India confident of meeting oil needs despite potential sanctions on Russian imports, minister says
Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that countries purchasing Russian exports could face sanctions if Moscow fails to reach a peace agreement with Ukraine within 50 days.
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The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump bans Wall Street Journal from Scotland trip press pool over Epstein report
A Wall Street Journal reporter was kicked out of Donald Trump's press pool for his upcoming weekend trip to Scotland. The removal marked increased retaliation after the newspaper published an article alleging the US president sent Jeffrey Epstein a 50th birthday letter that included a drawing of a naked woman. The US president promptly sued the paper for $10bn. 'Due to the Wall Street Journal's fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board,' said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement provided to Politico, making the motives behind the removal clear. 'Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the White House has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible.' Tarini Parti, the reporter selected for removal, was not one of the writers of the Epstein piece. Trump is headed to Scotland to work on the UK-US trade deal, and to visit his golf courses in Scotland. The Guardian US also confirmed the reporter's removal. Prior to the second Trump administration, decisions regarding the White House press pool were in the hands of the White House Correspondents' Association. Seats in the press pool are highly coveted, and crucial for media that wish to stay on the cutting edge of politics coverage. The administration initially banned the Associated Press from the Oval Office, Air Force One and other exclusive access after the outlet declined to use Trump's new moniker for the Gulf of Mexico. The decision for the administration to control the press pool came shortly after. White House Correspondents Association president, Weijia Jiang, spoke strongly against the decision to remove Parti from the Scotland trip's press pool. She said the administration had yet to clarify whether the ban was temporary, or if it was permanently barring Wall Street Journal reporters from the press pool. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment. Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media,' Jiang wrote in a statement to The Guardian US. Trump's fury over the Epstein article comes amidst increasing scrutiny over his relationship with the now deceased Epstein. One of Epstein's first public accusers said she urged the FBI to investigate Trump's relationship with Epstein decades ago. Trump is also named as a friend of Epstein in early 2000's write-ups from Vanity Fair and NYMag. In a rare crack in armor, Trump appears to have lost control over the Epstein narrative to some Maga-faithful, with the unreleased files opening huge rifts among some of Trump's most die-hard supporters. The Wall Street Journal has stood by the accuracy of its reporting, which the Guardian has not been able to verify. 'We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit,' a Dow Jones spokesperson wrote in a statement.
The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: International protest over arrests at anti-corruption agency
Ukrainian security services arrested officials from the country's main anti-corruption agency, the NABU, on Monday and conducted dozens of searches in a crackdown that the agency said went too far and had effectively shut down its entire mission. The SBU said it had arrested one of the officials as a suspected Russian spy and others for alleged ties to a banned party. But NABU, which has embarrassed senior government officials with corruption allegations, said the 'vast majority' of cases involved unrelated allegations such as years-old traffic accidents. Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said the searches conducted without court orders showed that authorities were exerting 'massive pressure' on Ukraine's corruption fighters. Ambassadors of G7 nations in Kyiv issued a statement saying they had 'serious concerns and intend to discuss these developments with government leaders'. Anti-corruption campaigners have been alarmed since Vitaliy Shabunin, a top anti-corruption activist, was charged earlier this month with fraud and evading military service. Volodymy Zelenskyy's office denies that prosecutions in Ukraine are politically motivated. Russia and Ukraine will hold new peace talks on Wednesday in Istanbul, said Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president. It is a follow-up to two earlier rounds that made little progress on ending their war. Zelenskyy has offered to hold direct talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Russia has broadcast footage from inside a plant assembling the deadly attack drones it fires at civilian targets in Ukraine on a daily basis. The video was published on Sunday by Zvezda, a TV channel owned by the Russian defence ministry, showing workers with their faces blurred assembling jet-black triangle-shaped attack drones. 'This is the world's largest factory producing unmanned combat aerial vehicles, and the most secretive one,' said plant director Timur Shagivaleev, who has been sanctioned by the US. The plant is near the town of Yelabuga in the central Russian region of Tatarstan. Russia's Geran drones are based on Iranian Shahed drones. The French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, arrived in Kyiv on Monday for a surprise visit while rescuers were still sifting through the rubble from a massive drone and missile barrage against the Ukrainian capital. Six districts of Kyiv came under attack on Monday, sparking fires at a supermarket, multiple residential buildings and a nursery, authorities said. The entrance to a metro station where civilians were sheltering from the barrage was damaged. 'This inhumane, cynical and cruel violence has no military purpose,' Barrot said. Barrot visited the Chornobyl power plant, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident. In February, Ukraine accused Russia of using an explosive drone to damage the confinement arch protecting the structure – prompting France to pledge €10m to help fix it. Barrot said Russia 'targets energy infrastructure in defiance of international law, security and nuclear safety'.
Reuters
26 minutes ago
- Reuters
South Korea fin min, trade envoy to hold 2+2 trade talks with US counterparts
SEOUL, July 22 (Reuters) - South Korea's new finance minister and the country's top trade envoy will meet with U.S. counterparts on Friday for talks on U.S. tariffs, Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol said on Tuesday. The country's foreign and industry ministers will also visit the U.S. for trade discussions as early as this week, Koo told reporters after a meeting of economic ministers. Koo took office on Monday. The four officials complete a new team under President Lee Jae Myung who was sworn in on June 4 after winning a snap election called after his predecessor's ouster for trying to declare martial law. The political turmoil that ensued delayed South Korea's response to U.S. President Donald Trump's punishing tariff regime imposed on dozens of trade partners, including key industrial powerhouses that are also security allies. Koo and Minister for Trade Yeo Han-kooo will hold talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Friday at the request of the U.S. officials, the finance minister said. "We've had discussions from the perspective of national interest and pragmatism and we'll do our best to prepare a meticulous strategy until we're leaving," Koo said, declining to answer whether Seoul was hoping to push back the August 1 deadline before reciprocal tariffs set by Trump are due to come in. On Monday, South Korea's new Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said tariff talks with the United States were in a critical phase that could result in a range of possible outcomes and pledged an all-out effort to wrap up negotiations by August 1. Trump has vowed to slap tariffs on a range of countries including South Korea to reduce what he called unfair trade imbalances. On Saturday, Japan's top tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, said he planned to visit Washington this week to hold further ministerial-level talks, as Tokyo hopes to clinch a deal by its August 1 deadline.
