NATO's Rutte to meet with Trump in Washington next week
The press release did not give an immediate reason for Rutte's visit but Trump said in a recent interview with NBC News that the U.S. would be willing to supply weapons to Ukraine via NATO and that he would make a "major statement" on Monday.
The Trump administration has so far only sent weapons authorised by former President Joe Biden, who was a staunch supporter of Kyiv.
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Trump's golf partner reveals the secrets of his game
C ollusion with Russia, sex with a porn star, attempts to overturn democracy — critics have accused President Trump of all sorts of misdemeanours. But one question posed by President Biden in a debate last year appeared to rile Trump more than any other: is he any good at golf? Questions about the US president's golfing ability have been explored at length in a book called Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump. The book by Rick Reilly, a sports writer, accuses Trump of kicking balls from the rough into the fairway, instructing his caddies to throw opponents' balls into bunkers and awarding himself a large number of gimme putts — when a player picks up his ball, rather than putting it, because the distance is so short.
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28 minutes ago
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Trump hands Miliband a surprise boost in net zero quest
Donald Trump's plan for a 50pc tariff on copper is designed to turbocharge the American metals industry and safeguard supplies for the US military. But there is another, more surprising winner from the president's levy: Ed Miliband. Trump's proposed tariffs have rocked global markets, prompting copper miners to think again about sending any more shipments to America this year. This means if he goes through with his 50pc levy, he will inadvertently funnel a torrent of copper on to the London Metals Exchange (LME), driving down prices in the process. That's good news for the Energy Secretary, as copper is one of the most important materials in the renewables industry, where it is used in everything from wind turbines to electric cars and solar panels. 'The market still hasn't been able to react to the full detail, and we've got potentially three weeks until the tariffs come in,' says Morgan Stanley commodities strategist Amy Gower. 'But potentially, as time passes, the LME price probably does need to come down.' Capital Economics reckons the price of copper traded in London could fall by 6pc over the remainder of the year, potentially sliding by up to 11pc by the end of 2026. Based on Britain's annual consumption of about a quarter of a million tonnes, this could slash the country's copper bill by more than £200m. Crucially, it will also help the green energy industry secure savings worth tens of millions of pounds. An offshore wind farm needs up to eight tonnes of copper per megawatt of power produced, while a solar farm needs 2.8 tonnes. Even a single electric vehicle needs about 80kg. As a result, the Trump-induced market ructions open a window for the UK renewables industry to move fast and gain a financial upper hand. However, the opportunity won't last long. By the end of the decade, an expected crunch in the copper market will kick in and looks set to usher in a potentially punishing cost squeeze on Britain's net zero transition. Although the price will climb in the long term, it will drop for the time being because of a quirk in the market. Copper is traded in three locations: in the UK, on the LME; in the US, on the Comex market; and in China, at the Shanghai Futures Exchange, or SHFE. The price varies in each market, responding to different dynamics in each region. The Comex price is inclusive of any taxes or levies, meaning that ever since Trump flagged a potential 25pc tariff on copper in February, traders have been trying to capitalise. If they bought on the LME after February and can then sell on to the Comex market once the proposed tariff comes in, they stand to make hefty profits. 'A lot of traders were basically taking as much metal to the US as they could, getting it in-country, then waiting for the tariffs to come in and the Comex price to jump,' says Alice Fox, a commodities strategist at Macquarie Group. About 15,000 tonnes of copper is normally shipped to the US each week, but almost three times that amount has been sailing towards America in recent months. In the first six months of this year, US buyers hoovered up an estimated 881,000 tonnes of copper, which Macquarie estimates was almost double what American buyers actually needed. This has left the rest sitting in stockpiles, waiting for the tariff to kick in. Copper held in Comex-registered warehouses more than doubled in the second quarter, and now exceeds the stock held in the LME and SHFE combined. Last year, the Comex holdings were typically only about 10pc of the London-Shanghai stockpile. The dash to send copper to the US meant there was less to go around for everyone else, pushing up prices on the LME. 