US weighs taking stake in Intel, Bloomberg News reports
Shares of the company rose nearly 7 per cent.
The plan stems from a meeting this week between President Donald Trump and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, the report added.
This comes after Trump publicly demanded the resignation of Tan over his past investments in Chinese tech companies, some linked to the Chinese military.
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Straits Times
35 minutes ago
- Straits Times
German minister says China ‘increasingly aggressive'
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Mr Wadephul also criticised 'China's support for the Russian war machine' in Ukraine. TOKYO - Germany's foreign minister hit out on Aug 18 at what he called China's repeated threats to 'unilaterally change' borders in the Asia-Pacific region, calling Beijing 'increasingly aggressive'. 'China repeatedly threatens, more or less openly, to unilaterally change the status quo and shift borders in its favour,' Mr Johann Wadephul said in Japan, citing China's behaviour in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas. 'Any escalation in this sensitive hub of international trade would have serious consequences for global security and the world economy,' Mr Wadephul said after talks with Japanese counterpart Takeshi Iwaya. A statement issued on Aug 17 before Mr Wadephul's visit to Japan – and later Indonesia – said that China was 'increasingly asserting its regional supremacy and, in doing so, is also questioning principles of international law.' 'China's increasingly aggressive behaviour in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas also has implications for us in Europe: fundamental principles of our global coexistence are at stake here,' the statement quoted Mr Wadephul as saying. In the joint press statement in Tokyo, Mr Wadephul also criticised 'China's support for the Russian war machine' in Ukraine. 'Without it, the war of aggression against Ukraine would not be possible. China is Russia's largest supplier of dual-use goods and Russia's best oil and gas customer,' Mr Wadephul said. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore NDR 2025 a rallying cry amid significant challenges facing Singapore, say analysts Singapore NDR 2025: The case for growing old at home in super-ageing Singapore Singapore WP urges Government to engage widely, explore all solutions following National Day Rally 2025 Opinion A 'we first' Singapore is the hardest policy for PM Lawrence Wong to deliver Singapore Age Well Neighbourhoods, job-matching by CDCs: 10 highlights from PM Wong's National Day Rally speech Singapore LTA, public transport operators join anti-vaping effort with stepped-up enforcement World Trump, tech and Texas: What's next for the US? Singapore 3 foreigners arrested for working illegally as delivery riders in Singapore: Koh Poh Koon He also said ahead of talks later on Aug 18 between US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders that security guarantees for Kyiv were 'crucial'. Mr Trump's summit on Aug 15 with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska 'made it clear that for a just and lasting peace, Moscow must finally act. Until that happens, pressure on Russia must be increased, including with increased aid to Ukraine,' Mr Wadephul said. The talks on Aug 18 in Washington are about establishing 'the elements of a negotiated solution on the path to a just peace for Ukraine,' he said. 'Firm security guarantees are crucial for this. Because Ukraine must be able to defend itself effectively even after a ceasefire and peace agreement.' AFP
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
Trump's tariffs will crush India's exporters, threatening livelihoods
NEW DELHI - A big part of India's economy is facing a nightmare scenario. On Aug 27, the extraordinarily high tariff of 25 per cent that President Donald Trump imposed on its exports to the United States is set to double. Businesses that were viable are bound to go bust quickly as orders dry up. 'We were shocked with the 25 per cent tariff, and thinking about how to meet this problem, how to face this,' said Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan, a fourth-generation carpet maker in Bhadohi, in the giant state of Uttar Pradesh. 'But now it's 50 per cent, so it became impossible. We're afraid that a lot of people will be unemployed.' Carpetmaking is a big business in India, with 98 per cent of the product shipped overseas. In recent years nearly 60 per cent of that stock has gone to buyers in the US. For US importers, that US$500 (S$641) rug now comes with a US$125 tariff and possibly a US$250 one. Bhadohi is at the heart of north India's carpet belt, home to hundreds or thousands of manufacturers like Mr Ishtiaq's company, Ajaz Carpets. They eke out their profits, so they don't have the means to absorb the giant price increases their US customers now face. Mr Ishtiaq, who led the industry's trade promotion council, estimates that 2.5 million people who live in the region could be plunged into subsistence-level poverty. Other industries in line to face unbearable wipeouts include textiles and garments, aquaculture – mainly farmed shrimp – and furniture. They are not India's flashiest businesses, but together they employ many millions of workers, and the billions they earn have helped keep India financially strong during periods of crisis. Carpets are nowhere near the highest-value component of the India-US trade in goods, which was worth US$129 billion in 2024. But for now, questions about the even bigger, more strategic parts of the two countries' trading relationship have been postponed. India is the primary producer of generic pharmaceuticals used in the US, for instance, and the US is that industry's biggest consumer market. But a carve-out in the Trump administration's tariffs has left it in limbo. It costs nothing to import Indian drugs at the moment. But Trump has promised that there will soon be a 150 per cent tariff, and eventually perhaps 250 per cent, which Trump believes will kick-start production in the US. Similar exemptions for semiconductors make it impossible to predict whether India's thriving electronics manufacturing – exemplified by Apple's shift in iPhone production from China to India – can survive. For the moment, they're off the hook. Oil and gas are complicated, too, as energy products are still exempted from tariffs. India's purchase of Russian oil, as it happens, is Mr Trump's justification for the additional, punitive tariff on its goods. Until that threat was made, the door was open to increasing India's purchase of American products. The potential damage the tariffs could inflict on India's gems and jewelry industry, another big-ticket part of the trading relationship, is not yet fully clear. But insiders are raising alarms, in part because the US is India's biggest buyer of gems. On Aug 7, when Trump announced the 50 per cent rate, Kirit Bhansali, chair of the industry's main association, wrote that 30 per cent of the global trade in Indian gems was at risk. 