Hagar Chemali on Lawmakers Weigh New Sanctions on Russia
Hagar Chemali, Greenwich Media Strategies Founder & CEO, discusses members of Congress proposing new sanctions imposed on Russia ahead of the G7 Summit later this month. She also talks about Ukraine using drones to hit Russian nuclear bombers and what Russia's potential response could be. Hagar speaks with Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg's 'Balance of Power.' (Source: Bloomberg)
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Yahoo
29 minutes ago
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Trump's Late-Night Lament Over Xi Deepens Impasse in Trade Fight
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump is positioning a personal discussion with his Chinese counterpart as the key to preventing the world's largest economies from spiraling deeper into their trade and technology fight. The Global Struggle to Build Safer Cars At London's New Design Museum, Visitors Get Hands-On Access ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract LA City Council Passes Budget That Trims Police, Fire Spending NYC Residents Want Safer Streets, Cheaper Housing, Survey Says But Chinese leader Xi Jinping is making clear that a phone call doesn't come without a price — a resolute stand so far that's apparently keeping Trump up late into the night. 'I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!' Trump posted on Truth Social at around 2:17 a.m. Washington time. His complaint came after a flurry of US officials claimed this week the two men were set to speak. Exactly what the Chinese are asking the White House to relinquish in order to secure the one-on-one remains unclear. But the US president's unanswered pleas are looking more like a standoff without an off ramp. Beijing, meanwhile, is making overtures in the direction of Europe, which is engaged in its own tariff dispute with Trump. 'If China doesn't want a call, it could be that they don't intend to comply or are intentionally holding their cards for the time being,' said Kelly Ann Shaw, a partner at Akin Gump and former senior adviser to Trump during his first term. 'If there isn't a call, I would expect further escalation in the bilateral relationship before things de-escalate again.' At the heart of the stalemate is a mismatch in negotiating styles that, if it continues, threatens to derail the bilateral relationship. While Trump wants to hash things out with his counterpart, Chinese officials are reluctant to commit before working out deliverables at lower levels. Oval Office showdowns with the leaders of South Africa and Ukraine in recent weeks have likely offered little reassurance to Beijing to accept Trump's terms. A 'Disconnect' 'There's a fundamental disconnect here,' former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. 'Trump wants to talk at the very highest levels. That's not always how the Chinese want to do business.' While it isn't impossible for the US and China to strike a deal, expectations for what it would entail look out of sync. Policymakers in Beijing want to have broader access to high-end US chips, essentially for AI and military advancement, as well as the opportunity for more Chinese investment in the US. Beijing could be open to buying more US agricultural products, too. Rolling back sweeping controls on cutting-edge technology expanded under Joe Biden would be politically toxic in Washington, where there's rare consensus among Democrats and Republicans that China poses a national security threat. Officials in Washington also believe Beijing has been dumping goods on the US for decades, threatening American jobs and industry, and are seeking major concessions. That both sides are talking past each other has become evident in the confusion over China's position on rare earths — metals that are core to America's national-security supply chains and automakers in particular. Trump and his team have accused Beijing of breaking the trade agreement announced in mid-May, where both countries significantly lowered tariffs and China agreed to remove other retaliatory measures it imposed in response to earlier duty hikes. In Washington's view, that meant China would immediately grant licenses to export rare earths to American companies that had been cut off. Stalling for Time US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said China has slow-walked the process. Companies that are reliant on the inputs are feeling the supply squeeze, with some temporarily shuttering production. From Beijing's perspective, it's following procedure on a license system that exports to all nations must follow. As tensions over such shipments grow, the Trump administration has continued to impose restrictions on chip technology and exports of jet engine parts to China. Beijing publicly criticized the moves and, according to the Trump team, continued choking off critical minerals supplies to American companies. While giving Trump the cold shoulder, China is tilting its attention toward Europe, where it sees an opening for deeper trade ties after Trump hit the European Union with tariffs and threatened steeper ones. In anticipation of the EU-China summit in late July in Beijing, Europe's trade chief Maros Sefcovic on Tuesday met Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Paris. Ahead of next month's summit, China is considering placing an order for hundreds of Airbus SE aircraft as soon as next month to celebrate the economies' long-term ties, Bloomberg News reported. That represents another blow to Boeing Co., which hasn't won a major order from China since at least 2017 due to the trade tensions and other issues. It all stands in contrast to Trump's first trade offensive against China, when it took just 10 weeks for China to announce Xi would fly to Mar-a-Lago for talks with the US. The result was a so-called phase one trade deal aimed at boosting Chinese purchases of American products — an agreement that went dormant during the Biden administration. This time around, ties have derailed much more quickly — despite Chinese efforts to steady things. January Call Just before Trump's most recent inauguration, Xi called Trump and told the incoming leader he was hoping for a good start to US-China ties, with both sides agreeing to stay in touch. Days later, Trump began targeting fentanyl cooperation, attacking a relatively bright spot in bilateral ties where Beijing has said the US owes it a 'big thank you' for efforts to curtail smuggling. China has repeatedly pointed to demand from Americans as the root cause of fentanyl abuse. Trump followed up with a 20% tariff, setting off tit-for-tat rounds of levies that essentially imposed a trade embargo on the two nations. A US federal court ruled Trump's duties were illegal, sapping the president of leverage, but the order was put on hold as a higher court considers an appeal. Also playing into Xi's reluctance is the fact China is in a stronger position now than in the last trade war to weather Trump's unpredictability. 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Miami Herald
