Trump claims crime 'out of control' despite opposing stats
Tags:
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
21 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Jane Clifton: Trump is playing high-stakes bingo with world economies
Patriot games: Donald Trump and Ursula von de Leyen hammered out tariff terms. Photo / Getty Images Observers didn't actually witness US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von de Leyen calling out, 'Legs-eleven, two little ducks, twenty-two, clickety-click, sixty-six,' when they met in Scotland recently, but it must have been close. The US's tariff crusade has degenerated to the equivalent of a slow night down the bingo hall, with numbers constantly announced but never conclusively scratched out. For now, the US has hoisted 'Young and keen, 15,' as its new, higher impost on European Union exports. In unprecedented unneighbourliness, Canada is reeling from 'Jump'n'jive, 35'. Switzerland is smarting at 39%, China, 30% and India, 25%, whereas the UK and Australia are agloat over 'PM's Den – 10'. But – eyes down, looking! – there's a new bingo call every minute, and not just by the US President. Global trade comes with an indefinite purgatory of 'technical' talks. As of now, platoons of lethally accomplished technocrat pedants are beetling over the fine print to argue for excluding various categories – amounting to practically every country's entire export output. Already, carve-outs worth billions have been agreed. The roll call of exceptions may not get a lot of publicity. This is not just out of tact – as in, letting the US still think it has kicked ass. It's simply not practical to express a detailed daily update. Imagine it: 'At press time, the latest US tariff is 15% except on baking soda, where it'll be 10%, gumboots, sugar-free confectionary and paper napkins, 12%; 8% on fish byproducts, onion rings …' and so on. If the list of exceptions goes on and on, trade acronyms are seemingly limitless in length. The Trans-Pacific Partnership bloated into the ridiculous CPTPP agreement because some countries thought it would sound nicer if they chucked in 'comprehensive', 'progressive' and 'agreement'. So, who knows? We could all soon be reciting tariff bingo. Crazy to think that just a year ago, the tariff system was a bit like Blu-ray – still going but hopelessly naff. As a vestige of protectionism, tariffs were retained according to the St Augustin principle: Lord, make me good, but not just yet. As is now tattooed onto global markets' hard drives: they are back, Terminator style. The US can call the shots in world trade and is capable of going right off the bingo card – as in its 200% opening salvo on pharmaceuticals. Accordingly, the definition of 'fair trade' has undergone an emergency rewrite. Trade imbalances used to be considered nothing personal, just a reflection of country A's consumers liking country B's stuff more than country B's folk like stuff from country A. Various factors aside from tariffs caused such preferences: base price, quality and reliability of supply, and, to a lesser extent, reputational factors such as slave labour, carbon emissions and pollution. The US, however, has decided other countries are not buying enough of its stuff, and worse, have nicked some of its best businesses. It has shown tariffs to be a highly effective whacking stick – newly accessorised with 'unrelated' side deals like arms and energy arrangementes. The EU is to buy NZ$1270 billion of US energy between now and 2028. Absolutely not a concession after Trump's initial threat of 'Dirty Gertie, 30' – honest. Some analysts predict the US will come off worse overall with domestic cost-of-living and inflation consequences; others see a weaker Europe and a more aggressive China. The only safe prediction is that tariffs will keep moving up and down. Still, if prospectuses start turning up calling for investment in a causeway across the Labrador Sea joining Canada to Europe (via Greenland's Denmark connection), it might not be a hoax. Canada's EU membership application could well be in the mail.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
One dead after altercation in Awakeri, Bay of Plenty
Police cars parked in the carpark of Awakeri Hot Springs. Photo: Pūkāea A person is reportedly dead after a stabbing in the Bay of Plenty village of Awakeri. Eastern Bay of Plenty area commander inspector Nicky Cooney said at about 4.30pm police were called to the altercation between two people at a property on State Highway 30. Local news outlet Pūkāea understood the incident was a fatal stabbing. A police spokesperson said one person appeared to have received critical injuries. They said the person taken into custody is assisting police with their enquiries. No one else was being sought in relation to the incident. An unverified video on social media showed at least seven police cars parked in the carpark of Awakeri Hot Springs. Calls to the hot springs went unanswered. Awakeri is a village located southwest of Whakatāne. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Trump says he thinks Putin will make a deal on Ukraine
By Dmitry Antonov, Tom Balmforth and Olena Harmash , Reuters Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Photo: Brendan SMIALOWSKI and Maxim Shemetov / AFP United States President Donald Trump said he thought Vladimir Putin was ready to make a deal on ending the war in Ukraine after the Russian president floated the prospect of a nuclear arms agreement on the eve of their summit in Alaska. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his European allies have intensified their efforts this week to prevent any deal between the US and Russia emerging from Friday's (local time) summit that leaves Ukraine vulnerable to future attack. "I think he's going to make a deal," Trump said in a Fox News radio interview, adding that if the meeting went well he would call Zelensky and European leaders afterwards and that if it went badly he would not. The aim of Friday's talks with Putin is to set up a second meeting including Ukraine, Trump said, adding: "I don't know that we're going to get an immediate ceasefire." Putin earlier spoke to his most senior ministers and security officials as he prepared for the meeting with Trump in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday that could shape the endgame to the largest war in Europe since World War Two. In televised comments, Putin said that the US was "making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict". This was happening, Putin said, "in order to create long-term conditions for peace between our countries, and in Europe, and in the world as a whole - if, by the next stages, we reach agreements in the area of control over strategic offensive weapons." His comments signalled that Russia will raise the issue of nuclear arms control as part of a wide-ranging discussion on security when he sits down with Trump. A Kremlin aide said Putin and Trump would also discuss the "huge untapped potential" for Russia-US economic ties. A senior eastern European official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Putin would try to distract Trump from Ukraine at the talks by offering him possible progress on nuclear arms control or something business-related. "We hope Trump won't be fooled by the Russians, he understands all (these) dangerous things," the official said, adding that Russia's only goal was to avoid any new sanctions and have existing sanctions lifted. Trump said there would be a press conference after the talks but that he did not know whether it would be joint. He also said that there would be a give and take on boundaries and lands. Russia controls around a fifth of Ukraine and Zelensky and the Europeans worry that a deal could cement those gains, rewarding Putin for 11 years of efforts to seize Ukrainian land and emboldening him to expand further into Europe. An EU diplomat said it would be "scary to see how it all unfolds in the coming hours. Trump had very good calls yesterday with Europe but that was yesterday". Trump had shown willingness to join the security guarantees for Ukraine at a last-ditch virtual meeting with European leaders and Zelensky on Wednesday, European leaders said, though he made no public mention of them afterwards. Zelensky said the security guarantees had been discussed in "considerable detail" in comments after a meeting in London on Thursday with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer . Friday's summit, the first Russia-US summit since June 2021, comes at one of the toughest moments for Ukraine in a war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Speaking after Wednesday's meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump insisted that the transatlantic NATO alliance should not be part of security guarantees that would be designed to protect Ukraine from future attacks in a post-war settlement. Macron said, however, that Trump had also said the United States and all willing allies should be part of the security guarantees. Expanding on that, a European official told Reuters that Trump said on the call he was willing to provide some security guarantees for Europe, without spelling out what they would be. It "felt like a big step forward", said the official, who did not want to be named. It was not immediately clear what such guarantees could mean in practice. On Wednesday, Trump threatened "severe consequences" if Putin does not agree to peace in Ukraine and has warned of economic sanctions if his meeting on Friday proves fruitless. Russia is likely to resist Ukraine and Europe's demands and has previously said its stance had not changed since it was first detailed by Putin in June 2024. - Reuters Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
