Trump calls for Israeli PM's trial to be canceled
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for Israel to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or cancel his corruption trial, saying the U.S. would save him like it did his country.
Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in Israel on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust - all of which Netanyahu denies. The trial began in 2020 and involves three criminal cases. He has pleaded not guilty.
"Bibi Netanyahu's trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State (of Israel)," Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that he had learned that Netanyahu was due to appear in court on Monday.
Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
MTV Lebanon
an hour ago
- MTV Lebanon
Canada says Trump, Carney to resume trade talks
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said late Sunday trade talks with US have resumed after Canada rescinded its plan to tax US technology firms. US President Donald Trump said Friday that he was suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms, which he called 'a direct and blatant attack on our country.' The Canadian government said 'in anticipation' of a trade deal 'Canada would rescind' the Digital Serves Tax. The tax was set to go into effect Monday. Carney's office said Carney and Trump have agreed to resume negotiations. 'Today's announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025, timeline set out at this month's G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis,' Carney said in a statement. Carney visited Trump in May at the White House, where he was polite but firm. Trump traveled to Canada for the G7 summit in Alberta, where Carney said that Canada and the US had set a 30-day deadline for trade talks. Trump, in a post on his social media network last Friday, said Canada had informed the US that it was sticking to its plan to impose the digital services tax, which applies to Canadian and foreign businesses that engage with online users in Canada. The digital services tax was due to hit companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a 3 percent levy on revenue from Canadian users. It would have applied retroactively, leaving US companies with a $2 billion US bill due at the end of the month. 'Rescinding the digital services tax will allow the negotiations of a new economic and security relationship with the United States to make vital progress,' Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement. Trump's announcement Friday was the latest swerve in the trade war he's launched since taking office for a second term in January. Progress with Canada has been a roller coaster, starting with the US president poking at the nation's northern neighbor and repeatedly suggesting it would be absorbed as a US state. Canada and the US have been discussing easing a series of steep tariffs Trump imposed on goods from America's neighbor. Trump has imposed 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as 25 percent tariffs on autos. He is also charging a 10 percent tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period he set would expire. Canada and Mexico face separate tariffs of as much as 25 percent that Trump put into place under the auspices of stopping fentanyl smuggling, though some products are still protected under the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump's first term.
MTV Lebanon
2 hours ago
- MTV Lebanon
Israel orders evacuations in northern Gaza as Trump calls for war to end
The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as U.S. President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire. "Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel's offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages. But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and U.N. officials say nowhere in Gaza is safe. "The (Israeli) Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations," the military said. The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts. Medics and residents said the Israeli army's bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people. In Khan Younis in the south, five people were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment near Mawasi, medics said. At least 12 other people were killed in separate Israeli military strikes and gunfire across the enclave, taking Sunday's death toll to at least 23, medics said. At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives arrived to pay their respects to white-shrouded bodies before they are buried. "A month ago, they (Israel) told us to go to Al-Mawasi (in Khan Younis) and we stayed there for a month, it is a safe zone," said Zeyad Abu Marouf. He said three of his children were killed and a fourth was wounded in the Israeli airstrike. "We ask God and the Arabs to move and end this occupation and the injustice taking place against us,' Abu Marouf told Reuters. NEW CEASEFIRE PUSH The military escalation comes as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, begin a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages still being held by Hamas. Interest in resolving the Gaza conflict has heightened following U.S. and Israeli bombings of Iran's nuclear facilities. There has also been rising concern over how aid is being distributed to Gazans in the ruined enclave. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the past month in the vicinity of areas where food was being handed out, local hospitals and officials have said. A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed the mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group's outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory. Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war. Israel says it can only end the war if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms. The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.
