US Treasury close to deal that would make ‘revenge tax' irrelevant
Washington | The US Treasury Department is nearing a deal that would make the so-called 'revenge tax' irrelevant, the agency's second-in-command said, a development that could bring great relief to Wall Street investors worried about punitive tax measures on foreigners.
'We continue to have negotiations with our OECD partners and continue to hope that in the very short run we have a breakthrough that would make conversations about 899 irrelevant,' Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said in an interview, referring to a part of President Donald Trump's signature tax legislation that would impose a levy on foreign companies and investors from countries that the US determines have been unfairly imposing digital taxes on American technology companies.
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9 News
an hour ago
- 9 News
Pentagon leaders cite military tactics to show destruction from US attacks on Iran
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Pentagon leaders have laid out new details about military tactics and explosives to bolster their argument that US attacks destroyed key Iranian nuclear facilities, but little more has emerged on how far back the bombing set Tehran's atomic program. In a rare Pentagon news briefing, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worked on Thursday to shift the debate from whether the nuclear targets were "obliterated", as US President Donald Trump has said, to what they portrayed as the heroism of the strikes as well as the extensive research and preparation that went into carrying them out. "You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated — choose your word. This was an historically successful attack," Hegseth said in an often combative session with reporters. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Thursday, June 26, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) (AP) It was the latest example of how Trump has marshalled top administration officials to defend his claims about the effectiveness of the US strikes. At stake is the legacy of the Republican president's intervention in the brief war between Israel and Iran, as well as the future of American foreign policy toward Iran. Hegseth appeared less confident that the strikes got all of Iran's highly enriched nuclear material. Asked repeatedly whether any of it was moved to other locations before the US attack, Hegseth acknowledged that the Pentagon was "looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where". He added, "I'm not aware of any intelligence that says things were not where they were supposed to be" or that they were moved. Satellite imagery showed trucks and bulldozers at Iran's Fordo uranium enrichment site, the main target of the bombings, days before the strikes, which occurred between 2.10am and 2.35am (8.40am and 9.05am AEST) on Saturday. Experts said enriched uranium stocks can be moved in small canisters and are hard to find. This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows damage at the Fordo enrichment facility in Iran after U.S. strikes, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (Maxar Technologies via AP) (AP) "It would be extremely challenging to try and detect locations where Iran may be hiding highly enriched uranium," said Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the nonpartisan Arms Control Association. Trump expressed confidence that uranium was not pulled out before the attack. "Nothing was taken out of facility," he said on social media. "Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" The US Department of Defence released vision on June 26. 2025, of tests of the so-called "bunker buster" bombs. (US Department of Defence) US stealth bombers dropped 12 deep penetrator bombs, called bunker busters, on Fordo and two on the Natanz site, a US official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. Hegseth and Caine described 15 years of study and planning going into the bombing mission and they showed video of a test explosion of a "bunker buster" munition, designed to penetrate deep into mountains. While Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor, spent the bulk of his time slamming the media coverage and personally insulting reporters who questioned him, Caine stuck to the military details of the bombing. Caine said the US targeted the ventilation shafts at the Fordo facility as the entry point for the bombs. In the days before the US attack, the Iranians placed large concrete slabs on top of both ventilation routes from the underground facilities to try to protect them, he said. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine speaks at a news conference with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon, Thursday, June 26, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) (AP) He said the first bomb dropped was used to eliminate the concrete slab, and then four of the bombs were dropped down the main shaft with slightly different angles to take out various parts of the underground facility. The pilots of the bombers described the flash after the bomb drop as "the brightest explosion they had ever seen", Caine said. He noted it is not his job to do the assessment of the damage. Asked if he has been pressured to provide a more optimistic view of the results, Caine said no. "I've never been pressured by the president or the secretary to do anything other than tell them exactly what I'm thinking. And that's exactly what I've done," he said. Caine also lauded the troops who remained at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar when the Iran launched its counterattack Monday. He said just 44 soldiers stayed to operate the two Patriot missile batteries and protect the entire air base. "You know that you're going to have approximately two minutes, 120 seconds, to either succeed or fail," Caine said, adding, "They absolutely crushed it". The US Department of Defence released vision on June 26. 