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'Whole thing is a hoax': Donald Trump, JD Vance dismiss report on Epstein dinner meeting; calls it 'fake news'

'Whole thing is a hoax': Donald Trump, JD Vance dismiss report on Epstein dinner meeting; calls it 'fake news'

Time of India9 hours ago
US President
Donald Trump
dismissed allegations during a press conference, using strong language to refute media reports about Vice President JD Vance organising a dinner with senior officials regarding the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
"Look, the whole thing is a hoax," Trump said. "It's put out by the Democrats because we've had the most successful six months in the history of our country and that's just a way of trying to divert attention to something that's total bullsh*t. OK?"
The remarks came on Wednesday during a media session following Trump's announcement about Apple's $600 billion US investment. Vance addressed the matter briefly, rejecting the journalist's report about the Epstein dinner as inaccurate.
"It's completely fake news," Vance said. "We're not meeting to talk about the Epstein situation and I think the reporter who reported it needs to get better sources."
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arlier that day, CNN had reported that Vance, along with Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, were scheduled to meet at the vice president's residence.
William Martin, Vance's communications director, issued a statement to The National News Desk saying, "The CNN story is pure fiction. There was never a supposed meeting scheduled at the Vice President's residence to discuss Epstein Strategy."
CNN, citing three sources, reported that the officials intended to develop a coordinated response regarding Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. According to two sources, the White House considered all attendees except Vance as key figures in managing files related to Epstein's alleged child sex trafficking case.
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Explainer: Donald Trump's 50% tariffs - will India budge on Russia crude oil trade?
Explainer: Donald Trump's 50% tariffs - will India budge on Russia crude oil trade?

Time of India

timean hour ago

  • Time of India

Explainer: Donald Trump's 50% tariffs - will India budge on Russia crude oil trade?

