JD Vance accuses American media of ‘attacking' Trump's war-ending efforts
'The President campaigned on being a President of peace, he's already ended six wars, he's trying to end another,' Mr Vance said.
'I think it's kind of disgraceful that the American media is attacking the President for trying to bring peace to the world.'
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News.com.au
22 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Trump hails 'total victory' as US court quashes $464 mn civil penalty
A US court threw out Thursday a $464 million civil penalty against President Donald Trump imposed by a judge who found he fraudulently inflated his personal worth, calling the sum "excessive" but upholding the judgment against him. Judge Arthur Engoron ruled against Trump in February 2024 at the height of his campaign to retake the White House, which coincided with several active criminal prosecutions that the Republican slammed as "lawfare." "It was a Political Witch Hunt, in a business sense, the likes of which no one has ever seen before," Trump said on his Truth Social platform Thursday, adding that "everything I did was absolutely CORRECT and, even, PERFECT." When Engoron originally ruled against Trump, he ordered the mogul-turned-politician to pay $464 million, including interest, while his sons Eric and Don Jr. were told to hand over more than $4 million each. The judge found that Trump and his company had unlawfully inflated his wealth and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms. Alongside the financial hit to Trump, the judge also banned him from running businesses for three years, which the president repeatedly referred to as a "corporate death penalty." On Thursday, five judges of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court upheld the verdict, but ruled that the size of the fine was "excessive" and that it "violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution." The Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive or cruel punishments and penalties. - 'Massive win! - State Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the initial case, vowed to take Thursday's ruling to the state's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals. Thursday's appeals court ruling "affirmed the well-supported finding of the trial court: Donald Trump, his company, and two of his children are liable for fraud," James added. Following the initial verdict, Trump subsequently sought to challenge the civil ruling as well as the scale and terms of the penalty, which has continued to accrue interest while he appeals. He repeatedly condemned the case and the penalty as politically motivated. His son Don Jr. termed the appellate court ruling a "massive win!!!" "New York Appeals Court has just THROWN OUT President Trump's $500+ Million civil fraud penalty! It was always a witch hunt, election interference, and a total miscarriage of justice... and even a left leaning NY appeals court agrees! NO MORE LAWFARE!" he wrote on X. During hearings, conducted without a jury under state law, Trump accused then-president Joe Biden of driving the case, calling it "weaponization against a political opponent who's up a lot in the polls." As the case was civil, not criminal, there was no threat of imprisonment. Trump's economic advisor Peter Navarro said at the White House Thursday that "James is another one that belongs in jail," referring to the New York attorney general. "The Democrats really overplayed their hand on this because they thought they could take Donald Trump out," he said.
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
EU gets 15% US tariff for cars, but fails to get wine reprieve
The US and EU released details of a trade deal Thursday that foresees lower car tariffs but no relief for Europe's wine sector, but Brussels said it would push for further concessions. US President Donald Trump and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen clinched a framework accord in July for most EU exports to face a 15-percent US levy. But many aspects remained unclear, as the EU sought to win carve-outs for some sectors and Trump threatened higher tariffs on others. A joint statement Thursday brought some clarity, although negotiations are not over and some moving parts remain. The "maximum, all-inclusive" 15-percent rate would apply to the vast majority of European exports, including cars, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber, the EU said. "This is the most favourable trade deal the US has extended to any partner," EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic told journalists in Brussels, explaining the levy will not come on top of existing tariffs. In recent weeks Trump had raised the possibility of additional tariffs hitting certain sectors such as pharmaceuticals, which account for 20 percent of the EU's exports to the United States, and semiconductors. Sefcovic said he was confident that the rate for cars, which is lower than the current 27.5 percent, will apply retroactively from August 1, having received assurances on the matter from his US counterpart. But this will happen only once the EU introduces legislation to eliminate its own tariffs on US industrial products, something Sefcovic said the commission was "working very hard" on. Welcoming the clarity provided by the joint statement, Sigrid de Vries, director of European auto lobby ACEA, urged the commission to implement its part of the deal "without delay, mitigating the tariff impact which already has cost automakers millions of euros in duties every day." - Wine woes - The 15-percent rate will also apply to wine and spirits despite a push by France, Italy and other wine-making countries to win a zero tariff exemption. "Unfortunately, here we didn't succeed," Sefcovic said, adding negotiations would continue, but did not want to give "false promises". "These doors are not closed forever," he said. The French wine exporters federation said it was "hugely disappointed". "We are certain that this will create major difficulties for the wines and spirits sector," said the head of the wine and spirits federation FEVS Gabriel Picard. Christophe Chateau, a spokesman for a group representing Bordeaux wine producers, described this as "bad news" -- but better than the worst case scenario, with Trump that had at one point threatened tariffs as high as 200 percent. "It further hinders the trade and export of Bordeaux wines to the United States," which is by far their largest market, Chateau told AFP. The US Distilled Spirits Council, a trade group, also expressed disappointment, saying it favoured tariff-free trade on both sides of the Atlantic. "These new higher tariffs on EU spirits products will further compound the challenges facing restaurants and bars nationwide," said the group's CEO, Chris Swonger. - Bisons and planes - French trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin said his government would seek "additional exemptions" in the trade deal. The office of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the agreement was "not yet an ideal or final point" but a "trade war" had been avoided. Under the agreement, the EU committed to significantly improving market access to a range of US seafood and agricultural goods, including tree nuts, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, pork and bison meat. On the other hand, a special more favourable regime will apply as of September 1 to a number of EU exports to the US including "unavailable natural resources" such as cork, all aircraft and aircraft parts and generic pharmaceuticals. These would effectively face a "zero or close to zero" rate, the commission said. "Faced with a challenging situation, we have delivered for our Member States and industry, and restored clarity and coherence to transatlantic trade," said commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. "This is not the end of the process, we continue to engage with the US to agree more tariff reductions, to identify more areas of cooperation, and to create more economic growth potential".
