China says Brics not seeking ‘confrontation' after Trump tariff threat
Brics has come to be seen as a Chinese-driven counterbalance to US and western European power.
BEIJING – China said on July 7 that Brics, the grouping that also includes Brazil, Russia and India, was not seeking 'confrontation' after US President Donald Trump vowed to impose an extra 10 per cent tariff on countries aligning with the bloc.
'Regarding the imposition of tariffs, China has repeatedly stated its position that trade and tariff wars have no winners and protectionism offers no way forward,' foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
Mr Trump said he would
send the first tariff letters to various countries on July 7, days before his deadline for trading partners to reach a deal expires.
He said on July 6 he would send a first batch of up to 15 letters, warning that US tariffs on imports would snap back to the high levels he set in April if countries failed to make agreements.
And, in a post on his Truth Social network, he threatened a further 10 per cent tariff on countries aligning themselves with the emerging Brics nations, accusing them of 'anti-Americanism' after
they slammed his tariffs at a summit in Rio de Janeiro on July 6.
Conceived two decades ago as a forum for fast-growing economies, Brics has come to be seen as a Chinese-driven counterbalance to US and western European power.
However, Beijing defended the grouping on July 7 as 'an important platform for cooperation between emerging markets and developing countries'.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore Eligible S'poreans to get up to $850 in GSTV cash, up to $450 in MediSave top-ups in August
Singapore Four golf courses to close by 2035, leaving Singapore with 12 courses
Singapore Fewer marriages and births in Singapore in 2024; greater stability for later cohorts
Singapore Paternity leave take-up in S'pore rises to 56% in 2023; experts hope for further boost after extension
Singapore Construction starts on Cross Island Line Phase 2; 6 MRT stations in S'pore's west ready by 2032
Singapore $1.46b nickel scam: Ng Yu Zhi opts to remain silent after judge calls for his defence
Asia Bali flights nixed after huge Indonesia volcano eruption
Life How to cope with the heat when travelling: 5 expert-backed tips
'It advocates openness, inclusivity and win-win cooperation,' Ms Mao said.
'It does not engage in camp confrontation and is not targeted at any country,' she said. AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
18 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Ong Beng Seng's new pre-trial conference date set on July 23
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox According to the court system, Ong's July 8 hearing was adjourned for parties to file revised papers. SINGAPORE - Property tycoon Ong Beng Seng will have his case heard in court again on July 23 in a pre-trial conference. This comes after his pre-trial conference on July 8, in a case linked to former transport minister S. Iswaran. According to the court system, Ong's July 8 hearing was adjourned for parties to file revised papers. Details were not provided. Ong, 79, had previously been scheduled to plead guilty on July 3. But this was adjourned one day before the hearing as the prosecution and defence needed more time to file further submissions on sentencing. Ong was first set to plead guilty on April 2, but this was postponed after his lawyers asked for an extension to obtain his medical reports. The billionaire was charged on Oct 4, 2024, with abetting a public servant in obtaining gifts and abetting the obstruction of justice. Under Section 165, it is an offence for a public servant to accept anything of value from anyone with whom he is involved in an official capacity without payment or with inadequate payment. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. World 25% on Japan and Malaysia, 40% on Laos: Trump's tariff letters to Asia add pressure for deals by Aug 1 Business Asia markets edge up as Trump signals still open to tariff talks Singapore MRT services resume on 5-station stretch of North-South Line after track fault Multimedia 'I suspect he's cheating': She finds proof when spouses stray Asia Thai authorities vow crackdown on cannabis-infused products after toddler hospitalised World Netanyahu says he nominated Trump for Nobel Peace Prize Opinion Singapore at 60: Home truly is an idea that never stands still Singapore Fastest charger to be added to Singapore's EV charging network by Q4 in 2025 According to court documents, the businessman had in December 2022 allegedly arranged for Mr Iswaran to fly on Ong's private plane from Singapore to Doha. The flight was valued at US$7,700 (S$10,400). Ong also allegedly arranged for Mr Iswaran a one-night stay at Four Seasons Hotel Doha, valued at $4,737.63, and a business-class flight from Doha to Singapore, valued at $5,700. Court documents showed Ong allegedly alerted Mr Iswaran that the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau had seized the flight manifest for the December 2022 trip. It prompted Mr Iswaran to ask the tycoon to bill him for the flight to avoid investigations. For this alleged offence, Ong was charged with the abetment of obstruction of justice. The businessman is known as the man who brought Formula One (F1) to Singapore in 2008 – the first night race in the sport's history. Mr Iswaran was chairman of the F1 steering committee and the Government's chief negotiator with Singapore GP on business matters related to the race. The two men had worked in the mid-2000s to convince then Formula One Group chief executive Bernie Ecclestone to make Singapore the venue for that first race.