'A blanket tariff of this magnitude is severely devastating for the sector,' he wrote. Rival sectors in Turkey and Thailand are much smaller, but they will gain an unbeatable advantage over India thanks to lower national tariffs by Mr Trump. If there is any government plan to save the affected businesses, it's in hiding. Federal officials have asked the states to look after their own companies. Ajay Srivastava of the Global Trade Research Initiative, a think tank in New Delhi, said state governments have always depended on the national government to lead the way on foreign trade. Likewise, he said, India's banks will not be ready to forgive loans. On Aug 15, India's Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to the ramparts of the 16th-century Red Fort to deliver a traditional address to the nation. Without naming Mr Trump, who until recently he considered a political friend, or his tariffs, Mr Modi nonetheless delivered a message on the subject. He made reference to tough times ahead – and the need for India to go it alone. That way, he said, 'no selfish interest will ever be able to entrap us.' He extolled the virtues of self-reliance. 'The greater a nation's reliance on others, the more its freedom comes into question,' Mr Modi said, in an echo of Mahatma Gandhi and the leaders who fought for independence from the British Empire and its mercantile domination of India. Mr Modi's attempt to buck up India's 1.4 billion citizens spoke to the domestic political challenges Trump's attacks have dropped in his lap. One of the few new programmes he named will be aimed at creating more jobs for young people. But for the Indian technocrats and economists who for generations have pushed India toward free trade as the best way up the ladder of prosperity, Mr Modi's rally cry sounded like a step backward . NYTIMES
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
Zelenskiy, flanked by Europe, heads to Washington as Trump presses for Russia deal
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 28, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo KYIV - Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders will meet Donald Trump in Washington on Monday to map out a peace deal amid fears the U.S. president could try to pressure Kyiv into accepting a settlement favourable to Moscow. The European leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland and NATO hope to shore up Zelenskiy at a crucial diplomatic moment in the war and prevent any repetition of the bad-tempered Oval Office encounter between Trump and Ukraine's leader in February. Trump will meet first with Zelenskiy at 1:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (1715 GMT) in the Oval Office and then with all the European leaders together in the White House's East Room at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), the White House said. After rolling out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Trump said an agreement should be struck to end the 42-month-long war which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. "Russia is a very big power, and they're not," Trump said of Ukraine afterwards. However, Zelenskiy has already all but rejected the outline of Putin's proposals at that meeting, including for Ukraine to give up the rest of its eastern Donetsk region, of which it currently controls a quarter. "We need real negotiations, which means we can start where the front line is now," the Ukrainian leader said in Brussels on Sunday, adding that his country's constitution made it impossible for him to give away territory. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore NDR 2025 a rallying cry amid significant challenges facing Singapore, say analysts Singapore NDR 2025: The case for growing old at home in super-ageing Singapore Singapore WP urges Government to engage widely, explore all solutions following National Day Rally 2025 Opinion A 'we first' Singapore is the hardest policy for PM Lawrence Wong to deliver Singapore Age Well Neighbourhoods, job-matching by CDCs: 10 highlights from PM Wong's National Day Rally speech Singapore LTA, SMRT join anti-vaping effort with stepped-up enforcement on public transport World Trump, tech and Texas: What's next for the US? Singapore 3 foreigners arrested for working illegally as delivery riders in Singapore: Koh Poh Koon More concerning for him is the fact that Trump, who previously favoured Kyiv's proposal for an immediate ceasefire to conduct deeper peace talks, reversed course after the summit and indicated support for Russia's favoured approach of negotiating a comprehensive deal while fighting rumbles on. "I am grateful to the President of the United States for the invitation. We all equally want to end this war swiftly and reliably," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app after arriving in Washington late on Sunday. "Russia must end this war — the war it started. And I hope that our shared strength with America and with our European friends will compel Russia to real peace." The outline of Putin's proposals, reported by Reuters earlier, appears impossible for Zelenskiy to accept. Ukrainian forces are deeply dug into the Donetsk region, whose towns and hills serve as a crucial defensive zone to stymie Russian attacks. As part of any peace deal, Kyiv wants security guarantees sufficient to deter Russia, which took Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014 and launched a full invasion in 2022, from attacking again. Fearing that they would be shut out of the conversation after a summit to which they were not invited, European leaders held a call with Zelenskiy on Sunday to align on a common strategy for the meeting with Trump on Monday. The presence of six allies to back Zelenskiy may alleviate painful memories of Zelenskiy's last Oval Office visit. "It's important for the Europeans to be there: (Trump) respects them, he behaves differently in their presence," Oleksandr Merezhko, a Ukrainian lawmaker from Zelenskiy's ruling party, told Reuters. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to CBS, dismissed the idea that the European leaders were coming to Washington to protect Zelenskiy. "They're not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskiy from being bullied. They're coming here tomorrow because we've been working with the Europeans," he said. "We invited them to come." Relations between Kyiv and Washington, once extremely close, have been rocky since Trump took office in January. However, Ukraine's pressing need for U.S. weapons and intelligence sharing, some of which have no viable alternative, has forced Zelenskiy and his allies on the continent to appease Trump, even when his statements appear contradictory to their objectives. On the battlefield Russia has been slowly grinding forward, pressing home its advantages in men and firepower. Putin says he is ready to continue fighting until his military objectives are achieved. Ukraine hopes that the changing technological nature of the war and its ability to inflict massive casualties on Moscow will allow it to hold out, supported by European financial and military aid even if relations with Washington collapse. REUTERS