Canberra Times
5 hours ago
- Canberra Times
Russia hammers Ukraine as peace efforts drag on
Test your skills with interactive crosswords, sudoku & trivia. Fresh daily! Your digital replica of Today's Paper. Ready to read from 5am! Be the first to know when news breaks. As it happens Get news, reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert, ACM's exclusive motoring partner. Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over. Get the very best journalism from The Canberra Times by signing up to our special reports. As it happens Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday. Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs, politics and more. Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. Get the latest property and development news here. We've selected the best reading for your weekend. Join our weekly poll for Canberra Times readers. Your exclusive preview of David Pope's latest cartoon. Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. Don't miss updates on news about the Public Service. As it happens Today's top stories curated by our news team. Also includes evening update. More from World Zelenskiy pointed to errors in the US map of the front line that he said showed Russia holding more territory than it actually did. Zelenskiy said that in his meeting with Trump in the Oval Office on Monday he sought to convince the American president that the battlefield situation was not as bad for Ukraine as Putin portrayed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that working on security arrangements in Ukraine without Moscow's involvement was not feasible, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. A venue for the meeting was being discussed, and Switzerland, Austria and Turkey were possibilities, Zelenskiy said. The talks could also be conducted in a trilateral format alongside Trump, Zelenskiy said. He then expects to be ready to hold direct talks with Putin for the first time since the full-scale invasion. The plans would become clearer within 10 days, Zelenskiy said. The details are being hammered out by national security advisers and military officials. Volodymyr Zelenskiy wants to know what security guarantees Donald Trump and the US might provide. (AP PHOTO) In comments on Wednesday that were embargoed until Thursday, Zelenskiy said Ukraine would hold intensive meetings to understand what kind of security guarantees its allies were willing to provide. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia struck a "major American electronics manufacturer" in western Ukraine, which Zelenskiy said produced domestic appliances. In the western city of Lviv, one person was killed and three were injured as the attack damaged 26 residential buildings, a kindergarten and administrative buildings, regional head Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on Telegram. Western parts of Ukraine are far from the battlefield's front line in the east and south of the country, where a grinding war of attrition has killed tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides. Almost all the overnight missiles were fired from inside Russia, and reached deep into western Ukraine. Among other targets, it has hit oil refineries, and Russian wholesale petrol prices have reached record highs in recent days. Ukraine, meanwhile, has kept up its attacks with domestically produced long-range drones on infrastructure inside Russia that supports Moscow's war effort. He urged the international community to respond with stronger pressure on Moscow, including tougher sanctions and tariffs. The aerial attack was Russia's third largest in 2025 in terms of the number of drones fired. (EPA PHOTO) Moscow had shown no signs of pursuing meaningful negotiations to end the war, Zelenskiy said. Zelenskiy condemned the overnight attack, saying it was carried out "as if nothing were changing at all". The Kremlin has reacted coolly to those possibilities. Ukraine and European leaders have accused Putin of stalling in ongoing peace efforts, including Ukraine's proposal of a ceasefire and Zelenskiy's offer to sit down with the Russian leader. Russia has fired nearly 1000 long-range drones and missiles at Ukraine since the White House talks. US President Donald Trump discussed the war with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, and at the start of this week hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders at the White House. The strikes occurred during a renewed US-led effort to reach a peace settlement following Russia's February 2022 invasion of its neighbour. It was Russia's third largest aerial attack in 2025 in terms of the number of drones fired and the eighth-largest in terms of missiles, according to official figures. The strikes killed at least one person and injured 15 others, according to officials. The overnight attack mostly targeted western regions of the country, the air force said on Thursday, where much of the military aid provided by Ukraine's Western allies is believed to be delivered and stored. All other regional websites in your area The digital version of Today's Paper All articles from our website & app Login or signup to continue reading Subscribe today for the news that matters Russia has launched one of its biggest aerial attacks of 2025 on Ukraine, firing 574 drones and 40 ballistic and cruise missiles, the Ukrainian air force says, while a recent diplomatic push to stop the three-year war is trying to gain momentum. A massive Russian attack overnight mostly targeted western regions of Ukraine, the military says. Photo: EPA PHOTO Your digital subscription includes access to content from all our websites in your region. Access unlimited news content and The Canberra Times app. Premium subscribers also enjoy interactive puzzles and access to the digital version of our print edition - Today's Paper. 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