Straits Times
24 minutes ago
- Straits Times
A dating boot camp to help those with autism look for love
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Psychologist Elizabeth Laugeson developed programmes to help adults with autism with jobs searches and friends. NEW YORK – Thirty-six hours after dropping his date off at her apartment, Mr Bradley Goldman was on a video call with his dating coach, breaking down the events of the evening. For one thing, he told the coach, he had chosen the wrong venue for someone on the autism spectrum – a bar of the Sunset Strip hipster variety, so loud and overstimulating that he could almost feel himself beginning to dissociate. Mr Goldman, a tall, rangy 42-year-old who works as an office manager, had not decided in advance of the date whether to mention that he had been diagnosed with autism or that he was working with a coach. So he deflected, and they found themselves, briefly, in a conversational blind alley. 'I struggle with how to disclose,' he said. 'Do I say I am 'neuro-spicy'? Or 'neurodiverse'? Or do I disclose at all?' His coach, Ms Disa Jean-Pierre, was sympathetic. 'You could just wait for it to come up naturally after a few dates,' she suggested. Mr Goldman thought this over. 'I'm still figuring this out,' he said. Mr Bradley Goldman, who has autism, with his dating coach, Ms Disa Jean-Pierre, in Los Angeles on June 7. PHOTO: ALEX WELSH/NYTIMES Nevertheless, it was a solidly enjoyable date, something he credited to the coaching he had received from a team of psychologists at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. World 25% on Japan and Malaysia, 40% on Laos: Trump's tariff letters to Asia add pressure for deals by Aug 1 Business Asia markets edge up as Trump signals still open to tariff talks Singapore MRT services resume on 5-station stretch of North-South Line after track fault Multimedia 'I suspect he's cheating': She finds proof when spouses stray Asia Thai authorities vow crackdown on cannabis-infused products after toddler hospitalised World Netanyahu says he nominated Trump for Nobel Peace Prize Opinion Singapore at 60: Home truly is an idea that never stands still Singapore Fastest charger to be added to Singapore's EV charging network by Q4 in 2025 He had avoided 'info dumping' or making too many jokes about American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and he had carefully observed his date's body language to detect whether she was signalling openness to a good-night kiss. (She was.) Mr Goldman's results would be entered alongside those of 56 other human subjects on a spreadsheet marked 'dating history updates', part of a three-pronged randomised control trial. Over the coming months, researchers at UCLA will mine the data to identify which approach is most likely to help people with autism find love. For mental health professionals to ask this question is new. Twenty years ago, when UCLA psychologist Elizabeth A. Laugeson began developing the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills, or Peers, to teach social skills to people with autism, 'nobody really wanted to touch' the subject of romance or dating, she said. 'This was the study that I could not get funding for,' Dr Laugeson said. 'Everyone was a little bit afraid of it.' In the interim, the population with the diagnosis has swelled, including more people who live independently, work and attend college. It is increasingly common for people to receive the diagnosis in adulthood as they seek help for challenges they face in daily life. Reality dating show a surprise hit And attitudes have changed. Some of that has to do with Love On The Spectrum (2022 to present), an American reality television show that follows adults with autism as they venture into the dating world. The show has turned out to be a surprise hit for Netflix. Increasingly, Dr Laugeson said, people understand that adults with autism may want romance and intimacy. The show 'is kind of flipping the script on that and allowing them to speak for themselves', she said. 'The struggles that autistic people are having in finding love are no different from those of a typically developing person.' On a recent Thursday evening, the dating students arrived at the Semel Institute. Many were settled in school or work. But they described dating as an area of particular struggle. Much of the coursework focuses on building comfort in conversation – or, as the coaches call it, trading information. A central skill is not panicking if there are extended silences. Twenty years ago, research on the social relationships of people with autism painted a bleak picture. In 2004, a survey of teenagers and adults living at home found that 46 per cent had no peer relationships at all outside of prearranged settings. And a 2012 meta-analysis found that only 14 per cent of adults with autism were married or had a long-term intimate relationship. But those trends are shifting, in part because a larger range of people are receiving the diagnosis. In 2023, when researchers at Boston University examined data from 220,000 US college students, they found that 24 per cent of students with autism had partners, compared with 46 per cent of non-autistic students. Dr Laugeson knew from her work with teenagers with autism that they were interested in relationships, but their efforts to express romantic feelings were frequently misinterpreted as stalking behaviour. Parents, she said, frequently told her the same story: Their teenager had developed a crush on a barista at Starbucks and parked himself or herself there, offering 'way too much eye contact' or 'that big, wide, tooth-baring smile', she said. But when she sought funding for empirical research on dating, Dr Laugeson found that her institutional backers went quiet. Parents seemed nervous about the project, even if their children were adults. When she explored the reasons, she often heard 'concerns about sexual safety, things like sexual assault', she added. Equality for neurodiverse people In 2018, Dr Laugeson got her break. She was approached by Dr Cara Gardenswartz, a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles whose teenage son had benefited from Peers trainings and who offered her, for the first time, enough funding to design a full course on dating. As a movement builds around civil rights and equality for neurodiverse people, some advocates have criticised social skills training for encouraging people with autism to act as if they are not autistic, a practice sometimes described as masking. 