Pakistan Adds Chinese Attack Helicopters to Upgrade Aging Fleet
The Pakistan Army Aviation Corps held an induction ceremony on Saturday, calling the helicopters a 'state-of-the-art, all-weather platform' capable of precision strikes both day and night. They didn't disclose how many helicopters were acquired, but said the aircraft is equipped with advanced radar and electronic warfare systems.
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Fast Company
4 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Trump's 90-day pause on higher tariffs for China will expire soon. Here's what to know
SILENCE FROM WASHINGTON AND BEIJING Trump has repeatedly shifted deadlines and tariff rates, and neither side has indicated what it plans for Tuesday. Extending the Aug. 12 deadline for reaching a trade agreement with China would forestall earlier threats of tariffs of up to 245%. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump was deciding about another 90-day delay to allow time to work out details of an agreement setting tariffs on most products at 50%, including extra import duties related to illicit trade in the powerful opiate fentanyl. Higher tariffs are aimed at offsetting the huge, chronic U.S. trade deficit with China, which hit a 21-year low in July as the threat of tariffs bit into Chinese exports. It's not unusual for the U.S. to give hints on where talks stand, but it's rare for China to make announcements until major decisions are set. So far, Beijing's refrained from commenting ahead of Tuesday's deadline. In an interview with Fox News taped on Thursday but aired on Sunday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Trump was considering additional tariffs on Beijing because of China's purchases of Russian oil. But he said Trump 'hasn't made any firm decisions.' CHINA RESISTED CUTTING AN EARLY BARGAIN Prohibitively high tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States would put huge pressure on Beijing at a time when the Chinese economy, the world's second largest, is still recovering from a prolonged downturn in its property market. Lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have left millions of people reliant on 'gig work,' crimping the job market. Higher import taxes on small parcels from China have also hurt smaller factories and layoffs have accelerated, But the U.S. relies heavily on imports from China for all sorts of products, from household goods and clothing to wind turbines, basic computer chips, electric vehicle batteries and the rare earths needed to make them. That gives Beijing some powerful leverage in the negotiations with Washington. Even with higher tariffs, China remains competitive for many products. And its leaders are aware that the U.S. economy is only just beginning to feel the effects of higher prices from Trump's broad tariff hikes. For now, imports from China are subject to a 10% baseline tariff and a 20% extra tariff related to the fentanyl issue. Some products are taxed at higher rates. U.S. exports to China are subject to tariffs of around 30%. Before the two sides called a truce, Trump had threatened to impose 245% import duties on Chinese goods. China retaliated by saying it would hike its tariff on U.S. products to 125%. MUCH IS AT STAKE A trade war between the world's two largest economies has ramifications across the global economy, affecting industrial supply chains, demand for commodities like copper and oil and geopolitical issues such as the war in Ukraine. After a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in June, Trump said he hoped to meet with Xi later this year. That's an incentive for striking a deal with Beijing. If the two sides fail to keep their truce, trade tensions could escalate and tariffs might rise to even higher levels, inflicting still more pain on both economies and rattling world markets. Businesses would refrain from making investment commitments and hiring, while inflation would surge higher. Companies are in an 'extended wait-and-see mode,' Oxford Economics said in a recent report.
