US Treasury criticises India's stance in trade negotiations
Bessent told Fox Business Network's 'Kudlow' he hoped the Trump administration could wrap up its trade negotiations by the end of October.
'That's aspirational, but I think we are in a good position,' he said, adding ' I think we can be, we will have agreed on substantial terms with all the substantial countries.' - Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
43 minutes ago
- The Star
Factbox-What does Ukraine's constitution say about territorial changes?
A drone view shows the ruins of residential buildings in the abandoned town of Marinka (Maryinka), which was destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, August 7, 2025. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo KYIV (Reuters) -Territorial questions are certain to be a key area of focus when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders meet U.S. President Donald Trump for talks on Monday to map out a possible peace deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and the U.S. president has said "land-swapping" and changes to territory will be crucial for any settlement. Two sources briefed on Russian thinking said on Saturday that Putin and Trump have discussed a proposal requiring Ukraine to fully withdraw troops from the Ukrainian-controlled parts of the eastern Donetsk region. UKRAINE'S CONSTITUTION ON THE ISSUE OF TERRITORY Any changes to Ukraine's territory would have to be settled in Ukraine by a referendum, according to the country's constitution. "Issues of altering the territory of Ukraine are resolved exclusively by an All-Ukrainian referendum," Article 73 says. The question can be put to a referendum by popular initiative if the signatures of three million eligible Ukrainian voters are gathered from at least two thirds of the country's regions, it says. UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT STANCE Ukraine, like its European allies, strongly opposes the idea of legally recognising any Ukrainian territory as Russian. But it has tacitly acknowledged it will almost certainly have to accept some de facto territorial losses. Zelenskiy has said talks to end the war should take the current front line as their starting point and cannot begin by Kyiv having to withdraw its troops from parts of its own sovereign territory that Russia does not control. He has said he does not have a mandate to give away any of the country's territory, and that tracts of state land cannot be traded around as if they were his private property. Zelenskiy has also said that if Kyiv withdrew troops from the heavily fortified eastern Donetsk region, it would open up Ukraine to the threat of Russian advances deeper into less well-defended Ukrainian territory. TRUMP'S STANCE The U.S. president has publicly criticized Zelenskiy for saying he could not violate the constitution by agreeing to give away territory. "I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelenskiy was saying: 'Well, I have to get constitutional approval'. I mean, he has got approval to go into war, kill everybody but he needs approval to do a land swap. Because there will be some land swapping going on", he told the press on August 11. UKRAINIANS' VIEW A clear majority of Ukrainians want a negotiated settlement, according to opinion polls, but they also oppose recognising Ukrainian land as Russian. The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology says that an opinion poll it conducted in June showed that 68% of those questioned oppose the idea of officially recognising "some parts" of occupied land as Russian, while 24% are open to this. The same survey showed that 78% are against the idea of giving up on land that Kyiv's troops still control. The pollster did not survey opinions in areas occupied by Russia. (Reporting by Yuliia DysaWriting by Tom BalmforthEditing by Frances Kerry)
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Bosnia's Serb Republic PM resigns to form wider coalition
SARAJEVO (Reuters) -The prime minister of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic (RS) said on Monday he would resign from his position, as part of a plan by his Serb ruling party to form a government based on a wider coalition with more decision-making power. Announcing his move, Radovan Viskovic added he would retain his other senior political roles until the Serb-dominated RS region reached its "ultimate goal" and seceded from Bosnia. "I will continue to hold important positions, ...I am staying in the SNSD party (The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats) until we accomplish our ultimate goal and that is the state of Republika Srpska," Viskovic said, appearing at a press conference along with top party officials. The crisis sparked by Bosnia's Serb separatist push amounts to one of the biggest threats to peace in the Balkans since the wars that followed Yugoslavia's collapse, pitting the RS government's allies Russia and Serbia against the U.S. and European Union. RS makes up Bosnia and Herzegovina along with the Federation shared by Bosniaks and Croats under the Dayton peace accords that ended a 1992-95 conflict that killed about 100,000 people and displaced around two million. The initiative to form a new regional government was launched after the RS nationalist president Milorad Dodik was sentenced to one year in prison and banned from politics for six years for defying the decisions of an international peace envoy and the constitutional court. Dodik was stripped of office by the election commission earlier this month after an appeals court upheld the first-instance verdict, a decision Dodik immediately rejected, saying it violated the Serb Republic constitution. He was allowed to replace a jail term with a fine under Bosnian law. Over the past decade, Dodik has strongly advocated the secession of the Serb region from Bosnia and its unification with Serbia. Dodik had invited the opposition to join his ruling coalition in a new government of national unity but the main opposition parties dismissed his calls. "We want the RS government to gain a new democratic legitimacy, to be able to respond with its composition to all challenges that are before us," Dodik said at the same news conference on Monday. He fell short of disclosing which parties would join a new government or who would lead it. Independent legal experts said that a prime minister proposed by a president who was stripped of office by the country's top election authority would be illegal. The Russian-backed Serb leader announced a referendum on whether he should leave office or not at the end of September. Pending the referendum outcome, there could be a new referendum on the independence of the Serb Republic, said Dodik. (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic, Editing by William Maclean)
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Nearly 90% of videogame developers use AI agents, Google study shows
FILE PHOTO: People play online games at an internet cafe in Fuyang, Anhui province, China August 20, 2018. Picture taken August 20, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo (Reuters) -A Google Cloud survey showed that 87% of videogame developers are using artificial intelligence agents to streamline and automate tasks, as the industry focuses on optimizing costs following a wave of record layoffs. Most of the respondents in the report, published on Monday, said AI was helping automate cumbersome and repetitive tasks, freeing developers to focus on more creative concerns. Gaming publishers have turned to AI to deal with the industry-wide challenge of ballooning development costs and elongated creation cycles stemming from high fan expectations and intense competition. The study, conducted by Google and The Harris Poll, surveyed 615 game developers in the U.S., South Korea, Norway, Finland, and Sweden in late June and early July. Around 44% of developers use agents to optimize content and process information such as text, voice, code, audio and video rapidly, enabling them to exercise autonomy and make decisions, the study showed. But the use of AI in videogames is a highly contentious topic, with many within the industry concerned over potential job losses, intellectual property disputes and lower pay. Last year, Hollywood's videogame performers went on strike over AI and pay issues, while studios shut down and more than 10,000 people lost their jobs. The industry is expected to gain momentum this year and the next, with the launch of premium titles and new consoles seen to boost spending. According to the survey, 94% of developers expect AI to reduce overall development costs in the long term. That, even as roughly one in four developers find it challenging to precisely measure the return on investment of their AI implementations, while costs associated with integrating the technology are also high. Around 63% of those surveyed expressed concerns over data ownership as the legality around licensing and who exactly owns AI-generated content remains unclear. (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
