
Watch: Trump plans to sign executive order to end sanctions on Syria
President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order lifting Syria sanctions, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has revealed.
The sanctions on Syria were put in place by an Executive Order signed on August 18, 2011. With its removal, Syrians will now be able to import from more countries, transfer money in and out of the country, and work with international companies.
Leavitt told press: "The order will remove sanctions on Syria while maintaining sanctions on the former President Assad, his associates, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, persons linked to chemical weapons activities, ISIS and their affiliates, and Iranian proxies."
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
White House says Canadian PM ‘caved' to Trump demand to scrap tech tax
The United States has said that Canada's prime minister Mark Carney 'caved' to demands from the White House after his government abruptly scrapped their digital services tax on US technology companies, which was set to go into effect on Monday. 'It's very simple. Prime minister Carney and Canada caved to president [Donald] Trump and the United States of America,' press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a daily briefing. 'The president made his position quite clear to the prime minister and the prime minister called the president last night to let the president know that he would be dropping that tax.' Carney told reporters on Monday his decision to backtrack on a controversial tax was meant to revive trade negotiations with the United States after Trump halted talks on Friday, alleging a Canadian effort to coax payments from American tech heavyweights operating in Canada was a 'direct and blatant attack on our country'. On Monday, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Fox News that Canada's decision 'absolutely' meant both sides would resume talks. In an announcement late on Sunday, Carney said key talks with the administration would resume now Canada had repealed the levy, which applied to US tech companies such as Meta, Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, Uber and Airbnb. Canada's finance ministry said Carney and Trump would resume trade negotiations in order to agree a deal by 21 July. The tax was first announced in 2020 and was designed to remedy the fact that many large American technology companies operating in Canada did not pay tax on revenues generated from Canadians. The tax has long been an irritant for Donald Trump, and he used that frustration Friday to 'terminat[e] all discussions on trade' with Canada, calling the digital services tax 'a direct and blatant attack on our country'. Canada's decision to cancel the tax comes as the US and Canada are locked in negotiations over a trade and security deal. Carney wants tariffs imposed by the Trump administration removed as part of an agreement. Currently, Canada faces tariffs of 50% on steel and aluminum exported to its largest trading partner and a 25% on tax on cars, as well as blanket tariffs on all other goods exported outside the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Canada was set to collect a 3% levy on digital services by major tech companies. The first payments were due on Monday and large American companies were expected to pay more than US$2bn to Canada's federal government – a fee retroactive to 2022. Over a five-year period, the tax was expected to raise more than US$7bn. Hassett said Trump had raised the tax issue with Carney at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta earlier this month. 'One of the things that the president asked for was that they would take the … tax off. It's something that they've studied, now they've agreed to and, for sure, that means that we can get back to the negotiations.' US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick thanked the Canadian government for dropping the tax as others in the administration rushed to credit Trump for the policy shift. 'Thank you Canada for removing your digital services tax, which was intended to stifle American innovation and would have been a deal-breaker for any trade deal with America,' Lutnick posted on social media. The walkback suggests the 'Canadian government misreading the tech sector has become a hallmark of its policy', according to Michael Geist, a law professor at University of Ottawa and the Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law. 'It is hard to overstate how badly the government managed the [digital services tax] issue over the past five years,' he wrote in a blogpost, adding the move to pursue the tax 'alienated allies' and 'solidified opposition, and continually downplayed the concerns of successive US presidents and members of Congress from both sides of the aisle'. Geist said moving forward with the tax left Canada in a 'no-win situation' and suggested the government had 'overplayed its hand'. 'Unfortunately, the government has too often viewed tech primarily as a source of revenue for policy projects – the proverbial 'make web giants pay' – while overestimating the attractiveness of the Canadian market and underestimating the risks of costly regulation,' he wrote. 'Canada desperately needs a tech regulation reset. Perhaps the embarrassment of walking away from $7bn will provide the wake-up call.' Business groups praised the move. 'This tax would have fallen on Canadian consumers, businesses and investors in the form of higher costs and hurt our economy at a critical time,' David Pierce, vice-president of government relations at the Canadian chamber of commerce said in a statement, adding the end of the tax 'moves us one step closer to a renewed, reliable trade deal' with the United States.


Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Putin will fight to the bitter end, and may bring the whole of Russia down with him
Vladimir Putin has chosen to continue his bloody war on Ukraine over a more-than-generous peace deal offered to him by Donald Trump. Yet Russia's massed, merciless missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and other major cities, while horrific, cause relatively few casualties. And Moscow's summer offensive, slowly steamrollering towards the provincial capital of Sumy in the north and forwards along the line of control in Donbas, is yielding just a few square kilometres of advance at the cost of up to a thousand daily casualties. What, then, can Putin possibly hope to achieve by choosing war over peace? The most likely answer lies inside the information bubble in which Putin and his top cronies dwell. He is continuing the war because his generals and security chiefs have assured him he can win it – or at the least continue to make strategically important gains by fighting on. One such prize would be to take the city of Sumy, tucked in Ukraine's top right corner, which faces the Russian border just 15 kilometres away on both its northern and eastern flank. At the St Petersburg economic forum last week Putin claimed that 'we don't have a task to take Sumy, but I don't rule it out,' behaving as if he could pick and choose which Ukrainian cities to take at his leisure. In May, a Russian advance seemed to be gathering pace, doubling April's rate of conquest to an average of 5.5 square miles a day. But now, Ukrainians say, Russia's assault on Sumy has been fought to a standstill. For the time being. Optimists are declaring Russia's summer offensive over. Realists fear that its only getting started. In western Donetsk last week, Russian forces seized a valuable lithium mine near the village of Shevchenko - a blow to Kyiv's long-term development dreams of Western investment in its post-war reconstruction. Russia's next major push may be in Donbas, forcing Ukraine to redeploy its scarce manpower in a nightmarish game of whack-a-mole along a 1200-km long front line. One mystery is how Putin's war machine continues to function when Russia's forces are so brutally depleted and so appallingly led. Even self-described Russian patriotic military bloggers post daily horror stories of commanders sending troops into bloody 'meat assaults' – and extracting bribes from their men to avoid being sent to their deaths. Soldiers are punished for minor infractions by public beatings, by being thrown into pits or tied to trees for days. Those who dare complain are 'zeroed out' by murder or by being sent on suicide missions. Russian generals make false claims about taking villages, while terrible transport and logistics on the front lines mean the death of far more wounded soldiers than on the Ukrainian side. The Russian army is a horror show. Yet even as they criticise individual commanders they still, for the most part, remain pro-war and avoid criticism of Putin. And while despair, desertion and drug abuse may be rife on the front lines, on the home front Russia's morale remains high. 'The Special Military Operation has become like the weather – something distant that you can't do anything about,' says Alexandra Kuptsova, a software engineer from St Petersburg whose husband signed up for the Russian army last year. 'Yeah, prices are high. A coffee in a fancy cafe costs 800 rubles (£9). Mortgage rates are crazy. But everyone says, this will all be over soon … We just need to finish giving the Ukrainians a kicking, Trump will sign a peace, and we can forget this stupid war ever happened.' The one certainty of this appalling war is that both sides, like exhausted boxers in the ring, continue to pummel one another in the hope that their opponent's strength and resources will be exhausted. And if attrition is the game, then it's Russia's massively larger economy and manpower that have the advantage. And Putin, ignoring all voices of pragmatism and reason, seems determined to fight on till the bitter end regardless of the price in blood and treasure.


STV News
an hour ago
- STV News
No peace in sight? Another brutal day in Gaza as Israel hits 'safe haven'
Prime Minister Netanyahu is due to visit the White House a week today, as ITV News Correspondent Debi Edwards reports The mounting death toll in Gaza could be one of the surest signs that a ceasefire deal is on the table. On Monday afternoon, an Israeli missile hit a seafront café which activists, journalists and locals had been using for its internet connection. At least thirty people were killed. Survivors described the scene as a massacre. They said the café had been like a safe haven, somewhere people could escape the misery of war. In recent days there has been a marked escalation in the IDF's military campaign against Hamas. More than 100 were killed in airstrikes over the weekend, and several were killed in shootings at aid distribution sites. The Israelis have said they are investigating the deaths of unarmed civilians, they have admitted harming and killing several people but deny there have been hundreds of deaths, as has been claimed by the UN. The doctors treating the wounded have started warning that it is no longer just bombs that are the biggest threat to life in Gaza. At the Al-Rantisi hospital, our cameraman filmed two-month-old Sham. Since she's been alive no aid has reached Northern Gaza, so she hasn't gained any weight. Her grandmother was there caring for her, but there was nothing she could do but hold Sham's tiny body in her arms and try to comfort her in her pain. / Credit: ITV News In the same ward, we were introduced to three-year-old Afnan. She lay listless on her bed, the only movement was her heaving chest, her breathing having become erratic. She weighs just four kilos, the same as a newborn, and desperately needs surgery for a heart condition. The head doctor told us that they hadn't received critical food or medical supplies in months, the situation has gone beyond critical. In Jerusalem, IDF soldiers wounded in the war in Gaza are calling for a decisive defeat. They told me on Monday that their job would not be done until there was no Hamas left, there could be no diplomatic solution until that was achieved. Also protesting at the Israeli parliament were relatives of those killed or taken hostage on October 7th. They are demanding an immediate ceasefire and the return of all the hostages. Gaia Kipnis's brother and sister-in-law were murdered by Hamas, and seven of her family members were taken hostage but later released. She told me what is happening in Gaza is horrible and nobody in Israel will be able to heal until the conflict ends and all the remaining hostages are freed. There are thought to be 50 hostages still in Gaza, only 20 of whom are thought to be alive. Gaia hopes that Donald Trump might persuade Benjamin Netanyahu to finish his fight with Hamas, when the pair meet in Washington next week. Israeli forces killed at least 67 people in Gaza on Monday. / Credit: AP It's thought the Israeli Prime Minister is preparing to travel to the United States to meet with US President Donald Trump next week. On Sunday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social 'MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA AND GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!'. It appears it could be a 12-day war with Iran that finally forces an end to the 20-month long conflict in Gaza. Building on his political capital from attacking Tehran, and under pressure from his ally in the White House, Netanyahu seems to be pushing his troops to declare what could be their second victory, in as many weeks. On Monday, rumours had reached Gaza of a potential ceasefire, then the shelling started, and shots were fired at those waiting for food in Rafah. For those who survived the day, it must feel like there is no peace in sight. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country