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Deccan Herald
25 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
Trump demands US drug price cuts within 60 days, sends pharma shares slumping
He gave the companies 60 days to voluntarily comply, threatening to 'deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices' if they don't.
India.com
25 minutes ago
- India.com
Will India buy F-35 fighter jets from US? The government says…
New Delhi: On the question of buying F-35 fighter jets from America, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that there has been no formal discussion with America on this issue yet. Who raised the question over purchase of F-35 fighter jet? Congress MP Balwant Baswant Wankhade from Maharashtra had sought answers to 3 questions from the Ministry of External Affairs in the Lok Sabha. One of which was on the purchase of F-35. The Ministry of External Affairs has written in response, 'After the Prime Minister's meeting with US President Donald Trump on 13 February 2025, the India-US Joint Statement stated that the US will review its policy on issuing fifth-generation fighter aircraft (such as F-35) and undersea systems to India. There has been no formal discussion on this issue yet.' What is India's stand on purchasing F-35 stealth fighter jet and 25% tariff? India's Foreign Ministry has given this information at a time when a day earlier Bloomberg published a report that India has informed the US that it is not interested in buying the F-35 stealth fighter jet. US President Donald Trump has already imposed a 25 percent tariff on India. In such a situation, India is taking cautious and practical steps keeping its economic interests in mind. Bloomberg has published a report quoting people familiar with the matter that India will not engage in retaliatory action against this huge tariff of 25 percent. According to the report, India is considering options to pacify the White House, which also includes promoting American imports. What is the option for India? These sources said that India is considering increasing the purchase of natural gas from the US and increasing the import of communication equipment and gold. They said that promoting these purchases could help reduce India's trade surplus (trade deficit in favour of America) with the US in the next three to four years. They said, no defense purchases are being planned. Will India buy F-35 from America? According to a Bloomberg report, although the Indian government is considering promoting the purchase of American goods, it is unlikely to buy additional defence equipment from the US. This is a major demand put forward by Trump. According to the report, officials familiar with the matter have said this on the condition of anonymity. They said, India has informed the US that it is not interested in buying the F-35 stealth fighter aircraft. During PM Narendra Modi's visit to the White House in February, Trump had offered to sell expensive fighter jets to India. However, officials said that the Modi government is more interested in a partnership to jointly design and manufacture defence equipment domestically.
Hindustan Times
25 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
In a Country Trump Says Nobody's Heard Of, Tariffs Bring Chaos
MASERU, Lesotho—President Trump promised Africa that trade would replace aid when he dismantled America's foreign-assistance programs soon after taking office this year. But here in one of the world's poorest countries , his administration is slashing both. Trump, who publicly disparaged Lesotho as a place 'nobody has ever heard of,' has threatened the tiny southern African country with 50% tariffs, among the highest rates proposed for any single nation or territory. Lesotho's garment exporters are already closing up shop in the face of dwindling orders, while other countries with more diplomatic resources rush to secure new trade deals with the White House. Lesotho's government declared a state of disaster in July as Trump's looming tariffs devastated the country's textile industry. The landlocked nation of 2.3 million people has prospered under a 25-year-old American trade program that granted duty-free access to the U.S. market to dozens of African countries. 'We took advantage of the trade concessions, being a small country,' Mokhethi Shelile, Lesotho's trade minister, told The Wall Street Journal. 'I did not expect for that to be a reason to be punished.' The garment industry is the largest private employer in Lesotho, which has an annual gross domestic product of just $2.3 billion. The U.S. accounts for nearly 20% of Lesotho's overseas sales, including clothing from brands such as Levi's and Reebok, and stores such as Walmart. Although the 50% tariffs are on pause, orders have dried up, production lines have shut down and workers have been sent home. The White House and the U.S. Trade Representative's office didn't respond Thursday to requests for comment. The disaster declaration has allowed the government to quickly reroute funds to programs aimed at youth unemployment and economic stimulus, including the waiving of fees to register companies and the creation of a fund to support new businesses, said Shelile. By imposing tariffs, Trump appears to be sidestepping the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which allows 32 African countries to sell some 1,800 products in the U.S. duty-free. The law expires this year, and, with Trump wielding tariffs as the foundation of his international economic policies, most experts don't expect the Republican-controlled Congress to renew it. Shelile says a lobbying group that purported to have access to prominent members of Trump's family asked in a virtual meeting for $1.5 million to campaign for tariff relief. He didn't identify the lobbyists. 