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West Asia News Live: Australia, UK shift Gaza stance; Iraq blackout and UAE push for economic reforms
Australia to recognise Palestinian state in September
Australia has announced its intention to formally recognise a Palestinian state in September, a move that follows similar diplomatic signals from the UK, France, and Canada, as per a report in BBC. This decision represents a notable shift in Australian foreign policy and aligns it with European nations such as Spain, Ireland, and Norway, which recognised Palestine in May 2024. The development is viewed as a diplomatic setback for Israel and could strain political and economic relations between the two countries. For the Palestinian Authority, it serves as a symbolic victory, reinforcing its international legitimacy. The announcement may also increase pressure on other Western allies, including the US, to reconsider their positions on the matter.

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NDTV
19 minutes ago
- NDTV
"Smart Guy": Trump Says Putin Agrees With Him On Not Having Mail-In Voting
Washington: US President Donald Trump said on Friday his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agrees with him that letting voters send in ballots by mail puts honest elections at risk. "Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can't have an honest election with mail-in voting," Trump told Fox News Channel's "Hannity" after a nearly three-hour meeting between the leaders in Alaska. "He said there's not a country in the world that uses it now." Trump, who promoted the false narrative that he, not Democrat Joe Biden, won the 2020 election, cited his agreement with Putin over absentee voting as he pressed his fellow Republicans to try harder to advance overhauls to the U.S. voting system that he has long sought. Trump has voted by mail in some previous elections and urged his supporters to do so in 2024. Putin, who has been Russia's president or prime minister since 1999, was elected to another term in office with 87% of the vote in a 2024 election that drew allegations of vote rigging from some independent polling observers, opposition voices and Western governments. The most formidable opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic penal colony in 2024. Russia's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his conversation with Trump. The Russian president has previously said some U.S. elections were marred by fraudulent voting, without presenting evidence. The position mirrors Trump's false claims of widespread voter fraud following the 2020 election. Justice Department and Senate investigations found that Moscow tried to influence campaigns to help Trump win in the 2016 election. U.S. intelligence officials have said they believe Russia tried to do the same in 2020 elections and preferred Trump to win in 2024. Trump and some of his top aides long have asserted that he and his presidential campaigns were falsely accused of colluding with Russia, a claim he brought up again in Alaska on Friday. The U.S. intelligence community never reached such a conclusion. Trump, who has not ruled out seeking a third term in office despite a constitutional prohibition, on Friday showed impatience with Republicans for not prioritizing election reform legislation. "The Republicans want it, but not strongly enough," Trump said during the interview. "You can't have a great democracy with mail-in voting." Some Republicans, echoing Trump's claims, argue that changes like restricting absentee voting and requiring identification could reduce the risks of ballot tampering, impersonation or other forms of fraud that independent analysts say is rare. Nearly three dozen countries from Canada to Germany and South Korea allow some form of postal vote, though more than half of them place some restrictions on which voters qualify, according to the Sweden-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an intergovernmental advocacy group. The Trump administration has stepped back from commenting on the fairness or integrity of elections conducted by many foreign countries in a significant departure from Washington's traditional approach of promoting democratic elections overseas.
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Business Standard
19 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Trump hints US could hold back secondary tariffs on India over Russian oil
President Donald Trump has hinted that the US may not go ahead with additional secondary tariffs on countries that continue to buy Russian crude oil. This might come as a relief for India as there had been worries that the country could face new penalties if Washington enforced secondary sanctions. "Well, he (Russian President Vladimir Putin) lost an oil client, so to speak, which is India, which was doing about 40 per cent of the oil. China, as you know, is doing a lot. And if I did what's called a secondary sanction, or a secondary tariff, it would be very devastating from their standpoint. If I have to do it, I'll do it. Maybe I won't have to do it," Trump said on Friday. Tariffs on India already in place India is already facing steep tariffs from Washington. A 25 per cent duty on Indian imports took effect on August 7. Trump later announced an additional 25 per cent levy on Indian oil purchases from Russia, bringing the total tariff burden on Indian goods to 50 per cent. The second round of duties will start from August 27. India calls decision 'unfair' New Delhi strongly criticised the move. The Ministry of External Affairs said the tariff hike was 'unfair, unjustified and unreasonable', stressing that India's energy imports are linked to national security. It also pointed out that European countries continue to import Russian oil at much higher levels. 'Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,' the ministry said. Wider tariff hikes The new US tariffs are not limited to India. The executive order, titled "Further Modifying the Reciprocal Tariff Rates", introduced fresh duties on nearly 70 countries. These range from 10 per cent to 40 per cent. Laos and Myanmar face 40 per cent, Pakistan 19 per cent, Sri Lanka 20 per cent, the UK 10 per cent, and Japan 15 per cent. Most of the new duties came into force after midnight in New York on August 7. Trump celebrated the move on his Truth Social platform, writing: 'It's Midnight!!! Billions of Dollars In Tariffs Are Now Flowing Into The United States Of America [sic]!' In another post, he added: 'Reciprocal tariffs take effect at midnight tonight! Billions of dollars, largely from countries that have taken advantage of the United States for many years, laughing all the way, will start flowing into the USA. The only thing that can stop America's greatness would be a radical left court that wants to see our country fail!' Alaska summit ends without a breakthrough The high-profile meeting between Trump and Putin ended without any deal to stop the Russia-Ukraine war. 