
European shares steady as defence stocks climb on Russia sanctions threat
May 27 (Reuters) - European shares remained stable on Tuesday, supported by defence stocks after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened additional sanctions on Russia, though broader gains were restrained by ongoing caution over U.S. trade policy shifts.
The continent-wide STOXX 600 index (.STOXX), opens new tab held its ground at 551.53 points, as of 0711 GMT. The benchmark closed 1% higher in the previous session after Trump extended the tariff deadline on the European Union to July 9 from June 1.
Europe's defence index (.SXPARO), opens new tab rose 1% on the day after President Trump said he would recommend additional sanctions on Moscow, amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
In Britain, the FTSE 100 (.FTSE), opens new tab jumped nearly 1% as investors returned to active trading following a holiday on Monday.
French benchmark index CAC 40 (.FCHI), opens new tab dipped 0.15% in early trading on Tuesday. Data showed consumer prices rose less than anticipated in May, signalling subdued inflationary pressure.
Germany's DAX 40 (.GDAXI), opens new tab advanced to hover near a record peak. A recent survey indicated consumer sentiment is set to improve slightly heading into June, though cautious household spending may limit a robust recovery in Europe's largest economy.
Shares in FLSmidth (FLS.CO), opens new tab rose 3.7% after Goldman Sachs raised the mining and cement technology supplier's rating to "buy" from "neutral".
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Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
JD Vance reveals how President Trump really feels about Elon's attacks and reacts to awkward call for impeachment
Vice President JD Vance revealed behind-the-scenes details of Elon Musk 's blow-up on social media on Friday and President Donald Trump 's reaction. Vance spoke about the incident in a podcast interview with comedian Theo Von that was recorded on Thursday as the fight between the pair of billionaires escalated. The vice president found himself reacting in real time to some of Musk's posts on X during the interview, including an awkward post where Musk endorsed the idea of impeaching President Trump and installing Vance as president. 'I just think the idea that the president should be impeached, I'm sorry, it's insane. It's totally insane, Vance said, describing Musk's social media tirade as 'not helpful.' He said that obviously Musk had the First Amendment right to disagree with the president but that it was a mistake for him to attack Trump. Vance also shot down Musk's claim that the president was 'in the Epstein files' even though he admitted he hadn't even seen the post before the interview. 'Absolutely not. Donald Trump didn't do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein. Like, there's the guy is whatever the Democrats and the media says about him, that's totally BS,' he said. The vice president was with the president when Musk's criticism of Trump began, but had not seen all the posts as he traveled to Nashville for the interview with Vonn. Theo Von asks JD Vance about Elon Musk's attacks against President Trump 'I know the president, for a couple of days, I'll tell you, I don't want to reveal too many confidences, but he was getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon,' he said. Vance said that Trump was actually quite restrained in his response to Musk, again asserting that Musk's attacks were not good for the country. 'But I think it's been very restrained because the president doesn't think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk. I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine,' he said. Musk signaled his opposition to the 'Big Beautiful Bill' on Thursday and posted criticism of the president on social media. Trump responded to Musk in real time, speaking to reporters during his meeting with the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat beside the president as he spoke, but did not speak about Musk themselves. The president's comments in the Oval Office further aggravated Musk, after clips of the news conference made their way to his social media feed. The highly-anticipated interview between Vance and Von was the first time the vice president spoke on camera about the feud. He reserved his public reaction for several hours as Musk fumed on social media about the president. The vice president defended President Trump on social media Friday morning. 'There are many lies the corporate media tells about President Trump. One of the most glaring is that he's impulsive or short-tempered,' Vance wrote on X. 'Anyone who has seen him operate under pressure knows that's ridiculous. It's (maybe) the single biggest disconnect between fake media perception and reality,' he continued. The vice president teased his interview with Von on social media, joking that he had no idea what they would talk about. Musk shared the post with a laugh-crying emoji, suggesting that the vice president had lightened the mood. Vance also posted a statement in support of Trump late in the evening. 'President Trump has done more than any person in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads. I'm proud to stand beside him,' Vance wrote at 10:30 pm EST on X. Vance has sided with Trump, but has demonstrated caution about attacking Musk, as he is still a very powerful and influential political donor. The vice president considers Musk a friend, and he defended the unpredictable billionaire as he prepared to exit the administration as a special advisor. 'I am going to miss him. Elon's become a very good friend,' Vance told Newsmax host Greg Kelly in an interview last week. Vance and Musk already had a relationship prior to the campaign, but their friendship has deepened since the election. 'He and his kids have come to our house and had dinner with our kids. I'm very close to him,' Vance said.


