Crypto prices rally after Trump backs 'crypto reserve'
In a social media post on Sunday, Trump said he had signed an order which "directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA".About an hour later he added in another post: "And, obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable Cryptocurrencies, will be at the heart of the Reserve."The first three coins he named jumped by up to 62% on Sunday.Bitcoin and Ethereum also jumped by more than 10% each.From Bitcoin to XRP: Key cryptocurrency terms and what they meanThe posts marked a new upward turn for crypto prices, which had dropped sharply since spiking after his election. Shortly after taking office in January, Trump signed an executive to create a presidential working group tasked with proposing new crypto laws and regulations.The order called on the group to "evaluate the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile" that could use "cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government through its law enforcement efforts".It is unclear whether creating a new national strategic stockpile would require an act of Congress.Trump had previously been a crypto critic, telling Fox News in 2021 that Bitcoin is a "scam".But in recent weeks, both he and his wife Melania Trump have launched their own cryptocurrencies, leading to accusations that they are trying to profit from his White House policies.
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South Wales Argus
16 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Tariff of 15% ‘challenging' but avoids a trade war
Peter Burke said that the EU-US deal avoids both a trade war and EU counter-measures, which would have had an effect on the north-south economy. He said 'the devil is in the detail' of the trade agreement finalised on Sunday by Donald Trump and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland. 'We had a lot of modelling carried out on the various different options, and some were very perverse, that would have closed the market if you had over a 30% tariff with a stacking mechanism,' Mr Burke told RTE Radio. 'The key thing is that there will be a number of carve outs. Obviously, aviation has been cited as zero-for-zero, but also in relation to agrifoods and potentially spirits.' The bloc is set to face 15% tariffs on most of its goods including cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals entering the US and 'zero for zero' tariffs on a number of products including aircraft, some agricultural goods and certain chemicals – as well as EU purchases of US energy worth 750 billion dollars over three years. Mr Burke said it was his understanding that the 15% tariff on the pharmaceutical sector would be a maximum rate. He added: 'I think the president of the Commission has been very clear that 15% will be a ceiling.' It is still unclear from the deal, agreed five days before Mr Trump's threat of a 30% tariff would have come into effect, will mean Ireland will need to invest in US energy, he added. 'This all has to be worked out yet, as you can appreciate, I'm only hearing this for the first time last night, and we have nothing on paper.' Ireland's premier Micheal Martin and deputy premier Simon Harris welcomed the agreement struck on Sunday, saying that while Ireland 'regrets' the baseline tariff of 15%, it welcomed the certainty for businesses. Mr Harris said further detail was needed around how tariffs would affect sectors including pharmaceuticals. Ireland remains vulnerable to a slow down in trade with the US economy, due to exports of products such as alcohol, dairy and beef. The Irish government has also expressed concern at how tariffs could affect pharma multinationals based in Ireland, which employs about 45,000 people in Ireland, as Mr Trump had signalled he intended to target that industry. In addition, 65% of all aircraft are leased through Ireland globally. Last week, Finance Minister Paschal Dohonoe said the Irish government would spend 9.4 billion euro on its budget in October, based on a zero-tariff scenario for next year. He and Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers said these estimates would need to be revised if there was a shock to the Irish economy. Mr Burke said it was not naive to base the government's economic scenario on a zero-for-zero trade agreement with the US. 'No it wasn't because we didn't know what we were to be faced with,' he said on Monday. 'We do need to find out what happens in other areas, because this is very complex. 'It depends what happens with China, that's a very significant market that a deal hasn't happened yet. 'It really impacts what happens with our exporters here in Ireland as well, because so much product is in danger of being redirected into EU market. 'We also don't know what separate carve outs are going to emerge for the different sectors that are so vulnerable from an Irish perspective. 'Until we get flesh on the bones and all those areas over the coming weeks, we'll be in a better position then to really put forward what budgetary parameters (we) will end up with.'
South Wales Guardian
16 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
Tariff of 15% ‘challenging' but avoids a trade war
Peter Burke said that the EU-US deal avoids both a trade war and EU counter-measures, which would have had an effect on the north-south economy. He said 'the devil is in the detail' of the trade agreement finalised on Sunday by Donald Trump and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland. 'We had a lot of modelling carried out on the various different options, and some were very perverse, that would have closed the market if you had over a 30% tariff with a stacking mechanism,' Mr Burke told RTE Radio. 'The key thing is that there will be a number of carve outs. Obviously, aviation has been cited as zero-for-zero, but also in relation to agrifoods and potentially spirits.' The bloc is set to face 15% tariffs on most of its goods including cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals entering the US and 'zero for zero' tariffs on a number of products including aircraft, some agricultural goods and certain chemicals – as well as EU purchases of US energy worth 750 billion dollars over three years. Mr Burke said it was his understanding that the 15% tariff on the pharmaceutical sector would be a maximum rate. He added: 'I think the president of the Commission has been very clear that 15% will be a ceiling.' It is still unclear from the deal, agreed five days before Mr Trump's threat of a 30% tariff would have come into effect, will mean Ireland will need to invest in US energy, he added. 'This all has to be worked out yet, as you can appreciate, I'm only hearing this for the first time last night, and we have nothing on paper.' Ireland's premier Micheal Martin and deputy premier Simon Harris welcomed the agreement struck on Sunday, saying that while Ireland 'regrets' the baseline tariff of 15%, it welcomed the certainty for businesses. Mr Harris said further detail was needed around how tariffs would affect sectors including pharmaceuticals. Ireland remains vulnerable to a slow down in trade with the US economy, due to exports of products such as alcohol, dairy and beef. The Irish government has also expressed concern at how tariffs could affect pharma multinationals based in Ireland, which employs about 45,000 people in Ireland, as Mr Trump had signalled he intended to target that industry. In addition, 65% of all aircraft are leased through Ireland globally. Last week, Finance Minister Paschal Dohonoe said the Irish government would spend 9.4 billion euro on its budget in October, based on a zero-tariff scenario for next year. He and Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers said these estimates would need to be revised if there was a shock to the Irish economy. Mr Burke said it was not naive to base the government's economic scenario on a zero-for-zero trade agreement with the US. 'No it wasn't because we didn't know what we were to be faced with,' he said on Monday. 'We do need to find out what happens in other areas, because this is very complex. 'It depends what happens with China, that's a very significant market that a deal hasn't happened yet. 'It really impacts what happens with our exporters here in Ireland as well, because so much product is in danger of being redirected into EU market. 'We also don't know what separate carve outs are going to emerge for the different sectors that are so vulnerable from an Irish perspective. 'Until we get flesh on the bones and all those areas over the coming weeks, we'll be in a better position then to really put forward what budgetary parameters (we) will end up with.'
