G7 leaders sign joint statements on critical minerals, AI
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney walks during the G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis, in Alberta, Canada, June 17, 2025. REUTERS/Amber Bracken
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The Star
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- The Star
US Senate passes stablecoin bill in milestone for crypto industry
(Reuters) -The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to create a regulatory framework for U.S.-dollar-pegged cryptocurrency tokens known as stablecoins, in a watershed moment for the digital asset industry. The bill, dubbed the GENIUS Act, received bipartisan support, with several Democrats joining most Republicans to back the proposed federal rules. It passed 68-30. The House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans, needs to pass its version of the bill before it heads to President Donald Trump's desk for approval. "It is a major milestone," said Andrew Olmem, a managing partner at law firm Mayer Brown and the former deputy director of the National Economic Council during Trump's first term. "It establishes, for the first time, a regulatory regime for stablecoins, a rapidly developing financial product and industry." Stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a constant value, usually a 1:1 dollar peg, are commonly used by crypto traders to move funds between tokens. Their use has grown rapidly in recent years, and proponents say that they could be used to send payments instantly. If signed into law, the stablecoin bill would require tokens to be backed by liquid assets - such as U.S. dollars and short-term Treasury bills - and for issuers to publicly disclose the composition of their reserves on a monthly basis. The crypto industry has long pushed for lawmakers to pass legislation creating rules for digital assets, arguing that a clear framework could enable stablecoins to become more widely used. The sector spent more than $119 million backing pro-crypto congressional candidates in last year's elections and had tried to paint the issue as bipartisan. The House of Representatives passed a stablecoin bill last year but the Senate - in which Democrats held the majority at the time - did not take that bill up, and it died. Trump has sought to broadly overhaul U.S. cryptocurrency policies after courting cash from the industry during his presidential campaign. Bo Hines, who leads Trump's Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, has said the White House wants a stablecoin bill passed before August. Tensions on Capitol Hill over Trump's various crypto ventures at one point threatened to derail the digital asset sector's hope of legislation this year as Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated with Trump and his family members promoting their personal crypto projects. 'In advancing these bills, lawmakers forfeited their opportunity to confront Trump's crypto grift – the largest, most flagrant corruption in presidential history,' said Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate for Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group. Trump's crypto ventures include a meme coin called $TRUMP, launched in January, and a business called World Liberty Financial, a crypto company owned partly by the president. The White House has said there are no conflicts of interest present for Trump and that his assets are in a trust managed by his children. Other Democrats expressed concern that the bill would not prevent big tech companies from issuing their own private stablecoins, and argued that legislation needed stronger anti-money laundering protections and prohibitions on foreign stablecoin issuers. "A bill that turbocharges the stablecoin market, while facilitating the president's corruption and undermining national security, financial stability, and consumer protection is worse than no bill at all," said Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, in remarks on the Senate floor in May. The bill could face further changes in the House of Representatives. In a statement, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors called for 'critical changes' to mitigate financial stability risks. 'CSBS remains concerned with the dramatic and unsupported expansion of the authority of uninsured banks to conduct money transmission or custody activities nationwide without the approval or oversight of host state supervisors,' said Brandon Milhorn, president and CEO of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, in a statement. (Reporting by Hannah Lang in New YorkEditing by Rod Nickel)
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Exclusive-Trump's Ukraine envoy to meet Belarus' Lukashenko, sources say
U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg speaks at the Brussels Forum in a panel on Euro-Atlantic security and Ukraine in Brussels, Belgium June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A senior Trump administration official is planning to travel to Belarus in the coming days to meet the country's president, according to four sources briefed on the matter, as ceasefire talks between Ukraine and Russia remain deadlocked. If the official, Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, meets Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, he would be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the authoritarian state in years. The precise agenda of the meeting is unclear, though Kellogg in private has portrayed the trip as a step that could help jump-start peace talks aimed at ending Russia's war against Ukraine, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity as the trip has not been made public. The State Department and the Belarusian embassy in Washington declined to comment. Kellogg and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. Planning for such trips requires careful negotiation, and it is possible the trip could be canceled or modified at the last moment. In 2020, during Trump's first term, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Belarus in what was then the highest-level U.S. visit to the eastern European country in over 20 years. The trip was part of a campaign under the first Trump administration to improve relations with Belarus at a time when relations between Minsk and Moscow were at a low point. Trump's successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, shifted course after the 2020 Belarusian election, which international observers condemned as neither free nor fair. Massive street protests followed the election and were met with a brutal crackdown, and Belarus was largely shunned by Western countries. The U.S. suspended operations at its embassy in 2022 as it became clear to Washington that the country would support Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Under Trump's second term, however, the administration has renewed its efforts to establish a working relationship with Belarus. One U.S. official told Reuters the Trump administration had internally discussed ways to pull Minsk out of Moscow's sphere of influence and toward Washington's orbit, if only marginally. In February, a deputy assistant secretary of state, Christopher Smith, and two other State Department officials traveled to Belarus to retrieve three political prisoners, The New York Times reported at the time. Smith had privately described the trip as the first step of a potential deal that would see scores of political prisoners released in return for an easing of U.S. sanctions, the Times reported. A separate senior U.S. official pointed to the April 30 release by Belarus of Youras Ziankovich, a 47-year-old naturalized American citizen, as a sign that Lukashenko wanted to improve relations with Washington. Western diplomats, however, have expressed skepticism about U.S. efforts to court Belarus, which remains firmly aligned and has deep economic links with its neighbor Russia. (Reporting by Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk; Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Don Durfee and Leslie Adler)
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Mexico's Sheinbaum speaks with Trump on phone after meeting canceled
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday said she had a "very good" phone call with her U.S. counterpart Donald Trump. In a post on social media platform X, the Mexican leader, who was scheduled to meet with Trump in person at the G7 summit in Canada before he left early, said the two agreed to work together to reach an agreement on "diverse topics." The pair had a "good call", a White House official said. (Reporting by Brendan O'Boyle, Steve Holland and Costas Pitas; Editing by Chris Reese)
