Is UK PM Keir Starmer Reversing Brexit? Vantage With Palki Sharma
Is UK PM Keir Starmer Reversing Brexit? | Vantage With Palki Sharma | N18G
The UK has hosted two of the European Union's top leaders in as many weeks. Both President Macron of France and Chancellor Merz of Germany said they "regretted" London's exit from the European bloc in 2020. Does UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer share this sentiment? Is he trying to dilute the impact of Brexit? Palki Sharma tells you.
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Hindustan Times
a minute ago
- Hindustan Times
How Trump and Putin Reached a New Make-or-Break Moment on Ukraine
WASHINGTON—President Trump has long believed the crux of foreign policy is two leaders in a room making historic deals. Pulling off a cease-fire in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be the kind of diplomatic coup he has long craved. It remains a long shot. The leaders could meet as soon as next week to pursue a peace agreement following months of maneuvering. But their approaches remain at odds. Trump has urged Putin to stop the war but has shown little interest in the specifics of a deal. The Kremlin boss has rebuffed all appeals to halt the fighting, except on his terms. After months of failed efforts to forge a deal, first by coercing Kyiv and later by wooing Putin, Trump has come around to the belief that heightened economic pressure on Moscow might be the only way to get an agreement. To sway Putin, Trump has embarked on a more confrontational course, threatening sanctions on countries that purchase Russian energy. He targeted India, a major buyer of Russian oil, with 50% tariffs on its goods shipped to the U.S. Other nations that import Russian oil and gas, including China, could see their duties raised by Trump's Friday deadline for an agreement. But even Trump seemed less than optimistic Thursday following talks earlier in the week between his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Putin in Moscow. 'We're going to see what he has to say,' Trump told reporters of Putin. 'That's going to be up to him.' The White House is working on arranging a meeting with Putin but would like a three-way meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. 'President Trump would like to meet with both President Putin and President Zelensky because he wants this brutal war to end,' she said. The Russian leader said he is only open 'in principle' to talks with Zelensky. 'We are still far from creating such conditions,' said Putin, who has frequently called into question Zelensky's legitimacy. Putin wouldn't have to agree to meet Zelensky for Trump to see him, the White House said. If the Trump-Putin summit happens, it could prove the biggest test of Trump's dealmaking skills this term. Trump returned to the White House vowing he could stop the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, later claiming he was merely joking. Privately, Trump is fuming at his failure to halt the war 200 days into his second presidency, according to aides. He has slowly come to recognize that a settlement must take account of Zelensky's bottom line and that of key European governments, who insist they won't recognize Russian control over any conquered territory—a key Kremlin demand—as part of an agreement. There is the added concern that Putin may not be serious about reaching a deal. 'Putin has made it clear that the Ukraine war is more important to him than the relationship with the U.S.,' said Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis. Another challenge for Trump will be navigating talks with a Russian leader who has a quarter-century of experience dealing with various U.S. presidents and has proved himself skilled in influencing them. If Trump meets with Putin and emerges empty-handed, he will have to decide whether to increase pressure on Russia, despite his skepticism that economic or military moves would alter the Kremlin's calculus, or follow through on a threat he had made repeatedly to abandon the peace process. Either way, Polyakova said, 'the war keeps dragging on.' Russian President Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff, President Trump's envoy, in Moscow this week. Trump entered his second term confident his rapport with Putin would overcome the complexities of the war Russia launched in February 2022. The president's supporters say he has been wrongly caricatured as too cozy and deferential to the Russian leader. 'People have misunderstood Trump's approach,' said Fred Fleitz, who was a senior National Security Council official during the first term. 'It isn't that Trump likes dictators. He believes America has to coexist with Russia. Since we're not going to war, how do we deal with them?' Trump and Putin have held multiple calls and passed numerous messages through intermediaries, U.S. officials and other people familiar with their communications said. Their conversations, according to a senior administration official, have been typically friendly. Trump often discusses his aim of a revived U.S.