Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri begins 3-day visit to US
India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri begins a three-day visit to Washington, where he will meet senior officials of the Trump administration. The trip follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit in February, during which a new strategic partnership was unveiled. Neha Poonia reports from New Delhi.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Musk calls Trump's tax-cut and spending bill 'a disgusting abomination'
WASHINGTON: Elon Musk plunged into the congressional debate over President Donald Trump's sweeping tax and spending billon Tuesday (Jun 3), calling the measure a "disgusting abomination" that will increase the federal deficit in social media posts that hardline Republicans quickly embraced. "I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore," the billionaire Musk wrote in an X post. "This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination." He added: "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it." The House of Representatives last month passed the bill by one vote after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the measure, which would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump's main legislative accomplishment in his first term, would add US$3.8 trillion to the federal government's US$36.2 trillion in debt. The Senate, also controlled by Trump's Republicans, aims to pass the measure titled the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" in the next month, though senators are expected to revise the House-passed version of the bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Musk's calculations were in error. "It's very disappointing," Johnson told reporters. "With all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong." But two House Republicans, Representatives Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson, who opposed the measure went to Musk's social platform X to endorse his message. "The Big Beautiful Tweet," Davidson said while reposting Musk's words. Senator Mike Lee, one of at least four hardline Republicans pushing for deeper spending cuts, also rallied to Musk in a tweet that called on party members to use the Trump bill and future spending measures to reduce the deficit. "We must commit now to doing so, as this is what voters justifiably expect, and indeed deserve, from the GOP Congress," the Utah Republican said on X. Trump appointed Musk, the world's richest person, to lead a government cost-cutting and efficiency drive, during which he upended several federal agencies but ultimately failed to deliver the massive savings he had sought. Musk left his formal role in the administration last week as his time as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency came to an end. The Tesla CEO also criticized the bill in an interview the week before he left, saying it will undermine DOGE's work. Trump brushed off the criticism. Musk came out against it even more strongly on Tuesday. "It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt," Musk said on X. The White House dismissed the most recent attack. "Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill," spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at a White House briefing. "It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it." Thune, who aims to pass the bill through his chamber in the next month, said he disagreed with Musk. "My hope is that as he has an opportunity to further assess what this bill actually does, that he comes to a different conclusion," Thune, of South Dakota, told reporters. "But nevertheless, I mean, we have a job to do."
CNA
4 hours ago
- CNA
Global alarms rise as China's critical mineral export ban takes hold
Alarm over China's stranglehold on critical minerals grew on Tuesday (Jun 3) as global automakers joined their US counterparts to complain that restrictions by China on exports of rare earth alloys, mixtures and magnets could cause production delays and outages without a quick solution. German automakers became the latest to warn that China's export restrictions threaten to shut down production and rattle their local economies, following a similar complaint from an Indian EV maker last week. China's decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets has upended the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world. The move underscores China's dominance of the critical mineral industry and is seen as leverage by China in its ongoing trade war with US President Donald Trump. Trump has sought to redefine the trading relationship with the US's top economic rival China by imposing steep tariffs on billions of dollars of imported goods in hopes of narrowing a wide trade deficit and bringing back lost manufacturing. Trump imposed tariffs as high as 145 percent against China only to scale them back after stock, bond and currency markets revolted over the sweeping nature of the levies. China has responded with its own tariffs and is leveraging its dominance in key supply chains to persuade Trump to back down. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to talk this week, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday, and the export ban is expected to be high on the agenda. "I can assure you that the administration is actively monitoring China's compliance with the Geneva trade agreement," she said. "Our administration officials continue to be engaged in correspondence with their Chinese counterparts." Trump has previously signaled that China's slow pace of easing the critical mineral export ban represents a violation of the Geneva agreement. Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors. The suspension has triggered anxiety in corporate boardrooms and nations' capitals - from Tokyo to Washington - as officials scrambled to identify limited alternative options amid fears that production of new automobiles and other items could grind to a halt by summer's end. "If the situation is not changed quickly, production delays and even production outages can no longer be ruled out," Hildegard Mueller, head of Germany's auto lobby, told Reuters on Tuesday. Frank Fannon, a minerals industry consultant and former US assistant secretary of state for energy resources during Trump's first term, said the global disruptions are not shocking to those paying attention. 'I don't think anyone should be surprised how this is playing out. We have a production challenge (in the US) and we need to leverage our whole of government approach to secure resources and ramp up domestic capability as soon as possible. The time horizon to do this was yesterday,' Fannon. Diplomats, automakers and other executives from India, Japan and Europe were urgently seeking meetings with Beijing officials to push for faster approval of rare earth magnet exports, sources told Reuters, as shortages threatened to halt global supply chains. A business delegation from Japan will visit Beijing in early June to meet the Ministry of Commerce over the curbs and European diplomats from countries with big auto industries have also sought "emergency" meetings with Chinese officials in recent weeks, Reuters reported. India, where Bajaj Auto warned that any further delays in securing the supply of rare earth magnets from China could "seriously impact" electric vehicle production, is organizing a trip for auto executives in the next two to three weeks. In May, the head of the trade group representing General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai and other major automakers raised similar concerns in a letter to the Trump administration. "Without reliable access to these elements and magnets, automotive suppliers will be unable to produce critical automotive components, including automatic transmissions, throttle bodies, alternators, various motors, sensors, seat belts, speakers, lights, motors, power steering, and cameras," the Alliance for Automotive Innovation wrote in the letter.
CNA
5 hours ago
- CNA
US to scale down its military bases in Syria, envoy says
ANKARA: The United States will scale down its military presence in Syria to one base from eight and US policies will shift in the country "because none of them worked" over the last century, the new US special envoy has said. Thomas Barrack, who President Donald Trump named special envoy last month shortly after he unexpectedly lifted US sanctions on Syria, made the comments in an interview with Turkish broadcaster NTV late on Monday (Jun 2). The US military has about 2,000 US troops in Syria, mostly in the northeast. They are working with local forces to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria but was later pushed back. Since rebels ousted Syria's former President Bashar al-Assad in December, the United States and other countries are re-engaging with Damascus under new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. Barrack, also US ambassador to Turkey, raised the American flag over the ambassador's residence in Damascus last week for the first time since 2012. When asked how the Trump administration will shape its Syria policy and whether the US is considering troop withdrawal from Syria, Barrack said: "What I can assure you is that our current Syria policy will not be close to the Syria policy of the last 100 years, because none of these have worked." Reducing the number of bases to one from eight was an important part of that shift, he said, according to an interview transcript. Two security sources in bases where US troops are deployed told Reuters in April that military equipment and vehicles had already moved out of eastern Deir el-Zor and were being consolidated in the province of Hasakah. One of the sources said the consolidation plan involved pulling all US troops out of Deir el-Zor province. A US State Department official said separately that the military presence would be reduced "if and when appropriate" based on conditions, adding troops are routinely calibrated based on operational needs and contingencies. Barrack said that the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were a US ally and a "very important factor" for the US Congress, and that directing them to integrate into a new Syrian government was also very important. "Everyone needs to be reasonable in their expectations," he said. The SDF is the main ally in a US coalition against Islamic State militants in Syria. It is spearheaded by the YPG militia, which Ankara sees as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK decided to disband last month after a 40-year conflict with the Turkish state. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said last week that the SDF was using "stalling tactics", despite a deal with the Syrian government to integrate into Syria's armed forces.