The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier than ever. Fighting back may take even more AI
The phone rings. It's the secretary of state calling. Or is it? For Washington insiders, seeing and hearing is no longer believing, thanks to a spate of recent incidents involving deepfakes impersonating top officials in President Donald Trump 's administration. Digital fakes are coming for corporate America, too, as criminal gangs and hackers associated with adversaries including North Korea use synthetic video and audio to impersonate CEOs and low-level job candidates to gain access to critical systems or business secrets. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, creating realistic deepfakes is easier than ever, causing security problems for governments, businesses and private individuals and making trust the most valuable currency of the digital age. Responding to the challenge will require laws, better digital literacy and technical solutions that fight AI with more AI. 'As humans, we are remarkably susceptible to deception,' said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO and founder of the tech firm Pindrop Security. But he believes solutions to the challenge of deepfakes may be within reach: 'We are going to fight back.' AI deepfakes become a national security threat This summer, someone used AI to create a deepfake of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to reach out to foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor over text, voice mail and the Signal messaging app. In May someone impersonated Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Another phony Rubio had popped up in a deepfake earlier this year, saying he wanted to cut off Ukraine's access to Elon Musk's Starlink internet service. Ukraine's government later rebutted the false claim. The national security implications are huge: People who think they're chatting with Rubio or Wiles, for instance, might discuss sensitive information about diplomatic negotiations or military strategy. 'You're either trying to extract sensitive secrets or competitive information or you're going after access, to an email server or other sensitive network," Kinny Chan, CEO of the cybersecurity firm QiD, said of the possible motivations. Synthetic media can also aim to alter behavior. Last year, Democratic voters in New Hampshire received a robocall urging them not to vote in the state's upcoming primary. The voice on the call sounded suspiciously like then-President Joe Biden but was actually created using AI. Their ability to deceive makes AI deepfakes a potent weapon for foreign actors. Both Russia and China have used disinformation and propaganda directed at Americans as a way of undermining trust in democratic alliances and institutions. Steven Kramer, the political consultant who admitted sending the fake Biden robocalls, said he wanted to send a message of the dangers deepfakes pose to the American political system. Kramer was acquitted last month of charges of voter suppression and impersonating a candidate. 'I did what I did for $500,' Kramer said. 'Can you imagine what would happen if the Chinese government decided to do this?' Scammers target the financial industry with deepfakes The greater availability and sophistication of the programs mean deepfakes are increasingly used for corporate espionage and garden variety fraud. 'The financial industry is right in the crosshairs," said Jennifer Ewbank, a former deputy director of the CIA who worked on cybersecurity and digital threats. 'Even individuals who know each other have been convinced to transfer vast sums of money.' In the context of corporate espionage, they can be used to impersonate CEOs asking employees to hand over passwords or routing numbers. Deepfakes can also allow scammers to apply for jobs — and even do them — under an assumed or fake identity. For some this is a way to access sensitive networks, to steal secrets or to install ransomware. Others just want the work and may be working a few similar jobs at different companies at the same time. Authorities in the U.S. have said that thousands of North Koreans with information technology skills have been dispatched to live abroad, using stolen identities to obtain jobs at tech firms in the U.S. and elsewhere. The workers get access to company networks as well as a paycheck. In some cases, the workers install ransomware that can be later used to extort even more money. The schemes have generated billions of dollars for the North Korean government. Within three years, as many as 1 in 4 job applications is expected to be fake, according to research from Adaptive Security, a cybersecurity company. 'We've entered an era where anyone with a laptop and access to an open-source model can convincingly impersonate a real person,' said Brian Long, Adaptive's CEO. 'It's no longer about hacking systems — it's about hacking trust.' Experts deploy AI to fight back against AI Researchers, public policy experts and technology companies are now investigating the best ways of addressing the economic, political and social challenges posed by deepfakes. New regulations could require tech companies to do more to identify, label and potentially remove deepfakes on their platforms. Lawmakers could also impose greater penalties on those who use digital technology to deceive others — if they can be caught. Greater investments in digital literacy could also boost people's immunity to online deception by teaching them ways to spot fake media and avoid falling prey to scammers. The best tool for catching AI may be another AI program, one trained to sniff out the tiny flaws in deepfakes that would go unnoticed by a person. Systems like Pindrop's analyze millions of datapoints in any person's speech to quickly identify irregularities. The system can be used during job interviews or other video conferences to detect if the person is using voice cloning software, for instance. Similar programs may one day be commonplace, running in the background as people chat with colleagues and loved ones online. Someday, deepfakes may go the way of email spam, a technological challenge that once threatened to upend the usefulness of email, said Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop's CEO. 'You can take the defeatist view and say we're going to be subservient to disinformation," he said. 'But that's not going to happen.'
