India Renews Call for ‘Justice' After Rubio Urges De-Escalation
Save
Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reiterated that 'perpetrators, backers and planners' of an attack that killed dozens of people in Indian-controlled Kashmir must be brought to justice, hours after speaking with his US counterpart Marco Rubio who had sought to de-escalate tensions.
Secretary of State Rubio had spoken with top officials from India and Pakistan on Wednesday, asking them to 'maintain peace and security in South Asia.' He told Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister, of the need to condemn the attack and re-establish direct communications, according to a statement from the State Department.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump's trade war about to cost Americans 1.8% more in the short term, Yale analysis finds
The massive import taxes being imposed on Americans by President Donald Trump will liberate American households from approximately $2,500 that will be cut out from their yearly income as a result of higher prices. According to a new study from the Yale Budget Lab, the new Trump tariffs combined with existing import taxes will cause consumers to pay an overall effective tariff rate of 18.6 percent, the highest tariff level for U.S. imports since 1933. While Trump has frequently claimed that the tariffs are being paid by foreign nations as an entry fee for access to the American economy, they are actually import taxes typically paid by American importers and passed on to consumers, often in the form of higher prices. The Yale study found that prices will rise on average by 1.8 percent 'in the short run,' with the latest tariffs imposed by Trump set to disproportionately hit consumer purchases of clothing and textiles. For example, shoes and apparel will become 39 and 37 percent more expensive in the short run, the study found. The new tariffs include a whopping 50 percent tax on Indian imports, plus 35 percent taxes on goods from Laos, Switzerland, and Iraq. Everyday items ranging from coffee to Toyotas, home furnishings to Gap jeans, are expected to become more expensive as companies adjust their prices to counteract the impact of tariffs. While the president has asked companies to absorb any increases in costs, many cannot forever. Here are some of the goods expected to cost more: Alcohol Consumers of French, Italian or Spanish wines, Scotch whiskey, and aperitifs such as Aperol, can expect to see the price of their favorite alcoholic beverage rise due to the 15 percent tariff on the European Union. The E.U. is a major exporter of wines and spirits to the U.S. In 2024 alone, the E.U. accounted for $3.4 billion worth of imported spirits. Despite pleas from the beverage industry, the president's trade deal did not create exemptions for alcohol, which will likely drive up the price of imported wine or liquor – either in stores or restaurants. 'Without productive negotiations reducing reciprocal tariffs on wine and spirits, American wine retailers anticipate a significant decline in sales on top of the already difficult market, as well as significant job losses and subsequent business closures,' Tom Wark, the executive director of the Association of Wine Retailers, said. A letter to the president from the Toast Not Tariffs Coalition, a group of 57 associations representing the U.S. alcohol industry and related industries, said tariffs on the E.U. could result in 25,000 American job losses, and nearly $2 billion in lost sales. Diageo, the maker of Guinness, Bailey's, Johnnie Walker, and more, said the company expects to see a $200 million slump as a result of the tariffs. Cars and car parts Already, consumers have seen cars and car parts become more expensive over the last few months as a result of Trump's tariffs because the U.S. relies heavily on its trading partners for auto parts. Cox Automotive, an industry service and technology provider, expects the sticker price of vehicles to rise anywhere from 4 to 8 percent by the end of the year. That means the average car price would be above $50,000. While the president struck several deals with countries, many of them still make imported vehicles more expensive. Imported cars from the U.K., such as Range Rovers, are subject to a 10 percent tariff. Japan, which sells more cars to the U.S. than any other country, is facing a 15 percent tariff rate, which is expected to cause major disruption. Toyota said on August 7 it expects a $9.5 billion profit loss for the year. "It's honestly very difficult for us to predict what will happen regarding the market environment," Takanori Azuma, Toyota's head of finance, said. But given that many car parts are imported from Japan, the tariffs are likely to hurt U.S. carmakers as well. General Motors projects a $4 billion loss, Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, said it anticipates tariffs will add $1.7 billion in expenses, and Ford, which builds more cars in the U.S. than any of its rivals, said it expects tariffs to cause a $2 billion loss this year. Clothing