Can China become a defender of free trade?
The trillion-dollar question is: Does Beijing's rhetoric match reality and how sincere is China when it claims to be a 'defender' of free trade?
Clearly, there's been growing debate about the destabilization of the international order since U.S. President Donald Trump reclaimed the White House in January. The Trump administration, in its effort to eliminate U.S. trade deficits and revive domestic manufacturing, has imposed steep tariffs on numerous countries — friend and foe alike — seemingly abandoning free trade altogether.
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Japan Today
2 hours ago
- Japan Today
Trump was told he is in Epstein files, Wall Street Journal reports
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he hosts a dinner with Republican members of the U.S. Congress in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 22, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo By Jeff Mason, Andrew Goudsward and Joseph Ax U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump in May that his name appeared in investigative files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The disclosure about Trump's appearance in the Justice Department's records on the case threatened to deepen a political crisis that has engulfed his administration for weeks. Some Trump supporters for years have fanned conspiracy theories about Epstein's clients and the circumstances of his 2019 death in prison. The White House sent mixed signals following the story. It released an initial statement characterizing it as "fake news," but a White House official later told Reuters the administration was not denying that Trump's name appears in some files, noting that Trump was already included in a tranche of materials Bondi assembled in February for conservative influencers. Trump, who was friendly with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, appears multiple times on flight logs for Epstein's private plane in the 1990s. Trump and several members of his family also appear in an Epstein contact book, alongside hundreds of others. Much of that material had been publicly released in the criminal case against Epstein's former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after her conviction for child sex trafficking and other crimes. During her trial, Epstein's longtime pilot testified that Trump flew on Epstein's private plane multiple times. Trump has denied being on the plane. Reuters was not able to immediately verify the Journal's report. Trump has faced intense backlash from his own supporters after his administration said it would not release the files, reversing a campaign promise. The Justice Department said in a memo earlier this month that there was no basis to continue probing the Epstein case, sparking anger among some prominent Trump supporters who demanded more information about wealthy and powerful people who had interacted with Epstein. Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing related to Epstein and has said their friendship ended before Epstein's legal troubles first began two decades ago. Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a statement that did not directly address the Journal's report. "Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution, and we have filed a motion in court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts," the officials said. "As part of our routine briefing, we made the President aware of the findings." MANY NAMES APPEARED The newspaper reported that Bondi and her deputy told Trump at a White House meeting that his name, as well as those of "many other high-profile figures," appeared in the files. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, to which he had pleaded not guilty. In a separate case, Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to a prostitution charge in Florida and received a 13-month sentence in what is now widely regarded as too lenient a deal with prosecutors. Under political pressure last week, Trump directed the Justice Department to seek the release of sealed grand jury transcripts related to Epstein. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg denied one of those requests, finding that it did not fall into any of the exceptions to rules requiring grand jury material be kept secret. That motion stemmed from federal investigations into Epstein in 2005 and 2007, according to court documents; the department has also requested the unsealing of transcripts in Manhattan federal court related to later indictments brought against Epstein and Maxwell. Last week, the Journal reported that Trump had sent Epstein a bawdy birthday note in 2003 that ended, "Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret." Reuters has not confirmed the authenticity of the alleged letter. Trump has sued the Journal and its owners, including billionaire Rupert Murdoch, asserting that the birthday note was fake. MAGA PUSHBACK Trump and his advisers have long engaged in conspiracy theories, including about Epstein, that have resonated with Trump's political base. The Make American Great Again movement's broad refusal to accept his administration's argument that those theories are now unfounded is unusual for a politician who is accustomed to enjoying relatively unchallenged loyalty from his supporters. Epstein hung himself in prison, according to the New York City chief medical examiner. But his connections with wealthy and powerful individuals prompted speculation that his death was not a suicide. The Justice Department said in its memo this month that it had concluded Epstein died by his own hand. In a sign of how the issue has bedeviled Trump and his fellow Republicans, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday abruptly said he would send lawmakers home for the summer a day early to avoid a floor fight over a vote on the Epstein files. His decision temporarily stymied a push by Democrats and some Republicans for a vote on a bipartisan resolution that would require the Justice Department to release all Epstein-related documents. Trump, stung and frustrated by the continued focus on the Epstein story, has sought to divert attention to other topics, including unfounded accusations that former President Barack Obama undermined Trump's successful 2016 presidential campaign. Obama's office denounced the allegations as "ridiculous." More than two-thirds of Americans believe the Trump administration is hiding information about Epstein's clients, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week. © (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.
