Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday auto tariffs will be around 25% and he will have more to share on the topic on April 2. On Friday, Trump said levies on automobiles would come as soon as April 2, the day after members of his cabinet are due to deliver reports to him outlining options for a range of import duties as he seeks to reshape global trade. Trump has long pointed to what he calls unfair treatment of U.S. automotive exports in foreign markets. The European Union, for instance, collects a 10% tariff on vehicle imports, four times…
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday auto tariffs will be around 25% and he will have more to share on the topic on April 2. On Friday, Trump said levies on automobiles would come as soon as April 2, the day after members of his cabinet are due to deliver reports to him outlining options for a range of import duties as he seeks to reshape global trade. Trump has long pointed to what he calls unfair treatment of U.S. automotive exports in foreign markets. The European Union, for instance, collects a 10% tariff on vehicle imports, four times…
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested on Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone attack on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pumping station in southern Russia might have been coordinated with its Western allies. Putin said that he believed Ukraine could not have organised such an attack on its own and was likely provided with Western intelligence. “Attacks of this kind are impossible without space reconnaissance. Ukraine receives high-precision data on the targets only from its Western allies,” Putin said. A drone strike hit a pumping station on the oil pipeline in Russia on Monday, reducing flows from Kazakhstan to world markets pumped…
Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on Wednesday no one can force his country to give up following remarks from U.S. President Donald Trump attacking Ukraine and its president. “We will defend our right to exist,” Sybiha said on X.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was Ukraine’s sovereign right to decide whether it wanted to join the European Union and that Moscow did not intend to dictate to Kyiv how it should approach the question. Asked if Ukraine could one day join the European Union, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This is the sovereign right of any country.” “We are talking about integration and economic integration processes. And here, of course, no one can dictate anything to any country, and we are not going to do that,” Peskov said. Peskov added, though, that Russia’s position was different when…
Lebanon will consider any remaining Israeli presence on its lands an occupation and has the right to use any means to ensure an Israeli withdrawal, a spokesperson for the Lebanese presidency said on Tuesday. Tuesday marks the latest deadline for a withdrawal of Israeli troops under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that halted last year’s war with Hezbollah. Under the November truce, Israeli troops were granted 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon where they had waged a ground offensive against fighters from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah since early October. That deadline was extended to February 18, but Israeli and Lebanese officials…
A lasting settlement in Ukraine is “impossible” without addressing the wider issue of European security, the Kremlin said Tuesday, as the US and Russia held the first high-level talks since Moscow’s offensive against Kyiv. Before launching its offensive in February 2022, Moscow had asked NATO to pull out of central and eastern Europe. “A lasting and long-term viable resolution is impossible without a comprehensive consideration of security issues on the continent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, responding to a question by AFP. He also said Moscow would not stop Ukraine from joining the European Union repeated that it remained opposed…
More than $50 billion will be required to rebuild Gaza and the West Bank after the 15-month Israeli war on Gaza, according to an assessment released by the United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank on Tuesday. The Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment said that $53.2 billion is needed for recovery and reconstruction over the next ten years, with $20 billion needed in the first three.
China condemned tariffs launched or threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump at a World Trade Organization meeting on Tuesday, warning that such “tariff shocks” threaten to upend the global trading system and could risk a global recession. Trump has announced sweeping 10% tariffs on all Chinese imports, prompting Beijing to respond with retaliatory tariffs and to file a WTO dispute against Washington in what could be an early test of Trump’s stance towards the institution. “These ‘Tariff Shocks’ heighten economic uncertainty, disrupt global trade, and risk domestic inflation, market distortion, or even global recession,” China’s ambassador to the WTO Li…
China supports all efforts conducive to peace talks in Ukraine, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, and stressed that Gaza and the West Bank are “not a bargaining chip in political trade-offs.” After Russian and U.S. officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and agreed to press ahead with efforts to end the war in Ukraine, Wang told the Security Council: “China supports all efforts conducive to peace talks.” He said Beijing would continue to follow four points outlined by President Xi Jinping on what should be done. The points were put forward…