-Russian relationship propelled by growing economic cooperation. Putin lists his grievances and core desires, mainly international recognition of Russia's control over Crimea and the Donbas region, much of which it has seized from Ukraine. Their calls extend for hours sometimes due to lengthy Putin monologues and the need for translations, current and former U.S. officials said. Trump, usually impatient and anxious to chime in, listens attentively, aides said. 'Putin does this very methodically,' John Bolton, Trump's third national security adviser during the first term, said of the former KGB officer. 'He's very knowledgeable, he knows what he's talking about. When he wants to try and influence somebody, he just talks and talks and talks.' Putin has carefully studied the new Trump administration and understands where Russia's leverage with the president lies, said Fiona Hill, who was a top Russia aide in the White House during Trump's first term. 'Putin's done his homework. He's had years of figuring out who Trump is,' she said. Part of that homework was determining how to prosecute his war while sending signals of openness to diplomacy. Russia still attacks Ukrainian cities and infrastructure with long-range missiles and drones, killing civilians with regularity. The conflict along the roughly 750-mile front line remains a grinding war of attrition, with Russia's summer offensive clawing gradual gains against a staunch and stretched Ukrainian defense. Moscow's lead in air power and troop numbers have given it the upper hand in the fight, U.S. and European officials quietly admit, though Russia's glaring weakness remains its heavily sanctioned economy. Trump's frustrations with Putin started to seep into the open at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in June, when he called his Russian counterpart's refusal to end the war 'misguided.' 'I'm very surprised. Actually, I thought we would have had that settled easy,' Trump told reporters. A July 3 phone call lasted barely an hour—far shorter than their previous chats. The call lacked the warmth with which they normally spoke to each other, the senior administration official said. There wasn't a flashpoint, but Trump ended it feeling perplexed, adding to his gnawing sense of being dragged along. Trump later acknowledged that Putin would say one thing in their conversations about his interest in halting the war and yet do another thing. 'I go home, I tell the first lady, 'And I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.' She said, 'Oh, really? Another city was just hit.'' A frustrated Trump announced last month that he would give Putin 50 days to complete a cease-fire with Ukraine, later shortening the deadline to Friday. Failure to do so would lead the U.S. to sanction some of Russia's top energy customers, a strategy aimed at choking off Moscow's major remaining sources of revenue for its war effort. Administration officials and close presidential confidants said Trump and Putin didn't have a single, major blowup this year. Instead it was a 'series of moments,' in the words of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), that ultimately convinced Trump that 'Putin was trying to play him.' 'You see now a turning of the page, and Putin has nobody to blame but himself,' Graham said. But there are concerns in the U.S. and Europe that Putin floated the idea of a meeting to continue stringing Trump along, not to settle for peace. Putin might propose that Russia officially control some of the Ukrainian territory it occupies in exchange for a withdrawal of his forces from other parts of Ukraine, said a senior European diplomat and a Ukrainian official. Trump, eager for a deal, might urge Ukraine and allies to accept the offer. Kyiv and other European governments would likely reject the plan, the official said, playing into Putin's hands because Trump, rarely concerned with the details of a peace settlement, might then blame Ukraine for continuing to fight. Trump could cut off intelligence and military support for Ukraine, as he did earlier this year, setting back Zelensky's efforts to align himself more closely with Trump following a combative Oval Office meeting in February. The U.S. could also remove itself from the diplomatic process entirely, leaving Moscow and Kyiv to continue what Trump has long labeled 'Biden's war.' But those who know Trump suspect he will keep pursuing the most prized deal of his early presidency, where success or failure could define his legacy. 'He wants to be the guy who gets deals,' said Marc Short, a first-term senior White House aide. 'That is his brand.' Write to Alexander Ward at Alex Leary at and Matthew Luxmoore at
NDTV
12 minutes ago
- NDTV
US Tariff Expansion Begins, Targeting EU, Asia, And More