'They wanted the money immediately, and they didn't want to guarantee results,' Shelile said. Lesotho declined the offer, he said. Shelile said he is in talks with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, pushing for lower tariffs. Ever Successful Textile, a Chinese-owned factory in Maseru, Lesotho's capital, employed 650 people before the tariffs were announced, with 80% to 90% of its orders destined for the U.S. By the end of July, Ever Successful's payroll had plunged to 90 workers, who were finishing up one final order—black exercise pants for the American market. Lesotho's winter was in full swing, and the workers, most of them women, huddled in a corner of the cavernous factory in hats and coats, some wrapped in blankets. 'Normally, it's too hot in here,' said Malefetsane Phahla, the human-resources manager. 'When we're done with this order, it means we're going home,' because the company operates on a 'no work, no pay' basis, he said. This week, Lieketseng Billy, 44, and a few dozen other women waited outside the Quantum Apparel factory in Maseru, hoping for work. In June, Billy was laid off from her sewing job at Ever Successful. Now, she is struggling to make ends meet. 'It's been very difficult,' she said. 'I didn't save anything when I was working; we earn just a little sum of money.' Textile factories typically pay minimum wage, which rose to the equivalent of about $168 a month earlier this year. Billy, a single mother who has been working in Maseru's textile factories since 2001, is absorbing a double-blow of tariff threats and aid cuts. She's HIV-positive, and for years she has received six months' worth of antiretroviral medication at a time from a U.S.-supported clinic. But when she went to pick up her medication in early June, she was given just a three-month supply. 'They told me when I come back, I should expect to maybe get a month's medication or even weeks,' she said. 'The situation is really bad at home,' Billy said. 'We don't have food. Next week, my daughter is going back to school and we need to pay school fees for the third quarter. I don't know where the money is going to come from.' In Lesotho's mountainous rural areas, children sometimes attend school in community churches, which are the largest indoor spaces available in many villages. Different grades sit in different corners, facing different directions, trying to listen to their respective teachers. In other communities, children attend class under the open skies, with lessons often cut short by rain or cold. American-funded school buildings with roofs, classrooms and bathrooms were at various stages of construction when Trump gutted U.S. aid programs funding the work. For the past two years, students ranging from age 6 to 15 at the Khama-Khamane Primary School in Qabane have taken their classes in a small stone church hall left roofless by a storm. In September 2024, the U.S. Embassy in Maseru said it would pay for a new schoolhouse in Qabane, but had only disbursed about half of the pledged $9,000 before Trump ended the funding, said Cheletsi Lefa, the school's principal. The school's 47 pupils continue to attend classes in the roofless church hall while Lefa searches for funding to finish the new building. 'We are going to every corner we can reach to get funding,' he said. 'We are leaving no stone unturned.' A program run through the U.S. Embassy promised to pay for a new schoolhouse for the Khama-Khamane Primary School, but it had only disbursed about half of the pledged $9,000 before Trump ended the workers on their lunch break outside the Chinese-owned Ever Successful factory. Outside of textile factories in Maseru, the newly unemployed are increasingly anxious. Mamotipi Masitha, 31, has been working in Maseru's textile factories since 2015. Her job supported herself, her husband—a driver who is currently unemployed—two young children and her sick mother. But she wasn't able to save anything on her minimum-wage pay, and in June, she was laid off along with the rest of her factory's workers due to the tariffs. 'I don't know how I'm going to be able to take care of my mother and kids,' she said outside a still-operational textile factory, along with hundreds of other women seeking work. 'I live on handouts from people to help us eat every day,' she said. 'I would love to ask Trump, please lower the tariffs so we can get our jobs back. We have families to take care of.' Write to Alexandra Wexler at In a Country Trump Says Nobody's Heard Of, Tariffs Bring Chaos Mokhethi Shelile, Lesotho's trade minister. In a Country Trump Says Nobody's Heard Of, Tariffs Bring Chaos
