Major Russian Airstrike Targets Western Ukraine Near Romania
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Russia launched its latest massive drone and missile strike on Ukraine, targeting areas in the nation's west that border European Union states.
The attack — including on areas that have seen few if any strikes in the war to date — left at least two people dead and damaged residential houses and other civilian infrastructure.
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New York Times
8 minutes ago
- New York Times
U.S. and China Meet as Trade Truce Nears Expiration
Top officials from the Trump administration will meet with their Chinese counterparts in Sweden this week for their third formal round of economic talks since President Trump raised tariffs on Chinese imports to triple-digit levels this year. The primary goal is to extend a fragile trade truce that has prevented a devastating clash between the world's largest economies. The discussions are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Stockholm. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Jamieson Greer, the United States trade representative, are leading the U.S. delegation. He Lifeng, the vice premier for economic policy, has been leading the talks on behalf of China. The negotiations come during a pivotal week for the global economy, which has been gripped by uncertainty as a result of Mr. Trump's chaotic trade agenda. The Trump administration has been trying to win concessions from many countries before an Aug. 1 deadline for reimposing tariffs announced in April. Those levies were suspended in order to reach trade deals. Over the last week, the Trump administration has announced deals with some of America's biggest trading partners in quick succession. Last Tuesday, the United States and Japan finally agreed to a deal that included a 15 percent tariff on Japanese imports and a pledge from Japan to invest $550 billion in the United States. On Sunday, Mr. Trump announced that he had also reached a deal with the European Union, a 27-nation bloc whose economies rely on exports to the United States. The deal would put a 15 percent tariff on many European exports, including cars. But one of the biggest unknowns is what will happen with China, which remains one of America's largest source of imports. After a tit-for-tat period of tariffs and retaliation, the two nations have come to something of an uneasy truce after talks in Geneva in May, and in London in June. On Sunday, before he met with European officials, Mr. Trump implied that some kind of trade arrangement with China might be close at hand. 'We just struck a deal with Japan as you know, and we're very close to a deal with China,' he said. This will be the first meeting between the countries without an imminent crisis, like the tariff standoff or China's economically crippling ban on rare earth exports this year. Trade experts said the list of potential topics for discussion was long, ranging from Mr. Trump's push to get China to stop the flow of fentanyl to the United States, to America's concerns about its purchases of Russian and Iranian oil, and recent exit bans that have prevented U.S. citizens from leaving China. U.S. officials appear to be looking forward to more ambitious trade talks in the months to come. Those could include Chinese purchases of American products, steps to open the Chinese market and, potentially, Chinese investment in the United States. They are also likely seeking to lay the groundwork for a potential meeting between Mr. Trump and Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, this year. Administration officials are considering a trip to Beijing before a meeting of Asian and Pacific countries in South Korea in October, or potentially connecting Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi on the sidelines of an international meeting. Michael Pillsbury, a former government official who has advised the Trump administration on China, said this would be Mr. Trump's sixth summit meeting with Mr. Xi. Each of those summits had a minimum of two hours of dialogue, and Mr. Trump went prepared with specific deal-making requests, he said. 'The president feels it's better to deal face to face,' he said. Trade experts are also wondering whether U.S. technology controls or an agreement to transfer ownership of TikTok may be on the negotiating table. On CNBC on Thursday, Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, said that the United States had submitted a proposal to China for transferring ownership of TikTok to American companies, and that the administration was waiting for the Chinese response. The topic was 'not officially' part of the trade talks, he said, 'but unofficially, of course.' Tensions between the United States and China started to spiral after Mr. Trump announced his 'Liberation Day' tariffs in early April. China was the only country to immediately retaliate, matching Mr. Trump's tariffs of 34 percent with 34 percent tariffs on American products. Beijing also set up a licensing system to restrict exports of seven rare earth elements that are processed almost exclusively in China and used in electric cars, smart bombs and other high-tech devices. Mr. Trump then responded by ratcheting