President Donald Trump began imposing higher import taxes on dozens of countries Thursday just as the economic fallout of his monthslong tariff threats has begun to cause visible damage to the US economy. Just after midnight, goods from more than 60 countries and the European Union became subject to tariff rates of 10% or higher. Products from the EU, Japan and South Korea are taxed at 15%, while imports from Taiwan, Vietnam and Bangladesh are taxed at 20%. Trump also expects the EU, Japan and South Korea to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States. "I think the growth is going to be unprecedented," Trump said Wednesday. He said the US was "taking in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs," but did not provide a specific figure for revenues because "we don't even know what the final number is" regarding the rates. Despite the uncertainty, the White House is confident that the onset of his tariffs will provide clarity about the path for the world's largest economy. Now that companies understand the direction the US is headed, the Republican administration believes it can ramp up new investments and jump-start hiring in ways that can rebalance America as a manufacturing power. So far, however, there are signs of self-inflicted wounds to the U.S. as companies and consumers brace for the impact of the new taxes. Hiring began to stall, inflationary pressures crept upward and home values in key markets started to decline after the initial tariff rollout in April, said John Silvia, CEO of Dynamic Economic Strategy. "A less productive economy requires fewer workers," Silvia said. "But there is more, the higher tariff prices lower workers' real wages. The economy has become less productive, and firms cannot pay the same real wages as before. Actions have consequences." Many economists say the risk is that the American economy is steadily eroded. "It's going to be fine sand in the gears and slow things down," said Brad Jensen, a professor at Georgetown University. Trump has promoted the tariffs as a way to reduce America's persistent trade deficit. But importers tried to avoid the taxes by bringing in more goods before the tariffs took effect. As a result, the $582.7 billion trade imbalance for the first half of the year was 38% higher than in 2024. Total construction spending has dropped 2.9% over the past year. The economic pain is not confined to the US. Germany, which sends 10% of its exports to the US market, saw industrial production sag 1.9% in June as Trump's earlier rounds of tariffs took hold. "The new tariffs will clearly weigh on economic growth," said Carsten Brzeski, global chief of macro for ING bank. The lead-up to Thursday fit the slapdash nature of Trump's tariffs, which have been rolled out, walked back, delayed, increased, imposed by letter and renegotiated. Trump on Wednesday announced additional 25% tariffs to be imposed on India because of its purchases of Russian oil, bringing its total import taxes to 50%. A leading group of Indian exporters said that will affect nearly 55% of the country's outbound shipments to America and force exporters to lose long-standing clients. "Absorbing this sudden cost escalation is simply not viable. Margins are already thin," SC Ralhan, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations, said in a statement. The Swiss executive branch, the Federal Council, was expected to meet Thursday after President Karin Keller-Sutter and other Swiss officials returned from a hastily arranged trip to Washington in a failed bid to avert 39% US tariffs on Swiss goods. Import taxes are still coming on pharmaceutical drugs, and Trump announced 100% tariffs on computer chips. That could leave the U.S. economy in a place of suspended animation as it awaits the impact. The president's use of a 1977 law to declare an economic emergency to impose the tariffs is under a legal challenge. Even people who worked with Trump during his first term are skeptical, such as Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who was House speaker. "There's no sort of rationale for this other than the president wanting to raise tariffs based upon his whims, his opinions," Ryan told CNBC on Wednesday. Trump is aware of the risk that courts could overturn his tariffs. In a Truth Social tweet, he said, "THE ONLY THING THAT CAN STOP AMERICA'S GREATNESS WOULD BE A RADICAL LEFT COURT THAT WANTS TO SEE OUR COUNTRY FAIL!" The stock market has been solid during the tariff drama, with the S&P 500 index climbing more than 25% from its April low. The market's rebound and the income tax cuts in Trump's tax and spending measure signed into law on July 4 have given the White House confidence that economic growth is bound to accelerate in the coming months. On the global financial markets, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia, while stocks were slipping on Wall Street. But ING's Brzeski warned, "While financial markets seem to have grown numb to tariff announcements, let's not forget that their adverse effects on economies will gradually unfold over time." Trump foresees an economic boom. American voters and the rest of the world wait, nervously. "There's one person who can afford to be cavalier about the uncertainty that he's creating, and that's Donald Trump," said Rachel West, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation who worked in the Biden White House on labor policy. "The rest of Americans are already paying the price for that uncertainty."