Clothing is expected to see one of the most significant price increases, and much of it comes from countries in Asia. Vietnam, one of the largest exporters of appear to the U.S., has agreed to a 20 percent tariff. Brands such as Nike, Adidas, Zara, and Gap manufacture much of their clothing in Vietnam. While many can absorb some of those costs, even raising prices 10 percent would make a $65 pair of shoes $71.50, without tax. Bjorn Gulden, the CEO of Adidas, said the tariffs 'will directly increase the cost of our products for the U.S.' Other countries that are high producers of clothing face significant tariffs as well. Bangladesh has a 20 percent tariff, while Indonesia and Cambodia both face a 19 percent tariff. India, also a large producer of apparel, faces a steep tariff of 25 percent and Trump has threatened to increase that to 50 percent by the end of August if the country does not stop importing Russian oil. While the U.S. also imports a large portion of clothing from China, which is still negotiating a trade deal, Trump's decision to get rid of the de minimis exemption will make it more costly for consumers to purchase cheap clothing from stores like Shein or Temu. Coffee The U.S. relies heavily on Brazil to import coffee for the 165 million people who need their daily caffeine fix, but Trump's 50 percent tariff threatens the long-term availability and price of the drink. "When people go to their local coffee shop, whether it's Starbucks or something else, by and large they will likely be buying some form of Brazilian coffee," Monica de Bolle, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told NPR.
UPI
4 hours ago
- UPI
Australia's PM Anthony Albanese says Netanyahu is 'in denial' about Gaza conditions
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after a phone call with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Israeli leader is "in denial" about the conditions in Gaza. File Photo Lukas Coch/EPA Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "in denial" about humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Albanese offered the comments after he had a phone call with Netanyahu where the pair discussed the war in Gaza. "I spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu. He, again, reiterated to me what he has said publicly as well -- which is to be in denial about the consequences that are occurring for innocent people," Albanese said. "The stopping of aid that we've seen and then the loss of life that we're seeing around those aid distribution points, where people queuing for food and water are losing their lives, is just completely unacceptable. And we have said that." Five people have died from malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including one child, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, bringing the total number of malnutrition deaths to 222, including 101 children, BBC reported. Netanyahu denies there is starvation in Gaza and has accused United Nations agencies of not picking up aid at the borders and delivering to the people. The U.N. has rejected this, saying there are obstacles and delays when collecting aid from Israeli-controlled border zones. On Monday, Albanese announced that Australia would recognize a Palestinian state, along with France, Britain and Canada. He said the country will formally make the recognition in September, during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Australia's pledge to recognize Palestine was "predicated" on conditions that the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, agreed to, Albanese said. Those conditions included that there would be no role for terror group Hamas in a future government. The prime minister said the international community could block Hamas from future elections in Palestine, but refused to say whether Australia would revoke its plans to recognize if the conditions weren't met. "You can [stop Hamas from elections] if you have the Arab states in the Middle East all speaking as one, as well as the Palestinian Authority, as well as the international community. Yes, you can," he told Australia's 9News. In a press conference, Albanese said violence in the region, including military occupation of Gaza City, "just cannot continue into the future without an end point." "The international community is coming up with an end point, which is, how do we resolve this? How do we get a permanent security position?" he said. The decision to support Palestine has seen a mixed response in Australia. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry called it a "betrayal," and some Palestinian activists said it doesn't go far enough. Right-leaning opposition leader Sussan Ley said the decision was "disrespectful" to the United States, an important Australian ally. Earlier this month, a pro-Palestinian protest drew at least 90,000 supporters who walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The Hill
5 hours ago
- The Hill
Is there any reason to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell except to buy her silence?