Belfast Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Donald Trump and Elon Musk urged by Republicans to end feud
At a minimum, the explosion of animosity between the two powerful men could complicate the path forward for Republicans' massive tax and border spending legislation that has been promoted by Mr Trump but criticised by Mr Musk. 'I hope it doesn't distract us from getting the job done that we need to,' said representative Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington state. 'I think that it will boil over and they'll mend fences.' As of Friday afternoon, Mr Musk was holding his fire, posting about his various companies on social media rather than attacking the president. Mr Trump departed the White House for his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, without stopping to talk to reporters who shouted questions about his battle with Mr Musk. 'I hope that both of them come back together because when the two of them are working together, we'll get a lot more done for America than when they're at cross purposes,' senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, told Fox News host Sean Hannity. Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, sounded almost pained on social media as Mr Trump and Mr Musk volleyed insults at each other, sharing a photo composite of the two men and writing, 'But … I really like both of them.' 'Who else really wants @elonmusk and @realDonaldTrump to reconcile?' Mr Lee posted, later adding: 'Repost if you agree that the world is a better place with the Trump-Musk bromance fully intact.' So far, the feud between Mr Trump and Mr Musk is probably best described as a moving target, with plenty of opportunities for escalation or detente. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. One person familiar with the president's thinking said Mr Musk wants to speak with Mr Trump, but that the president does not want to do it – or at least do it on Friday. In a series of conversations with television news presenters on Friday morning, Mr Trump showed no interest in burying the hatchet. Asked on ABC News about reports of a potential call between him and Mr Musk, the president responded: 'You mean the man who has lost his mind?' Mr Trump added in the ABC interview that he was 'not particularly' interested in talking to Mr Musk at the moment. Still, others remained hopeful that it all would blow over. 'I grew up playing hockey and there wasn't a single day that we played hockey or basketball or football or baseball, whatever we were playing, where we didn't fight. And then we'd fight, then we'd become friends again,' Mr Hannity said on his show on Thursday night. Acknowledging that it 'got personal very quick,' Mr Hannity nonetheless added that the rift was 'just a major policy difference'. House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson projected confidence that the dispute would not affect prospects for the tax and border bill. 'Members are not shaken at all,' the Republican said. 'We're going to pass this legislation on our deadline.' He added that he hopes Mr Musk and Mr Trump reconcile, saying 'I believe in redemption' and 'it's good for the party and the country if all that's worked out.' But he also had something of a warning for the billionaire entrepreneur. 'I'll tell you what, do not doubt and do not second-guess and don't ever challenge the president of the United States, Donald Trump,' Mr Johnson said. 'He is the leader of the party. He's the most consequential political figure of this generation and probably the modern era.'


