Turkey Sees ‘Huge' Peace Dividend From End of $1.8 Trillion War
Turkey said it expects to reap 'huge' economic gains from the Kurdish separatist group's decision to stop its 40-year war in the country's southeast.
Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said Tuesday that fighting with the militant group Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, since 1984 cost Turkey around $1.8 trillion.
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- Yahoo
China: US needs to ‘stop spreading disinformation,' correct ‘wrongful actions'
China said on Tuesday that the United States needs to 'stop spreading disinformation' and correct 'wrongful actions' as the trade tensions between the two countries continue. China's foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian claimed the U.S. 'falsely accuses and smears' China and that Washington has taken 'extreme suppression' measures. He listed 'chip export controls, blocking EDA sales and announcing plans to revoke Chinese students' visas' as actions that have 'seriously disrupted the consensus and hurt China's legitimate rights and interests.' 'China firmly opposes them and has lodged strong protests with the US,' Lin wrote in a Tuesday post on the social media platform X. Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will likely talk 'soon' — a conversation that will include discussing critical minerals. 'I am confident that when President Trump and party Chairman Xi have a call, that this will be ironed out,' Bessent said during his Sunday appearance on CBS's 'Face the Nation.' 'But the fact that they are withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement — maybe it's a glitch in the Chinese system, maybe it's intentional.' The world's two biggest economies have accused each other in recent days of violating the terms of the trade agreement struck during the meetings in Geneva last month. Trump hammered China on Friday, arguing that Beijing violated the terms of the agreement. 'Two weeks ago China was in grave economic danger! The very high Tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to TRADE into the United States marketplace which is, by far, number one in the World. We went, in effect, COLD TURKEY with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, 'civil unrest.' I saw what was happening and didn't like it, for them, not for us,' the president wrote on Truth Social. 'I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn't want to see that happen,' the commander-in-chief added. China fired back on Monday, saying that Washington was in breach of the trade agreement, citing the guidance on chip export controls, the pause of sales of chip design software to China and the revocation of F-1 student visas of Chinese students in the U.S. After the May talks in Switzerland, the Trump administration brought down the tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent. China lowered its duties on U.S. goods from 125 percent to 10 percent. Lin, the foreign ministry spokesperson, added on Tuesday that pressure and 'coercion are not the right way to engage China.' 'We urge the US to respect the facts, stop spreading disinformation, correct its wrongful actions, and act to uphold the consensus reached between the two sides,' the spokesperson added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
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US to reduce military presence in Syria, keeping only one base operational
The United States will shut down most of its military bases in Syria, consolidating operations to a single location, as part of a policy overhaul announced by its new special envoy. Thomas Barrack, appointed by President Donald Trump last month as the US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria, said the shift marks a rejection of Washington's past century of failed approaches in Syria. In an interview with the Turkish broadcaster NTV on Monday, Barrack said the troop drawdown and base closures reflect a strategic recalibration. '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,' he said. US forces are expected to withdraw from seven of eight bases, including those in Deir Az Zor province in eastern Syria, with remaining operations centred in Hasakah in the northeast. Two security sources told the Reuters news agency that US military hardware and personnel have already started relocating. 'All troops are being pulled from Deir Az Zor,' one source told Reuters in April.A US Department of State official later said troop levels would be adjusted 'if and when appropriate', depending on operational demands. Roughly 2,000 American soldiers remain in Syria, largely embedded with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key partner in the US-led campaign against ISIL (ISIS). The SDF, dominated by the People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia, has been a longstanding point of contention with NATO ally Turkiye, which views it as linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK, which recently announced its disbandment, fought a decades-long armed rebellion against the Turkish state. Barrack called the SDF 'a very important factor' for the US Congress, stressing that integrating the group into Syria's national army is now a priority. 'Everyone needs to be reasonable in their expectations,' he said. Since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December, international engagement with Damascus has resumed under new President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Barrack recently raised the US flag over the ambassador's residence in Damascus for the first time since 2012. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised the SDF last week, accusing it of 'stalling tactics' despite its agreement to join the Syrian armed forces.
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The Army Meets Its Recruitment Goals
More than 15 years ago, I signed up to serve my country, packed my bags, and left home for Fort Jackson, S.C., to begin Army basic training. The values I gained—discipline, duty, honor—have shaped me into the husband, father and citizen I am today. Choosing to serve was one of the most meaningful decisions of my life. That's why the news that the U.S. Army has met its fiscal 2025 recruiting contract goals four months early—welcoming more than 61,000 new recruits—is personal. It's also something all Americans should be proud of.
