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Trump nominates Bruce as US deputy representative to UN

Trump nominates Bruce as US deputy representative to UN

RTÉ News​2 days ago
US President Donald Trump said he was nominating State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce as the next US deputy representative to the United Nations.
Mr Bruce has been the State Department spokesperson since Mr Trump took office in January.
In a post on social media in which Mr Trump announced her nomination, the president said she did a "fantastic job" as State Department spokesperson.
She has defended the Trump administration's foreign policy decisions ranging from immigration crackdown
and visa revocations to US responses to Russia's war in Ukraine and Israel's war in Gaza, including defending a widely condemned armed private aid operation in the Palestinian enclave.
Ms Bruce was a political contributor and commentator on Fox News for over 20 years.
She has also authored books like "Fear Itself: Exposing the Left's Mind-Killing Agenda" that offer criticism of liberals and left-leaning viewpoints.
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US and China extend trade truce for another 90 days
US and China extend trade truce for another 90 days

Irish Examiner

time17 minutes ago

  • Irish Examiner

US and China extend trade truce for another 90 days

US President Donald Trump has extended a trade truce with China for another 90 days, delaying once again a dangerous showdown between the world's two biggest economies. Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he signed the executive order for the extension, and that 'all other elements of the Agreement will remain the same'. Beijing at the same time also announced the extension of the tariff pause, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The US has realised it does not have the upper hand The previous deadline was set to expire at 12.01am on Tuesday. Had that happened the US could have ratcheted up taxes on Chinese imports from an already high 30%, and Beijing could have responded by raising retaliatory levies on US exports to China. The pause buys time for the two countries to work out some of their differences, perhaps clearing the way for a summit later this year between Mr Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and it has been welcomed by the US companies doing business with China. China said on Tuesday it would extend relief to American companies who were placed on an export control list and an unreliable entities list. After Mr Trump initially announced tariffs in April, China restricted exports of dual-use goods to some American companies, while banning others from trading or investing in China. The Ministry of Commerce said it would stop those restrictions for some companies, while giving others another 90-day extension. Reaching a pact with China remains unfinished business for Mr Trump, who has already upended the global trading system by slapping double-digit taxes – tariffs – on almost every country on earth. The EU, Japan and other trading partners agreed to lopsided trade deals with Mr Trump, accepting once unthinkably US high tariffs (15% on Japanese and EU imports, for instance) to ward off something worse. US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House (Alex Brandon/AP) In June, the US and China reached an agreement to ease tensions. The US said it would pull back export restrictions on computer chip technology and ethane, a feedstock in petrochemical production, and China agreed to make it easier for US firms to get access to rare earths. 'The US has realised it does not have the upper hand,' said Claire Reade, senior counsel at Arnold & Porter and former assistant US trade representative for China affairs. In May, the US and China had averted an economic catastrophe by reducing massive tariffs they'd slapped on each other's products, which had reached as high as 145% against China and 125% against the US. Those triple-digit tariffs threatened to effectively end trade between the US and China and caused a frightening sell-off in financial markets. In a May meeting in Geneva, America's tariffs went back down to a still-high 30% and China's to 10%. Ms Reade does not expect much beyond limited agreements such as the Chinese saying they will buy more American soybeans and promising to do more to stop the flow of chemicals used to make fentanyl and to allow the continued flow of rare-earth magnets. But the tougher issues will likely linger, and 'the trade war will continue grinding ahead for years into the future', said Jeff Moon, a former US diplomat and trade official.

US and China extend trade truce for another 90 days
US and China extend trade truce for another 90 days