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE How YOU could find yourself wrongly accused of 'pump and dash' and hit with a £60 fine - as alleged petrol thefts hit all-time high
Petrol thefts have soared to an all-time high, figures suggest. MailOnline can reveal that 110,000 charges for alleged 'pump and dash' thefts were issued by two major fuel security firms last year. This marks a 20-fold rise in just six years. Industry bigwigs insist there has been genuine increase in drivers fleeing forecourts without paying, or 'bilking', especially in the wake of the cost of living crisis. Yet drivers say they have been incorrectly stung with threatening letters demanding hefty 'admin fees' on top of their supposedly unpaid petrol or diesel. In an attempt to recoup the costs of stolen fuel for petrol stations, many of which are independently owned, Forecourt Eye and British Oil Security Syndicate (BOSS) scan forecourts with numberplate-recognition technology. The two companies work with hundreds of filling sites and are considered among the biggest in the sector. Between the duo, they fired off nearly 113,000 requests to the DVLA for driver details last year. This is up from around 5,500 in 2018, according to data MailOnline obtained from the DVLA through Freedom of Information. Firms only request such data, which costs £2.50 a time and includes the car owner's name and address, if they intend to recover costs for non-payment of fuel. As well as seeking to recuperate the alleged unpaid fuel, companies may slap on their own admin fees. Forecourt Eye bolts on a £60 add-on. Drivers may feel pressured into paying up, even if they already forked out at the time. Some claim to have been threatened with being banned from forecourts up and down the country. There are several ways motorists can wrongly be accused of a 'pump and dash'. For example, if your card was declined and neither you nor the cashier noticed before you drove off, you are likely to be sent a demand. If a criminal has cloned your plates and genuinely steals petrol, you could also be on the hook for any fuel they have stolen. Criminal gangs have also been known to use entirely fake plates to dodge paying for fuel. Drivers also risk being falsely accused of bilking if a cashier selected the wrong pump (or failed to select one at all) when totting up your bill. If this happened, it would mean your fuel was technically never paid for, even if you paid for someone else's. This is the equivalent of a supermarket cashier failing to scan an item at checkout. Chris Mullen, for example, was accused of not paying £7.80 for petrol – even though he was driving a diesel car and filled up £30 worth of fuel. Despite fighting the claim from Forecourt Eye, thought to be caused by staff error, the 63-year-old from Stalham, Norfolk, said the firm 'insisted this was the case'. He was slapped with a £60 admin charge on top of the petrol he allegedly owed. After appealing, Tesco did issue a refund and an apology to him as well as a £10 gift card, which the motorist branded 'something of an insult'. Tesco told the Great Yarmouth Mercury that its processes were 'regularly reviewed' with regular meetings and new staff training to 'prevent errors from occurring'. Social media and forums are littered with similar stories of motorists claiming to have been falsely accused of driving off without paying. MailOnline's analysis can't prove genuine thefts have risen, it only shows that reports have gone up. Police data, however, suggests more than 27,000 alleged thefts occurred last year, in line with levels in 2020. About 95 per cent of cases are canned with no suspect being identified. Cops themselves moan they have 'finite resources' to probe suspected thefts. The Petrol Retailers Association, whose members run two-thirds of forecourts, says bilking robs them of around £100million a year. Petrol stations themselves have resorted to shaming 'pump and dashers' online in a bid to claw back the stolen fuel. One forecourt in Hythe, Kent, last summer shared CCTV footage of a blue car filling up with £120 of petrol before the driver got straight back into his vehicle and casually zoomed off without attempting to pay. Owner Sutha Hari, 49, claimed she wasn't going to bother alerting the police because 'nothing ever comes of it'. While there is no specific offence code for robbing from fuel pumps, it falls under the 'making off without payment' umbrella. It also covers restaurant 'dine and dashers', as well as people who make off without paying taxi drivers at the end of journeys. Thieves can be jailed for up to two years. Experts say petrol theft pushes up prices for law-abiding motorists. Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: 'It would be tempting to suspect that the cost-of-living crisis is pushing normally law-abiding people into committing this type of offence, but that would be an insult to the vast majority of people who continue to obey the law whatever their circumstances. 'Repeat criminals might well be pushing their luck more than ever because they believe other pressures on the police are such that they'll get away with it. 'Drive-offs might be seen as relatively low-level crimes in the grand scheme of things but they are corrosive to society, damaging to businesses and ultimately push up pump prices for law-abiding motorists and riders. 'More is being done to prevent these crimes through adoption of better surveillance systems and pay-at-pump options, but the numbers suggest the problem has been getting worse, with tens of thousands of drive-away fuel thefts each year. 'Those tempted to refuel without paying need to feel there is a real threat of being caught and punished.'