Diane Abbott Says Labour Leadership 'Wants Me Out' Amid Second Suspension
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
15 minutes ago
- New York Times
Why Does Anyone Think Trump Will Uphold His End of a Bargain With Columbia?
In 1672, Charles II unilaterally suspended repayment of 1.2 million pounds to London's private bankers. Having run up this debt, and unable to finance a flotilla of ships to fight the Dutch, Charles became neither the first nor the last absolute monarch to break his word. James II, his sibling successor, went further, claiming royal prerogative to bypass laws and purge Protestant judges, generals and functionaries. The solemn oaths he made at his coronation, to respect Parliament and the Church of England, wound up being worth not very much. James ruled for less than four years, deserting after the Glorious Revolution began the era of parliamentary supremacy. Parliament would approve only those loans it would be willing to pay back with taxes, enabling deals with creditors now willing to lend. By restraining the monarch's power, it enabled the crown to make deals it couldn't otherwise get. In economic history, we teach the 1688 creation of parliamentary supremacy as a solution to what economists call 'commitment problems.' In the absence of a third party sufficiently strong to make sure all sides stick to their promises, the powerful can renege on the powerless. The powerless, seeing this, wisely choose to not contract with the powerful. Absolutist rulers are victims of their own lack of restraints; a sovereign who is too powerful cannot get inexpensive credit, because nothing stops the ruler from defaulting on any bond. President Trump, by smashing checks on his authority, has wound up undermining his own ability to make credible deals, including the one just reached with Columbia University, where I teach. The entities that have been striking deals with Mr. Trump, my own employer included, have not learned the lessons of the Glorious Revolution. Trade negotiators from longtime partner countries, government contractors, law firms, federal employees, permanent residents, the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, even the Transportation Security Administration labor union are all experiencing contractual vertigo, finding out that the administration will not honor previous agreements. The first Trump administration renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement to get the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but Mr. Trump has imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada in violation of even that agreement. Parties thinking they can wheedle their way into a bargain with a capricious administration are bringing intuitions from the world of private deals, backstopped by the rule of law, into the very different realm of political bargains with absolutism-adjacent executive branches. I understand the desire for a deal. My colleagues and I have eagerly clicked on every news story hinting that Columbia's leaders might have secured the hundreds of millions of dollars the Trump administration has frozen or cut. Our community has borne devastating cuts, with researchers and administrative staff members laid off and participants in medical research losing access to treatment midcourse. On top of that, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained a number of our students, and there have been endless leaks, doxxing attacks, campus lockdowns and computer hacks. All of this manifests as a never-ending stream of anxiety — financial, physical, moral — that narrows whatever intellectual horizons the research university is supposed to foster. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Europe and China holding scaled-back trade talks with expectations low for major agreements
BRUSSELS (AP) — European leaders are meeting with top Chinese officials in Beijing on Thursday to discuss trade, climate change and global conflicts, with observers saying expectations were low for any solid agreements. The talks, initially supposed to last two days but scaled back to one, come amid financial uncertainty around the world, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and the threat of U.S. tariffs. Neither the EU nor China is likely to budge on key issues dividing the two economic juggernauts. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang to mark 50 years of relations between Brussels and Beijing. Von der Leyen and Costa were expected to challenge China's strategies on a number of issues during the talks. They include Beijing's position on Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine; and China's trade imbalance with the EU, persistent cyberattacks and espionage, a near-monopoly of rare earth minerals and its human rights record in Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang. The EU, meanwhile, has concerns about a looming trade battle with the United States. 'Europe is being very careful not to antagonize President Trump even further by looking maybe too close to China, so all of that doesn't make this summit easier,' said Fabian Zuleeg, chief economist of the European Policy Center. "It will be very hard to achieve something concrete.' There's also unlikelihood of a major breakthrough amid China's hardening stance on the EU, despite a few olive branches, like the suspension of sanctions on European lawmakers who criticized Beijing's human rights record in Xinjiang, a region in northwestern China home to the Uyghurs. China believes it has successfully weathered the U.S. tariffs storm because of its aggressive posture, said Noah Barkin, an analyst at the Rhodium Group think tank. Barkin said that Beijing's bold tactics that worked with Washington should work with other Western powers. "China has come away emboldened from its trade confrontation with Trump. That has reduced its appetite for making concessions to the EU," he said. 