White House says Trump open to meeting Putin and Zelenskyy
'Great progress was made!' Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that afterwards he had briefed some European allies.
'Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come,' he said.
Minutes later, however, a senior US official said that 'secondary sanctions' were still expected to be implemented in two days' time.
Trump, who had boasted he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office, has given Russia until Friday to make progress towards peace or face new penalties.
Three rounds of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul have failed to make headway on a ceasefire, with the two sides far apart in their demands.
Russia has escalated drone and missile attacks against its pro-Western neighbour to a record high and accelerated its advance on the ground.
'A quite useful and constructive conversation took place,' Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists, including AFP, after the three-hour meeting with Witkoff.
The two men exchanged 'signals' on their positions, Ushakov said, without elaborating.
Zelenskyy confirmed his call with Trump and confirmed European leaders had taken part, although he didn't name them.
Sanctions threat
Trump has voiced increasing frustration with Putin in recent weeks over Russia's unrelenting offensive.
The White House has not officially outlined what action it would take against Russia, but Trump has previously threatened to impose 'secondary tariffs' targeting Russia's key trade partners, such as China and India.
On Wednesday, Trump ordered steeper tariffs on Indian goods over New Delhi's continued purchase of Russian oil.
The move would aim to stifle Russian exports, but would risk significant international disruption.
Trump said on Tuesday he would await the outcome of the Moscow talks before ordering any economic sanctions.
'We're going to see what happens,' he told reporters. 'We'll make that determination at that time.'
Without explicitly naming Trump, the Kremlin on Tuesday slammed 'threats' to hike tariffs on Russia's trading partners as 'illegitimate'.
Russia's campaign against Ukraine since February 2022 has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed swathes of the country and forced millions to flee their homes.
Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede more territory and renounce Western support if it wants the fighting to stop.
Kyiv is calling for an immediate ceasefire, and Zelenskyy last week urged his allies to push for 'regime change' in Moscow.
Nuclear rhetoric
The Witkoff visit came as Moscow-Washington tensions are running high.
Trump said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be moved following an online row with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, and that they were now 'in the region'.
Moscow then said that it was ending a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear-capable intermediate-range missiles, suggesting that it could deploy such weapons in response to what it alleged were similar US deployments within striking distance of Russia.
Ukrainian emergency services reported on Wednesday that at least two people were killed and 12 others wounded in Russian shelling of a holiday camp in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
-Agence France-Presse
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NZ Herald
28 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Trump's tariff moves suggest Indian and US co-operation over China can no-longer be counted on
Until that point, his Administration had been angling to reduce India's trade barriers but said nothing about its two years of buying Russian oil at a wartime discount. Before the shock of Trump's announcement in April of sweeping global tariffs, the world's two largest democracies seemed to be enjoying the friendship that its leaders had forged. At a meeting with Trump at the White House in February, India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, described India's intention to become one of the world's most advanced economies, with the US as a partner. 'In the language of America, it's 'Make India Great Again' — Miga,' he said. 'When America and India work together, this Maga plus Miga becomes a 'mega partnership for prosperity.'' Trump smiled. Left unmentioned but lingering just out of sight was China, the only country with a population to rival India's and an economy to stand in its way. China is also far and away America's most important economic competitor. Together, the US and India were seen as ready to use each other to try to restrain China's might. Total trade between the US and India was roughly US$130 billion last year. India's top exports to America include pharmaceuticals, auto parts, electrical goods, and gemstones. Modi's confidence in enlisting the US in its economic rise was well grounded. US administrations have been courting India as a geopolitical ally for more than a quarter of a century, since India announced its nuclear arsenal as a deterrent, it said, to China. And American dollars have poured into India as China's economy has matured and become more assertive. The Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine were the catalysts for a surge in investment. Multinational companies grew excited about doing business in India, to reduce the risk of exposure to China as it girds for a trade war with the US and possibly a real war with Taiwan. Manufacturing and professional services led the way. Wall Street followed, banking on the future growth of India, with its relatively young population and enviable political stability. But over the past week, Trump's escalating attacks on India have suddenly undermined this joint venture and sent reverberations throughout the business worlds of both countries. Today, an executive order by Trump said that India would face an extra 25% tariff starting on August 27 if it continued to buy oil from Russia. That levy on Indian goods imported into the US would come on top of a 25% tariff Trump announced last week, which is set to take effect tomorrow and on its own ranks as one of the highest rates in Asia. India's Foreign Ministry responded to Trump's executive order, reiterating that the country's motives for importing oil from Russia were tied to the energy needs of its 1.4 billion people. It was 'extremely unfortunate that the US should choose to impose additional tariffs on India for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest,' the