Ya Libnan
6 hours ago
- Ya Libnan
Musk calls Senate bill utterly insane and destructive, would destroy millions of US jobs
Washington- Billionaire Elon Musk on Saturday criticized the latest version of President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill released by the U.S. Senate, calling it 'utterly insane and destructive,' weeks after the world's richest person and its most powerful ended a feud sparked by Musk's opposition to the bill. 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!' Musk wrote in a post on X. Latest Senate version , favors the rich and increases debt ceiling Senate Republicans released the latest version of President Trump's massive spending and tax bill late Friday as the GOP eyes an ambitious July 4 deadline to approve the centerpiece legislation of the president's second-term agenda. After the House narrowly approved the legislation that addresses the president's tax, defense, border and energy priorities last month, Senate Republicans have been putting their imprint on the bill. But GOP leaders are seeking a middle ground to appease the upper chamber without alienating House Republicans, who will have to approve the Senate's changes before the bill can head to the president's desk for his signature. At the center of the bill is an extension to Mr. Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, slated to sunset at year's end, seeking to make the cuts permanent in what has been a key priority for Senate Republicans. It also includes increased spending for border security, defense and energy production, which are offset in part by cuts to healthcare and nutrition programs. But along with different dynamics in the Senate, Republicans have also been contending with input from the Senate's rulekeeper, known as the parliamentarian. She has been weighing in on the bill's components to determine whether they may fly under the reconciliation process, which allows the GOP to move forward with the bill without any support from across the aisle. Here's what's in the Senate's updated version of the 'big, beautiful bill,' some of which remains in flux: Medicaid restrictions The legislation includes restrictions on Medicaid, which provides government-sponsored health care for low-income and disabled Americans. Like the House-passed bill, the legislation imposes work requirements for some able-bodied adults and more frequent eligibility checks. But the Senate parliamentarian determined that a measure cutting federal funds to states that use Medicaid infrastructure to provide health care coverage to undocumented immigrants, along with banning Medicaid from covering gender transition services, isn't in compliance with Senate rules. The parliamentarian also weighed in on the provider tax, which states use to help fund their portion of Medicaid costs, in a blow to the Senate GOP's initial plan. Senate Republicans have proposed steeper cuts to Medicaid funding, in part by incrementally lowering provider taxes from 6% to 3.5% by 2032. The timeline is delayed by one year from the Senate GOP's initial proposal, after the issue became one of the bill's sticking points in the Senate in recent weeks. It's a departure from the House-passed bill, which sought to lower federal costs by freezing states' provider taxes at current rates and prohibiting them from establishing new provider taxes. The bill also includes a rural hospital stabilization fund after some GOP senators expressed concern over how rural hospitals could be impacted by the Medicaid restrictions, allocating $25 billion for rural hospitals over the same period that the provider taxes would be lowered. Increasing the state and local tax deduction, or SALT The package also includes an increase to the cap on the state and local tax deduction, raising it from $10,000 to $40,000. After five years, it would return to $10,000, a departure from the House-passed bill. The issue was a major sticking point in the House, where blue-state Republicans threatened to withhold their support without the increase to the deduction. But with no Republicans hailing from blue states in the Senate, the upper chamber has been contending with its own dynamics. Before the rule, taxpayers could deduct all their state and local taxes from their federal taxes, which some policymakers have said mainly benefits wealthy homeowners in states with high taxes, such as New York and California. But advocates for increasing the caps argue that the $10,000 cap is increasingly impacting middle-class homeowners who live in regions where property taxes are rising. Restrictions on food stamps The Senate bill still shifts the costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, or food stamps, to some states. The program is currently fully funded by the federal government. The federal government would continue to fully fund the benefits for states that have an error payment rate below 6%, beginning in 2028. States with error rates above 6% would be on the hook for 5% to 15% of the costs. States are also given some flexibility in calculating their share. However, Alaska and Hawaii would receive temporary exemptions from the cost-sharing requirement. Both states would receive a two-year reprieve if the Department of Agriculture determines they are 'actively implementing a corrective action plan.' The package also aligns with the House version on age requirements for able-bodied adults to qualify for SNAP benefits. Currently, in order to qualify, able-bodied adults between 18-54 must meet work requirements. Both the Senate and House bills would update the age requirement to 18-64, with some exemptions for parents. Alaska and Hawaii could also receive waivers for the work requirements if it's determined that they're making a 'good faith effort' to comply. Addressing the debt limit The legislation would raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, going beyond the $4 trillion outlined in the House-passed bill, as Congress faces a deadline to address the debt limit later this summer. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has urged Congress to address the debt limit by mid-July, outlining that the U.S. could be unable to pay its bills as early as August, when Congress is on recess. By addressing the debt ceiling as part of the larger package, Republicans in Congress are aiming to bypass negotiating with Democrats on the issue. Unlike most other legislation in the Senate, the budget reconciliation process that governs the package requires a simple majority, rather than the 60-vote threshold to move forward with a bill. Child tax credit The current $2,000 child tax credit is set to return to the pre-2017 level of $1,000 in 2026. The tax credit would permanently increase to $2,200 under the Senate bill, $300 less than the House-passed hike. The House version reverts the increase to $2,000 after 2028. Limits on overtime and tips deductions The bill would allow individuals to deduct up to $25,000 for tip wages and $12,500 for overtime. But the provisions would expire in 2028. The Senate bill would reduce the deductions for individuals making over $150,000, while the House bill does not include income limits. Changes to standard deduction The Senate wants to permanently expand the basic standard deduction, which was nearly doubled in 2017. The increases will expire at the end of the year. The House bill, however, would expand the deduction only through 2028. Asylum fee The legislation also includes a minimum $100 fee for those seeking asylum, down from the $1,000 fee outlined in the House bill. The Senate parliamentarian ruled out the $1,000 fee for anyone applying for asylum and other fees on diversity immigrant visas. AI moratorium A revised proposal on a 10-year moratorium on state regulations on artificial intelligence also made it into the Senate bill. The updated provision provides federal aid to states as long as they do not regulate AI. According to Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee, the parliamentarian determined that the provision is in compliance 'as long as the conditions only apply to the new $500 million provided by the reconciliation bill.' Public lands The Senate version would order the sale of up to 0.5% of public lands in 11 states, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. Eligible lands would have to be located within 5 miles of a population center and the sale of federally protected lands is prohibited. Supporters of the provision say it would address the housing availability and affordability crisis. (Reuters)/CBS
