves through global financial markets.

“This is fundamentally an endurance contest,” said Brodsky, as Trump has demonstrated an “unpredictability” that should concern the Iranians, and Tehran may lash out more aggressively militarily as the economic pressure mounts.

Correction: WTI hit a high not seen since July 24. A previous version misstated the futures contract.

The Indian government has categorically rejected an arbitration ruling which said the country must uphold a decades-old water-sharing treaty with Pakistan and limit construction on a hydroelectric project in the disputed Kashmir region.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague on Monday ruled in Pakistan’s favor over the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, saying the historic pact remains fully binding and that India had no valid grounds for ending or suspending it.

India, which moved to put the agreement “in abeyance” last year, said its decision remains in force.

“This so-called Court of Arbitration has no jurisdiction whatsoever to pronounce on India’s sovereign decisions,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Monday.

“Its pronouncements, now or in the future, will have no effect on India’s actions in connection with the projects being undertaken by India,” it added.

The PCA also ordered India to limit construction on the Ratle hydroelectric plant in Kashmir, prohibiting work on the dam wall and power intake structure above certain levels. This ruling is set to remain in place until 90 days after a World Bank-appointed neutral expert delivers a final decision, which is expected before July 2027.

The arbitration ruling adds a new layer of stress to a long-simmering water dispute between two nuclear-armed neighbors.

The Indus Water Treaty, brokered by the World Bank, governs the use of the rivers in the Indus basin, which spans India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. Under the agreement, India has unrestricted access to the basin’s eastern rivers while Pakistan receives rights to the western rivers.

The treaty has endured three wars and prolonged periods of diplomatic tensions but has come under increasing strain in recent years.

India moved to put the treaty in abeyance in April last year following a militant attack in Kashmir, for which Delhi blamed Pakistan but Islamabad denied involvement.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said via social media that Islamabad welcomed the PCA’s court ruling.

“The Award vindicates Pakistan’s consistent position that a binding international treaty cannot be unilaterally suspended or set aside. India must fully comply with its obligations under the Treaty and with the binding decisions of its dispute settlement mechanism,” Dar said Monday.

As the downstream country, Pakistan depends heavily on the Indus Water Treaty, with tens of millions of people relying on the rivers’ waters for their livelihoods and survival.

The Indus basin supplies about 80% of the country’s irrigated agriculture, a sector that employs 65% of the labor force and represents roughly 25% of Pakistan’s gross domestic product, according to data compiled by Chatham House.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly told Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov that no sanctions relief or new agreements with Moscow were possible, as long as the war in Ukraine continues.

The two officials met on the sidelines of a Group of 20 finance leaders’ gathering in Asheville, North Carolina.

Bessent’s remarks came as Siluanov’s first in-person appearance at the summit since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 drew objections from other European leaders. European governments have planned to expand sanctions to further squeeze Moscow’s economy and finances.

The rare meeting underscored Washington’s willingness to reopen high-level diplomatic channels with Moscow, even as European allies have intended to keep the nation isolated while the war continues.

Bessent made it clear to Siluanov that “nothing is possible until the war is over,” when the Russian minister brought up other areas of mutual interest, Reuters reported.

The meeting centered on President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine and economic growth, according to Axios, while Russia’s finance ministry described the discussions as covering financial cooperation between the two nations within the G20 framework.

Russia’s surprise return to the table sparked dismay among European officials, who opposed appearing with Siluanov inthe traditional G20 photo, which was ultimately taken without the Russian minister.

India’s economy grew by 7.8% in the quarter to the end of June, mainly driven by strong performance of the financial, real estate, information technology and professional services sectors.

The reading is comfortably above a Reuters poll of expectations for 7.1% growth and follows 7.8% growth in the previous quarter.

While agriculture and allied sectors reported tepid growth, the performance of manufacturing and services sectors sharply improved in the June quarter, India’s Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation said in a release on Monday.

The Iran war has not impacted India’s growth as feared, Aastha Gudwani, India chief economist at Barclays, told CNBC’s Inside India earlier.

