Trump latest: US-EU 'closing in' on tariff deal; after Washington strikes Japan agreement
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The Guardian
8 minutes ago
- The Guardian
US to impose 15% tariffs on South Korea as part of trade deal, Donald Trump says
President Donald Trump has said the US will charge a 15% tariff on imports from South Korea as part of an agreement with the Asian trading partner that avoids even higher levies. 'I am pleased to announce that the United States of America has agreed to a Full and Complete Trade Deal with the Republic of Korea,' Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday. The South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung, said on Thursday the deal would put South Korea on an equal or better footing compared with other countries. He also said the countries had agreed to set up a $350bn investment fund, out of which $150bn was aimed at a shipbuilding partnership. Trump had said that as part of the arrangement, South Korea would invest $350bn in the US in projects selected by him and purchase $100bn of liquefied natural gas and other energy products. It was not immediately clear how the investment deals would be structured or over what time frame. Trump said additional investments would be announced later. Lee would visit the White House 'within the next two weeks' for a meeting with Trump, the US president added. He also said South Korea would accept American products – including cars, trucks and agriculture – into its markets and impose no import duties on them.
The Guardian
10 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Countries failing to act on UN climate pledge to triple renewables, thinktank finds
Most global governments have failed to act on the 2023 UN pledge to triple the world's renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade, according to climate analysts. The failure to act means that on current forecasts the world will fall far short of its clean energy goals, leading to a continued reliance on fossil fuels that is incompatible with the target of limiting global heating to below 1.5C. A report by the climate thinktank Ember found that only 22 countries, most within the EU, have increased their renewable energy ambitions since more than 130 signed up to the renewables pact at the UN's Cop28 climate talks in Dubai almost two years ago. This means that the global sum of national renewables targets is now just 2% higher than at Cop28. While this could be enough to double the world's renewable energy capacity from 2022, to reach 7.4 terawatts (TW) by 2030, governments would fall well below the 11TW needed to meet the UN goal of tripling renewables, according to the analysts. 'Tripling global renewables capacity by 2030 is the single biggest action this decade to stay on track for the 1.5C climate pathway,' the report said. 'Yet, despite the landmark Cop28 agreement to reach 11,000GW of renewables by 2030, national targets remain largely unchanged and fall short of what is needed.' The report found that beyond the EU only seven countries have updated their renewable energy goals since the pact was signed, including Mexico and Indonesia, which have watered down their targets. Countries that have failed to act include the US, China and Russia, which are some of the world's largest energy users and together are responsible for almost half of the world's annual carbon emissions. The fate of the world's renewable energy deal may depend on the actions of Beijing, which is expected to finalise its 15th five-year plan for energy later this year, covering the period 2026-30. Washington and Moscow do not have renewable energy targets for 2030, and according to Ember their political leaders are not expected to set any. In India, clean energy targets have also remained unchanged, but the country's ambition to build 500GW of renewables by 2030 is already aligned with the global goal to triple renewable energy capacity, the thinktank added. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The country that has showed the greatest renewables ambition since Cop28 is Vietnam, which this year pledged to increase its capacity by 86GW by the end of the decade. Australia and Brazil have promised to increase their homegrown renewables by 18GW and 15GW. The UK upgraded its renewable energy plans last year with a pledge to build an extra 7GW of renewable energy by 2030 to reach the Labour government's target to create a virtually carbon-free electricity system. In Korea, renewables are expected to grow by 9GW by 2030.
Spectator
19 minutes ago
- Spectator
Make Trump Britain's prime minister
When I was a young man, the claim that Britain was in danger of becoming the 51st state was a political slur mainly thrown about by the left, particularly those who objected to the presence of US military bases. But there was some anti-American sentiment on the right, too – Enoch Powell, for instance, had a dislike of America's hostility to the Empire that dated back to his service in the second world war. I'm even guilty of some anti–American prejudice myself and wrote a memoir in which I tried to convey that my failure to take Manhattan in the mid-1990s was because I wasn't willing to sell my soul to Mammon. Well, I take it all back. Having watched Donald Trump's performance at the joint press conference with the Prime Minister on Monday, I wish he was our leader and not Sir Keir Starmer. On all the key topics the President touched on – immigration, net zero, the awfulness of Sadiq Khan – I am in violent agreement with him. I would now like nothing more than for Britain to be the 51st state. It's not just because I'm more closely politically aligned with Trump than Starmer. If Britain was part of the United States, Trump wouldn't hesitate to start deporting undocumented migrants, as he's done in the US, where (according to the White House) illegal immigration has fallen by 95 per cent since he became the 47th President. All those tedious legal obligations we have under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Refugee Convention would be swatted aside like so many pesky flies. If the price to pay is renaming the stretch of water between Britain and France the 'American Channel', so be it. When it comes to energy, I can think of no greater boon to the British economy than re-starting oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, lifting the fracking ban and exploiting our mineral rights in the South Atlantic. It's our insane net-zero policy and our resulting electricity prices that is partly responsible for our GDP per capita being lower than Mississippi's, the poorest state in the union. Incidentally, average GDP per capita was higher in the UK than the US as recently as 2007. We passed the Climate Change Act the following year, around the same time as our long, ignominious decline began. Above all, there's the First Amendment. Oh, how I wish the speech of British citizens enjoyed the same protections as that of Americans. All the fetters on freedom of expression that have sprung up like knotweed since the passing of the Race Relations Act in 1965 – buried in nasty little clauses in the Public Order Act 1986, the Malicious Communications Act 1988, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the Communications Act 2003 and the Online Safety Act 2023 – would not survive a First Amendment challenge. The moment we became the 51st state, they would all be placed in what Americans call 'the circular file', i.e. the bin. Of course, it won't ever happen – and I don't want this to read like a counsel of despair. I still hold out a sliver of hope that a future British government will do its best to implement all of these policies, although stopping the boats, scrapping net zero and restoring free speech would be a good deal easier if we were the 51st state. In the words of Paul Goodman, a Conservative colleague in the House of Lords, if a ministry led by Nigel Farage tried to do any of these things, it 'would be met on day one by an institutional intifada'. A radical, reforming government might have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to this onslaught, but, like Lord Goodman, I fear it would soon be seen off by the closed ranks of the Establishment, much like Liz Truss's was. But I have a solution. We all know Trump to be an ambitious man who will be reluctant to surrender power in 2028. So why shouldn't he become a British citizen and run against Sir Keir in 2029, either as the newly installed head of Reform UK or as the leader of a new political party? His mother was born in Scotland, so he's eligible, and unlike in the US, you don't have to be born in Britain to occupy our highest political office. I imagine the prospect of addressing the House of Commons as our prime minister will appeal to him as an act of sweet revenge after being denied the opportunity to address parliament during his forthcoming state visit. If anyone can take on the Blob, the Donald can. Kemi Badenoch can be deputy prime minister and Nigel our ambassador in Washington (after being given a hereditary peerage). Mr President, if you're reading this, I want you to know I stand ready to serve. Let's make Britain great again.