2025, of tests of the so-called "bunker buster" bombs. (US Department of Defence) Hegseth repeated assertions that an early assessment from the Defence Intelligence Agency, a part of the Defence Department, was preliminary and that the report acknowledged there was low confidence and gaps in information. Hegseth repeatedly scolded reporters for "breathlessly" focusing on that assessment and said such stories were just attempts to undermine Trump. That report said that while the US strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities did significant damage, the sites were not totally destroyed and that Tehran's program was only set back by a few months. Hegseth and others have not disputed the contents of the DIA report but have focused on a CIA statement and other intelligence assessments, including those out of Iran and Israel, that said the strikes severely damaged the nuclear sites and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Thursday, June 26, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) (AP) The International Atomic Energy Agency is not now able to assess the exact damage to the Fordo site, but the centrifuges there are "no longer operational", the UN nuclear watchdog's chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told Radio France Internationale on Thursday. Trump appeared buoyed by Hegseth's fierce display of loyalty and his repeated attacks on news organizations during the briefing. The president said on social media that it was "one of the greatest, most professional, and most 'confirming' News Conferences I have ever seen!" War nuclear military USA Iran Middle East World Donald Trump Israel Iran Conflict CONTACT US
Sky News AU
an hour ago
- Sky News AU
'Nothing was taken': US President Donald Trump insists all Iranian nuclear materials destroyed, despite speculation some was moved
United States President Donald Trump has insisted "nothing" was removed from Iran's nuclear facilities prior to strikes from American bombers. Posting to social media following a fiery press conference by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, President Trump moved to shut down speculation nuclear materials had been taken from Iran's Fordow site prior the the attacks. "Nothing was taken out of (the) facility," he wrote. "Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" The President and others in his administration have repeatedly insisted all of Iran's nuclear assets were "obliterated" by US strikes, although the International Atomic Energy Agency has raised concerns over almost half a tonne of enriched uranium it says remains unaccounted for. Watch all the live coverage and analysis from our hosts and experts amid the escalating Israel-Iran conflict with a Streaming Subscription.
Perth Now
2 hours ago
- Perth Now
S&P 500, Nasdaq near record highs, eyes on rate cuts
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are heading toward record highs, as President Donald Trump's growing frustration with the Federal Reserve's wait-and-watch stance on cutting interest rates fueled bets of more monetary policy easing ahead. A Wall Street Journal report said Trump has mulled picking Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's replacement early, by September or October, after repeatedly criticising him for not cutting interest rates sooner. Traders now price in a nearly 25 per cent chance of the Fed cutting rates in July, compared with 12.5 per cent last week, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool. The benchmark S&P 500 was trading 0.5 per cent below its record peak on Thursday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was about 0.7 per cent below its all-time highs, with risk appetite revived by a truce in the Middle East conflict earlier this week. The Nasdaq 100 - a subset of the Nasdaq composite index - touched an intraday record high. Economic data was mixed. The final reading from the US Commerce Department showed gross domestic product contracted 0.5 per cent in the first quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.2 per cent contraction. "A 0.5 per cent contraction is worse than expected, but that really reflects how much imports overwhelmed exports in the first quarter, as businesses and consumers tried to get ahead of the tariff program," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. Separately, a report for weekly jobless claims showed the number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits fell last week. Fed San Francisco President Mary Daly said she's seeing increasing evidence that tariffs may not lead to a large or sustained inflation surge, helping bolster the case for a rate cut in the fall, Bloomberg News reported. The Personal Consumption Expenditures report on Friday - the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation - will be scrutinised to ascertain tariff-induced price changes in the US economy. In early trading on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 149.52 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 43,133.31, the S&P 500 gained 23.61 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 6,115.77 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 83.54 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 20,056.37. Ten of the 11 major S&P 500 sub-sectors rose. Materials led gains with a 0.8 per cent rise. On the flip side, real estate stocks lost 0.8 per cent. Nvidia rose one per cent after scaling a fresh all-time high on Wednesday. Shares of sportswear company Nike edged up 0.8 per cent ahead of its quarterly results. Copper miners gained after the red metal's prices jumped to a three-month high. Freeport Mcmoran rose six per cent and Southern Copper advanced 6.3 per cent. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.01-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.56-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 44 new highs and 29 new lows.