It's all about the art of the deal — the quid pro quo. Jeffrey Epstein was perhaps the most conspicuous pimp since the Marquis de Sade, and he did so on a grand scale. His associates included bankers, princes, CEOs, governors and past and future presidents. One of Epstein's friends was President Trump. Their relationship lasted 15 years. We don't know how their friendship got started, and we don't know the exact details of why it persisted or ended. We do know that it has become an albatross for Trump in his second term. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump — assuming that the Epstein files contained a list of prominent Democrats who were clients — promised his MAGA base that, if elected, the government files would be released. Now, the Wall Street Journal has suggested Trump's own name could be in the files, which are closely guarded by his captive Justice Department. So, what to do? The first line of defense is deception. Pretend you are making full disclosure when you are not. Vice President JD Vance proclaimed Trump's commitment to full disclosure. 'First of all, the president has been very clear,' Vance said. 'We're not shielding anything. The president has directed the attorney general to release all credible information and, frankly, to go and find additional credible information related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.' What Vance failed to say is that Trump did not order his attorney general to disclose the files that would be the 'most credible information' to be examined in all their stark significance. Trump prevaricated and ordered her only to unseal the grand jury minutes underlying the prosecutions of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, indicted in the Southern District in 2020, tried and convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in 2022. Any prosecutor will tell you that grand jury minutes are largely uninformative. They will not normally include the thousands of pages of video and audio tapes, witness statements and other documentary evidence residing in the Justice Department's files. Also, grand jury minutes are by law secret and may only be unsealed by order of the court, where there are very narrow grounds. Justice Department lawyers went through the motions of a kamikaze mission to have the court unseal the minutes, and two federal courts have now denied the motion, as expected. This ploy would hardly satisfy elements of Trump's MAGA base, which by now was screaming for full disclosure of the files that might tell the full story of his relationship with Epstein. The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee got into the act, subpoenaing Maxwell to testify. She presumably was in the room where it happened and could answer the key questions about the Trump-Epstein relation. As might be expected, Maxwell invoked her Fifth Amendment rights unless she was granted full immunity. A spokesperson for the committee replied that it 'will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony.' What a charade! If there ever was a 'don't throw me in the briar patch' scenario, this was it. That might have ended the matter. But what if Trump needed to be sure of Maxwell's silence? A peek at what Maxwell might say would help. So would a deal about what Maxwell wouldn't say. There was talk of clemency and a full pardon. Trump said, 'Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody's approached me with it. Nobody's asked me about it.' He had to do his due diligence first. Trump considers himself the master of the art of the deal — the quid pro quo. This has been his core philosophy from the old days in Queens, Manhattan, Atlantic City and Roy Cohn. He has made other deals for women's silence, lest we forget Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels. Trump's freezing of urgently needed military aid to Ukraine in a bid to extract political dirt on the Bidens during his first term was a classic. This quid pro quo led to his 2020 impeachment — a reference to which, as it just happens, was removed last month from an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution. (A modified reference has now been restored.) His appointment of three justices to the Supreme Court who would vote his way whenever the issue was presented might be another. And his dismissal of the indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams was widely decried as a quid pro quo for Adams's kowtowing to Trump's draconian immigration crackdown. So, has the time come for a quid pro quo with Maxwell? Her current lawyer is David Oscar Markus, a Florida-based criminal defense attorney who is a friend of Todd Blanche, Trump's former criminal defense lawyer and now the deputy attorney general. An ethicist might say there is nothing wrong with this, but one might fairly wonder why Attorney General Pam Bondi chose Blanche to coordinate with Markus about an extraordinary meeting with his imprisoned client. The two-day recorded meeting occurred and, according to Markus, Blanche asked Maxwell about '100 different people.' Maxwell reportedly 'answered every single question' truthfully and to the best of her ability. It is interesting that Maxwell was willing to talk to Blanche but unwilling to talk to Congress. One week later, without explanation and to the consternation of the victims' families, Maxwell was transferred from a low security prison in Tallahassee to a minimum-security prison in Bryan, Texas. Sex offenders, the New York Times reports, are rarely sent to minimum-security prisons, which house inmates with the lowest level of security risk. You may ask whether Trump approved the transfer. You can bet on it. This Justice Department doesn't make a move without Trump's thumb on the scale. Is favored treatment the part of a deal to ensure silence about Trump? Is it the prelude to a pardon for Maxwell? After all, with Trump, it's all about the quid pro quo.