Irish Independent

time18 minutes ago

  • Irish Independent

US and China extend trade truce for another 90 days

Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he signed the executive order for the extension, and that 'all other elements of the Agreement will remain the same'. Beijing at the same time also announced the extension of the tariff pause, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The previous deadline was set to expire at 12.01am on Tuesday. Had that happened the US could have ratcheted up taxes on Chinese imports from an already high 30pc, and Beijing could have responded by raising retaliatory levies on US exports to China. The pause buys time for the two countries to work out some of their differences, perhaps clearing the way for a summit later this year between Mr Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and it has been welcomed by the US companies doing business with China. China said on Tuesday it would extend relief to American companies who were placed on an export control list and an unreliable entities list. After Mr Trump initially announced tariffs in April, China restricted exports of dual-use goods to some American companies, while banning others from trading or investing in China. The Ministry of Commerce said it would stop those restrictions for some companies, while giving others another 90-day extension. Reaching a pact with China remains unfinished business for Mr Trump, who has already upended the global trading system by slapping double-digit taxes – tariffs – on almost every country on earth. The EU, Japan and other trading partners agreed to lopsided trade deals with Mr Trump, accepting once unthinkably US high tariffs (15pc on Japanese and EU imports, for instance) to ward off something worse. ADVERTISEMENT In June, the US and China reached an agreement to ease tensions. The US said it would pull back export restrictions on computer chip technology and ethane, a feedstock in petrochemical production, and China agreed to make it easier for US firms to get access to rare earths. 'The US has realised it does not have the upper hand,' said Claire Reade, senior counsel at Arnold & Porter and former assistant US trade representative for China affairs. In May, the US and China had averted an economic catastrophe by reducing massive tariffs they'd slapped on each other's products, which had reached as high as 145pc against China and 125pc against the US. Those triple-digit tariffs threatened to effectively end trade between the US and China and caused a frightening sell-off in financial markets. In a May meeting in Geneva, America's tariffs went back down to a still-high 30pc and China's to 10pc. Ms Reade does not expect much beyond limited agreements such as the Chinese saying they will buy more American soybeans and promising to do more to stop the flow of chemicals used to make fentanyl and to allow the continued flow of rare-earth magnets. But the tougher issues will likely linger, and 'the trade war will continue grinding ahead for years into the future', said Jeff Moon, a former US diplomat and trade official.

Trump picks Heritage economist Antoni to lead US labour statistics agency
Trump picks Heritage economist Antoni to lead US labour statistics agency

RTÉ News​

timean hour ago

  • RTÉ News​

Trump picks Heritage economist Antoni to lead US labour statistics agency

US President Donald Trump said he was nominating economist EJ Antoni as the new Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, 10 days after firing the agency's previous leader following a weak scorecard of the job market, accusing her without evidence of manipulating the figures. Antoni is currently the chief economist at the influential conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. He has been critical of the BLS, the Labor Department's statistical agency, whose monthly figures about the state of the job market and inflation are consumed by a global audience of economists, investors, business leaders, public policymakers and consumers. Their release routinely has a visible and real-time effect on stock, bond and currency markets around the world. "Our Economy is booming, and EJ will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE," Trump said on Truth Social. 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Trump added to growing concerns about the reliability of BLS and other federal government economic data when he fired Erika McEntarfer as BLS commissioner on August 1. Her dismissal came hours after the agency reported much weaker-than-expected job growth for July and issued an historically large revision to its employment figures for May and June. In announcing her firing, Trump accused McEntarfer - appointed to the role by former President Joe Biden - of manipulating the employment data for political purposes. There is no evidence of that being true. He promised he would replace her "with someone much more competent and qualified." Antoni, who holds a doctoral degree in economics, was previously an economist at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and has taught courses on labour economics, money and banking, according to the Heritage Foundation. 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Its headline estimates for job creation are revised twice after their initial release to account for the submission of additional survey responses from employers and updates to the seasonal factors that underlie the statistics. They are also subject to an annual benchmark revision process. The monthly Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index together historically have provided a comprehensive picture of US inflation, including hundreds of data points depicting the changes in cost for everything from eggs to auto insurance, figures relied upon heavily by policymakers like those at the Federal Reserve. CPI is used to set the annual cost-of-living-adjustment for retirees receiving Social Security payments. Years of underfunding of the BLS under both Republican and Democratic administrations and Trump White House's unprecedented campaign to reshape the government through deep spending cuts and mass layoffs of public workers have led to the suspension of data collection for portions of the CPI basket in some areas across the country. That has led to the BLS using imputations to fill in the missing information. The percentage of prices that are imputed rather than gathered has more than tripled this year to 35%. "I can't help but worry some deadlines are going to be missed and undetected biases or other errors are going to start creeping into some of these reports just because of the reduction in staff," Erica Groshen, who served as BLS commissioner from 2013 to 2017 during President Barack Obama's second term and the first months of Trump's first term.

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