up tariffs on Chinese products to a minimum of 145 percent, which brought much of the trade between the countries to a halt. The previous rounds of negotiations secured a temporary truce that included China's relaxing its restrictions on shipments of valuable rare earth minerals and magnets needed by U.S. manufacturers. In return, U.S. officials agreed to roll back limits on exports of U.S. products and technology, including ethane and airplane parts, as well as the proposed visa restrictions. U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports were scaled back to 30 percent, while China has 10 percent tariffs on American products. The truce is scheduled to expire on Aug. 12, after which tariffs would rise 10 percentage points. However, Mr. Bessent has been optimistic that the truce could be extended. In an interview on the Fox Business Network last week, Mr. Bessent said that 'trade is in a good place' with China. He added that he hoped to begin having broader discussions with his counterparts about rebalancing the Chinese economy and encouraging China to curb purchases of Russian and Iranian oil. Mr. Bessent said China was in a manufacturing slump and faced a residential real estate market crisis. He argued Beijing must focus on building a consumer economy. 'They can't export their economic problems to the rest of the world, they need to solve them,' Mr. Bessent said. U.S. companies continue to have a rash of criticisms about doing business in China, including the country's newly established rare earth licensing system. The processing time for licenses is long, American firms say, and China requests proprietary and sensitive business information as part of the applications. In a survey released this month, members of the U.S.-China Business Council said strained relations and tariffs between the two countries remained their biggest concerns. But they also said Chinese policies favoring domestic companies were eroding confidence in doing business in the country.
CNN
8 minutes ago
- CNN
US used up about a quarter of its high-end missile interceptors during Israel-Iran war, exposing gap in supplies
The United States blew through about a quarter of its supply of high-end THAAD missile interceptors during Israel's 12-day war with Iran in June, according to two sources familiar with the operation, thwarting attacks at a rate that vastly outpaces production. US forces countered Tehran's barrage of ballistic missiles by firing more than 100 THAADs (short for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) – and possibly as many as 150 – a significant portion of America's stockpile of the advanced air defense system, the sources said. The US has seven THAAD systems, and used two of them in Israel in the conflict. Using so many THAAD interceptors in such a short period exposed a gap in the US missile defense network and depleted a costly asset at a moment when American public support for Israeli defense has reached historic lows. Former US defense officials and missile experts told CNN that the rapid drawdown has also raised concerns about America's global security posture and ability to regenerate supplies at speed. Last year, the US produced only 11 new THAAD interceptors and is expected to receive just 12 more this fiscal year, according to the 2026 budget estimates from the Department of Defense. In response to questions regarding the US's THAAD stockpile and the expenditure of interceptors during the 12-day conflict, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said the US military 'is the strongest it has even been and has everything it needs to conduct any mission anywhere, anytime, all around the world. If you need further proof, look no further than Operation Midnight Hammer and the total obliteration of Iran's nuclear capabilities.' CNN reported that an early intelligence assessment determined the US' strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last month did not destroy the core components of the country's nuclear program and likely only set it back by months. The US administration dismissed the assessment, and the CIA later said it had evidence Iran's nuclear program was 'severely damaged.' A defense official declined to provide information on the THAAD inventory due to operational security concerns, but said the Defense Department 'remains postured to respond to any threat.' The number of THAADs spent in the 12-day war was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Despite the heavy use of THAADs during the 12-day war to help fend off Tehran's assault last month, dozens of Iranian missiles still struck Israel. THAAD is a mobile system that can engage and destroy short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles both inside and outside of the Earth's atmosphere during their final phase of flight. Each battery is operated by 95 American soldiers, armed with six launchers, and 48 interceptors. The interceptors are manufactured by Lockheed Martin and cost roughly $12.7 million, according to the 2025 Missile Defense Agency budget. The US plans to acquire 37 THAAD interceptors next year, according to the 2026 Department of defense budget estimates, financed partially by the latest addition to President Donald Trump's so-called 'big, beautiful bill.' A defense official said the 2026 budget 'prioritizes funding in the defense industrial base, a core strategic asset that provides and sustains our military's technology, equipment, and supplies.' 