'Basically, any available metal that wasn't Chinese and wasn't Russian has headed to the US,' says Fox. 'If you look at country-of-origin data for LME, virtually all of it is now Russian and Chinese.' The threat of 50pc tariffs has changed all of that. Once Trump actually imposes the tariff, the opportunity for traders to make instant profits will come to a screeching halt. Already, traders are trying frantically to get incoming vessels into American ports before August 1, which is when copper tariffs will take effect. Sellers will then spend the next six to nine months unloading their US inventory rather than looking for new stock. 'This will likely improve the availability of copper, ex-US, with more copper showing up in LME warehouses, which would weigh on LME copper prices,' Ewa Manthey, a commodities strategist at ING, said in a note. The reprieve in copper prices is unlikely to last long, however. According to the International Energy Agency, soaring appetite from data centres, renewables and EVs means that by 2035, global copper demand will be almost one third higher than supply. The squeeze is widely expected to drive up prices, which has already triggered mining companies into a worldwide rush to buy up promising tenements and open new mines. But fewer and fewer viable mine sites are being discovered. And even when a miner strikes it lucky, the time lapse between discovery and production is typically 17 years. So the scramble is heating up. 'We're really focused on the fundamentals of the market,' one mining executive says. 'What Trump is doing doesn't change the big picture. It's really important not to get distracted by the noise.' But there is also a way in which Trump's tariff could soften or delay the worst of the impending shortfall. The US consumes about 1.7m tonnes of copper a year. 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Miliband may not have much time for Trump's politics and policies. But for now, he may have a reason to thank him.
The Independent
37 minutes ago
- The Independent
Gov. Gavin Newsom unloads on ‘son of a b***h' Trump over ‘Newscum' moniker
California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a broadside against President Trump Monday, calling him a 'son of a b*****' for the president' s frequently used moniker 'Gavin Newscum.' The governor told podcast host Shawn Ryan about his values to begin the show, saying, 'I'm not anti-gun at all. He then drilled down that he was more concerned about 'common sense around background checks and age appropriateness. He then moved on to chastise Trump for branding him 'Gavin Newscum' and said the matter had now led to his child receiving taunts in school. 'I don't like bullies. It goes to why I have strong opinions about Trump, man. It's like it triggers me. All of us have that. I don't like people talking down to people, past people. I don't like people exploiting weakness,' Newsom said. 'That's what I don't like about this son of a *****. I don't. And forgive me, I know he's the president of the United States, yeah, he calls me 'Newscum', yeah, come on. How do I explain that to my kid?' Newsom went on to scold Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who brushed off a conversation with Trump about Jeffrey Epstein at the weekend and who Newsom said is 'a son of a b***** in every goddamn campus, progressive parts of the country.' Just days before the interview, Newsom wrote 'Trump calls me 'Newscum' — but he's the real scum,' in response to a KTLA5 video of protestors and suspected raid targets, fleeing from tear gas being sprayed by officers in Camarillo, California on X. Moreover, Newsom told Ryan, 'I got my kid's friends calling my kids 'Newscum' – that I get because I was called that in seventh grade, but not by a 79-year-old.' He called on the president to 'model better, goddamn behavior, man,' adding, 'Forgive the goddamn, it's what I don't like about him.' Newsom said the feud between him and Trump would only ever be resolved 'when it doesn't get any attention,' but added that the administration is determined to 'test the boundaries.' In early June, Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration calling for an end to the 'illegal and unnecessary takeover of a CalGuard unit' during the LA riots, which erupted after controversial ICE raids in California. Newsom believes that Trump's heightened military response to the protests 'needlessly escalated chaos and violence in the Los Angeles region.' Equally, the governor claims the president failed to give him a 'heads up' the night before on the decision to deploy the National Guard, stating that he was left entirely in the dark. 'Not one f****** word on the topic,' Newsom said, claiming that the pair talked about everything the night before except the violence that was unfolding on LA streets at the time. 'He completely lied about that conversation and totally surprised me with the National Guard.' Newsom feels that the Trump administration is using the second presidential term as a 'petri dish' to test the limits of executive power.