'Now that Trump has backed down, China sees less of a need to woo Europe.' China is the EU's second-largest trading partner in goods, after the United States, with about 30% of global trade flowing between them. Both China and the EU want to use their economies ties to stabilize the global economy, and they share some climate goals. But deep disagreements run through those overlapping interests. Division on trade China and the EU have multiple trade disputes across a range of industries, but no disagreement is as sharp as their enormous trade imbalance. Like the U.S., the 27-nation bloc runs a massive trade deficit with China — around 300 billion euros ($350 million) last year. It relies heavily on China for critical minerals, which are also used to make magnets for cars and appliances. When China curtailed the export of those minerals in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, European automakers cried foul. The EU has tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in order to support its own carmakers by balancing out Beijing's own heavy auto subsidies. China would like those tariffs to be revoked. The rapid growth in China's market share in Europe has sparked concern that Chinese cars will eventually threaten the EU's ability to produce its own green technology to combat climate change. Business groups and unions also fear that the jobs of 2.5 million auto industry workers could be put in jeopardy, as well those of 10.3 million more people whose employment depends indirectly on EV production. China has also launched investigations into European pork and dairy products, and placed tariffs on French cognac and armagnac. They have criticized new EU regulations of medical equipment sales, and fear upcoming legislation that could further target Chinese industries, said Alicia García-Herrero, a China analyst at the Bruegel think tank. In June, the EU announced that Chinese medical equipment companies were to be excluded from any government purchases of more than 5 million euros (nearly $6 million). The measure seeks to incentivize China to cease its discrimination against EU firms, the bloc said, accusing China of erecting 'significant and recurring legal and administrative barriers to its procurement market.' European companies are largely seeing declining profitability in China. But the EU has leverage because China still needs to sell goods to the bloc, García-Herrero said. 'The EU remains China's largest export market, so China has every intention to keep it this way, especially given the pressure coming from the U.S.,' she said. It was unclear why the initial plan for the summit of two days was curtailed to just one in Beijing. War on Europe's doorstep The clear majority of Europeans favor increasing aid to Ukraine and more sanctions on Russia. The latest sanctions package on Russia also listed Chinese firms, including two large banks that the EU accused of being linked to Russia's war industry. China's commerce ministry said that it was 'strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to" the listing and vowed to respond with 'necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises and financial institutions.' Xi and Putin have had a close relationship, which is also reflected in the countries' ties. China has become a major customer for Russian oil and gas, and a source of key technologies following sweeping Western sanctions on Moscow. In May, Xi attended a Victor Day celebration alongside Putin in Moscow, but didn't attend a similar EU event in Brussels celebrating the end of World War II. Von der Leyen and Costa will press Xi and Li to slash their support of Russia, but with likely little effect. Beyond Beijing and Washington Buffeted between a combative Washington and a hard-line Beijing, the EU has more publicly sought new alliances elsewhere, inking a trade pact with Indonesia, heaping praise on Japan and drafting trade deals with South America and Mexico. 'We also know that 87% of global trade is with other countries — many of them looking for stability and opportunity. That is why I am here for this visit to Japan to deepen our ties,' Von der Leyen said in Tokyo during an EU-Japan summit on her way to Beijing. 'Both Europe and Japan see a world around us where protectionist instincts grow, weaknesses get weaponized, and every dependency exploited. So it is normal that two like-minded partners come together to make each other stronger." Promoting ties with Europe is one third of Japan's new 2025 military doctrine, after sustaining defense links with the U.S. and investing in capabilities at home like missiles, satellites, warships, and drones. ___ Mark Carlson contributed to this report. Sam Mcneil, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The president was speaking at an AI summit when he made the declaration.
Donald Trump has upsized his praise for his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, crowning her the 'most powerful person in the world.' Trump was speaking at an AI summit at the White House on Wednesday when he made the comments about Wiles, before swiftly returning to one of his favorite lines about the 67-year-old. Trump first boasted that Wiles 'can take out a country with a mere phone call.'
