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US President Donald Trump says there is a 'good chance' that a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas could be reached this week.
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Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump slams ex-ally Musk's political party as ‘ridiculous'
United States President Donald Trump has slammed former ally Elon Musk's launching of a new political party as 'ridiculous', deepening the Republican's feud with the man who was once his biggest backer. The world's richest man was almost inseparable from Trump as he headed the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but they fell out hard over the president's 'big beautiful' tax and spending mega-bill. 'I think it's ridiculous to start a third party,' Trump told reporters on Sunday before he boarded Air Force One on his way back to Washington, DC from his New Jersey golf club. 'It's always been a two-party system, and I think starting a third party just adds to confusion. Third parties have never worked. So he can have fun with it, but I think it's ridiculous,' he said. South African-born Musk announced on Saturday that he would found the America Party to challenge what he called the 'one-party system' in the US. SpaceX and Tesla tycoon Musk says the president's massive domestic spending plan would explode the US debt, and has promised to do everything in his power to defeat lawmakers who voted for it. The former DOGE head, who led a huge drive to slash federal spending and cut jobs, equated Trump's Republicans with rival Democrats when it came to domestic spending. 'When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,' Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns. Musk gave few details of his plan, and it was not clear whether he had registered the party with US electoral authorities, but it could cause Republicans headaches in the 2026 midterm elections and beyond. 'TRAIN WRECK' In a sign of how sensitive the issue could be for Trump, he took to his Truth Social network while still on Air Force One to double down on his assault on Musk. 'I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely 'off the rails,' essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,' Trump posted. 'The one thing Third Parties are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS, and we have enough of that with the Radical Left Democrats.' In a lengthy diatribe, Trump repeated his earlier assertion that Musk's ownership of electric vehicle company Tesla had made him turn on the president due to the spending bill cutting subsidies for such automobiles. Musk has insisted that his opposition is primarily due to the bill increasing the US fiscal deficit and sovereign debt. Earlier on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also threw shade at Musk's attempts to enter the political fray, telling him to stick to running his companies. When asked by CNN if Musk's plan bothered the Trump administration, Bessent offered thinly veiled criticism. 'I believe that the boards of directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run those companies, which he is better at than anyone,' Bessent said. 'So I imagine that those boards of directors did not like this announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities.' Musk left DOGE in May to focus full-time on his corporate responsibilities, with Tesla's sales and image especially suffering from his brief venture into Trump's inner circle. Trump gave him a grand sendoff in the Oval Office in a bizarre ceremony during which Musk appeared with a black eye and received a golden key to the White House from the president. But just days later, the two were exchanging bitter insults on social media after Musk criticised Trump's flagship spending bill. Trump would not comment on Sunday when asked if he would be asking Musk to return the golden key.
Al Jazeera
5 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
LIVE: Israel pounds Gaza, Yemen; Houthis fire more missiles
Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza after killing at least 82 Palestinians on Sunday, including 10 people waiting for food aid. US President Donald Trump says there is a 'good chance' that a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas could be reached this week.