'We had a very productive meeting, and there were many points that we agreed on. A couple of big ones that we haven't quite gotten there, but we made some headway. There's no deal until there's a deal,' Trump told reporters at a joint press conference. Before the talks, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had warned that if the discussions failed, Washington could raise secondary sanctions on India for purchasing Russian oil. 'I think everyone has been frustrated with President Putin. We expected that he would come to the table in a more fulsome way. It looks like he may be ready to negotiate,' Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg. He added, 'We put secondary tariffs on the Indians for buying Russian oil. And I could see, if things don't go well, then sanctions or secondary tariffs could go up. Sanctions can go up, they can be loosened. They can have a definitive life. They can go on indefinitely.' (With agency inputs)


NDTV
36 minutes ago
- NDTV
A Red Carpet Welcome, No Deal, No Questions: Key Takeaways From Putin-Trump Meet
Washington: The much-anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin began with a warm welcome and a flyover by screaming jets at a US military base in Alaska but ended with a thud Friday after they conceded that they had failed to reach any agreements on how to end the Russia-Ukraine war. After about 2 1/2 hours of talks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, the two men appeared before reporters for what had been billed as a joint news conference — but they took no questions. 'We had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to, there are just a very few that are left,' Trump said. 'We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.' Putin, welcomed into the US after being shunned by Western allies since early 2022 for ordering the invasion of Ukraine, thanked Trump for hosting the meeting and suggested with a chuckle that the next time the two sit down it could be in Moscow. Here are key takeaways from the summit: Putin got a red carpet welcome and even rode in Trump's presidential limousine from the tarmac to the summit venue. There, the pair were joined by two of their top aides: Secretary of State and national security adviser Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff for Trump and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and national security adviser Yuri Ushakov for Putin. Putin, who spoke first after the meeting concluded, lauded the historical relationship between the United States, Russia and the former Soviet Union, recalling joint missions conducted by the two countries during World War II. He said the US and Russia share values, a standard talking point for Russian officials when trying to woo Trump and his aides. Putin also noted that Trump has frequently said the Ukraine war wouldn't have happened had he won the 2020 election. "I think that would have been the case," the Russian leader said, a comment sure to please Trump. However, there is no indication and no way to prove that Moscow would have acted differently toward Ukraine had Democrat Joe Biden not been elected. Trump had gone into the meeting hoping to get Putin to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine — or at least a commitment from Russia to enter into negotiations to reach one. Instead, Trump conceded that 'we haven't quite got there' and said he would be conferring with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO leaders about next steps. Trump said he and Putin had made some significant progress toward the goal of ending the conflict but gave no details on what that entailed and had to acknowledge that they had been unable to bridge substantial gaps. 'I believe we had a very productive meeting,' Trump said. 'We haven't quite got there, but we've made some headway. So, there's no deal until there's a deal.' In a subsequent conversation with Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel, Trump again offered no details on his discussions with Putin. Amid drawn-out diplomatic moves to end the war, time is appears to be on Putin's side. That gives a leg up to Russian forces, who have used their larger numbers to slowly grind down defenses in eastern Ukraine 3 1/2 years into the conflict. Putin got a pleasant reception from the leader of the free world on U.S. soil and walked away hours later without either providing details on what they discussed, whether a ceasefire was any closer to reality or what the next steps would be. Putin praised Trump for the 'friendly' tone of the talks — Trump said nothing publicly about the killing of Ukrainian civilians in Moscow's attacks — and for 'understanding that Russia has its own national interests.' Putin said Moscow and Washington should 'turn the page,' with relations having sunk to the lowest point since the Cold War. Putin appearing in the US for the first time in 10 years was celebrated as a sign that Moscow was no longer a pariah on the global stage. In a social media post, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told followers that the Western press would be on the verge of 'losing their minds.' 'For three years, they talked about Russia's isolation, and today they saw the red carpet being rolled out to greet the Russian president in the United States,' she said. Both men said the talks were 'productive' but the lack of any announcement of solid achievements was revealing. The news conference ended up being less than 15 minutes of rather standard diplomatic comments — and gave no indication that any concrete results were achieved — and offered little departure from their previous comments on the war in Ukraine. Trump has made it a feature of his second term to parry questions from reporters in front of world leaders, but in the clearest sign of his disappointment, the president abruptly cut short his plans to take questions. Trump had gone into the summit saying here was a 25% chance that the summit would fail and that it was meant to be a 'feel-out meeting,' but he had also floated the idea of bringing Zelenskyy to Alaska for a subsequent, three-way meeting if things went well. It's unclear what comes next.