'The social skills classes tell you what to do, but that's like putting on a costume,' said Ms Karen Lean, 48, an information technology specialist who was diagnosed with autism in her 30s. For years, she studied and imitated these behaviours, and the effort, she said, left her exhausted and alienated. Now, Ms Lean works as an instructor for Hearts, or Healthy Relationships on the Autism Spectrum. It is an online course that includes modules on issues like boundaries and break-ups, but steers clear of social skills, which, she said, function mostly to put other people at ease. 'No amount of training or drilling those skills like eye contact is going to solve the problem of feeling anxious, sensorily overwhelmed and uncomfortable in your own body,' she said. 'There is a bunch of things that can't be solved by trying to inject into a person a list of things to do to make other people comfortable.' The Peers staff members, acutely aware of the discourse around masking, begin every lesson with a 'neuro-affirming pledge' underlining the value of authenticity and emphasising individual choice. They take care to avoid characterising behaviours as good or bad, instead using language such as 'socially helpful' and 'socially risky'. The participants were not particularly worried about masking. Coaches said some participants had arrived with such deep scars from social rejection that a small boost of confidence was life-changing. Ms Samara Wolpe, a postdoctoral fellow at the Peers lab, recalled a participant – still in his early 20s – who approached her to ask, as she put it: 'Am I already too far gone to be learning this? Am I already too far removed from society? Can I get back in there? Is it too late for me?' She reassured him it was not. He was sceptical. He lived with his parents. His clothes were dishevelled, he said. His hair was shaggy. 'Those are things that are fixable,' Ms Wolpe told him. The following Thursday, he showed up with a fresh haircut, and news: He had matched with a woman on an app. And he had asked her out. 'He needed someone to tell him that this was possible for him,' Ms Wolpe said. Between half and three-quarters of the subjects have gone on dates during the training course. They will all undergo a battery of psychological tests – among them the Test of Dating Skills, the Dating Anxiety Scale and the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults – at three points in time to measure how, if at all, the experience has changed them. The results will be published in 2026. NYTIMES
CNA
30 minutes ago
- CNA
Shares steady in Asia on US tariff letter; dollar firms
TOKYO: Stock markets in Asia took in stride the latest twist in United States President Donald Trump's tariff roll-out on Tuesday (Jul 8), as the dollar held onto gains and oil retreated. Shares on Wall Street fell after Trump sent letters to 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, unveiling sharply higher tariffs on imports into the US, while also postponing their implementation to Aug 1. Japan's Nikkei stock gauge opened lower but then turned positive after Trump described that deadline as "firm, but not 100 per cent firm" and said tariffs may be adjusted for some countries. The Aussie dollar rose ahead of a Reserve Bank of Australia decision later in the day. Market reaction to the tariff announcements was muted on memories of Trump's rapid walk-back of his "Liberation Day" duties initially set out on Apr 2, said Tapas Strickland, head of market economics at National Australia Bank. "There's going to be a lot of volatility as the headlines start to emerge, as more of these letters come out, and as the negotiations really come to the fore ahead of that August 1 deadline," Strickland said on an NAB podcast. In April, Trump capped all of the so-called reciprocal tariffs with trading partners at 10 per cent until Jul 9 to allow for negotiations. Only two agreements, with Britain and Vietnam, have been reached. In June, Washington and Beijing agreed on a framework covering tariff rates, restoring a fragile truce in their trade war. Tariffs on Japan and South Korea are now due to go up to 25 per cent on Aug 1. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called the hike deeply regrettable and said his nation would continue negotiations with the US. The European Union will not be receiving a letter setting out higher tariffs, EU sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. The EU still aims to reach a trade deal by Wednesday after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Trump had a "good exchange," a commission spokesperson said. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2 per cent in early trade. Japan's Nikkei stock index rose 0.4 per cent while South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.5 per cent. The dollar rose 0.2 per cent to ¥146.36, touching a two-week high. The euro was flat at US$1.1741. The Aussie advanced 0.4 per cent to US$0.6516 before a meeting by the central bank where policymakers are widely expected to deliver a 25-basis-point cut. US crude dipped 0.5 per cent to US$67.59 a barrel after surging nearly 2 per cent on Monday. Spot gold edged 0.2 per cent lower.