India is the world's third-largest oil consumer, and has significantly stepped up its procurement of Russian crude oil. (AI image) US President Donald Trump , through his 25% additional tariffs on India for its Russia crude oil trade, wants to put pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the war with Ukraine - feel experts. But with its tariff rate doubled to 50%, where does Trump's move to indirectly target Russia leave India? India is the world's third-largest oil consumer, and has significantly stepped up its procurement of Russian crude oil since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war - attributable to the huge discounts on offer. But Trump's move to impose double tariffs on Indian imports, aimed at penalising continued Russian oil purchases, creates challenges for India, and its refining sector. Will India budge on Russia crude oil trade? This situation presents a complex challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi - he has to keep India's crude oil import bill under check, and also maintain diplomatic balance in India's ties with Russia and the US, especially during times of global instability. However, the US pressure is unlikely to cause a fundamental shift in India's policy stance. Also Read | Donald Trump's 25% additional tariff on India: What are 'secondary tariffs' and how do they differ from 'secondary sanctions'? Explained According to a Bloomberg report, the decision presents a difficult choice: acquiescing to US pressure could endanger India's long established relationship with Russia, which is more than just about oil trade and forfeit the economic benefits currently enjoyed. Conversely, maintaining Russian oil purchases, as suggested by Modi's resolute stance and domestic considerations, risks direct economic consequences and strained relations with the US which is India's biggest trading partner, potentially resulting in losses that may outweigh the benefits. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Huge crater swallows land. At the bottom, police find something that leaves them speechless. Plays Star Undo Indian exports uncompetitive after 50% US tariff Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a subtle message to Trump on Thursday, asserting that India's stance on protecting its agricultural, fishing and dairy sectors remains firm, indicating his readiness to accept personal consequences if required. "Hamare liye apne kisaanon ka hit sarvoch prathamikta hai. Bharat apne kisaanon, pashu-paalakon aur macchuaare bhai-bahanon ke hiton ke saath kabhi bhi samjhuata nahin karega. (For us, the interests of farmers are our top priority. India will never compromise on the interests of its farmers, dairy farmers and fishermen)," Modi said. "Main jaanta hoon ki vyaktigat roop se mujhe bahut badi keemat chukaanee padegi. Lekin main iske liye taiyaar hoon. (I know that I will personally have to pay a heavy price. But I am ready for it)," Modi said. The current oil market conditions and diminishing discounts on Russia's primary Urals crude theoretically provide Modi an opportunity to gradually reduce dependency on Russian oil imports, which have significantly increased since 2022. However, the practical implementation faces challenges as the opposition and party colleagues criticise US approaches, fostering nationalist sentiment. Also Read | Donald Trump's 50% tariffs on India: What does it mean for the stock market & what should investors do? Explained India saw savings of £3.8 billion on oil purchases until March, despite reduced discounts on Russian crude, ICRA ratings agency reported. The country's exports to the US reached approximately £87 billion in 2024. "It's very, very unlikely that Indian oil imports from Russia will go to zero," said Vandana Hari, founder of consultancy Vanda Insights, according to the Bloomberg report. "Everyone understands Trump's aim is to try and pressure Putin, but to do it with a gun on India's shoulder is not going down well with New Delhi,' Vandana Hari added. Trump piles on pressure Trump has insisted that India stop purchasing discounted Russian oil, which he claims is "fueling the war machine" in the Ukraine conflict. His demand stems from his dual objectives of reducing the US trade deficit with India and making progress in discussions with Russian President Putin to end the Ukrainian crisis. The 25% base line tariff rate on India is effective today, but the secondary tariff of 25% announced for India's crude oil trade with Russia will come into effect from August 27. Experts believe that the 21 day period leaves room for negotiations between India and the US. The report said that Indian refining executives anticipate increased procurement from the US during ongoing negotiations. According to individuals familiar with procurement strategies, state-owned processors, who typically acquire Russian crude through spot transactions, are currently maintaining distance from such purchases. Who bought Russia's fossil fuels after EU bans In the past week, refiners including Indian Oil Corp., Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. have actively participated in the spot market, sourcing various grades from alternative suppliers. These include the US, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates, with focus on securing immediate delivery cargoes, the Bloomberg report said. For the long-term, Asian market participants anticipate Indian refineries will seek agreements with Middle Eastern oil producers, particularly Saudi Arabia and Iraq. However, without comprehensive sanctions on Russian oil, industry experts have not indicated any significant or systematic alterations to existing arrangements. India's crude oil import patterns historically showed limited Russian imports, with primary reliance on Middle Eastern sources. This scenario transformed in 2022 following the Russia-Ukraine war and the G7 nations' implementation of a $60-per-barrel price ceiling, designed to restrict Russian oil revenues whilst maintaining global supply flow. Also Read | 'Extremely unfortunate': India reacts strongly to Donald Trump's 25% additional tariff for buying Russian oil; 'will take all actions necessary…' Whilst India avoids sanctioned oil from Iran or Venezuela, its crude oil purchase from Russia did not come under the sanction radar, leading to increased purchases, often reducing intake from traditional suppliers including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Nigeria. Russian oil imports, previously insignificant in India's 2021 portfolio, now constitute approximately 37%, according to Kpler's analysis. This positions India alongside China as main purchasers of Russian crude. US previously supported India's oil trade with Russia Government officials believe that the transition prevented supply shortages and reduced elevated prices — a stance previously agreed by the US. During their India visit last year, Treasury officials portrayed the price cap as "a mechanism for India and other partners to access Russian oil at discounted prices." They emphasised ensuring supply availability and indicated no intentions to restrict Indian purchases, the report said. The unexpected shift in Trump's stance — without implementing additional sanctions — has puzzled the government. Officials caution that eliminating Russia from the supply chain could result in global oil prices more than doubling from current levels, reminiscent of the significant price movements in 2022. The current timing benefits India, potentially enabling a reduction in Russian imports. With oil trading below $70 and abundant supply, thanks to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries increasing market availability, there are options to expand further. This presents alternatives for India, a significant contributor to future demand growth, albeit necessitating the renewal of certain trading relationships. Also Read | Donald Trump hits India with highest 50% tariff for Russia crude oil buys - how will it impact Indian economy? Explained "If you look at the size of India's trade with the US, and look at how much savings India gets from buying Russia crude, it's pretty clear what India would do," said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Groep NV in Singapore. "Are you going to risk up to $87 billion worth of exports to the US in order to save a few billion from oil discounts?" Discounts on Russia crude have reduced The price advantage of Russian oil has diminished considerably. Indian importers paid $4.50 per barrel less for Russian crude compared to Saudi purchases in May. This is a significant reduction from 2023, when the difference was over $23 per barrel, despite India's cost-sensitive market. "The economic cost of shifting suppliers away from Russia is not actually that big," said Shilan Shah of Capital Economics. "It feels like a political decision rather than an economic one. India doesn't want to be seen caving to Trump's demands. India and Russia have pretty longstanding trade relations, which I think India would be keen to maintain,' Shah was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. China in focus for Russia crude oil With the potential implementation of full tariffs, Russian producers face significant challenges in finding alternative buyers for India's daily purchases of approximately 1.8 million barrels. Although China accepts sanctioned oil, it prioritises diverse supply sources to ensure energy security. China remains hesitant to become overly reliant on Russian crude, regardless of pricing. Nevertheless, China's absorption of crude could help stabilise global oil markets as India reduces its purchases, given the absence of other substantial buyers. China and India dominate Russian oil imports "China will be very, very careful about soaking up all the Russian crude that's being diverted from India," Vanda Insight's Hari said. "The oil will likely be offered at deeper discounts. But, if China absorbs a substantial amount, guess where Trump's eye will turn next?" Trump has been asked why he has chosen to single out India for his additional penalties, given that China is the largest buyer of Russian crude. "It may happen. I don't know, I can't tell you yet. But we did it with India. We are doing it probably with a couple of others, one of them could be China,' he said. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays .

Trump plans 100% tariff on chips made outside U.S.; OpenAI's GPT-5 nears release; Apple to invest $100 billion in U.S. manufacturing
Trump plans 100% tariff on chips made outside U.S.; OpenAI's GPT-5 nears release; Apple to invest $100 billion in U.S. manufacturing

The Hindu

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  • The Hindu

Trump plans 100% tariff on chips made outside U.S.; OpenAI's GPT-5 nears release; Apple to invest $100 billion in U.S. manufacturing

Trump plans 100% tariff on chips made outside U.S. U.S. President Donald Trump said that he will be imposing 100% tariff on computer chips unless they're manufactured within the U.S. The threat has raised the fears around higher prices of electronics, automobiles, household appliances and other essential electronic items. Trump's warning comes three months after he had said electronics would mostly be exempt from the heavy tariffs imposed by his administration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortage of chips pushed up the price of autos causing increased inflation. Investors have said that the tariff exemptions were a plus for Apple and other major tech companies which have invested massive amounts of money in chip manufacturing outside the U.S. Apple has committed to investing $600 billion in the U.S. with another $100 billion promised in February. Big Tech in total has said they will be investing $1.5 trillion in the U.S. since Trump has come to power. There is a chance that Trump could exempt Apple from the tariffs owing to this. Demand for chips has grown with sales increasing by 19.6% in June, according to data. Trump has been fostering domestic manufacturing often saying that the high costs of chips outside the country could be avoided by opening factories domestically. OpenAI's GPT-5 nears release OpenAI is preparing for the release of their latest flagship AI model, GPT-5, so users can finally see the increments in performance from GPT-4. A couple of people who have tested the model said that the coding capabilities of the model shone as did its ability to solve science and math problems. However, the advances from GPT-4 to GPT-5 were not as huge as the advances from GPT-3 to GPT-4. The recent advancement in AI models was based on scaling up by increasing training data and compute. But OpenAI has struggled with scaling up like issues with running into a data wall. Ilya Sutskever, the former chief scientist at OpenAI had said in a speech earlier that even though power could be expanded, data was becoming limited. Besides this, another problem was that the 'training runs' for large language models are more likely to have failures from hardware malfunctioning so researchers can't determine the final performance of the models until the end which can last for months. OpenAI released ChatGPT around three years ago introducing AI to the mainstream globally. The release led to rivals like Google and Anthropic releasing competitive AI models. OpenAI is also working on solving test-time compute which involves reasoning AI models. But CEO Sam Altman said that GPT-5 will be a mix of both reasoning and their flagship large language models. Apple to invest $100 billion in U.S. manufacturing Apple CEO Tim Cook met Donald Trump yesterday to announce an additional investment of $100 billion across the next four years. Under the announcement, Apple will bring more of their supply chain and advanced manufacturing processes to the U.S. as a part of the American Manufacturing Programme initiative but it still isn't a full commitment to make the iPhone domestically completely. Cook said that this plan will expand work with 10 companies across the U.S. that make parts and semiconductor chips. These partners include Corning, Coherent, Applied Materials, Texas Instruments and Broadcom along with a few others. Apple had earlier this year said that it will invest $500 billion domestically. Trump has been upset with Apple shifting their manufacturing processes to India from China after he placed tariffs. Just recently now, Trump is targetting India due to their purchase of Russian oil and imposed additional tariffs on India. Cook has previously said that a bunch of iPhone components can be made in India like the glass display and module to identify faces.

