Neighbour makes daring rescue of family trapped in burning Paris flat
07/07/2025
BRICS nations slam Trump tariffs, condemn strikes on Iran
07/07/2025
Spotlight on Arabic performances as Avignon festival gets underway
07/07/2025
Poland reinstates border controls with Germany, Lithuania amid migration fears
07/07/2025
Netanyahu heads to Washington but will 'victory lap' be overshadowed by Gaza?
07/07/2025
Texas flood death toll mounts as questions asked over warning system
07/07/2025
'Netanyahu wants to perpetuate status quo: No agreement, no political framework, no Gaza withdrawal'
Middle East
06/07/2025
Oasis: What's the story? "A man with a fork in a world of soup"
UK
06/07/2025
San Fermin bull-running festival kicks off in Spain
Europe
06/07/2025
Brics countries meet in Brazil and focus to moderate agenda
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France 24
36 minutes ago
- France 24
Trump steps up pressure for deals as US tariff deadline nears
Trump is due to send a first batch of letters to up to 15 trading partners from noon local time (1600 GMT), warning that US levies on imports will snap back to elevated levels if foreign governments fail to reach agreements with Washington. The duties will not bounce back until August 1, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said over the weekend, a move that appears to give more room for dealmaking. Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff on imports from almost all trading partners in early April, but some economies including the European Union were slated to have this rate increase further. As markets plunged at the time, Trump halted the steeper levies to allow for talks. That pause expires on Wednesday. "We are going to have several announcements in the next 48 hours," Bessent told CNBC in an interview Monday. "We've had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations. So my mailbox was full last night with a lot of new offers, a lot of new proposals," Bessent said. He reiterated that higher tariff rates for countries would not return until August 1. There was no immediate response from the White House on whether Trump would formally extend the Wednesday deadline. Asked about the letters Trump plans to send out, Bessent said these would inform partners of the tariff rate their products face when trading with the United States, unless they want to "come back and try to negotiate." Limited results? While the Trump administration has signaled hopes of striking dozens of deals by early July, there have been limited results so far. Washington has unveiled pacts only with Britain and Vietnam, while the United States and China agreed to temporarily lower tariff levels on each other's products that earlier reached three-digits. Bessent told CNBC Monday that he would "be meeting with my Chinese counterpart sometime in the next couple of weeks." The two sides have so far held high-level talks in Geneva and London. But Washington and Beijing's pause on tit-for-tat tariffs is due to expire in mid-August. On whether he was disappointed in the number of trade deals achieved so far, Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro maintained that he is "happy with the progress we've had." "Every country that we run a major deficit with is fully engaged," he told CNBC on Monday. On Sunday night, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that Washington would deliver "tariff letters" or deals to various countries on Monday. In a separate post that night, Trump threatened another 10 percent tariff on countries aligning themselves with the emerging BRICS nations, accusing them of "Anti-American policies" after they slammed his duties at a summit. For now, partners are still rushing to avert Trump's tariffs altogether. The European Commission said that EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had a "good exchange" with Trump on trade when the pair spoke Sunday. Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, however, said Sunday that he "won't easily compromise" in trade talks with Washington.
France 24
36 minutes ago
- France 24
Iran president says Israel attempted to assassinate him
The remarks came less than a month after Israel launched its unprecedented June 13 bombing campaign against Iran, killing top military commanders and nuclear scientists. The Israeli attacks took place two days before Tehran and Washington were set to meet for a new round of nuclear talks, stalling negotiations that were aimed at reaching a deal over Iran's atomic programme. "They did try, yes. They acted accordingly, but they failed," Pezeshkian told US media figure Tucker Carlson in response to a question on whether he believed Israel had tried to kill him. "It was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life. It was Israel. I was in a meeting... they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting," he said according to a translation of his remarks from Persian, in apparent reference to an alleged assassination attempt during the recent war. More than 900 people were killed in Iran during the conflict, according to the judiciary. The Israeli attacks drew waves of retaliatory drone and missile fire, killing 28 people in Israel, according to authorities. 'Forever wars' The 12-day war between Iran and Israel saw it, along with the United States, launching strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz. A ceasefire between Iran and Israel took hold since June 24. On June 16, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not rule out plans to assassinate Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying it would "end the conflict" after reports emerged at the time that US President Donald Trump had vetoed the move. During the interview with Carlson, Pezeshkian accused Netanyahu of pursuing his "own agenda" of "forever wars" in the Middle East, and urged the United States not to be dragged into it. "The US adminstration should refrain from getting involved in a war that is not America's war, it is Netanyahu's war," he said. He added that his country has "no problem" restarting nuclear talks, provided that trust can be reestablished between the two countries. "We see no problem in re-entering the negotiations," the Iranian president said. "There is a condition ... for restarting the talks. How are we going to trust the United States again?" "We re-entered the negotiations, then how can we know for sure that in the middle of the talks the Israeli regime will not be given the permission again to attack us." © 2025 AFP
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
BRICS' criticism brings Trump 10% tariff threat
The 11-nation grouping -- which also includes US allies Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia -- is concluding a two-day summit in Rio de Janeiro. On Sunday, BRICS leaders described Trump's stop-start tariff wars as "indiscriminate", damaging, and illegal, drawing a quick rebuke from the pugilistic US president. "Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy," Trump wrote on social media. BRICS members account for about half the world's population and 40 percent of global economic output. Conceived two decades ago as a forum for fast-growing economies, the BRICS have come to be seen as a Chinese-driven counterbalance to US influence. But it is an expanding and often divergent grouping -- bringing together arch US foes like Iran and Russia, with some of Washington's closest allies in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Some US allies inside the bloc had tried to blunt criticism by not mentioning Trump by name in their summit statement. Saudi Arabia -- one of the world's biggest purchasers of US high-tech weapons -- even kept its foreign minister away from Sunday's talks and a BRICS "family photo" of leaders, seemingly to avoid Washington's ire. But such diplomatic gestures were lost on the US president. In April, Trump threatened a slew of punitive duties, before backing off in the face of a fierce market sell-off. Now he is threatening to impose unilateral levies on trading partners unless they reach "deals" by August 1, with BRICS nations seemingly getting higher tariffs than planned. It cannot have helped that BRICS leaders also condemned the recent US and Israeli bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities -- a show of solidarity with fellow member Iran. Beijing on Monday insisted BRICS was not seeking confrontation with the United States. "China has repeatedly stated its position that trade and tariff wars have no winners and protectionism offers no way forward," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. Beijing also defended the bloc as "an important platform for cooperation between emerging markets and developing countries". "It advocates openness, inclusivity, and win-win cooperation," Mao said. "It does not engage in camp confrontation and is not targeted at any country," she said. The political punch of this year's summit has been depleted by the absence of China's Xi Jinping, who skipped the meeting for the first time in his 12 years as president. The Chinese leader is not the only notable absentee. Russian President Vladimir Putin, charged with war crimes in Ukraine, also opted to stay away, participating via video link. He told counterparts that BRICS had become a key player in global governance. © 2025 AFP