'The budget includes an additional $1.3 billion for industrial based supply chain improvements, and an additional $2.5 billion for missiles and munitions production expansion,' the official said. 'The Department's role is to ensure that the President is armed with the best possible military options for any scenario – and all options remain on the table.' But experts and former defense officials warn that supplies need to be ramped up significantly to deal with the shortfall. 'It is important to recognize the level of commitment and the level of expenditure here in defense of Israel is significant,' said a missile defense expert who has been tracking the US government's expenditure. 'The reports about THAAD expenditure are concerning. This is not the sort of thing that the US can afford to continue to do on and on,' he added. 'It was a major commitment to our Israeli ally, but missile defense interceptor capacity is definitely a concern, and THAAD is a very scarce resource.' A senior retired US army officer who asked not to be named said around 25% of THAAD's total inventory was used by US forces in Israel participating in the war effort. 'The (Department of Defense) is looking at wartime stockage levels of critical munitions and attempting to significantly increase annual production capacity, an effort that is long overdue,' the source said. US interceptor stockpile concerns preceded the 12-day war, according to four former senior US defense officials who say that the problem is most acute in inventories of high-end interceptors that are a key part of deterrence against China. 'What I can say without giving any numbers is I was surprised at how low some of the levels of readiness were,' said one former defense official who left his post in the last year. 'Stockpiles are dropping. We need more. We need them faster than they are being built,' said the same ex-official. 'This is a concern. It was a concern during the Biden administration. I'm sure it's a concern now during the Trump administration,' one former senior Biden defense official said. 'Air defense is relevant in all of the major theaters right now. And there's not enough systems. There's not enough interceptors. There's not enough production and there are not enough people working on it,' said Mara Karlin, former US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities under Biden. 'You have the challenge of something being both incredibly relevant and also there's a dearth of them,' she added. There are nine active THAAD batteries globally, according to manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The US military has seven of those and plans to have an eighth active by 2025, according to the Congressional Research Service. Data available in 2019 showed that five of the US' THAADs were stationed at bases in Texas, one in Guam and one in South Korea; by last year, the Pentagon had moved two of those batteries to the Middle East to protect Israel. Two others were delivered to the United Arab Emirates and have been used to intercept Houthi militant ballistic missiles. While most of Iran's missiles were downed by Israeli and US air defenses, experts, open-source data and video from the ground reviewed by CNN showed that dozens did manage to get through. Tehran's success rate rose as the war raged on, amounting to some of the worst damage Israel has seen in decades. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Iran fired over 500 long-range ballistic missiles, and it was able to intercept around 86% of those – with 36 Iranian missiles striking built-up areas. Major cities like Tel Aviv suffered extensive damage, whole apartment buildings were destroyed, sensitive military sites targeted, parts of the power grid were taken out and 29 people were killed. Israel's tax authority estimated in late June that the war would cost the country at least $1.8 billion in damage, but with claims still yet to be filed that number was expected to rise. Analysis conducted by DC-based think tank Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) estimated that THAADs – alongside Israel's Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 interceptors – downed 201 of Iran's 574 missiles, with 57 hitting populated areas. The report estimated that the US' THAAD system accounted for almost half of all interceptions, indicating that Israel's Arrow interceptor stockpiles were insufficient. Israel's Iron Dome system was designed to deflect shorter-range rockets than those being fired by Iran. 'After burning through a large portion of their available interceptors, the United States and Israel both face an urgent need to replenish stockpiles and sharply increase production rates,' Ari Cicurel, author of the report, wrote, estimating that it would take three to eight years to replenish at current production rates. According to data compiled by JINSA, interception rates lagged as the war wore on. Only 8% of Iranian missiles penetrated defenses in the first week of the war. That doubled to 16% in the second half of the conflict and eventually culminated at 25% on the final day of the war before the ceasefire. Analysts say there are several possible reasons for the trend, including an Iranian shift of focus from military targets to populated urban areas, where interception is less robust. Iran also fired more sophisticated missiles as the war progressed. '(Iran) increasingly employed more advanced systems,' said Mora Deitch, head of the data analytics center at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). 