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Business Standard
29 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Govt halts US arms deals after Trump slams 50% tariffs on exports
New Delhi has put on hold its plans to procure new U.S. weapons and aircraft, according to three Indian officials familiar with the matter, in India's first concrete sign of discontent after tariffs imposed on its exports by President Donald Trump dragged ties to their lowest level in decades. India had been planning to send Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to Washington in the coming weeks for an announcement on some of the purchases, but that trip has been cancelled, two of the people said. Trump on Aug. 6 imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods as punishment for Delhi's purchases of Russian oil, which he said meant the country was funding Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That raised the total duty on Indian exports to 50% - among the highest of any U.S. trading partner. The president has a history of rapidly reversing himself on tariffs and India has said it remains actively engaged in discussions with Washington. One of the people said the defence purchases could go ahead once India had clarity on tariffs and the direction of bilateral ties, but "just not as soon as they were expected to." Written instructions had not been given to pause the purchases, another official said, indicating that Delhi had the option to quickly reverse course, though there was "no forward movement at least for now." India's defence ministry and the Pentagon did not respond to Reuters' questions. Delhi, which has forged a close partnership with America in recent years, has said it is being unfairly targeted and that Washington and its European allies continue to trade with Moscow when it is in their interest. Reuters is reporting for the first time that discussions on India's purchases of Stryker combat vehicles made by General Dynamics Land Systems and Javelin anti-tank missiles developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin have been paused due to the tariffs. Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in February announced plans to pursue procurement and joint production of those items. Singh had also been planning to announce the purchase of six Boeing P8I reconnaissance aircraft and support systems for the Indian Navy during his now-cancelled trip, two of the people said. Talks over procuring the aircraft in a proposed $3.6 billion deal were at an advanced stage, according to the officials. Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics referred queries to the Indian and U.S. governments. Raytheon did not return a request for comment. Russian Relations India's deepening security relationship with the U.S., which is fuelled by their shared strategic rivalry with China, was heralded by many U.S. analysts as one of the key areas of foreign-policy progress in the first Trump administration. Delhi is the world's second-largest arms importer and Russia has traditionally been its top supplier. India has in recent years however, shifted to importing from Western powers like France, Israel and the U.S., according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think-tank. The shift in suppliers was driven partly by constraints on Russia's ability to export arms, which it is utilizing heavily in its invasion of Ukraine. Some Russian weapons have also performed poorly in the battlefield, according to Western analysts. The broader U.S.-India defence partnership, which includes intelligence sharing and joint military exercises, continues without hiccups, one of the Indian officials said. India also remains open to scaling back on oil imports from Russia and is open to making deals elsewhere, including the U.S., if it can get similar prices, according to two other Indian sources. Trump's threats and rising anti-U.S. nationalism in India have "made it politically difficult for Modi to make the shift from Russia to the U.S.," one of the people said. Nonetheless, discounts on the landing cost of Russian oil have shrunk to the lowest since 2022. India's petroleum ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While the rupture in U.S.-India ties was abrupt, there have been strains in the relationship. Delhi has repeatedly rebutted Trump's claim that the U.S. brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours in May. Trump also hosted Pakistan's army chief at the White House in the weeks following the conflict. In recent months, Moscow has been actively pitching Delhi on buying new defence technologies like its S-500 surface-to-air missile system, according to one of the Indian officials, as well as a Russian source familiar with the talks. India currently does not see a need for new arms purchases from Moscow, two Indian officials said. But Delhi is unlikely to wean itself off Russian weapons entirely as the decades-long partnership between the two powers means Indian military systems will continue to require Moscow's support, one of the officials said. The Russian embassy in Delhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