ministry's statement said. Indian officials had signalled over the weekend that they did not intend to stop buying Russian oil. With his tariff threats, Trump has thrown months of trade talks between both countries into question. Just a couple of weeks ago, negotiators and business leaders sounded upbeat. Even with some difficult details to be settled, the expectation was that India and the US mean too much to each other to let a global trade war tear them apart. US President Donald Trump with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on February 13. With threats of tariffs up to 50%, Trump seems to be scrapping America's plan to turn India into a counterweight to China, declaring instead that it was a 'dead economy'. Photo / Eric Lee, The New York Times Modi was one of the first world leaders to visit Trump in Washington after he returned to the White House in January. The two men had long shared what was by all appearances a close relationship. As political leaders, both are regarded as strongmen. The US was earlier wary of Modi, who had been denied a visa to the US on the grounds that he played a role in the deadly anti-Muslim riots in 2002. But he was embraced when he became Prime Minister in 2014. Part of the calculation was based on security and the possible future of military alliances across Asia. Yet, India's attractive qualities as a partner in defence always hinged on the promise of its economy. Companies such as Apple have poured billions into India, which in 2023 eclipsed China in population, with eyes on India's domestic market and its capacity to export manufactured goods to the US and elsewhere. Those investments were supposed to be better than profitable; they were supposed to reduce or eliminate everyone's dependence on China to be the factory of the world. The 25% tariff alone, already much higher than those imposed on Asian competitors including Vietnam, Japan, and South Korea, would reduce the viability of such a trade. A 50% tariff would kill it. Yesterday, Trump took aim at two other industries that were explicitly being developed in India as an alternative to China. Pharmaceuticals, where India has world-beating advantages and sells more than US$10b a year to the US, is to face a special tariff that could eventually reach 250%, Trump said, to be announced 'within a week or so'. Eli Lilly, as one of many American corporations that have invested in India, for example, recently invested US$3b in an Indian factory. India makes nearly 40% of the generic drugs bought in the US. Trump's plan is to bring back manufacturing to the US, which is also the reason he has given for imposing another special tariff on semiconductors. Unfortunately for Indian and American companies, and some in East Asia too, everyone has been spending to make India competitive in this sector. Micron, based in Idaho, has taken advantage of Indian government subsidies to put US$2.5b into building chipmaking facilities in Modi's home state of Gujarat. High finance has also followed brick-and-mortar businesses. The Indian stock market has been on a bull run, finding enthusiastic new buyers among middle-class Indians. That made foreign investors eager for private deals. Stephen Schwarzman, chief executive of Blackstone, a New York investment firm, said this year that it was putting US$11b into Indian data centres to fuel the global artificial intelligence boom. 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One aspect of this exchange, the proliferation of globally integrated, high-end offices in India — first in information technology and then across the professions — has remained a bright spot. Worth US$65b last year, it is more valuable than the total trade deficit in goods. China does not hold a candle to India's ability as a hub for office work other countries send its way. As frightening as the new tariffs are for many Indian factories, most American investors who have built stakes in India are not yet fleeing. They do, however, remember what happened in 2020, when India and China traded blows at their border and 24 soldiers were killed. Almost overnight, Chinese companies were forced to ditch their Indian investments at a loss. A war of words and tariffs is different, of course. However, Indian and American co-operation around China is no longer something that anyone can count on. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Alex Travelli Photographs by: Saumya Khandelwal, Eric Lee ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
RNZ News
43 minutes ago
- RNZ News
US to ease human rights criticism of El Salvador, Israel and Russia, Washington Post says
By Kanishka Singh and Costas Pitas , Reuters Under Trump, the administration has increasingly moved away from the traditional promotion of democracy and human rights, largely seeing it as interference in another country's affairs. Photo: AFP / Pool / Christopher Furlong The Trump administration plans to scale back criticism of El Salvador, Israel and Russia over human rights, the Washington Post reports, citing drafts of the State Department's annual human rights report. The draft reports related to those countries were significantly shorter than the ones prepared by the administration of Democratic former President Joe Biden, who left office in January, following Republican Donald Trump's November 2024 election win. The State Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has not yet officially released this year's report, which covers last year's incidents. A senior State Department official in a briefing with reporters declined to provide specific details about the contents of the report but said it had been restructured in a way that "removes redundancies, increases report readability". The United States has traditionally viewed the promotion of human rights and democracy as well as press freedom as core foreign policy objectives, although critics have repeatedly pointed out the double standard Washington has had towards its allies. Under Trump, the administration has increasingly moved away from the traditional promotion of democracy and human rights, largely seeing it as interference in another country's affairs. Instead, Trump officials have interfered in other ways, repeatedly weighing in on European politics to denounce what they see as suppression of right-wing leaders, including in Romania, Germany and France, and accusing European authorities of censoring views such as criticism of immigration. On