logo
Trump tells Fox News he has group of wealthy people to buy TikTok

Trump tells Fox News he has group of wealthy people to buy TikTok

Nikkei Asia10 hours ago

U.S. President had earlier extended to Sept. 17 a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of TikTok despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown without significant progress. © Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview broadcast on Sunday that he had found a buyer for the TikTok short-video app, which he described as a group of "very wealthy people" whose identities he will reveal in about two weeks.
Trump made the remarks in an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo" program. He said the deal he is developing would probably need China's approval to move forward and he predicted Chinese President Xi Jinping would likely approve it.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

China lifts ban on Japanese seafood imports imposed in 2023
China lifts ban on Japanese seafood imports imposed in 2023

Kyodo News

timean hour ago

  • Kyodo News

China lifts ban on Japanese seafood imports imposed in 2023

KYODO NEWS - 2 hours ago - 07:13 | World, All China on Sunday lifted its ban on Japanese seafood imports imposed in August 2023 following the release into the sea of treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. Beijing introduced the blanket ban in a demonstration of its strong opposition to the ocean discharge. The Asian neighbors agreed to begin procedures to resume Japanese seafood imports in May, but it may take a few months until shipments begin following the completion of procedural steps. The move apparently reflects China's interest in improving ties with Japan at a time when it is engaging in a trade war with the United States. Chinese customs authorities said in a public notice that long-term international monitoring of the water discharge and independent sampling by China "showed no abnormalities." On the premise that the Japanese government is committed to ensuring the quality and safety of seafood exports to China, Beijing has decided to "conditionally resume" imports, the authorities said. However, China will keep restrictions on food imports from 10 Japanese prefectures including Fukushima and Tokyo, which were imposed after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear disaster. For the resumption of China-bound seafood exports, Japanese facilities that process and preserve marine products must be registered, while the products must pass radiation checks. In September last year, the two governments agreed to gradually resume seafood trade on the condition that third-party countries monitor the water release from the nuclear plant. Following the agreement, China collected marine samples near the Fukushima plant under the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites set up 'cat-and-mouse' hunt for missing uranium
U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites set up 'cat-and-mouse' hunt for missing uranium

Japan Times

timean hour ago

  • Japan Times

U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites set up 'cat-and-mouse' hunt for missing uranium