Of the 20 high-frequency indicators tracked by Barclays, only seven put the April-to-June quarter average growth rate slower than the Jan-March quarter, she explained, adding that consumer demand has stayed “robust.” Manufacturing and service sectors, automobile sales and loan growth are also holding up really well, she added.

Earlier in the month, India’s central bank warned that even as the country’s economy had remained “resilient” amid geopolitical uncertainty, growth was expected to slow over this financial year. 

The Reserve Bank of India had estimated that India’s economy would grow by 7.0% in the three months ending June and 6.7% during the financial year ending March 2027.

The central bank expects “the turbulent global economic environment” to have an impact on domestic economic activity as energy prices and supply chain pressures remain “elevated and uncertain.”

The El Niño conditions could lead to a deficient and uneven south-west monsoon and pose risks to India’s farm sector and rural demand, the central bank said earlier this month.

The impact of high energy prices is already being felt in India, with the country’s inflation climbing steadily for nine straight months to 4.45% in July. Yet the RBI, unlike some of its Asian peers, did not hike interest rates in its August policy.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it is planning “massive strikes” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, days after launching a devastating attack on a warehouse near Kyiv, amplifying fears of another winter assault.

In a post published Sunday via Telegram, Russia’s Defense Ministry framed the planned attacks as a response to the continued Ukrainian strikes against Russian energy sites.

“In accordance with the received instructions, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation began preparing to launch massive strikes against Ukrainian energy facilities as a response to the continuing attacks of the Kiev regime against the Russian civil infrastructure and fuel and energy facilities,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said, according to a Google translation.

The warning comes as the death toll from a Russian strike on a warehouse west of Kyiv on Friday evening rose to 38, with four people missing, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukrainian officials said the strike, which marks the deadliest Russian attack in Ukraine so far this year, hit an ammunition storage facility in the village of Myla, triggering fires and explosions.

Emergency workers have extinguished most of the fires, Zelenskyy said, describing the incident as a “terrible situation” and a consequence of “terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people.”

Ukraine’s president said Saturday that an investigation had been launched to understand how and why the ammunition came to be housed there.

Russian forces have ramped up the number of missile strikes on Ukrainian cities as Kyiv faces a shortage of air defense equipment.

Ukraine, for its part, has pursued long-range drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and logistics hubs, seeking to raise the cost of the war for Moscow and test President Vladimir Putin‘s resolve after more than four-and-a-half years of conflict.

Ukrainian officials, drone executives and national security experts have previously warned that the country could face another extremely difficult winter, amid fears of another sustained barrage of military attacks on its power grid during freezing temperatures.

Since April, Zelenskyy has emphasized the importance of ensuring that the country’s energy and critical infrastructure facilities are fully operational and reliably protected for the next heating season.

Speaking to CNBC earlier this month, Iryna Terekh, CEO of Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point, said Kyiv needs to be realistic about the threat it faces, particularly given the country’s acute shortage of air defense systems.

“Winter is coming, obviously, and the last winter was very hard for Ukraine and for big cities in general. This one would be no easier — and probably even harder,” Terekh said.

China’s manufacturing activity in August shrank for a second straight month, though by less than market estimates, keeping the pressure on Beijing to support the economy as growth loses momentum.

The official purchasing managers’ index came in at 49.8, compared with 49.2 in July, National Bureau of Statistics data showed Monday, better than Reuters-polled economists’ forecast of 49.6.

China’s economy has come under mounting strain, with growth slowing to 4.3% in the second quarter, the weakest pace since late 2022, as soft domestic demand and a prolonged property slump continue to weigh on activity.

The economic malaise deepened further in the second half this year, as consumer spending stalled, urban investment contracted at a faster pace, and unemployment ticked higher.

Retail sales and industrial output both slowed in July, while growth in industrial profits cooled to its weakest pace this year.

Exports have been one of the few pillars propping up growth this year, cushioning some of the drag from external shocks as a global boom in AI infrastructure spending lifts demand for Chinese-made tech goods. Outbound shipments recorded double-digit growth for most of this year.

Chinese policymakers have pledged to roll out new policy measures in a timely manner and flagged room for further fiscal spending and monetary easing. But economists said the scale of any upcoming support will likely be limited.

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.