"We are very close with India" on trade deal, Bessent tells Fox News
"We are very close with India," Bessent told Fox News in response to a question about progress on trade negotiations.
(Reporting By Dan Burns)
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UAE Moments
2 hours ago
- UAE Moments
Your Daily Career Tarot Card Reading for July 2nd, 2025
2.7.25 Strength: Drawing this card indicates that if you're willing to make just a bit more effort you can forge ahead now. Whether you're hoping to get a fabulous job or want to expand your business, this is your opportunity to go for it. Yes, you will need to apply yourself and may have to work harder and longer for a while, but it will be worth it.
The National
2 hours ago
- The National
Trump optimistic Gaza ceasefire may come 'some time next week'
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will push for a Gaza ceasefire next week and be "very firm" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the need to end the 20-month war. Mr Trump said he will discuss the situations in Gaza and Iran in a White House meeting with Mr Netanyahu next week. A senior Israeli official, Ron Dermer, has been in Washington holding talks ahead of the meeting as the US, Egypt and Qatar push for a truce. "We hope it's going to happen. And we're looking forward to it happening sometime next week," Mr Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a trip to Florida. "We want to get the hostages out." Later, during a tour of the migrant detention centre in Florida, Mr Trump was asked how tough he would be with Mr Netanyahu on ending the war. "Very firm," he replied. "But he wants it too ... he wants to end it too," Mr Trump said. Hamas officials have said the group is engaging positively with mediators but the fate of a Gaza ceasefire lies in talks between the US and Israel. "What matters to us is stopping the aggression and the massacres. We hope something positive will happen on this front," a Beirut-based Hamas official said. "The problem lies with Netanyahu and his government, which does not respond to the mediators' calls to halt the aggression, release the prisoners, allow aid into Gaza, and withdraw." A second Hamas official said "the Israelis and Americans are discussing matters among themselves. We are waiting for what will come out of those discussions". "There are positive signals from the Israelis and Americans, but there is no reliance on Mr Trump given his historical positions on Hamas, which are far from promising," he added. In Washington, Mr Trump is expected to tell Mr Netanyahu that the war, now more than 20 months old, can no longer continue, sources in the US said on Monday. Mr Trump this week said a deal could be reached within a week. "Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back," he later wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform. Mr Netanyahu said new opportunities had opened up for recovering the hostages held in Gaza. However, Israel and Hamas remain far apart on the terms of a possible truce and hostage deal in Gaza, further sources said on Tuesday. Mr Trump's upbeat comments on the prospect of an agreement were premature, they said. "The mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US don't see that a deal can be reached any time soon," one of the sources said. "You only need to listen to Hamas and Israeli negotiators talking about their conditions to realise that no way a deal will be reached within in a week." Contact between Hamas and Israel on one side and mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US on the other has increased over the past week in Cairo, with the objective of finding enough common ground to hold another round of talks, said the sources. They said Israel, with US backing, has rigidly stood by its long-standing demands that Hamas surrender its arms and dismantle its military capabilities, including its network of underground tunnels and hardware manufacturing sites. Hamas has categorically refused to give up its arms but signalled it was open to discuss laying down its weapons and not be part of the post-war government or reconstruction of the enclave. It has also suggested it was prepared to agree to a demand that its leaders leave Gaza to live in exile abroad but only on condition that Israel does not target them. Israel, said the sources, has meanwhile been threatening to pursue Hamas leaders in Gaza if the group does not accept a temporary ceasefire during which it releases the remaining hostages. "Israel and the US have made it clear they don't want another Lebanon in Gaza," said another source, alluding to decades of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah operating in that Arab country as a "resistance" group outside state authority. "Hamas is in a tenuous position. It has lost much in this war, with its top-tier military and political leaders eliminated. Yet it continues to try to maintain a presence in Gaza as a resistance group fighting an illegal occupation." Under discussion is a 60-day truce during which Hamas is expected to release 10 living hostages and half the remains of others who died in captivity. In return, Israel is expected to free hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons. Of the estimated 50 hostages Hamas still holds, only 20 are believed to be alive, according to Israel's military. The proposal also includes the resumption of humanitarian assistance into Gaza and the start of Hamas-Israel negotiations on an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war. Hamas wants the US to guarantee that these negotiations continue until Israel pulls out and ends the hostilities. The war in Gaza started after a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed more than 56,600 Palestinians in Gaza and reduced most of the coastal strip to rubble. food aid and supplies.
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
Jerome Powell maintains wait-and-see policy as Trump ramps up pressure for rate cuts
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday repeated his wait-and-see approach towards cutting US interest rates despite mounting pressure from US President Donald Trump. 'As long as the US economy is in solid shape, we think that the prudent thing to do is to wait and learn more and see what those effects might be,' Mr Powell said during a panel discussion at a European Central Bank forum in Portugal. 'We're simply taking some time,' he told delegates. The Fed last month held its target range for interest rates between 4.25 and 4.50 per cent – the fourth consecutive time it has left rates unchanged. When asked if July's meeting was too soon for a rate cut, Mr Powell said the Fed is going 'meeting by meeting'. 'I wouldn't take any meeting off the table or put it directly on the table. It's going to depend on how the data evolve.' Two Fed officials have indicated a willingness to cut rates in July because they believe tariffs will have a one-time inflationary impact, while others have backed Mr Powell's cautious approach. Projections from the Fed's June meeting showed a majority of officials expect to cut rates twice this year. The Fed has maintained a cautious approach towards setting rates since Mr Trump's inauguration, with the president's shifting tariff policy causing economic uncertainty. And Mr Powell said the Fed could have cut rates more by now were it not for tariffs, in a similar message he said during congressional testimony last week. 'In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs, and essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs,' he said. Most economists argue tariffs will lead to higher inflation and slower growth, although data in recent months was mixed. A Commerce Department report last week showed the inflation picture has changed little, with the Fed's preferred metric rising by 2.3 per cent annually. Core inflation, which strips food and energy, came in higher than expected at 2.7 per cent. But signs of tariff-related pressures are beginning to appear. Meanwhile, an ISM survey on manufacturing on Tuesday showed manufacturing remained sluggish last month, although at a more modest pace. 'But worries about tariffs continue to crimp supply, leaving manufacturers fraught with trade-offs for holding inventory as pricing pressure builds,' Wells Fargo economists Shannon Grein and Tim Quinlan wrote in a note to clients. Mr Powell on Tuesday said he expects to see higher inflation readings in the coming months, repeating a similar warning he has cautioned in recent weeks His comments come a day after Mr Trump further escalated his attacks. On Monday, he sent a note to the Fed chairman written over a list of countries' interest rates. 'Jerome – You are, as usual, 'Too Late'. You have cost the USA a fortune – and continue to do – you should lower the rate – by a lot!,' the note read. On the same missive, Mr Trump said US interest rates should be between 0.50 per cent and 1.75 per cent. Mr Trump has said he wants the Fed to lower rates to help service US debt. Mr Powell has so far deflected the pressure coming from the White House. 'I'm very focused on just doing my job,' he said when asked if Mr Trump's attacks make his job more difficult. 'The things that matter are using our tools to achieve the goals that Congress has given us: maximum employment, price stability, financial stability. That's what we focus on – one hundred per cent,' he said. Separate data released on Tuesday showed US job openings unexpectedly rose to a six-month high in May, but a decline in hiring showed there were some signs of a slowing labour market. Still, that is unlikely 'to shake the Federal Reserve out of its wait-and-see mode', Oxford Economics lead economist Nancy Vanden Houten said.