The U.S. and Israeli bombing of Iranian nuclear sites creates a conundrum for U.N. inspectors in Iran: how can you tell if enriched uranium stocks, some of them near weapons grade, were buried beneath the rubble or had been secretly hidden away? Following last weekend's attacks on three of Iran's top nuclear sites — at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — President Donald Trump said the facilities had been "obliterated" by U.S. munitions, including bunker-busting bombs. But the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Tehran's nuclear program, has said it's unclear exactly what damage was sustained at Fordo, a plant buried deep inside a mountain that produced the bulk of Iran's most highly enriched uranium. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday it was highly likely the sensitive centrifuges used to enrich uranium inside Fordo were badly damaged. It's far less clear whether Iran's 9 tonnes of enriched uranium — more than 400 kg of it enriched to close to weapons grade — were destroyed. Western governments are scrambling to determine what's become of it. Reuters spoke to more than a dozen current and former officials involved in efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program who said the bombing may have provided the perfect cover for Iran to make its uranium stockpiles disappear and any IAEA investigation would likely be lengthy and arduous. Olli Heinonen, previously the IAEA's top inspector from 2005 to 2010, said the search will probably involve complicated recovery of materials from damaged buildings as well as forensics and environmental sampling, which take a long time. "There could be materials which are inaccessible, distributed under the rubble or lost during the bombing," said Heinonen, who dealt extensively with Iran while at the IAEA and now works at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington. Iran's more than 400 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity — a short step from the roughly 90% of weapons grade — are enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Even a fraction of that left unaccounted for would be a grave concern for Western powers that believe Iran is at least keeping the option of nuclear weapons open. There are indications Iran may have moved some of its enriched uranium before it could be struck. IAEA chief Grossi said Iran informed him on June 13, the day of Israel's first attacks, that it was taking measures to protect its nuclear equipment and materials. While it did not elaborate, he said that suggests it was moved. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi on June 23. Grossi says Iran likely will be able to begin to produce enriched uranium "in a matter of months," despite damage to several nuclear facilities from US and Israeli attacks. | AFP-JIJI A Western diplomat involved in the dossier, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said most of the enriched uranium at Fordo would appear to have been moved days in advance of the attacks, "almost as if they knew it was coming." Some experts have said a line of vehicles including trucks visible on satellite imagery outside Fordo before it was hit suggests enriched uranium there was moved elsewhere, though U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said he was unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved it. Trump has also dismissed such concerns. In an interview due to air on Sunday with Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures," he insisted the Iranians "didn't move anything." "It's very dangerous to do. It is very heavy — very, very heavy. It's a very hard thing to do," Trump said. "Plus we didn't give much notice because they didn't know we were coming until just, you know, then." The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The State Department referred to Trump's public remarks. A second Western diplomat said it would be a major challenge to verify the condition of the uranium stockpile, citing a long list of past disputes between the IAEA and Tehran, including Iran's failure to credibly explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites. "It'll be a game of cat and mouse." Iran says it has fulfilled all its obligations towards the watchdog. Picture blurred Before Israel launched its 12-day military campaign aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities, the IAEA had regular access to Iran's enrichment sites and monitored what was inside them around the clock as part of the 191-nation Non-Proliferation Treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, to which Iran is a party. Now, rubble and ash blur the picture. What's more, Iran has threatened to stop working with the IAEA. Furious at the non-proliferation regime's failure to protect it from strikes many countries see as unlawful, Iran's parliament voted on Wednesday to suspend cooperation. Tehran says a resolution this month passed by the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations paved the way for Israel's attacks, which began the next day, by providing an element of diplomatic cover. The IAEA denies that. The Fordo Fuel Enrichment Facility near Qom, Iran, on June 29 | Maxar Technologies / via REUTERS Iran has repeatedly denied that it has an active program to develop a nuclear bomb. And U.S. intelligence — dismissed by Trump before the airstrikes — had said there was no evidence Tehran was taking steps toward developing one. However, experts say there is no reason for enriching uranium to 60% for a civilian nuclear program, which can run on less than 5% enrichment. As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its stock of enriched uranium. The IAEA then has to verify Iran's account by means including inspections, but its powers are limited — it inspects Iran's declared nuclear facilities but cannot carry out snap inspections at undeclared locations. Iran has an unknown number of extra centrifuges stored at locations the U.N. nuclear watchdog is unaware of, the IAEA has said, with which it might be able to set up a new or secret enrichment site. That makes hunting down the material that can be enriched further, particularly that closest to bomb grade, all the more important. "Iran's stockpile of 60% enriched uranium may not have been part of the 'mission' but it is a significant part of the proliferation risk — particularly if centrifuges are unaccounted for," Kelsey Davenport of the Washington-based Arms Control Association said on X on Friday. The IAEA can and does receive intelligence from member states, which include the United States and Israel, but says it takes nothing at face value and independently verifies tip-offs. Having pummelled the sites housing the uranium, Israel and the U.S. are seen as the countries most likely to accuse Iran of hiding it or restarting enrichment, officials say. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Chasing shadows U.N. inspectors' futile hunt for large caches of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which preceded the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, showed the enormous difficulty of verifying foreign powers' assertions about hidden stockpiles of material when there is little tangible information to go on. As in Iraq, inspectors could end up chasing shadows. "If the Iranians come clean with the 400 kg of HEU (highly enriched uranium) then the problem is manageable, but if they don't then nobody will ever be sure what happened to it," a third Western diplomat said. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger in Vienna on June 25 | REUTERS The IAEA, which answers to 180 member states, has said it cannot guarantee Iran's nuclear development is entirely peaceful, but has no credible indications of a coordinated weapons program. The U.S. this week backed the IAEA's verification and monitoring work and urged Tehran to ensure its inspectors in the country are safe. It is a long journey from there to accounting for every gram of enriched uranium, the IAEA's standard. The above-ground plant at Natanz, the smaller of the two facilities enriching uranium up to 60%, was flattened in the strikes, the IAEA said, suggesting a small portion of Iran's enriched uranium stockpile may have been destroyed. Fordo, Iran's most deeply buried enrichment plant, which was producing the bulk of 60%-enriched uranium, was first seriously hit last weekend when the United States dropped its biggest conventional bombs on it. The damage to its underground halls is unclear. An underground area in Isfahan where much of Iran's most highly enriched uranium was stored was also bombed, causing damage to the tunnel entrances leading to it. The agency has not been able to carry out inspections since Israel's bombing campaign began, leaving the outside world with more questions than answers. Grossi said on Wednesday the conditions at the bombed sites would make it difficult for IAEA inspectors to work there — suggesting it could take time. "There is rubble, there could be unexploded ordnance," he said. Heinonen, the former chief IAEA inspector, said it was vital the agency be transparent in real time about what its inspectors have been able to verify independently, including any uncertainties, and what remained unknown. "Member states can then make their own risk assessments," he said.

Auto Trade with Japan Not Fair: Trump

timean hour ago

Auto Trade with Japan Not Fair: Trump

News from Japan Economy Jun 30, 2025 09:20 (JST) Washington, June 29 (Jiji Press)--U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized Japan's automobile trade with his country as being "not fair," and threatened to keep the 25 pct additional tariff on Japanese car imports. "They won't take our yet, we take millions and millions of their cars into the United States. It's not fair," Trump said in an interview with a U.S. media outlet. "We have a big (trade) deficit with Japan, and they understand that." "I could send one (letter) to Japan. Dear Mr. Japan, here's the story: You're going to pay a 25 pct tariff on your cars," the president said, indicating that he could reject Tokyo's request to review Washington's 25 pct additional levy on auto imports. Trump added that he would send letters on high tariffs to U.S. trading partners, and that he would not have to meet with the leaders of the respective countries to impose the tariffs. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store