30 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Ukraine delegation visits Washington as Senate mulls Russia sanctions
June 4 (UPI) -- Ukrainian officials were set to update U.S. senators on Wednesday on the war and discuss arms purchases and efforts to pressure Russia to negotiate a peace deal, including a tough new bipartisan sanctions bill due to come to the floor of the upper chamber next week. The delegation, which included Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, Deputy Defense Minister Serhii Boyev and Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak, arrived Tuesday, a day after a second round of Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey broke up without a breakthrough. Yermak said in a social media post that the delegation was bringing a "comprehensive agenda" of issues that were important to Ukraine to actively promote to members of both parties and President Donald Trump's team. "We plan to talk about defense support and the situation on the battlefield, strengthening sanctions against Russia, including Senator [Lindsey] Graham's bill. We will also discuss the Agreement on the Establishment of the Reconstruction Investment Fund, which we signed earlier," wrote Yermak. He said the delegation would also raise the issue of getting back Ukrainian children deported by Russia and support for the process. The bill that Sen. Graham, R-S.C., plans to introduce in the Senate aims to ratchet up economic pressure on Russia, targeting its trade partners by slapping 500% tariffs on imports from countries that continue to purchase Russian products, including gas, oil and uranium. China and India are the two biggest markets for Russian energy exports. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Politico that he and Graham would host a closed-door meeting with the Ukrainians on Capitol Hill to which all Senators had been invited. He said support for the sanctions bill was gaining very strong momentum with 82 members of the Senate split down the middle of the aisle agreeing to co-sponsor it. Blumenthal said the secondary sanctions could be a "game changer." "It's a pivotal moment in Ukraine -- and crunch time for the Senate on this bill." He also pushed back on what he said was a growing but false belief that Ukraine was losing the war, saying recent offensive assaults deep into Russian territory, such as Sunday's so-called "Operation Spiderweb," in which Ukrainian drones destroyed 41 strategic Russian bomber aircraft, proved otherwise. Blumenthal argued that such feats could help shift the dial among the administration's foreign policy team, helping persuade them to bolster military and other assistance for Ukraine and to support the sanctions bill. That in turn would help overcome the reservations of some lawmakers, he said. "Events will move the White House -- and maybe some of the president's friends here [Capitol Hill]. Congress can move ahead. [Trump] doesn't have to support it." Current U.S. flows of arms and equipment to Ukraine are all under drawdowns on assistance packages approved under former President Joe Biden, with no fresh approvals since as the Trump administration shifts to a more mercantile approach under which Ukraine will buy the weapons rather than receiving them as aid. Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Hamilton Spectator
39 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Zelenskyy calls Russia's peace proposal an ‘ultimatum' and he wants face-to-face talks with Putin
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday dismissed Russia's ceasefire proposal as 'an ultimatum' and renewed his call for direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to break the deadlock over the war, which has dragged on for nearly 3 1/2 years. Both sides exchanged memorandums setting out their conditions for a ceasefire for discussion at Monday's direct peace talks between delegations in Istanbul, their second meeting in just over two weeks. Both sides have established red lines that make any quick deal unlikely. Zelenskyy said that the second round of talks in Istanbul was no different from the first meeting on May 16. Zelenskyy described the latest negotiations in Istanbul as 'a political performance' and 'artificial diplomacy' designed to stall for time, delay sanctions and convince the United States that Russia is engaged in dialogue. 'The same ultimatums they voiced back then — now they just put them on paper ... Honestly, this document looks like spam. It's spam meant to flood us and create the impression that they're doing something,' Zelenskyy said in his first reaction to the Russian document. He added that the 2025 talks in Istanbul carry 'the same content and spirit' as the fruitless negotiations held in the Turkish city in the early days of the war. The Ukrainian leader said that he sees little value in continuing talks at the current level of delegations. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov led the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul, while Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Putin, headed the Russian team. Zelenskyy said he wants a ceasefire with Russia before a possible summit meeting with Putin, possibly also including U.S. President Donald Trump, in an effort to remove obstacles to a peace settlement. The U.S. has led a recent diplomatic push to stop the full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. 'We are proposing … a ceasefire before a leaders' summit,' with the U.S. acting as a mediator, Zelenskyy told a media briefing in Kyiv. 'Why a ceasefire before the leaders' meeting? Because if we meet and there is no mutual understanding, no willingness or vision on how to end this, then the ceasefire would end that same day. But if we see readiness to continue the dialogue and take real steps toward de-escalation, then the ceasefire would be extended with U.S. mediation guarantees,' he said. Ukraine is ready to meet at any time from next Monday at a venue such as Istanbul, the Vatican or Switzerland, Zelenskyy said. A second round of peace talks on Monday between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul lasted just over an hour and made no progress on ending the war. They agreed only to swap thousands of their dead and seriously wounded troops. Also, a new prisoner exchange with Russia could take place over the weekend, Zelenskyy said. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