Japan Today
2 hours ago
- Japan Today
Trump accuses Obama of treason in escalating attacks over 2016 Russia probe
Former U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speak at an event in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 2025. Ricky Carioti/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo By Steve Holland, Matt Spetalnick and Jonathan Landay U.S. President Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of "treason" on Tuesday, accusing him, without providing evidence, of leading an effort to falsely tie him to Russia and undermine his 2016 presidential campaign. A spokesperson for Obama denounced Trump's claims, saying "these bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction." While Trump has frequently attacked Obama by name, the Republican president has not, since returning to office in January, gone this far in pointing the finger at his Democratic predecessor with allegations of criminal action. During remarks in the Oval Office, Trump leaped on comments from his intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, on Friday in which she threatened to refer Obama administration officials to the Justice Department for prosecution over an intelligence assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election. She declassified documents and said the information she was releasing showed a 'treasonous conspiracy' in 2016 by top Obama administration officials to undermine Trump, claims that Democrats called false and politically motivated. "It's there, he's guilty. This was treason," Trump said on Tuesday, though he offered no proof of his claims. "They tried to steal the election, they tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody's ever imagined, even in other countries." An assessment by the U.S. intelligence community published in January 2017 concluded that Russia, using social media disinformation, hacking and Russian bot farms, sought to damage Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign and bolster Trump. The assessment determined that the actual impact was likely limited and showed no evidence that Moscow's efforts actually changed voting outcomes. A 2020 bipartisan report by the Senate intelligence committee had found that Russia used Republican political operative Paul Manafort, the WikiLeaks website and others to try to influence the 2016 election to help Trump's campaign. "Nothing in the document issued last week (by Gabbard) undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes," Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. TRUMP UNDER PRESSURE Trump, who has a history of promoting false conspiracy theories, has frequently denounced the assessments as a 'hoax.' In recent days, Trump reposted on his Truth Social account a fake video showing Obama being arrested in handcuffs in the Oval Office. Trump has been seeking to divert attention to other issues after coming under pressure from his conservative base to release more information about Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Backers of conspiracy theories about Epstein have urged Trump, who socialized with the disgraced financier during the 1990s and early 2000s, to release investigative files related to the case. Trump, asked in the Oval Office about Epstein, quickly pivoted into an attack on Obama and Clinton. "The witch hunt that you should be talking about is they caught President Obama absolutely cold," Trump said. Trump suggested action would be taken against Obama and his former officials, calling the Russia investigation a treasonous act and the former president guilty of "trying to lead a coup." "It's time to start, after what they did to me, and whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people. Obama has been caught directly," he said. Democratic Representative Jim Himes responded on X: "This is a lie. And if he's confused, the President should ask @SecRubio, who helped lead the bipartisan Senate investigation that unanimously concluded that there was no evidence of politicization in the intelligence community's behavior around the 2016 election." Former Republican Senator Marco Rubio is now Trump's secretary of state. Since returning to office, Trump has castigated his political opponents whom he claims weaponized the federal government against him and his allies for the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters and his handling of classified materials after he left office in 2021. ATTACKS ON PREDECESSORS Obama has long been a target of Trump. In 2011 he accused then-President Obama of not being born in the United States, prompting Obama to release a copy of his birth certificate. In recent months, Trump has rarely held back in his rhetorical broadsides against his two Democratic predecessors in a way all but unprecedented in modern times. He launched an investigation after accusing former President Joe Biden and his staff, without evidence, of a "conspiracy" to use an autopen, an automated device that replicates a person's signature, to sign sensitive documents on the president's behalf. Biden has rejected the claim as false and 'ridiculous.' Gabbard's charge that Obama conspired to subvert Trump's 2016 election by manufacturing intelligence on Russia's interference is contradicted by a CIA review ordered by Director John Ratcliffe and published on July 2, a 2018 bipartisan Senate report and declassified documents that Gabbard herself released last week. The documents show that Gabbard conflated two separate U.S. intelligence findings in alleging that Obama and his national security aides changed an assessment that Russia probably was not trying to influence the election through cyber means. One finding was that Russia was not trying to hack U.S. election infrastructure to change vote counts and the second was that Moscow probably was using cyber means to influence the U.S. political environment through information and propaganda operations, including by stealing and leaking data from Democratic Party servers. The January 2017 U.S. intelligence assessment ordered by Obama built on that second finding: that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to sway the 2016 vote to Trump. The review ordered by Ratcliffe found flaws in the production of that assessment. But it did not contest its conclusion and upheld 'the quality and credibility' of a highly classified CIA report on which the assessment's authors relied. © (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.
NHK
2 hours ago
- NHK
Bloomberg reports details of Japan-US trade deal
Bloomberg has reported the details of a trade deal struck between Japan and the United States. The US media outlet reported on Wednesday the agreement announced by US President Donald Trump the previous day. Bloomberg quoted a senior US administration official as saying Japan's "pledge" to invest 550 billion dollars in the United States is "akin to a sovereign wealth fund under which Trump himself could steer investments inside the US." The outlet reported that, according to the official, legal particulars and other details surrounding the pledge are still being hammered out. Bloomberg also said Japan reportedly agreed to buy 100 Boeing aircraft, boost rice purchases by 75 percent and buy 8 billion dollars in agricultural and other products while hiking defense spending with US firms to 17 billion dollars annually, from 14 billion dollars.