El Salvador, the draft State Department report states that it had "no credible reports of significant human rights abuses" in 2024, the Post said. The previous report published under the Biden administration said there were "significant human rights issues" there including credible reports of "degrading treatment or punishment by security forces" and "harsh and life-threatening prison conditions." The Trump administration has deported people to El Salvador with help from the government of President Nayib Bukele, whose country is receiving US$6 million from the US to house the migrants in a high-security mega-prison. The draft report makes no mention of corruption or threats to the independence of Israel's judiciary, the Post reported. The previous report mentioned isolated reports of government corruption and cited the criminal case of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust - all of which he denies. Previous references to Israeli surveillance of Palestinians and restrictions of their movements were also not addressed in the draft report, the newspaper said. The final report on Russia issued under the Biden State Department made several references to violence and harassment faced by LGBTQI+ people in Russia. The Washington Post said the draft report removed all references to LGBTQ+ individuals or crimes against them, and descriptions of government abuses that remained had been softened. The embassies of El Salvador, Israel and Russia in Washington did not immediately respond to separate emailed requests for comment. The Trump administration has moved to reshape the State Department's human rights bureau, which it said had become a platform for "left-wing activists to wage vendettas against 'anti-woke' leaders". Usually, the annual report is released around March or April each year but has been delayed this year. The State Department official said the report would be released "in the very near future." "The report is not meant to be every single human rights abuse that's happened in every single country. It's meant to be illustrative and a broad picture of what the conditions of human rights are on the ground in each country," the official said. - AFP
NZ Herald
2 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Covid wage-subsidy cheat Luke Daniel Rivers cooked up fake employees to steal nearly $1 million
He spent a term at a local grammar school but couldn't afford the fees, so he went to work, then studied and became an accountant. He changed his name by statutory declaration in June 2004, believing an English-sounding name would enhance his career prospects. In July 2006, he got a new Inland Revenue Department (IRD) number under the name of Luke Rivers. However, he did not tell the tax department he still held another tax number under his birth name. Prosecutor Fiona Culliney said the offending Rivers was charged with started in 2011, when he evaded child support by filing multiple tax returns misrepresenting his income. But when the Covid-19 pandemic presented a new opportunity, the scale of his offending escalated. As the Government rolled out wage subsidies and small-business support schemes, Rivers cooked up an elaborate con. He pocketed about $906,000 and attempted to swindle a further $724,105.60. The fantasy world of his fraud scheme included the names of three Indian 'employees' who had never been in New Zealand. He made 28 applications on behalf of eight companies he controlled, with a dozen of those applications fraudulent. Luke Daniel Rivers's fraudulent applications for wage subsidies named three "employees" who had never been to NZ. Photo / Dean Purcell In the small-business cashflow scheme he acquired about $29,000 and made failed applications for a further $41,600. The court heard Rivers was the sole director and shareholder of Your Payroll Limited, Your Refund Limited, Accounting 4 Me Limited and Save On Mortgage Limited. In multiple wage-subsidy applications he named himself as a full-time employee. Rivers was charged in June 2023 and initially denied the allegations. By October that year, it seemed a trial lasting four or five weeks would happen. But in April this year, Rivers admitted 29 charges. Culliney said Rivers' offending was prolonged and involved the abuse of his position as a chartered accountant. 'On that basis, [the chances of] a discount for character, if any's available, must be very slim.' The court heard Rivers cited his Chinese culture and 'expectations on him to be financially successful' as influencing the offending. 'He's well-educated and a successful businessman,' Culliney said. 'This is a particularly sophisticated and deliberate scheme of fraud. It's opportunistic in the sense that the country was in crisis, but it wasn't a situation where it was easy enough to dip into client funds.' In November 2020, Rivers opened an Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) account in Singapore and sent $100,000 to it. In June 2021, he opened an account with Standard Chartered bank under a Chinese name. In total, $696,243.50 was sent to that account. In December 2020, he sent $250,000 to the OCBC account on the same day he received that money from the Government. Defence counsel Baden Meyer said Rivers was not a demonstrative man, but he was remorseful. The defendant had already repaid $1 million. 'The payment of reparation …. is a practical demonstration of his remorse," Meyer said. Chartered accountant Luke Daniel Rivers used his skills to cheat the wage subsidy scheme. Photo / Dean Purcell The prosecution said seven years' jail should be the starting point, and the defence said six years. Judge Kathryn Maxwell said the amount of money in the fraud was an aggravating factor. She said Rivers' use of two IRD numbers allowed him to misrepresent his income for seven years. He forged documents to get three IRD numbers for the Indian people and also made false employment returns. Rivers used real people's names and details to give the wage-subsidy applications a veneer of legitimacy. Rivers abused subsidies which were established to support businesses in need at a time of high stress, Judge Maxwell said. 'It is, more broadly, fraud against taxpayers as a whole.' Rivers received a 10% discount for the reparations he made and a 5% discount for his guilty pleas. He was sentenced to five years and 11 months' imprisonment. Judge Maxwell told him: 'You did not take what you needed. There was a smorgasbord of dishonesty and considerable personal gain.'