Would you opt something that has 99.9% failure rate? Sanjeev Sanyal compares UPSC preparation as 'opium'
Would you opt something that has 99.9% failure rate? Sanjeev Sanyal compares UPSC preparation as 'opium'

Time of India

timean hour ago

  • Time of India

Would you opt something that has 99.9% failure rate? Sanjeev Sanyal compares UPSC preparation as 'opium'

Economist and PM-EAC member Sanjeev Sanyal has strongly criticised the culture surrounding preparation for India's civil services examination , calling it a massive misallocation of talent driven by what he described as a 'coaching class mafia'. In a recent podcast with CA Kushal Lodha, Sanyal questioned the wisdom of pursuing an exam with a 99.9% failure rate as a primary life goal. Questions logic of UPSC as a career goal 'Now tell me how many things are there with a 99.9% failure rate that you would recommend somebody to do unless it has a very large payoff?' Sanyal said, adding, 'If you're going to take such a large risk—why become a bureaucrat?' Productivity Tool Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide By Metla Sudha Sekhar View Program Finance Introduction to Technical Analysis & Candlestick Theory By Dinesh Nagpal View Program Finance Financial Literacy i e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By CA Rahul Gupta View Program Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By Neil Patel View Program Finance Technical Analysis Demystified- A Complete Guide to Trading By Kunal Patel View Program Productivity Tool Excel Essentials to Expert: Your Complete Guide By Study at home View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals Batch 2 By Ansh Mehra View Program While clarifying that he was not opposed to those who genuinely want to become civil servants, he criticised the prolonged cycles of preparation many aspirants are drawn into. 'There are people who have now become professional UPSC aspirants... they spend years and years doing it. I think it's a complete waste of human resources .' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like If you have a mouse, play this game for 1 minute Navy Quest Undo This is not the first time Sanyal has spoken on this issue. In March 2024, Sanyal was among the first prominent voices to publicly warn about the growing obsession with the UPSC exam. He said, 'Way too many young kids who have so much energy are wasting their time trying to crack UPSC.' Coaching industry sells 'opium' Sanyal argued that the most talented students, not average ones, are being pulled into what he called a 'trap.' He said, 'It's the supposedly talented guy in the class because this is the only guy the family will borrow, beg, and send them to live in Mukherji Nagar in Delhi. So we are taking the best people in our system and instead of putting them to some productive use, we are putting them where there is a 99.9% failure rate.' Live Events He blamed the coaching industry for sustaining the system, describing it as one that 'sells opium' to aspirants. 'Imagine the product they're selling—it's a product that is going to fail you 99.9% of the time. And it's worse than that, because even the 0.1% who get through are not all going to do exciting things in life,' he said. Calls civil service outcomes 'mundane' for most Sanyal noted that only a small number of those who succeed in the exam go on to hold top positions such as Cabinet Secretary. 'The bulk of them will do mostly mundane things,' he said, questioning why similar energy is not directed toward other career paths such as sports, entrepreneurship, writing or the arts. He added, 'The success rates of entrepreneurs are much, much higher than 0.1%.' Compares with CAT and CA exams When asked whether MBA entrance exams like CAT, which also involve high competition, fall in the same category, Sanyal disagreed. 'Many of them get through to something else. I don't think there is a large number of people who take CAT every year for five, six, and seven years.' On the Chartered Accountancy track, Sanyal said it does not fit the same pattern, as most students pursuing CA have a genuine interest in the subject. 'Two to three years is perfectly fine. That's even true for UPSC if that's what you want to do in life. First of all, be clear you want to do that.' Criticises aspirant culture and 'poverty of aspiration' Sanyal said the UPSC craze has turned into a culture. 'My experience is that UPSC giving is actually a culture now. Most of those people don't actually want to be civil servants. If they actually showed them the life of a civil servant, they would not want to be there.' He added that even successful candidates often reattempt the exam to join what they perceive as higher-ranking services. 'So that tells me one thing—even the successful people are not happy. So they are now on the opium.'

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