Fast Company
4 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Nvidia and AMD cut a chip revenue-sharing deal with Trump. Here's how their stock prices are reacting
In a historically unusual move, two of the world's largest chipmakers, Nvidia and AMD, have reportedly cut a deal with the Trump administration to hand over 15% of their revenues from certain chip sales to the U.S. government. Here's what to know about the deal and how Nvidia's and AMD's stock prices are reacting. What's happened? Yesterday, the Financial Times reported that chipmaking giants Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have struck a highly unusual deal with the U.S. government. According to the FT, the deal will see Nvidia and AMD give up 15% of revenues from chip sales of two specific chips to China, the H20 chipset by Nvidia and the MI308 chipset by AMD. In return for the 15% revenue-sharing agreement, the U.S. government has approved export licenses for those chips to China. Without export licenses, which the U.S. had previously failed to grant the companies, Nvidia and AMD could not legally export their chips to the country. The FT cited 'people familiar with the situation, including a US official' as the sources of the information. 'We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets,' a Nvidia spokesperson told Fast Company when reached for comment. 'While we haven't shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide. America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership.' Fast Company has also reached out to AMD and the Commerce Department. The revenue-sharing agreement is an unusual one, as no other companies before now have ever agreed to share a portion of their revenue with the U.S. government in exchange for export licenses. The Trump administration has reportedly also not decided what the U.S. government will do with the proceeds it reaps from Nvidia and AMD's chip sales to China. A spokesperson for Nvidia did not deny the deal, with the company telling the FT, 'We follow rules the US government sets for our participation in worldwide markets.' What are the H20 and MI308 chips? Before the two chip giants made a revenue-sharing deal with the Trump administration, the H20 and MI308 chipsets had been waiting for months for export license approvals. The H20 chip by Nvidia and the MI308 chip by AMD were designed by the companies for the Chinese marketplace specifically, and within the constraints that the Biden administration had placed on exporting U.S. chips to China. But when Trump came into office earlier this year, his administration placed export controls on those chips over national security fears. Nvidia has previously disputed that its H20 chips could give Chinese industry a leg up in the AI race. Now, however, any supposed national security concerns are taking a back seat to profits, as the export licenses have now been granted after the revenue-sharing deal was agreed. That revenue-sharing agreement stands to see the U.S. government rake in billions as the chipmakers now have the go-ahead to sell to China. According to the FT, one estimate noted that Nvidia could sell as much as $23 billion worth of its H20 chips to China in 2025 alone. How are Nvidia and AMD stock reacting? Obtaining export licenses for chips is usually considered a good thing by investors in any chipmaking company. However, after the FT broke the news of the revenue sharing deal, shares of both Nvidia Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (Nasdaq: AMD) are down in premarket trading as of the time of this writing. NVDA shares are currently down about 0.71% and AMD shares are currently down about 1.6%. While these share price drops aren't that large, any decline in a chipmaker's stock price after winning an expert license is pretty rare. This could suggest that investors are concerned that companies are ceding too much revenue to the U.S. government in exchange for expert licenses, potentially harming their bottom lines. But just as likely is that investors aren't entirely sure how to digest the news. The deal potentially sets a new precedent where companies that need export licenses now may need to start sharing their revenue directly with the U.S. government. Such a system is unheard of in free-market democracies.
Washington Post
5 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Footage shows two Chinese ships colliding while chasing Philippine boat
A China coast guard ship barreled into a Chinese navy destroyer on Tuesday as the two vessels chased a Philippine coast guard ship in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. The collision, which left the smaller Chinese ship badly damaged, occurred as the Philippine patrol boats were escorting dozens of fishing vessels into the waters near Scarborough Shoal, a contested island that the Philippines calls Bajo de Masinloc, according to Jay Tarriela, a spokesperson for the Philippine coast guard. Chinese patrols blocked them and fired water cannons, Tarriela said. The China coast guard ship performed a 'risky maneuver' during a high-speed chase and crashed head-on into the Chinese warship, leaving the smaller ship 'unseaworthy,' Tarriela wrote on X. China accused the Philippines of ignoring its warnings and 'forcibly intruding' into waters near Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing calls Huangyan Dao, without mentioning the collision. Video of the incident posted by Tarriela shows the Chinese ship bearing down on a Philippine Coast Guard vessel while firing its water cannon before it is cut off by the larger destroyer, which crumpled the smaller ship's bow and ended the chase. The Chinese patrols 'took all necessary measures, including tracking, monitoring, blocking, and controlling, to drive the Philippine vessels away,' China coast guard spokesperson Gan Yu said in a statement Tuesday. Hostilities between the two countries have spiked repeatedly in recent months over China's assertion of its expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway claimed in part by six other governments. The Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, has become more forceful in calling attention to alleged Chinese misbehavior as the number of Chinese vessels off the western coast of the Philippines has increased in the past year. The Chinese military buildup in the region has led the Philippines to work more closely with the United States and its allies and even to quietly expand security engagement with Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy Beijing claims as its own. Last week, China said that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was 'playing with fire' after he said, in an interview during a visit to India, that 'there is no way that the Philippines can stay out' of a war between China and Taiwan. Marcos responded on Monday that his remarks were 'misinterpreted' but that he was 'stating facts.' 'War over Taiwan will drag the Philippines kicking and screaming into the conflict,' he told a news briefing on Monday. Rudy Lu contributed to this report.