'These included newer missiles with multiple warheads or decoys, which may individually cause less damage but can overwhelm and saturate air defense systems.' Deitch also suggests that Israel may have deliberately relaxed its interception rate. 'Israel's air defense policy may have evolved over time to accommodate a protracted engagement with Iran,' said Deitch. 'What appears as a decline in interception effectiveness might instead reflect a deliberate shift in strategy rather than a technological shortfall.' Still missile defense analysts say they saw clear signs of air defense depletion. 'The presence of the THAAD battery in the first place suggests that the Israelis don't have a super deep interceptor magazine,' said Sam Lair, research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS). Lair published analysis of interceptors seen in a series of social media video taken by a Jordanian photographer, Zaid Abbadi, from his rooftop in an Amman suburb as the missiles flew overhead. Lair counted 39 THAAD among 82 advanced interceptors in the sample, which consisted of sporadically recorded night-time recording. CNN was able to verify the THAAD tally from the videos. Over half a dozen experts say the number represents a very conservative baseline. Drawing on calculations about publicly available data on batteries, interceptor reloads, and the number of Iranian ballistic missiles fired, experts believe that the US military fired at least 80 THAAD interceptors. 'The 12-day war in June of this year essentially saw the first significant expenditure of THAAD interceptors,' said Timur Kadyshev, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. 'Israel was relatively successful in defending (with the US assistance) against unsophisticated Iranian missiles – at the cost of depleting available arsenals of interceptors.' The problem for the US is especially acute in the Indo-Pacific where China has tried to keep the US navy at arm's length, experts say. 'From a narrowly military standpoint, the Chinese are absolutely the winners in that these last almost two years in the Middle East have seen the US expend pretty substantial amounts of capabilities that the American defense industrial base will find pretty hard to replace,' said Sidharth Kaushal, senior research fellow at Royal United Services Institute. Ex-defense officials said dwindling defensive capabilities in the Indo-Pacific was a growing concern for the former administration of President Joe Biden as they used the US stockpile to battle Yemen's Houthi rebels. 'God forbid there should be a conflict in the Pacific, for example, then it really will put a huge strain our missile capacity and the ability for our military to have the munitions necessary to keep up,' said one former senior Biden administration defense official with direct knowledge of the US campaign against the Houthis. 'You have to make choices,' said Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities. 'The Biden administration also should have thought about these trade-offs, but they were able to shrug them off because it was early in these wars… stockpiles were still deep enough that they could turn a blind eye to it.' 'But the Trump administration now is getting to a point where they're not going to be able to ignore the trade-offs.' CNN's Haley Britzky contributed to this report.
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Donald Trump will birth a ‘golden age' for Bitcoin at the expense of the dollar
Wolfgang Münchau is a columnist for DL News. He is co-founder and director of Eurointelligence, and writes a column on European affairs for UnHerd. Opinions are his own. Probably the most under-reported economic story of our time is the strong appreciation of the euro against the dollar. While the Bitcoin prices rose 26% in dollar terms this year, it was up only 13% in euros. People fret about Donald Trump's tariffs, but the exchange-rate supercharges the tariffs. If a US buyer imported a product from the EU at a cost of $1.03 at the beginning of the year, it now costs $1.16 net of tariffs. Add a 10% tariff, and you are at $1.28. If the tariff were 30%, the rate determined by Trump to take effect August 1, the price goes up to $1.47. That's almost 50% up on the year. And for the Europeans it gets worse. Because China has soft-pegged the renminbi to the dollar, the EU is hit by a double-whammy exchange rate shock from its two most important trading partners. After Trump imposed his tariff on China, Chinese goods started flooding the European markets in April and May. Because of Chinese dominance of rare earths, there is only so much the Europeans can do about this. If they hit the Chinese too hard, Beijing will cut them off from essential supplies for their industries. 