Al Jazeera
6 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
‘Nail in a coffin': Trump's steel, aluminum tariffs bleed Indian foundries
Kolkata, India — For the past several years, the United States has been a major market for Aditya Garodia to export more than 100 items of steel derivatives like fasteners from his factory in West Bengal state in eastern India. But ever since US President Donald Trump took office and unleashed a range of tariffs – 25 percent on steel and aluminium initially, as well as standalone country tariffs – global markets have been on edge, creating significant uncertainty for businesses across sectors. Garodia, director of Corona Steel Industry Pvt Ltd, told Al Jazeera that as a result of the tariffs, clients have slowed picking up their orders, delaying payments by a month on average, while business in general has slowed as customers adopted a wait-and-watch policy. When Trump announced that he was doubling tariffs on steel and aluminium to 50 percent from June 4, it was 'like a nail in a coffin', Garodia said, as nearly 30 percent of orders were cancelled. 'It is difficult for the market to absorb such high tariffs.' Demand in the domestic market has also been low because of competition from cheaper Chinese products, he said, adding their future depends on India negotiating a lower tariff for its exports to the US than its competitors. Last year, India exported $4.56bn worth of iron, steel and aluminium products to the US. Tariffs 'play well in politics' During his first term, Trump in 2018 imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, citing national security concerns. But certain businesses had managed to escape, as there were no tariffs on finished products. But on February 10, 2025, he announced 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium, including derivatives – or finished products – and removed all exemptions. Ajay Srivastava, founder of Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a trade research group, told Al Jazeera that higher tariffs imposed in 2018 have so far failed to revive the US steel industry. 'Since the tariffs were first implemented in 2018, [US] steel imports have increased,' rising from $98.6bn to $114bn in 2024, he said, and they 'haven't cut imports or boosted production, but they've mostly stuck around because they play well in politics'. As a result, prices in the US are far higher than in Europe or China, 'making cars, buildings, and machines more expensive to produce. India now needs a clear strategy to protect its trade interests, push for fair deals and strengthen domestic manufacturing,' Srivastava said. Foundries also affected In the so-called reciprocal tariffs that President Trump announced on April 2, he set a rate of 26 percent for goods from India. He put that on hold on April 9 for 90 days and introduced a 10 percent base tariff on all countries for the interim, giving them breathing room to strike individual trade deals with the US. While the 10 percent is hard enough on the businesses, foundries – where metals are melted to cast into shape – say 26 percent is too high for any business to absorb. India has approximately 5,000 foundries, of which 400 cater to both domestic and international markets and a further 100 are exclusively for exports. Several Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), in turn, supply pig iron, scrap and other items to the exporters. Indian foundries export products worth about $4bn globally, out of which the US market is $1.2bn, Ravi Sehgal, chairman of National Centre for Export Promotion (NCEP), said. In the US, they compete not only with local foundries but also with Chinese and Turkish suppliers. The latest set of tariffs will be a considerable blow to Indian foundries. More than 65 percent of these, and their suppliers of raw materials, are MSMEs that will 'face the brunt of tariffs due to lower orders', Sehgal said. Tariffs beyond 10-14 percent 'would [make it] difficult for us to survive,' he added. Pradeep Kumar Madhogaria, partner in Yashi Castings, which makes moulding boxes and pallet cars for foundries, said that several foundry projects have been either deferred or shelved, particularly those aligned to export-driven demand, due to the uncertainty in the US market. Smaller units badly hit Sumit Agarwal, 44, a Kolkata-based manufacturer of clamps, brackets and other items used in industrial goods, told Al Jazeera that his business has been hit hard by the tariffs and he is thinking of laying off some of his 15 employees. 'We are a small unit. The orders have practically dried up after the introduction of tariffs, which has made it difficult for us to continue with our existing staff. I am thinking about cutting at least 30-40 percent of my manpower. Business from the domestic market is just average, and the drop in the export market has added to our woes.' Shyam Kumar Poddar, 70, who runs a small unit of sheet metal fabrication in Kolkata, recently invested about 800,000 rupees ($9,400) to buy a hydraulic press with an aim to expand his business. But the drop in orders has affected him badly. 'I bought the machine just four months ago to expand my business, but there have been absolutely no orders for the past two months.' 'We depend on exporters for our business as there is already an intense competition in the domestic market, but the present scenario is harming small entrepreneurs like us.' Pankaj Chadha, chairman of Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC), an industry body, told Al Jazeera that diversification to countries like Peru and Chile, who would then export their finished products to the US, is the only way for survival as it was 'not possible to do business with such high tariffs'. Even as the 90-day pause on tariffs is set to expire soon, it's not clear yet what the final number will be as India and the US are yet to finalise a deal. On Friday, Piyush Goyal, India's minister of trade and industry, told reporters that while India was ready to make a trade deal, 'National interest will always be supreme', and it would not be driven by any deadlines. For now, Garodia is hoping a solution will be found fast. 'No industry can survive in isolation,' he said, listing US problems, including a manpower shortage as well as higher production and raw material costs. 'India offers them a good substitute with cheap labour and low cost of production,' he said.