'Seismic shift' What's happening is a seismic shift in US economic policy similar to what happened in 1971. President Richard Nixon's 'new economic policy' included a 10% unilateral tariff on imports, a 10% cut in US foreign aid, and the dollar's withdrawal from the Bretton Woods system of semi-fixed exchange rate. The parallels are almost one-to-one. After the US extricated itself from Bretton Woods, the dollar depreciated. The Europeans, and the Germans in particular, protested, but there was nothing they could do about it. Again, it looks like history repeating itself. The brain behind the 1971 operation was not Nixon himself, but his treasury secretary, John Connally. And this is the main difference to today where the driving force is the president. What is also different is that the trading partners, and especially Europe, are in a more vulnerable position. Germany is more reliant on exports for economic growth than it was back then. It has a higher trade surplus against the rest of the world, and especially against the US. Trump's policies pose an existential threat for them. And for the EU as well, since their economic model critically depends on Germany. Recalibrating the world economy The Europeans could have put themselves in a more advantageous position, had they created a fiscal and capital markets union alongside the euro. That would have the euro on a trajectory where it could one day take over from the dollar as the world's leading global currency. But instead, EU member states chose to prioritise national fiscal sovereignty. The Europeans did not prepare themselves for a financial world without the support of the US. As was the case in the early 1970s, the fall in the dollar, and the rise in tariffs together form part of a programme that will end up recalibrating global trade and financial flows beyond what anyone would imagine. While all eyes are focused on the tariffs, the dollar devaluation is the far more consequential part of the policy. My expectation is that we are only at the beginning of this change as the US is losing the safe-haven status for global investors. All the evidence so far points that Trump pursues dollar devaluation on purpose. Section 899 of his One Big Beautiful Bill would have been a revenge wealth tax on global investors. It has now been removed. But ask yourself: why did they put this clause into the bill in the first place? Why is Trump taking every opportunity to insult Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve? Why does he keep calling on the Fed to cut rates by hundreds of basis points? You would not do that if you wanted a strong dollar. And you would certainly not draw up the One Big Beautiful Bill with its unfunded tax cuts. The independent Congressional Budget Office estimated that the budget plan would increase the debt-to-GDP ratio of the US to 124% from 100% by 2034. In that period, the annual interest costs would double to 4.2%. The annual deficit would be running at 7%. If you truly cared about the dollar, you would not pass a budget like this, talk about firing the central bank chief, or try to sneak in a wealth tax on global investors. 'Undermining the dollar' The Trump administration's undermining of the dollar is not a bug. It's a feature. Trump is a Mercantilist — just as the Chinese and the Germans were before them. He wants a manufacturing-based economy. You would be mistaken to think, as virtually all macroeconomists do, that this attempt is bound to fail. We can debate whether this is a good idea or not. But it will happen. If you create the right incentives, anything can happen. Trump is winning. He is not chickening out. And that's hard for his opponents to admit. He needs the tariffs because he needs the money to fund his deficit. It's as simple as that. There is no higher purpose behind the tariffs. Trump is not concerned about global imbalances. This is the stuff people like me talk about, perhaps too much. For Trump, it's just the money. When I recently predicted in a DL News column that crypto and gold would enter a golden age, this is the scenario that is behind it — a White House that is dead serious about weakening the dollar. China has capital controls. It is aeons away from offering similar services. So is the euro. A world in which the dollar is simultaneously debased and without competition is the most fertile environment for cryptocurrencies. They can thrive through two independent channels: directly, as a store of value and indirectly through stablecoins. Dollar stablecoins appear to be the only ones with a chance to prevail in online payments systems. You can describe a stablecoins in many ways. I look at them as financial derivatives whose underlying security are US treasury bonds. If and when the dollar debases, so will stablecoins by definition. As a store of value, they will be as useless as the dollar. I would not touch them as an investment, but they are a potentially important transaction currency. During a meeting of international finance ministers in 1971, Treasury Secretary John Connally told his colleagues: 'The dollar is our currency, but your problem'. That was 54 years ago. It is still true today. Errore nel recupero dei dati Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati
